This family's taproot was a mare of unknown ancestry that Prior believed was in the stud of W. Foster in Northamptonshire. Four fillies and a colt could be traced to her, and two daughters, both by good racehorses, were of particular sigificance. Two of her youngsters won: Nike, and Village Lass, a winner of two small races. The third and fourth generations of this family were almost exclusively flat racers in England, with some high-class runners. The crippled Whalebone son, Defence, a good sire of stayers, figures prominently in the early pedigrees of this family, as he does in Half-bred Family 10, and many of the mares in the second and third generations went to thoroughbred stallions that had been exceptionally good runners on the flat.
Her unnamed and unraced daughter by dual Ascot Gold Cup winner Anticipation (by Hambletonian) produced six winning foals. These were Challenger, a winner of thirteen races; The Conqueror, winner of three races; Conquest, a winner of three good races, including the Nursery Stakes at Newmarket for Isaac Sadler as a juvenile; Amazon, also a winner of three races; Congress, winner of the Tradesmen's Plate at Derby and eleven other races, and Combat, who won the Billesden Coplow Stakes twice, the Marcham Park Stakes, the Surrey Stakes, the Middlesex Stakes, the Granby Handicap, and fourteen other races and was later the sire of several winners. These younsters, with the exception of Congress, were bred in Foster's stud, and four of them were by Defence.
Nike was by Ascot Gold Cup winner Bizarre, a son of Orville; Orville was a sire of classic winners and he and his sons were noted for getting high class hunters as well as classic winning race horses. She ran mostly races for "horses not thoroughbred" and in hunter flat races, and was very successful, with twenty-three wins between the ages of three and eight. Some of them included the Tally-ho Stakes at the Pytchley Hunt, twice, a Gold Cup at Leicester, sweepstakes at Oxford and Worcester, and a race for regular hunters at Royston, where she won "a superb Gold Cup." She was in the stud of J. Clark of Marlborough, Wiltshire, where her branch of the family was developed by Clark.
Nike's daughter Niobe, by Defence, won six races worth £373. But it was her sister, an unnamed filly by Defence, who won a race at Tewkesbury worthone £50, and ran second three times, including in a race over 1-/12 miles in three heats, that took the family forward. This stout mare bred the brothers Marlborough Buck and Elcot (see below), both by the game and versatile Venison, sire of several classic winners, including Oaks winner Miami, who was also out of a Defence mare. Her other offspring included a sister to Elcot, The Hind, who placed in some good races; Scent, second in the Oaks Stakes; Mongrel, winner of seven races; Manton, winner of three races; Naomi, who placed in some good races; Elcot Lass, who won a small hunter's flat race; Win and Pay, placed in two races; an unnamed colt by Epirus, who won two races worth £265, and an unnamed colt by Windhound, who won a race. All these youngsters were bred by Clark.
After this good selection of flat race winners from the Defence mare, succeeding family members were most often seen winning over hurdles, in hunter races, steeplechases, and serving in the hunt field. The exception was Naomi, who ran second in the Althorp Park Stakes and was third of twenty in the Nursery Stakes at Goodwood as a juvenile, and ran second in the Ascot Triennial at age four. Clark retained Naomi for his stud, and bred flat racers from her: Bloodhound (by Windhound), winner of two races; Constancy (by Wild Dayrell), a winner of three races, and White Gauntelet by Wild Dayrell, winner of a walk over worth £25. Constancy won the Salisbury Stakes at age two, and appears to have been sold after that, winning a race in Scotland at age four and placing in a hunter's race at age five; she later produced two winners.
The Defence mare's daughter The Hind, by Venison, showed some promise as a juvenile, running second in the Stockbridge Biennial, and third in the Bentinck Memorial, the Clearwell Stakes, and an Ascot Triennial. At age three she ran second in the Triennial Produce Stakes at Newmarket, and third in a sweepstakes, and ran, but did not place, in the City and Suburban and the Cambridgeshire handicap at age four. Clark retained her in the stud, and bred her to Derby winner Wild Dayrell twice, while he was at stud in nearby Chilton Foliat. To his cover, she produced Springbok, winner of a hunters' flat race, and Ibex, a winner of two flat races and the Middlesex Grand Open Steeplechase and the Surrey Open Steeplechase, both worth a goodly sum in prize money. Her subsequent offspring, included Heber (by dual classic winnerSurplice), a winner of three races; Victory, who won a hunters' flat race; Octoroon, winner of six steeplechases and a hurdle race; and Little Faun by 2,000 Guineas winner Lord of the Isles, winner of four steeplechases and a hurdle race.
Lady Emily, another daughter of the Defence mare, produced Sherborne, a winner of four races on the flat, for Clark, after which she was sold to a Mr. Mace, for whom she bred two other winners, one of them Isabella, a winner of six races on the flat and six hurdle races.
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