Category Archives: thoroughbred pedigrees

it’s not just a number

27 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by in Australian Thoroughbreds, genotype, race horse breeding, thoroughbred pedigree analysis, thoroughbred pedigrees

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“the breed,” he said, “must not be lost” – Studmaster, Rowland Place ; mid 1600’s

In our last article…TBL clued readers that some surviving strains are indeed rare. Whether from impatience, fashion or ignorance, peculiar lines wilt, decline but shall resurrect and decline once more. From the ‘old-gold’ within ancestry, it appears within  few individuals to the present day.

There is a particular old female line which plainly haunts. In a nutshell, it was highly formative to the evolvement of thoroughbreds, although of those times, considered ugly mares ‘unfit’ for purpose yet they a tough, constitutional breeder-type in its day. This is the female family 24.

It kinda goes real interesting when we drop a racing name like Frankel, where his 7th maternal dam has Sir Cosmos (IRE) (see below)

The Australian grey-gelding & entertaining sprinting machine Chautauqua where viewing the maternal tap-root lines (@ 8th remove) , the female family 24 through a New Zealand mare, named Raceful, tracing through to Touchstone. (see below)

& remember, Tulloch – a New Zealand and Australian Racing Hall of Fame inductee. Tap-root female family 24 tracing through to Touchstone, and to the in-breeding of same line.

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“an equine genetic freak, a smallish specimen with muscular, rounded quarters an a driving will” – Ross du Bourg

 

 

(of female family 24) …..”earned imperishable fame as the sires respectively of Touchstone and Stockwell”

Stockwell (by The Baron (IRE), female family 24 from Pocahontas (3-n) !!! Stockwell, The Emperor of Stallions

Touchstone (by Camel (GB), female family 24 from Banter (GB) ff-14.

  • The Boss (IRE) 1910 (ff-24) where his son Sir Cosmo (IRE) has the broodmare sire of Round Table and Monarchy. His grandson Gold Bridge (FR) was the sire of Rough Shod II. Arthur B. “Bull” Hancock Jr. purchased Rough Shod II and the dam of Round Table, Knight’s Daughter, in England in December, 1951. credit source pedigreequery.com

Now you just might start jumping up and down confused, that a little speck of DNA dust can’t make the pedigree absolute.

As the lines have ‘expanded’, the dominant breeding re-develops to reverse back on to itself, and conceivably demonstrates we may thoughtfully identify the true breed-shapers themselves.

It always makes me ponder if this is what the legendary Federico Tesio realized, enabling him to achieve his exceptional success.

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Tesio’s co-contribution to the Bobinski tables

There is no doubt in my mind, that the ‘heat’ wave in a genetic template pedigree is hottest about 5th – 7th remove striking the parallels and genetic connections where ‘type’ goes to source.

Advice…. build cohesiveness between strains. It is imperative to capture the nature of consanguineous relationships over the generational phrases. It is magical.

Recognition is integral to hierarchal breeding.

Find the history, & enter its mystery.

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Thrust, goes the Galileo engine

15 Sunday Jul 2018

Posted by in race horse breeding, thoroughbred pedigree analysis, thoroughbred pedigrees, thoroughbred racehorse analysis, thoroughbred racing pedigree

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Bored by wintry-blues, TBL went to the local race meeting.

Strode into the main entrance and spotted horse no.6. Eye appeal was enough.

Took a bet & it was a good start to the day. Brought myself lunch (not so good there) and walked by the den of punters, and on through to the outside, where the small crowd of owners and connections socialized from the cold.

As pondering the who’s who of owner-partnership fraternity, where the parties eagerly hung to jockeys & trainers view of events…my friend said, ‘things don’t change’ and TBL chuckled knowingly.

‘If’, if, if you see… has the longest word in the human book and ‘if’ that horse wasn’t in a bad position, it would of been in-the-money, having made up its ground.

TBL remembered the ol’ Russian proverb: ‘hope is the mother of all fools’.

Next race and coming into the birdcage was a nervous mare. Surprised at the astonishingly elongated back pastern where the fetlock almost appeared ready to collapse beneath. Her awkwardness upset TBL’s idealism of the perfect specimen. (joke) How could it have a show?

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Galileo mare

 

WHAT(?)…effortlessly, she flew past the post –  a smooth gliding action which touched invisibly upon the turf.

The mare was by the great Galileo.

– yeah, TBL got this wrong.  It was a message to reboot and remind. Think & think again, what-is(?) well-bred correctness?

Ultimately, breeding is Get the Best. The best thoroughbred where its poetry is swiftness: a beautiful ‘natural’ easy momentum speed surging through veins of a classic thoroughbred animal.

The clues of careful breeding come upon a genotype pedigree which yields to deeper layering  – the familial ‘groups’ (in-breeding) as belonging to the individuals (as ‘race’-named): these hierarchal like-tiers which imperceptibly, preside through thoroughbred breeding.

It persists in generations what is potential – the aim to procure an above normal individual. A horse (in flesh) may be ugly, unlikeable, something physically incorrect etc, but never mind, the ‘X’ factor is gait, motion and speed.

This is what beauty of racing actually is – to watch and experience it. Shivers go down your spine.

By identifying (again & again) the KPI’s (of pedigrees) follow the family by viewing family-tables working structure. Family tables are like post-codes that profile exactly the genetic engine. Specifically, tap-root(s) maternal, its generational unfolding, upgrading to the present individual.

The family wheels keep going smooth, providing the KPI’s are substantially in place.

GALILEO, SEA THE STARS, Epsom Derby winner MASAR

Many articles on these mighty horses take obvious bits of information without penetrating particular peculiarities which greatly seam the genetics. The dam’s family ‘connections’ which keeps the knitting together. Exceptional ‘dam’ strain (family 9-h)intertwines another exceptional ‘dam’ strain (5-h), the most potent proliferating thoroughbred strains in existence where it is also to gauge their genetic prowess on the constant evolutionary move of the thoroughbred.

Opportunity lies in hidden details which populist breeding propaganda fails to inform detail, detail, detail.

It is to ‘conserve’ , source, support bloodlines. However from this ol’ TBL book of mine….family-table  ‘pairing’ of strains takes the ‘map’ but appropriately revise from the oldest bloodlines now barely visible (some are rare); they from the cultural/economic/political history of horses ‘lost & hidden in time’.

“Birkhahn began his stallion career at the Graditz National Stud in East Germany, where he was leading sire of winners five times. He was bought by Baroness Gabrielle von Oppenheim of the Schlenderhan Stud in 1960 and although he died five years later, he was leading West German sire of winners three times posthumously.” Peter Willet – The Classic Racehorse

birkhahn

“His sire Alchimist (family 9-h) won the Grosser Preis von Baden-Baden, Grosser Preis von Berlin, Grosser Preis von Kohn and was the leading sire in Germany. Unfortunately, when the Russians swept into Germany at the end of the war, Alchimist was slaughtered for food”. Ken McLean – Designing Speed in the Racehorse

 

And, as for the subject mare above, well what-do-you-know….Birkhahn merges onto the maternal tap-root line.

(footnote – TBL articles maybe freely shared but Do please acknowledge this site! Thank you)

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reflections ….

27 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by in Australian Thoroughbreds, genotype, pedigree analysis, pedigree research, thoroughbred pedigree analysis, thoroughbred pedigrees, thoroughbred racehorse analysis

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Its about uncovering pedigree to examine the female lines.

Many discussions I had with father and friends towards ideals: breeding genuine lines/genuine families.

Old days, Dad was a reputable breeder of stud Friesian cows, 40 years +. Add to that, a number of beefies, and the few thoroughbreds.

The breeding technique where his guiding principle – endlessly screening ‘purity’ direct, near as to ‘roots’.

Understandably one might wonder what dairying, farming practices, has to do with today’s thoroughbreds. Well, its these breeding dynamics which breed stock.

Its the diligence to understand.

No technology, repeatedly read history, breeding books, analysing, read-between-lines, deduce and come upon ancestral relationships. Out to the paddocks and observe ‘type. Its the yarning over a back-fence where many ‘unscripted’ understandings towards breeding finds its breadth, breed-to-purpose and performance.

–  onwards strength as specie.

The thoroughbred is still and always hybrid: its composite strains through bloodlines.

There are favourable ‘family’ strains: come stronger to the thoroughbred population.

Breeding goes through its cyclic, the selection on going & hopefully to appropriate sire. The selection decision has the next generation to; it becomes broodmare sire and its influences to next generations thereof. This is selection: the infusions, the capacity to build the desired effect.

Sir Patrick Hogan said something how, breeding-is-not-racing, racing-is-not-breeding.) Thoroughbred Breeding: A MASTER OF TIME

Father often commented: “what a magnificent animal but as a breeder, he is a disaster down the track. You’ll get into trouble with the likes of these.”

On tour, a woman lightly commented, where mares had gotten too big. This  might also suggest, where is the TB going….?

To breed is not to only aim at esteemed bloodlines, but the depth, with its  optimal phenotype: constitution, ‘gait’, flexible.

Multi-faceted criteria’s take due consideration, what factors breeding to the racehorse ideal ?

Though we recognize breeding landscapes change, and more genetic material is increasingly available, I suggest the core-fundamentals don’t.

And, every now & then we might reflect and be reminded some caution applies.

Such has been the improvement in the anaerobic capacity to todays thoroughbred and the total absence of aerobic improvement or it may even be decline of aerobic performance. These change of the last 30 years must be appreciated in any scientific study of todays thoroughbred. Because the thoroughbred has changed, the training and breeding management may no longer be applicable. The anaerobic horse is better, but as a consequence more physiologically fragile.

credit: Australasian Thoroughbred Science Review Jan. 1987

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