Byerley Turk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Byerley Turk or Byerly Turk was one of three horses that were the founders of the modern Thoroughbred horse racing broodstock. The story goes that the stallion was captured by a Captain Byerly at the Battle of Buda (1686), saw further military service in the Battle of the Boyne, and served as Byerly's war horse when he was dispatched to Ireland in 1689 during King William's War before being brought back to stud in Middridge, England.
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 a Turkoman horse or an Akhal-Teke.[citation needed] He was reportedly a dark "brown" (genetically, the term refers to a dark bay) horse with strong oriental or Arabian features. Many of his offspring were also noted to have been either bay or black.
Relatively few modern Thoroughbreds trace their sire line back to him. However, 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 also bred the Byerley Turk mare, founder of Thorougbred family 1 and the "Dam of the Two True Blues" the founder of family 3. There are 12 Epsom Derby winners, 10 St.Legers winners, and 14 The Oaks Stakes winners listed in family 1 as descendents of the Byerly Turk.
[edit] Book
The Byerley Turk by Jeremy James, publ. Merlin Unwin Books, ISBN 978-1-873674-98-7 is a fictionalized account of the life of the Byerley Turk. It describes the Battle of Vienna and the Battle of Buda (1686), with a Turkish perspective.
