Books & Videos: It's a rare beast that confronts conventional breeding wisdom.

Byline: Tony Morris

Racehorse Breeding Theories

Frank Mitchell 

(Russell Meerdink, $45)

BOOKS on breeding appear rarely enough, and when they do, they tend to be expensive. Worse still, they can prove less than instructive, and two or three in recent years required filing under `fiction'.

Racehorse Breeding Theories, from the renowned American stable of Russell Meerdink, will not break the bank, and will inform the novice, the experienced student and the practical horseman. It covers a wide range of topics in its 324 pages, from the familiar - such as Bruce Lowe's figure system and nicking - to more recently developed ideas like female family inbreeding and biomechanics.

The work has been edited by Lexington-based authority Frank Mitchell, a former college professor with many years' experience in the thoroughbred industry while also active as a writer, notably as a columnist on the Daily Racing Form since 1993. His clear, analytical observations make him a worthy successor to his natural hero, Joe Estes, the man who, in the

pre-computer age, devised the Average Earnings Index.

Mitchell, like Estes, doesn't just accept the received wisdom. He questions theories, and provides carefully considered views on their utility or otherwise.

One of Mitchell's collaborators, David Dink, is just as clearly a graduate from the Estes school. His chapter on pedigrees and statistics contains nuggets guaranteed to enlighten the many who are easily led astray by the slant put on stats by those more interested in conveying a message for promotional purposes than in delivering the unvarnished truth.

Among the other contributors are Jay Leimbach on inbreeding, Rommy Faversham on nicking and inbreeding to female families, and Steven Roman, whose long chapter on (his version of) dosage perhaps ranks more as a technique for the classification of horses by pedigree than as breeding theory.

You are probably not going to find this book in your local WH Smith or Waterstones, but it is definitely worth finding, so tell your dealer to track down ISBN 0-929346-75-0. It is likely to cost around pounds 30.

TONY MORRIS

nAvailable online at www.horseinfo.com for $45 including postage and packing