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Apr 30

Occupy & Occupation

Welcome back dear readers to Broodmares Inc. where we are dedicated to searching for better ways to breed the classic racehorse.

Our last essay was on Heroic the great Australian racehorse from the early 1920’s. Today we’ll take another venture back into racing’s past to the early 1940’s to examine the full brothers Occupy and Occupation. If you’ve read my book Breeding by Design you’ll remember in my piece on sire line mythology the reasoning as to why no sire line can maintain its dominance for more than a few generations. Occupy and Occupation represents the demise of the dominance of the Domino line that had begun with his foaling in 1891. I go into the breeding of Domino in Breeding by Design but for those who haven’t had the chance to read it yet, you can find his story in an article I wrote for the Blood Horse.

 

Domino

Domino

The-breeding-behind-domino Domino had only 19 foals to live and his best son Commando had only 25. Even more remarkable is that Domino sired 8 stakes winners from his 19 foals for a 42% rate and Commando sired 10 stakes winners from 25 foals for a 40% rate. In today’s environment where a stallion that sires 10% stakes winners from foals is considered a top stallion you can see how extraordinary the achievements of Domino and his son Commando are. Domino was an inbred horse with three direct crosses of his own female line and multiple crosses of Lexington and Glencoe the two best stallions of the antebellum period. For about 40 years Domino’s blood was a dominant force in North American breeding. By the time we get to Occupation and Occupy, which are full brothers foaled in 1940 and 1941 respectively, the Domino influence is in decline. However, there is much to learn in this decline. The dam of Occupation and Occupy is Miss Bunting by Bunting. She is a mare heavily dosed with the blood of the inbred Mannie Grey. The 3rd dam of Miss Bunting is Dorothy Gray by Hamburg. This mare a foal of 1902 is incredibly inbred if you know who is related to whom. Hardly anyone would know that Vandal and Lexington trace to the same mare, Lady Grey by Robin Grey. Since Dorothy Gray has six crosses of Lexington and three of Vandal you can understand the extent of the inbreeding. More importantly Dorothy Gray is inbred to Mannie Gray 3×2.

Look at her pedigree here! Pedigree: Dorothy Gray

We can see that Dorothy Gray is the result of a stallion being used to reinforce his own female line. We also know that the horse she is inbred to is inbred herself carrying 3 crosses of the Galopade family. Now look at the male line of Bunting. It runs from Bunting to Pennant to Peter Pan to Commando to Domino. Here Miss Bunting picks up another direct cross of Mannie Gray from Domino. In effect we again have a Male line reinforcing the female line except in this case the female line is already inbred to Mannie Gray through Dorothy Gray. Miss Bunting picks up what I would call another interior cross of Mannie Gray as Hamburg is the sire of the 2nd dam of Bunting. The thing to remember is that Mannie Gray is in possession of three crosses of her own female line and Miss Bunting has 4 crosses of Mannie Gray.

Pedigree: Miss Bunting

Miss Bunting is a mare heavily dosed with the blood of the horses that were the foundation of the thoroughbred in North America. Then she is bred to Bull Dog who represents a total outcross and the result is the very speedy full brothers Occupation and Occupy. It would be the full brothers Bull Dog and Sir Gallahad III that would be the chief beneficiaries of American mares now heavily dosed with the blood of Domino, Lexington and Glencoe. So one era was ending and a new era in breeding was beginning. The new era would be represented by the influx of European Stallions such as the a fore mentioned Bull dog and Sir Gallahad and later Sickle, Pharamond II, and then finally Nasrullah, Royal Charger and Khaled. During their time of dominance Sir Gallahad III was leading sire in North America 4 times and leading broodmare sire 12 times. His full brother Bull dog was leading sire once and leading broodmare sire 3 times. This was followed by Bull Dog’s son Bull Lea being leading sire 5 times and leading broodmare sire 4 times. After this run taking place over 30 years the line gave way to that of Nasrullah and his descendants.

Occupy and Occupation present and interesting contrast. Occupation was the better racehorse meeting Triple Crown winner Count Fleet 3 times as a two-year-old and defeating him twice. In the Futurity Stakes Occupation won with Ask Me Now (champion two-year-old filly) 2nd and Count Fleet 3rd. Occupation probably lost the two-year-old champion title when Count Fleet beat him in the Pimlico Futurity. On the other hand Occupy also won the Futurity Stakes over co-champion two-year-old colt Platter but lost the Breeders Futurity to champion two-year-old filly Durazna. So while Occupation met and defeated stronger competition his full brother earned a championship. As breeding animals Occupy was distinctively better than was his full brother. However it was not because either brother left any impact on the male side of pedigrees. It was as broodmare sires that the brothers left their only impression. Occupation is only remembered through his daughter No Strings who is the dam of champion two-year-old colt Nail, as well as Globemaster and Mito. Occupy’s daughters achieved at a higher level producing among others Habitat and Northfields. Habitat was leading broodmare sire in Great Britain four times, and Northfields is the sire of Broodmare of the Year Northern Sunset. She achieved Broodmare of the Year status by producing three earners of over $1,000,000 and another that won $817,000. Little Hut by Occupy the dam of Habitat and Northfields is also the 4th dam of Sauve Dancer which won the French Derby and Prix de l’Acr de Triomphe. Occupy left an indelible stamp on the stud book though his daughter Bridgework the 2nd dam of Kris S. without her there would be no Kris S. and therefore no Zenyatta. Keep in mind that the only reason I presented this essay to you was to highlight the dam of Occupy and Occupation, Miss Bunting who is a classic example of male line reinforcement of the female family Until next time dear readers here’s wishing you the best of racing luck.

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