The racing news – Thunder Snow wins the Dubai World Cup, sired by Helmet.
We’ve done our pedigree genetic-dynamisms well before re: this bloke Breeding Dynamics: Put the HELMET on and reckoned (right-on) never a hit n’ miss type of sire. He has it all. Everywhere.
TBL genetic ‘strain’ philosophy…. yes, Helmet’s deep-down potency carries abundantly. A son of Exceed an Excel, the breeding excellence he was, I am fascinated & drawn to the broodmare lines, Antwerpen (GER) ff 7-f, the female tail, bred into/onto the female fame indexes ff 4-0: 5th remove (maternal) where it Counts best.
So, how relevant is this unique strain (4-o) to breeding? American Pharoah pows a ‘Grand Slam’
Unifying the strains, co-uniting breeding, has surely enforced my ‘ideas’ and how we can explore the paradox, the mysteries of knitting strains for selective- breeding and how an individual’s strength arises from its past. That is to draw on core dominant strains which will satisfie in-breeding convention (also out-crossing) but also takes advancement to ‘pool’ co-affiliated strains and hence, completion of a genotype pedigree. That’s paperwork…..!
Eccentrically, I think of ‘breeding’ as the 3-legged stool: balance, template, structure. The triangle is also a useful symbol, each line, as features, aligns to a geometric recipe. By symbolic figurations, I am to ‘remember’ thoroughbred evolutionary typology and how ‘nature’ emerges to re-establish.
A long-in-the-tooth breeder (not horses) once told me it only took 2 strains. I nodded agreeably to the complexity of the simplicity. Perhaps I should square-off, and mention a few distinctive patterns are so apparent, which mainstream misses. I am not hard-nosed (i.e. facts and maths/science) however there is no doubt ‘patterns’ existing to thoroughbred female-family co-associations.
The eternal 5-h female family i.e. Nureyev , Sadlers Wells goes anywhere, but namely ff. 3 branches. Think – ancestress, Pocahontas.
Female family branches: 13/ 8.
2 – 4 -7
9/4
11/12
Some lines are short-supply!
It is is plausible ‘breeding’ is dealing with distinct strains in distinct groups finding templates that harness again & again the better bred or superior bred. In other words, there are pyramid thoroughbred tiers of best, better superior bred, (how they tie in)filtering down to broader bands. In such a way one might figure why broodmares are better nicked, better producers within the same band-range to that of the stallion.
Important – The availability of the female family numbers are just so imperative to comprehend how/where nature maybe sourcing ‘purity’; taking strength through to a composite bred animal. below….
although the system is still discredited – it has been thoroughly endorsed by many intellectual breeders and students. Leon Rasmussen