Thoroughbred Breeding: Pedigree Theories and the Science of Genetics

Very comprehensive; excellent research regarding origins of Thoroughbred horse racing and the breed.

If you're buying this book thinking you will learn the secrets of breeding the next triple crown winner you will be sorely disappointed. In fact if you're one of the proponents of systems such as "Dosage", "X-factor", Mare families, or pedigree analysis that goes back more than 5 generations, prepare to have your views challenged and criticized. The Authors spend most of the book explaining then debunking a lot of what has been written about breeding racehorses over the last 200 years. The Authors then go on to give you a fairly cogent and understandable explanation of how genetics works, how much more we know about it now and how much work there still is to be done.I did enjoy reading this book. However, I would have liked to know where horse breeders can look to for the better professional research of genetics in race horses. The few studies they site seem to be somewhat open-ended and inconclusive. A lot of what's said is along the lines of "wouldn't it have been nice if they had studied this or that bit". I finished reading it thinking "that's all there is?".

thanks

Wonderful description of how the current system of pedigree reporting was created for thoroughbred horses. The story includes descriptions of the state of horse breeding in early England and how records were kept and shared before Weatherby codified the system. Breeding strategies and elements of genetics are woven into the narrative. Modern advances in genetics are well described in several chapters devoted to the topic. Well written and presented in a highly interesting fashion.

Meticulously researched and very readable this book brings up to date some of the many theories about breeding faster racehorses. It debunks many still widely held beliefs which have absolutely no credibility in view of up to date genetic discoveries. What is doesn't do is give the answers to the long sought question of how to breed a champion, but acknowledges that there is no definitive answer in spite of constant advances in the science of genetics.

I loved the early history of pedigree study.

Thoroughbred Breeding: Pedigree Theories and the Science of Genetics is a book worth reading, though it could have been better. A friend recently gave me several boxes of books on breeding racehorses. A number of these books are cited in this book of Binns and Morris, and the theories dismissed on scientific grounds. For someone looking at the selection of stock for breeding and racing, Thoroughbred Breeding: Pedigree Theories and the Science of Genetics is a great place to start.Binns and Morris use modern science to provide an evidence base by which to disprove many breeding theories, including those of Bruce Lowe, Harold Hampton, and Sir Rhys Llewellyn. While the book gives very little guidance in terms of strategies that are proven, its real value is in clarifying the relative merit of various breeding theories, with some discussion of line breeding and inbreeding.A major oversight, in my view, is the absence of any analysis of the work of Clive Harper, who wrote The Thoroughbred Breeders' Handbook. Harper analysed the pedigrees of a number of stakeswinners in New Zealand, and compared them with the pedigrees of a group of maiden horses, and found some extraordinary differences in terms of duplicated ancestors in pedigrees. Harper's work was scientifically valid, yet Binns and Morris appear to have overlooked it entirely.Another issue with this book is that Binns and Morris suggest that racing performance is only 1/3 attributable to pedigree/genetics and 2/3 to environment/training. Anyone who has trained horses for a while knows that good horses are extremely hard to come by, and that when they do, it doesn't take a great trainer to be winning races. In my view, good breeding counts for a lot more than 1/3 of racetrack performance.Aside from those couple of observations, Thoroughbred Breeding: Pedigree Theories and the Science of Genetics is critical reading.

All breeders of the race horse must get this book

It was an interesting read on how to breed horses. It has changed my mind on how to do things differently.

At a price of a whopping 51€, the expectations are naturally high. So how did the book live up to the expectations?The largest part of the book (chapters 1-8) could be subtitled as a history of the thoroughbred pedigree. This would have probably left me bored, but the writers were able to keep the topic very much alive with surprising wit inbetween the anecdotal references. The early writers on thoroughbred breeding are identified and their deductions scrutinized, labelling most of them as having been clueless. Let me illustrate this: "displaying a hopeless grasp of what was then known about sexual reproduction" or "it was going to need something more than rejection on intellectual and logical grounds by lucid thinkers to curb the enthusiasm of those who had found a major new religion". So yes, even historical references can entertain.This book managed to enhance my view on the historical context on why some weird theories used to exist (or still prevail today) in horse breeding. Chapters 9-12 are pretty much a literature review of past writers and their theories on how to produce a better racehorse. It's actually quite scary to find that many of today's firmly held beliefs have been held for such a long time on rather vague notions. The theories discussed in the book are: Lowe family figures, dosage, greater mare influence/ tail female line, inbreeding, outcrossing, nicks, sex-balancing.Unfortunately, there is a natural limit to the information that can be spread out, since breeding is still much more of an art than a science. I was a bit disappointed to learn that even in this rather scientific book there are many pages on the inheritance of coat colours and other factors, that are easily perceptible and reproducible by any breeder. When it comes to performance traits there is not much left of that clear cut picture. Which really ought to have been the expected outcome of the book, but is still somewhat frustrating after pages and pages of promises about state of the art information about the equine genome project. Sure enough, a great horse will still be born by chance, rather than bred on purpose. So don't be fooled, because no book can substitute the experience and intuition of the breeder and there is not much news for practical breeders. Nonetheless a good book review that puts many theories in historical perspectives and is above all an enjoyable read.

Superb Introduction and in depth coverage

As a not-native speaker this book was by far the most difficult one I have encountered in years. The subject of genetics it a tough one in any language I suppose, and to get your lectures in such a compact form makes this book a challenging read, and certainly not one for the average racing-fan, keen on a nice story and/or a bet or two. This book clearly is for either serious student of horse-pedigrees, or for the practical breeder only, and the latter one might not even be bothered anymore half way through book.The book is divided into two parts. The first one, presumably written by Tony Morris, is basicly a history of the development of structured breeding, and the written documents that were left behind over the centurys. From early notes, the development towards the Racing Calendar, the General Stud-Book, small handbooks about breeding horses, to the Bobinsky Family Tables, the family numbers, to so-called milestones in throughbred literature - this books chronicles it all, and -in the new-found light of genetics - dismisses most. Old-fashioned "patters of greatness" are dismissed as wishfull thinking; it may be harsh, but is certainly an interesting and informative read.The second part of the book is the above mentioned lecture into the current knowledge of genetics and how thoroughbred breeders shall be able to use this knowledge and -better still- benefit from it.True Tony Morris -Fans - his now-scrapped Pedigree-analysis in the Racing-Post was my favorite read in that particular paper- have been waited for his new book for a long time, and the result is somewhat disappointing. The book contains at least one serious mistake - Master Robert is declared as the ancestor of "all thoroughbreds" - the word "white" is clearly missing here but would give the sentence a whole new meaning; and as for the genetics, well. They are of course nature, and a fact, but even the stoutest "supporters" have to admit that the experts are scratching at the surface still, and what is hailed as "we know so much" is clearly just a glimpse into the dark. The chapter of colour inhertance in horses is interesting, and the charts make it easy to understand, but why a story - along with a chart - of the inheritance of haemophilia in Queen Victoria's family; and one of colour-transmission in cats - is included is for everybody to guess.While horsebreeding is certainly a science, not all breeders are scientists (nor do they want to be one) and not many scientists are horse-breeders, so this book is a strange mix of it all. Nature has its own rules and regulations, thank god, and while mankind is so busy to unveil all its secrets, there are -luckily- so many still unraveled, and the will continue to be just that hopefully for some time to come.The book gives a very interesting insight into the current standing, but is clearly a long way short of being a practical guide etc., if it ever intended to be.