If At First You Don't Succeed.

If At First You Don't Succeed - The breeding of Obrigado

Hoofbeats this month is featuring the racing career of Obrigado, a ten year old trotter who is staging a comeback after retiring in 2018 due to an injury. After a year of inaction he returned to race last September and has since bounced back with two wins at The Meadowlands including his latest, a front end win from the 10th post position. His perseverance is a testament to his own will and determination but also to that of his breeder Michael Andrew of Gorham, Maine.

I first met Mike Andrew at the 2004 Harrisburg yearling sale. I had a booth in the vendors area selling my Pedigree Matching program CD's and on the first day, while the sale was underway, Mike sat down at my table and asked me to look up a horse he had just bought. I put it up on the screen then said Uh-Oh and Mike, looking a bit startled, said  "What do you mean Uh-Oh, I just paid $210,000 for this colt". It was a trotter by Self Possessed and from a mare by Super Bowl. His name was Servage Hanover. I explained that it was not a cross that liked because at that point Self Possessed had shown no success with Super Bowl line mares and his profile showed, if anything, a preference for Noble Victory line dams. The colt had ten attempts to qualify in his three years in training and just one unsuccessful start. My first impressions on the cross actually turned out to be premature since Cash Hall and Prime Interest both made over $600,000 subsequently. The two best by Self Possessed, however, were from Noble Victory line dams.

Mike returned later with his friend Dr Doug Hutchins, a veterinarian and small breeder from Maine. We discussed the breeding situation in Maine and also looked at some of the stallions standing there. Among them was Boy Band, a stallion owned by Mike that he  had bought in Lexington in 2001 for $145,000 that had failed to race with no earnings in three starts. In 2004 he had bred Boy Band to two of his own mares, Malimony and A Virtue, plus four mares owned by the farm where he was standing, and a couple of other outside mares owned by friends. Boy Band was not exactly popular as you could imagine given his racing career but he was from a very good family being from Classic Cassette by Florida Pro. She had 16 foals including a couple that made over $500K including Giant Hit, and a couple of other stallions in A P Lindy and Rockaroundtheclock. Boy Band was her 12th foal. We looked at his own two mares and on paper, at least, they showed promise since both had the necessary maternal connections to the dam of Boy Band,  particularly through Arnie Almahurst, sire of Florida Pro.

Early in 2005 I got a call from Mike, then president of the Maine Breeders Association, to see if I could come down to their annual general meeting in Portland in March and give a presentation on pedigrees. There were several presentations on different topics and they were done in parallel with morning and afternoon sessions. There was a lot of interest in the topic of stallion selection and I used my knowledge of Boy Band to illustrate the concept of maternal connections as being a big factor in the success of a stallion or indeed predicting success for a new stallion such as Boy Band. Another topic that came up was the practice of breeders choosing a different sire each year rather than staying with one that was deemed to have  a good "match". I explained that, based on my own observations and what I had learned from knowledgeable breeders, that the vagaries of  genetics do not guarantee success every time you breed the same way but that there is a one in four chance that you will get at least one very good one, plus two decent performers and one dud.

Dr Doug Hutchins is trying his own version of staying the course. He  made his first appearance at Pedigree Camp on PEI in 2009 and we discussed the breeding of his mare Cocktail Hour and decided that he should try to get Muscle Hill. He did not get in the first time but the following year was accepted and she produced a colt called Martiniwithmuscle who was injured at three after making over $140K and ended up in Sweden. Cocktail Hour missed in 2012 but hit the big leagues in 2013 with Bar Hopping, a winner of $1,385,293, and now a stallion at Hanover Shoe Farms. He has continued with Muscle Hill getting two fillies that he has kept for his broodmare band and now has a fifth one by Muscle Hill, a colt called Cricket Hill, that will likely be in the 2020 Harrisburg sale. Will that colt be the start of another 1 in 4 run ? Don't bet against it.

Now it takes a lot of faith and perseverance to stick to such a plan but for Dr Doug and Mike Andrew it certainly worked out. A Virtue's 2005 foal turned out to be the one very good one in four such breedings with $326K made. She was bred to Boy Band eight times in total, and had two other foals that earned over $150K.  Malimony was a bit slower to get her big winner. She too had eight foals by Boy Band and that 2005 foal, the first of six fillies, was decent for a Maine bred earning $81K, and the fourth foal, also a filly, earned over $230K and had a virtually unbeaten 2 and 3 year old stakes campaign that was a preview of what was to come. The fifth breeding produced a colt and that was a dud and the sixth was Obrigado now with earnings approaching $1.9 million and a winner of 22 consecutive Maine stakes races at two and three. If at first you don't succeed !!

A look at the overall profile of success for Boy Band, who is still breeding with three foals in 2018 including another from A Virtue, shows that the presence of the Arnie Almahurst line in the dams was indeed an important factor in his success with 15 of his top 17 including the top four all exhibiting that maternal connection. But what was in the pedigree of Obrigado that made him so much better than the rest.

His maternal family is #18 on the list for all time sub-2:00 performers and is relatively short lived compared to many of the top families The family matriarch is Molly J, born around 1885, by a grandson of Hambletonian and from a dam listed simply as By Boston Horse. She has one daughter, Mary Bales, by Montjoy, a full brother to Waller, the sire of Molly J.  Montjoy's dam has a daughter of Pilot Jr called Kate maternally so it is the first connection to the X-factor mare Miss Russell, also a daughter of Pilot Jr.

Mary Bales has two daughters, a pacer by Zombro called Zombrewer and a trotter by Nutwood Wilkes called Wilkes Brewer, but it was her first born Zombrewer that was to make the history books with a filly called Elizabeth by Peter The Great. Her pedigree combined the maternal influence of two daughters of Pilot Jr in Kathleen and the aforementioned Kate and when bred to Guy Abbey produced the fastest trotter in the world at the time, the legendary Greyhound. He was born in 1932 and was the outstanding trotting horse of his day and arguably the most outstanding in the history of the sport. He was nicknamed "The Great Grey Ghost" and "Silver-skinned Flyer." In 1935, he won the Hambletonian in world record time for two heats combined and in 1938 he lowered the world record time for trotting the mile to 1:55¼, a record that stood until for over thirty years..

Elizabeth had 16 foals and it was her daughter,Yankee Maid by Volomite, that leads us to yet another world champion in this pedigree. With successive breedings to sires like Porterhouse, Noble Victory and Speedy Crown the line arrives at that important connection with Arnie Almahurst bred to Quiet Elegance by Speedy Crown. She had an amazing 20 foals with six being born in the United States before being exported to Sweden. Three of the American breds were by Ardnon, a son of Arnie Almahurst, who has the great X-factor mare Margaret Parrish maternally. These include Kindavahush who, when bred to Lindy Lane, produced Hellava Hush, the first ever 1.51 trotter and a world champion. A full sister produced Better By Design, a $342K winner also by Lindy Lane.  The third full sister is the second dam of Obrigado, Meadow Hush, producing Malimony by Malabar Man whose pedigree now has an  X-factor double to Speedy Crown to add to its maternal inheritance.

Considering the success of the recent maternal line with Lindy Lane perhaps we should not be surprised by the success of Malimony with Boy Band, himself a son of Lindy Lane. A proven pedigree match with a maternal line featuring world champions is a roadmap to success that anyone can follow.

When researching the pedigrees of horses it is often surprising to find a personal connection to the pedigree. Apart from my acquaintance with Mike Andrew there are several other such coincidences. Boy Band's trainer was Ivan Davies, who was born in Kington, Worcestershire just across the border with Wales where my maternal grandfather was born some twenty miles away. I don't have any Davies in my maternal line though as far as I know but I do have a closer connection to Obrigado's driver in Maine. Heath Campbell's family came from Charlottetown, PEI and his uncle John "Buddy" Campbell was a trainer/driver/horse shoer of note for many years at the Charlottetown Driving Park. When my son, Charles, was a teenager learning how to train and shoe horses it was Buddy Campbell that took him under his wing. Charles is now an equine practitioner in Ontario.

There is yet another connection, this time to the family of Obrigado. In 2002 my horse partner Bill MacNeil of Saulsbrook Farms and I bought a mare in Harrisburg in foal to Dream Vacation and she produced a colt we named Critic Vacation. We were back at the sale the following year looking for a weanling to raise and train with Critic and settled on a smallish Angus Hall colt called Fight To Win. I was attracted to the colt because of his pedigree that was a double/double of Speedy Crown, Stars Pride and Arnie Almahurst lines. The dam was R Sweet Hush, a three quarter sister to the dam of  world champion Hellava Hush and, as it turns out, to the second dam of Obrigado. Both Critic Vacation and Fight To Win had decent racing careers earning $111K and $121K respectively. Critic's big race was finishing a lapped on second to the PEI 3 year old stakes record holder Maple Leaf Noble in a then track record 2:01.1h. Fight To Win, not eligible to any stakes had to face Open Trot company at three in Charlottetown finishing second in 2.01.2h. They were sold later in their three year old years to Ontario but turned a nice little profit for Bill and I.

Waiting for your 1 in 4 chance to show up gives you a possibility of a 25% success rate - a lot better than the 4-5% success that is experienced by breeders in general as they rotate their mares through the available sires hoping to get lucky.

Top Two Year Old Performance Horse Of The Year

There are several breeds of horses that earn money through racing including Standardbreds, Thoroughbreds, Quarter Horses and Arabians. Which breed had the highest earning two year old in 2017 and what do the top two year olds of 2017 have in common in their pedigrees ? The answers may surprise you.

Fly Baby Fly is a Quarter Horse filly who made $1,585,000 last year. The next best was also a filly but a Thoroughbred one called Caledonia Road who made $1,229,000 with most of her money in one of her three starts as winner of a Breeders Cup race. Good Magic was the top Thoroughbred colt last year with $1,216,000 again due primarily to his Breeders Cup win. The Standardbred fillies, Youaremycandygirl ($943K) a pacer, and the trotter Manchego ($910K), were both Breeders Crown winners. Eagle Jazz, a Quarter Horse gelding comes next with $900K then the Standardbred colts Lost In Time (687K) on the pace and trotter Fiftydallarbill $458K.

The pedigrees of these big winners are remarkably consistent with respect to the pattern of success for most performance horses - Outcrossed on sire line and inbred maternally as we promote through Pedigree Matching and in fact six of the eight are double/double pedigrees with the other two very close. In addition there is another pattern that appears significant in that seven of the eight are by sires whose sire line is maternally inbred in the dams. Here are the important aspects of their pedigrees.

Fly Baby Fly - She is by the current top sire in the racing Quarter Horse world called One Famous Eagle and with a classic pedigree match. The sire has Beduino maternally (a Nearco TB line) and Dash For Cash ( Three Bars line most common in QH breeding and also a TB line). The dam Higher Fire is by Walk Thru Fire by a son of Dash For Cash with a dam by Beduino. The third dam is also by Dash For Cash. The second dam is another thoroughbred line through Raise A Native. If you read my previous blog on the Kentucky Derby you will remember the significance of having both Raise A Native and Nearco maternal lines in top pedigrees. Both the sire and the dam have both in this pedigree so that combination is not unique to thoroughbreds. This is also a double/double pedigree in that the sire of One Famous Eagle has a dam linebred to the Three Bars line making One Famous Eagle double inbred maternally to that line.

Caledonia Road - Her sire Quality Road is a great grandson of Mr Prospector (Raise A Native) and is inbred maternally to the Nearco line and specifically to Northern Dancer. Quality Road's second dam is by a son of Raise A Native, sire of Mr Prospector. Her dam, Come A Callin, is a Northern Dancer line by Dixie Union and the second and third dams are also Northern Dancer - Nearco line.. She is also inbred maternally to Native Dancer. As we saw in the Kentucky Derby winner Justify this maternal crossing of Northern Dancer and Mr Prospector is a powerful combination.

Good Magic - Like Caledonia Road his sire Curlin is through Mr Prospector and Curlin's dam is also a Northern Dancer line. The dam of Good Magic is by a grandson of Northern Dancer and the third dam is by a son of Northern Dancer and the dam is also inbred to Raise A Native. Same magical combination.

Eagle Jazz is by One Dashing Eagle, the top son of his famous sire, One Famous Eagle, and with a pedigree that brings back memories of my own close experience with Quarter Horse pedigrees. You can read about my son Charles' first purchase of a QH called One Famous Glass, with an almost identical pedigree to One Dashing Eagle, both selling in the same year in the Oklahoma sale. One Dashing Eagle earned over $2 millon racing in California and Charles had to be content with winning the Quarter Horse of The Year Award in Canada as a three year old and making just over $200K. As was the case in Fly Baby Fly the key ingredients are Beduino and Dash For Cash across the pedigree maternally and also we find a third dam through Raise A Native.

The standardbred trotter Manchego was written about in my previous blog article on her owner John Fielding. She has a double/double pedigree as does her colt counterpart Fiftydallarbill. That colt is by Swan For All, sire of World Champion Hannelore Hanover. He too is a double/double since the dam Cr Dixie Chick returns all four of her principal lines to the maternal lines of Swan For All and his sire Andover Hall.

The top Standardbred pacing filly Youaremycandygirl is yet another double/double. Her sire American Ideal is Matts Scooter - Albatross maternally and both of these lines are in the dam Sweet Lady Jane. American Ideal's sire is Western Ideal who is Abercombie (Adios line) - Meadow Skipper maternally and we find both lines also in Sweet Baby Jane.

Lost in Time is from the first crop of A Rocknroll Dance, a No Nukes line sire with a dam that is linebred to Meadow Skipper through his sons Most Happy Fella and Albatross. His dam, Summer Mystery is inbred maternally to Most Happy Fella and he has a third dam through a son of Albatross. There is also an Abercrombie return to the maternal lines of the sire of A Rocknroll Dance.

These are examples of three different racing breeds whose champions all have pedigrees that follow Pedigree Matching principles.

I dont want to leave out the Arabians, who do not race at two, but one of the top Arabs last year was aptly named Quick And Rich. He is by TH Richie, a sire whose dam combines the Morafic and Nazeer sire lines. The dam of Quick And Rich is a Morafic line sire as is the third dam, and the second dam is through Nazeer. Just another great pedigree match.

Similar Sires - Similar Profiles

One of the most important things you can do when choosing a sire is to create the profile of what works with respect to the mares that produce their top performers. An article on Standardbred Canada caught my eye because it dealt with a three year old colt by Pet Rock who has won his first three starts. The profile for his sire is predictable based on the profile of Rock N Roll Heaven, a sire with an almost identical pedigree.

Both sires have maternal lines of Artsplace (Abercrombie) and Cam Fella (Most Happy Fella). Mares with these sire lines are prime candidates for these sires but for some reason Rock N Roll Heaven seems to also favor mares with Big Towner maternally. Seven of his top 10 show this connection. That would indicate to me that Pet Rock would show likewise and although his offspring are just three year olds to date it appears to be a key for his success. I was interested in finding out if  Larrys Petrock, the subject of the article, fit this profile - his third dam is in fact by Big Towner. The profile for Pet Rock shows 5 of his top 10 with this connection.

While not all of the offspring of these two similar sires have Big Towner maternally that feature is something that cannot be ignored if not entirely explainable. Most of the others show combinations of Abercrombie and Most Happy Fella as expected.

Picking a sire is not that difficult, just do your homework with respect to the profiles of the sires in which you are interested

Good Ones Come From Anywhere

The Canadian Maritimes is not noted for horses that make a lot of money. There are just a handful that have made over $500K lifetime but I have been fortunate enough to be connected to two of them.  The first I have written about before, a colt I recommended the breeding on and then bought at our yearling sale for $1,500 when nobody else wanted him. That was Hussy Chaser who went on to make over $520K and become the third richest Maritime bred. The other one is a trotter called Waiting On A Woman.

Ten years ago there was a young fellow working for my trainer who had a mare he wanted to breed. A quick look at her breeding and I recommended a new sire in the Maritimes called Northern Bailey, at the time a ten year old making his debut as a sire. I was attracted to the double presence of Super Bowl in his dam which fitted the mare which was inbred maternally to Super Bowl. The pedigree in fact is a double/double.

Waiting On A Woman has just passed the $500K mark  and now has a record of  62 wins in 188 starts, a record of 1.52.2f, and earnings of $502,758.

Both of these horses are the best by their sires and serve to show that any sire, given the right mare, can produce a top performer.

Tattersalls Mixed Sale 2018

The annual January mixed sale at The Meadowlands is your last chance to pick up an in-foal mare or a young mare just off the track for the upcoming breeding season. The prices are generally lower than at Harrisburg and there are always some great buys available.

Here is a list of the mares in the sale including broodmares and mares still racing but potentially broodmares. I have added in the performance ratings based on speed and earnings in the family. The rating of the mare gives you a general idea at what level her offspring could be competitive, either regionally or nationally. There are also quite a few that should probably not be bought for breeding purposes because of low ratings.

Here is the profile for all of the mares in the sale including the cross percentages. The profiles are colour coded by sire line and the colour codes are shown at the end of the report. If you bring up the report in PM Online you can click on the cross percentage and get a list of all horses racing with that cross and compare the profile of the mare with the successful ones.

For mares in foal it is important to assess whether the foal being carried has a correct pedigree - no point in wasting a year if it is not, although if you plan to sell as a yearling you may take the risk of a blemish on the mares career.

World Champion Hannelore Hanover - Another Double / Double

Hannelore Hanover became the fastest female trotter in history winning in 1.49.2 over the Red Mile at Lexington. Her success is no surprise to those who recognize the Double / Double pattern in her pedigree.

My earlier post on this pedigree pattern featured another World Champion in Always B Micki and an explanation of how the pattern can be identified.

In the case of Hannelore Hanover it is the multiple lines through Speedy Crown, combined with duplicated lines through Super Bowl and Arnie Almahurst that create the double/double return of sire lines from the dam to the sire Swan For All.

Hannelore Hanover was bred by Hanover Shoe Farms who seem to make a point of breeding at least one mare to new stallions in other jurisdictions and have several times produced what turned out to be one of the best such as Reverend Hanover by Sportswriter and now this great filly by Swan For All.

Swan For All was bred by Dr Paul Spears and Windsong Stable. Now a senior executive of Hanover Shoe Farms I'm sure he had a direct say in which mare in the Hanover band should be bred to Swan For All. He has, after all, been to Pedigree Camp several times and has an appreciation for the "Return to the Sire" breeding strategy.

The dam of Swan For All in closely linebred to Baltic Speed, sire of Valley Victory and a grandson of Speedy Crown. Typically such sires will succeed best with mares that have Speedy Crown doubled up in their own pedigree and such is the case for High Sobriety by Dream Vacation with dams by Valley Victory and Royal Prestige (Speedy Crown) maternally. That is a typical case of "Return to the sire the best blood of his dam". The double/double occurs when we look at the maternal lines of Andover Hall, sire of Swan For All and find Arnie Almahurst (Arndon) and Super Bowl lines which are the other two principal lines in High Sobriety whose sire goes to Arndon and whose second dam is by a son of Super Bowl.

Hannelore Hanover, for those of you familiar with the x-factor mare Margaret Parrish, is a multiple double to that special mare since Dream Vacation's dam is a double Margaret Parish as is the second dam of Swan For All.

It is fitting indeed that this special mare was bred by Hanover Shoe Farms, arguably the top standardbred nursery in the world, and from a maternal line that extends to Miss Bertha Dillon, the foundation mare in their broodmare band when Hanover Shoe Farms was founded in the mid 1920's. She produced Miss Bertha Hanover and several full sisters that make the maternal family of Medio one of the top maternal families worldwide.

Visit by Nikolaus Matzka of Austria

Here is an article by Nikolaus Matzka on his visit to Prince Edward island. Please forgive his English but I am sure you will get the drift of his story.

2017 North American Stallion Finder

The 2017 Stallion Finder is now available for free download.

The current version now contains every known active stallion in North America and is the only source available for this comprehensive information.

I trust you will enjoy and benefit from its use.

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas.

Norman Hall
Pedigree Matching

Buy One Get One Free

No - you wont see this at one of the yearling sales. Buy one - get one free refers to a special offer from Pedigree Matching that will not only increase your chances of buying a champion at this year's yearling sales but will teach you how to make correct purchase decisions based on pedigree.

Buy a PM yearling sale report for any of the remaining sales at Forest City, Hoosier Classic or Harrisburg and you will receive a complimentary one year Guru level subscription to the PM Online website. That is a saving of $200 on your report purchase price of $250 for Forest City or Hoosier. For Harrisburg buyers who purchase a full sale report for $750 we will give you two additional free one year subscriptions that are transferable as gifts for friends or acquaintances. If you already have a PM Online account we will extend it for one year for free.

Sale reports for Harrisburg, Forest City and the Hoosier Classic are now available. The cost of the reports is insignificant compared to the cost of buying and training a yearling with an incorrect pedigree and a low percentage chance of being a top performer.

Email to norman@pedigreematching.com for details and sign up for a free trial of PM Online.

There are 60 two year olds that went through the yearling sales last year and have now made over $100,000 to date. 54 (90%) of them were on the PM recommended list last year including the top 15 and 29 of the top 30. There were a lot of high priced yearlings not on the 2015 list that have not raced and none of the buyers knew they were making a risky investment. For as little as $250 for a PM list they could have saved themselves thousands of dollars and a lot of wasted time looking at yearlings that had no real chance based on their pedigree.

2016 New York Yearling Sales

The rosters for the Goshen and Morrisville sales are now available on PM Online. Both sales show increased numbers from last year. Morrisville has 90 listed and Goshen has 162 entries. While Morrisville is primarily trotters with 68 and only 22 pacers, the opposite is true for Goshen with 91 pacers and 71 trotters. Use the Sale report function on the Horse tab.

A look at last year's sales shows that Morrisville has outperformed Goshen to date with the top earner and 13 starters from the 65 sold (20%) while Goshen graduates with earnings to date total 18 from 123 sold (15%).

The 18 Goshen starters included 13 of the 18 on the PM recommended list including the top two and 5 of the the top 6 to date. In Morrisville the 16 PM picks included the top rated colt and highest money winner in NY to date along with 10 of the 13 starters picked including 5 of the top 7.

The PM top pick overall from these sales last year was Planet Rock rated 100 - 1.50.1, a son of Rock N Roll Heaven who has won his first two NYSS races and sold in Morrisville. The top pick from Goshen was Whiskey Please at 116 - 1.49.4 who has $8900 made with two second place NYSS finishes to date.

While the numbers have increased in the NY sales for this year the quality has not. I came up with 21 worth rating in Morrisville and only 22 in the larger Goshen sale. Many of the horses in Goshen are consigned by Hanover, Blue Chip and Winbak so you can expect that they were rejects from Harrisburg where the sale has been reduced in size considerably. In some cases they are foals from older mares but the good ones on pedigree will probably include foals with physical problems that would have hurt their sale price at the larger venue.

The Morrisville sale is dominated by trotters with several good opportunities by Cash Hall, Conway Hall and RC Royalty in particular. The few pacers on offer, nevertheless ,contain some very good pedigrees by Art Major, Roll With Joe and new sire So Surreal. The Goshen pacers include some better pedigrees and you would have to wonder why they are selling in Goshen rather than in Harrisburg especially those from the big farms. Close inspection would be advised.

We offer sale lists of recommended yearlings based on pedigree for both sales and since the lists are relatively short we will combine them this year for the price of a single sale - $250. To order the list of recommended yearlings you can request it using the Paypal on the PM website.

2015 Yearling Sales

The standardbred yearling sales entries at Morrisville and Goshen in New York, Harrisburg, Illinois, Ohio Jug and Ohio Buckeye, Forest City and the Canadian Open in Ontario, are now listed in the Globetrotter database. Lexington and the Indiana sales will be added shortly.

The sale profile function of PM Online will allow you to tabulate the yearlings by sale and check out their individual profiles versus the profile of success for the sire as well as provide cross statistics. Great tool to use to do your homework before you get to the sale and prepare a short list of the ones with the best chance to succeed.

You can also order a sale list of the best pedigrees sorted by performance rating from Pedigree Matching. All regional sales lists, with the exception of Harrisburg and Lexington, are $250. The Harrisburg and Lexington major sales are $1,000 for the full sale, or $250 for any component e.g. pacing colts, New York breds, etc . You can also buy an all yearling per day report for $400 for the major sales. You can order using the Paypal process on the Pedigree Matching website.

The Double Double

No, it is not your favourite coffee at Tim Hortons but it should be on your list of favourite yearling purchases.

Last year saw Mcwicked, a son of Mcardle, take home the spoils as the top three year old colt in North America. He was a Double Double as have been most of the very good horses that I have picked out for owner Ed James over the past seven years. In fact the best five, collectively winning almost $7 million, have all fit that special pedigree pattern that I call the Double Double.

Pedigree Matching focuses on the maternal lines of the sire and having those same lines returned from the dam. That is known as a double return in what the old saying tells us to "return to the sire the best blood of his dam".

A Double Double goes one step further by having the mare also return two lines the same as in the dam of the Grandsire.

In Mcwicked's case the first double return is of Meadow Skipper, through sons Most Happy Fella and Albatross. The second double is through Volomite and Adios, the maternal lines of Mcardle' s sire, Falcon Seelster thus completing the Double Double.

Which brings me to a horse that is unbeaten in his career called Roland N Rock, a son of Rocknroll Hanover from a mare by Cambest. He has yet to meet up with the top three year olds in North America but is aimed at the Meadowlands Pace where he will have to race against Artspeak and North America Cup winner Wakizashi Hanover.

His pedigree doubles back Abercrombie and Volomite from his dam for the first double, then Abercrombie and Meadow Skipper as is found in the maternal lines of Western Ideal for the second double.

I just might have a small wager on this colt in the Meadowlands Pace.

Pedigree Camp 2015

2015 Pedigree Camp


After a two year hiatus the Pedigree Camp will return to Prince Edward Island to be held June 19th-21st in Charlottetown


Details on this year's event can be found here - Pedigree Camp 2015


Past years have seen attendees from all over North America from Florida to Alberta and virtually every state and province in between where standardbreds are bred or raced, and we have even had visitors from Denmark and Finland


Here is the Graduation picture for the 2008 Pedigree Camp


Deadline for registration is May 15th and space is limited so reserve early

PM Online - Gurus

Wanted - Country and Regional Gurus

If you volunteer to be a Guru you can get free access to PM Online at the Guru level. Gurus serve an important role in keeping the databases current especially with respect to the top performers but there are other responsibilities.

Each Guru has a geographic area of responsibility. For some smaller countries, in terms of activity, we need just one, while in North America we need gurus in the key states and provinces where racing and breeding activity is greatest. We need Gurus for all breeds represented in the GlobeTrotter and GlobeRunner databases including our soon to be added Arabian database GlobeArab.

The main responsibilities of a Guru are as follows:

1. Update the performance records of the top performers in your area on an ongoing basis.
2. Add and edit stallion information for stallions and farms in your breeding jurisdiction, e.g. Pennsylvania, New South Wales, New Zealand, Finland, Atlantic Canada, etc.
3. Review and improve translation of the PM Online text.

There is also a role to play in recruiting subscribers, advertising and sponsors for which you can earn commissions.

If you are interested in becoming a Guru then email me at norman@pedigreematching.com before January 31st to see if there is a position still available.

PM Online - Proud supporter of Horses for Autism

 

 

 

Rockin Good

It is nice to hear back from clients of Pedigree Matching. In any one season I may make several hundred broodmare breeding recommendations and here is one letter that I just received from a client in Michigan.

"Norman

In 2011, you wrote me an analysis regarding my broodmare, Do Me Good. One of the sires you recommended was Rockin Image, who stands at Victory Hill Farm in LaGrange, Indiana. I took your advice and the result was Rockin Good. She was sold at the 2013 Hoosier Classic Yearling Sale to Mark and Jered Finn of Newton, Illinois for $9,500.

On June 19th, she qualified at Springfield, Illinois, in 1:55.1 without urging; and was briefly the Season's Leader for that effort. During the course of the summer, Rockin Good won the Elimination Heat of three legs of the Indiana Sires Stakes. Finally, on October 10th at Hoosier Park, she won her first final victory by a nose in 1:53.2, her lifetime mark. Last Saturday, October 18th, at Hoosier Park, Rockin Good won  the Indiana 2 YO Filly Championship and Sires Stake in a time of 1:53.3. Her purses totaled $181,250 for the Finns.

Thanks for the (Rockin) good advice."

Ed

Ed Engle, Jr.

Engle Equine, LLC

 

 

Ed's success reminds me of one of my earliest clients from Michigan. Joan Ellafrits was the owner of one mare at the time and had read an article on Pedigree Matching in the USTA Hoofbeats magazine. She had bred her mare three times without success, basically using the closest and least expensive sire available to her - a strategy that is often used but also one with near zero success.

I recommended she breed to a Michigan sire called Super Star Ranger. The result was a colt she named Winsum Ranger. At three he was the winner of the Michigan State Championship and went on to earn over $596,000 with 43 career wins and a record of 1:56.2 taken at Woodbine.

Winsum Ranger was the first really good horse that Joan ever bred or owned. She did it again with a full brother now with over $122,000 and still racing. She also has a filly called Keyanna Rose from a full sister to Winsum Ranger. That filly is also a winner of the Michigan Championships, and was the best of her three year old year in Michigan with over $451,000 made. Keyanna Rose is by Keystone Nordic, another Pedigree Matching sire choice as is her brother Keyodee Star with $292,000 in the bank.

Joan, like many others who have experienced Pedigree Matching in action, has shown that you don’t have to be a big farm to produce top horses. Anyone can produce or buy a great horse if they do their homework or at least get someone to help them with it.

Mcwicked

Congratulations to my longtime customer Ed James and his 3 year old colt McWicked winner of the $500,000 Hempt final. Ed paid $210000 for him at the Harrisburg sale on my recommendation. He now has a world record holder and the fastest three year old in North America. This year I think I will finally go to the Little Brown Jug to see him crowned as the fastest three year old of all time on a half mile track. Then to Lexington to beat the all time record for any size track.

Every year the Harrisburg mixed sale has a number of two year olds for sale. Most are ignored because the buyers assume they are being dumped for good reason. That is not necessarily so. Ed James has had great success with someone elses rejects and Mcwicked is just the latest example. In past years he has plucked, at my recommendation, horses like Hyperion Hanover a winner of over $1.2 million and Indiana Hall with over $830K among others.

The secret is to find a pedigree matched horse that shows something special, like a fast quarter. It is not difficult to narrow down the possibilities and in fact Mcwicked was one of only three in the sale last year that met the criteria and by far the best on paper.

His pedigree is great from a pedigree matching standpoint. He is outcrossed on sire line Adios to Meadow Skipper and he is inbred maternally to Albatross and Most Happy Fella. He is also outcrossed through to the maternal lines of grandsire Falcon Seelster through Volomite and Adios.

As a two year old he showed a last quarter in 27 in winning a PA Sire Stake event. That kind of speed is unusual in young horses and made him a standout on that alone.

PM Online Update

It has been a long process but we are finally getting there. Just a few wrinkles to iron out and we can make an official launch of PM Online shortly. Some of you have already tried out the site and perhaps experienced problems but hopefully all that is behind us now. This has been Phase One, replicating the Globetrotter program online to be accessed by any browser and device currently available. Sounds easy but in fact has been a complicated process that has taken almost a year longer than the anticipated six months we planned on.

The next phase of our development will be to add new functions such as the stallion profiles, performance ratings, sale reports etc., and anything else you might suggest to make the site as usefull to you as possible. This will be an ongoing process and your feedback is important to us to achieve our goal of developing an international pedigree database with all of the tools you need to help you make correct decisions on what to breed and what to buy.

Some of you are still using the old desk based Globetrotter program and have been asking about updates to the database. While it is my hope that you will eventually switch over to PM Online for its ease of use and greater range of options and more timely and accurate data, I am prepared to provide an annual database update for the time being. Instructions on accessing the current database can be found here.

Instructions on Updating Globetrotter Database

If you are interested in the future development of PM Online as an investment opportunity or as a vehicle for advertising and promotion of your own products and services I would be interested in hearing from you. Quite frankly I'm not sure how much longer I have, at my age, to devote to this "project" so I am interested in forming a limited partnership to ensure the future of PM Online is in good hands. You can call me for details at 901-628-5581 or email to norman@pedigreematching.com

Something For Nothing

The wonderful thing about breeding horses is that every now and then there appears something from nothing. There is a gelding in Delaware that is undefeated in 11 starts at 2 and 3. His name is I Like My Boss. He is by a modest son of Donerail called Don Boss Vita and from a mare that has absolutely nothing to offer in her maternal family.

The dam, Wild One, made all of $17,345 and there are few individuals in the next generations to beat that accomplishment yet she has produced one of the best in Delaware history.

Don Boss Vita is  Florida Pro - Super Bowl maternally and Wild One is by Cr Commando. a Delaware sire that is by a son of Super Bowl from a daughter of Florida Pro. Now some would say that is a coincidence but not if you are a follower of pedigree matching. That direct compatibility between the dam of the sire and the sire of the dam is exactly what pedigree matching is all about.

Pedigree Matching can trump pedigree and every mare and every sire can produce a very good performer if they are matched up correctly. I Like My Boss is proof of the pudding.

The Matchmaker

Every spring the best pacing mares in North America compete in the Matchmaker Series at Yonkers. The series is well named as the pedigrees of the four winners in the first leg are all great examples of Pedigree Matching in a variety of ways.

Coincidentally all four winners have Abercrombie line dams, two by Artsplace and one each by Life Sign and Artiscape and all four are by Meadow Skipper line sires so they satisfy the general rule of outcrossing on sire line. It is the maternal connections, however, that determine their greatness and the maternal breeding and X-factor doubles involved are something to see.

Angel's Delight is the least experienced of the four. Coming into the series with earnings of just over $100K she is a late bloomer whose pedigree is finally coming through. She is by Rocknroll Hanover and was bred by Lothlorien Stable in Ontario who were part owners of the stallion. Her dam, Belovedangel, was bought by Bob Mcintosh at Harrisburg as a yearling. Bob is a PM enthusiast from the early years and has been assisted by Dr Moira Gunn, formerly of Armstrong Farm, and one of my earliest PM followers. Moira and I combined forces to recommend the purchase of several mares for Lothlorien to breed to Rocknroll Hanover in his first year at stud. The highlight of that group was Kikikatie whose four breedings to Rocknroll Hanover have produced four $100K plus winners of over $2.5 million combined including first crop star Rockn Image $903,424. Belovedangel was also in that group of mares and although her five breedings to Rocknroll have been less spectacular they have produced five race starters, including a late racing two year old last year, with combined earnings approaching $500K including Audreys Dream $258K.

With an Artsplace dam that is inbred maternally to Meadow Skipper and from a mare that is also inbred to Meadow Skipper maternally, Angels Delight fit the expected profile for Rocknroll Hanover perfectly. Add to that her second dam by Matts Scooter providing a maternal double to Direct Scooter to compliment the double to Abercrombie and the success of this match was actually pretty predictable.

Summertime Lea also has a close connection to me from a pedigree matching standpoint. Her dam Donna Summer went through the New Jersey sale and I had recommended her purchase to one of my Prince Edward Island breeders. He was hesitant to pay a lot for a mare that had already produced a winner of $206K and she was in foal to Lislea for the fourth time and the first three had not been successful at the track. Two of those were colts, however, and the third was an as yet unraced yearling filly. The buyers were from Indiana and the resultant filly, Summertime Lea, ended up being trained by Ron Burke, making $553K racing in New York including the two year old NYSS championship. Genetics tells us that if you try the same breeding consistently you will get one of the four offspring that will be a top performer, 25%, and in this case it proved to be true.

Her dam is by Life Sign and as you can see from the pedigree that sire is a virtual clone of Lisheen, the dam of Lislea. The maternal sequence of both is Abercrombie - Albatross - Bret Hanover - Knight Dream with the last three sires being doubled in X-factor position. Added to this is a third dam also through Albatross making Donna Summer inbred maternally to that sire and also with an X-factor double to Bret Hanover. It helps too that Summertime Lea's second dam is a double to the X-factor pacing queen Helen Hanover.

Somwherovrtherainbow has a great mother in $1.6 million earner Rainbow Blue but even great race mares are no guarantee in the broodmare ranks unless they are bred to the right sire. After essentially failed breedings to top sires like Western Hanover, Bettors Delight and Dragon Again, she was finally paired up with Somebeachsomewhere, a sire that could take advantage of her close maternal inbreeding to Meadow Skipper. SBSW has a double Meadow Skipper dam and such sires predictably favour mares that are either linebred or inbred maternally to that sire line. Before she started racing I predicted in an earlier blog post that she would become the fastest female of all time. She certainly started out in the right direction as a two year old but struggled with health issues last year. Healthy now she is looking like this might be her year to achieve lasting greatness in the footsteps of her record setting mother.

Her dam is by Artiscape and is inbred to On The Road Again 3x2 maternally, an unusual but historically significant pattern that produced exceptional maternal influences like Helen Hanover and Margaret Parrish. Across the pedigree the X-factor highlights are Tar Heel and Bret Hanover, two individuals that show up consistently in X-factor position in great mares and for good reason as you can read in my book Queen Among Queens. Another interesting characteristic of this pedigree is the connection from Rainbow Blue to dam of the grandsire of Somwherovrtherainbow, Mach Three, where we see his maternal lines of Abercrombie and Most Happy Fella repeated. This outmatch pattern is a common feature in the best offspring by SBSW.

Yagonnakissmeornot is from the Artsplace mare Artstopper. She was bought by George Teague as a yearling and like many of his bargain purchases at Harrisburg she raced well at 2 and 3. Her four year old season was not up to par but starting her five year old campaign she now shows four wins and two seconds in her first seven starts. With $368K made she is the best of six from her dam and the only one by The Panderosa. A look at her pedigree tells you why this match worked better than the others.

Her pedigree is inbred maternally to Abercrombie and Gene Abbe and she has X-factor doubles to Tar Heel and Bret Hanover - enough said. She had a very good two year old by Always A Virgin last year and another in training this year by the same sire. Look for both of these to be prominent at the races in 2014 based on their pedigrees which feature maternal crosses to both Big Towner and Albatross.

I'm sure there will be other mares in this series that will win subsequent legs and I suspect they too will show the pedigree patterns that make for great mares.

http://www.mediafire.com/view/0m09mveyy9cd38o/Summertime_Lea.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/view/a53sgec8y3rec8e/Yagonnakissmeornot.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/view/k9tuyosttk48cbs/Angels_Delight.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/view/cnyipt8r99vnjs6/Somwherovrarainbow.pdf

2014 North American Stallion Finder

The Stallion Finder for sires standing in North America during 2014 is now available. The report tables list all sires, pacers and trotters, by name, State or Province standing, and by maternal lines together with a summary of preferred lines in the broodmares that fit the profiles of the sires.

Subscribers to PM Online can access a complimentary copy of the Stallion Finder in the PM Online library along with other Pedigree Matching publications including current stallion profiles. The Stallion Finder document can also be downloaded by submitting a Paypal payment of $25 through the Pedigree Matching website.

There are 313 sires listed, 182 pacers and 131 trotters, a considerable drop from the 374 in the 2013 Stallion Finder.

Sons of Western Hanover (35), Artsplace (16) and Cams Card Shark (13), lead the pacing sires while sires by Muscles Yankee (12). Yankee Glide (11), Valley Victory (8) and Garland Lobell (8) head the trotting lists.

Veteran pacing sires Abercrombie and Big Towner have just one representative left standing while current super sire Somebeachsomewhere has his first son in stud with So Surreal, a half brother to Well Said, that is standing in New York.

Speedy Crown and Super Bowl also have just one sire each in the trotting sire listings with Giant Hit in Delaware and American Winner in Pennsylvania respectively. An interesting addition to the trotting sire ranks is the first son of Revenue to stand stud in Break The Bank K who stands in Ohio. This is to my knowledge the first American bred son of a French sire to start a stud career in North America.