The 2018 Breeders Crown for Standardbreds is over and as expected eight of the twelve winners had double/double or DD pedigrees. The four others had something in common too - a pedigree pattern that shows up in many of the top thoroughbreds. For lack of a better acronym lets call it TB as opposed to DD. It turns out that the TB pattern has been hiding in plain sight all along in top Standardbreds, especially trotters, and a look at the top 20 North American bred trotters shows the richest one, Moni Maker, to be a perfect example. She is by Speedy Crown, a son of Speedy Scot and from a mare that is inbred to Speedy Scot and that is the TB pattern. Speedy Crown, by the way, is a DD and so is the dam of Moni Maker - SURPRISE. The top 20 have 6 that are TB, 12 that are DD and 2 that are of mixed French and North American bloodlines.
A look at the top two and three year old thoroughbreds in North America shows 7 of the top 10 to date in each age group with TB or DD patterns. The two year olds are led by Bellafina who is both TB and DD and is the favorite in Fridays $2 million Juvenile Filly race at 1 1/16th. She has won three straight including two G1 races and a G2. There are two other fillies that are double patterned in the same race with Splashy Kisses and Baby Nina both long shots. The Juvenile Turf has one such in Maries Diamond, a stakes winner from Ireland. Tight Ten in the Juvenile Colt is another longshot chance with both patterns.
The two year old races have 31 TB pattern entrants and 10 with DD including the five noted above. In the races for three year olds and older on Saturday there are 47 TB, 13 DD and 5 that are both including Santa Monica in the Mares Turf, Next Shares in the BC Mile, Robert Bruce in the BC Turf, and Lone Sailor and Axelrod in the BC Classic going for $6 million. The favourite in the Classic is Accelerate, a DD pedigree and winner of three straight G1 races, but my personal sentimental favourite is another DD called Catholic Boy, one of the first ones I noticed last year in the Breeders Cup and co-bred by successful Standardbred owner John Fielding. You can read more about this horse in my previous blog entry on John Fielding.
Pedigree patterns like DD and TB are not guaranteed to give you a classic winner but the fact that so many of the best show these patterns certainly makes it worth while considering as a positive factor in buying and breeding race horses.
There is one yearling in the Harrisburg Standardbred yearling sale that is both DD and TB. What is it worth to you to know which one it is ?
Here are my picks for the winners from the DD and TB entrants
Saturday
Filly and Mare Sprint - Golden Mischief TB
Turf Sprint - Disco Partner TB or Stormy Liberal DD
Dirt Mile - City Of Light DD or Catalina Cruiser DD
Filly and Mare Turf - Magic Wand TB, longshot Santa Monica TB/DD
BC Sprint - Roy H TB
BC Mile - Next Shares TB/DD
BC Distaff - Blue Prize TB
BC Turf - Enable TB
BC Classic - Catholic Boy DD or Accelerate DD
Sunday
Juvenile Turf Sprint - Soldiers Call TB or Sergei Profokiev DD
Juvenile Filly Turf - Concrete Rose DD
Juvenile Filly - Bellafina TB/DD
Juvenile Turf - Maries Diamond TB/DD
BC Juvenile - Code Of Honor TB, longshot Tight Ten TB/DD
