Common Denominator In Producing SW's [Archive]

Pedigreeman

09-20-2007, 03:17 AM

"Here lies the fleetest runner the
> American
> turf has ever known and one of
the
> gamest
> and most generous of horses"
>
> Domino, enshrined beneath this epitaph, achieved immortality in his
all
> too brief life. Between birth in 1891 and death in 1897, he
> distinguished himself as a racer and left his seed of greatness in
the
> gene pool. He is a 1955 inductee to the Hall of Fame.
>
> Undefeated at 2, he tallied 19 wins from 25 lifetime starts and
earned
> $193,550. He won 8 stakes and ran 6 furlongs over a century ago in
1:09
> flat. He died in his second season at stud and left just 20 foals, 19
> named, 7 stakes winners - 35 percent. Just 9 bred on and these
included
> 2 sons: Commando won the Belmont and sired Belmont winner Peter Pan
> while Disguise defeated English Triple Crown winner, Diamond Jubilee.
> His daughters produced Hippodrome and Ultimus [both by Commando] as
well
> as High Time [by Ultimus] and Sweep, he the damsire of Triple Crown
> winner War Admiral and Kentucky Derby winner, Bubbling Over. Another
was
> the second dam of Upset, he the sole victor over ManO'War. Finally,
Cap
> And Bells was the first American bred winner of the English Oaks.
Domino
> is a genetic key also to the American quarter horse.
>
> He was an intensely linebred horse and his first 2 dams were
intensely
> inbred. It can be seen from the summary above that success was had in
> inbreeding to Domino. Indeed few, if any, can top the 3X3X2 cross to
> Domino in High Time. Moreover, the pedigree of Domino was no fluke as
it
> also produced his Champion sister, Correction, she a winner of 38
races,
> dam of Yankee: second dam of Haste [damsire of Triple Crown winner
Count
> Fleet] and ancestress of Triple Crown winner, Affirmed and another
> Kentucky Derby winner, Lil E. Tee. Note the impact Domino and his
sister
> Correction had on the classic races. To assign the characteristic of
> speed to Domino is to miss the point: he passed on classic speed.
> Hamburg is out of Lady Reel [daughter of Mannie Gray] and she further
> confirms the pedigree as her sire, Fellowcraft, like Himyar, sire of
> Domino, is out of a mare by Lexington making Lady Reel a 5/8 relative
of
> Domino
>
> We begin the pedigree analysis of Domino with his second dam, Lizzie
G.
> Her sire and damsire are War Dance and LeCompte. War Dance is by
> Boston's immortal son Lexington, who led the American sire list 16
> times. LeCompte is by Boston. Both are out of Reel she by Glencoe out
of
> Galopade. Hence Lizzie G. is 1X2 to 3/4 brothers and 2X3 to Reel, who
> can be seen in this picture to be stunningly beautiful. Lizzie G. has
> Judith for her third dam and Judith is by Glencoe out of a daughter
of
> Galopade. Judith is thus 3/4 related to the doubled Reel or, put
another
> way, Lizzie G. is 2X3X3 to Reel, Reel and her 3/4 sister and 3X4X5 to
> Galopade. Yet again, five 3/4 relations in the first 3 generations -
> Lexington/LeCompte and Reel [twice] and Judith.
>
> Mannie Gray is the dam of Domino and her sire is Enquirer out of
Lida,
> a mare by Lexington. Mannie Gray is thus 3X3 Lexington and 4X4X4 to
> Boston. Lida carries 2 sons Diomed, Sir Archy and Duroc. Lexington is
> tail male to Sir Archy and Boston is out of a mare by Ball's
Florizel,
> another son of Diomed. Lexington has Sumpter, another son of Diomed.
To
> sum - Lida [2], Lexington [2 times 3] and the third Boston [2] gives
10
> male strains of Diomed in Mannie Gray.
>
> By the time we get to Domino, we have a pretty fair idea of what is
> going on. The tripling of Lexington 3X4X4 and the 4X5X5X5 to Boston
is
> familiar. This new strain of Lexington brings 3 more male strains of
> Diomed and Hira adds a Sir Archy and we now have 14 male strains of
> Diomed in Domino. His second dam is tripled to Galopade, his first is
> tripled to Boston and he is tripled to Lexington.
>
> The careful delineation of male strains of Diomed was done for a
reason.
> Diomed won the first English Derby in 1780, left a full sister
[Fancy],
> 3/4 sister [Young Juno], 3/4 brother [Dragon] and a prolific mare,
Young
> Giantess, she the dam of Sorcerer as well as a Walton mare who
produced
> Langar in addition to the three sisters: Julia, Cressida and Eleanor
> [English Oaks/Derby] and their brother, Young Whiskey and came to
> America at the turn of the century. Julia had Phantom [English
Derby].
> Cressida had Priam [English Derby] and was third dam of The Cure.
> Eleanor, one of the few to accomplish the Oaks/Derby double produced
> Muley and the dam of Picton. She is ancesstress of minor sires Father
> Thames, Luzburough, Sprinkbok and Esher. Reminding, the reason male
> strains of Diomed are important is that none bred on prior to his
> arrival stateside and were thus non existent in the gene pool.
>
> Sir Archy and all the other sons who bred on were sired while Diomed
> stood in America. These males strains accumulated in America over
time
> until their were 14 such in Domino in 1891. Meantime, for a century
and
> beyond, the sister, 3/4 siblings and the many sires descending from
> Young Giantess accumulated in gaggles across the pond - totally void
of
> male strains of Diomed. What, dear reader, was to happen when such
build
> ups finally got a return of male Diomed? Plenty! Domino had no fewer
> than 13 lines of Young Giantess along with 3 other daughters of
Diomed
> in his first 13 generations to go with 14 male lines of Diomed.
>
> Their are many startling illustrations of crossing sire and dam with
one
> void of male Diomed [note - the sister, daughters and 3/4 sibs of
Diomed
> are endemic to the breed and have been for nearly 2 centuries, so
both
> parents by definition had these]. Nearco is one great one - Triple
Crown
> winners Count Fleet and Gallant Fox are others.
> But there is no clearer example of this explosive combination than
what
> transpired in the case of the brilliant imported producer, La
Troienne.
> Upon arrival in America, she brought with her hundreds of strains of
all
> things Diomed built up without a male cross from the birth of Diomed
in
> 1777 until her birth in 192x - more than a century. In the clever and
> capable hands of Olin Gentry and Colonel Bradley during Idle Hour
Farm's
> heyday, she was never bred to anything except a Domino line horse
with
> the exception
> of their homebred Kentucky Derby winner, Bubbling Over and his dam
was
> tripled to Domino featuring Sweep, Hippodrome and Lady Reel from
above.
> This union gave us Baby League, dam of Busher, Mrs. Busher and
Striking
> - all by War Admiral [Sweep].
> Striking and Busher are 3X3 in dam of Triple Crown winner Seattle
Slew.
> War Admiral got Busanda, dam of Buckpasser from Businesslike by Blue
> Larkspur from La Troienne.
>

Pedigreeman

09-22-2007, 02:51 AM

In looking over modern-day pedigrees it is hard to overlook the widespread
role played by Discovery--the great handicap horse of the 1930s who later
stood at Alfred Vanderbilt’s Sagamore Farm in Maryland. For years Vanderbilt
maintained the secret of his success was simply to "breed to Discovery". In later
years he amended this to “breed to Discovery mares”. Vanderbilt remarkably
bred the dams of both Native Dancer and Bold Ruler both by Discovery, and Bold
Ruler and Native Dancer became perhaps the two most influential bloodlines in
America.
It is also noteworthy that Native Dancer’s leading son, Raise A Native,
and Bold Ruler’s great son, Secretariat, were both beautifully muscular
chestnuts--very much like Discovery himself.
Discovery was the second foal of Ariadne (by Light Brigade), and was
foaled in 1931. Racing four years, from two to five, he became a celebrated
iron-horse in the handicap division where he won both the Whitney Stakes and Brooklyn
Handicap for three consecutive years. Discovery often carried over 130
pounds, and remarkably was the betting favorite in his last 27 lifetime starts,
finishing with 63 starts with 27 wins, 10 seconds, and 10 thirds.
Discovery was by Display, a son of the great sire Fair Play--who sired Man
o’ War.
It may be a coincidence, but both Fair Play and Man o’ War were big, muscular
chestnuts. Discovery himself enjoyed fair success at stud, but his sons did
not carry on his male line. His daughters were a different story.
In addition to Bold Ruler and Native Dancer, Discovery became the
broodmare-sire of Intentionally, Hasty Road, Traffic Judge, and Clandestine--names
that still appear prominently in modern-day pedigrees. In fact, inbreeding and
linebreeding to Discovery has played a dramatic role among American
Thoroughbreds, both on the racetrack and in the breeding shed...
Perhaps the most striking example was Ruffian--often regarded as the
greatest American filly of the 20th Century. Her sire, Reviewer, was a son of Bold
Ruler out of a Hasty Road mare, making him 3x4-Discovery. Ruffian's dam,
Shenanigans, was by Native Dancer, making Ruffian 4x5x4-Discovery.
Bold Ruler's son Secretariat, along with Native Dancer's son Raise A
Native, and Intentionally's son In Reality are now the primary strains of Discovery
blood, and a striking number of today's top horses show all three strains. In
Reality's grandson, Skywalker, (Breeders'Cup Classic winner), shows
Discovery-5x5x5, while Skywalker's son Bertrando is 6x6x6x6. And Bertrando's charismatic
son Officer gets four more strains of Discovery through his dam.
Returning to Secretariat's influence on the breed, perhaps his most
accomplished son, General Assembly, was inbred 4x4-Discovery. Even more notably,
Secretariat is the broodmare-sire of the top sires Storm Cat, Gone West, Dehere,
and A.P. Indy--each of whom shows linebreeding to Discovery....
Ultimately the success of a sire or broodmare rests largely on their
genetic
make-ups. Pedigree analysts often overlook the role conformation plays in
breeding, although conformation along with pedigree and racing ability are the
primary indicators of that genetic make-up.
Legendary Italian breeder, Frederico Tesio, (who bred both Nearco and
Ribot), had a library of 1500 conformational photographs which clearly shaped his
own matings. Tesio noted that the great stallion St. Simon was the first
Thoroughbred ever to have a rounded, semi-circular hind-end (croup). Tesio backed
this up by breeding Nearco (5x4x4x5-St.Simon), whom veteran horsemen observed
to be more like St.Simon than any of his own sons. Perhaps Discovery offered a
similar conformational key.
It could certainly be argued that the mere presence of Native Dancer, Bold
Ruler, and Intentionally in a pedigree are of such high quality that the
linebreeding to Discovery created is merely an after effect. But in this era of
declining stamina and durability, it might be more than a coincidence that so
many classic winners feature such strong linebreeding to Discovery.
The list of names is endless, but prominent besides Ruffian and Skywalker
are Preakness winner Louis Quatorze (6x5x6x6), European champion Dubai
Millenium (6x6x7), handicap star Congaree (7x8x7x7), and the racemares Glitter Woman
(5x6x6x7x6) and Toussaud (6x6x5x6)--the latter being the dam of five stakes
winners including Belmont winner, Empire Maker. The past two Kentucky Derby
winners, Funny Cide (7x8x8x8x7), and Smarty Jones (7x7x8x6x6x7) continue this
pattern, and last year's Two-year-old Champion Declan's Moon is by Malibu Moon
(7x6x6x9x7), while his dam is by Norquestor--himself 6x6x6-Discovery...
---------------------------------------------------------------

deltasports

09-22-2007, 08:34 PM

Re: "Raise The Native" We Used To Say> When "Raise The Native" Worked In The Morning At Belmont Park>>>he Went So Fast Down The Backside That He Made The Trees Sway..::;

Pedigreeman

09-25-2007, 11:46 PM

The manager of one of America's top Thoroughbred farms discussed
selection
of breeding stock at a CTBA seminar

Pedigree, Performance and Conformation.

"Any discussion of breeding stock comes down to those three
ingredients,"
noted Dan Rosenberg, manager of Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky.,
one of
America's most successful Thoroughbred nurseries. 'What we're always
trying
to do in selecting mares, stallions or matings is to try to balance
these
elements."

Rosenberg was the keynote speaker at a seminar on Selection of
Breeding
Stock held at Harris Farms in Coalinga, Calif., on Sept. 28. The
seminar
was sponsored by the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association,
with
funding assistance from the Oak Tree Racing Association.

Of course, everyone wants as much pedigree, performance and
conformation as
possible in breeding stock, but Rosenberg noted that the few mares
who are
strong in all three areas cost too much for most breeders to afford
them.

"The problem is to get the most bang for your buck," he
suggested. "Always
buy as much pedigree, as much performance and as good conformation as
you
can possibly afford." In considering pedigrees, Rosenberg believes in
the
adage, "The family is stronger than the individual."

"Good families sometimes go quiet for a couple of generations," he
said,
"but they always seem to come back. If I have to sacrifice a strong
family
close up, I do want the mare to trace back to a very strong
foundation
broodmare. When the first and second dams are a little weak, it is
also
important to me to look at the broodmare sires of these first two
dams.

"I'm not particularly interested in a mare by an unsuccessful
stallion out
of an unsuccessful mare who is by an unsuccessful stallion, no matter
who
the third or fourth dam is. This is not necessarily a matter of a
family
having gone quiet, but possibly a matter of a family having been
poisoned."

While he will go back a few generations to find strong family
connections,
Rosenberg doesn't want to have to search too far back to find top
racing
performance. He wants performance "up as close as I can possibly
afford."
He advises avoiding mares and stallions who had a lot of chances and
couldn't win.

'What we have selected for in Thoroughbred breeding for 250 years is
not
speed or a physical type," he reasoned. "It is an innate desire to
win, and
it is competitiveness and courage and grit. A horse with plenty of
opportunities to win that doesn't win maybe didn't want to win badly
enough.

"If I can't buy a mare with top performance, I want to find a mare
who
showed some real ability," he said.

Rosenberg told breeders and potential breeders in his audience to do
their
homework in studying a horse's racing record. For example, find out
how
many starts the horse had and against what kind of company and where.
If
possible, talk to the owner, trainer and jockey about the horse.

"Pretty is as pretty does," Rosenberg offered, as he turned his
attention
to conformation. "I have to like a winner of a good race, no matter
what
the horse looks like."

He told a story about the Tartan Farms dispersal several years ago,
when
"the smartest people in the world" were shopping and saying, "Have
you ever
seen such a bunch of crooked mares?"

"The fact is every one of those mares ran a hole in the wind and
every one
of those mares produced stakes winners," Rosenberg said. 'to me,
that's the
model."

But Rosenberg does look for some conformation traits when selecting
broodmares. He likes a "big and roomy mare" who can carry a big foal,
because he feels a small mare cannot develop a good foal in utero.

"I do think a good shoulder and balance are important," he
continued. "I
don't mind if the knees are a liffle offset or the legs toe in or toe
out
to some degree, within reason. I do not want mares who are back at
the
knees or with bad feet. I have found that bad feet are highly
inheritable."

Rosenberg says another important consideration is the age of the
mare. In
an older mare, there is additional information available ‹ her
produce
record. 'That's probably the best measure," he said.

However, he noted there is a bias in the marketplace against foals of
older
mares, because statistics show older mares produce a lower percentage
of
superior runners than younger mares do. Rosenberg believes those
statistics
are skewed.

"I find, in general, that young mares are bred to proven stallions to
get
them off to a good start, and older mares are bred to unproven
stallions to
get the stallions off to a good start," he said. "Since most unproven
stallions don't make the grade, younger mares have a far greater
opportunity to come up with a good racehorse than older mares.

"It's hard for me to imagine a mare's genetic potential can change
with
age," he continued. "Fertility is another story. There is ample
evidence
that once a mare gets past 17 or 18 years of age, her fertility
declines
dramatically."

Rosenberg noted that people looking to get a big bang for their buck
sometimes purchase an older mare and hope they get a filly. He thinks
that
can be a good way to go, but cautions that the breeder may not get
many
chances with an older mare.

The Three Chimneys manager also recommends "ruthless culling" as part
of
the on-going selection process.

"It is important to look at your broodmares every year and determine
which
ones are performing up to expectations and which ones are not," he
advised.
"As breeders, we are constantly trying to move the bottom out and
raise the
level."

That is another reason Rosenberg likes to breed young mares to proven
sires.

"If I have bred my mare to an unproven stallion and the first two or
three
foals don't run, I don't know if I want to get rid of this mare or
not," he
noted. "If I breed her to a horse I know gets runners and she still
can't
get a runner, it does tell me something about her."

Rosenberg said the same principles he applies to selecting mares
apply to
selecting stallions, although he puts some added emphasis on
pedigree. "A
stallion with a great race record and a very weak pedigree has far
less
chance of siring good racehorses consistently than a good racehorse
with a
great pedigree," he said. "I would prefer a stallion be a graded
stakes
winner, but if not, I would want to have a very good idea of what
kind of
ability he had. A royally bred full brother to a champion that ran 10
times
and couldn't win does not interest me. A fulL brother to a champion
who
broke his maiden his first time out and never ran again might
interest me."

Rosenberg also considers a stallion's 2-year-old record.

"It does seem to be important that he at least was precocious enough
to get
to the racetrack at 2 and to win," he maintained.

Another thing he considers when selecting a stallion is the number of
mares
mated to the stud, which he feels is particularly important from his
position as a market breeder.

"I need to have enough foals by that stallion out on the racetrack
competing to give him an opportunity to come up with a good one and
for him
to be in the public eye," Rosenberg said. 'VVith stallions that have
very
small books, you are fighting an uphill battle as a breeder."

As with mares, Rosenberg tends to play down minor conformation flaws
in
stallions and feels the importance of a stallion's conformation
relates
more to planning which mares will be bred to him than whether he
likes him.

"If he can get runners, I like him," he said. "Once a horse is a
proven
sire, buyers tend to forgive conformation flaws that they expect to
see by
that sire."

He recalled an instance at a Keeneland sale when a prominent
California
owner and trainer were looking at a Mr. Prospector colt.

"You know, I've looked at every Mr. Prospector in this sale, and
they're
all crooked," the owner said.

"Yeah, but they limp fast," the trainer responded.

In planning matings, Rosenberg recommends breeding strength to
strength and
avoiding breeding a weakness to a weakness.

"This pertains not only to conformation traits but to racing
characteristics and temperament," he said. He feels breeders make a
fundamental mistake when they try to compensate for a characteristic
of a
horse by breeding it to a horse with an opposite characteristic.

"I remember in high school biology learning about Gregor Mendel, the
father
of genetics," Rosenberg said. "He bred tall peas to short peas, and
he
didn't get any medium peas. You either get tall or short; that's the
way
genetics works.

"But I find people who have a great big mare and breed her to a tiny
horse
thinking they are going to get an average size foal, or they've got
this
tiny mare and want to breed her to a stallion 17 hands to breed some
size
into her," he said, carrying the pea analogy to horse breeding. "I
don't
find it works that way at all.

"The same with speed and stamina. You have a mare that was really
quick at
five furlongs and breed her to a horse that could run a mile and a
half,
and you think you will get a horse that can run a mile. I think what
you
get is something that can't run at all."

Rosenberg also points out that mating two horses with similar
conformation
characteristics will produce more consistent conformation results.

"You have a mare who presumably is a model of what you are trying to
accomplish," he said. "If you breed her to a widely divergent type of
horse, sometimes you are going to get what he looks like, sometimes
you are
going to get what she looks like. It's always a guessing game and the
odds
are always against you, but if you breed like to like, you narrow
that
range and are more likely to get what you are looking for."

Rosenberg says there are rare stallions and mares who are strong
enough to
overcome and improve whatever they are bred to, but pointed
out, "Both
parents contribute 50 percent of the genetic material. Putting too
much
emphasis on either the sire or the dam is probably a mistake."

In the end, Rosenberg notes, no matter how careful and selective a
breeder
is, the odds are against making a profit in the marketplace or making
the
grade on the racetrack.

"We just hope that one day we can breed one or sell one or race one
that
makes up for all the others," he concluded. "But this is a wonderful
challenge. It is a great combination of art and science. You have to
control all the factors you can, and in the end, you just go with you
gut
feeling and hope you have guessed right enough of the time to get a
little
bit lucky.

"You have to love this to do it. You have to be at least half crazy,
and
probably all the way crazy helps, to persevere.

------------------------------

Pedigreeman

10-05-2007, 12:50 PM

MAN O'WAR-1917

Most horse people regard this Champion as the greatest of them all. A phenomenal Champion
that captured the imagination of the whole racing world.
He won 20 races from 21 starts (ironically beaten by UPSET) which he defeated on 5 other
occasions? he retired as America's leading Money Earner, with $249,465.
He was huge, close to 16"2"- a glowing chestnut which set 8 time records (3 world records,
2 USA, 3 track)
Except for his single defeat, he won all his races with ease and by wide margins.

When checking out his 10 generation pedigree, we can see build-ups and combinations
of factors which obviously were of real help in allowing him to posses such outstanding ability.

A full analysis would reveal dozens of other principles, but these ones indicate the lay of the
land.
MAN O'WAR was linebred to 25 different ancestors within 7 generations. 20 of these 25
line-breedings were balanced, = 80% and that is extremely high for so many line-breedings.
The balance factor where multiples are concerned allows for the development of speed when
selection factors are mostly stamina orientated.
NZ & Australia have several dozen champions which prove this principle.

MAN O'WAR has 789 chains which ramify back into the pedigree to hundreds of repeats of
certain ancestors. This causes great pre-potency. As a RULE OF THUMB, we look for about 680
and he has a massive increase on that, but there are quite a few other principles tied up when
the chains are examined in detail, too complicated to go into here.

He has 3 male line-breedings, including a 5 x 5 cross of Derby winner GALOPIN.
The 4 Mainly Male crosses include a 5 x 6,6,6,6 involving StLeger winner STOCKWELL.
Nice 7 lots of Balanced linebreeding, including 5 x6 of KING TOM, 6 x 5 of MACARONI.
6 reactions help repeatability
2 female line-breedings, including a powerful 5 x 5 cross of Derby winner HERMIT.
3 line-breedings to a mare, including a 6,6 x 7,7,7,7 cross of POCAHONTAS

Each one of these crosses has a specific effect on performance, depending on how it
comes into the pedigree, its position, its balance, its multiplicity, and its associations-
but the effects are complex and require careful and long study.

MAN O'WAR has a linebreeding index of 9.031 which is very high (Av for SW about 7.5 - 8.0)
which means all his linebreeding to 7 generations equates to having 9 ancestors duplicated in
the 4th generation. Think how strong this is when less than 1 in 3 horses have an actual 4 x 4
or closer cross in their pedigree, and the bigger majority of horses just a 5 x 5, or 5 x 6 cross
to start working on.
The effect if intensified when various ancestors appear in combinations and
form genetic relatives, and even stronger when it becomes INTRICATE IN-BREEDING.

The effect is different when the ancestor comes through just sons, just daughters, or different
combinations of both.

For those who don't believe in the strength of duplications in the background pedigree, consider
that his line-breeding to 10 generations equates to having 20 ancestors duplicated 4 x 4 in his
pedigree. (Index 20.430) Those back generations count, and the multiple intensity of a
predominating line when allied to superior ancestry (SELECTION) is a key to the difference
between the gifted and the also rans.

13 of his 25 duplicated ancestors come through female components = 52%

He has 256 INTRICATE LINE-BREEDINGS (Genetic relatives) to 7 generations. They equate
to a massive 61.781 and we would all like our matings to have a high figure like this. This equates
to having 61 genetic relatives appearing in the 4th generation, to bring home to you how strong
this effect may possibly be.

Of more importance are the close INTRICATE IN-BREEDING crosses. There are 6. The majority
of SW have at least 2 of these, so he is well qualified. (They appear 4x4, 2x3, 3x3, 3x6, 4x4, 3x6).

The pedigree of sire and dam HIT PREPOTENCY a very high 86.67%.
8 duplicates already in the sire, find 7 similar matches or another return in the dam,
7 duplicated ancestors in the dam, have another cross or match in the sire.
Total of 15 duplications, 13 matches in the other parent = 86.67%
Shows that the doubled lines in each parent are requiring returns in the other parent,
or there is BENEFIT of added SPEED or ABILITY when similar ancestors are returned.
This refutes the writings of many pedigree people.
Over 37,000 Stakes winners in the Pedigree Programme database shows conclusive
evidence of the need for returns of this duplicated blood.

MAN O'WAR's breeding on his sires side was impecable for performance. His sire FAIR PLAY1905
was a standout that won 10 races and was 3x Champion sire. HASTINGS1893 was also a top class
galloper (10wins,BelmontS). Incidently, he had a ferocious temperament, just like his son FAIR PLAY
and seen in many descendants of MAN O'WAR, who himself was notably temperamental.
Next sire SPENDTHRIFT1876 was USA Champion 3yo (BelmontS) and the next 2 sires AUSTRALIAN
and WEST AUSTRALIAN were the 2 best sires of their time.

FAIR PLAY's dam FAIRY GOLD was a brilliant broodmare influence, and this ability must have been
helped by having her first 3 dams all Champions of their time in England. BEND OR1877 (10w,Derby),
GALLIARD1880 (6w-Chs,2,PWS,StJ), and HERMIT1864.(8w-Derby, StJ,2dStL-7xChSire)

MAN O'WAR's dam has equally impressive credentials in terms of performance, with every one of the
15 sires in her first 4 generations being good racehorses.
ROCK SAND (16w,2,Derby,StL), SAINFOIN (4w-Derby), MERRY HAMPTON (Derby, 2dStL)
SPRINGFIELD (17wins), ST SIMON (9w-9xChampionS), HAMPTON (20w, GwCup,DonC),
MACGREGOR(2w3starts-2000G,BathS,4thDerby) ST ALBANS (5w-StL,MetH,ChesC)
WENLOCK (StLeger), GALOPIN (10wDerby), HERMIT (8w-Derby,StLeger), LORD CLIFDEN
(7w-L,WS,DS,2dDerby), BROOMIELAW (7wins), MACARONI (7w-2000,Derby,DonC),
UNDERHAND (ManchesterCup, GtEborH)

The ability was there THROUGHOUT THE PEDIGREE, and this SELECTION of ancestry is one
of the most important tools of the successful thoroughbred breeder.
It then requires the methods and principles of breeding within the pedigree to use balance,
sufficiency, multiplicity to allow these traits to come to the foal with the necessary inclusion
of high class speed and stamina.

The pedigree proved right, the refocus and recombinations allowed MAN O'WAR's 2 older
siblings to also be Stakes Winners.

The pedigree has the class factors when multiples appear such as Stockwell/Lord Clifden,
Pocahontas/Birdcatcher, Pocahontas/Gladiator, Touchstone/Emilius & Touchstone/Melbourne.

There are 42 inbred ancestors in the pedigree, with a good index of 115.63,
so match all your current matings up against that figure and see where you stand.

MAN O'WAR has a very high 237 MATCHING SPECIAL INDEX.

Pedigreeman

12-18-2007, 04:19 AM

Dr. Jay Lush of Iowa State University stated, "The more superior a
breeder's
herd or flock is to the average merit of its breed, the more reason he
has
to practice linebreeding to his very best animals or to the very best
of the
recent ancestors.

Thirty to forty years ago Thoroughbred racing was dominated by a dark bay stallion named Bold Ruler, an elite, classic-winning racehorse and an even better sire. In the 1960s he led the general sire list an unprecedented seven straight times and then once again in the 1970s. No other sire in the 20th century could match that feat. He was the leading freshman sire of 1962 and he topped the juvenile sire list six times. Along the way, Bold Ruler got an amazing 23% stakes winners including eleven champions, among them perhaps the greatest of all, Secretariat. To claim that the roster of his highly successful sons at stud is impressive is an understatement: Bold Bidder, Bold Commander, Bold Hour, Bold Lad, Boldnesian, Chieftain, Cornish Prince, Dewan, Irish Castle, Jacinto, Raja Baba, Reviewer, Secretariat, Top Command, What a Pleasure and more. This group sired classic winners and Grade/Group 1 winners in America and Europe and many individually were prominent on or led various year-end sire lists. Bold Ruler's is a compelling story about a very special Thoroughbred. However, within just two or three decades from the time Bold Ruler reigned supreme, we have arrived at a point where only one of his living direct male line descendants legitimately can be considered a world-class sire, A.P. Indy by Seattle Slew by Bold Reasoning by Boldnesian by Bold Ruler. Not only do things change in the racing world, they can change in what seems like an instant. No one can know for sure what will be the fate of more recent dominant sires such as Northern Dancer and Mr. Prospector. Whether their influence contracts as has Bold Ruler's, or whether they expand their influence and ascend the heights to become the new Phalaris is something we will learn over time.

Pedigreeman

12-23-2007, 12:08 AM

I have looked at most, if not all, of the great racehorses of the 19th and 20th century. I have studied the produce of the greatest breeders of all time, looking for patterns that would fit today's racehorse, and I have come to some interesting conclusions. First, unless you have a horribly inbred mare, out crossing (no common ancestor in the first five generations) is not the way to go.
Also, inbreeding and/or line breeding to just the male line of a pedigree or breeding a sire line to a broodmare sire line is not very productive. I should note that when a 'nick' occurs between a sire and a broodmare sire it is usually because the stallion's tail female line has a number of identical ancestors as the mares tail mail line.
So let the experts tell you what they want, but according to my research the best breeders have constantly line bred and occasionally inbred their mares to stallions whose pedigrees were filled with a number of identical ancestors as their mares. Let me qualify this by saying that they crossed their mares with stallions that had an abundance of top quality racehorses in their pedigree.
Also, their results got better when they crossed the gender line of particular horses (sons and daughters, or full brothers and sisters 3, 4, 5 and 6 generations back in the pedigree). Frederico Tesio, the perennial leading breeder of Europe for fifty years did this all the time and he bred three undefeated champions including Nearco and Ribot and Donatello II. The list of champions that are bred this way is endless and our list of local champions fit the same mold.
So what's working right now? Well there are some distinct commonalities that I have been witnessing over the last 2 to 3 years, whether they are global or here in our backyard.
1) First and foremost, inbreeding and/or line breeding to Northern Dancer is, without a doubt the ticket! From my observations, this is the most productive pattern in stakes horses in the last three years. I have seen multiple crosses (2, 3 and 4 times) of Northern Dancer in at least 25% of the graded stakes horses that I have researched over the last three years.
The richest filly of all time (Spain) is a perfect example. Also, seven of the 21 top three finishers in the 2002 Breeder's Cup had this trait and the top four finishers of this year's Irish Derby all carried this trait (the top three finishers all by Sadler's Wells and the fourth place finisher a grandson of Sadler's Wells).
2) Two names that are being line bred on a constant basis are Nasrullah and Native Dancer. I have seen Nasrullah as many times as eleven in the first six generations of a pedigree and Native Dancer as many times as five in the stakes horses I have researched. Basket Weave, Slewdledo and Tough Knight all have been very productive with mares that have multiple sons and/or daughters of Nasrullah in their pedigree.
3) The cross of Seattle Slew and Mr. Prospector or Mr. Prospector and Seattle Slew. Top or bottom, it doesn't seem to matter, there have been numerous successes using this cross.
4) A couple of other productive crosses to consider are: Northern Dancer / Native Dancer, or Mr. Prospector / Fleet Nasrullah.
I know that there are other considerations when choosing a stallion for your mare, such as conformation, size, temperament, etc., But given those considerations, if you concentrate on breeding your mare to proven stallions or to new stallions that meet the above criteria and that when crossed show line breeding and/or inbreeding that links together in the first five or six generations some of the greater racehorses through both sexes, I believe your chance for success will improve greatly.

Pedigreeman

01-02-2008, 03:08 PM

2. Pedigree:

It is no mystery why a filly with a strong family pedigree, that is one loaded with black type, has a greater probability of becoming an above average broodmare. Simply put the family has, either by design through the breeder or mother nature, concentrated the dominate positive genetic influences that contribute to an above average racing and reproductive record. In other words, the family has highly desirable genetic influences that are inherited in a more reliable fashion then other thoroughbred families. However, the majority of breeders cannot afford to purchase such broodmare prospects, so what are they to do? I recommend the following strategies:

a) retain or acquire fillies that are unraced or high earners by leading sires.
From a probability standpoint leading or nationally ranked sires most often become leading broodmare sires and their unraced or winning daughters are less expensive to acquire then stakes winners. However, this is only true early on in the stallions life time so it is important to recognize these stallions as early as possible. In addition, it is always preferable to acquire such fillies if their own dams were winners and stakes producers. However, success can be achieved if the second dam was a winner and the third dam a stakes producer.

b) retain or acquire fillies that are unraced or high earners by stallions with high racing quality but were failures as sires of sires and unable to maintain their line through male descendants. These stallions had all the necessary genetic requirements to be great race horses but not all the dominate positive genetic influences to become sires of sires. However, the daughters of these stallions will inherit the important sex-linked characteristics of heart size and mitochondrial density that are important to racing quality. Typically, I like to concentrate on fillies that were sired by winners of races at a mile or longer and especially those that won races that are considered classics, such as the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont and Travers Stakes and the Breeders’ Cup Classic. My reason for this is based on the bias in the stallion population towards speed. I do not want to breed daughters of sprinters to those types of stallions in the population, as I am attempting to breed a winner of a classic race. I aim high so that when I miss, I am at least near the top of the racing ladder. Fillies by these types of stallions are more affordable, for most breeders, especially after several crops to race fails to produce an heir apparent. At this time they become discounted, somewhat, by the industry. Be sure to select their daughters that have some black type in at least the third dam and try to acquire those whose own dam was a winner and a winning producer.

Why do I even consider retaining or acquiring unraced fillies? In addition, to the point made earlier, several studies have demonstrated that these fillies out produce none winning fillies in all categories, that is percentage of winners, stakes performers and graded stakes performers. Thus, from a probability standpoint I am increasing my odds for success. This is especially true if you limit yourself to the type of broodmare sire lines indicated in this article.

c) acquire or retain fillies that have more than one leading broodmare sire in her pedigree. Once again I can hear the screaming as this strategy seems to reek of chauvinism. Let me remind you that about 45% of each of our foal crops is produced by unraced or none winning fillies and that racing and reproductive quality correlates with racing quality. So where is the culling process that is supposed to take place with regards towards genetically improving the breed? It certainly is not happening with a significant portion of the filly population we are sending to the breeding shed. In contrast, the majority of colts that retire to stud have distinguished themselves on the race track, so the culling is actually taking place on the male side of the equation. With that in mind examine the four generation pedigree of a broodmare prospect, it contains eight mares and seven broodmare sires. Acquire or retain fillies that have as many prominent broodmare sires in their families inclusive to the fourth generation. The genetic influences of these broodmare sires will diminish by fifty percent in each generation removed from the first. Therefore, based on this genetic rule and my own empirical observations, I limit analysis to the fourth generation of a broodmare prospects pedigree. Once again this strategy attempts to concentrate the dominate positive genetic influences, primarily from the male side of the pedigree to increase the genetic potential for success. Two processes are genetically operational in the pedigrees of our horses. Genetic dilution and genetic concentration of the positive dominate attributes for racing and reproductive success. This strategy attempts to achieve genetic concentration to enhance the mares potential.

3. Produce Record (Established Mares)

It is easier to evaluate the pedigree and reproductive record of an established broodmare. Mares with a lot of black type in their families will be expensive. So our focus will be on mares that have some black type. This is essential as it indicates that some elements of the family can produce quality runners. Once again concentrate on the bottom line of the pedigree, that is the first three dams. These dams should be winners and they should show that they are capable of producing fifty percent or more winners from foals, less if they were bred incorrectly or to inconsequential stallions. In addition, at least a third of the foals to race should be high earners, that is they have an SSI or AEI of 2.50 or more. All to often when I attend the sales, I encounter catalogue pages where the first five dams and their reproductive history are listed. Yes, lightening can strike, but my advice is to avoid such broodmare prospects, as the probabilities are against you.

Should the broodmare in question have a decent pedigree but she has five foals to race and they were produced by quality stallions, but none of them is a high earner or stakes performer, then one again my advice is stay away. Basically, because broodmares have the highest reproductive potential for producing stakes performers within their first eight foals. However, if the mare has a very good family but the first five foals are by inconsequential stallions or she has been bred incorrectly, then I have taken the chance and purchased these mares and have had success with them. There are many reason for doing this. Among them is if you know what you are doing, you can increase the probability of the mare producing a quality runner by breeding her correctly. Secondly, the mare will be less expensive to acquire which in the long run can turn out to be a financial success for you. I employ this strategy when mainly breeding to race.

Pedigreeman

01-10-2008, 01:39 AM

A good look at excellent racehorse and sire Roberto.

Roberto was bred by Darby Dan farm and was a product of the genius of Olin Gentry used over a lifetime of breedding horses of the highest quality. His courageous Epsom Derby win under Lester Piggott coupled with his stunning wire to wire performance in the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup under Braulio Baeza validated lessons Mr. Gentry had learned and applied over time. Not unlike Frederico Tesio with Nearco and Ribot, Roberto was the result of many years of planning , observation and reflection by a great horseman. To begin with , Mr. Gentry personally stated principles he clearly practiced. One was "Return to the sire the best blood of his dam". Regarding line breeding, he said it was "very important" to get the common ancestor in the same generation. Both apply with regard to Roberto. http://www.pedigreequery.com/roberto

tlgrevelis

01-13-2008, 10:00 AM

Pedigreeman: keep it up. I've been taking my time going back over your old posts and I am learning an awful lot. Thanks!

Pedigreeman

02-15-2008, 04:56 AM

Pedigreeman

02-15-2008, 02:59 PM

This is a article from 1960 by Mme Vuillier.

1.) The principal role of the mare is to improve the stallion.

2.) Today, the stallion's racing record, the stakes won, the class,
and the amount of money won play important roles in breeding,
because a big winning stallion may become the founder of a new
series in the Vuillier System. Formerly, these were les important.

3.) The conformation of the Thoroughbred counts for little. It is the
pedigree that most important.

4.) The Aga Khan's best race mares have not been and presently are
not his best broodmares. His best horses usually come from the
sisters and half sisters of the great winning mare.

"It is important for all breeders to appreciate the magnificent
importants and influence of Hermit, Stockwell, St. Simon, and the
matron Pocahontas, which four are the most important foundations of
today's Thoroughbred."

deltasports

02-16-2008, 09:09 PM

Ted, Thanks

Now for a bit of trivia. Can anyone tell me what these three have in common. Ruffian, John Henry and Storm Cat.

His first job was to sell newpaper on a street corner. Later he bred a TC champion.
================================================== ======
THE ABOVE 3 I HAVE IN COMMON WITH THEM!!!

#1 I WAS THERE WHEN "RUFFIAN BROKE HER MAIDEN"

#2 I WAS THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD THAT HAD A CLAIM MADE OUT FOR JOHN AT BELMONT PARK & THE AGENT TORE IT UP IN THE PADDOCK..IF U WANT PROOF,CALL THE CHIEF STEWARD @ NYRA & HE WILL VERIFY IT.
#3 I WAS THERE AT AQUEDUCT FOR THE 1985 BREEDERS CUP & BET AGAINST "STORM CAT" & WATCHED "TASSO" NAIL HIM ON THE WIRE..tro( tro( tro(

Pedigreeman

02-18-2008, 10:20 AM

Delta, you are correct. But i'm looking for a different answer.

What can you tell us about Nashua. I heard Combs had the inside track on the bidding.

Pedigreeman

02-19-2008, 02:53 AM

Do you ever think about the color and speed of the Thoroughbred.

An old man and a boy , riding on a camel, were fleeing across the desert pursued by a group of bedouins with murderous intent. When the camel began to show signs of tiring, the old man said to the boy who was clinging to his waist: "look back and tell me the color of the leading horse."
"It is chestnut," answered the boy. "The chestnut is fast, but he will soon tire," said the old man, and they continued on their flight. After a while he repeated his question and the boy replied : "Now a grey horse is in front."
"Never fear, he too will tire." said the old man hopefully and on they fled.
A little later, when the camel showed futher signs of fatigue, the old again repeated the question. "Now a bay horse has taken the lead," answered the boy. "In that case," sighed the old man, "let us commit our souls to Allah!"

Pedigreeman

02-20-2008, 03:03 AM

"Those were the days anything goes." A battery, or a "joint" or A "Short Stick" or "an Edison" as they were variously referred to, was standard equipment in the morning training. Nearly all trainer's had them: Tom just knew better how to use one. Some how they left this out in the movie.

Pedigreeman

02-27-2008, 03:04 AM

In 1936, the Kentucky Derby witnessed a major shock as the unheralded Bold Venture (St. Germans - Possible by Ultimus), under apprentice Ira Hanford made all to hold off the favoured Brevity by ahead. Two weeks later, Bold Venture swooped from behind to catch Granville on the line in the Preakness. Shortly after, the son of St. Ger mans broke down, and having enjoyed his fortnight of fame was retired to stud in Kentucky. — Never fashionable in his new career,
Bold Venture sired little in his early crops. When Robert Kleberg Jr. purchased him for his King Ranch in Texas</ST1:p, Bold Venture was considered a failure. In truth, Bold Venture never was to be an outstanding sire, but for Kleberg he sired triple crown winner Assault, Kentucky Derby and Belmont hero Middleground, and several other stakes winners, not to mention the dams of such as Prove Out, — Miss Cavendish, Saidam and Heartland.
So, why did Bold Venture turn out to be a failure for everyone else, and a success for Kleberg. Well, I would suggest that Kleberg - a devotee of inbreeding and linebreeding-new exactly what he was doing when he purchased Bold Venture.
Kleberg was a great fan of Whitney ‘blood’ and in fact stood the Whitney-bred sires Equestrian (sire of King Ranch-bred Stymie) and Chicaro (broodmare sire of Middleground).
One of the greatest performers bred by Mrs. Payne Whitney’s Greentree Stud was TwentyGrand, a superlative three-year-old of 1 931. Twenty Grand, like Bold Venture, was a son of St. Germans, and it
seems almost certain that Kleberg bought Bold Venture with the specific aim of copying Twenty Grand’s pedigree pattern.
St. Germans, winner in lace>England</ST1:place> of the Coronation and Doncaster Cups and placed in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:pDerby</ST1:p</st1:City>, was by Swynford out of Hamoaze (also dam of Buchan)by Torpoint out of the beautifully
bred Maid of the Mist, a daughter of the great classic sire, Cyllene and Sceptre,heroine of four of the five English classics. Maid of the Mist was inbred 2 x2to the famous <st1:City><ST1:place>Bend</ST1:place></st1:City> Or/Macaroni cross through Cyllene’s sire, Bona Vista (winner of the 2,000 <st1:country-region>Guineas</st1:country-region> and Sceptre’s dam, Ornament (sister to unbeaten Ormonde).
Twenty Grand’s dam, Bonus was by All Gold, a son of Persimmon out of Dame d’Or (sister to Fair Play’s dam, Fairy Gold) by <st1:City><ST1:pBend</st1:City> Or out of Dame Masham by Galliard (dam by Macaroni). Since Sceptre was also by Persimmon, All Gold and Sceptre were extremely close genetic relatives. What’s more, Twenty Grand’s second dam was by Broomstick, who
was out of Elf, by Galliard (dam by Macaroni)
- Sylvabelle by <st1:City>Bend</st1:City> Or.
To get Assault, Kleberg bred Bold Venture to the mare Igual. She had Broomstick (dam Elf) and Fair Play (dam Fairy Gold) in the fourth generations of her pedigree, thus giving a very similar combination to that found in the pedigree of Bonus.
— In addition, Igual was out of a mare by Chicle, who brought in <st1:State>Hamburg</ST1:p</st1:State>(dam half-sister to
Domino) and thereby balanced the 2 x 2 cross of Domino in Bold Venture’s broodmare sire, Ultimus.
Kleberg bred 10 live foals from the Bold Venture - Igual mating, one, Air Lift broke an ankle on his first start, but of the others, six won, including stakes winners Assault, Postillion
and On Your Own and stakes placed Clean
— Slate. One of the non-winners, Equal Venture, became an excellent broodmare.
Middleground was out of Verguenza by Chicaro (by Chicle out of a half-brother to the dam of Twenty Grand). Verguenza had three crosses of Broomstick (dam Elf) and as well as balancing the Domino strains with a double of <st1:State><ST1:pHamburg</st1:State>, a very similar pattern to Assault.
Thus in a way very similar to Federico Tesio, who never cared how fashionable a pedigree was, Robert KJeberg reaped the reward of his courage and foresight. The moral is clear - with the skilled application of inbreeding and linebreeding techniques, breeders can create the pedigree patterns for top-class runners without paying fortunes to follow fashion.

Pedigreeman

04-01-2008, 06:03 AM

Two factors which are paramount in the study of Thoroughbred pedigrees are:
1) Thoroughbreds occasionally out run their pedigree, but they seldom out produce their pedigree.
One needs only to review the list of past Kentucky Derby winners to find many examples. of this phenomenon— winners like Gato Del Sol Canonero II, Dust Commander, Carry Back, Needles, Tomy Lee, Forward Pass, Venetian Way, Chateaugay. and Iron Liege, to name a few. They were all excellent racehorses with moderate pedigrees. When you consider their accomplishments on the track, they would have to be considered disappointments at stud.
The second factor is:
2) The Thoroughbred as a breed lives on generation after generation through relatively few sires and dams.<O:p</O:p
A review of Raise a Native (1961) will demonstrate this factor. In 1990 sons. grandsons, and great-grandsons of Raise a Native sired 12.5 percent of all stakes winners in ffice:smarttags" /><ST1:place>North America</ST1:place> and <ST1:place>Europe</ST1:place>. Raise a Native traces to Sickle in the tail- male line. Sickle’s only son to carry on the line was Unbreakable.
Unbreakable sired 216 foals, including the brilliant Polynesian, who turned out to be his only son to carry on the line. Polynesian, in turn, was a tremendous sire, producing 37 stakes winners from 298 foals. But only one of his sons carried on the line—the great Native Dancer,
Native Dancer has become one of the most important sires of the 20th century (as the sire of Raise a Native and brood- mare sire of Northern Dancer). Many successful sons of Native Dancer have gone to stud, including Gaelic Dancer, Restless Native, Native Charger, Dancer’s Image, Dan Cupid, Raise a Native, Iron Warrior, Rattle Dancer, Protanto, Pan Dancer, and Kauai King. Few of these sires have sons at stud that appear able to carry on the Native Dancer line. In fact, the Native Dancer sire line today
has just three branches that show signs of continuing.

The first branch is through Dan Cupid, who is the sire of Sea-Bird. Sea-Bird is the sire of Arctic Tern, whose progeny have done well in <ST1:place>Europe</ST1:place>. Arctic Tern, in turn, is the sire of Bering, who was the second-leading freshman sire of 1990.
The second branch is through Native Dancer’s obscure son Atan, the sire of Sharpen Up (GB). Sharpen Up is the sire of the sensational full brothers Kris and
Table I
Diesis, as well as Sharpo, Sharpman, and 1991 freshman sire Trempolino.
The third branch, and the one most likely to endure, is Raise a Native. During his career, Raise a Native sired 77 stakes winners from 803 foals. His best sons at stud to date are Exclusive Native, Majestic Prince, Alydar and Mr. Prospector.
Exclusive Native’s two best sons at stud are Affirmed and Our Native. Neither has yet produced a son that will carry on the Exclusive Native branch.
Majestic Prince has one son to date with a chance to continue his line. ‘That son is Majestic Light. Majestic Light has several sons doing fairly well at stud, including Wavering Monarch, but he has not sired a son as good as himself at stud.
Alydar’s only top-notch sons at stud with runners are Saratoga Six and Turkoman. Saratoga Six has been a bit of a disappointment to date. He is off to a good start in 1991, with two stakes winners and numerous winners.
To be continued.

Pedigreeman

04-02-2008, 03:30 AM

We now list the Champions and/or winners of 500,000 or more<O:p</O:p

according to the Bobinski Branch to which they belong. But there<O:p</O:p
are a few other horses listed with them — those horses that lived during the last 100 years who were never declared a Champion, but earned the respect of the horsemen who were a part of their generation and who felt they were just too good to be left off any list of truly great horses.<O:p</O:p
Please remember that you are not looking at the Bruce Lowe system of classifying horses, for he did not split the families into any branches; in other words, he did not show us that within every family of broodmares, there were some very bad, even pitiful branches that never produced one really good horse in the last 200 years.<O:p</O:p
He did show us which families the good horses came from — for example— He showed us that both Bull Lea and Nasrullah came from the Number<O:p</O:p
9 family, but he did not break the Number 9 family down into branches.<O:p</O:p
Bobinski did break the families down and because he did, we know now that Bull Lea is from the 9—f branch of the Number 9 family, and Nasrullah is from the 9—c branch of the same family.<O:p</O:p
We also know that the 9—d branch of the Number 9 family has not yet produced even one good horse in over 200 years!<O:p</O:p
Bruce Lowe hurt us with his claim that there are certain families that he considered “SIRE’ FAMILIES” producers of great sires; Me told us that the sire families were 3, 8, 11, 12 and 14, and those numbers jar against the facts as we see them now.<O:p</O:p
Mr. Prospector and Seattle Slew are both from the 13—c branch; Nureyev and Sadler’s Wells are from the 5—h branch, and Alydar is from the 9—c branch— Danzig is from the 7—a branch, so none of the TOP Five studs in the world (according to our charts) are from Bruce lowe’s sire families.<O:p</O:p
However the 8 family he considered to be a sire family is still a sire family, for the 8—c branch is one of the Top Twelve Branches, producing John Henry $6,500,000+ and the great undefeated GOLDEN FLEECE plus the great fillies RUFFIAN and BEWITCH The 8—b branch produced 0<O:p</O:p
And the 8—f branch is another member of the Top Twelve, having produced NIJINSKY II, El Gran Senor, and BLUE LARKSPUR. The 8—e branch produced 0!<O:p</O:p
The 8—h branch cannot be ignored as they are a member of the Second Team, having produced Damascus</ST1:p, Whirlaway, Goodbye Halo and BUBBLING OVER.<O:p</O:p
But if you are serious in your search for better horses than you have now you must turn your back on Bruce Lowe and make Bobinski a part of your future in the world of horses. Unless you memorize the Top Twelve Branches of Broodmares he haa helped you find, the odds a you will be staggering! I feel it might help you remember the Bobinski numbers of the Twelve Top Branches if you also memorize the Foundation Mare of each Branch. For example — The 1—s branch of La Troienne, the most powerful branch of broodmares in the world!<O:p></O:p>
Remember, the Bruce Lowe system lists only a number; The Bobinski system lists a number — FOLLOWED BY A LETTER + 9--c 9—f 13—c.

THE TEN MOST POWERFUL BOBINSKY BROODMARE BRANCHES IN THE WORLD:
Total number of horses listed on the left of the Branch:
<O:p</O:p
79 1—s Allez France</ST1:p — Spend A. Buck — Woodman — Easy Goer
Buckpasser — Private Account — Princess Rooney<O:p</O:p
72 13—c <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:pSeattle</ST1:p</st1:City> Slew — Mr. Prospector — Ferdinand— Dahlia<O:p</O:p
67 9—f Bet Twice — Bull Lea — Forego — Slew o Gold<O:p</O:p
64 8—c John Henry - Golden Fleece — Ruffian<O:p</O:p
59 4—rn Life’s Magic — Whisk Broom I — Idun<O:p</O:p
56 23—b Affirmed — Criminal Type — Discovery — Chief’s Crown<O:p</O:p
53 21—a Broad Brush - Exceller — In Reality <O:p</O:p
52 9—c Nasrullah — Alydar — Risen Star — Shergar<O:p</O:p
52 9—e Snow Chief — Corrida — Pay The <st1:City><ST1:pButler</ST1:p</st1:City><O:p</O:p
51 14—c Pretty Polly — Brigadier Gerard — Nearctic<O:p</O:p

deltasports

04-02-2008, 03:58 PM

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN "PARTIAL" TO THE #4 FAMILY...FOR SENTIMENTAL REASONS..hh)

Pedigreeman

04-11-2008, 12:46 PM

(2) A strong mare and a strong sire will be in conflict and it is possible for the produce of one sex to have been adversely affected in its potential, even
neutralised, by the adversely influencing strength of the parent of the other sex.

Some stallions can achieve success without the benefit of top mares. Mr. Prospector sired 11 SW’s out of his second crop, while standing in Florida for $7,500. He now stands for $250,000 no- guarantee and is bred to the best mares in the world. He has yet to equal 11 SW’s out of any other crop. Perhaps this also points out the difficulty in identifying which mare is a “top mare” as a broodmare prospect.
You often hear farm managers say that he or she can spot the sons and daughters of a particular stallion among a large group of foals because the stallion stamps his get. When a great race horse goes to stud, you would like that stallion to reproduce himself. In such a case, one would like the mare to act as a sack or a carrier, with the stallion’s genes dominating over the mare’s genes. Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if Secretariat or Man 0’ War sired a son or daughter which exhibited the exact race track abilities as they themselves did?
The reverse is also true. When a great race mare goes to the breeding shed, one would like her to reproduce herself. But great race mares are usually bred to prepotent and dominant stallions. which may create somewhat of a genetic conflict. This could be one reason why many great race mares do not become great producers, It might also be true that being a great race mare and being a great broodrnare result from different qualities of aptitudes in a mare.
Great broodmares are those who produce many superior runners. Maybe what makes a great broodmare, in some cases, are those who allow the stallions to dominate the gene pool. It would be an interesting study to compare the successful foals of multiple Stakes-producers with their sires in terms of conformation and overall looks.

Pedigreeman

04-28-2008, 10:52 AM

In case folks missed this story, the subject of which is periodically
debated:

'Recipe book' holds the clue to Phar Lap's death

By Kathy Marks in Sydney
Friday, 25 April 2008

The Independent (UK)

The riddle of the mysterious death of Australia's most famous
racehorse
may have been solved more than 75 years after his death.

Phar Lap probably died as a result of arsenic administered by his own
trainer, rather than being murdered by American gangsters as
Australians
have long believed. That is the conclusion of experts who have studied
a
"recipe book" of tonics used by Phar Lap's trainer, Harry Telford,
which
sold at auction yesterday for close to £18,000.

Among the ingredients the tonics contained were arsenic, strychnine,
belladonna, cocaine and caffeine – given to horses in small
quantities in
the past, as stimulants, before a race.

Phar Lap, a five-year-old chestnut gelding, died at the Menlo Park
Race
Track in California in 1932. He was at the peak of his career, having
won
37 of his 51 races including the 1930 Melbourne Cup, the Australian
equivalent of the Grand National. Two weeks before his sudden and
agonising death, he had won North America's richest race: the Agua
Caliente Handicap in Mexico.

Australians were horrified by the news, and conspiracy theories
involving
foul play abounded. The most enduring one was that "Big Red", as he
was
known, was poisoned by gangsters who – because he appeared to be
unbeatable – feared he would upset their illegal gambling
syndicates.

Phar Lap was not accompanied by Telford on his first trip to the US,
which
was intended to launch him on to the American racing scene. Instead,
Tommy
Woodcock, his stand-in trainer, travelled with him. But Woodcock took
Telford's 82-page handwritten book of tonics with him, and he may have
accidentally given the champion a fatal overdose.

The auctioneer, Charles Leski, said yesterday: "It's the first time
that
we have had, in writing, confirmation that caffeine, cocaine,
belladonna,
strychnine – all of them we think of as poisons – were actually
used by
Harry Telford in the maintenance of his horses.

"In strictly measured doses, and mixed in with other feed, presumably
these served the purpose of being a stimulant and didn't adversely
affect
the horses. But if Phar Lap had been unwell in the trip over to
America,
or if he had been in the hands of more than one person in the US, it's
possible the dosage wasn't strictly adhered to, and it appears he
overdosed on a concoction that was considered good for him."

The notebook, which contains 30 recipes, was bought by the Melbourne
Museum, which has displayed Phar Lap's hide since 1933, as well as his
saddle and other memorabilia. His skeleton is in the Museum of NewZealand, where the Australian-owned racehorse was born and bred. His
massive 14lb heart is in Canberra's National Museum.

The thoroughbred gelding collapsed at his stables soon after
travelling
back to the United States from Mexico. Woodcock found him in severe
pain,
with a high temperature, and a few hours later he died in his
trainer's
arms of internal bleeding. A postmortem examination revealed the
horse's
stomach and intestines were inflamed, which triggered theories that he
had
been poisoned.

Tests in 2006 on a strand on his hair, taken from his hide, suggested
Phar
Lap had ingested a large amount of arsenic about 35 hours before he
died.
But racing experts believe that the arsenic is more likely to have
built
up gradually over a period of time.

In the days before swabbing, it was not uncommon for racehorses to be
fed
small quantities of arsenic, to give them an edge. A popular tonic of
the
day was Fowler's Solution, which was arsenic-based and was
administered to
Phar Lap throughout his racing career. Repeated doses might have
accumulated in his body and eventually proved deadly.

Percy Sykes, a contemporary racehorse trainer, said after the tests in
2006: "I wouldn't be surprised if arsenic was found in every horse in
that
era."

Woodcock admitted on his deathbed in 1985 that the horse might have
died
from consuming an excessive quantity of one of his tonics. The
notebook
represents the first written proof of the ingredients found in the
tonics.

Phar Lap was a source of national pride to Australians during the
Depression and is still regarded as a heroic figure.

Pedigreeman

05-08-2008, 12:40 PM

Several weeks prior to the Kentucky Derby, we received a phone call from Marianna Haun, who has studied Thoroughbred genetics for the past 15 years and has been working with Dr. Fred Fregin, who's been measuring horses' hearts for 40 years. Haun's second book is about to published, titled, "The X Factor: Solving the Mystery of Secretariat'<WBR>s Heart."

Haun called to say that Big Brown has inherited his broodmare sire Nureyev's heart, one of the most superior she's ever come across, and she had no doubt he would easily get the mile and a quarter of the Derby.

"My work began because of my quest to understand the amazing heart found in Secretariat at his autopsy," she said following the Derby. "When I saw Big Brown, I recognized the similarity or family resemblance in him to horses expressing the Nureyev X chromosome. In measuring thousands of horses, we have learned to recognize family characteristics that travel with certain heartlines. We had identified this Nureyev X with its family resemblance and the extraordinary heart in his daughter Miesque and her sons. Big Brown bears a strong resemblance to Miesque and to Nureyev. This indicates that his dam, Mien, gave him the X chromosome she inherited from her sire. He is inbred to the Northern Dancer line which carries both speed and power from both his sire and dam. When the genetic spin of the wheel gives you those elements, combined with a heart the size of Secretariat, the results of the Kentucky Derby are not surprising.

"When we measured Miesque's son, Kitalpha, we found the largest heart Dr. Fregin has seen in more than 40 years of measuring. It was the same size as Secretariat'<WBR>s. Kitalpha bears a very close remblance to his dam, Nureyev, and to Big Brown. So we know that the extraordinary heart of Nureyev is beating in Big Brown." Eight Belles = female family 1-s

deltasports

05-08-2008, 03:53 PM

ITS A NICE STORY hh) IT WAS OUT 2 WEEKS AGO

Pedigreeman

05-08-2008, 10:16 PM

A friend sent it to me. I posted it here. Does it matter. Thanks for letting me know. Also I so your interview very well done. Thanks:)

deltasports

05-08-2008, 10:31 PM

RE: THE STORY> I THOUGHT U WOULD LIKE TO KNOW...THANK YOU tu?

Pedigreeman

05-15-2008, 02:04 AM

Interview with Dr. Gary Knapp the breeder of Big Brown

What made you send Mien, Big Brown's dam, to Boundary? When I
determine the breedings for my mares, I go through about a three-step
process. The first step is to use the results of the Equix mating process.
They have a biometric model they use to match up your mare's physical
characteristics to a group of stallions that she fits best with. For me, that
generates the set of stallions I consider breeding to. Then I take the mare
and each of the stallions and create a hypothetical pedigree and then take
a look at that pedigree.
What you'll see with Big Brown is a cross of Northern Dancer, a cross of
Damascus, and a cross of Round Table. If you look at the principal runners
Boundary produced, some of those runners will have Northern Dancer
crosses--3x3, 3x4, stuff like that. Some other of his runners have
Damascus 3x4, 4x4. Others had Round Table. I looked at Big Brown, and I
said, my gosh, all three of those crosses are in this pedigree (Northern
Dancer 3x3, Damascus 3x4, Round Table 4x5), so I thought it was a good
shot.
Plus, a few years ago, I did a brief study of all the winners of American
Classic races, those being the Kentucky Oaks, the Coaching Club of
America Oaks, and the Triple Crown races. Some 85 percent of those
winners from 1914 to 2002 had one or more crosses in their pedigree of
significant female families, as judged by the Bruce Lowe system. The
pedigree of Big Brown has for crosses of a mare named Selene in it, and
that's the third step--I make sure there's crosses to those mares in the
pedigree. And that's how I got to Boundary. It's a bit mathematical.
How much did Boundary stand for at the time? He was $10,000. And
that was probably one of the things that was nagging at me the most.
Monticule is a commercial breeder. When you look at a $10,000 stud fee,
you ask ‘What is Mr. Market going to say about that?' You can't be real
optimistic. You say, ‘Man, I hope this foal turns out beautiful, because the
market's going to really crucify me if it doesn't.' So that bothered me, but
the other stuff I looked at and said, ‘That's pretty cool; that's good stuff.'
You've done well with Danzig and Danzig-line horses--having sold the
Danzig sons Prussian and the $9.2-million Plavius. Is he a big favorite
of yours? Breeding to Danzig was not a hard decision. If you had a mare
that fit him physically and the pedigree fits, it's not hard. The guy was
producing 18, 19 percent stakes winners to foals, and what's not to like
about that? The fact that Boundary was by Danzig I didn't particularly look
at, I was just looking at the fact that one of the crosses that was prominent
in Boundary runners was that Northern Dancer cross. And you got that
cross through Danzig.
How did you first get into racing? I've loved horses ever since I was a
small child. The first time I ever rode a pony I was three years old and I
thought that was the biggest deal of my life. I continued my romance with
horses until my mid-teens. Then I had a short interlude with motorcycles,
and I found those to be even more dangerous than horses (laughs). And
so I've been riding horses ever since.
Then in 1973, I came to the University of Kentucky to work on a
doctorate degree. In June of ‘73, when I came here, Secretariat's picture
was on the front of Sports Illustrated and being a horse lover and seeing
that and seeing all the farms around here, I said, boy, I'd sure like to do
this someday. It was a pretty easy sell. I bought the first part of Monticule
in 1990, but at that point I was pretty busy with a business career. In ‘97, I
started buying broodmares and continued buying a few each year. I've got
21 now, which is a good number to work with. I'd say four or five now are
daughters of members of the broodmare band itself.
You live in Texas. Have you considered opening a farm there,
too? When it comes to breeding and racing Thoroughbreds, it's very
difficult to compete with the infrastructure Central Kentucky has.
There are so many good horse people here, whether you're talking
grooms or farriers or farm managers. If you tried to do a good solid
breeding operation in some other places in the country, you'd be
compromised by that lack of infrastructure.
If you were made commissioner of racing and you had broad
powers, what changes would you make to racing? I don't know
about specific changes, but I think all of us in this sport have to
continually remind ourselves that the only reason we get to do this is
because we
have fans that
love to be
entertained by a
good horse race.

Pedigreeman

09-23-2008, 03:40 AM

I hesitate to post this article. But I found it very long and good. I will try to get it done in three parts. My good friend S. H. always said temperment does not matter in the race horse. I said it does. So here's the 1st part.

In 1944 I decided to do some analytical research to
deter-mine what I could about inheritance of
dispositions. Quite naturally I selected the
Thoroughbred since there is no other animal who has so
complete a genetic background in the records. With the
aid of various stud books and other charts it is quite
possible to identify every single ancestor of all
Thoroughbreds for at least six or seven generations,
and there are comparatively few discrepancies and
omissions after the middle of the Eighteenth Century.
While very little information was gained by compiling
a seventh generation list of names, we soon find that
many outstanding sires play a predominant role and the
names are seen again and again. Along with these
family trees we find written ac-counts of most of the
famous horses, the details as to their conformation,
their racing abilities and their temperaments.

As a basis and an outline I selected THOROUGHBRED
BLOODLINES by John F. Wall. This has gone through
several editions and each one has huge charts showing
complete sire lines of every strain common in America
today. Soon it becomes obvious that the three
foundation lines have been carried by a single line
through many generations, and as a result they are
frequently referred to as the line of the outstanding
horse of more recent years. Thus the line of Matchem
remains through his descendant Hastings and his son
Fairplay. The line of the Byerly Turk is much less
prolific and is known now primarily because of Herod
and his immediate progeny. It is this line which
carries the gray strain and, while only a small
percentage of them have this coloration, you will
invariably find that all gray Thoroughbreds today
derive their color from an ancestor in this group.

Eclipse is the foundation sire of the third great line
and this strain has been so prolific that it finds
many offshoots.

Among them is the line of St. Simon, Whalebone, Bend
Or, Touchstone and others.

After the melting pot of the American strains has been
well stirred we were left with three foundation sire
lines known respectively as Fairplay, Ben Brush and
Domino, the two latter both being of Eclipse blood.

My original article included a detailed study of each
of the lines in Wall's charts, but in this book I
believe our purpose can be served by giving a brief
outline of my methods and the conclusions which
suggested themselves. I gathered together every
possible reference that I could find either from
books, charts or personal reports as they concerned
temperament. I then took a blue pencil and underscored
each stallion for whom I could find a record of good
disposition. Subsequently, I underlined with red all
those whose temperament was described as hot,
difficult or mean. When this was completed I had quite
an interesting crossword puzzle, and it was apparent,
at least to me, that bad disposition was predominant
in certain strains and was transmitted from father to
son, whereas in other lines good dispositions seemed
to be quite uniform. At this point it might be well to
state that I firmly believe that the mare plays an
equal part, but from a research standpoint it is
extremely difficult to gather sufficient data. A well
known stallion may produce several hundred sons and
daughters, whereas very few mares leave more than
eight or ten to carry on her line, and records of
mares are much less de-tailed in all respects except
for a technical pedigree.
:)

Pedigreeman

09-23-2008, 09:59 PM

Part 2. All comments are welcome.

In the past twenty years many new lines have been
brought from England and Europe to be blended with our
native strains. As a result the picture becomes more
complex as our old lines are diluted, and we find the
necessity of trying to evaluate the temperaments of
these newcomers. In general, the descendants of Ben
Brush are tractable and even tempered and this is
apparently even more true of the line of Domino. The
Fair Play family provided most of the bad actors and
there are many stories dealing with problems of trying
to train the sons of Hastings and Fair Play. They
continue to survive, however, because of their great
courage, their endurance and their will to win. They
have shown a great ability to jump and have become
famous as steeple-chasers and cross country horses.
They were apparently much less satisfactory as hunters
and pleasure horses, but in more recent years the line
has been diluted to such a point that the sullen
temper is now pretty well weeded out. I admit to some
prejudice in this matter and I have usually tried to
avoid horses of the Fair Play line, but I must admit
that one of the sons of Fair Play who stood in Oregon
for many years has produced many fine tempered colts
and one of them is in my stable today.

Two prominent English lines which have not proved
suit-able from a temperamental standpoint are those of
Blenheim II and Sir Galahad III. They have both
produced outstanding race horses in large number but I
have seen a large number of sullen and moody Galahad
horses, while the nervous tension prevalent in the
Blenheim line is generally acknowledged.

There is, of course, nothing final in these
conclusions when they apply to the individual horse,
but all other things being equal it is well to avoid
animals with a heavy infusion of the blood of bad
tempered strains, and conversely it may be worthwhile
to seek those which are opposite in their philosophy.

Breeders of race horses seem to pay little or no
attention to temperament and, in fact, some of them
believe that this disposition is a thing that makes
for successful runners. This is a subject on which
investigation is incomplete and not entirely
conclusive at the present. It is certainly quite
an-other matter to breed horses for pleasure and
general saddle use. Numerous examples come to mind.
Not far north of here there is a magnificent imported
English stallion who looks like something out of an
old print. He is a mean and dangerous animal, and I am
reliably informed that a large percentage of his colts
are just like the old man. Some of them are so bad
that they can't even train them for the track. At
several breeding establishments where I have visited I
have been allowed to look at a stallion only by
peeking through a barred door, much in the manner that
one would view a tiger. Some of these can be handled
only by clubs, whips and a group of men armed to the
teeth. I consider it the height of futility to allow
such lines to be transmitted. Why do it when there are
hundreds of others who are equally sturdy, fast, and
desirable? I can point out any number of stallions who
are as kindly as one could wish, and I would feel
quite safe to send a small child into Casa Royal's
stall armed with only a carrot.

In a few communities where intelligent breeding plans
have considered the factor of temperament, the results
have been most gratifying. The stallions have usually
been Thoroughbreds while the mares were either
registered or well enough bred to produce the
qualities 'of the blood horse. It is not surprising
that Virginia has been a leader in this field, since
hunting and good cross country horses have been
traditional since the days when George Washing-ton and
his hounds followed the fox. The Genesee Valley
country of New York also has an extensive program and
buyers come from far and wide to make their
selections.

One of the most interesting cases of genetic
prepotence can be found in the story Gordon Russell.
This stallion had raced in the bush leagues of the
West and Midwest for many years under all sorts of
conditions and owners. He had entered the starting
gate over a hundred times by record and nobody knew
how much oftener. He was finally purchased by the Army
Remount Service and placed in the hands of one of
their agents. He moved from place to place and had
harems of all sorts of mares, many of them far from
first class. Some years later, when the Army buyers
went out to pick up horses for the Cavalry, they
purchased a large number of the get of this stallion.
As soon as they were put into training it became
obvious that they were something special and that a
very great percentage of them had the courage and
jumping ability of their sire. At one time practically
an entire show team was mounted on the sons and
daughters of Gordon Russell, and his most illustrious
daughter, Jenny Camp, established records in two
Olympics that will be remembered for a long time. By
the time the knowledge of Gordon Russell was
established it was too late to do very much, although
the Army brought him back to Headquarters and made
every effort to enlarge the strain. This, as well as
their other programs, came to an untimely end. But
people still look for the make with Gordon Russell
blood.

Pedigreeman

09-26-2008, 03:36 AM

Part 3.
The most beautifully controlled experiment to
illustrate the transmission of temperament was that
done at the King Ranch in Texas. As a working stock
ranch they require a large number of first class
working horses for use of both the experts and the
less qualified cowboys. Some years ago they had an old
stallion who was apparently all that one could ask as
the ideal stock horse. He was mostly Thorough-bred
with some infusion of the Quarter Horse strains. When
his outstanding accomplishments became evident he was
placed at the head of the breeding program. He was
provided with a large band of high class mares, with
some Thoroughbred and some Quarter Horse-Thoroughbred
breeding combined. The first generation was rigorously
tried and culled, the best of the mares were bred back
to their sire while others were bred to half brothers,
or young stallions to their dams. This careful program
of testing and inbreeding was carried on for several
generations further, each time intensifying the blood
of the foundation sire and weeding out the misfits. As
a result of this, the King Ranch has developed a
string of working stock horses who are almost without
equal.

Now you may well wonder just what this has to do with
the horse in the neighbor's back lot. It is only a
guide and perhaps a help in evaluating that which is
available to your purchase. Nothing will take the
place of actual testing of the individual, for even
the most unsatisfactory of parents may produce a great
offspring and vice versa. The average horse is really
a willing soul if he is given an even break in life,
but there are enough bad tempered ones to make us be
constantly on our guard. Try the prospect with a crowd
and see whether he still remains calm. Many horses
will be levelheaded until you ask for a test of speed,
but once they have been opened up they won't quiet
down the rest of the day and some of them for weeks.
Obviously they are neither safe nor pleasant. Horses
are gregarious and any youngster will try to get back
to his stablemates, but a few want to make a big
battle out of the affair and will never show the
self-confidence which enables them to take out in the
direction they are asked. I certainly do not advocate
the abuse of horses, but it is a wise thing to rile
the horse up a little bit to see how he will react. A
little roughness, noise, sudden stops and turning,
taking him away from his familiar surroundings and
sending him into some-thing new will often tell you a
great deal. Avoid a horse who wants to dance and fight
after he has been reined in rather sharply once or
twice, as well as those who have a bad case of the "I
don't want to's." A horse should be for-given for
having a fear of anything new or strange, but if he
continues to shy away after a reasonable familiarity
there is something wrong in his head. If a horse is
upset by a small ditch, a pile of logs or a child on a
bicycle take him gently to the object of his concern
and let him smell it and be sure that it is something
that will not harm him. If his disposition is right he
will then accept that thing as part of his life and
you will have no further trouble. If he continues to
object to the same thing day after day you may be sure
that his vision or his disposition, if not both, is
permanently unsatisfactory.

Sometimes we find ourselves with a bad tempered horse
and we refuse to get rid of him. Unconsciously we have
perhaps one of several reasons or a combination
thereof. Probably the most important, if we will admit
it, is a sense of false pride. Our novels and our
histories are filled with the glowing exploits of men
who could and would ride anything. That goes back as
far as the time of Alexander the Great and continues
in our present day horse operas. We feel that
inability to conquer such an animal is a reflection
upon our courage and our skill. What we don't realize
is that we are wasting our time and risking injury.
Again I repeat, you will never make a bad disposition
into a good one. The best you can hope for is some
degree of mastery. The same amount of time and effort
devoted to patient training of a good dispositioned
youngster will bring a far more gratifying reward. For
sentimental reasons some of us continue to maintain
horses who are totally unsuitable and we cling to the
fond hope that time and care will accomplish all
things. It is far better to pension or to dispose' of
such creatures so that you may devote your time to an
animal who is really worthwhile. There is no ultimate
gratification in forging a sword out of faulty steel
or spending your time with a horse who lacks ultimate
potentialities. When you ride either alone, in company
or in competition you 'wish to be mounted on a horse
of whom you may be proud. Remember the words of the
late General Chamberlin: "To apologize for his horse,
even tacitly, is the essence of bitterness to a
horseman."
bc(

Pedigreeman

10-24-2008, 01:14 AM

I was not a Big Brown fan. The use of bute to improve his performance and his trainer
as poster child for the sport. Anyway after reading this article. I decided you can't blame the horse just the humans.

I ask if the growing use of drugs has been a concern to Nerud. “Not too much. Right after the war there was some skullduggery at the racetrack because of small purses, and Benzedrine and Bute became the rage. Benzedrine is dangerous, but I think Bute is kind of like aspirin for horses and seems to help them. Bold Ruler got Bute almost every day, I believe.
“But what we’re seeing now with the receiving barns is a disgrace and an insult. The same trainers are winning, they aren’t catching anybody, and it’s costing the owners about five dollars a day per horse.”
“What alternatives are there?
“It’s usually the vets, not the trainers, who give the drugs, so why not have someone from the state monitoring all the vet’s visits to the barn and recording the medications? Something needs to be done...bh)

“What kind of mares did you look for in your broodmare band? I asked.
“I like mares who were hard-hitters and intelligent. They seem to pass on those traits to their offspring. And I like to breed a hot-blooded sire line, like Domino, to a cold-blooded broodmare-sire line, like Man o’ War.
“Dr. Fager’s dam, Aspidistra, only won two cheap races, but her knees were broke and she was meant to be much faster. I love inbreeding to great broodmares and great female families. Aspidistra was from a strong King Ranch family.
“I bred Fappiano, by Mr. Prospector out of a great Dr. Fager mare, and Fappiano looked like Dr. Fager, not Mr. Prospector. Fappiano’s son, Unbridled, won the Kentucky Derby, and Unbridled was inbred 4x4 to Aspidistra. Fappiano’s other top son, Quiet American, was also out of a Dr. Fager mare, so he was 3x2 to Dr. Fager, and his son Real Quiet almost won the Triple Crown a few years ago...
“So we had some great bloodlines come out of Tartan Farm. We also bred Dr. Fager’s champion sister, Ta Wee, along with Codex, Roy, Clabber Girl, and Cozzene... Cozzene won the Breeders’ Cup Mile on the grass, and he probably could have won the mile-and-a-half Turf Classic that year.”
“Was Dr. Fager just so naturally fast that he would have done well in any barn?” I asked.
Nerud shook his head slowly. “He had two clubbed feet, and we packed them every day with either cotton or mud. Otherwise he was a very intelligent and easy-going horse who learned his lessons quickly. I think it’s fair to say that a great horse usually overcomes his trainer...He was a good eater and sleeper, and liked to sleep lying down. He also liked to show off, and he knew he was special.
“He was kind of multi-colored, depending on the light. Sometimes light bay, sometimes brown, sometimes almost gold. He was a chameleon. And he was a throw-back to Spur--five generations back on the topline of his pedigree. I once met an old hot-walker who told me he’d walked Spur and that Dr. Fager was the perfect image of Spur. You just never know what ancestor a horse will take after, and sometimes it won’t be any one, but a blend of them all.
“Do you know the story of how Dr. Fager got his name?” Nerud asked.

Pedigreeman

11-14-2008, 05:16 AM

The One That Got Away.

A decorated Navy flyer in World War II, Capt. Guggenheim wasn’t primarily interested in how many races his stable won.
His philosophy — and it was as rigid and unbend able as cold steel — centered around which races were won and where. His stable always competed where com petition was the keenest.
In short, when his runners — many named for naval terms — like Bald Eagle, Never Bend, Siama, Iron Peg, One-Eyed King, Dead Ahead, Captain’s Gig, Anchors Aweigh, Ack Ack, Heavenly Body, Make Sail, Sally Ship, Too Bald, Captain’s Paradise, Up Oars, Sail Serenely, Red Eye, and a flock of others were gobbling up victory after victory, they were defeating the best national and inter national competition available in races entailing the most importance and prestige.
Because of this, Capt. Guggenheim assured himself that such triumphs were displays and guarantees of present and future generations of genuine class.
And, it is common knowledge that few breeding and racing establishments in the history of the American turf have been as stringent and demanding in its selectivity for improving the breed and sport.
Before moving on, it must be noted that Capt. Guggenheim didn’t believe that a trainer should make money if the owner didn’t. And, he rarely, if ever, wa gered on his horses.
Nor did he allow them to be treated with anything that wasn’t natural. He detested medication of any kind and refused to allow any injections be administered.Hall-of-Famer Woody Stephens trained nine years for Capt. Guggenheim, leading the nation on occasion. Stephens recalled:
“Some of his best horses could have run a lot longer but the Captain would have no part of any needles. It was strictly hay, oats, water, Mother Nature, Father Time, and mud packs. If that didn’t work, they didn’t run. He was scared to death of a muddy track, too. His good horses never worked
ran in mud.”
After World War II, foreign horses were imported more frequently to the U.S. And Capt. Guggenheim, cherished those blood lines. He was especially fond of the immor tal Nasrullah.
Cain Hoy’s international influence was seen through Turn-to, Dark Star, Red God (sire of Blushing Groom), Bald Eagle, Never Bend (and his sons Riverman and Mill Reef and Turn-to’s sons Hail to Reason and First Landing.
continued through Turn-to’s grand sons, Sir Ivor and Habitat.
Capt. Guggenheim was an annual patron at the country’s select yearling auctions. And the mares he bred, raised, and raced were a plethora of stars, too.
Until the fall of 1960, Cain Hoy’s horses were bred, raised and learned their early lessons at the Hancock family’s Claiborne Farm in Paris, KY.
Then came the heated disagreement over Bald Eagle between Capt. Guggenheim and Arthur B. (Bull) Hancock Jr. To stand the stallion at Claiborne, Mr. Hancock wanted four breeding seasons annually to Bald Eagle.
A son of Nasruflah and a stakes winner in England and champion handicap horse in the United States, Bald Eagle was the only back-to-back winner (1959-1960)
the Washington DC International.
Capt. Guggenheim argued that Bald Eagle already was a “made horse” and that no promoting was needed from the farm to attract quality mares. So, he reasoned that Hancock should receive three instead of four breed ing rights for handling Bald Eagle.
Neither man would budge. So, Capt. Guggenheim sent Stephens, who also conditioned Bald Eagle a was
friend of Hancock’s, to negotiate. “Bull wouldn’t bend and neither would the Captain,” recalled Stephens.
was unbelievable, but they were hickory tough men. Bull said, ‘you tell him that I get four seasons to Bald Eagle
the rest of his mares will go out on the road.’I’m going to bet $100 on something in this race.’”
Stephens responded, “Captain, bet $200 on my horse.” The animal won. Guggenheim came by Stephens’ barn the next morning and said, “name it.”
The trainer said, “Captain, all I’d want would be for this to be as good as any job in New York.” They agreed on an annual salary and 20% of the profits.
Stephens recalled stories, including an afternoon of turkey shooting on Guggenheim’s 15,000-acre plan tation in Charleston, SC, the place where the term Cain Hoy (a loose interpretation of the Cain Hay plant grown in South Caro lina which is used to make rattan chairs) was derived.
“The Captain had put out orders that nobody was to shoot a hen turkey,” Stephens said. I moved too quickly, thought it a tom and fired my gun and killed a hen. The boy with us said, ‘You know Woody, it’s a good thing you train Bald Eagle so well. Or the Captain may send you packing for shooting one of his hen turkeys.’ He meant it, too”
“It was something minor in the way when we parted, too,” recalled Stephens. “My wife, Lucille, owned two fillies, and I asked the Captain in October of 1965 if it would be alright if they were in our barn until it came time to breed them in the spring. I specified that I’d never run them against any horse of his.
“He said: “Woody, you know that the only horses allowed in this barn are mine.”
Stephens had swallowed enough and said: “Captain, if I can’t make my wife happy and keep her interested in my work by training her two fil lies, this job is not for me. I’ll stay on with you one day or one month until you can find a new trainer.”
Guggenheim never apologized, gave it a second thought or wished for further discussion. They parted on amicable terms and he settled on Roger Laurin to become Cain Hoy’s trainer
Nevertheless, the Captain paid Stephens through the remainder of the year and offered many glowing acknowledgem about Woody Stephens’ brilliance in the years that followed.
He did so only rightfully because two of Cain Hoy’s best runners were totally made by Stephens after they flopped earlier in Europe.
Capt. Guggenheim’s trainer in Europe was none other than Captain Cecil Boyd-Rochfort, who also con ditioned The Queen of England’s stock.
Bald Eagle originally was sent to
Boyd-Rochfort in England as was
Bald Eagle’s full-brother, One-Eyed
King.
Bald Eagle’s overseas career was rather ho-hum and he was returned to Stephens in the fall of his three- year-old year accompanied by Boyd Rochfort’s tag that “he wasn’t very genuine.”
Under Stephens’ skilled hand, Bald Eagle won the Metroplitan, Suburban, Widener and the DC In ternational twice.
There’s a story attached to the Widener victory at Hialeah. A few days before the race, Stephens or dered Bald Eagle be worked five fur longs in 1:00.
The exercise rider misjudged the work and Bald Eagle breezed in a le thargic 1:03. Never one to panic, Stephens fed the horse at 9 a.m., watched him clean the tub and re vised his plan.
In what was thought to be a clan destine move at the time, Stephens worked Bald Eagle again that day be tween races. The son of Nasrullah went a half in :47 under his regular rider, Manuel Ycaza.
Later that day, Capt. Guggenheim called Stephens and angrily in quired: “Woody, did you work Bald Eagle twice today?”
“I told him ‘yes,” Stephens said. “And that there was no way that Bald Eagle was going to win going a mile and quarter on Saturday under 128 pounds off a 5/8’s work in 1:03.”
Capt. Guggenheim was waiting to drop the guillotine on race day but could say nothing more because Bald Eagle won in track record time.
Now, as to One-Eyed King. He re turned from England as a four-year- old maiden. For Stephens, he won 12 stakes.Another, named Iron Peg, returned from England with the nickname of “Iron Pig” for his lack of achievement. Stephens found his whole card and Iron Peg responded by winning four stakes and upsetting the great Kelso in the Suburban.
When Capt. Guggenheim knew his health was failing, he dispersed his stock. Although Stephens no longer was in his employment, Capt.
Guggenheim called on him, his favor ite horseman, to oversee the sales op
eration.
Upon Capt. Guggenheim’s death, Stephens flew from Miami to Long Island, N.Y. for the funeral.
After the services, Stephens had dinner with their longtime mutual friend, Retired U.S. Army Air Cops General Jimmy Doolittle, world f a mous for his “30 seconds over Tokyo” which was the first United States bombing of the Japanese mainland in
WWII.
Capt. Guggenheim had been a huge promoter of Doolittle’s since he’d held the rank of lieutentant and along with other friends, often at tended races and enjoyed hunting pheasant and quail at Guggenheim’s Charleston, SC plantation, with Stephens forming a threesome.
At that dinner following Capt. Guggenheim’s funeral, Doolittle dis closed to Stephens something that Capt. Guggenheim had confided to him several years earlier. Stephens was to hear it only after the Captain’s death.
Capt. Guggenheim’s message re portedly was: “I made one mistake
in racing; I let Woody get away Racing for me never was the same after he left.” bh)

omalley

11-14-2008, 07:54 AM

Thanks for the post. It was interesting.

deltasports

11-18-2008, 09:44 PM

YOUR POST BROUGHT BACK MANY HAPPY MEMORIES FROM THE YESTERYEAR.
I MET CAPT HARRY THE COPPER KING....ALL THE STOCK THAT YOU MENTIONED IN THE ABOVE POSTS,I SAW & REMEMBERED THEM ALL LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY..RE: DR FAGER> THE CHIEF STEWARD AT NYRA USED TO GALLOP THE DR FOR NERUD..ON ANOTHER NOTE NERUD TOLD ME IN 1962 THAT I NEEDED A NEW WATCH.

ABOUT WOODY>> I HAD 3 STALLS AT THE END IN HIS BARN..THAT WAS THE TIME I WAS IN CLOSE COMPANY WITH CONQUISTADOR CIELO WHEN HE WON THE MET MILE & CAME BACK 5 DAYS LATER & WON THE BELMONT STAKES BY 15 LENGTHS.BOTH TIMES THE NEXT MORNINGS HE DIDNT LOOK LIKE HE HADNT HAD A RACE ..WOW WOW WOW. & I MADE THE BIGGEST BET IN MY LIFE..BET $6K & GOT A $10.40 MUTUEL...OH FOR THE YESTERYEARS hh)

ALSO ON ANOTHER NOTE> HOW ASPIDISTRA CAME ABOUT....SHE WAS RACING AT SPORTSMANS PARK & WAS RUNNING FOR $6250 CLM...MR McNIGHT OWNER OF TARTAN FARMS & THE SCOTCH TAPE KING etc. HAD A BIRTHDAY COMING..THE TOP MANAGEMENT TOOK UP A COLLECTION FOR HIS BIRTHDAY GIFT AS THEY KNEW HE LOVED HORSES..YES U GUESSED IT.JUST LIKE IN THE MOVIES.. THEY CLAIMED HER AND THAT WAS THE BEGINING OF DR FAGER,TAWEE & THE WHOLE LOT OF THE TARTAN FARM IN OCALA FL WHERE I WAS THEIR FIRST CUSTOMER IN 1961..ITS A SMALL WORLD..

Pedigreeman

01-10-2009, 06:05 AM

I well recollect an occasion in 1948 when Colonel Scrope, stud manager to Lord Derby, asked Tesio to give an opinion on Borealis, perhaps as a possible successor to Hyperion. Hyperion was then eighteen years old, Borealis was seven. An energetic and athletic individual, he was by Brumeux out of Hyperion’s daughter Aurora, who was also the dam of Alycidon the best horse in England that year. Everyone presumed to see in Borealis a striking resemblance to his maternal grandsire. Tesio just glanced at Borealis and came out of the box mumbling with scorn. He then asked if he could see Hyperion again, who was in a box nearby. There he stood for several minutes as though contemplating a masterpiece.
Hyperion had become rather dipped in his back with age, his rump was curiously horizontal and he had the somewhat vacant expression of an old horse—yet Tesio looked at him ecstatically. Sixteen years before I had seen him gaze at that same horse, then a two-year-old, barely bigger than a pony, and predict that his would become one of the great names in Turf history. The prediction, as everyone knows, came true.
As for Borealis, who speaks of him now?
The only way to learn from Tesio was to copy the method by which apprentices, during the Middle Ages, learnt the skills of humble craftsme and great artists by keeping watch over a considerable period, endeavouring gradually to discover how the work should be done. But, whereas every painter, sculptor or craftsman had a particular way of working, a style which was a starting point giving direction to the apprentice, Tesio had no particular style or method, as he would continually and unexpectedly alter his pattern according to circumstance. Thus he had no disciples; he was, and remains, inimitable.
But, if his ‘flair’ cannot be acquired, it is possible by analysing his work as a breeder, to discover certain principles to which he always adhered:
(a) Never remain attached to your own female lines but revive the stud constantly with new families. (Tesio’s means were modest but he never failed to purchase two or three mares or fillies annually. During his lifetime this process caused the gradual but constant replacement of most of the female lines which he used.)
(b) Avoid standing your own stallion. If the horse is successful the temptation is to sell all the nominations; if he is not then the temptation is to use him on your own mares since the nominations cost nothing. (Tesio successfully avoided this situation until the war when the transport of mares to other studs became virtually impossible. For the same reasons Tesio would not take
shares in syndicated stallions.)
(c) Proven sires should always be preferred, even old and expensive ones, to the young, unproven horse—even
though the latter may have been highly successful on the racecourse.
(d) Send your best mares to the best stallions. One high-class horse in a year is plenty and is preferable to a good average.
(e) Include a few close inbreedings, a few complete outcrosses, one or two proven blood affinities, (or
‘nicks’), and one or two ‘crosses’ which it is felt could become ‘nicks’, in the annual mating list. (Tesio
always observed this practice.);)

Pedigreeman

01-31-2009, 06:20 AM

Fire In The Hole.

The courage, or lack of that quality in the make-up of the thoroughbred, its speed or stamina,
constitution and conformation, is, as a rule accessible - but comment on a questionable disposition
and/or temperament is rare, if ever notated.
In general, unless it is mentioned specifically that a horse is given to ill and uncontrolled behaviour,
then temperament is presumed to be tractable.., well-mannered - always allowing that the
thoroughbred is a highly-strung animal, hall-marks of the cardinal of the breed.
Good behaviour and an equable temperament, however, have been absent in the make-up of many of
the great and best remembered Turf “glitterati”, and racing history is legion with horses of essence
high-mettle through to downright malevolence of nature and behaviour, and yet conincidentally,
racehorses of the highest class and merit:
Eclipse (1764) momentous in the history of the breed of the Thoroughbred, had to be given over to the charge of an Irish rough-rider to make him tractable for racing. A reformed horse was returned after his “schooling”. When asked how he had brought about the transformation, the horse-master replied cryptically: “One of us had to be master.”
Both Galopin (1872) and St Simon (1881), kernals in the development of the modem thoroughbred,
had more than their share of irritabilty in their make-up; and St Simon transmitted high-strung,
nervous irritability to a marked degree. It was said of him at stud that only a brave and poweriful man could be his master; and Charlie Fordham, who “did’ him, once said: “It’s all very well to talk of the patience of Job: but Job never had to groom St Simon.” Undefeated on the racecourse, and a yardstick by which all others are measured both on the racecourse and at stud, has coloured with goodwill all comment of him, rather in the maimer of a muddle-headed poor man being described an “idiot”, whilst
the rich man will be more kindly judged “eccentric”.
Castrel (1801), who founded one of the more lasting sire lines through his son, Pantaloon (1824), also
got the “... terribly bad-tempered Merlin.”
St Albans (1857), a son of Stockwell (1849), the winner of Doncaster’s 1860 St Leger Stakes, was a horse with a vile temper. But this aberration of temperament was absent in the riature of his son Springfield (1873) despite his dam Viridis (1864) being a daughter of the savage Marsyas (1851).
The Irish horse, Solon (1861), was an unambiguously savage, although a high-class racehorse. He transmitted his obstreperous nature, his sons, the great Barcaldine (1878) inheriting the genes of his malevolence, but also genes which sustained the Matchem sire line in Europe. Many of his sons were suspect of disposition, whilst Morion (1887, a winner of Ascot’s Royal Hunt Cup and Ascot Gold
Cup, was described as :“... an evil-tempered animal.”
Obtuse nature leaked through another son of Solon, Arbitrator (1874), who bequeathed his son Kilwarlin (1884) with a bad temper, dormant within him, but alive in his genes. Kilwarlin was the
winner of the 1887 Doncaster St Leger, compliments of the field, for, in a pig-mood at the Start, when the tapes sent the field away, he dug-in his toes, absolutely refusing to gallop. The field had covered a conservative 150 yards before, surrendering to the urgings of his rider, Kilwarlin lashed a vicious kick at the starting post, and set off in pursuit of the field. The pace, no more than a slow gallop, he quickly attached himself to the rear runners. Then threading his way through the field, he caught the leader in
the shaow of the post, winning by a neck.
Incidentally, the Matchem-line flourished in America on the foundation of another bad-tempered,
brutish animal, Fair Play (1905).
One of the most versatile, brave and generous horses of the last century - when racing - Tristan
(1878), winner of placed in 47 of 53 career starts, a “hat-trick” winner of Ascot’s Hardwicke Stakes,
Grand Prix de Deauville and Newmarket’s Champion Stakes (astonishingly twice sharing the victory in
this later race), was a fierce demonic scoundrel whose temper became his end. In a fit of rage, and
without anyone on whom to vent his spleen, he crashed his head against a brick wall, killing himself!
Fortunately, he left the legacy Canterbury Pilgrim (1893). She inherited much of her sires racing ability
- and most of his temperament. Winner of Epsom’s Oaks Stakes, she was a shrew when she-so chose:
Dam of Chaucer (1900), who did not have the best of tempers, this “fire” appears as little more than
ashes in her other son, Swynford (1907).
Derby winners who suffered temperamental failings, included George Frederick (1871), a “foul-natured beast”, a disposition he inherited from his sire, the “extremely savage brute”, Marsyas (1851)... Ladas (1891) benignly described contemporaneously as “... delicate and high-strung, was, in fact, an ill-tempered beast, although and routinely, absolutely genuine when racing.... Yet another ferocious winner was Diamond Jubilee (1897). He had a nature more befitting the bull-ring than the racecourse, and before his Epsom victory, walked almost the length of the course on his hind-legs. At
stud, though, he became more tractable, reserving the spitefi.il side of his nature for occasions.
Another savage was Lowland Chief (1878) Over the years, a tendency towards spitefulness deteriorated into a meanness of nature which by late age was inbridledly vicious and he was put down in 1898 to save possible misdeed; almost the same may be written of Alcantara 11(1908), whose mean
streak deteriorated until he became a danger, and he was destroyed in 1930.
Flying Fox (1896), a conseqeunce of the ‘hot” Galopin blood through his dam, Vampire (1889), a daughter of Galopin. Vampire possessed a wicked temper, and killed her first foal, savaging a groom who try to stop her mayhem. Flying Fox inherited nervous irritability, and the superabounding ability of his forebears, proving outstanding on the racecourse before establishing a sire line familiar to all, through the names Ajax (1901), Teddy (1913), Sir Gallahad HI (1930, Asterus (1923), Ortello (1926),
Bull Dog (1927) and Citation (1945).
Santoi (1897), famous for his toughness, and the strain of hardiness he bequeathed, was another bad-tempered individual, a trait he inherited from his maternal grandsire, the “fiendish” Broomielaw.
Corcyra (1911), a high-class son of Polymelus, was always, to be kind, wilful, and at stud became “very queer.” Never a horse with the sweetest of dispositions, those who tended him were always at pains also to humour him. Potentially a high-class stallion, he met with an accident when only 9 years
old, and was put down.
More close in time are Nearco (1957), Nasrullah (1940) and Ribot (1952).
Nearco was always referred to as of high-mettle. In fact, he was strong-willed to the point of
mulishness, a quirk of temperament he passed to many of offspring, including Nasrullah. A high-class racehorse, widely regarded as the best horse in England to ten furlongs, he failed to win a Classic, and
often as not, it appeared that lack of resolution rather than lack of ability that brought about his defeats. This undesirable psyche he bequeathed. Grey Sovereign was a victim, a strong-willed and irresolute character, handed down to hint by his brilliant forebears. On his better days he was a handful for the very best - but on others, he would sulk, and refuse to race, standing stock still when the tapes
released for racing.
Arguably, Nasrullah’s most talented son in Europe was Zucchero (1948). Endowed with Immense
ability, he rarely lived up to his promise, and the pefformance, more often than not, was wanting.
“Tiineform” delivered terse assessment: “.,. brilliant, but exasperatingly erratic.” He strode to majestic
victory in Epsom’s Coronation Cup, trouncing the capable Wilwyn, first winner of Laurel’s
Washington International, and Worden II, also successful in this event, but sulked his way to the
winning post in the 1953 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, in which Worden took third place. Never, even
on his best days, sweet tempered, he transmitted his ability, siring many good winners in Europe
before his export to Japan, and his relatively early death.
Other unreliable sons of Nasrullah, were the American-breds, Red God (1954) and Bald Eagle (1955). High hopes were held that Red God would prove good enough and go one better than his sire, and
win an English Classic. His victory in Goodwood’s Richmond Stakes confirmed his ability and
potential, but a wayward temperament negated his obvious worth, and his form was always suspect as
his capricious disposition got the better of him. Bald Eagle, likewise, after showing promising form,
allowed his dark side sway. Returned to America, his mind-set was eventually brought under control,
and he was twice a winner of Laurel’s Washington Tnternational Stakes.
Another of Nearco’s sons to display irascibility was Amerigo (1955). After a contemptuous eight S
lengths victory in Ascot’s Coventry Stakes, the tetchy side of his nature took rein. Ill-tempered, he became almost impossible to control Sold to America, his fiery pugnacity was a hair trigger At one
Meeting, he put on a rodeo-like exhibition,” turning the saddlmg enclosure into a Wild West display, and dining on chunks of attendants “But when the more “amiable” side of his nature emerged, he showed prize ability It was an ability he transmitted, but, sadly, he died all too young, aged just ten
years
The great champion Ribot, was an amenable enough a character during his years of racing - but his disposition deteriorated at stud His attendant succinctly described his hazard to the unwary “Ribot”
he said, “would climb a tree”
If there is an inference that ability and suspect temperament go hand-in-hand, then there is the opposite side of the coin. Mieuxce (1933), Princequillo (1940), Petition (1944), Nijinsky (1967),
Dancing Brave (1983) were all notably “decent” and placid individuals, as are the vast majority of the
breed who are not of any extreme but fall within the “norm” of behaviour:gah;

omalley

01-31-2009, 07:14 AM

Enjoyed the post. Let me know when you can go to Lone Star. I would like to see you post some MSW for 2 yrs old based on breeding. Have a great day and win lot of money.

Pedigreeman

02-19-2009, 01:41 AM

Nearco, The Horse Of The 20th Century
Right about now, people in the various horse worlds are talking about which animal should be designated ‘horse of the century.” It’s an argument based on each person’s breed and performance preference. Only one great stallion foaled in the 20th century who was himself an extraordinary athlete, whose influence is predominant today, and whose long-term genetic dominance seems completely assured. That is the Italian-bred Thoroughbred Nearco, foaled in 1935 at Dormello Stud.
Nearco is like a modem “Adam” or an anthropologist’s “Lucy,” the one great modern horse from which most Thoroughbreds, Thoroughbred crossed horses, modern warmbloods and appendix Quarter Horses are descended.
I have a 1976 Blood-Horse Stallion Register, a list of pedigrees and statistics on the leading Thoroughbred stallions standing in North America for that year. I started on page 1 and just checked out the first 414 stallions, in alphabetical order. Of them, 207 had Nearco blood and 207 did not. Then I did the same thing with the 1999 Register. Only 23 years later, 400 stallions had Nearco blood and only 11 did not.
It’s a virtual certainty that in another quarter of a century, there will scarcely be a living Thoroughbred who doesn’t trace to Nearco, and the same will obviously be true of any other horses or breeds of horses crossed with any of the Nearco descendants.
Just who was this genetic superhorse, what did he do, and what qualities did he pass on in such a prepotent manner to make his dominance so profound?
Any discussion of Nearco must include a discussion about his breeder, the legendary and enigmatic student of Thoroughbred genetics, Federico Tesio. Born in 1869, Tesio was commissioned in the Italian cavalry, where he became an amateur steeplechase rider, competing in more than 500 races. After military service, he founded a Thoroughbred farm at Dormello, on Lake Maggiore, in 1898, when he was 29.
Many volumes have been written about Tesio’s precise, unsentimental and pragmatic approach to breeding superior race horses, and almost as many volumes have been written about his near mystical and intuitive feelings about what stallions and what mares would combine to produce a perfect match.
Despite lacking the finances to buy top-quality race mares, Tesio procured members of those top families by buying unsuccessful mares of excellent pedigree. In fact, Nearco was the grandson of a filly, Catnip, described by the farm manager in Ireland where she was bred as a “light, narrow filly that carried very little flesh. She ran about nine times without being placed, hardly good enough to have won a good seller [ claiming race].”
Tesio’s assessment, though, was “small, sound, and well made.” Of Catnip’s daughter, Nogara, who was to become Nearco’s dam, Tesio wrote glowingly, “Small, elegant, light,magnificent hocks, magnificent action. Top class from six furlongs to a mile.”
Tesio wanted to breed Nogara to Fairway, a tall, rangy horse who had won England’s classic St. Leger for Lord Derby in 1929. However, “the ignorant and arrogant Captain Paine [ Derby’s stud manager], who regarded Tesio as a contemptible little foreigner, turned him down point blank. In dismay Tesio booked a nomination to Fairway’s brother, Pharos.” Although Tesio didn’t believe that Pharos would be as good a cross for Nogara as Fairway, the resultant foal would be Nearco.
In later years, Nearco totally dominated European racing, being unbeaten in 14 starts at distances up to 1 7/8 miles. He was inspected by a well-known racing correspondent, who wrote:
“Some of those who saw him win the Grand Prix de Paris in such convincing style have told me that he was only a medium-sized horse. When I stood alongside him, I realized that he was over 16 hands. There is no surer test of goodness than that a horse should look smaller than he really is. It is certain proof of correct balance and symmetry. He is more of a bay than a brown, lighter in color than his sire Pharos, who was a strong horse with very powerful quarters.
“I can see in Nearco many of Pharos’ finest attributes. He has not the same width of hip, but he has his sire’s grand iron-like limbs and tendons. He is more like his progenitor in front than behind the saddle. He is higher at the withers, hence his deceptiveness in height. His withers run so far back that there is little behind him when he is saddled up.
“Nearco’s head cannot be faulted. It is lean and bloodlike, with an intelligent eye, but as gentle as a woman’s. Although his muzzle is small, denoting quality, his nostrils are big enough, and his ears good. His muscular neck is neither too heavy nor too light, while his oblique and perfectly placed shoulder and length from hip to hock shows where his great galloping powers came from.”
The domination of the Nearco line that we find throughout the modern international racing and sport horse worlds comes mainly through the legacies of three of his sons—Nasrullah, Nearctic and Royal Charger. Nasrullah was a brilliant but temperamental race horse. Wrote Heather Bailey in a 1997 Chronicle article about the three sons, Nasmllah “was capable of blinding speed and won several races by huge margins, but he hated to be forced or challenged, and if he could not win easily, he would simply slow to a canter and let the other horses cruise by.”
If his racing career was an amalgam of brilliance and frustration, Nasrullah’s stud career was pure excellence. His dazzling son Bold Ruler was eight-time leading U.S. sire, and Bold Ruler’s son Secretariat ranks with Man o’ War as one of the two premier race horses of all time.
Bold Ruler’s grandson Seattle Slew also won America’s Triple Crown (in 1977) and is a perennial leading sire.
Other genetically superior descendants of Nasrullah include Never Bend, Red God and Caro, but the greatest contribution that Nasrullah makes to the dominance of the Nearco line comes through his son Nashua. Nashua’s daughter Gold Digger was the dam of Mr. Prospector, one of the two supersires of the second half of the 20th century. There are probably more sons of Mr. Prospector at stud throughout the world right now than of any other stallion.
The other modern supersire was Northern Dancer, who is by Nearctic. Northern Dancer line sons and daughters and their descendants absolutely dominate world racing and, increasingly, world sport horse breeding. Danzig, Lyphard, Nijinski II, Nureyev, Northern Baby, Storm Bird, The Minstrel, Vice Regent and Sadler’s Wells are some of the sons of Northern Dancer, and they and their offspring are a Who s Who of international equine superiority.
The Bold Ruler line, the Mr. Prospector line and the Northern Dancer line horses, all stars in their own right, are joined by another band of Nearco descendants, this time through Royal Charger.
Royal Charger sired Turn-to. Turn-to sired Sir Gaylord, whose son Sir Ivor was champion race horse of Europe. But, it is Hail To Reason, another son of Turn-to, who causes the greater proliferation of the Nearco sire line. Hail To Reason sired Halo, Roberto, Mr. Leader and Stop The Music, and the descendants of these stallions are still another equine Who ‘s Who.
In fact, it’s almost impossible for modern breeders with any connection whatsoever to the Thoroughbred to not have Nearco in their horses’ pedigrees.
Another salient fact of Nearco’s influence is the way his name has started ‘stacking up” in the pedigrees of modem Thoroughbreds. Take the immensely popular Mr. Prospector— Northern Dancer cross for example. Let’s say Mr. Prospector, who has one cross to Nearco through his dam Gold Digger, was bred to a Northern Dancer daughter. Even if the dam of Northern Dancer’s daughter has no Nearco blood, the filly still gets Northern Dancer’s one Nearco cross.
Now we take this filly, with her two crosses to Nearco, and breed her to Seattle Slew, who has three Nearco crosses, onethrough Bold Ruler, one through Hail To Reason, and one through Poker. The resultant foal now has five Nearco crosses. As each generation passes, the Nearco influence grows exponentially.
Geneticists tell us that line-breeding can intensify all characteristics, both good and bad. This is the threat posed by intensify the influence of a relatively few extremely popular stallions. The gene pool starts to shrink.
Tread lots of articles in the Thoroughbred industry press calling for the need to outcross. The problem is that most breeders tend to stick with what works, and the great majority of the horses winning the big stakes races have lots of Nearco breeding. It’s a bit of a case of, “It’s a great idea to outcross, but why don’t you do it, Charlie? Then, if it works for you, I might give it a try.”
Nobody wants to be the pioneer for the reason summed up by the saying, “Pioneers might get better land, but they definitely get more arrows.”

Pedigreeman

03-26-2009, 04:20 AM

My friend Laura Ross has spent a lot of time and put together an e-book on all the new sires for 2009.
The e-book is free and can be downloaded from
http://www.ironmaidensthoroughbreds.com/ (http://www.ironmaidensthoroughbreds.com/)

It's an impressive body of work - well worth downloading or reading on-linetu?

Pedigreeman

03-31-2009, 03:45 AM

THE SOFTENING OF THE THOROUGHBRED RUNNER

By Ellen Parker

“One of the primary goals of those great (racing) families was to breed a better horse. They bought all of the best blood that was available in the world and brought it to the United States, intermingled that with our best blood, and produced the best racehorses in the world. We were breeding for soundness and improvement.

“Most of your racing stock now is ‘hothouse’ raised by people that are going to sell commercially, so they want them sleek and prepped up. Today you can’t let a horse go out in the field with 15 other horses and fight and get bloody with knots and bruises all over them – things that are superficial, but things that make them tough. A commercial product can’t be raised that way.”…………….John Veitch, Hall of Fame trainer, Chief Steward for the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority.

Foreseeing the Problem

Twenty-four years ago, I wrote a two-part story for The Texas Thoroughbred called “The Choice Is Yours”, which won an American Horse Publications third-place award for feature article. One question I posed in that long-ago story was “Are we allowing the commercial selling market to dictate our pedigrees?”

In this story, I quoted New York Post turf writer Ray Kerrison: “Breeders don’t breed to race anymore. They breed to breed, because that’s where the money is.

“The result is that the tracks have nothing to promote, the public nothing to excite their interest.”

Hall of Fame trainer P. G. Johnson agreed. “They’re breeding catalogue page to catalogue page. We’ve had a lot of brilliant horses retire. These horses sometimes sire unsound brilliant daughters who are bred to still more brilliance.

“We should breed to soundness and outcross, but that is not what’s best commercially.”

All that long while ago, I actually saw Eight Belles coming; I just didn’t know her name yet. And I have never in my life been so sorry to be right about something as I am about that. The problem now, however, is exacerbated by a total lack of diversity with which to affect outcrosses (actually, no true outcrosses are possible, but there was a time when we could come much closer).

A Moment In Time

I have a lifetime of wonderful memories associated with racing and its star athletes, but none more than the visits I paid to Round Table in his prime. Claiborne in those days was a wonderland of diversity, and I literally basked in the glory of its very unique and special residents.

From the St. Simon line came my beloved Round Table and his son Tell as well as the elegant *Le Fabuleux (Wild Risk) and the troubled Tulyar (via Bois Roussel). Domino was represented by Double Jay and his Arab-like son Bagdad, and later by the wondrous Ack Ack. Hyperion got into the act with the mischievous *Forli. Teddy was put on the map by the great Damascus and *Pharamond II by his rival Buckpasser, once called “the perfect physical specimen”.

Fairway was present via *Pago Pago and *Tatan; Son-In-Law via *Herbager and *Ribot via the comical little Tom Rolfe. *Nasrullah and his great son Bold Ruler (and his sons Secretariat, Reviewer, and Jacinto) were vital aspects of the farm. And *Turn-to lines were present in Sir Gaylord, Drone, Sir Ivor and Riva Ridge. *Ambiorix was Tourbillon’s standard-bearer and earlier lines like *Blenheim II (Swynford) and Gallant Fox held sway.

What a long way we have come from this wide path of choices. How often are Americans called a melting pot? Well, we have melted down the pot in the Thoroughbred horse to pretty much all Northern Dancer and Raise a Native lines (which have in common the unsoundness of Native Dancer) while the majority of those lines deemed ‘different’ are all but gone. *Nasrullah via Seattle Slew (but getting narrower via just A. P. Indy with Mr. Prospector crosses), and Blushing Groom, which is holding his own, are still with us and Man o’ War lines via In Reality continue to prosper, most recently via Tiznow. Nearly everything else is down to a trickle, if that:

Today we find only a handful of horses descending from those long-ago Claiborne sires I remember so well and while, yes, there are some Pleasant Colonies and some Hail to Reasons and tiny bits and pieces of Buckpasser and Damascus, there are not great masses of them, nor are they popular shuttle animals or horses who receive the ridiculously large books some of these sires get.

Natural vs. “Shuttle” Selection

One of the oldest sayings in the Thoroughbred world is that sire lines rise and fall. Of course they do. When a saturation point is reached, as with St. Simon, another comes along which complements it (Bend Or in this case) adding speed to St. Simon’s great galloping/staying ability.

That is a natural thing and as it should be. But today it has nothing to do with ability. Instead of 30 or 40 mares in a sire’s book, many top commercial stallions get 100-175 mares per book in not just one but two hemispheres. That means that in a single season they can sire as many foals as Round Table or Bold Ruler did in a lifetime.

The result is that the older, less precocious lines – those who do not look like Quarter horses and start out winning stakes in June of their juvenile years – are allowed to grow fallow and die out. Consider K One King, the last G1 winner from the Round Table sire line. This observer saw him at Gainesway on a day when he was the only horse shown to visitors which had not been given a bath!

When we complained about this, the groom said, “He’s a $3500 horse.” All we could think of to counter with was that he might not be a $3500 horse if he had had a bath.

But this is not just about Round Table. In another instance not long ago, a client was trying to breed to Fairway (*Pago Pago)-line Island Whirl. Both she and I made compelling cases for why her mare fit him. The farm conceded that he was still fertile and that it was a good match but refused to book any mares to him, trying instead to ‘force’ a match with a newer young horse they had just acquired! With policies like this, no wonder we are in trouble.

There is more: Hanging by a thread as we write this is Broad Brush/Ack Ack, who has Include as almost his sole representative. And while this sire line is known as one which “only takes one”, Include will soon be absorbed into the Mr. Prospector/Northern Dancer chasm if he, too, does not get a son to carry on which has neither of these lines. The same is true of Holy Bull, and we sincerely hope he pulls out the other part of this grand old sire line (Himyar) with his ‘outcrossed’ son, Giacomo, winner of the 2005 Kentucky Derby.

How Did This Happen?

We could give you the one-word version: Greed. Or the three-pronged version: Syndications (starting with $5.4 million for Nijinsky II and followed shortly thereafter by $6.8 for Secretariat – both were Triple Crown winners and both of their sire lines are threatened as we write this); over-booking (30-35 mares per sire per season used to be the norm, now it is an insult); and dual-hemisphere shuttling (this almost never used to occur).

And whether you want to slap the commercial market with the ‘original’ Raise a Native madness for Majestic Prince and his brothers or blame the Coolmore/Ashford conglomerate for the proliferation of Northern Dancer blood, we did little to stanch the flow of our best bloodlines to foreign interests.

In what amounted to self-defense, major racing jurisdictions in the Southern Hemisphere went from important horses like Badger Land and Darby Fair (South Africa) to ‘business as usual’ Northern Dancer/Raise a Native crosses. Where once Star Kingdom seemed the brightest and best of Hyperion’s tribe ‘down under’ in Australia and New Zealand, he has now been swamped, along with his wondrous successor Sir Tristram (*Turn-to) with Danehill blood. South America, once a great place to find counterbalances to all those Nashua daughters with a nice horse like Good Manners are now saturated with Native Dancer blood as well.

And as for the Fairway lines which marched proudly through Europe and all the other continents via horses like Brigadier Gerard, they are all but absorbed and if one wishes to use them, he can do so only by adding still more Northern Dancer blood to a horse already inbred to him. Further, as this is being written, some effort is being made in Europe by major players Coolmore and Darley to acquire some of the old Bahram (Koenigsstuhl); Teddy (Monsun) and Son-In-Law (Acatenango/Lando) lines in Germany. Before long, they will no longer be absent the Native Dancer stain either.

Of Babies and Bottles

As we consider the problem of soundness in the modern Thoroughbred, it is often difficult to discern what is a symptom and that which is a cause. Take the case of drugs: Do horses need medication because they are not sound or are they not sound because their parents ran on medication? Try figuring that one out sometime.

And woe is the poor breeder who does his homework and goes to farm after farm looking for a nice physical match for his mare, only to discover that the ‘perfect’ stallion had surgical intervention to fix this problem or that before he ran. Surgery used to be rather obvious, but due to newer arthroscopic techniques, little ‘tweaks’ are no longer so easily spotted. So if the mare happens to have the same problem that the sire had ‘fixed’, the breeder ends up with a crooked foal and isn’t sure if it’s entirely his mare’s fault or not. Some major breeders have even suggested that it be stamped on a horse’s papers if he had periosteal stripping or other such ‘work’, but commercial breeders kept that from happening.

And while we’re on the subject of coming clean about young horses, how do you know whose x-ray you are really looking at when you go to a sale’s repository? Can you tell Hip #231’s ankles from Hip #772’s? Didn’t think so.

Then there is the whole craziness of two-year-old-in-training sales. Who on earth that really loves horses and cares about the future of this sport and this breed wants to take these poor babies, buzz them up (if on nothing more than their own adrenaline) and send them out to work a mere furlong? Would someone please tell us how on earth this does anything but harm?

Time was we worried about yearlings on steroids. Now we have to worry about horses who are barely more than yearlings racing down the stretch like wild mustangs. This is utter insanity and has no bearing on breeding a classic horse. No wonder we haven’t had a Triple Crown winner in 30 years; nobody’s really trying to breed one!

Triple Crowns

Of course, we’ve never had a lot of Triple Crowns (15 in England since 1853), and if one considers this, he comes to the conclusion that we really aren’t supposed to have too many of them. If they were more common, it would somehow cheapen them.

But the question now is whether or not they are even possible. America has not had a Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978, but England has gone eight years longer, since Nijinsky II won in 1970. Prior to his victory in the marathon St. Leger, the last English Triple Crown winner was Bahram in 1935. Such gaps are to be honored; they make for historical achievements.

So can we have other Triple Crowns? Perhaps. In England, we only believe this is possible if a private breeder – say the Aga Khan, or someone like the late Gerald Leigh who bred classic winner and Breeders’ Cup victor Barathea - decides that he values the quest. The reason?

A horse is far more valuable at stud if he wins the English Two Thousand Guineas at a flat mile and the 12-furlong Epsom Derby, then follows that with a win in France’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at the same distance against his elders. Animals who win the marathon 1 ¾ mile plus St. Leger are considered ‘plodders’ and shunned by most breeders, or relegated to siring ‘chasers in the provinces. Freely translated, it is not commercial to win the Leger, thus the Triple Crown has lost its luster – at least in England.

The reasons why we have not had a Triple Crown winner in the U. S. are more complex. (In other words, there may actually have been a horse in England who could have won the Triple Crown but was never actually pointed for it.)

In all probability, our lack of Triple Crown winners has to do with the fact that our horses simply are no longer tough enough to withstand the challenge. And no, it won’t help if we don’t start them until they are five on artificial surfaces, PETA. Or worse if we ‘adjust’ the series in either distance or spacing; all that would do is cheapen the whole thing –rather like making the once two-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup into just another fall Belmont stake where once it was something unique and special.

The Triple Crown is a tough test. It requires an athlete to have a great foundation (i.e. a strong two-year-old season); a productive early spring (three or four prep races) and then come into the Derby at slightly below his best, then on to the Preakness, dialed up a notch, then peaking in the Belmont. This series of tests demands exceptional talent, a level disposition, and a strong constitution. But along with these necessities comes the obvious: He must also be sound. If he is not, he will not have a strong juvenile campaign (something both Big Brown and Sunday Silence lacked), a solid spring campaign (something also lacking in those two) and luck (both had foot problems). These are just two examples of horses who could not pull off the hat trick.

But the luck-soundness balance is an integral part of this process and we believe that while some things to do with soundness like stumbling coming out of the gate, are unavoidable, basic soundness is for keeps. Again, Round Table comes to mind: The great horse won 14 of his 16 starts on turf, and ran second in another. In his only off-the-board effort, he grabbed a quarter at the start of the 1959 Washington Brithday Handicap. Doctor John Peters (who purchased the colt from Claiborne Farm for the Kerr family and later was the track veterinarian for Santa Anita) said he had never before seen a horse heal so quickly.

Round Table was out of action with the resultant quarter crack from Feb. 23 to June 13, the only time he was sidelined in his 66-race career. In his first start back, he carried 130 pounds to equal Citation’s mile track record of 1:33 2/5 at Arlington Park in Chicago. Because he was intrinsically sound, he had no problem healing quickly and returning to full strength, winning another handicap championship and becoming the world’s leading money winner. For a Triple Crown winner, such inborn strength is not an option; it is an utter ground rule.

Punishing Toughness

Round Table’s sire line is almost gone as this is being written. We use him so often as an example not just because he was our favorite but because perhaps more than any other horse besides his female counterpart, Dahlia, his was a toughness that seemed to be punished more than it was honored, something that makes no sense at all to us.

If you think it’s unfortunate that Round Table or Dahlia are punished, consider a far more recent horse, Skip Away, one of our true tough guys with 38 starts. He can’t buy the kind of mares routinely seen by the Northern Dancer/Mr. Prospector crosses. His yearling average? A little over $11,000 – with a stud fee of $10,000.

How about an even tougher fellow, Say Florida Sandy (98 starts) – his yearlings average $6,050. Why must we turn our backs on such horses? This is exactly the kind of horse we should be standing at the best farm in Kentucky and turning away mares by the truckload. Instead, he’s buried in upstate New York where he got 37 foals in his first crop. That’s about what Giant’s Causeway sees in his first week of the breeding season.

Is It Too Late?

If ‘outcrossing’ is indeed the answer, we first need to determine if it’s even possible. Horses like Holy Bull, Hat Trick and Skip Away give one hope, but they cannot do it alone, nor can they do it with books of 30 mares when every single Northern Dancer and Raise a Native-line sire gets 150 mates in two hemispheres. There are only so many good mares out there after all. Where do you suppose they are going?

For certain, they are not going to horses like Include, K One King, Ferrara or Say Florida Sandy. How about Brigadier Gerard-line Patton in Pennsylvania for a rarity? That’s why he’s in Pennsylvania. Then there is Beautiful Pleasure’s grand full brother Mecke in Florida who stands alongside another viable ‘outcross’ – the Montbrook tribe. Local breeders, at least, seem to like the latter. Mecke? Not so much.

Seattle Fitz represents *Blenheim II, though we’d surely like to see some *Mahmoud on the top, too, and Siphon represents Prince Bio, though we see some soundness problems with him. Caro is pretty well carried by Cozzene, since we were stupid enough to sell off the lovely With Approval, and of course there is In Excess and his son Indian Charlie, but neither is particularly sound.

Blushing Groom has Rahy, who needs a flagship son. At present Cherokee Colony and Mt. Livermore are keeping the line on track. And of course Washington is to be congratulated for keeping courageous little *Gallant Man’s line in play with Demon Warlock.

Pleasant Colony still has a bit of a say in things and Go For Gin has taken Cormorant another generation farther with Albert the Great. But Tom Rolfe, our favorite *Ribot, is not even a strong presence via his best son Alleged and we did not support Lost Code enough to continue Arts and Letters – plus we let Badger Land get away to South Africa.

In Europe, horses like Lahib (Riverman), Lando (Son-In-Law) and the offspring of Indian Ridge (Tourbillon line) are but a few of the choices. Hyperion is very hard to find in tail-male - *Forli is represented by a touch of Thatch blood, *Alibhai by Deputed Testamony’s line and there is a smidgen of Nodouble in regional markets: This is all that is left from a once hale and hearty line, though we find many horses inbred to Hyperion.

Perhaps the only thing to do is to take a group of expert horsemen and travel the far reaches of the planet, from England to South Africa to India to New Zealand to Japan and on to South America is search of some lines we have allowed to go fallow. It would take time and money and real effort, not to mention a true commitment on the part of the searchers, for once the animals were found, they must also be supported.

Some Options

There are three other ideas which come to mind that might make a difference. One – opening up the stud book to a different breed or breeds – we are certain will never be adopted. We once read that if a Thoroughbred and a Standardbred were to be mated that the Standardbred would be improved in the first generation but the Thoroughbred would not be improved for a dozen generations. Whether or not we believe this, it is likely true that the younger the breed, the more improvement would show up immediately. Thus something older like pure Arab blood might make more sense than a warmblood sire, or even using a combination of the pair – say a good-boned Anglo-Arab might be the ticket. Still, we know the Jockey Club would balk at any such suggestion.

Another idea I believe not only has merit, but is one that we should adopt immediately, and that is a National Stud. Within that National Stud should be as many variety of sire lines as can possibly be found, with no Native Dancer inbreeding whenever humanly possible. And, since we are going to have to do something about supporting these horses, they will have to be subsidized with sizeable incentives to breed to them. In other words, stud fees in reverse. “Bring us your G1-winning mare from family 1-S (*La Troienne) and we’ll pay you to do so.”

If that does not work, the only other option is for the National Stud to develop its own broodmare band, but the clock is ticking and time may already have run out. Breeding outcrossed sires to a series of Raise a Native inbred mares is not going to help much of anything if they are crossed back to more Native Dancer in the next generation.

Finally, and this goes hand-in-hand with breeding ‘different’ horses, we need to up the purses on our longer races, not insult them (as with the new Breeders’ Cup Marathon with a purse of only $500,000 when everything else is at least $1 million.) We should have a $5 million marathon, too. Then maybe somebody would breed for a St. Leger runner and we’d actually get another English Triple Crown winner.

The Only House On Easy Street is The Poor House

Which brings us to the bottom line: Thinking outside the box and doing the right thing takes courage and a willingness to ride out the storm. Taking short cuts has all but ruined this wondrous creature born of desert sires and mares who carried knights into battle.

The breed has not evolved, it has devolved. Those who care about more than the sale price of their yearlings had better get moving because by the time you are ready, there will be nothing left to use…we are nearly there now.

What I had foreseen twenty-four years ago is happening every day before my eyes and I do not care for the landscape. I do not know what to say to people who ask me how I can support such a sport, how I as a horse lover can even watch it anymore. It is getting harder and harder to find answers to those questions.

Then just last month I took some Dutch visitors out to see Giacomo, the Giacomo I was so very certain would win the Kentucky Derby for his Plaudit-line sire, Holy Bull. He is entirely absent Northern Dancer and Raise a Native lines and he is from a French classic family (Mistress Ford) just named a Reine-de-Course. I look into the eyes of this horse – the perfect outcross for the future – and I know that I will never give up hope entirely. Not so long as horses like this win classic races and go places like Adena Springs to stand at stud. As long as there are Giacomos there is hope.

deltasports

03-31-2009, 10:12 AM

I STARTED TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS BACK IN 1975 AT THE SARATOGA SALES SAYING THAT THE BRITS CAME OVER & THEN THE JAPS CAME LATER & THE ARABS ROLLED IN & THATS WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BREED.END OF STORY.bh) bh) bh) bh) bh)

FastG45

04-19-2009, 08:48 PM

Mr. Pedigreeman, would you do me a favor? Could you please comment a little about Chocolate Candy's lineage when you find the time?

I would really like to read a complete breakdown of all the Derby Horse's pedigrees once we know who is in, but I know that is a lot to ask.

I wish I knew more about breeding and pedigree, I have a thirst for knowledge!!!

I read all your posts, love your work.

I noticed that both of Chocolate Candy's Great Grandmother's on his mother's side have foaled Triple Crown Winner's.

My Charmer foaled Seattle Slew who sired Chocolate Candy's mother (Crownette)

Wont Tell You foaled Affirmed. I find it funny, coincidental, or maybe just fate that Alydar inseminated Affirmed's Mother (Wont Tell You) who foaled In Memory who foaled Crownette, Chocolate Candy's mother.

Maybe Alydar's Great Grandson can make things right for those three second place finishes, God works in funny ways if you believe.

Does the Mother's side carry more weight then the father's side in terms of handicapping the Derby?

Thanks For Your Consideration

Pedigreeman

04-25-2009, 05:34 AM

FastG45, Sorry for the the delay. I tried posting tuesday and lost all the info. In looking at Chocolate Candy pedigree the first thing that struck me was his female family. The 23B - Branch. This female family has produced some superstar including Affirmed, Criminal Type. Chief's Crown, and Winning Colors. So if we look at the source of spring we don't have to look back very for the 11th dam of CC is a Mannie Gray the dam of the brother and sister Domino and Correction. The story of Domino has been told many times. He was a Champion racehorse and from only 19 foals before his death became one of the greatest sires in the history of racing. Correction was the best sprint mare of her day with 122 starts with 38wins - 35places - 22shows = $45,600. When bred to Meddler Champion juvenile of 1892 in England she produced Nature. By the way Meddler was owned by W. C. Whitney. (remember Birdstone) Nature when bred to Rabelais produced Nature Smile the 9th dam
of CC. Rabelais was French Champion sire 1909,1919 and 1926. Plus Rabelais was a son of the great St. Simon. Nature Smile was bred to Fair Play. "Colonel Bradley bred horses at Idle Hour for 35 years before he accepted the blood of Fair Play. Although Samuel D. Riddle invited him to bred to Man O' War, he did not accept even though the son of Fair Play was probably the greatest racehorse ever bred in this country. Always the gambler, Bradley said he had observed too many sulkers, too many dishonest, high-strung runners with Fair Play blood. When War Admiral retired to stud, Riddle came to him again. I'll bred a few mares to him and see how things go Bradley told him. War Admiral is out of a mare by Sweep; that may offset the objectionable traits handed down by Fair Play. Bradley told farm manager Olin Gentry, to select mares with good disposition and double up on Sweep if possible." (remember Busher, Bee Mac, Bric a Bac, Mr. Busher, and Businesslike)
sorry to get off track. The daughter of Fair Play and Nature Smile was Native Wit. Native Wit was bred to Sir Gallahad the best imported stallion in many years. Sir Gallahad lead the sire list 4 times and the broodmare sire list 12 times. The produce of this mating was Native Gal. Now Native Gal did make it to the track with 7 starts 2 wins and 1 show. But her claim to fame as the mother of 3 outstanding foals. The first is the son of Mahmoud
named Billing who raced for C.V. Whitney Grandson of W.C. Whitney. When bred to Mahmoud again she produced the 5th dam of CC the Native Valor.
Native Valor like her mother did not burn up the track. She did her best work as the mother of Scarlet Ribbon. Scarlet Ribbon's Sire Volcanic started 57 times with 18 wins 9 places and 6 shows. If you look at the bottom half of his pedigree you'll notice some of the same names (Sir Gallahad) and (Big Dinner bred by Colonel Bradley) Scarlet Ribbon was mated to Crafty Admiral the perfect sire for her she produced Won't Tell You the dam of the great Affirmed TC winner. When bred to Alydar she produced In Memory. In Memory bred again to the best sire for her (Seattle Slew) she produced the mother of CC.

Here's a couple of things that keep me awake at night. So anyone with ideas are answers is welcome to post. The first was by a Qhorse breeder and
the other is by M.A Stoneridge. bh)

“I believe in gene replenishment,” he began. “That means I don’t believe an outstanding mare will necessarily produce outstanding daughters. Why? Because half of that outstanding mare’s genes are wiped out in her daughter! “Sure, we’ve all heard of someone getting a superior runner out of a ‘nothing’ mare. The word ‘nothing( is totally Inappropriate. What really happened is the genes of an outstanding mare somewhere back in the pedigree were finally replenished with the correct cross or nick, . As a matter of fact few outstanding sires came from Blenheirn II. These are however broodmare Lines which did interest me. Quite frankly, I couldn’t care less about a sire’s racing ability. It just isn’t that important if I can see the necessary broodmare lines."

"Tesio was not content to apply merely his inborn talent and intuition as a breeder to his operations at Dormello. He contributed as well a rare intelligence, a great deal of scientific research, and an enormous amount of hard work. He began by studying the breeding records of all the British Epsom Derby winners from 1789 to 1939. From these, he drew some interesting conclusions, many of which are described in his fascinating little book which was translated into English under the title Breeding the Racehorse. He believed that a horse’s racing ability is the direct result of inherited nervous energy, and that the energy pattern follows a cycle over several generations, rising to a peak, then falling, and then remaining dormant for a period before beginning to rise again. His studies convinced him that the decline begins after the third generation. As a practical application of this theory, he purchased broodmares from bloodlines that he believed were
ready to leave their dormant period and enter into a new energy cycle. Most of them were real bargains, selected for thefr bloodlines rather than their beauty." ;;'

FastG45

04-25-2009, 01:05 PM

FastG45, Sorry for the the delay.

"Tesio + the cycle

Mr Pedigreeman, Thank you so much, it was worth the wait. I've read a few other articles about CC's pedigree and they didn't give anywhere near the in depth analysis as this post.

I noticed that Candy Ride sired the filly Evita Argentina (winner of the G3 Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar) then she came back to defeat colts in the San Vicente (G2), Candy Ride also Sired Capt. Candyman Can (Hutcheson—G2, Bay Shore—G3, Iroquois—G3), Wynning Ride (second in the Hollywood Starlet—G1), Jack Spratt (stakes winner on the turf at Gulfstream) and of course Chocolate Candy (El Camino Real Derby—G3 and California Derby, with a sold second place finish in the Santa Anita Derby—G1).

All of this from mares bred on books standing for $12,500. What is so remarkable about Tesio's success is that he was not a man of great wealth. He maintained a small band of inexpensive broodmares that the "experts" considered modestly bred. He rarely patronized fashionable sires and stood no stallions of his own. Yet the "Wizard of Dormello" turned out the likes of Nearco and Ribot.

I hope that the two mares on CC's mother's side three gens. back were in the top of the cycle Tesio was talking about. I know CC doesn't have some of the speed figs as the others, but he might have the heart, I just have a feeling about this one, I know you shouldn't bet a feeling but sometimes you just have to break the rules.

Thanks again so much for your response.

Pedigreeman

05-15-2009, 05:20 AM

Lord Rosebery, 1954
— “Signor Federico Tesio was one of the finest, if not the finest, judge of a horse, his pedigree and how to train him, in the whole of Europe. He was a man of great charm and made friends everywhere, but wilt be chiefly remembered for the good horses he bred. Together with the late Lord Derby, Signor Tesio had more influence on the breeding of the Thoroughbred than anyone else in my time.”

THERE were two important differences between the operation of Federico Tesio and that of the 17th Lord Derby:
Tesio had very limited financial means, while Lord Derby was an enormously wealthy man; also, Tesio supervised both his stud farm and his training stable, whereas Lord Derby employed The Hon. George Lambton as his trainer, Walter A as his adviser on pedigrees, and John Griffiths as his stud groom.
Tesio arranged the matings for his mares and did not consult with anyone, other than his wife, about them or about his purchases of mares, yearlings, or weanlings. He did not keep a stallion at his farm, Dormello, in Italy, feeling that the inevitable temptation to breed to a home-based stallion might warp his judgment. He bred primarily to others’ stallions, although he frequently did send mares to sires that he owned in whole or in part.
Tesio’s record in Italy was overwhelming. He bred winners of 22 Italian Derbys, 15 St. Legers, and nine Italian Oaks. During much of Tesio’s life, the total foal crop in Italy was about 500 annually, so his domination of his own country’s racing did not, in itself, prove him as a great breeder of world- class horses. Over the years, however, enough of his horses raided the major racing in other European countries to establish a reputation such as that described by Lord
Rosebery. For example, Apelle won in France and England “ the 1920s, and he was followed by such as Doñatello II,
Nearco, Botticelli, Ribot, and Marguerite Vernaut. Tesio died at 85 in 1954, but more than two decades later, his influence is extraordinary in the United States, most prominently through Nearco and Ribot—both unbeaten European champions. Nearco sired Nasrullah (in turn sire of Bold Ruler, Nashua, Indian Hemp, etej, Nearctic (sire of Northern Dancer), Royal Charger (sire of Turn-to), Amerigo, and others. Ribot’s American sons included Tom Rolfe, Graustark, and Arts and Letters.
The view that his provincial success did not prove his stable’s international worth began to soften in 1937, when he sent Donatello II to France for the Grand Prix de Paris. The horse was unbeaten prior to the Grand Prix and generally was thought to be unlucky when second in that event. The very next year, Tesio sent to the Grand Prix another unbeaten horse in Nearco, which won the international test to cap his career. Both Tesio horses were sold to stand in England.

To be continued.

Pedigreeman

05-16-2009, 02:32 AM

Donatello II was sold to Edward Esmond for £47,500 and later was syndicated. He was the reverse of prepotent, his stock coming in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Nevertheless, he sired some very high-class racers, including the great Cup horse Alycidon. The latter won the Triple Crown for stayers in England—the Ascot Gold Cup, Goodwood Cup, and Don- caster Cup—a feat previously not accomplished since Isonomy in the 19th Century. In his final year at stud, Donatello II sired Crepello, which won the Two Thousand Guineas and Epsom Derby and himself became an important stallion.
Nearco was sold soon after his Grand Prix to Martin Benson, an English bookmaker, for £60,000 and was sent to Beech House Stud near Newmarket. Since there was an important air base nearby during World War II, Nearco was provided with his own air-raid shelter. Considering the profound influence he authored through his sons and subsequent descendants, the shelter installation was an investment of no little moment on the Turf.
While Nearco blood today is well represented in virtually every country where racing is held, his stock seemed par
ticularly well suited as breeding animals in the United States,
where the racing program rewards early maturity and high speed. Tesio himself said that Nearco was “not a true stayer,” although he regarded him as a very brilliant racer. He bred only two mares to Nearco in the entire time the horse was at stud.
Ribot had not yet raced when Tesio died, and the breeder regarded Cavaliere d’Arpino as the best race horse he bred. Cavaliere d’Arpino raced only five times, never outside Italy. so that opinion was a little hard to prove. It is of some interest, however, that in the male line Cavaliere d’Arpino became the great’ of Ribot, regarded by many racing men as the best horse yet seen in the present century.
Another among the outstanding horses bred by Tesio was Niccolo DeIl’Arca (Nearco’s half.brother), which won his Italian Derby by 20 lengths and in record time. He was three in 1941. during the war, however, and the only place he went outside Italy was to Germany, where be won the Grosser Preis der Reichshauptstadt.
Probably the best of all the Tesio-breds was Ribot, unbeaten in 16 starts, twice winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with the utmost ease and also the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in England. Ribot was a 2.year-old the year Tesio died, and the breeder made one of his infrequent
mistakes—in failing to nominate Ribot for the Italian classics, bwing to his small size. (An even worse mistake was very
nearly made with Hyperion in England, as Lord Derby wanted to geld him due to his failure to grow.)
Tesio’s success did not come immediately after he established his breeding operation in 1898, and Dormello did not make him instantly rich. In fact, nearly 40 years later,
although he had bred his initial champions, he was forced by a lean financial period to take the Marchessa Incisa della Rochetta as a partner in Dormello Fesio himself wrote: “My aim was to breed and raise a race horse which, over any distance, could carry the heaviest weight in the shortest time. To achieve this result seemed to me a difficult, but by no means impossible, undertaking, for I had seen many horses and read many books. I thought I knew. Presumption was not long in changing to disappointment. My recipes for success were of no avail against the persistent successes of my rivals. The truth was that, in spite of all I had seen and read, I had not yet learned to reflect—to reflect on the whys and wherefores.”

to be continued.

Pedigreeman

05-22-2009, 09:47 PM

FOR breeders today, Tesio’s ideas about breeding are of more interest than the horses he bred. The author spent four days in Milan in 1938 and had the good fortune to visit Tesio’s training stable and also the stud at Dormello. During that visit, Tesio made various points:
1. He sent his mares outside Dormello to be bred, as this gave him the widest possible selection in mating to obtain the characteristics needed by each mare as to conformation. constitution, distance capacity, nervous energy, early or late maturity, gameness, etc. This was quite an expensive program, as Tesio sent about half his mares annually to England and France to be covered, the vast majority of them to England. He told the author that his percentage of live foals from these breeding seasons in England and France averaged about 40 per cent. Since in those days, nearly all attractive sires stood on a “No Return” basis, it meant that the stud fees, on a live-foal basis, were 250 per cent of the advertised fee so far as Tesio was concerned. 2. Tesio did not restrict his choices to fashionable sires. For instance, he used both Spearmint and Coronach, neither of which was in high favor in England or Ireland. Yet, with Spearmint, he bred Fausta (Italian Derby) and with Coronach bred Jacopa del Sellaio (Italian One Thousand Guineas, Two Thousand Guineas, Italian Oaks, and Italian Derby) and Niccolo Dell’Arca. It cannot be said that Tesio was always correct in his judgments concerning unfashionable sires. The author saw in his training stable animals sired by Felstead and Sansovino, which were failures on the track.
3. Tesio frequently bred his mares for the first time to inexpensive sires, from which he sometimes got good racers, such as Dossa Dossi (by Spike Island), winner of the Italian Oaks. Dossa Dossi’s dam later bred Donatello II, by Blenheim
4. Tesio did not patronize pure sprinters as sires. You will look in vain for crosses of sprinting sires, such as Tetratema, Panorama, etc., in the Tesio pedigrees. Tesio did not despise speed; indeed, he was fond of saying that in the pedigrees of nearly all high-class racers, one could find animals of ex ceptional speed fairly close up.
5. His favorite strain was that of St. Simon (Tesio said he had curby hocks), and he tried to pile up as much St. Simon in his pedigrees as he could get, but, as he said, “not close up.” Inasmuch as we were talking in 1938 and St. Simon had been foaled in 1881, it already was a little hard to get the name “close up.”
What he was thinking of may be illustrated in the pedigree of Nearco. Pharos, sire of Nearco, was inbred to St. Simon with three free generations; his maternal grandsire, Havresac II, was inbred to St. Simon with one free generation and had two additional crosses of Galopin, the sire of St. Simon.
6. Tesio relied almost entirely on British strains for the introduction of new blood into his stud, but he did not mind American blood. Nearco himself traced in tail female to Maiden (by Lexington), a winner of the Travers.
7. In contrast to the Aga Khan, who believed that you could breed stoutness on the basis of speed, Tesio apparently never bought animals with pure speed pedigrees. He seemed to believe that one could evolve speed out of a stout base. This may have been due in part to his criteria for the sires he used. His general policy was to limit himself to stallions that had been very good 2.year’olds and then could go on with success at the classic distances as 3-year-olds. The fact that they had been high-class 2-year-olds gave him a source of early maturity and good speed. He did not absolutely insist that a sire had to be a Derby winner; he used Pharos (second by a length in the Derby) as a mate for Nogara, to produce Nearco.
As he pointed out, “If you restrict yourself to sires which had been first-class 2-year-olds and also up to classic distances as 3- year-olds, you eliminate about 98 per cent of the stallions at stud, and this makes the problem of selection very much simpler.”
As we have seen, however, he did not always practice what he preached. He bred to Felstead, which had not been a winner at two. The fact is that Tesio had a very strong bias in favor
English Derby winners. His preference was- the English classic winner (Derby or St. Leger) which had been a good 2-year-old, but like all sensitive artists, he made exceptions. He had. for
instance, a high regard for Tracery, which never started as a 2 year-old, and in fact did not run until about the first of June in
the Derby. to be continued.

Pedigreeman

05-28-2009, 08:33 PM

HOW OUR RACE HORSES MAY BE GREATLY IMPROVED.
J. E. Madden, the propietor of Hamburg Place ... has some original opinions on the interesting subject of how with proper mating our race horses may be greatly improved. The Thoroughbred Record is indebted to him for an interview - -
Mr. Madden was asked: “What quality does the English thoroughbred possess which is lacking in our own race horse?’’
Mr. Madden said: “I would not put it that way, Our best do not lack either speed, courage or stamina as compared with the English thoroughbed, but in general the English have found the secret of intelligent, scientific mating which has not been completely revealed to the American breeder,’’
‘‘What leads you to these conclusions?’’
‘‘My own experience as a breeder, and the records of the winning sires of two great classics, the Kentucky Derby and the Futurity. There must be something radically wrong with our methods when the practical failure of these in the stud is admitted. Not one of the forty-five Kentucky Derby winners, with the notable exception of Halma, sire of Mr. McDowell’s Alan-a-Dale, ever sired a Derby winner, although all of them had their breeding opportunity. No winner of the Futurity, the largest fixed event in this country, has as yet sired a winner of this race,
“This does not reflect on the quality of our thoroughbreds, but it places the responsibility for this failure where it belongs—at the doors of the breeders, who, having once bred Derby and Futurity winners, have mated them so unwisely that they have not been able to reproduce
to reproduce their kind.”
“What is the experience of England in this,” was asked of Mr, Madden,
‘Just the opposite of ours. I need only mention among the many Epsom Derby winners which have been successful sires: Sunstar, Rock Sand, Orby, Ard Patrick, Flying Fox. Persimmon, Isinglass and Diamond Jubilee (expecially in South America). In England it is an accepted fact that the winners of the classics can and do transmit in great part their own racing excellence to their offspring. This cannot be an accidental thing for year after year English Derby winners prove their worth as sires by producing sons and daughters which in their turn capture the great events of the turf, This is not the result of haphazard breeding. It is directly due to the great care and skill which the English breeders devote to the mating of their great sires. The King of England breeds and races thoroughbreds Lord Rosebery, an English premier, was proud to own a Derby winner. The colors of the noblest families in England are seen on the turf. The ablest men in that country have made a study of the breeding and mating of thoroughbreds with the result that they accomplish what we have signally failed to do—make the winners of the classic races produce winners of the classics.”
‘‘What is your experience along that line,’’ Mr. Madden was asked,
“I will be frank with you. Too many raise horses, too few breed them! I have made some humiliating mistakes- There is nothing so discouraging as a well-bred failure. I can give you several forceful illustrations. In 1900
I purchased in England, Sandringham, brother to those two good horses, Persimmon and Diamond Jubilee, both Derby winners. I then foolishly put price before merit.
‘‘Now another instance, I bought The Scribe, son of the English derby winner, Isinglass, out of the Oaks and St. Leger winner, Memoir, by St. Simon. Again I was tempted by pedigree and lost sight of merit.
‘‘I had the same sad experience with Planudes. I bought the horse because he was a son of the great St. Simon, and whose dam was the Oaks winner Lonely.
‘My mistake was in not having purchased a horse like Mr. Belmont’s great sire Rock Sand, or Mr. Whitney’s Meddler, or more stallions like Star Shoot and Friar Rock; then I would have done something worth while.”
“How do you purpose to bring about the desired
result?”
“Oh, that’s simple,” said Mr. Madden, “we have a better climate, better grass and more acreage than England, and there is no reason why, with the proper attention to the mating of race horses, we should breed thoroughbreds the equal of the best produced in
England.” 4/10/20

Pedigreeman

05-29-2009, 04:34 AM

Sorry for the goof up. This should have been posted before the previous post.

8. There are very few examples of close inbreeding in the Tesio pedigrees. But he did not mind it, once a sire such as Havresac II (which led the Italian sires list for 10 successive years) had proved himself.
9. Tesio apparently had two different models in mind—one high-priced, the other not—in buying broodmares. He gave 5,000 guineas, the highest price he ever paid, for Chuette, which had been a very smart filly on the track, and from her bred Cavaliere d’Arpino (by Havresac H). He gave 1,200 guineas for Belle Minna, which had been a very speedy 2-year- old but was no longer young, and from her he bred Bellini. (An Italian Derby winner and German stakes winner, Bellini in turn sired Tenerani, also an Italian Derby winner as well as a major Cup winner in England. Tenerani sired Ribot.) Tesio also bought the very high-class racer Foliation (by Tracery), when she was 14 and barren. In these mares, the actual proven performances were better than the pedigrees.
On the other hand, Tesio gave only 75 guineas for Catnip, which had won one race worth $100. Catnip, however, was by the stout Spearmint (Derby and Grand Prix) out of Sibola, winner in England of the One Thousand Guineas and second in the Oaks. Here was stoutness in the sire and first-class performance in the dam. Tesio evidently felt that by the judicious selection of sires, one could breed up from such mares. He certainly succeeded, using first Havresac II to obtain Nogara (winner of the Italian One Thousand and Two Thousand Guineas) from Sibola and then Pharos to breed Nearco and Coronach to breed Niccolo DeIl’Arca, each from Nogara. Tesio bought a yearling filly in 1921 for 160 guineas. She was by a third-class sire, Bridge of Earn, which had been a third-class race horse, winning the Newbury Autumn Cup of 2 ‘/, miles as a 3-year-old. Her dam was a non-winner at two and three, named Dutch Mary, by the Great Cup horse William the Third, out of the peerless race mare Pretty Polly (winner of 22 out of 24 starts). This yearling filly ia said to have been straight in the pasterns, wide in the fork, and dipped in the back. Nevertheless, she was an excellent performer in Italy, winning one of the filly classics under the name Duccia di Buoninsegna. Tesio bred her to a high quality horse in Clarissimus (Guineas winner in England), which was out of the unbeaten race mare Quintessence. The result of this mating was Delleana, an even better race mare than her dam had been. Delleana in turn was mated with a typical Tesio sort of stallion, Blenheim II, which had been a top 2-year-old and had won the Derby in England. Blenheim II was a small, “all quality” horse, just the sort that Tesio liked. The result here was the aforementioned Donatello II, winner of all his races except the Grand Prix de Paris.
Still another example of Tesio’s method of breeding up began with his purchase, in 1937, of the filiy foal by Derby winner Papyrus (he by Tracery) out of Bucolic, by Buchan, out of Volcanic. ‘ filly, Barbara Burrini, was unplaced the only time she ran at two, but won four races at three and two more at four. She was sound, and stayed well, but was of modest racing class. Still, she was better than might have been expected, as her sire, Papyrus, was by no means a success, and her dam, Bucolic, had won a tiny race but had not bred a winner. The next dam, Volcanic, had been a pretty fair race mare and had bred a couple of winners just under first class.
This was not the first-class background that Tesio normally liked. His widow, Donna Lydia Tesio, intimated that it was the Tracery blood that attracted Tesio to Barbara Burrini. Tesio bred the filly to a fast horse of his own breeding, El Greco (by Pharos), and the result was Romanella, which was the best 2- year-old filly of her generation in Italy. During the autumn at two, however, Romanella was starting to develop character problems, as well as an incipient ringbone. Tesio bred her consistently to sires of proven stamina, and as her sixth foal got the great Ribot, by his own stallion Tenerani, which was standing in England.
Thus, of five crack race horses Tesio bred, four—namely Nearco, Niccolo Dell’Arca, Donatello II, and Ribot—were produced by breeding up from females that cost very little at public auction; the fifth one, Cavaliere d’Arpino, was bred from a mare that already had shown good form on the Turf when Tesio bought her.
10. Judging by the regularity with which Tesio kept bringing new strains of blood into his stud, he was a believer in what we term the wave motion of inheritance, in which racing capacity can be expected to rise and fall. Tesio himself pointed out that there was no case of more than three successive generations of English Derby winners—father to son. The same thing is true of Oaks winners, and the limitation also has imposed itself to date in the United States.
Tn the pedigree of Nearco, among the 14 nearest ancestors, Tesio only bred one of them. The same is true of Niccolo Dell’Area and Donatello II. In the case of Ribot, only six of the 14 were Tesio-bred. In the case of Cavaliere d’Arpino, none of them was Tesio-bred. So much, according to Tesio, for getting into a family of mares, and sticking to it. His greatest results were not obtained that way.
11. The foals at Dormello were not strongly developed. As one well-known Kentucky horseman stated to the author after visiting Dormello in 1952: “If you put those Tesio foals up for auction as weanlings at Keeneland I don’t think they would bring $500 apiece!” Tesio, of course, was not trying to impress anybody else. He was rearing his stock in the way he thought best calculated to produce race horses.
Dormello itself consisted of several farms, so that the horses could be moved to higher elevations as the summer came on. In the winter, the foals, after weaning, were sent to Olgiata, near Rome, where the climate was warmer than at Dormello, along the shores of Lake Maggiore in northern Italy. Another aspect in which climate influenced Tesio’s actions was his willingness to buy scrawny, weedy fillies in England, feeling that they would improve in the additional warmth and sunshine of Italy.
Tesio liked to speculate on what horses would do if one set them completely free. He was convinced that they were by nature migratory animals and would head south in winter and, north in summer, so he did his best to imitate nature m his annual shipments south to Olgiata. With a smile he would add “At least, that is the way I raised Donatello II and Nearco. ;;'

Pedigreeman

06-16-2009, 04:24 AM

MATRIARCHS OF THE TURF
LADY JOSEPHINE by Floyd Oliver

In his book Breeding the Racehorse, Federico Tesio records early 20th century views on breeding that are remarkable, considering he possessed merely a fraction of the scientific knowledge available today. Tesio States, “The characteristics of the female are put back in circulation, so to speak, through the male. The dam of a popular stallion is a female who through him can produce many offspring in 11 months.” Just as a broodmare sire can exert great influence on the breeding capabilities of his daughters, one can assume, as did Tesio, that a mare can spread her genetic influence through her sons. According to the dosage theory of Franco Varola, “Enduring male lines are founded or transmitted by brilliant stallions. Conversely, elite broodmare sires are devoid of brilliant blood. Brilliant blood is the influence of extreme speed generated by 18 stallions foaled since 1900. These brilliant stallions earned only moderate success as broodmare sires. Of these 18 brilliant sires five trace to the great producer Lady Josephine.”
Lady Josephine was the source of the brilliance in these five stallions, even when staying blood such as that of Solario, Blenheim II, and Son-in- Law was introduced. Lady Josephine was the most important producer since Pocahontas, a foal of 1837. Obviously, mares such as Lady Josephine, Plucky Liege, Pretty Polly, Almahmoud, and Rough Shod II have had a profound impact on the breed, rivaling that of the Chef de Race stallions.
Lady Josephine was one of the fastest fillies of her year, winning the Champagne (Eng-Il) and Coventry (Eng-Ill) Stakes, the latter the most important two-year-old race at Royal Ascot. In the process, she defeated the following year’s One Thousand Guineas (Eng-1) runner-up, Silver Tag and Epsom Oaks (Eng-1) runner-up, Bright.
Not only was Lady Josephine a fast horse herself, but she was by Sundridge, probably the best sprinter of his time and winner of the prestigious July Stakes (Eng-1) three years in a row, once under the staggering impost of 142 pounds.
Sundridge, a foal of 1898, had a much greater impact on the breed than one might expect from a sprinter. One might compare him to a modem-day Mr. Prospector. If his only contribution had been to sire Lady Josephine, his place in the history of the breed would have been assured. However, his influence reaches further.
Sundridge entered stud at the end of his sixth year for a fee of only nine guineas. He possessed an outstanding pedigree, however, and after he sired Epsom Derby winner Sunstar from his forth crop, his fee rose to 200 guineas.
Sundridge was the result of crossing the inbred Amphion (3x3 to Newminster) to Sierra inbred (3x3 to Stockwell). To understand the impact that such inbreeding could have on Sundridge’s progeny, one has to have a rudimentary understanding of the dosage system of Lt. Col. J.J. Vuiller, who served as pedigree consultant to the Aga Khan.
Vuiller’s research revealed that the percentages of blood of key, foundation animals remained constant in all pedigrees-it never varied more than three-fourths of one percent from the average blood percentage for the animal in question. Once he established a mathematical constant, Vuiller demonstrated that as the breed evolved, the great names in pedigrees tended to establish as constant figure for each great sire.
Vuiller developed what are called “series” of sires, all born within 15-20 years of each other. For the purposes of our discussion, the “series” from 1840-1860 is of great importance. The Stockwell series, as it was called, included only two great stallions-Stockwell and Newminster. Lady Josephine’s sire, Sundridge, was the result of a stallion, inbred to one of the stallions in the Stockwell series, to a mare inbred to the other.
Vuiller’s most salient point is that very few horses in a given period mpact much later pedigrees. In the case of Sundridge, Stockwell and Newminster produced an exceptional impact on later pedigrees. Sundridge’s dam, the Springfield mare Sierra, was a frill sister to the influential sire Sainfoin. As Ken Mclean explained in his excellent book, Tesio, Master of Matings, the breeding of full brothers and sisters can have an extraordinary effect on prepotency. The example most cited in Mc book was the cross of St. Simon and his f sister Angelica. The presence of Sierra close up in Lady Josephine’s pedigree would open a rich avenue of opportunity when her descendants were mated with Phalaris and his sons. This cross-brought together the blood of Sainfoin and Sierra.
Sundridg&s career accelerated after he sired 1911 Derby winner Sunstar. Sundridge also sired a leading two-year-old in England, Absurd (which became leading sire in New Zealand), and Absurd’s l sister, Jest, winner of the One Thousand Guineas and Oaks. Jest produced the courageous Epsom Derby winner Humorist, which prevailed despite suffering from an advanced case of tuberculosis.
Sun Briar, by Sundridge was champion two-year-old on the United States
in 1917. His fliP brother Sunreigh, is the sire of Reigh Count (winner of the
1928 Kentucky Derby) and grandsire of 1943 Triple Crown winner Count
Fleet.
Sunstar was the most influential son of Sundridge, and his name can be found in the pedigrees of Roman, Star Kingdom, Romanella, and Craig an Eran. Romanella the dam of unbeaten Ribot, is inbred to Sunstar and Sainloin. This gives her a double cross of the full brother and sister Sainfoin and Sierra.
Sunstar sired several sons, which developed into important broodmare
sires, including North Star Ill, sire of the dams of Blue Larkspur and
Balladier. North Star III also sired the dam of Buchan, broodmare sire of
Roman and sired Ribofs third dam.
Ainericus Girl, the dam of Lady Josephine, was by Americus-Palotta by
Gallinule. Considering Vuiller’s dosage theory, strains of Stockwell and
Newminster in Americus Girl should have reinforced those found in Lady
Josephine’s sire, Sundridge.
Americus, was sent to England by Richard Croker, the former “boss’ of the notorious Tammany Hall. The British did not think much of Arnericus, and he sired only one horse, which made an impact on the breed-Americus Girl. Her family became important to breeders on both sides of the Atlantic. Americus has an unusual pedigree and contributed heavily to the pedigree of Lady Josephine. Palotta (by Gallinule) is the second dam of Lady Josephine. Gallinule sired the great race mare and producer Pretty Polly, winner of 22 races in 24 starts. Her victories included wins in the One Thousand Guineas, Oaks, and St. Leger. Gallinule was leading broodmare sire on four occasions.
Gallinule contribution to Lady Josephine’s pedigree is significant-Gallinule
is inbred 3x4 to Stockwell and carries a cross of Newminster through
Hermit.
Sundridge’s second dam is inbred 3x4 to the full brothers Stockwell and
Rataplan. Lady Josephine, then, has four crosses of Stockwell, two of
Rataplan, and five of Newminster. Lady Josephine was heavily dosed with
the blood of the two best sires of their time.
The mystery horse in the pedigree of Lady Josephine is Americus. The broodmare sire of one of the most important foundation mares in the history of the Stud Book must have made a significant contribution. Although an obscure stallion, and hardly a success at stud, it was Americus which served as the catalyst, releasing the latent power in Lady Josephine’s pedigree.
Americus was inbred 3x3 to Lexington, 16 times leading sire in North America. Not only was Americus inbred to Lexington, but this inbreeding took place through the presence of the full brother and sister Norfolk and The Nun. These fill siblings were by Lexington-Novice by Glencoe. The Lexington nick with Glencoe mares was one of the most potent in the history of the breed.
Lexington’s first crop gives us an idea of the magnitude of this nick. From Lexington’s first crop came the exceptional horses Asteroid, Norfolk, and Kentucky. Asteroid and Norfolk were undefeated, and Kentucky lost just once, to Norfolk. All were by Lexington out of Glencoe mares.
Also carrying the nick are Travers Stakes winners Maiden and Merrill, champion three-year-olds Acrobat and Sultana, as well as Salina, dam of champion Salvator. (Maiden later became the sixth dam of Nearco.)
The presence of the fill brother and sister Norfolk and The Nun, both carrying the Lexington-Glencoe nick, is a potent addition to Lady Josephine’s pedigree. The inbreeding to Glencoe in Americus, however, explains why this unsuccessful stallion became the broodmare sire of one of the world’s most influential foundation mares. In fact, Americus picks up a third cross of Glencoe through Emperor of Norfolk’s second dam, Maggie Mitchell, which is out of the Glencoe mare Charmer.
Before he was imported to North America, Glencoe sired the mare
Pocahontas, dam of the full brothers Stockwell and Rataplan. Again, Lady
Josephine has six crosses of Stockwell and Rataplan in her pedigree. This
gives her six crosses of Pocahontas and six crosses of Glencoe (sire of
Pocahontas).
Stockwell and Rataplan had unusual pedigrees. They had crosses of the full brothers and sister Whalebone, Whisker and Web. Glencoe was important in the genetic makeup of Pocahontas because he provided the female strain of Web (his 2nd dam). One other very important pedigree pattern found in Americus is the fact that he is the result of breeding a powerftil male line back to it’s own foundation female line. I call this breeding a male line descendant of a matriarch back to a female from the same family. In the case of Americus it wouldn’t matter if it were Emperor of Norfolk, Norfolk, Lexington, or Boston who was from the same female line as the dam of Americus. In this case it is the grandsire Norfolk who is from the same family as Clara D. the dam of Americus.
One doesn’t have to look very far to find another instance of this same pattern in Americus. Novice, the dam of Norfolk is by Glencoe whose 2nd dam is Web. Novice’s 4th dam is also Web. So, Novice is the result of breeding Glencoe back to a mare from his own foundation family. And keep in mind, the mare to which he is inbred is Web whose full brothers Whalebone and Whisker are so prominent in Stockwell and Rataplan.
A Summary of Lady Josephine’s pedigree shows heavy dosages of Stockwell and Newminster, the two best sires of their time. Six crosses of the great foundation mare Pocahontas emerge through Stockwell and his full brother Rataplan, with fUrther reinforcement from three crosses of Glencoe (found in Americus). Also present in Lady Josephine’s pedigree is the mare Sierra which would make her daughters and granddaughters perfect crosses for stallions from the Phalaris line which carried the blood of Sierra’s full brother, Sainfoin.
Through her daughters Lady Juror and Mumtaz Mahal, Lady Josephine made her remarkable contribution to modern pedigrees. Lady Juror and Mumtaz Mahal are matriarchs in their own right and will be the subject of later chapters. Lady Juror is the ancestress of Fair Trial, Tudor Minstrel, Commotion, Combat, Aristophanes, Abernant, Kashmir II, and Sebring II. Mumtaz Mahal is the ancestress of Nasrullah, Royal Charger, Mahmoud, Petite Etoile, Migoli, Kalamoun, Shergar, Badruddin, Aliysa, Habibti, Ginetta, Octagonal, Risen Star, and Oh So Sharp.
With the proliferation of maj or sires from her female line, extensive line breeding to Lady Josephine has been taking place during the last 30 years. Recall how many times Nasrullah, Royal Charger and Mahmoud are seen in one pedigree, not to mention the other stallions tracing to Lady Josephine. A good example is Theatrical. His sire, Nureyev has crosses of Mahmoud, Nasrullah, and Aristophanes, while his dam has two crosses of Court Martial (Fair Trial) and a cross of Royal Charger.
Lady Josephine’s female line has produced so many prominent stallions that its place in the history of the studbook is assured.

Pedigreeman

07-10-2009, 04:38 AM

Matriarchs Of The Turf by Floyd Oliver.

The 1955 running of the Kentucky Derby was the first that the Author took a great interest in. Then 14 years old, I had recently heard the memorable running of the Wood Memorial, on radio, in which Nashua had beaten my favorite Summer Tan by a nose. Like most others, including Eddie Arcaro, I believed the Derby would be a race between the first two finishers in the Wood Memorial. That horse from the west with the peculiar name of Swaps just wasn’t in the same class as his eastern rivals. So I thought! So, while Eddie Arcaro kept his eye on Summer Tan, Swaps ran off with the race. Even though Swaps won eight of nine starts at three, losing only the match race to Nashua, it wouldn’t be until the end of his four-year-old year that I reluctantly had to admit to my self that Swaps was a very good horse, and maybe a great one. Swaps proved during his four-year-old season that he was indeed a great horse. He won his first start in the Los Angeles County Fair Handicap scoring an easy victory over the good handicap horse Bobby Brocato. He next ventured to Florida where he won the Broward Handicap under 130 pounds in world record time of 1:39 3/5 for a mile and 70 yards. Back in California again, Swaps lost the Californian Stakes to Porterhouse by a nose when Shoemaker eased up on him too soon. He then won the Argonaut Handicap, breaking Citation’s world record for a mile in 1:33 1/5. In the American Handicap he equaled the world record for 9 thrlongs of 1:46 4/5. Next he won the Hollywood Gold Cup, eased up, 2/5 off the worlds record of 1:58 1/5. Not to let down his now legion of admirers, Swaps set another worlds record in his next start winning the Sunset Handicap at 1 5/8 miles in 2:38 1/5. His final victory came in the Washington Park Handicap in which he ran away from Summer Tan in 133 2/5 only 1/5 of a second off his own world record for a mile.
Rex Ellsworth, Swaps owner and breeder, rose from buying mares at Keeneland for a few hundred dollars apiece to being twice leading breeder in the United States and the owner of a Horse of the Year. One brilliant move propelled Ellsworth from obscurity to prominence, which was the purchase of Khaled from the Aga Khan. The Aga Khan came in for much criticism in England for exporting to the United States some of his finest stallion prospects, ever though he was under no financial pressure to do so. These included Nasrullah, Mahmoud, Blenheim II, Bahram, and Khaled.
Khaled was an undefeated two-year-old who was well thought of for the classic races of 1946. But, while winning his first start as a three-year-old, jockey Henry Wragg on the 2nd place finisher, Downrush, said he heard Khaled making a noise before he came alongside his mount. This was unfortunately true, and later analysis revealed that Khaled was “gone in the wind”. Even with this condition he was able to finish 2nd in the Two Thousand Guineas beaten four lengths by Happy Knight.
So, with his wind condition, about which the Prince My Khan remarked to Rex Ellsworth, “I’m afraid that goes with him”. Khaled was sold to Ellsworth for $160,000. Ellsworth soon recouped his investment, for wind condition or not, Khaled sired 26 two-year-old winners from his 2nd crop in the United States, a number 2nd to Star Shoot’s 27 in 1914. Then came Swaps!
One of the more interesting aspects of pedigree research is that the patterns found in pedigrees one hundred years ago are repeated today, with different horses. The dam of 1990 Preakness Stakes winner Summer Squall is inbred to Somethingroyal through her sons Sir Gaylord and Secretariat. The 1903 Epsom Oaks winner, Our Lassie is inbred 3x4 to the sisters Feronia and Violet who are daughters of the Stockwell mare Woodbine. Our Lassie is important to modern pedigrees, as she is the 2nd dam of the subject of this article’s matriarch, Black Ray. Black Ray is the ancestress of Khaled, Mill Reef, Blushing Groom, and Lady’s Secret. The development of this family from Oaks winner Our Lassie to her granddaughter Black Ray follows a pattern veiy similar to the one found in matriarch Lady Josephine. Like Lady Josephine, Black Ray was heavily inbred to the two great stallions Stockwell and Newminster. Lady Josephine had six crosses of Stockwell and his fill brother Rataplan and four crosses of Newminster. Black Ray had ten crosses of Stockwell and five of Newminster.
Black Ray’s 2nd dam, Epsom Oaks winner Our Lassie, is the result of breeding Yours, a mare by Melton to Ayrshire. Both Melton and Ayrshire have the same 3rd dam, Woodbine by Stockwell. In the story of Etoile Filante, when Fairy Manhurst, whose 3rd dam was Etoile Filante, was crossed to a mare whose 3rd dam was Etoile Filante, the result was Gaffery, the 2nd highweighted filly in North America. Horses from the same female family tend to nick together. It is very likely that mares from the same family as Lady’s Secret will cross well with stallions from the Mill Reef, Blushing Groom, and Khaled sire lines. All of these horses are from the same family.
Sundridge is prominent in the pedigree of both Black Ray and Lady Josephine. He is the sire of Lady Josephine and the sire of the dam of Black Ray. Sundridge was one of those stallions like the modern Nashua, Discovery, and Buckpasser who was able to have a very potent effect on the female line. Nashua’s daughters produced leading sires Mr. Prospector and Roberto; Buckpassers daughters produced Private Account, Woodman, Easy Goer and Slew 0’ Gold; while Discovery’s daughters are responsible for the production of Bold Ruler, Native Dancer, Intentionally, and Hasty Road. When you cross a stallion such as Slew O’Gold to a mare by Mr. Prospector, you bring together several crosses of these extremely influential stallions. A good example is Golden Opinion, champion three-year-old filly in France and England. She is by Slew O’Gold out of a daughter of Mr. Prospector, and she has in her pedigree crosses of Bold Ruler, Native Dancer, Buckpasser and Nashua.
When we look at Black Ray from the perspective of her dam, Lady Brilliant, we must ask ourselves what influence on her genetic make-up, was contributed by her sire, Black Jester. Although not a very successftil stallion, Black Jester, who won the St. Leger, was very well bred. His dam produced Absurd, a good two-year-old who became the leading sire in New Zealand, and Jest, who won the 1,000 Guineas and Oaks. Jest in turn produced Epsom Derby winner Humorist, who was by Polymelus, and a ¾ brother to Black Jester.
Black Jester is by Polymelus out of Absurdity by Melton. This makes his daughter, Black Ray inbred 3x4 to Melton with three crosses of Woodbine to whom both Melton and Ayrshire trace. This is important as Woodbine is out of a fill sister to the great Newminster who appears five times. In the story of Maggie B. B., the reinforcing of powerftil female lines is a proven way to produce high-class runners. As we proceed through this series, this will become readily apparent.
Black Ray was in bred to Melton and had a cross of Ayrshire, who was from the same female line. She also had the exceptional broodmare sire Sundridge as the sire of her dam Lady Brilliant.
Blessed with a powerfUl genetic make-up, Black Ray produced two champion two-year-olds in Jacopo and Foray from amongst her 19 consecutive foals. But, these champions are not the reason that Black Ray earned her distinction as a matriarch. Black Ray produced three fUll sisters by the stallion Ethnarch, a failure at stud but a son of the mighty “spotted wonder”, The Tetrarch. It is worth noting that Lady Josephine, who has a similar pedigree to Black Ray, when mated to The Tetrarch produced, “the flying filly”, Mumtaz Mahal. It was through these three sisters that Black Ray would spread her influence.
The most important of the trio is Éclair, who is the dam of Khaled. After being purchased by Rex Ellsworth for $160,000, Khaled sired 26 two-year- old winners from his second crop of 45 foals. This was second only to Star Shoot’s record of 27 winners from 52 foals. His first good runner was Correspondent, winner of the Hollywood Gold Cup and $207,292, a considerable sum in the early 1950’s. A couple of years later came Horse of the Year, Swaps with his victory over Nashua in the Kentucky Derby. Swaps did not form a lasting male line, but his daughters are prominent in the pedigrees of Woodman, Private Account, Allan’s Prospect, Time for a Change, Cox’s Ridge, Mehmet, and Wild Again.
Eclair, when mated with Umidwar produced Emali, who when mated to Hyperion’s grandson Tudor Minstrel produced Aimee, the 2nd dam of Blushing Groom. Note that Blushing Groom is sired by Red God, by Nasrullah, whose grandam is Mumtaz Mahal by the Tetrarch. She is the genetic relative of Eclair, with Mumtaz Mahal being by The Tetrarch out of a Sundridge mare, while Eclair is by a son of The Tetrarch out of a mare with a 2nd dam by Sundridge. Two important stallions trace to Eclair, Khaled and Blushing Groom.
Mother of Ethnarch’s trio of daughters from Black Ray is InfraRed. Infra
Red when mated to Hyperion produced Red Ray who is the 3rd dam of
classic winner and very successfUl stallion, Mill Reef Mill Reef is the sire of
8 champions and numerous classic winners.
The third powerfUl line tracing to Black Ray is from Dawn Ray, the 3rd of
Ethnarch’s daughters from Black Ray. Dawn Ray when mated to Hyperion’s
son Owen Tudor produced Implicit Trust who is the 5th dam of Lady’s
Secret.
One of the keys to the success earned by Black Ray’s family came when her daughters were mated to Hyperion and his sons. And again, as we have been emphasizing throughout this series, this success was the result of reinforcing the best blood found in the mare, either through linebreeding or inbreeding to genetic relatives. The case of Black Ray’s family crossing well with Hyperion is a good illustration.
Black Ray is inbred 4x4 to Hampton, but if you look closely at her 2nd dam, you’ll see that Our Lassie is by Ayrshire, a son of Hampton out of a daughter of Galopin. She also has Galliard as the sire of her 2nd dam. Compare her to Hyperion’s grandsire Bayardo who is by Bay Ronald, a son of Hampton-Black Duchess by Galliard, and out of Galicia by Galopin. In effect, Our Lassie and Bayardo are genetic relatives having Hampton, Galopin and Galliard close up in their pedigrees.
Khaled was the result of breeding Black Ray’s daughter, Éclair to Hyperion. Amiee is the result of breeding a daughter of Eclair to Hyperion’s grandson Tudor Minstrel. And, as mentioned earlier, when Dawn Ray was crosses with Tudor Minstrel’s sire, Owen Tudor, she produced Implicit Trust, the 5th dam of Lady’s Secret. Reinforcement took place when Olympia was bred to Trustworthy II to produce Sweety Kid, the 3rd dam. Olympia is by Hyperion’s son Heliopolis, who is from the same female family as Melton and Ayrshire.
You might say that Lady’s Secret was a grand accident. What we find in
Lady’s Secret is progressive reinforcement of her best blood, all done by
accident. Her dam is by Icecapade, a son of Nearctic, whose dam is by
Hyperion, and she traces down her female line to the same female family as
Melton and Ayshire.
In conclusion, it would not be surprising to find that horses tracing to Black Ray’s three daughters by Ethnarch, Dawn Ray. Infra Red, and Eclair, would have an affinity for each other’s blood. This means that Mill Reefs sons may cross well with sons of Blushing Groom, or the reverse, or that Lady’s Secret or her female descendants would cross well with males from the Blushing Groom, Mill Reef or stallions with Khaled blood.
One last point, as was previously mentioned, Black Ray’s daughters by
Ethnarch are the genetic relatives of Mumtaz Mahal, the grandam of
Nasrullah. Note that Mill Reef is by Never Bend, a son of Nasrullah,
Blushing Groom is by Red God by Nasrullah and Lady’s Secret is by
Secretariat, a grandson of Nasrullah. Further evidence of the powerful
effect of crossing genetic relatives.

Pedigreeman

07-25-2009, 03:47 AM

A good Trainer's Story.

A beautiful chestnut, stocking-legged filly came to our barn on April 19. She had been claimed from a leading trainer for $3,500. The new owner first gave her to another trainer, but they couldn’t see eye to eye, and I was then selected as the new buffer. She arrived at our barn at 3 P.M. She was cranky and tired, sore at the world. She resented being brushed. I deduced that she was skin-sore, the result of too strong a body brace after a workout. We didn’t brush her for three days, and although she became rough looking, at least she was not disturbed.
We wormed her, giving one ounce divided into quarter-ounce doses, one dose daily in her night mash. The phenothiazine was mixed in dry grain to ensure equal distribution, and then water was added to moisten the mash.
Her shoes were reset and she was walked for three days. We checked her teeth and found several points, which we promptly removed. Her legs were as sound as the day she was born. She was taken to the track for five days and slow-galloped for light exercise. She visibly brightened, began to look around, notice things, and in general to take a renewed interest in life.
We worked her 5/8th on the 28th, in 1:03 3/5. We walked the next day and then shipped to Golden Gate. On the 30th she galloped a slow mile, and then another slow mile. Then a good mile at medium speed. The next day we worked 3/8th in :36 2/5 easily. She playfully threw the boy off coming home to the barn. She was entered in a race $2,000 above her class, and won, going the mile in 1:37 1/5, in front wire to wire. She paid $26.80. The new owner smiled from ear to ear
We walked her three days, ponied her three days, gave her a 1/4 mile blowout, and then entered her. The race didn’t fill, so we walked her that day. She galloped four days straight at a slow mile. We worked her the next day and entered her for $3,000 above her claiming price. She broke on top and carried the pace to the wire and was caught then by a colt whom we beat in her last start. The time was 1:37 fiat. We got beat a nose.
The owner then transferred her to a trainer who had told him, “He ain’t doing nuttin’ wid the mare.” So the new conditioner took over. Ten days later she ran with the same field and finished dead last, The Form showed some sizzling works the good-convincer trainer had given her and which the race proved were just what she didn’t need.
How did we do it? The mare had been overworked when we got her. By taking it easy and giving her a little attention, she came around to her potential. It broke my heart to see this game little mare fracture a sesamoid in her next start.
It is common to hear the statement, usually in the form of an excuse, “The horse was short.” Whereupon more work is poured on—until the horse gets shorter lust the opposite would have turned the trick. A few days of walking and an easy gallop or two, followed by a slow work is more often than not a panacea.

Pedigreeman

07-25-2009, 05:14 AM

Breeding a Successful Stallion An examination of the problem by John Hislop.

Part 1.
The first approach to the problem is to try to discover the qualities which a stallion of the desired calibre should possess, bearing in mind that, for the National Stud, a middle- distance horse rather than a pure sprinter is the chief aim—the type of horse able to sire a Derby winner.

Champion sires
The following horses have headed the list of successful sires from the beginning of the century to the present St. Simon twice Persimmon four times ; St. Frusquin twice Gallinule twice; Cyllene twice ; Sundridge; Desmond ; Polymelus five times ; Bayardo twice ; The Tetrarch ; Lemberg Swynford Son-in-Law twice ; Phalaris twice ; Hurry On ; Buchan ; Tetratema Pharos Gains- borough twice ; Blandford three times Fairway four times ; Solario ; Hyperion six times ; Nearco twice ; Bois Roussel ; Fair Trial; Nasrullah ; Tehran; Chanteur II.
Every one of these were good racehorses and several of them were great ones. Gallinule only showed top-class form as a two year old but broke blood-vessels; Desmond did not train on either, but was also a good two year old. Sundridge and Phalaris did not stay, but were top-class sprinters. Blandford was a better horse than his public form shows, because he was unsound. l was probably the best horse of his year. Polymelus was not a classic winner, but was a high-class race horse, which can also be said of Pharos, Son-in-Law, Buchan, Fair Trial, Nasrullah, Chanteur II. St. Simon, Persimmon, Swyn ford, Bayardo, Gainsborough, Hurry On, Fairway, Hyperion and Nearco were great horses. The Tetrarch did not race as a three year old, but was a phenomenal two year old.
This suggests that ability as a sire is directly related to ability on the racecourse, for not only has each of the sires mentioned shown high-class form as a racehorse, but the most outstanding of them at stud, namely St. Simon (who also headed the sires list seven times consecutively, during the previous century), Persimmon, Fairway and Hyperion, were among the greatest on the racecourse.
First essential
The first essential in breeding a successful
stallion is, therefore, to breed a good race horse ; if possible, a brilliant one.
This is only the first step, because many good, even great, racehorses have failed at stud. Pommern, Gay Crusader (reputed to have been considered by his trainer a better horse than Gainsborough), Common, Captain Cuttle, Coronach, Call Boy and Papyrus, were all pretty good horses who disappointed at stud. But, on the whole, the failures of great racehorses at stud are not high. The problem as regards this aspect of the matter is to arrive at a true assessment of it horse’s racing ability, not merely in relation to his contemporaries, but as compared with previous and later genera
Not infrequently a horse is hailed as a champion, when later evidence shows him to have been far removed from championship class. That is why, from the aspect of the breed itself, racing horses beyond the age of three is so important it enables an accurate
The first approach to the problem is to try to discover the qualities which a stallion of the desired calibre should possess, bearing in mind that, for the National Stud, a middle- distance horse rather than a pure sprinter is the chief aim—the type of horse able to sire a Derby winner. risking their value falling through defeat, but he has to breed him first.
It is often said that, while it is not uncommon to find a good racehorse with a second-class pedigree, it is rare for a top-class sire to be so bred. In wide terms this is true, but it is not so easy to interpret as it sounds. A good pedigree is one composed of horses and mares who breed good racehorses.

Pedigreeman

04-12-2010, 02:44 PM

FastG45, The good colt Paddy Oprado.

This is a quote from the article: Choosing A Broodmare.

"It must be remembered that exceptional sires are rare, and that more good horses come from top-class female lines than from second-class ones. Top-class breeding is not merely a whim of fashion, it is based on results, and to buy a mare from a top-class female line is to minimize the risk of failure."

The colt Paddy O'prado comes from the tail female line
of the great mare Woodbine (8c). This is the family of Ruffian, John Henry and Storm Cat. Woodbines Daughter Feronia was so prolific she was
on tail female branch (8d). If you trace back 13 generation you find her.
But let’s look a little closer for now to see the source of power. His third dam Carol’s Christmas did show some racing ability with 12 Starts, 4 Wins, 3 Places, 0 Shows Career Earnings: $39,170. But her new career as a broodmare but her on the map to stardom. When mated to Naskra she produced the very good colt named Olympio.
Olympio raced for his breeder/ocwner Verne Winchell. He bred and raced champions Mira Femme and Tight Spot (the latter raced in partnership) ... His other top horses include Donut King, Sea Cadet, Fleet Renee and Valiant Nature ... Verne Winchell raced On Target, fourth in the 1994 Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Exetera, seventh in the 1995 Juvenile ... Tight Spot finished in a dead heat for ninth in the 1991 Breeders' Cup Mile ... Verne Winchell also bred Classy Women, who in 1991 set a then 5 1/2-furlong world record on turf of 1:01 at Hollywood Park, and Premium Win, the dam of both Tight Spot and Valiant Nature, who in 1985, equaled the then 5
1/2-furlong world record on dirt of 1:01 3/5. Back to Carol’s Christmas her mating to Wild Again produced a filly named Call Now she raced 15 times with 5-3-2 with $368,765 in earning.
Olympio raced 17 times with 9-4-0 with $1,456,345 in earning.
Mated again to Wild Again she produce Your Call(breeder Verne Winchell) winner of $100,000 in 2 starts. From CC 10 foal 7 were winners and 4 were Stakes winners. Carol Christmas sire Whitesburg was a son of the Champion 2 year old Crimson Satan. Crimson
Satan will ever be known as the sire of Crimson Saint dam Terlingua dam of Storm Cat.
Let’s go back to the mother and daughter Woodbine 8c and Feronia 8d for a second and
Remember Carols Christmas is from the 8d family which is really the 8c and Terlingua is
from the same 8c tracing back to Woodbine. Now let move to the 2<SUP>nd</SUP> dam Bistra is a
Daughter of Classic Go Go raced for o/b Verne Winchell. He earned $442,484 with 50
Start with 14 wins 11 places and 7 shows. Bistra as a race was not impressive with 7
Starts with 3wins and 3 shows earning $62,250 but once again as a producer she did what
The family is noted for in producing Fun House, Early Flyer and Roundabout ¾ brother to
Fun house. Notice Fun House’s Sire is Prized and Roundabout Sire is Kris S. and Kris s. is the sire
Of Prized. Prized traces back to the same Female family of Woodbine (8c) This is the old adage of (Returning the sire to the best blood of his dam) Now we come to Fun House dam of Paddy Oprado.
We now know the female family is in place to produce a runner and it did. And if you go back to the
Post on Chocolate Candy the quote “I couldn’t care less about a sire’s racing ability. It just isn’t that important if I can see the necessary broodmare lines." I think it fits Here.

FastG45

04-12-2010, 08:05 PM

FastG45, The good colt Paddy Oprado.

if you go back to the Post on Chocolate Candy the quote “I couldn’t care less about a sire’s racing ability. It just isn’t that important if I can see the necessary broodmare lines." I think it fits Here.

Thanks Pedigreeman,

Very informative article, thanks so much for posting it.

I thought POP was home free in bluegrass until Stately Victor went on by.

If PaddyCake goes in the Derby I think he is still a good under number unless Kent was sandbagging a little at the end, all he needed was a second to get in the big dance. If he takes to the dirt and improves off his Bluegrass effort, he might be a little closer May 1st.

Pedigreeman

05-21-2010, 11:30 PM

John E. Madden, one of the greatest breeders of all time, wrote as follows: "As to the so-called intricate science of breeding in so blending the blood of the sire and the dam that winners may be produced in numbers, although of absorbing interest to the student and theorist, the practical man need confine himself to the formula only of breeding a good mare to a great horse taking into due consideration the varying qualities of each, and putting his trust in like producing like, or the likeness of some good ancestor. He will have his share of winners, his good years and bad years, and the experts will tack figures on to the pedigrees of his winners, and tell him how it all happened."

One of the most popular of these systems of breeding is the Figure System of Bruce Lowe, an Australian. Probably no scheme in the long history of animal breeding compares with it. Lowe classified the winners of the three classic events in England (Derby, Oaks, and St. Leger) into Matriarchies or families upon the basis of the tap-root female ancestor to which each animal traced. Each family was as-signed a number upon the basis of its relative standing as a classic winner. Lowe designated 43 families; Allison a few years later added seven more. Many others have since been added under such names as American, Canadian, Irish, etc. Certain families such as 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were identified as running families and certain others as sire-producing families. The preposterous assumption of maternal predominance was at the very heart of the system. Pedigrees of successful horses were cited as guides to the proper ways to combine and blend the family numbers.
Many still believe in this so-called science, which could more properly be labeled the number racket. In the English book, BEST HORSES of 1945, by Phil Bull, there is a compilation of the Lowe family numbers of about four hundred of the selling platers which ran last in their respective races. The Number One family provided 43 of these worthless nags and Family 43 supplied but one. So much for Mr. Lowe and Mr. Allison, except to add that their pseudo-science is harmless compared to the hell they have raised by their part in the Jersey Act.

Another less popular screwball system was proposed by the Frenchman Vuillier in 1927 and was called the Dosage System. Its main feature was to take the pedigrees of great horses and calculate the percentage of blood of each of its famous ancestors and breed future winners by the simple process of duplicating these percentages.

A third popular system is that of "nicks," a theory which claims that certain crosses produce more and better winners than equally good animals mated in other ways. One of the more famous ones is that of Fair Play sires with Rock Sand mares. Of course good horses came from these matings; but so did poor ones which are less easily remembered. Before long some bright light will probably start spouting off about the wonders of the cross of Heliopolis with Bull Dog mares. But before we accept this it is well to recall a few additional facts. Heliopolis is a great horse, the son of a famous sire. He has produced top colts from an assortment of good mares. Bull Dog was a good race horse and stands today at or near the top as a sire of winners and dams of winners. His mares were one of the finest collections in the world. In addition Bull Dog is the son of the immortal Teddy and the full brother of Sir Galahad III and of Quatre Bras II. Any stallion which would
fail to produce good horses from mares of this direct lineage should rightly be classed as a failure. There is no harm in trying nicks if other factors are not ignored. The best nick would be to mate a leading sire with a mare of proven producing worth.

Only a few scientific studies have been made to determine the actual value of a pedigree. One of the most comprehensive of these was done by Dr. Dewey G. Steele of the University of Kentucky. Thoroughbred stakes winners of 1935-1940, and arbitrarily chosen horses that failed to make a good record during the same years. The "poors" were the horses who finished last in their races, exclusive of accident and breakdown, using a predetermined sampling system of races held on cetain days through the season. All of these pedigrees were broken down into the percentage of blood of each of the famous male lines such as Domino, St. Simon, Bend Or, Isonomy, Galopin, Hampton, Hermit, Eclipse, Herod and Matchem. It was amazing to see how little was the variation between the pedigree percentages of the winners and the "poors." Dr. Steele remarks, "Minor differences between the superior and the poor horses were hardly consistent enough nor great enough to be of
practical significance." Incidentally a similar study of American Saddle Horses showed the same thing in regard to the pedigrees of the top winners and those of average or poor quality.

Now that we have dismissed all these common ideas on how winners may be bred, can we find any real guide for our plans? I think that the answer is yes. J. A. Estes has gathered considerable data to prove the contention that high racing class in the immediate ancestors is the best index of probable excellence. For example, the Futurity has been run 56 times, and 22 of its winners, or 39 percent, were the sores and daughters of stakes winning mares. Since there are so few mares of this caliber, the normal expectancy would be nearer 10 percent. A similar study by Robertson of the classic winners in England, showed convincingly that racing class of a dam is indicative of her potential value in the stud. Estes adds, "It is, more specifically, my intention to contend that it costs ten times as much to buy a pedigree without racing class as racing class without a good pedigree, and that these odds are upside down. Class without pedigree is actually a far better
risk than pedigree without class. Class with pedigree (if the pedigree is limited to two generations) is of course better than either."

There are many ideas as to the relative importance of the sire and the dam. Genetically they are equally important in their contribution to the offspring, but since the mare develops, nurses and to a certain extent guides the early life of the foal, a good mother actually may have more than her genetic share in the final outcome.

Since but a very small percentage of all males foaled will ever become sires, we automatically rule out over ninety percent of the poorer ones. A good stallion is one which has the desired physical characteristics and has demonstrated his actual class by performance. If his sire and dam were also of top class, his future is doubly assured. The final proof of his value is that known as the progeny test, which means an evaluation of the quality of his get. If a horse produces good foals from poor mares, and top winners from average mares or better, we can be sure that he is one to seek. If a stallion is unraced, or too young to have progeny of racing age, he may still turn out to be a great success, but there is no way to be sure of his true value.

In choosing a mare the same considerations hold, but they become more important, because the great majority of all mares will end up at the breeding farms. It doesn't make much sense to demand the best stallion in the state and then be satisfied with any mare which has "papers" and a couple of crosses of St. Simon or Ben Brush. Consider precocity, staying power, soundness, sprinting ability, and disposition, all in the light of what you particularly wish to produce. Avoid lines which have a high transmissibility of unsoundness. The particular line is of much less moment than the excellence of the individual. Recently new importations to America have been very successful, but there is hardly a top horse which does not have more or less of the blood of the three old native lines, Domino, Ben Brush, and Fair Play. For example, the four leading American money winners, Whirlaway, Seabiscuit, First Fiddle and Sun Beau each contain one or more of the immortal
three.

We cannot ever predict results with certainty; hence the fascination of horse breeding. In the BLOOD HORSE it was remarked that "heredity is not a rifle, it is a shot gun!" This is undoubtedly true, but we had still best take aim before we fire.

deltasports

05-25-2010, 01:17 PM

HOW DOES THIS HIT YOU??

CRAFTY ADMIRAL - MIST RISING by HELIOPOLIS

Pedigreeman

05-26-2010, 05:41 AM

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN "PARTIAL" TO THE #4 FAMILY...FOR SENTIMENTAL REASONS..hh)

Crafty Admiral was a bad choice. Why do you think she did better with Roman. Also Check out Egyptian. Than look at the ped of Life's Magic.bf.

manassas

05-26-2010, 01:37 PM

to get my 2 cents in i have found these books to be useful<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=center align=left colSpan=2></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=middle rowSpan=5>http://cynthiapublishing.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/sires2010full2.jpg </TD><TD vAlign=top align=left>Quantity in Basket: None
Code: IN-92
Price: $35.00
Shipping Weight: 1.00 pounds

</TD></TR><FORM action=http://cynthiapublishing.com/mm5/merchant.mvc? method=post><INPUT type=hidden value=ADPR name=Action><INPUT type=hidden value=PROD name=Screen> <INPUT type=hidden value=THS name=Store_Code> <INPUT type=hidden value=IN-92 name=Product_Code> <INPUT type=hidden name=Category_Code> <TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left><TABLE border=0><INPUT type=hidden name=Product_Attribute_Count> <TBODY></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=center align=left>Quantity: <INPUT size=4 value=1 name=Quantity> <INPUT type=submit value="Add To Basket"> </TD></TR></FORM><TR><TD vAlign=center align=left colSpan=2></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=center align=left colSpan=2>BRAND-NEW for 2010!

<CITE>by Jim Mazur with Mike Helm</CITE>
The ratings in this book update and expand the sire ratings first published in Mike Helm's earlier work Exploring Pedigree. This book, Sire Ratings, gives accurate pedigree information that allows the user to intelligently evaluate debut runners in maiden races, as well as young horses stretching out, switching to the turf or trying an off-track for the first time.these books are great it is often said and true the bigest class drop in horse raceing is mdn spl wt/to first time claim so you should take a long look at horses that fit this drop down. when i was useing the form for along while i would just play mdn races and helm gives you # you can mark in the form and cut most of the dead wood out of the race his # are very good i dont have acess to the form anymre so i have goten away from this type of hdy, at the very first page of these reports it lists a link to go to and on this link it lists full card reports in lue of the raceing form i have been useing these reports for over 3 years and it is great they do a good job of sorting out the contenders in a race and i can take it from there hats off to delta and gary and pedigreman for there insite.

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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=center align=left bgColor=#003366>Code </TD><TD vAlign=center align=left width="100%" bgColor=#003366>Name </TD><TD vAlign=center align=right bgColor=#003366>Price </TD><TD vAlign=center align=right bgColor=#003366></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=center noWrap align=left>IN-381 (http://cynthiapublishing.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=THS&Product_Code=IN-381&Category_Code=) </TD><TD vAlign=center align=left>Debut Trainer Guide 2010 </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

deltasports

05-27-2010, 08:16 PM

#1 I Bought That Crafty Admiral Yearling At The 1961 Saratoga Sale...
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#2 Does Anyone Know If This Fellow "jim Mazur" Was Related To A "mazur" That Had A Radio Racing Program Back In Buffalo Ny In 1950

manassas

05-28-2010, 12:46 PM

Pedigreeman

08-28-2010, 04:51 AM

Tesio By Fionnuala Timoney.

Dormello Stud in Italy. Their names (Apelle, Cavaliere d'Apino...), along with the name of their breeder have gained legendary status in the world of Thoroughbred breeding. Why? Quite simply, they have helped shape the modern Thoroughbred: "When a classic race is run on any racecourse in the world, it is almost certain that the blood flowing through the veins of many of the contenders can be traced to Federico Tesio's Dormello Stud" (Russell Meerdink, foreword to the book Tesio: In His Own Words).

Most breeders in the history of the Thoroughbred follow the old adage "breed the best to the best and hope for the best." The best, in this context, is usually using the most expensive stallion you can afford over the most expensive mare you can afford. If you have money on your side then it is often only a matter of time before you will breed a good racehorse, or perhaps even a great racehorse like Man O'War. But as a breeder would you be able to call yourself successful? Or, rather, is it that you were lucky in a game of numbers and averages? Will people remember your name in the future and refer to you as a great breeder, or even a moderately successful one? Unlikely. For to be a truly successful breeder you would have to consistently breed top-class racehorses, thus proving that there is more to your methods than simply money, numbers, and luck.

Federico Tesio was not poor, but nor did he spend his money on the top lots at sales or spend his money on the most expensive stallions that were at stud. The reason for this is simple. His idea of the best bloodlines and the best mares were different from the majority of people that frequented the Thoroughbred world. Tesio's own broodmare band was based on pedigrees that were not well regarded by his contemporaries. As a consequence most of his mares were bought cheaply (a few hundred pounds) as nobody else was interested in them. Catnip, the grand dam of Nearco and Niccolo dell'Arca, was one such market reject that Tesio acquired cheaply.

If you have not read Tesio: In His Own Words, which is a faithful translation of Tesio's book Puro-Sangue-Animale Da Esperimento, then I urge you to read it. The depth of knowledge, theories and ideas of Federico Tesio is quite astounding. While you may regard some of his ideas as the ramblings of an eccentric old man, bear in mind the fact that they are the thoughts of a breeding genius, eccentric or not.

The book illustrates quite clearly Tesio's interest in the role of genetics in horse breeding. He writes about why the Thoroughbred is a hybrid and therefore subject to Mendel's Law. We are introduced to Tesio's Law of Changeable Maxims and the Law of Similar But Not Identical. Tesio had a theory on "nervous energy", an abundance of which he attributes to being the source of willpower in top-class racehorses. Horses, he says are able to consume their nervous energy due to being placed under great stress, such as when raced heavily. This phenomenon helps explain why superior mares often do not produce superior offspring, likewise "many of the horses conventionally characterised by great energy and speed are offspring of females that have never raced, raced very little or for only short distances" (Tesio). However, this energy, he explains, can be recaptured within a generation or two of a pedigree.

In his book, Tesio suggests that we study the pedigree of the undefeated Bahram, born in 1932 and bred by H.H. Aga Khan III, to see how the breed has evolved from inbreeding and how the characteristics of the breed were formed. It is also worth a mention that Tesio himself made a habit of researching the pedigrees of great racehorses to the 7th, and occasionally, to the 12th generation. When considering speed and endurance in a pedigree he learned that "to maintain the characteristic of winning endurance it is necessary to occasionally introduce the blood of sprinters over 1400 and 1600 meters." Tesio believed it necessary to research the first 62 ancestors of a racehorse at 1,600, 2,000, 2,400, and 3,000 meters. That is necessary if it is a great horse that you are interested in producing. Tesio concludes; "Speed that continues through time means endurance, but endurance that is short in time never means speed."

If you take away just one thing from the success of Tesio as a breeder, let it be the ability to make your own informed decisions on what are the best bloodlines. Take the time to research pedigrees back several generations, paying attention to inbreeding and line breeding. Combine this knowledge with other breeding theories. But above all be bold enough to experiment and go against accepted beliefs. Dare to be a bit like Federico Tesio...dare to be different. Fortune favours the brave.

Pedigreeman

11-19-2010, 06:10 AM

A interview with John Nerud by J. Leimbach

On the afternoon of March 31st I arrive at John Nerud’s sprawling Long Island estate, not far from historic Belmont Park. A jockey in his youth, Nerud is still fit and trim at age 93, and his eyes still sparkle with curiosity and intelligence. He wears a gray sports coat, a black bow-tie, and a narrow-brimmed, gray felt hat. There is not much he hasn’t seen on the racetrack, and after a brief introduction I ask if he doesn’t miss the “good ole days”.
“I always try to look forward, never back,” he answers gracefully. “But you can’t forget your roots in this business, and most others as well...
“I was born in Minatre, Nebraska along the Platte River. My family were pioneers who lived in a log cabin. My grandfather, Joseph, arrived from Prague in 1862.
“I owned my first horse when I was five, just a little cowboy horse. I drove my first team of horses at age six, and started riding as a jockey at about thirteen in the rodeos of C.P. Irving of the Union Pacific Railroad.” Nerud smiles with pleasure as he recalls, “I remember riding winners for three consecutive days and making twenty-five dollars, which seemed like a fortune at the time.
“I used it to help my brother buy a match-race mare we named “Gypsy” because we bought her from a gypsy horse-thief. She was almost unbeatable in a short match-race, and we made a lot of money beating Thoroughbreds and Quarter horses whose owners never suspected how fast she was.
“I went through twelve years of school in a two-room schoolhouse in Minatre. Not long afterward I met “Silent Tom” Smith who trained for C.P. Irving, and later trained Seabiscuit.
“My first training job was in 1931. I was eighteen and trained for the Sheriff of Sioux County named “Bring ‘em Back Alive” Sid Williams. He wore pearl-handled pistols everywhere he went. We raced for purses of sixty-dollars in Hot Springs, South Dakota.”
I asked if Nerud had any secrets in eye-balling a horse’s quality by conformation.
“Moody Jolley was about the best I ever saw at judging a horse’s quality by his looks and conformation. He always said, ‘Look to the shoulder, the rest will follow.’
“Now Wayne Lukas has a great eye....If you gave him two-million dollars at a yearling sale to buy ten horses, he’d probably find you eight good ones. But his owners don’t want that, they want to spend two-million on one horse...”
“I understand you mucked stalls and rubbed horses all across America in the 1930s,” I suggested.
Nerud nodded, “Even in Havana, Cuba at Oriente Racetrack. I worked with Willard Proctor in Texas and New Orleans, and even got to New England eventually before the war, when I joined the navy.”
Nerud’s eyes twinkle as he recalls, “I got a Red Smith story that you’ll appreciate. It was just after the war, probably 1946. Red Smith and I were at Hialeah one day and he needed a good quote from me for a horse article he was writing. Now Red was probably the top sports writer in the country at that time, but he was known to enjoy a drink or two.
“Sometimes you’d feel sure Red couldn’t possibly remember your conversation accurately, but the next day there it would be in the newspaper, word-for-word. Well this particular day Red got me started about farm managers and their theories about raising young racehorses.
“I replied that most farm mangers I knew were frustrated trainers who hadn’t enjoyed much success at the racetrack. This was widely believed at the time, but not usually the kind of thing you’d see in print. But there it was the next day in Red’s column. The press was after me all day to find out if I’d really said such a thing.
“I finally told them, ‘That’s exactly what I said, because that exactly what I believe.’ I never worried too much what the press wrote or believed. As long as I had the best horse, it didn’t matter what they believed.
I found that most horses liked to keep their equipment simple--usually no bandages or tongue-ties, and blinkers probably don’t help a horse as much as their owner or trainer, maybe one in ten.
“I won my first stake with Delegate in 1949, and took over a string of 37 horses in Chicago for the great trainer Ben Jones and Woolford Farms. Ben was a firm believer that most horses were over-trained. ‘Keep ‘em fat and work a half-a-mile,’ was his favorite advice.”
“I imagine that men trainers probably overwork their horses more than women,” I suggested, “While women trainers seem be more inclined to let the horse tell them what it needs.”
Nerud sighed. “I guess I’m old fashioned, but I don’t feel comfortable with women training horses. I hate to see them doing all the dirty work of rubbing, wiping, and mucking. Not that they can’t, but it doesn’t seem like lady’s work...

“In 1956 I won a couple stakes at Hialeah with a gelding named Switch On, and I moved my barn to New York that summer. A year later I had my first and only Kentucky Derby horse in Gallant Man, for Mr. Ralph Lowe. A very young Bill Shoemaker rode him, but he misjudged the finish line at Churchill and stood up in the irons just before the finish, and it cost us the race as Iron Liege won.....I always said the Triple Crown was one circus I didn’t need to attend.”
(Nevertheless, Gallant Man went on to win the Belmont Stakes in a record 2:26 4/5, which stood for many years.)
I ask if the declining quality of drinking water has ever caused problems with his horses, knowing the great gelding, Kelso, drank bottled mineral water for several years.
“Not too much, although Sunny Jim Fitsimmons used to give his horses Mountain Valley Spring Water. I gave it to Gallant Man, and I’ve been drinking it ever since and I’m 93.”
Gallant Man’s success in 1957 eventually led to a meeting with William McKnight, chairman of the board of the 3M Company, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing.
“They had me scheduled for a fifteen minute meeting, but three and a half hours later we had agreed to become partners in a breeding farm in Florida. I told Mr. McKnight that no one in the business knew how to buy yearling prospects, so we’d have to breed our own from scratch--with our own farm, our own stallions, and our own broodmares.
“He asked what I’d need to make a go of it, and I told him, ‘The first year you write me a check for a million dollars. If that’s not enough, the next year you write a check for two million, and if that’s still not enough, you write a check for three million for the third year. We’ll get there eventually, and you’ll enjoy the sport as well as the business...
“I later found out that they had already checked my background very carefully, but from that day on Mr. McKnight never asked me why I needed money for the farm, or what I needed it for. We bought 340 acres in Ocala and called it Tartan Farm. I put up everything I had for a 25% interest. My friends thought I was crazy, but I told them, ’Look at the up-side, I’m mixing my money with a billionaire.’
“Then I bought the stallion Intentionally for $640,000 and he became the top sire in Florida. Our second crop in 1964 we bred Dr. Fager, and the rest is history. Tartan also acquired a major interest in Calder and Tropical Park racetracks, and racing in Florida really took off. And we developed the Tartan racing surface at about that time...
“What kind of mares did you look for in your broodmare band? I asked.
“I like mares who were hard-hitters and intelligent. They seem to pass on those traits to their offspring. And I like to breed a hot-blooded sire line, like Domino, to a cold-blooded broodmare-sire line, like Man o’ War.
“Dr. Fager’s dam, Aspidistra, only won two cheap races, but her knees were broke and she was meant to be much faster. I love inbreeding to great broodmares and great female families. Aspidistra was from a strong King Ranch family.
“I bred Fappiano, by Mr. Prospector out of a great Dr. Fager mare, and Fappiano looked like Dr. Fager, not Mr. Prospector. Fappiano’s son, Unbridled, won the Kentucky Derby, and Unbridled was inbred 4x4 to Aspidistra. Fappiano’s other top son, Quiet American, was also out of a Dr. Fager mare, so he was 3x2 to Dr. Fager, and his son Real Quiet almost won the Triple Crown a few years ago...
“So we had some great bloodlines come out of Tartan Farm. We also bred Dr. Fager’s champion sister, Ta Wee, along with Codex, Roy, Clabber Girl, and Cozzene... Cozzene won the Breeders’ Cup Mile on the grass, and he probably could have won the mile-and-a-half Turf Classic that year.”
“Was Dr. Fager just so naturally fast that he would have done well in any barn?” I asked.
Nerud shook his head slowly. “He had two clubbed feet, and we packed them every day with either cotton or mud. Otherwise he was a very intelligent and easy-going horse who learned his lessons quickly. I think it’s fair to say that a great horse usually overcomes his trainer...He was a good eater and sleeper, and liked to sleep lying down. He also liked to show off, and he knew he was special.
“He was kind of multi-colored, depending on the light. Sometimes light bay, sometimes brown, sometimes almost gold. He was a chameleon. And he was a throw-back to Spur--five generations back on the topline of his pedigree. I once met an old hot-walker who told me he’d walked Spur and that Dr. Fager was the perfect image of Spur. You just never know what ancestor a horse will take after, and sometimes it won’t be any one, but a blend of them all.
“Do you know the story of how Dr. Fager got his name?” Nerud asked.
“I think I do, but refresh my memory.”
“It must have been back in 1965. I took a fall chasing a runaway horse and for the next couple of weeks I kept having fainting spells. My wife, Charlotte, took me to the Lahey Clinic in Boston that specialized in brain injuries. Doctor Charles Fager did an emergency surgery to remove a blood clot from my brain, and he later told Charlotte that I had about a half hour to live when we arrived...
Nerud glances into the next room where his wife is patiently knitting in front of the large TV screen--which is tuned to the Aqueduct simulcast network.
“Excuse me, I have a horse running in the 6th Race today and I want to see how we’re coming...” The 5th Race had just finished and when the tote-board appeared for the 6th, Nerud’s horse, Democrat, was the early 9-5 favorite.
“I have eight horses in training now, with Mike Hushion and Jimmy Jerkens. Both learned from Allen Jerkens.
“You know how Democrat got his name?” Nerud asked, sliding the program in front of me. “Look at his breeding: A.P. Jet out of Comedy of Errors--what else could I name him? I’m a registered Republican, but I don’t vote the straight party line. People are like horses--you have to judge each one as an individual.
“Herd animals like horses usually have a very strong pecking-order,” I offer, “so that each individual knows exactly where he stands on the ladder. I wonder if perhaps Dr. Fager didn’t resist being rated or restrained by his jockey because he was so fast he knew instinctively he belonged in front, and he listened to his own instincts rather than the human values of obedience and patience that the media expected of him...”
Nerud raised his eyebrows. “That’s an interesting question.. I never talked much about rating him with his jockey, Baeza. I usually let him ride his own race. I do know one thing: Dr. Fager never ran has fastest race. He’s the only horse I ever had who could really run.”
“What about his son, Dr. Patches, who was Sprint Champion?” I asked.
“Dr. Patches was a half-an-hour slower than Dr. Fager.”
“A lot of veteran trainers seem to think that the racing surfaces today are harder and faster than in your day, causing a lot of the leg injuries we see today. If that’s the case, I wonder how fast Dr. Fager would have gone on today’s tracks?”
Nerud smiled mischievously and added, “You know what the cause of most unsoundness is these days? Commercial breeding. Breeders are trying to sell the most expensive yearlings they can, so they choose a stallion with the most market appeal, not because he was the best mate for their mare...”

With today’s 6th Race at Aqueduct drawing closer, Democrat remains the 8-5 favorite. Nerud watches the screen like a hawk. It’s the first lifetime start for his 3-year-old colt, in a maiden special weight. They get away cleanly, and Democrat settles into third down the backstretch. On the far turn he lets out a notch and closes on the leaders, and as they turn into the stretch he grabs a small lead. Nerud is on his feet now, snapping his fingers with excitement as Democrat opens a couple lengths on the field and cruises across the finish line a comfortable winner in 1:11 flat.
After celebrating the moment and touring Nerud’s gallery of horse art, I ask if the growing use of drugs has been a concern to Nerud. “Not too much. Right after the war there was some skullduggery at the racetrack because of small purses, and Benzedrine and Bute became the rage. Benzedrine is dangerous, but I think Bute is kind of like aspirin for horses and seems to help them. Bold Ruler got Bute almost every day, I believe.
“But what we’re seeing now with the receiving barns is a disgrace and an insult. The same trainers are winning, they aren’t catching anybody, and it’s costing the owners about five dollars a day per horse.”
“What alternatives are there?
“It’s usually the vets, not the trainers, who give the drugs, so why not have someone from the state monitoring all the vet’s visits to the barn and recording the medications? Something needs to be done...”
I collected my belongings and carried them out to the car. When I returned, Nerud was nowhere to be found. His Jamaican house-keeper pointed to the backyard and said something that sounded like “golf”. I made my way around to the backyard to find Nerud hitting a bag of golf balls toward the far corner of his property. As I approached, his shot-making improved dramatically.
“Thanks for everything, and congratulations on Democrat,” I said.
Nerud hit one more nine-iron right down the middle. “This is what keeps me young. “ he said as we shook hands.
As I made my way to the car I couldn’t help but think that it was more his enthusiasm for life that kept him young, that along with the strong wit and wisdom of Frontier spirit that made me feel like I had just been interviewing Mark Twain or Butch Cassidy. Yet there was a curious mix of Cary Grant-like elegance and intelligence that made for a delightful combination. An American original...