Word: kleberg
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...Master Breed. A geneticist once wrote of Kleberg: "He works in the medium of heredity with the steady hand and eye of a man at a lathe turning out a part of a machine." His first great feat was the breeding of the King Ranch's Santa Gertrudis cattle, the only new breed of U.S. cattle that has had any commercial value. Economic necessity mothered the new breed...
Back in 1917, the ranch's cattle-English Shorthorns and Herefords-were doing poorly. They sickened in the blazing Texas sun. Kleberg decided to try Brahman bulls, which thrive on grass feeding and India's killing heat. Other cattlemen shook their heads. Brahmans had not worked out too well for other breeders. But Kleberg bred the Brahmans and Shorthorns together till he evolved what he wanted, a cross-breed bull named Monkey...
...speed for a quarter-mile. Bob selected Old Sorrel, a horse with the speed and nimbleness he wanted, and used him as he had Monkey. Colts were carefully culled; only the best were kept on the ranch. (Once, 1,200 mares that didn't come up to Kleberg's standards were driven into Mexico and given away.) Out of this selective evolution came the famed King Ranch quarter horses. Though they are primarily working cow ponies, one of them was good enough recently to sell...
This same interest in breeding got Kleberg interested in horse racing. He thought more thoroughbred blood would improve his ranch horses. He came back from the race tracks at Louisville and Saratoga with two carloads of thoroughbreds, and put them to "improving the breed." His horses turned out to have bigger chests and heavier forelegs than Kentucky breeders liked. They also ran faster than Kentuckians liked. The King Ranch's Assault won the triple crown-the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont...
...Jacobs. The cream-and-brown King Ranch racing colors have won all but a few of the nation's major racing classics, including the Santa Anita Derby, the Preakness, the Belmont Stakes, the Saratoga Special, a score of others. Trainer Hirsch summed up what Kleberg was trying to do: "Either Assault or Stymie would make crack cow horses." In the words of a cattleman, "cow horses can start fast, turn on a dime and give you 9? change...