MikeLigalig.com

By Joe Espiritu
Columnist, Bohol Sunday Post

The biggest importer of US fighting cocks is the Philippines . Since cockfighting in the Philippines uses the knife, the importers requested that they could buy breeds, which are adapted to slash and stab fighting rather than the stabbing of the gaffs. One of the first American breeders to respond was Hugh Norman, whose fighters, which he called Rebels were of the Claret blood foundation.

Bill Ruble and Duke Hulsey whose cocks were named after them were of the Hatch – Claret variety with the Hatch being the dominant blood. Then came Spec McLaughlin of the Little General fame, Smoky Wallace with his brown reds and Grady Hamilton, whose White Clarets was said to be become the base bloodline of the breeders of Boy Permalion. Recently the Roundhead blood was added to the Hatch-Claret strain. This three-way cross had their day in the sun recently.

These breeders raised and fought their cocks in international derbies in the Araneta Coliseum. Most of their entries impressed the local betting public that there were orders for breeding stock. Almost all of them responded. Then some local breeders were able to locate game farms, which keep the strains pure and ordered seed fowl from them.

There was Grady Fields who obtained the Hatch when the originator died and kept them pure. There was Gus Frithtiof who kept the straight Madigin Claret obtained from Col John Madigin when Madigin died. Then there were Harold Brown and Curtis Blackwell who raised seed fowl as well as fighting crosses for the pit.

All serious breeders are aware that the fighting fowl descended from the bankiva or the jungle fowl of the Malay Archipelago . Indian maharajas who had bred fowl for fighting sent feathered fighters as gifts to English lords when cockfighting was a popular sport in England . There are still some Indian strains that survive today, the Aseels, which we call Jolo or Basilan that was once bred by Ramon Mitra. They became the ancestors of the Irish brown reds, power cocks from which the Hatch came from, the Roundheads and the Clarets. Colonists brought these breeds with them to America .

Mendelian genetics play a big part in gamefowl breeding. Bloodlines are most important in a breeding program. Courage, fighting style and vitality are expected to be handed down from generation to generation. When a certain strain happens to dominate the pit for a period, the blood is kept pure by in-breeding such as pairing brothers and sister or line breeding by breeding father to daughter or son to mother. Results are considered seed fowls.

They are not used for fighting as constant line or inbreeding weakens the physique. Should fighters be needed, the hen is to be bred to a cock of the same bloodline but of a distant family, the more distant the better. This is known as out-breeding.

Sometimes the breeder would want a different characteristic be added to the strain, the seed fowl is bred to a different blood with the desired characteristics. This is cross breeding. This is where luck plays a large part. Either all the desired characteristics appear on the offspring or the bad traits will dominate.

If the desired effects are attained, these battle crosses may post inns in a season or the breed will continue winning as long as the particular breeding pair produces. If it dies, the offspring of other pairs may not be the same even if they have exactly identical bloodlines.

That is why domination of any breed is not long. And again, if the breeder is lucky, sisters of the winning offspring may breed true, that means the same characteristics like fighting style, courage and stamina are reproduced in the next generation. But this is rare. That is why no breeder can stay on top for long but a good bloodline has a chance for a repeat performance. But he has a good chance of winning again in later generations.

The backyard breeders have to be very lucky if they can produce cocks that can match the entries of big time gamefowl establishments. The latter has the pick of the hundreds of cocks in the farm, while the former has to content himself with the few he had raised.

Big timers have better quality control. They can choose only the very best among the best. However, small time game farm operators may conduct ‘powder puff derbies” among themselves to choose entries to represent them for big time fights. This would allow them to field the best among them. Note: Most information from this article had been extracted from the Gamecock, Girt and Steel, and Feathered Warrior magazines.

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