Byerly Turk

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The Byerly Turk was one of three horses which were the founders of the modern thoroughbred horse racing broodstock. The story goes that it was captured by a Captain Byerly at the Battle of Buda and saw further military service in the Battle of the Boyne and served as Byerley's war horse when he was dispatched to Ireland in 1689 during King William's War before being brought back to stud inEngland.

There is debate over the breed of the Byerly Turk. While this stallion is commonly thought to be an Arabian horse, there are other theories who claim the horse was an Akhal-Teke.^{[citation needed]} He was a reportadly a dark brown with strong arabian feautures and many of his offspring were also noted to have been either brown or black.

Relatively few modern thoroughbreds trace their line back to him. One is the Hong Kong trained gelding Cape of Good Hope, who won the 2005 Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot. The most famous of his racing offspring was Bastro but he aso breed the Byerley Turk mare, founder of Thorougbreed family 1 and the "Dam of the Two True Blues" the founder of family 3. There are 12 derby winners , 10 St. Legers winners and 14 Oaks winners listed in family 1 as descendents of the Byerly Turk.

[edit] Sources

http://www.tbheritage.com/Portraits/ByerleyTurk.html
http://www.tbheritage.com/HistoricDams/EngFoundationMares/Family1/Family1.html
http://www.tbheritage.com/HistoricDams/EngFoundationMares/Family3/Family3.html