COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

QUEST FOR THE CLASSIC WINNER
by Ken McLean
Lexington, Kentucky: K.A. and C.J. McLean, 1994.

NSL Director Kenneth Y. Tomlinson regards Quest for the Classic Winner as one of the most authoritative books on Thoroughbred pedigrees.

Quest was donated to the NSL by John Kent Cooke as part of a collection of books on Thoroughbred breeding and racing that once belonged to his father, the late Jack Kent Cooke.

Originally from Australia, McLean is presently a pedigree consultant for Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky. In 1984, he wrote his first book Tesio: Master of Matings to give insight into the theories of one of the greatest breeders of all time - Federico Tesio of Italy. McLean's Tesio book is also part of the donation.

In Quest for a Classic Winner, McLean delves into the leading pedigrees of the 20th century and the breeding programs of the best Thoroughbred breeding farms the world over. He writes definitive chapters on The Aga Khan, Harry Payne Whitney, the Vanderbilt family, Edward R. Bradley and Olin Gentry of Idle Hour Farm, the Hancock family of Claiborne Farm, and French breeder Marcel Boussac.

He opens with the chapter "The Dominant Influence of 'Elite' Mares and Nervous Energy." Beginning with Federico Tesio, he writes, "Tesio suggested that good racehorses have to be produced from well bred mares with classic winners in their ancestry. Fashion is not the key; 'It is classic speed that makes a great racehorse,' he said." McLean discusses nervous energy in the racehorse and its impact on performance. Case in point is Nearco, bred by Tesio. Nearco possessed a rude nervous temperament but McLean describes him as "An unbeaten horse who was perhaps the most powerful sire of the twentieth century." Nearco was the sire or grandsire of many champions and sires of champions including Nasrullah and Northern Dancer. Quest is a must read for those researching the theories of breeding the classic winners. First published in 1987, it became unavailable in only two years. This book is the second edition as a result of the demand for it.

Alfred Vanderbilt leads in champion Native Dancer after the grey colt's impressive victory in the 1953 Belmont Stakes.