b4breeding

A recent query asked what I thought about this cross: Tintin In America with a Trump Casino mare. It is an interesting question as Trump Casino is a son of Falcon Seelster and McArdle (sire of Tintin In America is also a son of Falcon Seelster).

Basically my response is this: unless I knew more about the mare, particularly her maternal lines, her conformation, ability/attributes, I really would not want to make a recommendation in a particular case. Even then, I would rather you work it out!

That is what b4breeding is all about – encouraging you as the breeder to take what you know of your mares and families (because you know far better than me) and to make informed or at least thoughtful decisions. “Look b4 you leap” – and that is not a warning, it’s an encouragement to dive in, but at least to be aware of the risks and the waters…

Trump Casino is an Australian sire I know little of, so won’t pretend to have that close up knowledge of how he is perceived as a sire or (more importantly) how he really performs as a sire or damsire. I have had a quick look at his stats, but not enough to really understand where he sits in terms of current performance and perception. He’s not in the top tier though. The sire and broodmare pool in New Zealand, where I am, and in Australia (where the question comes from and where Trump Casino stands) is quite different. I don’t have the resources to be very knowledgeable about Australian breeding. But the principles for breeders making decisions are going to be the similar.

Here’s what I do know – because I bred and raised him:

With Tintin In America, as I have already stated in a past blog,  I would not exclude Falcon Seelster mares for him. That is because Falcon is such an outcross sire, and that where he would sit twice in such a pedigree would not really worry me in terms of the resulting foal.

Falcon Seelster is a sire that Tintin’s wider family has mixed well with previously (Elsu, Falcor, De Lovely etc). So that would be a plus factor in a Tintin In America/Trump Casino mare cross.

Personally, I don’t think McArdle (Tintin’s sire) has a lot of Falcon Seelster influence in him. I think he may be driven by the genes he got from his dam lines rather than from his dad. The Falcon Seelster factor (his click with the family previously) was not a big factor in my selection of McArdle for Tintin’s dam Zenterfold.

Add to that, Tintin In America is strongly rooted in his own very good maternal family, and may well be just as much influenced by those connections as by his granddad. Keep that firmly in mind when you are looking at mares for Tintin!

So to summarise – I would be relaxed and happy about mixing Falcon Seelster back to Tintin in the maternal lines or sire lines of mares.

Trump Casino appears from his record to have done supremely well as a 3yo with 21 starts for 9 wins and 10 seconds, and took a 1:49.2 record as a 4yo.  That seems to have been in Kentucky, which is not a state with strong standardbred siring prospects. His maternal family is not familiar. He must have been a sound horse, carrying on racing until 8yo. A nice horse! Tough and durable, strong and consistent 3, 4 and 5yo seasons. I love these type of horses. His dam Laker’s Fortune was a good race mare, earning over $300,00.  I was interested to find Trump Casino’s grandamsire Adios Boy was one of the first 2yos to break the 2 min mile barrier, and Adios Boy appears in the bottom line pedigrees of both Camluck and Presidential Ball.  Trump Casino’s damsire Fortune Teller was a son of Governor Skipper, a Little Brown Jug winning son of Meadow Skipper – neither of them carried on the Meadow Skipper line to any extent but they were good horses.

Call me biased (but I have absolutely no financial interest in Tintin as a sire) I do think he deserves a chance to show what he can do as a sire. In previous blogs I’ve given lots of information about Tintin and his family and my breeding decisions around that (See the blogs It’s business time, the one on Shadow Wave, on Tintin Are you looking for speed and Tintin’s fertility 90% and the page on Destination Moon for example). So hopefully some of that will be helpful in deciding if Tintin is a good sire for your mare.

Remember! You need to make the decision first about what qualities your mare is bringing to the table – what she offers, and then what she might need. A sire cannot provide a miracle, only a shot of semen filled with a number of  genetic options that may or may not be compatible with your mare.

Fun, isn’t it!!