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Sunday, December 19, 2010

Muscle Massive

Muscle Massive won the Hambletonian, earning $1,179,105 and taking a record of 1:51. He faced some serious competition in the three year old ranks with Break The Bank K, Lucky Chucky and Wishing Stone all taking his measure later in the season.


His full brother Muscle Mass is standing in Ontario and was well received with a full book. His pedigree is a high percentage cross being by Muscles Yankee out of a Pine Chip mare, a cross that is 26.9% in producing $100K winners. He is outcrossed on sire line with no common individual inside the sixth generation on his sire or broodmare sire line and is double inbred 3x4 and 3x5 maternally to Speedy Crown. His dam, Graceful Touch, is inbred to Speedy Somolli 3x4 maternally.


Muscle Massive’s principal sire lines maternally are Pine Chip, grandson of Arnie Almahurst, and Valley Victory, grandson of Speedy Somolli, making mares that carry this combination a priority for his success. Mares with sons of these two sires would also be prime prospects. Such sires can also be expected to do well with mares that have Speedy Crown doubled in their pedigrees or have no Speedy Crown at all.


There are several sires already producing that have similar maternal lines, including Glidemaster, Cjs Secret, Master Lavec and Valley Victor.


Glidemaster had a spotty first crop that was redeemed somewhat with Blue Porche’s Breeders Crown win and the early success of Not Nice. Glidemaster’s dam is by a son of Speedy Somolli, second dam by Florida Pro, a son of Arnie Almahurst. Blue Porche was from a mare by Garland Lobell. That sire has a Speedy Crown dam. The second dam was by Valley Victory, grandson of Speedy Somolli, and third dam by Homesick, a son of Speedy Crown. Not Nice was from a mare by a son of Speedy Crown with a second dam by Arndon, sire of Pine Chip. Both performers fit the profile of Glidemaster and the likely profile for Muscle Massive.


Cjs Secret is Speedy Crown-Florida Pro maternally. His best performer is Brandons Secret from a mare that combines Dakota Spur (Speedy Somolli) and Defiant Yankee (Speedy Crown).


Master Lavec is Speed In Action – Arnie Almahurst maternally. His best is Master Pine whose maternal succession is Pine Chip (Arndon) – Bonefish – Speedy Crown.


Valley Victor is line bred maternally to Arnie Almahurst and his top four have no Speedy Crown maternally.


A broodmare sire that would be excellent for Muscle Massive would be Dream Vacation (Pine Chip-Valley Victory) as well as Chip Chip Hooray and Enjoy Lavec.


In summary look for mares that are non Speedster line that have double Speedy Crown lines maternally or no Speedy Crown lines at all. Also consider mares that have combinations of Valley Victory and Arnie Almahurst lines.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Maternal Families

It is now 25 years since Sidney Lerner published his study in Hoofbeats of the relationship between the top two year olds of 1984-85 and their maternal families. He found that over 80 % of the best two year olds in North America traced back to one of the top 40 families from the 1,334 taproot mares then recognized.

A look at the current two year old crop shows that little has changed. Lerners top 40 families are responsible for 34 (83%) of the top 40 pacers and 32 (80%) of the top 40 trotters in 2010.

The leading families include

Medio with 10; Mambrino Beauty and Sally Sovereign 6 each; Minnehaha, Jessie Pepper, Lizzie Witherspoon, Mamie and Miss Duval with 4 each,; Midnight with 3; Miss Copeland, Jane Hunt each with 2; and Esther and Jane Hunt with 1 apiece. This group , which constituted Lerner's 13 member Group 1, totals 48 (60%) of the top 80 two year olds in my own survey. The top two families in Group 2, Ab and Dolly B contributed 4 more to that total.

Needless to say this information is not widely known since shortly after Lerner's publication the maternal family information was dropped from major sales catalogues. These days what is not on the catalogue page may be more important than what is.