in the days of raise a native

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john franks, kentucky scenic, monique rene, raise a native, ronique

A walk through the wintry wonders of Kentucky pastureland this morning, with ice coating the fence boards and the stems of any hardy shrubs and plants, brought to mind an outing with a mare in 1985.

In the early spring, probably the first week of April or a bit earlier, I had the opportunity to ride along with a maiden mare going to Spendthrift Farm to be bred to Raise a Native (by Native Dancer). The man didn’t have to ask me twice.

The mare going to the shed was Monique Rene (Prince of Ascot), a winner of 29 races from 45 starts, including the Pan Zareta Handicap twice, the Chou Croute Stakes, the Mardi Gras Handicap, all at the Fair Grounds, earning $456,250. Well as she raced elsewhere, Monique Rene loved Louisiana Downs, which was pretty much the home track of owner John Franks, and there she won the Valencia, Victoria (twice), Sugarland (twice), Creole State, Suthern Accent, Honeymoon, Diplomat, and Southern Maid. The red mare was fast and game; fans loved her.

She had been a lot of fun for Mr. Franks, and he reciprocated by sending her to some of the best stallions available. For her first match, I was told that he had purchased the season to Raise a Native for $400,000. If that seems impossible today, remember that these were syndicated stallions in the days before syndication agreements allowed essentially bottomless books.

If a breeder wanted a season to a stallion of significance, he had to pay the price, whatever that was.

So, I vaulted into the passenger seat of the box truck, and we headed out to cross Fayette County on a cold morning that looked so much like this one. A freezing rain had coated the timber with a thin layer of ice, and it made a memorable morning even more lovely to look at. The temps must have risen to slightly above freezing by the time we were on the way because the roads were clear. Even the smaller ones held no hazard for a careful driver.

Even so, we went at only a steady pace because we were well ahead of time and arrived to unload the muscular chestnut mare in good time for her to be checked by the breeding crew and take a place outside the old Spendthrift breeding shed. John Williams ran the stallions and breeding shed for Spendthrift; it was a smooth-running machine, nothing out of place.

With Monique Rene being a maiden, I’m sure they jumped her with a teaser, but I don’t recall that. I only remember Raise a Native. He would have been 24 by this time, but he was still such a beast. He pranced into the breeding shed, ears up, tail swishing. He looked like the boss, and he surely was.

Although Raise a Native was no longer a youngster, he took maybe 30 seconds to cover, then was snorting like a train coming round the bend, arching his neck. He was so full of energy and character that you could see why people were drawn to him, and he sired some tremendous athletes. As he walked out of the shed, he flashed his long red tail from side to side as he went, and the morning lit him up in the bright red chestnut that was “Raise a Native red” and must have belonged to his grandsire American Flag, as well as his sire Man o’ War and Fair Play.

Reloading a well-traveled mare like Monique Rene took minutes, and then she was on the road again. Pronounced in foal by the veterinarian and returned to Louisiana, she delivered a red filly about 11 months later that Mr. Franks named Ronique. As a racehorse, Ronique did nothing. She made six starts, finished third once, and earned $700.

Although the young mare’s racing career added nothing to the sportsman’s immense racing stable, as a broodmare, Ronique more than made up for that. Her best racer was the Kissin Kris gelding Kiss a Native, who was nearly as prolific a winner as his granddam. He won stakes at 2, 3, 4, and 7, was second in the G1 Donn at 5, earned $1.1million, and was the 2000 champion 3-year-old in Canada.

Much later, in 2007, I acquired Ronique. No longer a broodmare, Ronique was not a sedentary old codger. That long-bodied red rebel would have run a 3-year-old to death. She was, without a doubt, the most active older mare I’ve ever encountered. My sympathies to her trainer Harold Delahoussaye and groom when she was stuck in a stall on the racetrack.

According to Equibase, Ronique had raced from June 1989 to January 1990, and from what I saw of her hyperactive personality on the farm, they surely gave up on the racing option with her because she was mentally unsuited to spending life in a stall.

Her foals, or at least most of them, did not have that difficulty, and certainly Kiss a Native had a very long career. Ronique spent the rest of her life on the farm with me, and perhaps it was fitting that, being there at the beginning, I was there for her at the end.

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is it all because of alydar?

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age of mares, alydar, ashland stakes, calumet farm, fantasy stakes, flower alley, foaling rank, importance of pedigree, joyful victory, lilacs and lace, lucy black, my juliet, raise a native, refinement, Seattle Slew, stella madrid, Tapit, wild again, wild lucy black

A couple of unrelated stakes results over the weekend raised a couple of points of interest. In the G1 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland on Saturday, the beautifully named 3yo filly Lilacs and Lace (by Flower Alley x Refinement, by Seattle Slew) won by a length, and the next day, Joyful Victory (by Tapit x Wild Lucy Black, by Wild Again) won the G2 Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn.

The first point of intrigue is that both fillies are out of mares who are a bit older than the commercial market is happy to accept. Some breeders, however, are loath to give up on nice mares who don’t hit the brass ring first time out, and in these cases, they were considerably rewarded with outstanding performers.

The Ashland winner is out of Refinement, who was 14 when the G1 winner was foaled. Refinement is a daughter of G1 winner Stella Madrid, a daughter of Alydar and champion My Juliet, who foaled her G1 winner at age 15.

The Fantasy winner is out of Wild Lucy Black, who was also 14 when the G2 winner was foaled. Wild Lucky Black is a daughter of the nonwinning Lucy Black, who was a spritely 8yo when she foaled the dam of the Fantasy winner. And Lucy Black is by the exceptional racehorse and sire Alydar, which brings us to the second point of interest.

Both of these outstanding young fillies have second dams by Alydar.

Well, that is coincidental, but interesting nonetheless. Alydar was an exceptional racehorse at 2 and 3, when his nemesis was champion and Triple Crown winner Affirmed. Alydar excelled when the pair went to stud, however, and the size, strength, and scope of Alydar proved powerful contributions to the breeding pool during his too-short life.

Alydar’s death precipitated the financial collapse of Calumet Farm, which had borrowed heavily in the late 1980s with Alydar as its primary means of generating cash.

But the brave chestnut son of Raise a Native remains an important element of pedigrees, especially through his daughters and now his granddaughters and their runners.

quality road a star for breeder’s program

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ajina, allen paulson, alydar, blame, chris baker, elusive qualiity, horse breeding, keeneland september sale, kobla, metropolitan handicap, mr. prospector, native dancer, ned evans, paulson estate, quality road, racehorse management, raise a native, santa anita racetrack, size in the thoroughbred, spring hill farm, strawberry road, thoroughbred conformation, thoroughbred pedigrees, todd pletcher, whitney stakes, winglet, woodward stakes

The following article appeared earlier this week in Paulick Report.

The long and winding road leads to “quality” for Ned Evans of Spring Hill Farm in Virginia.

One of the premier owner-breeders in America, Evans bred and races Woodward Stakes and Metropolitan Handicap winner Quality Road, who will be one of the favorites for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Unbeaten this year, except for a narrow defeat to Blame in the Whitney Stakes last month, Quality Road is a big, grand-looking colt. He has always been a nice animal, and Chris Baker, who manages Spring Hill Farm for Evans, said that “Quality Road was remarkable in that everything he did was unremarkable. That’s a good thing. He never had illness or issues or any trouble to make you take note.”

A big colt with a very good family (five-cross pedigree), Quality Road would seem a natural prospect for the top end of the commercial market, but Baker said that didn’t work out. At the time of the Keeneland September sale, the colt was growing, rather than maturing, and he went unsold at $110,000.

Baker said, “As a yearling going into the sale, he wasn’t at his best, being a sort of old-fashioned type of horse, long and leggy, and we didn’t send him to Aiken [to be put into training] till December because he was a leggy, immature colt. Inasmuch as he was an impressive colt, he wasn’t one who had the most commercial appeal as a yearling.”

Neither Evans nor Baker thought any less of Quality Road for not being spot on when the sale came round. They knew the back story.

The colt had always been big. As a foal, Baker said, “Quality Road was born March 23, 2006, weighed 143 pounds, and stood 42.6 inches tall at the withers. When we weighed him the last time at the farm on November 29, 2007, before shipping him to Aiken, he was 1,240 pounds and stood 66.9 inches at the withers.”

That is a thumping big colt.

And he takes no prisoners. Quality Road is uncommonly big and strong, with a competitive spirit to match. Those excellent qualities led him into a much-publicized scrap with the gate crew at Santa Anita before last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic that resulted in Quality Road being scratched.

That televised image is the most common memory of the colt for many people. Yet Baker said that Quality Road “was never tough, just a playful colt. He was never difficult because everything was so easy for him.”

In the aftermath of that showdown at Santa Anita, trainer Todd Pletcher and the team around Quality Road went into action to restore the colt’s peace of mind and composure at the gate. It has worked brilliantly. Baker said the remarkable thing is “how traumatic that was and how much Quality Road has done to come back and load efficiently and quietly and stand well, even when Haynesfield was having a panic attack in the gate before the Whitney. I don’t think many horses would have overcome that event as well as this horse has, and I believe it speaks volumes for the horse’s mind and natural athleticism.”

Quality Road has not put a foot wrong this year and, with every start, has elevated both his standing as a premier member of the colts in the 4-year-old and up division and as a stallion prospect of a very high order.

His size, good conformation, and speed are major recommendations to breeders. And Quality Road is one of the very best racers by his sire Elusive Quality, a freakishly fast son of Gone West. This is the excellent male line of Native Dancer through Raise a Native and Mr. Prospector, and if anything, Quality Road’s female family is even better.

His dam is the Strawberry Road mare Kobla. She is a full sister to Ajina, champion 3-year-old filly of 1997 and winner of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, CCA Oaks, and Mother Goose.

Their dam is graded stakes winner Winglet (by Alydar). She is a Grade 2 stakes winner bred and raced by Allen Paulson, who also bred and raced both Ajina and Kobla.

Kobla was among the fine stock that the Paulson estate sold at the 1999 Keeneland November sale, where Evans purchased the mare, in foal to Mt. Livermore, for $1,050,000.

Although Kobla has been a “hard-luck mare,” among the Spring Hill broodmares, she caught the brass ring by producing Quality Road. The mare also has a 2-year-old half-sister to Quality Road by Tale of the Cat named Kobla Cat and has a weanling full brother “who is a striking physical,” Baker said.

Kobla was bred to Elusive Quality this year but is not in foal. Despite that disappointment, I believe that Spring Hill will send the mare to Elusive Quality again because it is a road worth taking.

lookin at lucky: pedigree of fortune

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a.p. indy, Belmont Stakes, belong to me, breeders' cup classic, breezefigs, curlin, fasig-tipton november sale, fly down, gulf coast farms, jay kilgore, jerry bailey breeder, keeneland april sale of 2yos in training, lane's end farm, lookin at lucky, mr. prospector, native charger, native dancer, paulick report, preakness stakes, private feeling, raise a native, sam-son farm, sharp belle, smart strike, stephen got even, super saver, temple webber, unbreakable, will farish

This story appeared earlier this week at PaulickReport.com.

A month ago, neither the sponsor of this column nor the Paulick Report could have imagined the run of luck awaiting all of us in the May classics.

In the intervening weeks, the Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver was out of a mare by Lane’s End stallion A.P. Indy, the Preakness winner Lookin at Lucky is by Lane’s End stallion Smart Strike and out of a mare by farm stallion Belong to Me, the Preakness second is by Lane’s End stallion Stephen Got Even, another son of farm stalwart A.P. Indy, and farm owner Will Farish is co-breeder of the dams of both the Preakness winner and the Dwyer winner, Fly Down, a likely prospect for the Belmont Stakes.

We are “lookin at lucky” on more levels than I can count.

With a second Preakness Stakes winner, the Mr. Prospector stallion Smart Strike confirmed himself as one of the most powerful sons of his sire at stud. The stallion’s first classic winner was Horse of the Year Curlin, narrowly beaten in the Belmont Stakes before his championship success in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and Smart Strike is well represented this year with such additional racers as Strike a Deal, who won the Grade 2 Dixie Handicap on the Preakness card at Pimlico.

A beautifully pedigreed son of Mr. Prospector bred by Sam-Son Farm, Smart Strike was a high-class racehorse who nonetheless left some questions about how good he might have been. A winner in six of eight starts, Smart Strike won the Grade 1 Iselin Handicap for his most important success.

As a stallion, Smart Strike has been solid but was not an early commercial home run hitter. Lookin at Lucky’s co-breeder, Jerry Bailey, noted that the stallion’s offspring tend to improve with age, both in looks and buyer appeal.

That is not the formula for commercial success among unproven sires. However, now that Smart Strike is a proven commodity, his offspring are making better returns for breeders.

That wasn’t the case even two years ago for Gulf Coast Farms, the breeders of Lookin at Lucky, at the yearling sales, where they had to take him home for a hammer price of $35,000. But they had the wherewithal and flexibility to bring him back as a 2-year-old in training, when he made $475,000 at the Keeneland April sale of juveniles.

The backbone of that price increase was the progress that Lookin at Lucky had made from a yearling to a 2-year-old. He had grown and strengthened from an acceptable but somewhat average “nice” yearling to being what BreezeFigs guru Jay Kilgore called “the best 2-year-old I saw last year.”

His progress shown in motion analysis video at the breeze shows was manifest in graded stakes competition in the summer and fall last year, and Lookin at Lucky’s successes, added to the graded victory of his half-brother Kensei (by Mr. Greeley), made their dam, the Belong to Me mare Private Feeling, a hot property indeed.

At the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November mixed sale last fall, she sold to Live Oak Stud for $2 million as a young producer of top-level performers.

The mare was then a 10-year-old. She was bred by Farish and Temple Webber Jr., and she earned $18,245 from two victories in seven starts. That was a decent record but nothing to promote her as the dam of multiple graded stakes winners.

Private Feeling is one of those mares who require the progeny test to verify whether they will become producers of merit, and she has passed that test with high distinction.

The mare’s second dam, the Native Charger mare Sharp Belle, was a notably better racemare, winning 10 races, including the Grade 1 Monmouth Oaks.

This is a line of producers from a good-class family. Sharp Belle’s fifth dam is the stakes-winning mare Nectarine, a full sister to the great sire Bull Lea, the cornerstone of Calumet Farm’s success in the 1940s and 1950s.

In addition to these historical connections to high-class performance, there is a pedigree pattern of note in the ancestry of Lookin at Lucky. He has a half-dozen lines of the great racehorse and sire Native Dancer in his pedigree. Five of them come through Private Feeling, who also has an additional line of Native Dancer’s grandsire Unbreakable.

Native Dancer has proven an increasingly important sire over the past 50 years. He was the sire of Raise a Native, whose sons Mr. Prospector and Alydar sired international champions, and other sons and daughters of Native Dancer litter pedigrees around the world with speed and strength.

native dancer and the international pedigree

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arc de triomphe, atan, dan cupid, dancer's image, english derby, french derby, hocks, john sparkman, Kentucky Derby, mixed marriage, native dancer, pedigree, power conformation, racing aptitude, raise a native, sea-bird, sharpen up, tudor minstrel

John Sparkman has written another excellent piece on Native Dancer (read it here) that comments on the great gray’s conformation and on his influence over contemporary pedigrees.

The sire of two colts who finished first in the Kentucky Derby (1968 winner Dancer’s Image was disqualified for the presence of bute in his system), Native Dancer sent important sons around the globe. Among them were Dan Cupid (out of Vixenette, by Sickle), who ran second in the French Derby and sired English Derby and Arc de Triomphe winner Sea-Bird, and Atan (out of Mixed Marriage, by Tudor Minstrel), who won his only start and sired the important international sire Sharpen Up.

The Sharpen Up hocks that were considered something of a blemish on that stallion’s progeny were also typical of many from this line. Raise a Native, who was a grand-looking horse, had hocks far behind him as a young horse.

Although having hocks parked out behind a horse is frequently considered a fault, it doesn’t prevent horses from racing effectively, and it is one of the traits most commonly associated with horses that have exceptional power. To use their extra leverage to full potential, such horses must have great strength through their backs and hindquarters, and those that are properly fitted for this can often do their best work on turf, which provides a better grip for pushing, than on dirt, which slips away more easily … except when it’s wet.

bloodstock selection: differing perspectives

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aptitude, audley farm, biomechanics, bob baffert, conformation, dosage, franco varola, herd dynamic, keeneland, kerry thomas, lemhi go, northern dancer, nw management, quiet american, raise a native, rare beauty, smarty jones, thomas herding technique, typology

In selecting broodmares and mating them to stallions, there are almost as many opinions as there are buyers. Really promising physiques attract my attention, especially when allied with good racing performance. I tend to evaluate this in terms of biomechanical quality. (There are several posts on this blog regarding biomechanics available to read from last month.)

Kerry Thomas, who has developed Thomas Herding Technique, uses equine psychology and behavior characteristics to evaluate prospects. Read more about Thomas and his approach here, which also includes a 10-minute video with trainer Bob Baffert.

Another line of evaluation is deep pedigree theory and study, such as that used by Franco Varola, developer of the typology of Thoroughbred aptitudes that he described using dosage. I wrote about Varola just a few days ago (here) and was thrilled to find that Varola, as consultant to breeder Audley Farm, was involved in the production of both a mare that I own and her half-sister, whom Thomas selected as an outstanding foundation mare at the recently concluded Keeneland November sale.

The primary attraction in my purchase of G2 winner Lemhi Go was her racing class, which was quite high, allied with her pedigree. She carries no Raise a Native, and her only Northern Dancer is through that stallion’s son Giboulee, sire of Lemhi Go’s dam Midnight Rapture. Not surprisingly for a high-class racemare, Lemhi Go is a scopey mare with quality and presence. She also has a smooth, lengthy walk that is lovely to watch.

In evaluating her half-sister Rare Beauty at Keeneland, Thomas noted that Rare Beauty “was in a class by herself” as a broodmare. Thomas makes his observations purely by eye, watching horses alone or in company with others. Using the horse’s own actions to gain insight about its attitudes, he said that Rare Beauty was “the most emotionally sound, mentally prepared, highest herd dynamic mare of the sale.”

Makes her sound like a crackerjack, right? Well, she was one impressive specimen. Standing 16.3 hands, Rare Beauty was typical of her sire, Quiet American. She was quite big all over, very ruggedly made with strong bone and tendons, and well-conformed.

She has a high wither, great length through the body, and a good eye. I suspect that her stature and commanding presence caught Thomas’s eye. His summation was that “Rare Beauty’s inner character and behavioral dynamics (both Group Herd Dynamic and Individual Herd Dynamic) far exceeded her peers.”

In foal to Kentucky Derby winner Smarty Jones, the mare sold for $20,000 to NW Management, agent.

biomechanics: what it can do and can’t

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aptitude, biomechanical analysis, buckpasser, graustark, northern dancer, raise a native, slip anchor

More breeders have been turned off by unrealistic claims for biomechanical evaluations than most anything else.

The process is fascinating for those interested in statistics, is sometimes immensely enlightening for breeders, and offers some captivating options for looking at horses from a different perspective.

But biomechanical analysis will NOT give anyone a silver bullet to kill the game. Nothing is that easy. And breeding racehorses is complex, puzzling, exhilarating, and humbling. There are so many facets that nothing is going to solve the equation and resolve all the variables.

Which, if you like the sport, is a good thing.

One of the things that biomechanics does give us is an outline of the different types of racehorses and the individual strengths that allow them to succeed under different conditions. The horses with the best biomechanical balance tend to be the most versatile, and they also tend to be more consistent in reproducing their form.

For instance, in a race with a very strong pace, a horse with a good balance of stride and power can lay reasonably close because of its efficient stride, without burning too much energy, then power for home as less efficient horses tire.

In contrast, the horses who are not so balanced in their mechanical qualities but who are nonetheless very finely tuned in respect to stride or power can be exceptional horses. English Derby winner Slip Anchor, an exhorbitantly talented stride racer, needed to be ridden gusto to give him maximum use of his exceptional stride and place his opponents in the predicament of having to go with him or having to try to catch him. At his best, that was nearly impossible.

While Northern Dancer and Raise a Native are examples of mechanically balanced Type I horses from the 3-year-old crop of 1964, two leading members of the 1966 crop of 3-year-olds were more specialized. Buckpasser was a Type II,  with emphasis for power in his mechanics, and Graustark was a Type II who had more stride. Each was a tremendous athlete and became an important sire, and both were quite close to the Type I center.

As stallions who were very popular, and experienced considerable success, Buckpasser and Graustark are examples of what a more specialized stallion can accomplish at stud, and these two horses indicate the various aptitudes present in the Thoroughbred.

But it was not poor genetics or planning that made it difficult for Buckpasser and Graustark to breed on in the male line yet succeed more greatly as sires of broodmares. Instead it was opportunity. Their sons, who were more specialized and somewhat farther from the norms of the breed than their sires, had fewer opportunities to cover mares compatible with their specialized traits. The daughters of Buckpasser and Graustark, however, were well suited as mates for biomechanically balanced, high-class horses such as Northern Dancer, who had extraordinary success when crossed with Buckpasser mares, for instance.

 

biomechanics: changing norms

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biomechanical analysis, biomechanics, danzig, distorted humor, dr. fager, fappiano, mr. prospector, native dancer, raise a native, secretariat, Unbridled's Song

Just as Secretariat found the norms of the breed unsuited to his excellent traits, other stallions with championship qualities have found themselves needing mates with different traits.

One of the reasons for some stallions needing mares with traits that are difficult to find is that the mares most likely to possess them are from the same lines as the stallion. The noted vet Dr. Bishop suggested that the thing to do with Secretariat was to mate him with his own daughters. This was never done, in part because we think of such matings from the human perspective as incestuous. Also, unless the mares were chosen for good qualities and lack of faults, the results would tend not to be very useful.

Another tack, in Secretariat’s case, would have been to use mares by Nasrullah, Bold Ruler, Princequillo, or one of the better Bold Ruler or Nasrullah sons. These horses tended to gravitate toward the stride type, and doing something like, while eccentric, would have created a sort of miniature “breed center” around Secretariat and might possibly have worked.

When considering the concept of the “center of the breed” in biomechanical terms, it sounds as if the norms of the breed are a static center, but there does appear to be evidence that the norms can drift, or perhaps even realign to form a somewhat different and more specialized center of the breed.

Particularly with regard to the preferred stock of the commercial market of the last 20 years, the change has been toward both a larger horse and one with a bigger hip (both wider and longer) and longer hind cannon. These are the traits especially associated with Native Dancer, Raise a Native, Fappiano, and Dr. Fager.

These are horses with extraordinary speed, but they were not purely sprinters and did not get their speed simply by muscle mass and rapid acceleration.

And if we think about Fappiano, in particular, most would agree that the outstanding sire son of Mr. Prospector combined some traits that were fairly atypical of Mr. Prospector, but that were more typical of Native Dancer and Raise a Native, with the best qualities of Dr. Fager.

This recombination of traits is the essence of the breed-shaping stallion who literally can remake the breed, or a portion of it, in his own image. For many outstanding racehorses, being atypical has been the death of their prospects of consistent success at stud. But this has not been the case for the power type of horse with the Native Dancer hip and the big frame of a Dr. Fager or Fappiano.

On the contrary, they have prospered because there are enough of this type out there to help one another as mates. As the number of high-quality horses has increased over the past 30 years or so, the opportunity for stallions to find suitable mates, even by chance, has likewise increased.

And breeders have every reason to use this type of mare and stallion in their matings because this tall Quarter Horse type has become the preferred commercial prospect, both at the yearling sales and especially at the auctions of 2-year-olds in training.

And as a result of this growth in popularity, some of the types or “populations” of horses that were not common enough to dominate the breed in earlier decades are now coming to have a larger influence on the breed.

The looming struggle for influence among different types of racehorses will be focused on the relative pressures in breeding and racing to retain the typey, muscular, medium-sized horse typical of Type I or to replace that with the larger, rangier, power-centered horse.

Unbridled’s Song, grandson of Fappiano through the outstanding sire Unbridled, is the prototype of the big power horse, and there could hardly be a more popular sire and physical profile, especially for the commercial breeder and buyer. On the other hand, Distorted Humor is the heir to Danzig, Mr. Prospector, and others of the Type I center.

 

understanding stamina and classic performance ii

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brigadier gerard, citation, classics, german breeding, hail to reason, jay leimbach, man o' war, monsun, national stud of england, northern dancer, peter burrell, raise a native, secretariat, soundness, stamina, tony morris

The internationally recognized bloodstock columnist and author Tony Morris offered the following observations on Jay Leimbach’s discourse on stamina and the classic Thoroughbred.

As a synthesis of the issues, combined with lengthy personal observation and study, these comments are among the best I’ve ever read.

Jay,

In many ways, you and I are on the same wavelength. If either of us were the benevolent dictator of the breeding industry, things would be very different – or would have been, if either of us had been given the job as a lifetime post 40 years ago. It would be hard for a new dictator to alter things now.

There should be rules such that the Germans have – no job for a stallion who did not race for at least two seasons, did not achieve a rating that proclaimed his class, that had ever competed under medication, or had recognised hereditary faults. Germany produces sounder horses than any other country; of course, she doesn’t always produce the acknowledged best in the world, and her rules would have meant that such as Hail to Reason, Raise a Native, and, if we believe what has recently been claimed, Northern Dancer would not have entered the breeding population. But she has given us Monsun, and if nobody outside Germany knows of no other German sire, they ought to know about him.

The fact that today’s top horses do not race as often as their predecessors of a few (equine) generations is not all about lack of soundness; commercial considerations are often a large part of it. But there is no doubt: today’s horse is softer than the horse of even 40 years ago. We have bred from inherently unsound stock, and unsoundness breeds unsoundness.

But, Jay, references to breeding policies in plants and animals such as sheep and cattle don’t really signify much. In the early 1970s I was writing to eminent geneticists and asking them why they couldn’t offer solutions for the Thoroughbred; all I got in response was self-congratulatory guff about what they had done for increased milk yield and the good news for butchers in terms of beek and pork. They didn’t want to talk about the Thoroughbred, because they hadn’t a clue about the ATHLETIC animal, who is a completely different beast.

We are in a different world now, and the current crop of equine geneticists will revolutionise the game within a few years – if their findings are published.

In 1960, Peter Burrell, former director of the National Stud in England, gave a lecture in which he said that he believed that the British Thoroughbred had gone as far as it could go in the years before World War I. I have always accepted that view. I also took from that the assumption that American Thoroughbreds of that time were behind the British, and I believed that. Yes, there were exceptional individuals in the States, but overall the standard there was lower.

It remained lower for some time. Noor, who was some way short of top class here, had a few shots at Citation, and when properly on his game, could give him weight. Anyone who has properly analysed form, and recognised both the advances in breeding and the increased competitiveness of racing will know that Citation was a better horse than Man o’ War, and that Secretariat was a decided improvement on the pair of them.

By Secretariat’s time, America had more than caught up with Europe, but he was an exception. We were already recognising that America produced better horses than we did, we imported them in huge numbers, and Americans sent their stock to race here. The impact of all that was we found that traditional European pedigrees didn’t work anymore; Brigadier Gerard was the last of our home-grown superstars.

But, surprising as it may seem, the better American horses who came here – and they are still coming – have never been rated as highly as Brigadier Gerard was. America had reached the peak that Europe had reached just before World War I; the odd one might always rise above that plateau, but when it did, it would never reproduce itself.

I am well aware that America takes far more notice of times than we do in Europe, but, seriously, nowhere in racing do they really matter, when the main objective is to defeat the opposition. There is no virtue, or any more cash, in doing that in a faster time than is necessary. How many Kentucky Derby winners ran a faster time than Citation? How many of them were better than Citation? Aside from Secretariat, name one, and try to justify it.

I wrote a piece for the Racing Post a couple of days ago, referring to the fact that there was nothing special in her female line since Hail to All, and referred to his career – 12 starts at 2 and 16 more as a three-year-old. Yes, to be sure, horses aren’t as sound as they were then, but they also aren’t campaigned as aggressively, and commercial considerations affect the situation.

Think on’t.

new stallions for 2009 ix

Tags

chile chatte, claiborne farm, del mar futurity, gone west, horse greeley, Mr. Greeley, raise a native, secretariat, storm cat

This is the ninth in a series of notes and impressions about the new stallions in Kentucky for 2009. The horses will be reviewed alphabetically.

Horse Greeley (2004 chestnut by Mr. Greeley out of Chile Chatte, by Storm Cat)

Stands at Claiborne Farm for $7,500 live foal

One of the five handsomest new stallions in Kentucky, Horse Greeley has the potential to be one of the sleepers in this group of new stallions. He was a high-class juvenile and is by one of the most successful sons of Gone West at stud: Mr. Greeley.

The latter has made a promising start as a sire of stallions with his first sons at stud, including El Corredor, who got G1 winner Adieu in his first crop, and Whywhywhy. Also a graded winner at 2, Whywhywhy started with a bang, siring Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Nownownow. This year, Nownownow has won again at graded level, and Ikigai also won the G3 Mr. Prospector Stakes in 2009.

So the sons of Mr. Greeley with high speed have considerable potential as stallions, which is no doubt the reason Horse Greeley was snapped up to stand at Claiborne. Horse Greeley won a maiden at Del Mar, then stepped up his game for a victory in the G2 Del Mar Futurity over Great Hunter and Stormello.

This bright chestnut son of Mr. Greeley has a massive top, girthing 79 inches, and with a corresponding depth of shoulder and length of hip. He is a very powerful animal. He also has great length of body and stands a strong 16.3 hands tall.

In the body mass sweepstakes, Horse Greeley is a real beast. He gets this physical type naturally, as his dam is by Storm Cat, who is quite a husky animal. And there are more remote influences in the pedigree such as Raise a Native, Secretariat, and Nijinsky who tended to be influences for quite robust body types.

Horse Greeley’s size and power are accented by a very good head and eye, and the horse has the bone and hard-looking feet that ought to allow his offspring to be active athletes. With all these physical traits, Horse Greeley should match a number of mares, including those with more refinement that need added strength and bone.