This family produced at least one good racehorse in each generation in the nineteenth century, including winners of some big classic races, and of three Sydney Cups. Its last truly successful runner, Easingwold, was born in 1918.
Jewess was a broodmare in the Bylong Stud, near Bathurst, of the brothers James and John Lee. Some of the most influential broodmares and stallions in early Australian breeding were lodged or bred at Bylong, including the colonial taproot mares Sappho (Family C - 1), the Steeltrap Mare (Family C - 16), the Young English Mare (Family C - 9), and the stallions Marquis (1836, by Dover), imp. Kingston (1860, by Kingston), and the great native-born sire Sir Hercules (1843, by imp. Cap-a-pie).
Jewess was by Marquis, who had been bred at the Scott brothers' Hunter Valley thoroughbred nursery, Glendon, and served as a stallion at Bylong, where he got a number of important mares and a sire-son, Young Marquis (Family C - 9). Her dam was an arabian mare from parents imported by the Australian Agricultural Company in 1835. Jewess herself is not listed in the Australian Stud Book, but three of her daughters, and a grandaughter, that lists a fourth daughter in her pedigree, are. Her daughters were Quickstep, Blue Bell, Blue Bonnet, and Ildegonda (1860), all by Little John II; the first three were probably all bred in the 1850s. Little John II (c. 1840) was bred at the Rouse Hill stud of Richard Rouse Snr., from the mare Problem, by imp. Theorem, and was a stallion at Bylong, where he got some good runners from Sappho (Family C - 1), and other mares.
Quickstep produced a filly, Silverhair (1866), by Sir Hercules, that bred at least four foals for Australian-born James White on one of his several stations in the Hunter Valley, or at Kirkham, near Camden (southwest Sydney), where he built his mansion, now known as Camelot. White was the holder of vast acreages, and was a prominent member of Sydney society and political circles, as well as a long-time member of the Australian Jockey Club committee, and its chairman for seven years. He purchased and raced Derby and Melbourne Cup winner Chester, and New Zealand-bred Martini-Henry, who repeated that double win the following year, and bred and/or raced such other notables as Abercorn (by Chester), and the great stayer Trident (by Robinson Crusoe). Silverhair's son, Democrat (1873, by Gemma di Vergy) won the AJC Metropolitan Handicap and the Sydney Cup in 1878 for White. His brother, Sydney (1874), won the QTC Brisbane Cup.
Jewess' daughter Blue Bell bred ten foals for the Lees at Bylong. Of these, four siblings by the Lee's imported stallion Kingston had particular significance. Partisan (1866) won the 1871 Viceroy's Cup in India and Blue Peter (1869), won the VRC Essendon Stakes in 1872 and the VRC St. Leger Stakes the following year. At Bylong, Blue Bell's daughter Verbena (1868) became the dam of nine live foals, including Frisco (1883, by Grand Flaneur), another Sydney Cup winner in this family. Nightshade, Blue Bell's first foal, produced Regina (1891, by Forest King), winner of the AJC December Stakes and the VRC Oaks and later dam of Stuart King (1898), a good winner in South Australia. Nightshade was also the dam of Lubra (1894, by Forest King), third dam of Easingwold (1918, see below), who was the last of the family to win important races.
The third Jewess daughter, Blue Bonnet, was the dam of The Duke (1865, by Kingston), a winner of the AJC Derby in 1868 and of the 16 furlong Tattersall's NSW Club Cup in 1871.
Jewess' daughter Ildegonda (1860), was in the stud of John Readford, the son of pastoralist Thomas Readford who also had an inn at Cunningham's Creek, near Mudgee. John Readford took up property at the Gunnegaldra station on the Macquarie River. He and his brother Edward had a fairly large collection of broodmares that produced racehorses, including Ildegonda, who produced twelve foals, all of them by stallions owned by the Lees at Bylong; one, Marske (1864, by Sir Hercules), became a stallion, and two of her daughters, Wire (1875, by Barbarian) and her sister, Zyrina (1874), were retained by Readford and bred foals for him, but they did not win significant races, and it appears this branch, like the others, disappeared from the stud book in the first half of the twentieth century.
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