Listed below are all stakes winners among sales foals of 2003-2007 tracing to Sunday Evening in the female line. I trust that the format is familiar to you by now. Discussion starts after the list.

Stakes Winners, Sales Foals of 2003-2007, Sunday Evening in Tail Female

Name                        Price               RR               Generation

Cat Shaker                   03Y2,300                290           5^th, Home by Dark

Catienus—Diamonds n Pearls, Black Tie Affair

Slew Motion               03T52,000              324           8^th, Royal Society

Slew Gin Fizz—Inthemiddleofitall, Proper Reality

Mia Cat Dancer        04Y20,000              201           7^th, Royal Society

Tactical Cat—Master Print, Mt. Livermore

Blazing Sunset         05T32,000               224            5^th, Home by Dark

Talk is Money—Chantilly Green, Halo

Si Si Mon Amie       05Y35,000               343           5^th, Prayer Bell

El Corredor—French Allure, Lear Fan

Matchless Orinda  06Y140,000             288          7^th, Royal Society

Sky Mesa—Perfectly Stunning, Silver Deputy

Monsoor                   07T35,000                232          5^th, Prayer Bell

Mt. Livermore—Ghost Bell, Silver Ghost

Musket Man             07Y15,000             1,937        6^th, Prayer Bell

Yonaguska—Fortuesque, Fortunate Prospect

Peaceful Reign       07Y10,000                192          4^th, Prayer Bell

Liberty Gold—Peaceful Wings, Halo

Sunday Evening was a 1947 filly by Eight Thirty out of Drowsy (a stakes winner and multiple stakes producer), by Royal Minstrel. On the track Sunday Evening posted a record of 8-3-2-1 for earnings of $23,850 and an SSI of 12.44. She won the Spinaway Stakes and finished second in the Schuylerville Stakes.

At stud Sunday Evening produced ten foals, six starters, and five winners, including Test Stakes winner Time for Bed (1961 filly by Bold Ruler). Time for Bed produced no stakes winners, but you might recognize her as the dam of Sleep On It (1977 filly by Buckpasser). Sleep On It was a multiple stakes producer, and her branch of this family remains very popular today.

Dark Mirage was by Persian Road II out of Home by Dark, an unraced 1959 filly by Hill Prince out of Sunday Evening. Two of the nine stakes winners listed above trace to Sunday Evening through Home by Dark, who produced ten foals, all starters, and eight winners. In addition to Dark Mirage, she also produced the stakes winners Gray Mirage (1969 filly by Bold Bidder) and Bold Impulse (1973 colt by Bold Bidder).

Gray Mirage produced the stakes winner Texas Gem (1977 colt by Canonero II). She is even more renowned as the second dam of multiple champion (in Europe) Indian Skimmer (1984 filly by Storm Bird out of Nobiliare, by Vaguely Noble). This is also the family of Classy Mirage (G1 winner of $716,712) and her daughter Missy’s Mirage (G1 winner of $838,894).

Silent Screen was by Prince John out of Prayer Bell, an unraced 1954 filly by Better Self out of Sunday Evening. Four of the nine stakes winners listed above trace to Sunday Evening through Prayer Bell, including Musket Man, by far the best of the nine.

Prayer Bell produced 13 foals, 12 starters, all winners. In addition to Silent Screen, she also produced the stakes winners Prayer Cap (1962 filly by Thinking Cap and the dam of three stakes winners in her own right) and Belladora (1976 filly by Stage Door Johnny). Note that Prayer Bell produced Belladora at the age of 22.

The remaining three stakes winners listed above all trace to Sunday Evening through Royal Society, an unraced 1956 filly by Royal Charger out of Sunday Evening. Royal Society’s main claim to fame is as the fourth dam of G1 winner Travelling Music (1978 colt by Spring Double) and of G2 winner Statesmanship (1994 colt by Silver Deputy).

So Dark Mirage and Silent Screen were by no means the only claims to distinction owned by the family of Sunday Evening.

I found 281 foals among these sales foals of 2003-2007 tracing to Sunday Evening in the female line. They ranged from the fourth through ninth generations (Sunday Evening as their fourth through ninth dams). The nine stakes winners ranged from the fourth through eighth generations (Sunday Evening as their fourth through eighth dams).

Those 281 foals sold for a gross of $20,645,805, an average of $73,473 (well above the overall average of $54,140), and a maverage of 208.83 (well above the overall maverage of 163.11). So they were very popular, sold for prices well above average, and should have had success on the racetrack well above average as well.

In fact, their racetrack results were distinctly disappointing. Nine stakes winners from 281 foals is 3.20%, just a shade below the overall figure of 3.36%.

Even with Musket Man (1,937 Performance Points) though, these nine stakes winners were not very good collectively. They averaged only 448 Performance Points apiece, well below the overall average of 603. The next best after Musket Man was Si Si Mon Amie at 343, not very good at all.

So taking both quantity and quality of stakes winners into account, these 281 foals had a PPI (result) of 0.71, far below their corresponding Price Index of 1.28.

Their prices were about 28% above average. Their results were about 29% below average. To put a slight spin on the old adage, sometimes you get a lot LESS than what you paid for.

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Dark Mirage was not only queen of the 1968 3-year-old fillies and, indeed, of her entire generation, she was a phenomenon difficult to explain in terms of either eugenics or physiology, achieving great distinction through the development of the psychological will-to-win to its highest power.

A filly of wiry physique, barely 15.1 and weighing 710 pounds, she revealed nothing of her athletic prowess in her parsimonious exterior. Her contrasting Lilliputian conformation and Amazonic racing form are a temptation to quote the homily that the most precious gifts come in the smallest packages.

Mr. Fitz often found occasion to say, “It is what one cannot see that counts.” One imagines Federico Tesio would have approved Lloyd Miller’s $6,000 yearling bargain, as he preferred horses who excelled through nervous energy rather than brute force.

But Dark Mirage needs no apology for either her miniature proportions or her pedigree, which is far from the dernier cri of fashion. Perhaps this last is the fault of some aberration in the perceptions of those who dictate the modes in pedigree patterns, rather than an implication she is of plebeian origins.

At any rate, she focused belated attention on her dead English sire Persian Road II, who was ostracized in Kentucky and went to Connecticut. Persian Road II won the Ebor and stayed well. One is struck by the poverty of imagination and daring in breeding circles, but J. H. Whitney ventured to import him for his intrinsic worth as a strengthening influence. Kentucky breeders were not ready for Persian Road II, the production of stayers involving long term investments few either can or will hazard in the current economy. Most pedigrees represent the aspirations of too many breeders and their individual and differing tastes and approaches to a superior horse.

Persian Road II was a stallion of lofty presence individually, and a scion of the straight-pasterned, unsound Sultan of the Stud Blandford through his unbeaten son Bahram, who was expelled from Virginia. Insinuated into his pedigree was a cross of the English Derby winner Watling Street, also imported to Kentucky and found wanting.

Dark Mirage’s dam, Home by Dark, was culled in a draft of Greentree mares. She was deaf and never raced. But she was by Princequillo’s stout son Hill Prince out of Sunday Evening, a daughter of the photogenic handicap champion Eight Thirty and that splendid producer Drowsy.

Thus, as in the instance of Persian Road II, there is good blood in Home by Dark, just as there is good blood in all thoroughbred pedigrees if one troubles to pursue it. In the case of Dark Mirage, it remained for Duval Headley’s muse Dame Nature, the magistrate of all breeders’ fortunes, to refine the crude elements and by some mysterious alchemy arrive at the 1968 3-year-old champion.

The breeder who knows horses as individuals and can define their names in pedigrees in terms of their and their offspring’s physical and temperamental tendencies, virtues and faults, has exhausted the study for all practical purposes. One is always rather lucky when the one live cell in millions fertilizes just the right egg to produce a Dark Mirage, who could run all the other 3-year-olds of her sex off their feet any time the idea appealed to her. As a performer, she capsulized all the virtues of class, courage, regularity, speed and stamina. And she polarized the division into two distinct categories, occupying one all her own in isolated splendor, and relegating her rivals to a lower order.

Unplaced in her seasonal debut at Aqueduct March 15 she compiled a string of nine straight successes, including the Prioress, La Troienne, Kentucky Oaks, Acorn, Mother Goose, Coaching Club American Oaks, Monmouth Oaks and Delaware Oaks. She became the first to win the New York Racing Association’s coveted and elusive Triple Crown for fillies, comprising the Acorn, Mother Goose and CCA Oaks. And she transformed the Delaware Oaks into a betless exhibition. For her labors, she was rewarded monetarily with $322,432. She was favored for the Alabama when she sustained a quarter crack which shelved her for the last three months of the season.

Few fillies have so completely dominated Oaks competition, and her regularity speaks eloquent volumes for her disposition, which found her retaining her keenest edge months on end. She had the versatility to come from far back in the La Troienne and Kentucky Oaks, and prompted the pace in the Coaching Club of a mile and a quarter, longest of the three-year-old filly classics.

Never Gave Followers Any Concern

She won by margins of one to a dozen lengths, often with arrogant leisureliness, and never gave her loyal legions the slightest doubt she would prevail.

Nature may have cheated Dark Mirage of fair proportions, but she did not dissimulate, as she is highly precisioned from stem to stern, and made like a watch. In point of fact, veteran racing men including Max Hirsch and Hollie Hughes have referred to the angulation of her skeletal structure as a scale model of perfection. The majority of the most truly made specimens are to be found among the smaller individuals, as epitomized by Hyperion and his sire Gainsborough.

From her withers to her feet, Dark Mirage’s bony parts are a study in symphonic articulation. The wither is well developed and extends well into a short saddle back. The scapula is long and at the best approved angle for liberty of action, while the humerus is of almost equal length and upright, as in the cheetah, swiftest of four-footed creatures. The radius is long in relation to the cannon, the knees broad and slightly over. The tendons are straight dropped, the pasterns springy and at a 45-degree angle.

Our subject is deep through the middle at the girth and the back ribs, and the rib cage is well sprung. She is short along the top line, long underneath in the way horsemen like, while she has a long, slightly sloping pelvis and the stifles are set on conspicuously low.

Dark Mirage has strong gaskins which flow with plasticity from the stifle into the hock itself. Her muscling is of the long and supple sort one expects to see in a stayer. Her hocks are large, flat and bony.

Hind Legs Could Be Straighter

If one were captious enough to criticize her, probably it would be to wish her hind legs were a trifle straighter. She is a hard brown, almost black, marked only with a small star. Her head might fit her better were the muzzle less long, or the neck less light and scrawny. But she has a splendid, calm eye and is reputed to be a pleasure, unmitigated by capriciousness nor whimsicality, about the training stable.

She races with her head uncovered and handles like an expensive motor car, running across the loam with low strides two sizes too large for her, nevertheless always in cadence and accelerating and changing course if need be with amazing facility.

“A natural born runner” as hard boots would say.

Dr, Manuel A. Gilman measured her last September and supplies:

Height, 15 hands, ¾ inches

Point of shoulder to point of shoulder, 14 ½ inches

Girth, 69 ½ inches

Withers to point of shoulder, 26 ½ inches

Elbow to ground, 35 inches

Point of shoulder to point of hip, 47 inches

Point of hip to point of hip, 24 inches

Point of hip to point of hock, 40 inches

Point of hip to buttock, 23 inches

Poll to withers, 39 ½ inches

Buttock to ground, 52 ½ inches

Point of shoulder to buttock, 68 inches

Circumference of cannon under knee, 7 ¾ inches.

Listed below are all stakes winners among sales foals of 2003-2007 tracing to Friar’s Carse in the female line. I trust that the format is familiar to you by now. Discussion starts after the list.

Stakes Winners, Sales Foals of 2003-2007, Friar’s Carse in Tail Female

Name                        Price               RR               Generation

C. G’s Dollar               03Y12,500               507            9^th, Anchors Ahead

Ghostly Moves—Flycatcher, Relaunch

High Blues                03W190,000            397            10^th, Speed Boat

High Yield—Kim’s Blues, Cure the Blues

Kin to a Kitty            03W10,000             201             8^th, Black Carse

Tactical Cat—Pisces Appeal, Valid Appeal

What’s Up Dude       03Y23,750              311              7^th, Anchors Ahead

Furiously—What a Bout, Fit to Fight

Celluloid Hero          04Y50,000            731               9^th, War Kilt

Glitterman—Timely Legend, Navarone

Diamond Omi           04Y190,000          461               7^th, Anchors Ahead

Giant’s Causeway—Hum Along, Fappiano

High Cotton              04Y110,000          863               8^th, Anchors Ahead

Dixie Union—Happy Tune, A. P. Indy

Sweet Idea                  04Y20,000         509                7^th, Speed Boat

Langfuhr—Concept Statement, Quack

Slew by Slew               05Y7,000           336                 9^th, Anchors Ahead

Slew City Slew—Cradlesong, Pine Bluff

Song of Navarone     05Y22,000       1,258              9^th, War Kilt

Sultry Song—Timely Legend, Navarone

Kinsale King                06Y27,000       2,404            6^th, War Kilt

Yankee Victor—Flaming Mirage, Woodman

Our Edge                      06W25,000         581              6^th, War Kilt

The Cliff’s Edge—Cash the Flash, Star de Naskra

S. S. Stone                  07Y135,000        354              8^th, Speed Boat

Birdstone—Sing and Swing, Dixieland Band

Friar’s Carse was a 1923 filly by Friar Rock out of Problem, by Superman. She was champion two-year-old filly in 1925, the only year she raced, when  she won won five of seven starts, with one second, and earned $20,225 (SSI of 21.56).

At stud Friar’s Carse produced 11 foals, seven starters, five winners, and three stakes winners (all by Man o’ War): Speed Boat (1930 filly), War Relic (1938 colt), and War Kilt (1943 filly). Note that Friar’s Carse was 20 years old when she produced War Kilt in 1943.

War Relic was by far the best of these three stakes winners.  My Dear Girl was out of Iltis, by War Relic. Intentionally was by Intent, by War Relic. In Reality was by Intentionally and was 3×3 to War Relic. The Man o’ War male line hangs on by a thread through In Reality to Tiznow in the present day. I mention this merely for those of you interested in (or perhaps I should say obsessed with) male lines.

Back to female lines. Speed Boat produced ten foals, eight starters, five winners, and one stakes winner. That one stakes winner was a pretty good one, 1940 champion two-year-old filly Level Best (by Equipoise). Speed Boat also enhanced the reputation of this female family by becoming the third dam of Sword Dancer. Three of the 13 stakes winners listed above trace to Friar’s Carse through Speed Boat.

War Kilt did not produce any stakes winners, but she did develop a very viable branch of this family. She became the third dam of 1982 champion two-year-old Roving Boy (by Olden Times, by Relic, by War Relic), and the branch took off from there. Four of the 13 stakes winners listed above trace to Friar’s Carse through War Kilt.

(Roving Boy was 4×4 to Man o’ War and Friar’s Carse through the full siblings War Relic and War Kilt. For my commentary on this particular duplication and the pattern it generally represents, see Rasmussen Factor, Inbreeding Patterns.)

Probably the most prolific branch of Friar’s Carse is that of Anchors Ahead, an unraced 1932 filly by Man o’ War out of Friar’s Carse and hence a full sister to Speed Boat, War Relic, and War Kilt. Anchors Ahead produced ten foals, all starters, eight winners, and three stakes winners: Ocean Blue (1938 gelding by Blue Larkspur), Price Level (1942 filly by Sickle), and Air Hero (1943 colt by Blenheim II). Price Level produced stakes winner The Blend (1951 gelding by Blenheim II).

Among many other stakes winners, this is the family of 1996 champion two-year-old filly Storm Song (by Summer Squall). Five of the 13 stakes winners listed above trace to Friar’s Carse though Anchors Ahead.

The one remaining stakes winner of the 13 listed above (Kin to a Kitty) traces to Friar’s Carse through Black Carse, a 1927 stakes-placed filly by Black Toney out of Friar’s Carse. Black Carse did not produce any stakes winners, but she is the third dam of 1984 Broodmare of the Year Hasty Queen II (an unraced 1963 filly by One Count out of Queen Hopeful, by Roman). This is also a very popular branch of Friar’s Carse.

So at the very least the female family of Friar’s Carse is still extremely popular today. I found 506 foals among these sales foals of 2003-2007 tracing to Friar’s Carse in the female line. That is more foals than almost any female other than La Troienne.

Those 506 foals ranged from the fifth through tenth generations (Friar’s Carse as the fifth through tenth dams). The 13 stakes winners ranged from the sixth through ninth generations (Friar’s Carse as the sixth through ninth dams). I also found 20 foals with Friar’s Carse as their 11th dams, but I did not consider them for purposes of this study. Going back ten generations is ridiculous enough.

Those 506 foals sold for a gross of $28,399,218, an average of $56,215 (higher than the overall average of $54,140), and a maverage of 146.65 (lower than the overall maverage of 163.11).

Nawakhida and Times Gone By were two of the reasons why the average for this group was above the overall average while the maverage was below the overall maverage. Nawakhida (colt by Mr. Greeley out of Silvester Lady, by Pivotal) sold for $5,700,000 as a yearling in 2006 and was unraced. Times Gone By (gelding by Giant’s Causeway out of Happy Tune, by A.P. Indy) sold for $1,900,00 as a yearling in 2006 and won three races from 21 starts for earnings of $222,590.

That is precisely why I do maverages in the first place, to minimize the effects of such high prices. The overall Price Index (based on the maverage) for all 506 foals was 0.90. So these 506 foals sold for prices below average and should have had racetrack results below average as well.

They did have racetrack results below average. Thirteen stakes winners from 506 foals is 2.57%, compared with the overall figure of 3.36%. These 13 stakes winners were pretty good, however, thanks mainly to Kinsale King (2,404). They averaged 686 Performance Points apiece, compared to the overall average of 603.

So taking both quantity and quality of stakes winners into account, these 506 foals had a PPI (result) of 0.87, just a hair below their Price Index of 0.90. So their prices were about 10% below average, and their results were about 13% below average.

As the old expression goes, you get pretty much exactly what you pay for.

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There is an ancient adage that “A good big horse can beat a good little horse.” But there are exceptions to this, as to all other rules, and Mrs. Isabel Dodge Sloane’s 1959 Horse of the Year–the three-year-old Sword Dancer–is in many ways exceptional. He comes in that valorous category of whom it may be said that the tape, standard and scales tend to understate the full measure of their stature as racehorses. They are a distinguished company, including War Admiral, Black Gold, Seabiscuit, France’s Ksar, England’s Hyperion and Sword Dancer’s rival, Round Table. “Good little horses” all.

There are several distinctly different physical types of the thoroughbred species. One’s preference is a matter of purely personal taste, remembering always that there are many more bad than good examples of each type, whether it is the rumpy sprinter, the equipoised middle distance runner, or those cast in the heroic classic mould. Most racing men prefer the obvious classicists, when these may be found, and their reasons are no shibboleth. But they will settle happily for a well-made, sound representative of any type, since necessity impels them to take a pragmatic rather than an idealistic view.

“The judge of horses must always have a beau ideal in mind,” one is advised. This must be rather limiting for those who are moved by “nothing but the best” and adopt Man o’ War, for example, as their beau ideal. They can only conclude he was inimitable and nature broke the mould. He was a thunderous and fulfilling figure, physically as well as figuratively. To the connoisseur he embodied a truth. And of course other thoroughbreds can only suffer by comparison. But it is questionable whether such comparisons are entirely fair, as Bob Kleberg and other breeders who have endeavored unsuccessfully to evolve and fix a “Man o’ War type” will agree. Just as the drama critic does not expect those thespians who follow Helen Hayes or Sir Laurence Olivier on stage to make a greater hit, the judge of the thoroughbred must leaven austere idealism with appreciation for the variants of the theme. Otherwise he has no criterion.

If Nature has not scattered the true classic type abroad on the turf in the profusion breeders could wish, she has at least given the smaller, scale model types certain compensatory advantages. To instance some of these built-in qualities, the compact horses are usually less prone to becoming track sore and often they are cleverer and more durable than their taller and more elegant contemporaries. Further, the “good little horse” frequently comes to hand and matures more rapidly. Some of recent years, like Seabiscuit and Round Table, have been as tough as pack mules and plucky as they come.

Champion Stands at 15.3

Whether or not the connoisseurs see Sword Dancer as an anatomical prodigy, his still is the anatomy of a champion. As such it well warrants all racing men’s attention. As a matter of fact, there are casual observers who will question that Sword Dancer belongs in the category of little horses who made Big Names. These speak of all good horses as “big horses.” And of course there is the familiar phenomenon of how, like Jack’s Beanstalk, horses grow in the eyes of subjective thinkers when viewed in the flattering frame of reference provided by the winner’s circle. Actually, Sword Dancer stood 15.3 at the withers on Sept. 23, 1959, when he was measured with scrupulous accuracy by Dr. M. A. Gilman at Aqueduct. It seems probable that the doughty Virginian will develop into a medium-sized and well-balanced individual, a sort of carbon copy of his sire Sunglow, who was a larger horse in training, however.

In other essentials of conformation, Dr. Gilman found that Sword Dancer girths 70 inches, measures 37 inches fom the elbow to the ground, 44 inches from the shoulder to the hip, 24 1/2 inches across the hips, with 7 3/4 inches of bone.

The measurements quoted were taken on the eve of the Woodward Stakes, which Sword Dancer won, with Eddie Arcaro making laissez faire of the rules, in a desperate stretch struggle with the older Hillsdale and Round Table. But the tape has never been the specific of a horse’s intrinsic class of course. This elusive quality’s essence is largely mental, which is in the final analysis what we mean by “heart” and an uncomplicated temperament.

Has Outstanding Individual Traits

Now for the champion’s individuality. It has been well said that there are few intellectual operations which are more incapable of being comprehensive than the analysis of why something is lovely or unlovely. Those who attempt pen portraits hope to express everything in words, whereas the things one admires are not completely expressible in words. Any written exposition is an attempt to clothe an intangible in tangible form, to compress something immeasurable and not altogether describable into a mould. But it may flash a beam of illumination on Sword Dancer as he appears to one observer to say he is a bright chestnut, light and airy of frame, his demeanor eager and full of joie de vivre. His vivacity, particularly in the walking ring for the Woodward and the Jockey Club Gold Cup, delighted blase habitues of the paddocks. His spirit on these occasions was explicable in part by the fact that he was brought up to these races vividly “sharp.” He had presented a somewhat different picture before the Preakness, which followed close on the heels of his bruising race in the Derby, in which Tomy Lee came again to beat him in a breathless and breathlessly exciting contest that left both of these rather delicate animals something the worse for wear. He was in no mood for playful posturing and “hamming” then.

Horsemen noted that even when Swrod Dancer was “on top of himself,” as the English say, during the Aqueduct meet, he had a sort of controlled restlessness. He is an intelligent individual, dutiful and cooperative, almost as if he tries to anticipate and execute any task that is wanted of him. And in the heat of battle he has never to our knowledge flown the white feather, though he wears blinkers. Seen in repose and regarded only physically he is a realization of his pedigree in the sense that he is a chestnut with much white, like his sire, and is rather clipper rigged and attenuated, like his maternal grandsire By Jimminy, who wore a breastplate in training.

Sword Dancer’s head and the set of his ears come to a rather plain frontispiece, relieved by a spectacular blaze and a luminous, sociable eye. His head is well set on a neck neither weak nor crested and the throatlatch affords ample respiratory freedom.

Withers Are Pronounced and Short

Our subject’s withers are rather pronounced and short, in juxtaposition to a short and fairly straight back, which rises slightly at the ilium, or coupling, and followed by a rather sloping croup with a pelvis of moderate length. Though 70 inches is no remarkable girth, Sword Dancer’s rib cage leaves nothing to be desired. The ribs are well sprung and there is not too much length from the back rib to the femur. Thus he is not noticeably long nor weak of flank for all his aspect of raciness and delicacy.

The angle of Sword Dancer’s scapula is moderate and he is rather narrow than wide in the front fork. The humerus’ angle is a trifle upright corresponding of course to that of the scapula. At the same time, he has quite enough liberty of action, though his front stroke is shorter than some of his rivals. The radius and cannon are of a length in the approved proportions, the hind cannon perhaps a trifle long, surmounted by rather bunchy hocks. The pasterns have the correct slope and the length to relieve the ‘eavy, ‘eavy ‘ammer on the ‘ard ‘ighway, serving as shock absorbers. He has three white feet.

Sword Dancer’s muscular investiture is basically that of a stayer. His shoulders are anything but loaded. He has a swell of obvious strength at the stifle and elbow, while the forearm and gaskin are well developed. He appears fairly flat over the knees and if his hocks are a little coarse, all his legs are set on well under him, so that he is well coordinated and “in cadence,” as the French say. Perhaps because of his sincerity and moderate stature, Sword Dancer sometimes has seemed about to over-reach and tire himself in duels with larger animals, and his stride normally is choppier than long in front. But as Mr. Galsworthy put it, “He gets there just the same,” and in any going it seems.

Two Ends and a Good Middle

The tout ensemble of Sword Dancer’s physical format is homogeneous. He pleases the eye if he does not fill the eye. He has “two good ends and a good middle,” and, moreover, is balanced like a see-saw. The picture he makes in the paddock or on the quarter stretch is attractive.

On the record, there were days when he could not beat all the three-year-olds, notably Spur Away, Tomy Lee and Royal Orbit. But he outlasted them. Perhaps because of his frailty, if such it could be called. For he was not subjected to a bruising campaign. He was given a respite after being temporarily “wrung out” in the Derby and Preakness and by racing him comparatively fresh for the remainder of the season he was kept going long after some of his huskier contemporaries were forced to the sidelines. By forfeiting an engagement in an occasional $100,000 stakes to afford him a breather he was enabled to win rather more than his share of them. That he was raced with success against older horses is a commentary on the low estate to which the handicap ranks had fallen, or so it is construed by many horsemen. At the same time, it takes a colt of genuine class to set up a record comparable to Sword Dancer’s. He asserted his supremacy to almost 30,000 horses in training to prove the season’s laureate.

It is doubtful if anybody will care to deny that Sunglow, a good handicapper, outbred himself in siring Mrs. Dodge Sloane’s delightful chestnut. He was of a quality more discernible than obvious. Perhaps the Widener was the highlight of his career. Sunglow is by Sun Again, many of whose progeny have found, like himself, that their potential is compromised by bad knees. The handsome Sun Again in his turn was by Sun Teddy, an American-bred son of Teddy, out of the good producer Hug Again, the latter by Stimulus, progenitor of much speed and knee trouble. This is the Bend Or male line.

Highland Fling [dam of Sword Dancer] was sold out of Brookmeade in the Keeneland fall auction before Sword Dancer gave promise. Her sire, By Jimminy, won an American Derby, when it was still at the American classic route of ten furlongs. By Jimminy was by Sickle’s brother Pharamond II, a son of Phalaris and Hyperion’s dam Selene, “the mother of the Gracchi.” The female family is that of Level Best’s dam, Speed Boat, who was out of the feather-footed Friar’s Carse. The family has a high incidence of respiratory trouble, traceable to Problem, a mare George Strate purchased against the epigrammatical John Madden’s advice. Sword Dancer’s pedigree is an amalgam of the most successful domesticated, French and English lines. We wish we might tell you it is the happy result of some long range and mystic breeding program. It is no less efficacious for being expedient.

Listed below are all stakes winners among sales foals of 2003-2007 tracing to Dustwhirl in the female line. I trust that the format is familiar to you by now. Discussion starts after the list.

Stakes Winners, Sales Foals of 2003-2007, Dustwhirl in Tail Female

Name                        Price               RR               Generation

Roman Ruler           03Y500,000          2,521                 8^th, Dustsweep

Fusaichi Pegasus—Silvery Swan, Silver Deputy

Steelin’                        04W72,000             285                   8^th, Lost Horizon

Orientate—Steel Band, Carson City

Good and Lucky     05T32,000             1,076                9^th, Lost Horizon

Wild Rush—Shannon’s Innocent, Accused

Gold Wonder           05Y5,000                 389                   8^th, Dustsweep

Golden Missile—Swift and Classy, Clever Trick

Papa Time                06Y45,000               261                   6^th, Whirl Right

Gilded Time—Te Papa Crystal, Roy

Silver Edition         06Y270,000           478                   8^th, Panoramic

Silver Deputy—Sincerely, Meadowlake

Denos Keys             07T33,500               227                   9^th, Lost Horizon

Denouncer—Miss Astro Keys, Astro

We’re in the Money 07T28,000          702                  10^th, Panoramic

Whywhywhy—Numerous Moves, Numerous

Dustwhirl was an unraced 1926 filly by Sweep out of Ormonda. Ormonda (1916 by Superman out of Princess Ormonde, by Ormondale) was a stakes winner herself and produced the stakes winners Osmand (1924 gelding by Sweeper), Brevity (1933 colt by Sickle), and Binder (1937 colt by Sickle).

Dustwhirl produced 12 foals, ten to race, and six winners, including stakes winners Feudal Lord (1930 gelding by Stefan the Great), Reaping Reward (1934 colt by Sickle), and the piece de resistance in Whirlaway (1938 colt by Blenheim II).

The eight stakes winners listed above trace to four different daughters of Dustwhirl. Steelin’, Good and Lucky, and Denos Keys trace to Lost Horizon. Roman Ruler and Gold Wonder trace to Dustsweep. Silver Edition and We’re in the Money trace to Panoramic. Papa Time traces to Whirl Right.

Lost Horizon was an unraced 1935 filly by Sir Gallahad III out of Dustwhirl. She produced one stakes winner from nine foals, Whirlabout, a 1941 filly by Pompey who won 17 races (including a dozen stakes) from 51 starts and earned $162,695.

Whirlabout in turn produced one stakes winner from 13 foals, Spinning Top, a 1950 filly by Bull Lea. This should start to be more familiar ground to the reader. Spinning Top is the tail-female ancestress of many stakes winners.

Panoramic was a 1932 filly by Chance Shot out of Dustwhirl. She finished second twice in six starts. Panoramic produced 11 foals, all starters, all winners, including stakes winners Hemisphere (1942 filly by Blenheim II), Honeymoon (1943 filly by Beau Pere), and Pedigree (1946 colt by Beau Pere).

Honeymoon was by far the best of these three stakes winners. She won 20 of 78 starts, including 13 stakes, and earned $387,760. Both Honeymoon and Hemisphere produced stakes winners.

Panoramic also scored some pedigree points as the fourth dam of 1967 champion three-year-old filly Furl Sail, by Revoked out of Windsail, by Count Fleet.

Dustsweep was a 1931 filly by Chance Shot out of Dustwhirl. Her main claim to distinction while still alive was as a full sister to Panoramic.

Whirl Right was a 1945 filly by Blenheim II out of Dustwhirl and hence a full sister to Whirlaway. She posted a record on the track of 11-3-1-4 for earnings of $8,825 and a very respectable SSI of 3.15. Whirl Right produced ten foals, nine starters, and eight winners, including stakes winner Right Bright (1950 colt by Sun Again).

Whirl Right also scored some pedigree points as the fourth dam of 1982 Horse of the Year Conquistador Cielo (Mr. Prospector out of K D Princess, by Bold Commander).

So Whirlaway was not the only claim to distinction held by the female family of Dustwhirl.

I found 360 foals tracing to Dustwhirl among these sales foals of 2003-2007. These 360 foals had Dustwhirl as their fourth through tenth dams. The eight stakes winners had Dustwhirl as their sixth, eighth, ninth, or tenth dams.

(I also found four foals with Dustwhirl as their 11th dam, but I drew the line at the tenth generation and threw them out. Ten generations is ridiculous enough without going even farther back.)

These 360 foals sold for a gross of $24,590,745, an average of $68,308 (compared to the overall average of $54,140), and a maverage of 171.48 (compared to the overall maverage of 163.11).

Two of the reasons for these high prices were a 2006 yearling colt by Vindication out of Silvery Swan, by Silver Deputy, who sold for $4,600,000 and a 2005 yearling filly by Mr. Greeley out of Silvery Swan who sold for $2,700,000.

Silvery Swan was the dam of Roman Ruler, one of the eight stakes winners listed above. Prior to Roman Ruler she also produced G1 winner El Corredor (colt by Mr. Greeley) and G3 winner Silver Tornado (filly by Maria’s Mon). So these high prices were at least somewhat justified.

The $4,600,000 Vindication colt was named Maimonides and finished third in the 2007 Hopeful Stakes (G1) but did not win any stakes. The $2,700,000 Mr. Greeley filly was unnamed and unraced.

Nevertheless, these 360 foals sold for prices well above average. Therefore, their results on the racetrack also should have been above average.

Their results on the racetrack were decidedly below average. Eight stakes winners from 360 foals is 2.22%, well below the overall figure of 3.36%.

These eight stakes winners were collectively pretty good though. Thanks mainly to Roman Ruler’s 2,521, they averaged 742 Performance Points apiece, well above the overall average of 603.

Taking both quantity and quality of stakes winners into account, these 360 foals had a PPI (result) of 0.82, well below their corresponding Price Index of 1.05. Their prices were about 5% above average. Their results were about 18% below average. That is the classic definition of underperformance.

Rock Drill is interesting in herself, and the female line she established is the subject of this post.  Listed below are all stakes winners among sales foals of 2003-2007 tracing to Rock Drill in the female line. I trust that the format is familiar to you by now. Discussion starts after the list.

Stakes Winners, Sales Foals of 2003-2007, Rock Drill in Tail Female

Name                                    Price                  RR    Generation

Liquid Louie                        03Y9,465         163       3rd

Pole Position–Hadramis Hill, Temperence Hill

Warning Zone                    05Y60,000       943       5th

Chester House–Migrate, Storm Bird

Dr. Powers                           06Y1,500        254        6th

Crown Ambassador–Stalack, Stalwars

Nightly Ritual                     07Y14,500       265        6th

Crown Ambassador–Knight Rose, Knight

A minor stakes winner in her own right, Rock Drill was a 1951 filly by Whirlaway out of Flyaway Home, by Display. Over three seasons of racing she posted a record of 32-3-5-1 for earnings of $13,511.

Rock Drill produced 14 foals, 11 starters, and nine winners, including four stakes winners: Doug’s Serenade (1956 filly by Royal Serenade), Rocky Link (1960 colt by Sailor and a minor sire), Lady Pitt (1963 filly by Sword Dancer), and Gunite (1966 filly by Crozier and dam of stakes winner My Sweet Baby, a filly by In Reality).

Lady Pitt was by far the best of these four stakes winners. Over four seasons of racing she posted a record of 47-10-14-5 for earnings of $413,382 and was champion three-year-old filly in 1966, when she won four stakes, including the CCA Oaks and Mother Goose Stakes.

Lady Pitt produced ten foals, nine runners, and six winners, including G1 winner The Liberal Member (1975 colt by Bold Reason) and the aforementioned G2 winner Blitey (1976 filly by Riva Ridge).

Blitey in turn produced 14 foals, 11 starters, all winners, including four stakes winners: G1 winner Dancing Spree (colt by Nijinsky II and an earner of $1,470,484), G1 winner Furlough (filly by Easy Goer), G1 winner Fantastic Find (filly by Mr. Prospector), and G2 winner Dancing All Night (filly by Nijinsky II).

Blitey was also the second dam of 1994 champion three-year-old filly Heavenly Prize (by Seeking the Gold) and of G1 winners Finder’s Fee (filly by Storm Cat) and Oh What a Windfall (filly by Seeking the Gold), among other stakes winners.

Heavenly Prize in turn produced the Storm Cat colts and current sires Good Reward (G1 winner) and Pure Prize (G2 winner).

So Rock Drill-Lady Pitt-Blitey is the most visible branch of this family in current pedigrees. Curiously, however, Warning Zone is the only one of the four stakes winners listed above tracing to Rock Drill through Blitey (also by far the best of those four stakes winners).

Dr. Powers and Nightly Ritual trace to Rock Drill through her daughter Dash’n Home, an unraced 1962 filly by Decathlon out of Rock Drill. Dash’n Home produced the very useful G2 winner Cathy’s Reject (1974 colt by Best Turn).

Liquid Louie traces to Rock Drill through Rockey Lady, an unraced daughter of The Pruner out of Rock Drill produced in 1976, when Rock Drill was 25 years old.

Some of its branches are better than others, but all in all this female family has been very useful over the years.

I found 155 foals tracing to Rock Drill in the female line among these sales foals of 2003-2007. They ranged from the third through the eighth generations (third through eighth dams). The four stakes winners had Rock Drill as their third, fifth, or sixth dams.

Those 155 foals sold for a gross of $6,799,958, an average of $43,871 (compared to the overall average of $54,140), and a maverage of 150.27 (compared to the overall maverage of 163.11). So these 155 foals sold for prices below average and should have had racing results below average as well.

They did have racing results below average–way below average. Four stakes winners from 155 foals is 2.58% (compared to the overall figure of 3.36%). Those four stakes winners were not particularly good either, averaging 406 Performance Points apiece (compared to the overall average of 603).

So taking both quantity and quality of stakes winners into account, these 155 foals had a PPI (result) of 0.52, way below their corresponding Price Index of 0.92. Successful names in pedigrees are no guarantees of successful results.

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Listed below are all stakes winners among sales foals of 2003-2007 tracing to Warrior Lass in the female line. I trust that the format is familiar to you by now. Discussion starts after the list.

Stakes Winners, Sales Foals of 2003-2007, Warrior Lass in Tail Female

Name                                            Price                          RR               Generation

Dover Dere           03Y80,000      577      6^th, Marching Home

Cherokee Run—Moss, Woodman

English Channel  03Y50,000     8,219    7^th, Marching Home

Smart Strike—Belva, Theatrical

Mighty Cahill     03W6,200             262     7^th, Marching Home

Cahill Road—Bates Monarch, Bates Motel

Diplomat Lady 04Y120,000       1,253    6^th, Lasso

Forestry—Playcaller, Saratoga Six

Retribution    04T30,000               525     7^th, Marching Home

Rob n’ Gin—Adonara, Strawberry Road

Tap It Light      05Y5,000               468      8^th, Marching Home

General Meeting—Popular Opinion, Half a Year

Gangbuster     06Y22,000             457      7^th, Lasso

Langfuhr—Foxcaller, Beau Genius

Dream Play    07Y150,000           588      6^th, Lasso

Hennessy—Playcaller, Saratoga Six

Mary’s Follies  07Y40,000          839      8^th, Marching Home

More Than Ready—Catch the Queen, Miswaki

Warrior Lass was a 1926 filly by Man o’ War out of Sweetheart, by Ultimus. Sweetheart was a stakes winner and produced two stakes winners, including Case Ace (broodmare sire of Raise a Native).

Warrior Lass started six times, all at two, with one win, one second, and earnings of $900. At stud she produced 15 foals, 13 starters, and ten winners, including 1939 Metropolitan Handicap winner Knickerbocker (a 1936 colt by Teddy).

Before Riva Ridge came along Warrior Lass was mainly known as the second dam of 1944 Belmont Stakes winner Bounding Home, a 1941 colt by Espino out of Marching Home, by John P. Grier out of Warrior Lass.

A foal of 1932, Marching Home was much better than an empty stall. Over four seasons of racing she compiled a record of 65-13-8-10 for earnings of $12,080. Those Depression-era earnings were good enough for an SSI of 2.27 (1.00 being average).

Marching Home produced 11 foals, all starters, nine winners, and three stakes winners (all by Espino): Romping Home (1939 filly), Breezing Home (1940 gelding), and the aforementioned Bounding Home (1941 colt). It is interesting that she produced her three stakes winners in three consecutive years. Six of the nine stakes winners listed above trace from Marching Home.

The other three stakes winners listed above (the half-siblings Diplomat Lady and Dream Play and Gangbuster) trace from Lasso. A 1940 filly by John P. Grier out of Warrior Lass, Lasso was an unraced full sister to Marching Home.

Riva Ridge descends from neither of these two sources but from War East, a 1947 filly by Easton. War East raced only at two and posted a record of 12-1-1-1 for earnings of $2,625. She produced 15 foals, 13 starters, and ten winners, including stakes winner Dos Equis (1962 colt by Poona II).

War East was also the dam of Iberia, the dam of Riva Ridge, Hydrologist, and Potomac, as chronicled in the post on Riva Ridge. So the family of Warrior Lass was considerably better than an empty stall.

I found 292 foals among these sales foals of 2003-2007 tracing to Warrior Lass in the female line. They ranged from the sixth through the tenth generation (sixth though tenth dams). Notice that the stakes winners ranged from the sixth through eighth generations (sixth through eighth dams).

These 292 foals sold for a gross of $13,393,631, an average of $45,869 (compared to the overall average of $54,140), and a maverage of 162.04 (compared to the overall maverage of 163.11). So they sold for prices slightly below average and therefore their racing results should have been slightly below average as well.

In fact their racing results were well above average but for an obvious reason. Nine of these 292 foals were stakes winners (3.08%, compared to the overall figure of 3.36%). Those nine stakes winners were a pretty good group collectively though, averaging 1,465 Performance Points apiece (compared to the overall average of 603).

So taking both quantity and quality of stakes winners into account, these 292 foals had a PPI (result) of 2.23, way above their Price Index of 0.99. They were a very good group.

“The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away.” Here comes the small print.

The obvious reason this group was so good is English Channel and his 8,219 Performance Points (more than 62% of the total of 13,188 for all nine stakes winners). Without English Channel this group has a PPI (result) of 0.84, much more closely in line with their Price Index of 0.99.

The other eight stakes winners averaged 621 Performance Points apiece (slightly higher than the overall average of 603). If English Channel were an average stakes winner, say with 621 Performance Points, this group would have a PPI (result) of 0.95, almost right in line with its Price Index of 0.99. That is another way of looking at it.

As I commented in my post on the Iltis Female Line, “If the female family in question produces one or more truly outstanding stakes winners, its results may very well be above average. If the female family in question does not produce one or more truly outstanding stakes winners (as is the case here with Iltis and sales foals of 2003-2007), its results are going to be BELOW average.”

Warrior Lass is an excellent example of a female family that has good results thanks to one particularly good stakes winner, in this case English Channel. Without English Channel, however, the results for the female family of Warrior Lass are pretty ordinary and right in line with its prices.

———————————————————–Meadow Stable’s popular Riva Ridge, the ’71 juvenile champion and ’72 Derby and Belmont hero, furthered his eminence at four when he was awrded the bay leaves among the ’73 handicappers.

Modern raicng makes severe, not to say barbarous, demands. The consequent attrition in the ranks finds few two-year-old leaders reasserting their preeminence in the handicap division.

Riva Ridge won five of nine enegagements last season, which is nice going for a handicapper, especially one who has problems and is unhappy in wet weather. He earned $212,602 and joined the sport’s millionaires with a total of $1,111,497. His stud potential was syndicated at $5,120,000.

We do not quote these facts for support, as a drunk uses a lamppost, but for illumination. At the height of his fascination and power, Riva Ridge was a brilliant entertainer, though he sometimes appeared frightfully irresponsible.

Remarkable Victory in Brooklyn

Who ever saw it will never forget his Brooklyn. He turned imminent defeat into victory when he condescended to get on the bit the final frenetic strides, setting a world mile and three-sixteenths mark of 1:52 2/5. He carried 127 pounds and repulsed True Knight a thrusting head in a desperate finish, conceding his rival ten pounds.

His campaign was punctuated also by a front-running success in the Massachusetts Handicap, in which he tied Whirlaway’s 31-year-old track mark. And he established an American record of 1:47 for nine furlongs in the Stuyvesant under 130, his maximum impost during the season.

Again, he ran his race in the Marlboro Invitational. Something of a stable pet, his camp followers invested in a tender sentiment in the hope “Old Pea Head,” as he was known, could bag this $250,000 prize.

Performing generously, he wheeled past the quarter pole in front, in a hand-picked field including three other champions. But he finished a receding second to his stablemate Secretariat, the champion of champions.

The phosphorescence of star quality is visible always in a rare few horses, and as suggested above none can hope to consistently escape tarnish in the handicaps. One of Riva Ridge’s reversals came in the Metropolitan, when he finished a dismal seventh. He convinced trainer Lucien Laurin he distrusted wet surfaces when he cautiously shortened stride and never joined the issue.

Similarly, he confirmed that he was less formidable on turf than on sandy loam in a Saratoga overnighter. The grass was a trifle wet. He considered it treacherous and hesitated to extend himself, perhaps remembering his rather intimidating trip in the previous fall’s International.

Again, Prove Out relentlessly stared him down in a pace duel for the two-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup, whereupon Laurin concluded he was not a cup horse, as he had run ignominiously also in the ’72 renewal.

But if Rive Ridge’s effectiveness was conditional, and he was somewhat less than a Trojan horse for versatility, he was not so distressingly whimsical as superficial observers thought him.

One should not judge him too harshly, for he was plagued with a shoulder condition and kidney disorder. If they did not explain his satirical lapses they did not improve him certainly. Laurin overcame these impediments for the colt’s fall campaign and probably Riva Ridge was at the apex of his form when he slammed Forage and True Knight so dramatically in record time for the Stuyvesant.

This was on October 15. Mrs. Tweedy noted Riva Ridge was not given the conventional long work for the Gold Cup October 27. It was hoped the colt’s class would see him through.

Pointed Especially for the Cup

Conversely, Allen Jerkens had pointed Prove Out especially  for the Cup ever since the Woodward and the $60,000 bargain horse was ready to run to the Rockies.

Most of the audience concurred in Laurin’s opinion and could not imagine Riva Ridge would be so indelicate as to get himself beaten in his final appearance. He was 1-2 to beat Prove Out. They went head and head to about the half-mile pole. Thereafter, the race assumed an eerie quality for the favorite players, unfolding like a horror movie, with Prove Out drawing inexorably off to win while Riva Ridge was 33 lengths back in last place.

Secretariat took his revenge on Onion in the Marlboro, but Riva Ridge could not avenge the Woodward.

Holds Secretariat Responsible

Mrs. Tweedy held “Riva” responsible for Secretariat’s defeat at Prove Out’s heels in the mile and a half, weight-for-age Woodward.

Following the Marlboro, it was intended Secretariat should train for the Man o’ War while his stablemate pointed for the Woodward. Accordingly, the three-year-old was galloped and breezed tentatively on the turf. He had done little for days when the rains came, dictating a change in policy.

Secretariat was substituted for Riva Ridge in the Woodward and there was no time to sharpen him for the race. Mrs. Tweedy concurred when a wag quipped, “That is one time Riva Ridge beat Secretariat.”

Riva Ridge’s handicap phase was interestingly varied, as you see. Winning or losing he did things in a big way. He was “Hawkins Hawss” when he could hear his feet rattle, at any distance up to a mile and a half.

Physically also, it was almost as if he were two horses. When he was out of condition, Riva Ridge, a 16 hands bay with black points, looked rather like a light necked, rawboned gelding. He was never massive and masculine.

But when freshened, he was racinglike and elegant, appearing to have stepped out of an ancient print of an Epsom Derby hero. He cut a captivating figure on parade for the Stuyvesant, his coat glistening and moving gracefully as a ballet dancer.

His extended action was wonderfully light and collected. A splendid gate horse at four, he had catlike agility and could be in the first flight leaving the post in any race. Blinkers were always part of his equipment, but he handled beautifully and would relax, then produce speed on demand.

Unlike some of his sex, he did not become cunning at four. It was only when he hadn’t any traction that he gave some the impression he was irresolute.

Riva Ridge is mechanically faultless in his conformation. His head is plain but he has a good eye, and he carries himself well. The angulation of his shoulder and the flow of his top line defy criticism.

He legs set on beautifully, the cannons short and low in relation to the length of forearm and from the hip to hock. His pasterns are correct, his hoofs black and well formed and he is plumb through the hocks. There is the slightest tendency to be over at the knees.

Shock Absorbers to Pasterns

Veteran racing men will not take umbrage at this. They tend to serve as auxiliary shock absorbers to the pasterns. Horses so constructed are preferable to those too straight in front, and certainly those “back on the knee.”

His barrel is not conspicuously large and robust, nor is he especially broad beamed, but there is a homogeneity in his structure and “he is made like a watch,” as turfmen say.

Speed and precocity is the forte of his branch of the Nearco male line. Royal Charger was a miler, while Turn-to and [Riva Ridge's sire] First Landing scintillated at two. Riva Ridge compiled an infinitely more satisfactory record than any of these, as a proven classicist. He also marks an improvement over his maternal grandsire Heliopolis, who had no feet.

Example of Improving the Breed

Since the idea is to “improve the breed,” we think that we may say Meadow Stud succeeded eminently in the instance of Riva Ridge.

It is a question how much of his quality is attributable to his dam Iberia, one of the “old blue hens” of modern production. Though she could win only three little races in two years, she has produced a redundancy of stakes animals.

Riva Ridge’s brother Potomac won the Christiana at two, placing in two other stakes before going wrong. His half brother Hydrologist, by Tatan, won ten races and $277,958, including the Excelsior, Stymie and Discovery, while he placed in the Woodward, Governor Nicolls, Roamer, Gallant Fox, Whitney and Display. He now is in stud in Venezuela.

Capito, by Sir Gaylord out of Iberia, won his only start at two and is pointing for the 1974 three-year-old classics.

Iberia comes of the family founded by Brownell Combs’ sensationally fast little Sweetheart, through Man o’ War’s witchy daughter Warrior Lass, a useful performer though the bane of stud grooms and vets who had to examine her for pregnancy. She would “kick the shortening out of a cake,” but it takes spirit to be a racehorse.

Listed below are all stakes winners among sales foals of 2003-2007 tracing to Iltis in the female line. I trust that the format is familiar to you by now. Discussion starts after the list.

Stakes Winners, Sales Foals of 2003-2007, Iltis in Tail Female

Name                                       Price                     RR           Generation

It’s True Love                  03W62,000              264          5th, Me Next

Yes It’s True–Lovin Spoonful, Dixieland Band

Stormin Irish                   03Y35,000                187          5th, My Dear Girl

Stormin Fever–Irish Dear, Irish River

Red Zipper                       05T40,000                604          5th, My Dear Girl

City Zip–Lady in Red, Red Attack

Mr. Windjammer             06Y5,000                  672          6th, Me Next

Regal Classic–Royal Relic, Colonial Affair

El Cugat                            07Y2,700                    230         6th, My Dear Girl

King Cugat–Awesome Frances, Awesome Again

Iltis was a 1947 filly by War Relic out of We Hail (who later produced stakes winner Is Proud, a 1950 filly by Hampden), by Balladier. Iltis posted a record on the track of 53-5-6-11 for earnings of $19,245. That may not sound very high class, but it works out to a respectable SSI of 1.82 (1.00 being average).

Iltis produced eight foals, six starters, all winners, and three stakes winners: My Dear Girl (1957 filly by Rough’n Tumble and 1959 champion two-year-old filly), My Old Flame (1958 filly by Count Flame), and Treasure Chest (1962 filly by Rough’n Tumble). My Dear Girl was by far the best of the three, with a career record of 20-8-4-1 for earnings of $209,739.

My Old Flame did not do much to “improve the breed.” Treasure Chest was another story. She produced 12 foals, 11 starters, eight winners, and three stakes winners: Diomedia (1971 filly by Sea-Bird), Gold Treasure (1977 filly by Northern Dancer), and Kanz (1981 filly by The Minstrel). Diomedia and Gold Treasure also produced stakes winners. Treasure Chest is also the granddam of champions Glint of Gold and Diamond Shoal.

The details of My Dear Girl’s produce record were given in my last post (on In Reality). To recapitulate, she produced seven stakes winners from 15 foals but was never rewarded with the title of Broodmare of the Year.

Three of the five stakes winners above trace directly to My Dear Girl: Stormin Irish, Red Zipper, and El Cugat. The other two (It’s True Love and Mr. Windjammer) trace to Me Next.

Me Next was an unraced 1960 full sister to My Dear Girl. Me Next produced 12 foals, nine starters, eight winners, and two stakes winners: Lucky Ole Me (1960 filly by Olden Times) and Midnight Pumpkin (1977 filly by Pretense). Midnight Pumpkin is best known as the dam of 1985 Preakness Stakes winner Tank’s Prospect (by Mr. Prospector).

So the family founded by Iltis was considerably better than chopped liver.

I found 157 foals tracing in the female line to Iltis among these sales foals of 2003-2007. They range from the fourth to the seventh generations (fourth through seventh dams). The five stakes winners were all fifth or sixth generation (fifth or sixth dams).

These 157 foals sold for a gross of $8,586,312, an average of $54,690 (just slightly above the overall average of $54,140), and a maverage of 167.42 (just slightly above the overall maverage of 163.11). So these 157 foals should have had racing results right around average or slightly above average.

In fact their racing results were considerably BELOW average. Five stakes winners from 157 foals is 3.18% (not horrible compared to the overall figure of 3.36%). Those five stakes winners were not very good though. They accumulated only 1,957 Performance Points, an average of 391 apiece, compared to the overall average of 606.

So taking both quantity and quality of stakes winners into account, these 157 foals had a PPI (result) of 0.62 (1.00 being average). That is well below their corresponding Price Index of 1.03.

Here is a thought for Santa to deliver as a stocking stuffer. Having a mare such as Iltis (or La Troienne or whoever) as a fifth or sixth dam in a pedigree (anything fourth dam or farther back) is pretty much par for the course. It is the mark of an AVERAGE pedigree. You should not expect to derive ABOVE-AVERAGE results from AVERAGE pedigrees.

If the female family in question produces one or more truly outstanding stakes winners, its results may very well be above average. If the female family in question does not produce one or more truly outstanding stakes winners (as is the case here with Iltis and sales foals of 2003-2007), its results are going to be BELOW average.