Thoroughbred Breeding: Pedigree Theories and the Science of Genetics

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

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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?".

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.