(The art and science of breeding Part 3 of 3)
There’s a lot of wisdom in the so-called feminine arts that provide a nice counterweight to the strutting PR about a sire’s performance on the track and the endless rankings based on ‘my season earnings are bigger than your season’s earnings.”
In Jim Squires’ foreword in “Racehorse Breeding Theories” he writes:
“A quarter of a century of personal unraveling has yielded only a few precious strings to which to cling: one, that genetic traits can indeed persist through many generations, not just two or three; that mating solely or even mainly on the basis of pedigree without physical consideration of the two animals is idiocy; and that the importance of females has been and continues to be vastly underestimated in the equine world.”
Let’s look at his first and third ‘strings’ – persistent genetic traits and important females. It’s good that he talks about strings and unraveling, because it leads me nicely into knitting. Yes, knitting.
When I’m studying pedigrees I keep in mind the art of fair isle knitting.
That’s the traditional style used in jumpers, vests and hats where different coloured yarns form patterned bands.
The knitter uses ‘active’ colours while other colours are simply held behind the piece, carried as a loose strand of wool yarn and introduced when the pattern requires it.
On the right side is a highly structured and balanced pattern that creates an overall impact – stunning.
On the reverse side it looks almost messy. You can see individual coloured threads weaving in and out, some of them looped along a row, held back and waiting to add their unique element to the pattern again.
Two yarns can form a striking pattern if they complement each other, and other colours can be kept going in the background and reintroduced at the right time to lift the pattern to another level or form a new one.
I have a liking for certain strong maternal lines and the great broodmare sires associated with them – the wonderful McKinney sisters, Spinster, Old Maid and Breath o Spring, the underestimated Nedda, and of course Leta Long and Meadow Cheer amongst others.
These are mares and families that have had a genetic influence way beyond their own lifetime. They are ‘persistent’, like the coloured yarns the knitter holds loosely at the back waiting to reintroduce into the pattern.
There are more modern broodmare gems that are developing powerful maternal lines, although unlocking their potential can be a puzzle –Lismore/Lisheen, Three Diamonds and Rich N Elegant come to mind as wonderful maternal lines of recent sires whose genetic potential we are have struggled to activate in New Zealand, yet. (In a later I’ll examine the ‘rich and elegant’ puzzle in more depth).
b4breeding 
[…] In the all aged category, the 2yo Grinfromeartoear filly Provocative could be a good sneaky bid if you want something ready to run – she was unwanted at the yearling sale last year in spite of being a nice type (I recall her in the ring and wondered why she was not attracting more bids, but the Grins aren’t sexy at the sales), and was bought back by the Barlows for about $9000 – and they persuaded Linda Hamilton to take her, with Steven Argue doing the breaking in and training. She qualified nicely enough as a 2yo at Franklin, long before many of the other pricier sales yearlings have made it to the track. Grins tend to need time and can be a little one dimensional in their racing until they mature mentally and strengthen, but those that have natural ability can hold speed and are tough minded – and this filly is from the same family that produced Charge Forward and Covert Action, both Grins of course. The pedigree match refers in some really nice ways to great mares Breath of Spring, The Old Maid and therefore Spinster, and Grin’s Storm Damage damsire provides the close up footnote to those – one of the things I really like about Grin from a genetic perspective, pulling older references back into the pattern (see my blog on fairisle knitting!) […]