Last night the world saw it’s first two
year old colt to pace in 1:50 over a 5/8 track. Hes Watching, a $3,000 purchase
at Harrisburg, was an easy winner and a boost to the fortunes of his sire
American Ideal who has struggled to produce top colts. With the exception of
Heston Blue Chip the other ones in his top four are all fillies. These four
millionaires would be a credit to any sire’s record but with an overall success
rate of about 6% in producing winners of over $100K, American Ideal needs this
colt badly to further his career.
Bred by Brittany Farms the pedigree of Hes
Watching has the stamp of my fellow pedigree guru Myron Bell, the pedigree
brain of Brittany Farms, all over it. Myron will tell anyone that he does not
care what the sire line is, he is only interested in what the maternal lines
are and he is particularly fond of sibling and maternal crosses to great mares.
Much of the success of Brittany Farms has come from their initial purchase of
the Bill Sheehan farm and its broodmares. Many of these mares featured such
maternal powerhouses as K Nora and Golden Miss. The latter is a principal
conduit of Helen Hanover and both of these mares trace back on the X-factor
trail to By By, a grand daughter of Miss Russell through her son Nutwood. K
Nora is actually the maternal family of both American Ideal and his sire
Western Ideal. But that is not all that is in play in the pedigree of Hes
Watching, or the pedigrees of American Ideal’s current top four.
American Jewel was almost unbeatable before
running into atrial fibrillation problems, not uncommon in exceptional
individuals. The striking feature of her pedigree was the X-factor maternal
cross of the great Three Diamonds, a grand-daughter of K Nora. What is perhaps
not so evident is that she also carries an x-factor double to Margaret Parrish
through the maternal lines of Matts Scooter in her sire and Big Towner in her
second dam.
Heston Blue Chip is a colt and his dam also
carries a double to Helen Hanover through his Cams Card Shark dam and Cam Fella
third dam. Big Towner is also present in the maternal line in X-factor
position.
Idyllic has a maternal line that goes to
Emily Guy, a grand daughter of Margaret Parrish through Arion Guy and is a
double to the great x-factor mare Margaret Parrish accordingly.. She also has
X-factor doubles to both Albatross and Bret Hanover as well as three x-Factor
crosses to By By, the x-factor source inbred into Helen Hanover.
Romantic Moment doubles Margaret Parrish
twice across her pedigree through her second dam by Nihilator and her third dam
by Falcon Almahurst.
So how does Hes Watching’s pedigree compare
to these other great horses by American Ideal ? The first thing you see is a sibling cross of Lifetime Success to
her half brother Life Sign. In addition there is another sibling cross with
Western Ideal, the grand-sire of Hes Watching being a three quarter brother to
Cheer Me Up, the third dam of Hes Watching. These sibling crosses are not an
X-factor consideration but interesting features nevertheless especially the
latter which is a pedigree pattern that has shown up recently in some top
trotters such as Muscle Massive and features a brother and sister on the top
sire line and the maternal line respectively.
What is most important though is the makeup
of Hes Watching’s dam who is loaded for business with X-factor traces to Helen
Hanover. The dam, Baberhood, is by Real Desire whose maternal line traces to
the Sheehan mare Golden Miss and Helen Hanover accordingly and his dam is
actually a Helen Hanover double with an additional trace through Trenton.
Baberhood picks up another Helen Hanover double through her own dam by Jennas
Beach Boy whose dam is by Cam Fella as well as tracing to Helen Hanover on his
maternal line. Yet another Helen Hanover trace comes from Baberhood’s second
dam by No Nukes and then her third dam is the great K Nora, grand dam of Three
Diamonds.
This is a loaded X-factor pedigree that is
ready to explode. In my book Queen
Among Queens I used both Real Desire and Jennas Beach Boy as examples of the
power of Helen Hanover when doubled maternally in the maternal line. I also
included the following in the chapter on X-factor:
“In his book Patterns
of Greatness, Thoroughbred researcher Alan Porter noted the need to delve
deeply into a pedigree to discover the underlying genetic strengths that are
not apparent in the first six generations.
“This can reveal
that one particular background cross has been built up to a point where it
dominates a pedigree and reaches a critical mass reinforcing vital genes to the
point where they explode in the form of a dynamic performer”.
Perhaps Alan Porter is watching Hes
Watching from above and telling his heavenly buddies “I told you so”
