Family B-1: Roseden Mare

This was a highly successful family of very good flat racers and some excellent steeplechasers, debarred from the stud book because the Roseden mare's female line could not be traced, and because Spartacus, who appears early in the family pedigree, was explicitly stated to be out of a half-bred mare, Mrs. Dawdle (born in 1794). The GSB included some foals of two stallions in this family -- Duc-an-Dhurras and Mayboy -- with notes regarding their half-bred ancestry, and Mrs. Dawdle and her progeny are also listed in the GSB, but despite agitation in 1913 and again in 1918 by the Irish Horse Breeders, Owners, and Trainers' Association to have the family admitted to the GSB, based on the success of some of its best members -- Clorane, Prospector, and Shogun -- Weatherby's declined admittance.

Roseden (a son of Derby winner Archduke, son of Sir Peter),) was bred in Yorkshire's North Riding in 1803, and later sent to Ireland where he stood at the stud of Sir James Newcomen, Carrickglass, Co. Longford. The Roseden mare was bred to Whitenose (1806), a winner in England and a son of Don Quixote (by Sir Peter, and out of Cecilia, by Sir Peter), who had been sent to Lord Fitzwilliam's Irish estate in County Wicklow, getting an unnamed daughter, in-bred to Sir Peter, apparently his only traceable offspring. The Whitenose daughter was bred to a non-winning racehorse Spartacus (1808), bred by Denis Daly in Ireland; Spartacus was by Swordsman (1796), a winner of seven King's Plates and other races, bred by Mr. Whaley of Whaley Abbey, Co. Wicklow; Swordsman was by a son of the good English racehorse later celebrated Irish sire Prizefighter, by Florizel. The dam of Spartacus was Mrs. Dawdle, a winner of a King's Plate at the Curragh in 1799, and sister to a famous Irish runner, Dawdle, both by Master Bagot and out of Twilight (Family 74), a mare whose antecedents are not noted in the General Stud Book. The result of the Whitenose mare - Spartacus union was the chestnut filly Vanity, born sometime between 1825 and 1830. Thus Vanity's second dam in tail-female was a mare by Roseden, whose antecedants could not be traced, and her sire's dam, Mrs. Dawdle, may have been half-bred.

Vanity produced two known daughters, the bay Calamity, by Vampyre, a son of Dandy, and the chestnut Luna, by well-known Irish stallion Harkaway. Calamity, born around 1840 and apparently unraced, bred two good winners in Duc-an-Dhurras and Garibaldi (by Faugh-a-Ballagh), and three daughters that bred on (see Duc-an-Dhurras below). Luna, born in 1845, won three good steeplechases, and in the stud of C. Massey in Co. Tipperary bred three youngsters; her son, Fairy Saint, became a sire of steeplechasers and hunters in Co. Clare; her daughter, Larkaway, won six steeplechases at ages four and five, and bred six winners, including Grand National steeplechase winner Come Away (see below), and three daughters that bred on.

Larkaway's unraced daughter by Xenophon, bred five winners over fences, including Greek Girl, winner 19 steeplechases, including the Prince of Wales' Plate twice, the Dunboyne Plate, the Valentine and Great Sandown steeplechases, and was second to Red Prince II (later a noted sire of chasers) in the Lancashire Handicap, giving him almost 2 stone. Larkaway's unnamed daughter by Cambuslang, a sister to Come Away, was second dam of three winners over fences, including the Ascetic son Hill of Bree, winner of ten steeplechases.

Larkaway's daughter May Day, by Stockwell son Uncus, another noted sire of chasers in Ireland, was bred by Captain Gubbins at his famous Knockany Stud, Kilmallock, Co. Limerick; Larkaway was subsequently sold, and her produce after 1879 were bred by Harry Beasley at Eyrefield House at the Curragh. May Day won six races on the flat out of eighteen starts, and two hurdle races. She was so successful as a broodmare through her productive daughters, in the stud of John Gubbins of Bruree, Co. Limerick, that the family was popularly referred to as the "May Day family." Her son, May Boy (see below), by Xenophon, was a famous Irish runner on the flat and over fences and later a noted sire in Ireland. May Day also produced May Moon, winner of the Railway Stakes and six other racess on the flat and two hurdles in her five seasons on the turf. May Day's daughter Queen May, winner of the Leopardstown Handicap and three other flat races and a prize winner as a hunter broodmare, was dam of winners on the flat, over fences, and in the show ring, and of Royal Hackle, a sire of winners in Ireland; her daughter Mayberry was dam of Mayfowl, a winner of five races in Ireland who was later exported to India, where he won the Viceroy's Cup four years in a row (including one dead-heat). May Day's daughter May Girl, a non-winner, produced Clorane (see below); Carrigeen, an Atheling son that won 19 races under both rules; St. Marie, dam of two good chasers in Kilgrogan and Sweetbriar; and a number of steeplechase winners.

May Day's daughter Kendal Belle (see below), unplaced in her only race at age two, became the dam of the top sprinter Prospector and the classic-level Shogun (see below), and other good winners. Both Prospector and Shogun were successful sires, but probably not as much as they might have been, had they been allowed entry in the GSB.

During the agitation for inclusion of the May Day family in the GSB in the late teens, Major Frank Wise, who owned a half-share in Prospector and Kendal Belle, and was naturally familiar with the family history, noted that in almost every instance where a good mare from the family had been bred to a thoroughbred, she produced a better foal than any other --half-bred or thoroughbred -- sired by that stallion.

Notable Descendants