Maskette photo

[xfactor fan]

Anyone have a contemporary description or photo of the good race mare Maskette by Disguise, a son of Domino?

I ran across what is supposed to be Maskette in an obscure publication called RASP which seemed to be a horse cavalry publication. I could swear the horse is not a mare but a stallion, or gelding. The dangly bit doesn't look like an udder. Dark horse with one high white hind leg.

All the photos that are clearly Maskette don't show the white hind leg, however they are racing photos and it is clear that she's got dark wraps on the front legs, and maybe wraps on the hind legs too. But can't tell for sure.

Soooo,,,, can anyone out there solve the mystery? I'd love to post the photo but don't want to add to the mis-information already out there.

[Firebrand]

Here's a link to a photo of Maskette -

http://www.horsephotos.com/watermark.jsp?photoID=42598

[xfactor fan]

Thanks Firebrand, that's one of the two that I found. Can you tell if there are wraps on her hind legs?

The photo that I have that is labled Maskette, clearly shows a high white hind leg.

[Firebrand]

I can't say with 100% accuracy, but I don't think she has wraps on her back legs. The only white on her seems to be a small spot/star on her forehead. Based on the descriptions of her that I read, she sounds like she was built along the same lines as Ruffian and Zenyatta... BIG.

I wish I could find a better photo for you, but this one from the Nation Museum of Racing's website, is basically the same image that I linked to in the post above, only smaller -



Here's an even worse photo that I found in an old New York newspaper archive -




You mentioned in your original post that the photo that you have is from a calvary horse publication, I ran across an article that mentions Maskette's full brother Metaphor, belonged to an Army officer. Here's part of the article (unfortunately, you have to buy the article to read the rest of it) -

METAPHOR GALLOPS IN
Wins Officers' Army Service Flat Race at Pimlico. MATABON FINISHES SECOND

Victor in Race Is Riden by Owner, Lieut. Alexander, of Corps of Engineers.

The Washington Post (1877-1922) - Washington, D.C.
Author: Special to The Washington Post.
Date: Jun 2, 1911

Baltimore, June 1. -- Metaphor, the handsome son of Disguise -- Biturica, full brother to Maskette, won the Officers' Army Service flat race, at 2 miles, at Pimlico this afternoon at the second day of the Maryland United Hunts meeting. Metaphor was ridden by his owner, Lieut. Alexander, of the corps of engineers.

[xfactor fan]

I'll bet the photo is of Metaphor. Is there a description of him anywhere? And it doesn't look like there are hind wraps on any of the racing photos of Maskette. Thank you for taking the time with this bit of research.

[Firebrand]

I have found some other articles about Metaphor on this website - http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html

It is an archive of old New York newspapers. Type his name in the search box (you'll probably have to include Maskette or Keene or Alexander in the search too) and a list of newspaper articles will appear. Click on one of the links and the entire page of the paper shows up, or it may make you download it as a pdf. From there, you should be able to enlarge the page and find the article that mentions him.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen any description of Metaphor's markings, only that he was a bay.

Here's one of the old newspaper articles that I found that tells a little about him. It's from the Utica Herald-Dispatch, June 9, 1911.

[xfactor fan]

Interesting that Metaphor is described as a cast off. I also can't find any listing for Metaphor in the produce record of his dam. Checked Equineline.com, and the database. Any suggestions on where to look next?

Thanks for the link to the newspaper archive--should be a great resource.

[Pan Zareta]

Interesting that Metaphor is described as a cast off. I also can't find any listing for Metaphor in the produce record of his dam. Checked Equineline.com, and the database. Any suggestions on where to look next?

Neither BRIS nor Equineline nor the APR are 100% faithful to the ASB, especially for pre-1920 foals. Metaphor is entered under his dam, Biturica, ASB 10:127 as 1907 br c METAPHOR x Disguise, sent to England 1908, returned 1909, bred by James R. Keene, Castleton Stud, Lexington, KY. For his racing record the DRF archives would be a good place to start.

[xfactor fan]

Thanks, this helps quite a bit. Would you be willing to run the entire produce record for Biturica? There are 4 foals listed in TesioPower, about the same number in equineline.com, and about the same in the delmar pedigree database--yes the most inaccurate of the sources.

I'll update things once the data is correct.

Thanks.

[Pan Zareta]

Would you be willing to run the entire produce record for Biturica?

Her North American produce as compiled from the ASB is below. The only foals not entered in the db here are Metaphor 3d and his full bro. Bit O' Rye.

Biturica br f 1900 x Hamburg - *Berriedale x Donovan bred by Marcus Daly, owned by James R. Keene, Castleton Stud, Lexington, KY. Recorded under dam ASB 8:88. All NorthAm produce bred by Keene.

1904 b f VEIL x Disguise 9:103
1905 b c DEFIANT x Commando 9:103, 10:127
1906 br f MASKETTE x Disguise 10:127
1907 br c METAPHOR 3d x Disguise (sent to England 1908, returned 1909) 10:127
1908 b f HEATHERBROOM x Ben Brush 10:127
1909 dk b or blk f PLAYMATE x Peter Pan (sent to England 1911, returned 1913) 11:74
1910 b c BIT O' RYE x Disguise 11:74
1911 b f BELLISARIO x Hippodrome 11:74
Mare sent to France 1912 11:74

Unfortunately, I don't have any French stud books from that era. Her 1913 filly x Ultimus, shown in the db here and by BRIS as a FR-bred, would have been exported in utero. The fact that Biturica was covered by Ultimus prior to exportation isn't noted in ASB 11, but might have been in one of the supplements to ASB 10, as might be whether or not she was bred for 1912. I checked through ASB 15 for any record that Biturica was sent back to the USA and found none.

[xfactor fan]

Thanks,

I've added the two missing horses to the database, and updated the Sporthorse database.

The whole Domino family is interesting. So many great horses come from this family--and given the very few offspring Domino left it is amazing that they survived at all.

[xfactor fan]

<iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="border:0px" src="http://books.google.com/books?id=-s4qAAAAYAAJ&dq=thoroughbred%20breeding&lr&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is&as_brr=1&pg=PA180&output=embed" width=500 height=500></iframe>

http://books.google.com/books?id=-s4qAA ... ng&f=false

With luck this should be the link to the page with the photos.

[Firebrand]

I could swear the horse is not a mare but a stallion, or gelding. The dangly bit doesn't look like an udder. Dark horse with one high white hind leg.

I have to agree that the horse identified in the photo as Maskette, definitely looks more like a "he" than a "she".