Most fans of Thoroughbred racing are familiar with some of the great horses that have graced racecourses around the world, and many are also familiar with the breeding which gave us these greats. However, how many know about where the breed came from in the first place? Most can easily recite the names of the Darley Arabian, Godolphin Arabian, and Byerly Turk, but who were they? How did they go about establishing the potent combination of speed and stamina that is the trademark of the modern Thoroughbred?

Many try to oversimplify the process, saying that the speedy Arabians were brought in to breed to the stout English mares thus giving us Thoroughbreds. In fact, as the book explains, initially the use of Arabian strains actually *slowed down* the speed of the British horses.

Racing in England during the pre-Thoroughbred era was much different from today. There were two "strains" of racing -- 1/4 mile sprinting for the commoners and 4 to 12 mile endurance running for noblemen -- with nothing in between. Obviously neither of these is typical for Thoroughbreds today. Only when Charles II instituted 4 mile heat racing with a standard weight of 168 pounds in 1675, called the King's Plate, did the breed begin to converge towards its present form. This form of racing dominated Britain for a century, leading eventually to the present-day single-heat races for three year olds like the St. Leger and the Epsom Derby.

With frequent references to the General Stud Book from 1881 and historical records dating back to the 1600's, Mackay-Smith walks the reader through an adventure that is the history of the breed. Starting with the hobby horses and running horses that raced in those 1/4 mile sprints, through the breed's near-extinction during England's Civil War and eventually to the great Eclipse and his descendents, the reader learns not only about the horses, but the people involved with the horses and the ingenuity and sometimes sheer luck that, collectively gave us the breed as we know it today. The reader learns that, contrary to popular belief, speed is carried on the *female* lines and not the male lines, and that the Godolphin Arabian was not really an Arabian, but was a Turcoman (a light speedy horse bred by one of the Turkic tribes).

The book is probably the most thorough work done on the origins of the Thoroughbred. Mackay-Smith spent ten years researching the topic, culminating in this beautiful 221-page volume which includes 60 illustrations of which 32 are in color. The work would prove to be his swan-song, as Mackay-Smith passed away in 1998 at age 95 shortly after its completion.

Speed and the Thoroughbred has a list price of $50.00 and you can compare prices on PriceGrabber for a better deal. It definitely deserves a spot in any racing history fan's library.

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