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Man O’ War

In the preface to Broodmares Inc I let you know that in the next addition I was going to present to you the pedigrees of nine great horses all of which are bred exactly alike in one particular way. Just in case you don’t have a program to display pedigrees I’m providing a hot link which will display the pedigree. I would suggest that you print the pedigrees so that you can lay them out and compare one to another. All of these great horses are bred exactly alike in one important aspect but I would venture to guess that no matter how advanced you are in pedigree analysis you will see the implications until I point it out to you in the next update.

Another thing to keep in mind is that I am not a writer. I am a dedicated lover of the Thoroughbred horse who has spent a lifetime examining the lineage of the thoroughbred in hopes to make a significant contribution to the advancement of the breed. As I write these essays think of me as a friend who I talking to you from across the kitchen table because that is how I write. I believe that after I reveal to you what goes into the make-up of the nine great horses that follow, you will never look at pedigrees in the same way, and in effect your knowledge of what makes a great Thoroughbred horse will have been advanced appreciably. I’ll show you the horse, their foaling date and accomplishments and provide hot links to their pedigree.

These are the horses in question:

Hermit                  1864           Epsom Derby, Leading sire 1880-1886

Chelandry            1894           One of breeds greatest broodmares

Sceptre                 1899           One of greatest racemares

Buchan                1916           Obscurely bred, Leading Sire 1927

Man O’ War       1917           One of the all time greats

Gallant Fox          1927           Triple Crown

Nearco                 1935           Undefeated, Leading Sire

Ribot                    1952           Undefeated, Leading Sire

Nasrullah             1940           Leading Sire

There is an explanation as to why I put this exercise in the form of a question. Ever since I came upon his writing back in 1975 when I began reading his book Sire Lines I’ve been a disciple of Abram S. Hewitt. He was the first person writing on Thoroughbreds who advanced my knowledge to a great degree. In the course of his writing Mr. Hewitt would ask interesting questions. The first that I can remember was, “how did Colonel Hall Walker, later known as Lord Wavertree, breed the 2^nd dams of 6 leading sires. The following is a quote from The Great Breeders and Their Methods.

          “A much more interesting thing about Hall Walker was his ability to select mares with apparently the poorest of credentials, or very nearly so, both in terms of racing performance and pedigree, and from these mares “breed up” so that as second dams with such credentials they became the ancestresses  of the following group of Stallions:”

Blandford (1919) by Swynford

Challenger II (1927) by Swynford

Sickle (1924) by Phalaris

Hyperion (1930) by Gainsborough

Big Game (1939)

Princequillo (1940) by Prince Rose

          “Consider the odds against such an achievement. Lord Derby did not breed the second dams of Chaucer, Swynford, Phalaris, Pharos, or Fairway, and was only technically the breeder (Col. Hall Waker made the mating) of the second dam of Sickle and Hyperion. Tesio did not breed the 2^nd dams of Nearco or Ribot. Calumet did not breed the 2^nd dam of Bull Lea. Wheatley Stable did not breed the 2^nd dam of Bold Ruler. Nor did the Aga Khan breed the 2^nd dam of Nasrullah, Mahmoud, or Blenheim II. Boussac did not breed the 2^nd dam of Tourbillon. Belmont did not breed the 2^nd dams of Fair Play or Man o” War. James R. Keene did not breed the 2^nd dams of Domino, Commando, Sweep, Broomstick, or Ben Brush. Nor did A. B. Hancock Jr. breed the 2^nd dam of Round Table.

          “So far as the author knows, Hall Walker’s achievement in breeding the 2^nd dams of the “blue ribbon” list of sires set out above was unique, and is all the more remarkable when we consider the background of the mares in question.

 When I first came across this information I researched the pedigrees of the 2^nd dams of the above listed stallions in the attempt to figure out what Col. Hall Walker was doing. Remember, this was before the advent of the desk top computer so I couldn’t just type the name into Tesio Power and come up with the pedigree. As it turned out I spent years trying to decipher the riddle and I still haven’t come up with a reasonable explanation.

In 1980 Mr. Hewitt wrote an article in the Thoroughbred Record entitled The Duke of Portland and St. Simon. As strange as it may seem this article led to my meeting my hero. It’s also the primary reason that I will often pose questions to you. In his Article Mr. Hewitt explained that the Duke of Portland was considered very lucky when it came to racing. In the case of St. Simon he only became his owner when Prince Batthyany died at the foot of the stairs leading to the Jockey Club dinning room on Two Thousand Guineas day in 1883. Prince Batthyany was the owner of St. Simon and his horses were put up for sale at the July sale at Newmarket. At the sale some shenanigans were in play as St. Simon had his hock painted with a white substance trying to give the impression that he was developing a curb. Mathew Dawson the trainer for the Duke of Portland ran his hand over St. Simon’s hock and said he didn’t think there was anything that mattered and further more the white stuff smelled more like paint than blister. The result was that the Duke of Portland came into the ownership of one of the Turf’s greatest horses on a bid of 1,600 guineas.

At this point the only problem with St. Simon was that his classic nominations had been voided with the death of Prince Batthyany. A little research shows that St.Simon had only been nominated to the 2,000 Guineas and that was probably because he was foaled when his dam was 16 and she had never produced anything of note up until then. Despite never running in a classic race St. Simon retired undefeated and his quality was never in question. In 1884 he won the Ascot Gold Cup by 20 lengths defeating the previous year’s winner the great distance runner Tristan. St. Simon was so full of run after finishing the Ascot Gold Cup that it took his rider another mile to pull him up. Considering that the Ascot gold Cup is run over 2 ½ miles that is quite an accomplishment. The great jockey Fred Archer once referred to St. Simon as “a blooming steam engine”. A final tribute was added by his trainer Mathew Dawson, the trainer of 28 English Classic winners who stated, “I have only trained one great horse, and that is St. Simon”.

St. Simon

Abram S. Hewitt described St. Simon’s success at stud to be so meteoric that it could hardly be comprehended.

With his first crop only two-year-olds he ranked 2^nd on the general sire list. From there he led the list of sires 9 times and sired 10 classic winners of 17 classic races. Even Bold Ruler’s dominance in the United States can’t be compared to St. Simon’s record. Although Bold Ruler led the sires list 8 times he only sired one classic winner that being Secretariat. But, Mr. Hewitt had a question regarding St. Simon’s breeding record. At the time he wrote the article The Duke of Portland and St. Simon Mr. Hewitt was the bloodstock advisor to Nelson Bunker Hunt. Mr. Hewitt related that although Mr. Hunt’s stud was in possession of many Grade 1 or Group 1 winning mares they were not breeding up to expectations. It was with this in mind that Mr. Hewitt related that when St. Simon first went to stud he was not bred to the mares of the highest racing class, and when he was bred to high class race mares he did not sire individuals one would expect. Mr. Hewitt went on to say, “St. Simon sired a good many of his best racers from mares that by modern standards, where racing performance ranks very high, would not be considered good mares.

          As an example he showed that when mated with Quiver the winner of only 490 pounds over three seasons, St. Simon sired Memoir, winner of the Oaks and St. Leger, and her full sister La Fleche, winner of the 1,000 Guineas, Oaks, St. Leger, and Ascot Gold Cup. Quiver’s dam never ran and as a broodmare produced only one other winner of 50 pounds.

Persimmon

From Perdita II who ran in selling races he sired Persimmon (Derby, St. Leger, and Ascot God Cup), Diamond Jubilee (2,000 Guineas, Derby, St. Leger). From unraced Miss Middlewick he sired Oaks winner Mrs. Butterwick (Oaks), and out of non-winning Tact he sired Amiable (1,000 Guineas). From winless Miss Mildred, St. Simon sired La Roche (Oaks). From another non-winner he sired William the Third winner of the Ascot Gold Cup and Doncaster Cup who was considered by his trainer John Porter to have been unlucky when 2^nd in the Derby.

For the last 12 years of his life when he was known to be the best stallion in the world and was bred to many mares of the highest racing class, he never sired another classic winner. The question Mr. Hewitt asked was, “Why Not”.

It just so happened at that time my area of expertise lay in the study of “Class in the Dam”. I had a reasonably good explanation of why St. Simon failed with the top class racemares and succeeded with those of mediocre racing class. At the time I was writing my newsletter Golden Hoofprints so I condensed Mr. Hewitt’s article to give my subscribers the gist of what it was about ( in case that hadn’t read it) and then gave my answer to why St. Simon failed to live up to expectations when bred to classic winning mares such as Canterbury Pilgrim (Oaks), L’Abbesse De Jouarre (Oaks), St. Marguerite (1,000 Guineas), Dutch Oven (St. leger), Wheel of Fortune (1,000 Guineas, Oaks), Shotover (2,000 Guineas, Derby), and Briar Root (1,000 Guineas). The facts show that classic winning mares are not the best producers of high indexed runners and the mediocre mares to which St. Simon was originally mated are. I knew this because I had done a racing index on all of the champions for the past 40 years and an index on their dams. That list now Encompasses 60 years. I also do a racing index on the winner of every current graded stakes race and an index on the winner’s dam. So you could say that I don’t wonder about what kind of racemare produces the best runner I statistically know. I also keep a list by broodmare sire as to which broodmare sires are most prolific in siring the dams of high indexed runners. I would never purchase a mare sired by a broodmare sire unable to make the list, and usually only if they are amongst the best on the list. One thought I brought forth in my book Breeding by Design is that whom ever maintains the list becomes the real expert. It is one thing to look at the list occasionally and another to be intimately involved in its creation. At any rate I sent out the newsletter giving my answer to the question Mr. Hewitt asked concerning St. Simon.

About 3 weeks later I received a letter which I will never forget. It was in a light blue envelope and the return address from a farm in Lexington, Kentucky with which I was unfamiliar. In my book Breeding by Design I relate stories that I call the romance of the turf. These are stories where something unexpected and unusual occurs which leads to a life changing event. Although I didn’t know it as I stood by the mailbox on my front porch but the letter in the blue envelope would be my experience with the romance of the turf. In fact if I had not received that letter it is very unlikely that you would be reading any of this now.

At first I didn’t realize who the author of the letter was although it turned out to be very flattering. When I got to the 3^rd sentence it said, “I recently wrote an article called “The Duke of Portland and St. Simon” at this point I realized the letter was from Abram S. Hewitt. To make a long story short Mr. Hewitt suggested that we meet and spend some time together the next time I was in Kentucky for a horse sale. That fall I met Mr. Hewitt and spend three days at his farm. To me at that point in my career it was the best of times. Mr. Hewitt related to me pretty much all that he had learned about breeding the racehorse. One interesting story Mr. Hewitt told me was that when the Aga Khan first entered racing he was given some very specific advice by Colonel Hall Walker, later know as Lord Wavertree. In later years the Aga Khan intimated that had he followed that advice given him by Lord Wavertree as great as his success had been it would have been much greater. Unfortunately, no one seems to know what advice Lord Wavertree had given the Aga Khan. I believe I now know and that is the one piece of information I will not be sharing with anyone except my clients.

In our discussion Mr. Hewitt asked me how I had become so advanced in the analysis of Thoroughbred pedigrees at such an early age. My answer was simple, “it was from your work Mr. Hewitt. You allowed my knowledge to advance 50 years in a few months by writing Sire Lines. If I had to do all of the research that allowed you to write such a book it would have taken me a lifetime. In effect you handed me a lifetime of research on a silver platter”. Mr. Hewitt was very pleased with my answer and then made me promise to write a very creative book to follow Sire Lines. The information in my book Breeding by Design and that which you will read on this web site is the fulfillment of that promise. What this is about is one person with a passion for Thoroughbreds passing on information one person to another.

With that last thought I hope to see you again next week where I will reveal what the pedigrees of the nine great horses in this addition have in common.

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Chelandry

If I have seen further it has been by standing upon the shoulders of Giants.

Sir Isaac Newton

          Why start with a quote from Isaac Newton?

The reason is simple so let me begin to explain. Over the past 350 years as the breed of Thoroughbred racehorses developed there have been many great thinkers involved in trying to unravel the mystery of what makes a great racehorse. To date no one has come up with a reasonable explanation. If one studies the work of those who have made the attempt you will find that although no one came up with the definitive answer some were able to come up with a piece of the puzzle. Taken by itself that piece may make little or no sense, but if you put a few of them together a greater understanding begins to emerge. To that extent the mission of this web site will try to bring together ideas of some of the great thinkers of the breed in the attempt to make a great leap forward in the understanding of Thoroughbred genealogy and pedigrees.

When a person is able to take a complex idea and boil it down to its essence where almost everyone can understand the basic concept they have made a significant contribution. One such person is Ken McLean who is the author of such books as Tesio, Master of Matings, Quest for a Classic Winner, and Genetic Heritage. I’ve never met Ken McLean but I have read all of his books and enjoyed them all. Some years ago as I was first reading Quest for a Classic Winner a single paragraph almost jumped off the pages. It was on page 60 that I found an idea that is so important that I have dubbed it the The Ken Mclean Axiom. In a simplified form it explains how Marcel Boussac’s breeding empire developed, and how one should go about breeding the Thoroughbred. The following is the Ken McLean Axiom.

          Genetic Influence from superior ancestors becomes diluted after one or two out crossed generations, yet when the same superior ancestors are reinforced in a single pedigree it allows for the recapture of the original source of classic speed. You must first duplicate the source, then go away from it, and then make sure it is reinforced again.

With that idea as a starting point let us proceed. I spent 37 years researching and 3 years writing a book called Breeding By Design. What this book will show you is how to concentrate classic speed which is the first part of the Ken McLean Axiom. He speaks of the recapturing the original source of classic speed. Before you recapture it you must first capture it originally. Another book to which mine is complementary is Inbreeding to Superior Females by Rommy Faversham and Leon Rasmussen. In effect we have different people working separately coming to similar conclusions. However, this is just the first step, not too much different from leaving Council Bluffs, Iowa in 1849 and heading down the Oregon Trail with the ultimate destination being the Promised Land. Bare with me as things are going to get very interesting.

Traquair

For many years I’ve believed that success in breeding Thoroughbreds would lie in understanding female families. To me the mares are the building blocks of the breed and the stallions act as conduits to spread the mare’s genes into the general population. As you read on I believe you will come to agree with me on this point. Let me quote from another great thinker in Thoroughbred breeding, Federico Tesio. He states:

   “The character of the female is 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.”

In 1975 I moved from Upperville, Virginia to Carl M. Freeman’s farm in Unity, Maryland to run his breeding program. At a dinner party when we first met I had told Carl that he could breed champion racehorses from his cheap mares if he gave them the same opportunity as would be given a champion racemare. Everyone said I was a lunatic for making such an outrageous proposal. As it turned out, a few years later, one of Carl’s unraced $10,000 mares produced Miss Alleged who won the Breeders Cup Turf at odds of 40-1. However, that’s not why I’m telling you about Carl Freeman. The first month I was living on Carl’s estate he gave me a book to read called Breeding Racehorses from Cluster Mares by Dennis Craig. This book published in 1964 could arguably be considered the most important book ever written about Thoroughbred Horse breeding. Carl didn’t have the background to understand the book, but he thought that I might. I had the book for a couple of months and read it with great interest and although I was able to understand the basic principle put forth I couldn’t understand the pedigrees. Many of the pedigrees were from before 1900 a period of time I hadn’t begun to study at the beginning of my career as a pedigree analyst. The basic principles put forth by Mr. Craig are absolutely true to the point that they should be chiseled in stone. They are; Excellence in the racehorse is not the property of certain female lines as such, but has been derived from a select band of outstanding mares whose influence on the development of the Thoroughbred has been paramount. This select band of mares he calls Cluster mares.

          The second insight that Dennis Craig puts forth is that classic winners often are not worth the inflated prices that are paid for their services, and recommends the use of less fashionable non-classic-winning stallions who have some of the same cluster mares close up in their pedigrees as the broodmares with whom it is proposed to mate them.

       After careful consideration I’ve found both of these statements to be absolutely true. If you continue to read you will find out why.

Now let’s continue the story of how the lifetime work of several individuals may have led to a breakthrough in pedigree analysis. I was impressed with the book Breeding Racehorses From Cluster Mares, but 37 years ago I didn’t grasp all of its implications. However, I did write down the list of mares Dennis Craig designated as Cluster mares. I didn’t do anything with the list I just put it away and didn’t find it again until recently.

For some odd reason the names of two of the cluster mares stuck in my mind.

1886-derby

It could be that it was because they had catchy names that appealed to me or as things turned out it could have been divine providence. The two mares were Giantess and Termagent. Maybe six months later I went to the library in Bowie, Maryland, to look up pedigrees. That branch of the library had the Selima Room filled with books on thoroughbred racing. This was before the computer and you had to use the Stud Books to research pedigrees. On this particular day as I was browsing through this fascinating collection of horse books I came across an old leather bound book entitled Thoroughbred Pedigree charts by H. E. Keylock. I had never seen a book like it as it showed Thoroughbred pedigrees in the form of a family tree and not in the usual format you might find in the Blood Horse Stallion Directory. In the preface, Mr. Keylock states,

“My aim has been to exhibit in an easily absorbable form a bird’s eye view of a branch of any given family including therein the most important horses and mares originating therefrom.

Again, like in the case of Dennis Craig’s book this book represents the lifetime work of Mr. Keylock

Without which you would not be reading anything that follows (one of the giants whose shoulders I have the privilege to stand on).

I had never seen a book like this one and as I was flipping through the pages I stopped on the originating mare of the number 6 family that of Old Bald Peg. As I looked down the page, low and behold who did my eyes alight on? Giantess! By some quirk of fate I as I browsed through this old book I had come upon one of the two mares I remembered from Breeding Racehorses from Cluster Mares. Since the page I was looking at didn’t have enough room to show Giantess’ descendants it said right under her name go to page 56 column 10. When I turned the page I quickly realized why Giantess was designated a Cluster Mare. Laid out like a family tree under Giantess were 8 classic winners and 3 leading sires produced by her daughters and granddaughters. The significant factor that I was observing was that all of these top horses traced to Giantess. At that moment I decided that if I could find out what gave Giantess such great genetic prepotency I would be well on the way to unraveling the mystery of thoroughbred breeding. Because the books in the Selima Room could not be checked out the next time I visited the Library I made a copy of Thoroughbred Pedigree Charts so I could study it at home. It took 35 years of study but I finally came up with an explanation of what made Giantess, Giantess. I recently completed a book about that entitled Breeding by Design.

          It was only after completing Breeding by Design that I made what I consider to be a remarkable discovery. This is how it came about. Keep in mind that this discovery brings together the work of many different people who devoted their lives to researching thoroughbred Pedigrees.

I had wondered over the years why Dennis Craig called his great broodmares Cluster mares and I’ve just realized recently why that might be. When you look at Giantess on page 56 of Thoroughbred Pedigree Charts one might compare the classic winners and leading sires appearing below her like a cluster of grapes hanging from a vine. Giantess occupied the place where the cluster joined the vine hence the expression Cluster mare. After I had copied Mr. Keylock’s book I would browse through each Thoroughbred family looking for a cluster of classic winners. Keep in mind I wasn’t thinking in terms of cluster mares at that time I just wanted to find out which mares represented the source of this great racing ability. When I found the mares that had a cluster of classic winners hanging below them in the family tree format I made an investigation of that mare.

It took 35 years to come up with a definitive answer primarily because for most of that time there were no desktop computers. When I finally purchased the pedigree program Tesio Power things began to move at a much higher rate of speed. Finally, I put the information I had garnered in studying female lines into my book Breeding By Design. It was after I had completed my book and sent it away for publication that I made what I consider an amazing discovery.

After writing Breeding By Design I thought in might be interesting to reread Dennis Craig’s book Breeding Racehorses From Cluster Mares, that is if I could find a copy. Keep in mind the book was published almost 50 years ago. Thanks to the internet I was able to locate as copy at Abe Books in England for the reasonable price of $60. I ordered the book and was excited to begin reading it when it arrived a couple of weeks later.

The rereading of that book was like a bright light illuminating the darkness! Suddenly I could see that which was invisible before. It was almost as if I could see pedigrees through a new form of prism. What I’m going to tell you and show you in future essays will change the way you perceive a Thoroughbred pedigree.

You might be asking yourself why I might be willing to share this information with you. It is certainly going to prove to be very valuable. You can be sure I’m not doing this for entirely altruistic reasons. In this credentialized society in which we live, I’m going to write my own credentials. What I’m very good at is stealing horses from the sales. Not outright theft, but I can purchase a horse that will prove to be worth 10 times what I pay for it. If you’re impressed by what you read on this site you can contact me and I’ll act as your agent and work with you to build your breeding programs. In another sense, if I don’t come out ahead in a material sense at least I won’t take this information to the grave with me.

I’d like to close this preface with a couple of ideas. Above all other things I am a fan of Thoroughbred racing. Sometimes in films you come across a scene or a statement that makes a significant impact on your consciousness. I found the end of the Shawshank Redemption particularly moving. Remember when Red (Morgan Freeman’s character) is paroled after serving most of his life in prison. He’s made a promise to his friend Andy that if he ever got out, he would go to a certain field in Buxton, Maine and look for an unusual rock next to a giant oak tree. Under the rock Red finds a metal box with a steamship on the cover. Inside he finds an envelope filled with $50 bills and a letter. The letter begins, “if you’re reading this you’ve gotten out. It then continues with the line I opened this site with, “If you’ve come this far maybe you’re willing to come a little but farther! Do you remember the name of the town? Red whispers to himself Zihuatanejo!

The letter goes on to say, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and good things never die.”

Horse Racing is about hope. That is the essence of it. We all hope the great horse is out there somewhere in our future. Hence the old saying, “No one has ever committed suicide that has an unraced two-year-old.

One last thought before I close. From another film comes another idea I think is appropriate to this discussion. This one comes from a sort of fun film not in the serious mode of the Shawshank Redemption. It’s called The Replacements and it’s about the replacement players that substituted for the NFL players when they were on strike. The team is supposed to be the Washington Redskins but they are called the Washington Sentinels in the film. At the end the Replacement players get the Sentinels into the playoffs with a sensational touchdown with 7 seconds left in the game. But, the replacement players aren’t going to play in the playoffs or the Super Bowl because the strike has ended. In the last scene the coach is walking off the field and we as the audience can read what he’s thinking. This is what we hear, “The replacement players of the Washington Sentinels left the stadium that day, there was no ticker tape parade, no endorsement deals for sneakers, or soda pop, or breakfast cereal. Just a locker to clean out and a ride home to catch. But, what they didn’t know was that their lives would be changed forever, because they had been part of something great; and greatness, no matter how brief, stays with a man.

Zenyatta

This is another idea that epitomizes racing. Take a horse like Zenyatta, everyone involved with her was touched by greatness whether it was her breeder, those who raised her, her trainer, her jockey or her groom, you could even include her fans. If by writing what I’m about to write I can be part of something great I’ll be very happy indeed.

In the next edition I’m going to show you the pedigrees of 9 great horses which are all bred exactly alike in one particular way. I want you to look at their pedigrees and see if you can determine how they are bred exactly alike and then in the following edition I’ll give you an explanation. I think then you will be more then a little excited and interested.