b4breeding

There’s a lot to like about Sweet Lou as a sire – his racing credentials are fantastic, he has a huge popular following, he’s good looking and he also brings a different pedigree with him from those we have had recently, and therefore offers some outcross options that could appeal.

The changing tides of breeding means we get almost a glut of some bloodlines (both sire lines and maternal lines) over a short space of time and a lack of others. Whereas our breeding mares stay constant for longer, they are stuck with their pedigree and still have to match well with the range of sires on offer.

But new lines diving into the pool sometimes create a timely splash.

Woodlands Stud has had a great eye for the moment, the ability to sense a wave and catch it while others might still be looking at the horizon.

So good on them for reversing the love affair with Western Hanover/Western Ideal sire lines and Direct Scooter/Jate Lobell/Artsplace maternal lines, and come up with something very different.

The top half of his pedigree

Sweet Lou. He’s from the Artsplace siring line, which is currently really only represented commercially here by Art Major and Sportswriter, with Grinfromeartoear and his sons in minor supporting role. Interestingly with Sweet Lou the Artsplace sire line is coming via Artiscape who is a sire we tried lightly and couldn’t relate to much in New Zealand (a bit better in Australia and still commerical in North America) in spite of him having a pedigree that would have suited our mares. At the time I think many breeders found the smaller lighter types he often produced just not what buyers wanted, regardless of their potential ability, and we quickly lost the faith.

The immediate sire of Sweet Lou is Yankee Cruiser who is even less familiar to us – he was a very consistent race performer finishing on the board in 26 of 35 career starts, winning $1,150,123. He established his lifetime mark of 1:49.3s in winning the $1 million North America Cup. But he was probably one of those very good performers that was slightly off the radar downunder. Sweet Lou and the filly Darena Hanover are by far his best performers to date, but he’s no slug in his Ohio siring barn.  He had two yearlings in the very recent Lexington Sale, a colt who sold for a good $42,000 and a filly who went for just $10,000. Yankee Cruiser’s damsire is Jate Lobell whose presence as an “engine room” damsire is now almost a requirement of top pedigrees, and back further in Yankee Cruiser’s maternal line the presence of Poplar Byrd, who also pops up in the pedigree of Artiscape.

The bottom half of his pedigree

So now a look at Sweet Lou’s maternal line – it is one of those that has a good foundation and seems to be getting better, but it still flies well below the highly commercial, well known families and branches like Golden Miss, K Nora, Romola Hal, Breath O Spring et al. On his damsire line the mares all have really good records for their day, not spectacular perhaps, but solid times and really good earnings.

Starting with his damsire line – his dam Sweet Future is a Falcon’s Future mare. So he brings the familiar Falcon Seelster elements in here, but Falcon Future’s damline has not really kicked on apart from his great-grandam Dell Siskiyou’s daughter Gogo Playtime, who turned out to also be the great-grandam of No Nukes and TMI. Many other branches have been a lot weaker. Of course if you go back further than Dell Siskiyou, you see Falcon Future’s maternal line is the family of Roya McKinney/Princess Royal and then Estabella and Jessie Pepper.

Sweet Lou’s grandam Sweet Darhlin was a well-performed race filly by Nero. Again, Nero is not a sire that we find much in our siring line or mare’s lines these days. Yet he brings a lot to the party, including another dose of Poplar Byrd and a strong liking for Adios blood. By the by, there is a branch of Nero’s family that we do know well, and that is through his half sister Skipper’s Romance. Amongst the descendants in New Zealand are the families of Smooth Ice (dam of Classy Filly) and also Sokys Legend (dam of Bit Of A Legend). Nero was pretty much an outcross sire himself, the two closest double ups were a 4×4 to Volomite and 4×4 to Billy Direct. One of his sons, Nero’s B B stood here as a sire for 5 years from 1984 and left over 600 live foals, some of the best being Bee Bee Cee, Neroship, Nevermore and Nutwood. But would I see Nero B B being relevant to which mare I put to Sweet Lou? To be honest its quite a long bow to draw.

Sweet Lou’s great-grandam Fly Fly Darhlin is a daughter of Fly Fly Byrd who is a siring son of Poplar Byrd. Yes, that’s the fourth link to Poplar Byrd in Sweet Lou’s pedigree.*see section below

Further back on his bottom maternal line, Sweet Lou traces to a family of consistently good trotters including Morning Song, a daughter of Victory Song. Of Morning Song’s daughters Eve Barmin and Dolly Barmin, Dolly Barmin has led to Sweet Lou and his very good half-brother Bettor Sweet (and several other good performers), while Eve Barmin’s line led to I Am A Fool (the brilliant Life Sign colt who won over a million dollars) and his good half brother Cam’s Fool – both of whom were tried as sires but with little success). Again Classic Families is a great way to expose the legacy of these branches, remembering that it is still unfolding.

Poplar Byrd, Adios and Volomite

As we’ve seen Poplar Byrd occurs 4 times in Sweet Lou’s pedigree, twice in Yankee Cruiser’s pedigree, as the sire of a sire (Bye Bye Byrd) and as a damsire, and then twice in Sweet Future’s pedigree, again as a sire of a sire (Fly Fly Byrd) and as a damsire. Significant? I don’t know, but an example of how Sweet Lou brings back some names we haven’t seen for a while in the extended pedigrees of our sires.

There is a sire/damsire influence in New Zealand that I think would be well worth considering if you can find him on the maternal line of your mare – and that is Able Bye Bye. Like Nero, he was only available in New Zealand for 5 years, in his case from 1974, and the result was just 124 live foals.

Able Bye Bye’s pedigree was to die for. He was the son of Bye Bye Byrd (therefore grandson of Poplar Byrd) and his dam was Adioo Time (by Adios from On Time, who is a daughter of Volmite and the great mare Nedda Guy). Bye Bye Byrd’s dam is Adieu, the full sister to Adios. So what you have is a pedigree full of the elements that Sweet Lou’s back story either contains or loves.

Interesting!

So lets track down some of Able Bye Bye’s female descendants who might be in the category of broodmare….and one that springs out at me is Cathy’s Flybye (Caprock x Bye Bye Cathy – Able Bye Bye). Why is that name familiar? Because just recently her Tintin In America filly American Fly Bye put together two eye-catching wins at my local Cambridge track, and the mare also has the nice mare Ideal Fye Bye by American Ideal, and has since gone back to American Ideal. Look at Cathy’s Flybye’s pedigree – she’s a Caprock mare so that brings in Jate Lobell again, and more importantly another link to On Time via Good Time. She’s clicked well with Tintin In America who has quite a few of the elements in Falcon’s Future’s pedigree including Falcon Seelster, Shadow Wave and Most Happy Fella.

The female lines from Able Bye Bye mare Princess Nandina could be another quality opportunity for Sweet Lou. Flight Of Fantasy (Island Fantasy x Twice As Fine – New York Motoring) would also connect with Sweet Lou’s sire’s Artiscape influence, via the New York Motoring/Happy Motoring full brothers, although that is quite a stretch. Dashoffinewine is a Julius Caesar daughter of Twice As Fine and, because Julius Caesar is a full bro to Christian Cullen, they both carry Volomite through Direct Scooter and Billy Direct through Tar Heel, as well as a whole of of other great stuff like Bo Scots Chip (their damsire) carrying Adios and Billy Direct – but also Meadow Paige (Bye Bye Byrd x Beatrice Adios), a sire I’d never heard of who stood here 1977/8 for about 50 live foals and not much for history that I can find, but let me know because I have only done a quick scan.

The Able Bye Bye mare Tabella Beth has a dynasty which may also be worth a look in this regard – particular those from her Sokys Atom daughter Soky’s Sunday who adds in the extra interest of the Adios Vic/Miss Creedabelle connection which has an echo in Sweet Lou’s sire’s maternal line.

There will be many others with potential – and of course just the sheer ability to outcross by bringing a different pedigree to the table. In the end, hindsight will tell us what works or not. Breeders can’t wait that long, we take a risk, we decide what suits our mares. Sweet Lou will stand or fall by what he does on the track via what mares he gets.

But I do wish him well, and partly because he (and Woodlands Stud) have presented something just a bit different. They are obviously pushing the cross with Bettor’s Delight – but I’d love to hear from blog readers why they think that is a good match, pedigree wise or on type. Interested to gather those views before we all become wise after the fact.