The Long Road To Success - Face Time Bourbon

The Long Road To Stardom

Two hundred and fifty years later and after travelling across the Atlantic four times and developed in five different countries the pedigree of Face Time Bourbon has achieved a status that puts him among the best trotters in Europe. His win in the Prix d`Amerique and his current 18 wins, 3 seconds in 22 starts stamps his international passport to possibly being one of the greatest ever in France if not worldwide. His only loss was actually a win but disqualified by a momentary break.

He is by current top French sire Ready Cash and from a mare by Love You, a sire that has more racing progeny in the world than any other active sire due to his own racing excellence and siring success. But that is now and there are 69 that have the same breeding and only three that have significant earnings. Those good ones include International star Bold Eagle with over $5 million Euros, and very similar maternal connections featuring Florestan and Speedy Crown, and Atlas De Joudes with just over $180,000. So what makes the difference?  It all boils down to the maternal lines from the second dam down and, especially in the case of Face Time Bourbon, a mare called Etta Extra, his third dam by Florestan.

The story of Etta Extra and her owner Rainer Engelke, who is responsible for all of the current horses with the Bourbon name, is worthy of a separate column but for now lets look back to see what the maternal line brought to make Etta Extra so special.

The maternal line goes all the way back to the 1750s and is shown as Family Number Forty Six in the English stud book. Early on the line gets a significant boost in the form of a mare imported to North America called Letitia who has an x-factor double trace to the exceptional mare by Bartlets Childers called Amorett. She in turn has a daughter by Dungannon who also has Amorett maternally. Her daughter is bred to Lance, an American sire whose dam has an X-factor double to another distinguished daughter of Bartlets Childers called Miss Colville. That breeding results in a mare bred to one of the early stars of American racing in Bertrand whose maternal line is the same going back to Miss Colville. This is an unprecedented build-up of direct traces to the origin of the X-factor, the ancestral Spanker Mare.

The next two generations, bred first to a pacing sire of the Copperbottom breed then to a Kentucky trotter/saddlebred sire called Edwin Forrest, contribute little in terms of pedigree but introduce the trotting instinct into the mix. The next step is a big one with spectacular results.

Sophie by Edwin Forrest is bred to Happy Medium by Hambletonian whose dam is by Dictator whose dam brings in the first connection to an important X-factor source of American origin in American Star. The result is World Champion Nancy Hanks born in 1886 who was undefeated and was the first 2:05 trotter in harness-racing history.

Nancy Hanks was then bred to Peter The Great whose maternal line also has a maternal trace to a Bartlets Childers mare plus a first encounter with Pilot Jr, sire of Miss Russell, the Queen Among Queens, the subject of my book of the same name that describes the maternal origins of the Standardbred breed. The next step is even more epochal as that mating produced a daughter, Markala, that was bred to Vice Commodore whose dam is also a daughter of Nancy Hanks making Markala a 3x3 X-factor inbred to her maternal legacy. Markala is then bred to Baronmore whose maternal contribution is yet another trace to Bartlets Childers and another key American X-factor source in Mambrino Patchen.

The result of that mating is Anna Maloney, born in 1912, who raced in the United States for several years before joining a wave of exports to Europe following the first world war as breeders there sought to restock their breeding farms depleted by the war effort. She actually went first to Belgium before producing her first French bred foal in 1923 by Passeport, a French sire tracing back on sire line to imported English thoroughbred origins in the early 1800s whose dam is inbred to the X-factor through a full sister to the dam of Belle Poule and another trace back to a daughter of Bartlets Childers. Her first foal by Passeport was Amazone B, a 54 time winner including twice in the Prix d’Amerique, and a French record holder in 1931. It was her third breeding to Passeport, however, that produced Heroine B in 1929 and her French breeding legacy was underway with the tenth dam of Face Time Bourbon.

At this stage her X-factor connections take a different route as her lineage comes into contact with the likes of Belle Poule, Perce Neige and Gladys, all mares that have extensive traces back to the X-factor source in England but none more so than Belle Poule. There are actually two mares called Belle Poule, the second one being a granddaughter of the first and also the dam of the great Intermede, called by some the French equivalent of Volomite for his impact on maternal breeding in France.

The next three dams are a source of some controversy since they were all bred on the same farm under suspicious circumstances. The first of these dams, Sonate, born in 1940, is the big question mark being officially registered as by a French son of Intermede called Gael. He was known to be virtually infertile and had just 2 foals in 1936 and none in 1937. Gael is known colloquially in France as the "ghost" stallion and here is why.

At the end of the 1930s, it was decided to close French breeding to establish a line to be  known as "French trotters" and to bar the breeding to American bloodlines. Calumet Delco was in France racing at the time having been bought by Henri Masson and imported to France in 1934 at the age of four. Born in 1930 at the famous Calumet Farm in Kentucky, he was a full brother to the dam of Stars Pride from a mare by the X-factor stallion San Francisco. He was sold to Wisconsin interests where he was a state champion at three before being sold and exported to France where he won 24 races and earned 350,000 francs in winnings (a nice sum for the era) and his career included a 5th place in the 1938 Prix d'Amérique.

But it is as a stallion that he made his greatest impact. As an American horse he was not allowed to have any foals registered under the new rules but in between his occasional races in 1937, and because of his gentle disposition, he was allowed to run with the mares at Haras de Ginai to act as a teaser to bring the mares into heat for breeding to the farm stallion Gael except that, in this case, Calumet Delco was more than a teaser and ended up covering them himself. The result was that three foals were allowed to be registered as "unexpected exceptions" but no more such foals were to be allowed in the new registry. 

Two stallions Quiroga II and Quiproquo II and a mare called Quinauderie are the three registered by Calumet Delco in 1938 and among the direct descendants of these one finds some great horses such as Galopin du Ravary, Ilster d'Espien, Flambeaux des Pins, and Hadol du Vivier but that's not all. The farm stallion Gael, who had fertility issues with just one foal in 1936 and none in 1937 suddenly had a revival with three foals in 1938, six in 1939, four more in 1940 and his last one in 1941 when coincidentally or not Calumet Delco reappears as a stallion in Germany after four years of obscurity. The consensus is that all of these later foals were by Calumet Delco and not Gael, a belief confirmed in a sworn statement by the son of the owner of Haras de Ginai in later years. The registration of Gael as the sire, however, still remains as the official record although the legacy of Calumet Delco and his maternal connection to the great Stars Pride has clearly left a big mark on French maternal lines including those of Face Time Bourbon. The great French Champion Ourasie's dam Fleurasie has Calumet Delco on both sides of her pedigree and one of those occasions is a Calumet Delco son bred to a mare called Stele registered as by Gael in 1940, the same year as Sonate.

Sonate was bred to Quiproquo and her foal Dragonne III was then bred to Quiroga II to produce Jonque so it is now proven, although not offically, that all three mares were bred to Calumet Delco or one of his sons. Calumet Delco as the sire of Sonate would be a significantly consequential addition to the maternal line but we must, unfortunately, accept what is registered as true and move on to Samos P, the start of another special cycle of maternal power. She was bred to Luth Grandchamp producing Dimitria who picked up the first connection to Belle Poule through a maternal daughter of Intermede. The dam of Luth Grandchamp is by another American refugee called Net Worth whose dam and second dam are both X-factor doubles to Mambrino Patchen, the same source doubled up in Anna Maloney. The world of trotting is indeed a small world

Dimitria was a sensation for her day in the sixties earning over 1.7 million kroner mostly in Sweden, winning the Elitlopp, and being one of the first French breds to take a sub 2:00 record. I have a remote personal connection to Dimitria through a friend in Finland, Marja Mahlamaki, who has a small farm in Vihti near where Dimitria was sent for a potential breeding to Keystone Patriot. The farm where she spent a year in Finland was co-owned by Marjut Stenberg and Marja's brother-in-law Matti. I visited with Marja in 2009 and Matti was then and still is in charge of the racetrack in Teivo.  

Marja, known by her friends as Mammu, is a long time supporter and volunteer in the Finnish breeding industry and remembers that Sweden was experiencing an outbreak of Equine Herpes and Dimitria was sent out of Sweden as a precaution. She already had four foals by French sires with little success at that time and missed that opportunity with Keystone Patriot and now had to wait six months in quarantine before being sent across the Atlantic for a mating to Speedy Crown thus returning the maternal line to its roots in North America and England. That produced the mare Une Crown born in Italy and then taken back to France.

Une Crown produced fourteen foals with the first eight in France and the last six in Sweden. Etta Extra was her first foal and the only time bred to Florestan and her breeder was a Swede named Valentin Gosta of Stockholm and a former Chairman of the Swedish Trotting Association, with a small farm in France, and who had also previously bought Dimitria after her racing career. He was also the owner of Glenna H, the great grandmother of Victory Tilly, the all-time money winner in Sweden. Etta Extra's racing career was short but at three she had three of her four wins at Vincennes and earned 51,665 Euro in her ten starts. She was bought at the 1996 Deauville mixed sale for $70,000 by Rainer Engelke who was intrigued by her breeding by Florestan to a daughter of Speedy Crown, and her maternal line to Nancy Hanks. The under-bidder was the renowned breeder Jean Pierre Dubois. 

There was more to that match that he was perhaps not aware of at the time although he recognized the influence of Florestan’s dam, the great mare and international champion Roquepine. She carried an X-factor double to Intermede and Belle Poule as did her dam Jalna IV to the older Belle Poule as well as to Perce Neige. A powerhouse maternal line indeed behind an incredible performer for her day who beat the best trotters in North America in the International Trot at Yonkers.

But Rainer Engelke’s work back in 2009 was just beginning. With Etta Extra as his foundation mare at his newly bought farm in France he sought out crosses that would bring back her Stars Pride and Speedy Crown bloodlines. Her second foal by Cezio Josselyn did the trick being by a son of Armbro Goal, a Speedy Crown son with a Stars Pride line dam. But that was not the key in producing Kamera Bourbon, the second dam of Face Time Bourbon. She went on to race and earn over 196,000 Euro and the secret ingredient to her success as a racemare was likely the dam of her sire named Quezira tracing back to Belle Poule as well as having a maternal line to the old Belle Poule making her also an x-factor double to the principal source of that legacy in France. Quezira is the second dam of the exceptional mare Belina Josselyn and the maternal line of several other stars such as Uza Josselyn, and Fleche Bourbon who is inbred maternally to Quezira and a recent winner of the prestigious Prix de President de la Republique  for monte trotters.

Etta Extra was subsequently bred to Love You and produced a 1.5 million Euro winner and Prix d`Amerique contestant in Qualita Bourbon. That success inspired Engelke to breed Kamera Bourbon to LoveYou and why not because he carries both Speedy Crown and Stars Pride across his pedigree. What perhaps he did not know again was that the dam of Love You is also an x-factor double to Belle Poule as well as carrying the maternal influences of both Gladys and Perce Neige. An added bonus is Love You’s North American maternal line that goes back to a daughter of San Francisco plus another source to American Star.

As Rainer Engelke said in his interview about Etta Extra prior to the 2009 Prix d'Amerique in which his mare Qualita Bourbon, a three quarter sister to the dam of  Face Time Bourbon, finished third. She too has Speedy Crown and Stars Pride across her pedigree in addition, of course to the maternal doubles to Belle Poule and other X-factor sources.

“At every opportunity I try to create that in my breedings. Now that I have had several years of breeding experience I can tell you what to do. It is very simple. You have to double up on the best American blood with the best French blood. That is to say double up on Florestan, double up on Speedy Crown, as well as Fandango and Chambon P. Double up in the mare and also with the stallion. If you do that you have a chance to have, from time to time, a good horse.

Myself, I believe it is necessary to look at the sixth – seventh generation. Jean-Pierre Dubois says you have to stop at the third. But for me I don’t think that is enough. If the pedigree is well filled throughout, you increase your chances. If there is a hole you take the risk of falling through it.”

Inbred maternally to both Speedy Crown and Florestan, by a sire inbred to Florestan and from a mare inbred to Speedy Crown with a maternal line full of great champions on two continents. There are obviously no holes present in Face Time Bourbon.

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.

John Fielding - Breeding Champions

John Fielding is a breeder and owner of both Standardbreds and Thoroughbreds and has had great success with both breeds. His two year old TB filly Rushing Fall just won the Breeders Cup Juvenile Filly one week after his co-owned two year old trotting filly Manchego won the Breeders Crown for standardbreds. While they are breeds apart their pedigrees share a common pattern, the Double/Double.

He also co-owns the TB colt Catholic Boy who was fourth in the Breeders Cup Turf and a former Hambletonian winner in Pinkman. They too have the double/double pattern that has produced so many of the best in standardbreds and now, thanks to Fielding, is coming into prominence in thoroughbred breeding too, an approach that goes against the establishment thinking in T-breds that minimizes inbreeding of any kind. The double/double is based on maternal inbreeding.

View previous blog article on the Double/Double for more information on what to look for.

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.

California Chrome

The winner of the Kentucky Derby is California Chrome who extends the recent trend of winners that are inbred maternally to either Mr Prospector or Northern Dancer. His pedigree has been described by others as plebian, ordinary, non classic, etc, as pundits struggle to understand where his racing excellence is coming from. Many thought he did not have the pedigree to go the distance but a closer look proves otherwise.

He is outcrossed on sire line - Nearco to Native Dancer and has a maternal inbreeding from his dam to his grandsire of Mr Prospector 4x3.  His sire, Lucky Pulpit whose stud fee is $2500 is another source of puzzlement to the thorobred pedigree experts. In addition to standing in California he was a modest racehorse although his dam is inbred maternally to Princequillo 4x4 and to Royal Charger (Nearco) 6x4 in a pattern of success familiar to standardbred breeders.

It is the dam of California Chrome, though, that likely provides the key to his excellence. Love The Chase was a low level claimer, bought for $8000, but her bargain price disguised a million dollar pedigree. She is outcrossed on sire line Mr Prospector to Northern Dancer and inbred to Northern Dancer maternally. That alone is sufficient to attract attention since mares inbred to Northern Dancer have been producing significant numbers of top horses in recent years. The real point of interest in the dam, however, is the mare Numbered Account who is 3x3 in X-factor position and thus Love The Chase is sibling inbred to a son, Polish Numbers (Northern Dancer) and a daughter, Dance Numbers (Danzig, son of Northern Dancer) of Numbered Account.

Numbered Account is by two time Horse Of The Year Buckpasser who was undefeated at three but not eligible for the Triple Crown races, although he soundly beat the top three year olds. Her dam is Intriguing by a Kentucky Derby winner in Swaps, and Intriguing is well named since she could well be the key to the pedigree of California Chrome.

In her book The X-Factor, Marianna Hahn detailed the search for the "large heart gene" supposedly responsible for the performance of Secretariat whose dam was by the same Princequillo that is doubled up maternally in Lucky Pulpit. She traced the genetic trail back to a mare called Pocahontas 1837, whose three sons, Stockwell, King Tom, and Rataplan, are noted maternal influences through their daughters. As I showed in my book "Queen Among Queens" the trail actually does not stop there but goes back through Diomed, the first winner of the English Derby and whose two best daughters, Young Giantess and Young Noisette, are doubled in X-factor position in Marpessa, the dam of Pocahontas.

Swaps, the sire of Intriguing, has an x-factor double to Stockwell maternally in his dam but more importantly his second dam is by Triple Crown winner War Admiral, who also is from a mare that has an x-factor double to Pocahontas through two of her sons, Stockwell and King Tom. But it gets better than that since the second dam of Intriguing is also by War Admiral making her a 4x3 x-factor inbred to a triple crown winner and double inbred to Pocahontas and to the two best daughters of Diomed accordingly. Now that is maternal power.

By the way, California Chrome's second dam is also inbred maternally to Princequillo, sire of the dam of Secretariat.  Not bred to go the distance eh?

Intriguing isn't it ?

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.

Percentages

One of the things you must know if you breed or buy horses is that genetically you are likely to have just one out of four breedings to the same sire that produce something special. Mind you 25% is a lot better than the 4-5% success rate for breeders overall but be prepared to be disappointed more often than not.

There have been some exceptions to the genetic rule such as the Hall brothers, Conway, Angus and Andover who were three of eight, and there have been exceptions in the other direction such as Albatross and his eight failed full siblings making him one of nine.

Another good case in point is the success of world record 2yo trotter Cooler Schooner 2,1.51.3f who is already over two seconds faster that her full sister Broadway Schooner, a winner of  $895K.  There have been two others with the same breeding who raced but did not beat 1.57.

What was the difference ? The pedigree is the same but the random nature of genes and how they interact defies sameness and indeed if you compared all four individuals you would likely see why. Conformation is a big part in yearling selection especially when you are looking at full siblings to something special.  Deweycheatumnhowe had four full siblings before he came along, all of them raced, but Ray Schnitker claimed that Dewey was much the best conformed of them all. It is generally agreed that Andover Hall was the best conformed of the Hall brothers too and his results as a sire have backed that up although I'm sure there are some contrary opinions regarding Conway Hall whose son Windsongs Legacy could have been one of the greats of all time but for his early death.

Getting back to Cooler Schooner she is by Broadway Hall, another son of Conway Hall, and from a mare that is inbred maternally to Speedy Crown. This is a typical feature of sires that have no Speedy Crown maternally. In the case of Cooler Schooner, however, she also has a double connection to Conway Hall since her dam carries a combination of  Arnie Almahurst and Stars Pride, as does the dam of Conway Hall.

The bigger farms seldom go back to the same sire since they have so many stallion options. It keeps the buyers guessing but it results in a lot of failed breedings, hence the 4-5% success rate. So what do you do as a breeder ?  Make sure that your first choice is your best choice and stick with it. The percentages will repay you accordingly. 

A Record Smasher

Last night at the Charlottetown Driving Park a Maritime bred two year old filly set a record - not that unusual you say ? In this case, however, with the filly going in 1.55.1h she not only broke the track record for two year old fillies but also the mark for any two year old pacer in the Maritimes as well as setting a seasons record for fillies in Canada on a half mile track.

The breeder of this phenom is none other than my horse owning partner Bill McNeil of Saulsbrook Farms in Windsor, Nova Scotia. The dam of Saulsbrook Alana is Atlanta Girl, purchased by Bill in the 2006 Harrisburg sale for $10,000 and trained down by his son Alan who you might remember as the lad who bought Lis Mara as a yearling on my recommendation, broke and raced him then sold him at four to race on and make oalmost $2.3 million lifetime.  Alan goes to the sales each year looking for reasonably priced fillies to sell as three year olds after they have qualified and shown promise racing. In the case of Atlanta Girl, also bought on my recommendation, she made it to the races at two and took a mark of 1.57.2f  but she did not come back at three so based on her early ability Bill opted to add her to his small broodmare band rather than sell her.

Bill and I get together each spring and go over his mares and it was decided to breed her in 2010 to Western Paradise - Why ?  Western Paradise is Abercrombie - Meadow Skipper maternally, just like Western Ideal, and that sire has done best with Abercrombie line dams and especially those mares with second dams through Most Happy Fella. Atlanta Girl is by Real Artist and from a dam by Cambest, son of Cam Fella. An added bonus was that if the match produced a filly she would be inbred maternally to Helen Hanover through two daughters of Ensign Hanover, son of Helen Hanover.

This was to be her third foal since she had been bred twice to Royal Mattjesty with limited success. Those breedings were made because there was a partner in Atlanta Girl that had a breeding share for that Ontario based stallion which turned out to be not a very good reason for choosing a stallion. Needless to say I was not in agreement on that mating given the pedigree.

Just before Alana went through the Truro yearling sale I got a call from Reg Macpherson asking me about her pedigree. What could I say - "I think she will be just fine Reg" . He bought her for $10,000 and it looks like she is "just fine" and then some.

Whos Watching Hes Watching

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”