Squirt (horse)

Squirt
Race:	English blood
Father:	Bleeding Childers
Mother:	Sister to Old Country Wench
Mother, father:	Snake
Gender:	stallion
Year of birth:	1732
Country:	England
Colour:	Fox
Breeder:	William Metcalfe
Owner:	Charles Colyear, Earl of Portmore

Squirt was an English thoroughbred born in 1732 who achieved several successes as a racehorse. The stallion went down in breeding history mainly because the exceptional horse Eclipse is one of his descendants.

ancestry

Squirt is a son of the stallion Bleeding Childers . Bleeding Childers never ran himself because after great exertion he began to bleed from his nostrils. He was still a comparatively sought-after stallion because he was a full brother of Flying Childers , who was one of the outstanding racehorses in the 1720s. Both stallions were descended from Darley Arabian , an Arabian stallion born in Syria around 1700, whom Thomas Darley had brought to Aldby Park , Buttercrambe in 1704 , where the Darley family began to breed this stallion on their country estate. The dam of both stallions was Betty Leedes. One of the legends of Flying Childers is that he ran 3 and 3/4 miles in six minutes and 40 seconds. William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire, praised the stallion after he had bought him from his breeder Colonel Leonhard Childers. Little importance is attached to the statement today - the stallion would have run the mile faster than modern racehorses on carefully prepared racetracks over shorter distances.

After completing his racing career, Flying Childers was at the Duke of Devonshire's stud and almost exclusively covered broodmares owned by this Duke. The Bleeding Childers, unsuitable for racing, was sold to the cloth dyer John Bartlett, who kept the stallion in a stud in Yorkshire. One of the breeders who had mares covered by this stallion is William Metcalfe, who sold the strikingly beautiful yearling from this combination to Charles Colyear, 2nd Earl of Portmore.

Racing career

The stallion Lath, to whom Squirt lost twice.

The Earl of Portmore remained the owner of this stallion as long as this race could run. He ran the first race in April 1737. Belong to the most important placements

• 1737, won 200 guineas on the Newmarket Racecourse . However, he remained inferior to the stallion Lath in the race. He was also the first descendant in the purely paternal line of the Darley Arabian, who ran a race on a regular horse racing track.
• In 1738 he was defeated by the stallion Lath in a two-man race in Newmarket. The race had come after Squirt had just beaten Lath the previous year.
• 1739, profit of 200 guineas at Newmarket, 40 guineas at Epsom, 50 guineas at Stamford and £ 30 at Winchester.
• 1740, Salisbury Race Cup.

Squirt was a satisfactory racehorse with these successes. The Earl of Portmore, who was often in financial difficulties, then sold the stallion to Sir Henry Harpur for his stud at Calke Abbey in Derbyshire.

progeny

When the stallion arrived at Sir Henry Harpur's stud farm, he was suffering from severe laminitis . Laminitis is a diffuse inflammation of the dermis, whereby the hoof capsule becomes detached from the dermis. Harpur, so angry about it, first ordered that the horse should be killed. However, one of the stable boys delayed the killing and was able to talk him out of it.

One of the offspring that Squirt sired at Sir Harpur's stud is the stallion Marske , from whom the exceptional horse Eclipse emerged . Via this stallion, Squirt is the ancestor of 20th century racehorses such as Danehill and Bold Ruler , both of whom were bred in North America.

Pedigree

Pedigree by Squirt, Fuchs, 1732

Father Bleeding Childers (GB) 1716	Darley Arabian 1700	(unknown)	(unknown)
			(unknown)
		(unknown)	(unknown)
			(unknown)
	Betty Leedes (GB) ~ 1700	Old Careless (GB)	Spanker
			Barb Mare
		Cream Cheeks (GB)	Leedes Arabian
			Spanker Mare
Mother Sister to Old Country Wench (GB) ~ 1713	Snake (GB) 1705	Lister Turk (Tur)	(unknown)
			(unknown)
		Hautboy Mare (GB)	Skin boy
			(unknown)
	Gray Wilkes (GB)	Hautboy (GB)	Darcy's White Turk
			Royal Mare
		Miss Darcy's Pet Mare (GB)	(unknown)
			Sedbury Royal Mare

literature

• Christopher McGrath: Mr. Darley's Arabian - High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in Twenty-Five Horses . John Murray, London 2016, ISBN 978-1-84854-984-5 .

Single receipts

1. ↑ McGrath: Mr. Darley's Arabian . Chapter The cross strains now in being are without end , E-Book position 699.
2. ^ McGrath: A Groom with a View . Chapter The cross strains now in being are without end , E-Book position 732.
3. ^ McGrath: A Groom with a View . Chapter The cross strains now in being are without end , E-Book position 749.
4. ↑ McGrath: Mr. Darley's Arabian . Chapter A Groom with a View. , E-book position 749.
5. ↑ McGrath: Mr. Darley's Arabian . Chapter A Groom with a View. , E-book heading 794.
6. ↑ McGrath: Chapter A Groom with a View , E-Book position 795.