Red Gordon setters look a lot like golden retrievers, and I have always suspected that the red setters that were included in the line at Guisachan were of the red Gordon-type, not the Irish red setters.
Of course, as the wavy-coat became the flat-coat, different Irish setters were used, and I highly suspect that the Irish setter influence in goldens comes from the establishment of the flat-coated retriever out of the wavy-coated retriever. It doesn’t take much imagination to see that if you bred a red setter to black flat-coat that any black puppies resulting from the breeding might also be worth including in the strains of flat-coat that were producing reds and yellows, which were derived from the Guisachan dogs.
If there is a lot if setter in Goldens, I’m surprised that the instict of pointing, or “standing game” as the fault is described, doesn’t pop up from time to time.
No dog that works is the wrong color, but it is irritating when a disqualifying fault, like tricolor GSPs (look just like a Doberman) or silver labs, is presented as somehow “rare” and sold at a premium.
That behavior does indeed pop up in both goldens and flat-coats.
There was only one “red setter” used at Guisachan, according to the record book. This was Sampson, belonging to Edward Marjoribanks. Whether he was of Gordon extraction, or other, is not noted.