b4breeding

There is a lot you can learn about your mare’s family by looking back at its roots and then following the development of its various branches, and finally looking forward to new talent coming along.

It can help identify which connections might add value, or where the overall family seems to be going. And it may well show how hard it is to duplicate outstanding individual traits simply by repeating a cross.

But researching your mare’s family isn’t just about scanning the pedigree pages.

It’s also about scanning the race fields in your Best Bets! Or checking out what’s at the workouts and trials.

Recently I’ve been following some racehorses from my own mares’ family – the Zenover family, of which I have Zenterfold from the Zenola Star (New York Motoring) branch.

At the workouts in Cambridge on 1 August, and indeed the previous week, a very nice looking horse called Spyda (Mach Three x Elsurah) won his learners pace, leading them in a crawl and sprinting hard for the last 400m. Elsurah is a full sister to the great Elsu (Falcon Seelster x Interchange). She raced briefly as a 3 and 4yo, just 5 starts for a second, before starting her broodmare career. Elsurah is very closely related to my mare Zenterfold, the dam of Tintin In America et al.  Zenterfold’s grandam Now And Zen is a half sister (by trotting sire Chiola Hanover) to Interchange. Not only that, but New York Motoring appears as the sire of Interchange and as the sire of Zenterfold’s dam Zenola Star.

Spyda, owned by Sean McCaffrey, Schnapps Bar Syndicate, A Learmonth, Betty Newcombe, and trained by Sean McCaffrey, in the prelims before his learners pace workout at Cambridge.

The wider Zenover family includes top performers like Copper Beach (dam of De Lovely), Revonez, Motoring Magic, Zenad and of course Elsu and Tintin In America, as well as a raft of other solid performers like Zen Zan, Zenable, The Blue Lotus, Destination Moon, Zenola Seelster and Zena’s Art.

But like every big family tree, there are branches that seem to be dead ends, and others that have strong buds emerging, as well as those branches that are the reliable croppers.  Future interest also lies in some widely diverse female lines which are producing the next generation both here and in Australia.

Inevitably, because of the Elsu factor and to some extent with Tintin In America being by McArdle, another son of Falcon Seelster, almost every branch is dotted with attempts to duplicate that success by crossing with the Warm Breeze sire line. But in many cases, the results have been less than spectacular in terms of racing performance.

I’m not saying that breeding to a sire (or his sons) that has had success with the family is a bad idea. Not at all. But it certainly is no guarantee of immediate success, and it shouldn’t stop you looking elsewhere if another sire seems to bring more to the match in some way.

Following successful crosses very closely can give very different results. Again, in the family I am most familiar with, Zenterfold has an In The Pocket full sister Zenola’s Princess (qualified as a 3yo, not raced). She has been bred twice by Bruce Greenhalgh to McArdle to get a brother in blood to Tintin In America (Zen Warrior, 4yo, 9 starts for 1 win, 2 places to date) and a sister in blood (Zena Mac, 5yo, 50 starts for 2 wins, 17 places to date). So more later developing types, unlike the precocious early ability of Zenterfold and Tintin In America. Dare I predict that Zena Mac will become a very good broodmare after a couple more wins? And Zen Warrior will build a bit more strength this season. I’ll follow them both with interest.

Another from the family that caught my eye and gave me a nice return on my TAB investment on Friday night was Zenmach (Mach Three x Zenardle) who won a 2yo race at Addington on Friday night and paid over $17 for the win!  Zenardle is a grand-daughter of Now And Zen (from the Sokys Atom mare Zenara) and as the name suggests, her sire is McArdle. I blogged about Zenardle when she was one of the first McArdle mares to have progeny at the yearling sales in 2012, and she’s gone on to do a good job – that first foal of hers at the yearling sale was Zenable, who is now a 6yo Bettor’s Delight mare racing in Australia with a total of 18 wins, 19 places and over $170,000 to her name (and another a great broodmare prospect). Her next foal is Jeremy’s Jet gelding Elroy Jetson who is also in Australia now with 5 wins to date. And her third foal is Zenmach with just two starts for a win.

So this is another instance where the attributes of the family cross with Falcon Seelster/McArdle may be adding value in a subsequent generation. One of Zenterfold’s own daughters by McArdle (bred by Aria and Geoffrey Small) was on the market recently as a broodmare, having been only lightly tried. She was bought off the Smalls for a very good price as a weanling, but the real rewards may be downstream for a breeder.

Both Spyda and Zenmach are by Mach Three. Does this indicate any potential click with the family? My guess is that it reflects more the sense of going to a speed sire like Mach Three for a mare that lacked that speed herself.

A couple of other “young bucks” from the family that look to have some potential are Zach Maguire (3yo Bettor’s Delight colt bred by Ray and Diane Kennedy from Zenola Starbuck, a Christian Cullen half sister to Zenterfold). He was sold for $34,500 at the 2014 yearling sales. His older brother Zin Zan also shows a lot of speed and promise. Incredibly their Rocknroll Hanover half sister Angie Maguire was passed in at this year’s yearling sale for $15,000 – you would have thought she was worth double that in broodmare prospects alone.

From my own mare The Blue Lotus (Grinfromeartoear daughter of Zenterfold), I’m looking forward to seeing her first foal, a filly by Bettor’s Delight called Amazon Lily, make her debut this season. And I’ll be watching for Thephantomtollbooth (Real Desire x Zenterfold) to develop into a nice 3yo as he learns and strengthens.

If you have seen something (or have bred something) from the Zenover family that looks promising, share it here.