Alcock's Arabian (foaled about 1700, died about 1733), also known as Pelham Grey Arabian and less certainly as Bloody Buttocks and Ancaster Turk, among other names, is the ancestor of all

grey Grey (more frequent in British English) or gray (more frequent in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning that it has no chroma. It is the color of a cloud-covered s ...

-coloured

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a list of horse breeds, horse breed developed for Thoroughbred racing, horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thorough ...

horses,Lady Wentworth, ''The Swift Runner: racing speed through the ages'' (G. Allen & Unwin, 1957), p. 27: "All grey thoroughbreds are descended in direct (though not exclusively male) line from the Grey Alcock Arabian, also known as the Brownlow Turk, Honeywood Arabian and Akaster Turk, the grey colour persisting through some 26 generations..." as well as grey sport and riding horses descended from Thoroughbred lines.

Origins and career

It was claimed in the 19th century that Sir Robert Sutton (1671–1746), English

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

from 1700 to 1717, had acquired horses there, including Alcock's Arabian, the Holderness Turk, and the Brownlow Turk, and had had them shipped to England in 1704. However, there is no evidence that Alcock's Arabian was among these horses. It is more likely that he was bred in England. Lady Wentworth of the Crabbet Arabian Stud researched the foundation sires and found some confusion due to horses' names changing as they changed owners. She eventually concluded that every imported grey stallion she could find sufficient information to review was the same horse as Alcock's Arabian. While it is true that the horse may have been known under several different names, including Pelham's Grey Horse, and Bloody Buttocks, if he was bred in England, as now believed, he could not have been the same horse as one imported. It has been claimed that the horse was imported early in the 18th century, but there is no firm evidence to support this assertion. The ''

General Stud Book The ''General Stud Book'' is a breed registry for horses in Great Britain and Ireland. More specifically it is used to document the breeding of Thoroughbreds and related foundation bloodstock such as the Arabian horse. Today it is published ev ...

'' lists Sir Watkin Wynn's Spot, a horse now accepted as having been sired by Alcock's Arabian, as: "...by a son of the Curwen Bay Barb (which was out of Sir J. Parsons's Old Wen Mare, sister to Clumsey)...", which is strong evidence. The Old Wen Mare may have been the same mare as the exceptional broodmare Grey Wilkes, and if not was probably her full sister.''General Stud Book'', 5th edition, Volume 1 The horse is reported to have been folded in 1700. In any event, he was in England by 1704, ending up recorded in the General Stud Book in the hands of a man named Alcock who was a farmer and breeder in Lincolnshire. He became an influential stud in the early 1700s, and in 1722 Alcock sold him to the Duke of Ancaster.

Bloodlines and influence

The horse's sire line was significant through his son

Crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...

(or "Old Crab"), who sired Ancaster's Grasshopper, Routh's Crab, Shepherd's Crab, Cumberland's Crab, Sloe, Rib, Wynn's Spot, Gentleman, Brilliant, Black and All Black, Imported Sober John, Berie's Ramper, and Spectator. The last of these was the sire of Sulphur, Damper, and Marc Anthony, who sired Aimwell (1782), winner of the

Epsom Derby The Derby Stakes, more commonly known as the Derby and sometimes referred to as the Epsom Derby, is a Group races, Group 1 flat Horse racing, horse race in England open to three-year-old Colt (horse), colts and Filly, fillies. It is run at Ep ...

of 1785. Aimwell was the only winner of the Derby not in the sire line of one of the three great Arabian foundation stallions, the

Godolphin Arabian The Godolphin Arabian (–1753), also known as the Godolphin Barb, was an Arabian horse The Arabian or Arab horse ( , DIN 31635, DMG ''al-ḥiṣān al-ʿarabī'') is a horse breed, breed of horse with historic roots on the Arabian Peninsul ...

, the Darley Arabian, and the Byerley Turk. Although his recorded sire line is extinct among Thoroughbreds, Alcock's Arabian is considered the ancestor of all grey

horses through his female descendants. His status as the progenitor of all grey Thoroughbreds was the subject of a question on Episode 12 of Series H of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

comedy

panel game A panel show or panel game is a radio or television game show in which a panel of celebrities participate. Celebrity panelists may compete with each other, such as on '' The News Quiz''; facilitate play by non-celebrity contestants, such as on ' ...

'' QI''. As Alcock's Arabian had a prominent sire line in the

Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America which broke away from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and joined to form the United States of America. The Thirteen C ...

- particularly Samuel Galloway III's Selim (b. 1759), the son of the Duke of Kingston's Othello, by

, out of Selima, by the

, a rival of Wilkins Spadille (b. 1762), a stallion by Janus II, also a grandson of the

- prior to the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, but many breeding records were lost, it is remotely possible that unrecorded descendants of his sire line still exist. However, as these records were lost, it is impossible to verify or register any of these potential descendants as purebred

Thoroughbreds The Thoroughbred is a horse breed developed for horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are considered ...

. Wilkins Spadille was a "famous sire" of early American Quarter Horses.

Sire line tree

*Alcock's ArabianHistoric Sire Lines
/ref> **Tippler **

Biography: Crab
/ref> ***Grasshopper ***Grey Ward ***Crab (Routh) ****Valiant ***Rib ****Sober John ***Sloe ****Sweeper ***Bustard ****Dorimond ****Gamahoe ***Othello (Portmore) ***Allworthy ***Locust ****Bucephalus ***Why Not ***Oroonoko ****Brunswick *****Black-and-all-Black ***Spectator ****Antaeus ****Trophy ****Tyrant ****Pagan ****Sulphur *****Apollo *****Little Isaac *****Don Carlos ****Mark Anthony *****Brutus *****George *****Mark Anthony II ***** Aimwell *****Mark-Ho *****Bag-Ho ****Damper *****Ruby *****Carrots ****Vandal *****Blaze ***BrilliantBiography: Brilliant
/ref> ****Antelope *****Gem ****Bellario *****Philaster *****Whirlwind *****Borascha *****Boots ****Don Dun ***Crab (Cumberland) ****Milksop ***Crab (Shepherd) ****Lath (Protector) *****Laburnum *****Tippoo Saib ***Othello (Kingston) ****True Briton ****Galloway's Selim (out of Selima) **Spot (Alcock) **Gentleman **Spot (Wynn)

Notes

{{reflist, 30em Individual Arabian and part-Arabian horses 1700 racehorse births 1730s racehorse deaths Individual male horses