This blog is about a mare born in 1890. Her name was Princess Royal, and through three daughters Regal McKinney (born 1907), Queenly McKinney (1908) and Roya McKinney (1911), she has made an incredible contribution to trotting and pacing breeding. They are usually collectively known as “the McKinney sisters”.
The name of a sire/broodmare sire is often more obvious in pedigrees because stallions have so many more opportunities to leave sons and daughters – usually somewhere between 30 and 300 progeny a year – whereas a mare has perhaps between 5 and 15 opportunities (i.e. foals) in her whole lifetime. So when I see a mare in the background of so many top sire lines, damsire lines and bottom maternal lines, I want to give that mare the credit she deserves.
This blog is not a tip o’ the hat. It’s a hat thrown high in the air.
Three cheers for Princess Royal! Hip hip…HOORAY!
A grandson of Princess Royal – the famous racehorse and sire Scotland as a 2 year old.
Princes Royal and her daughters are from the Jessie Pepper family. Jessie Pepper, who was blind, had 18 foals, and the seventh of them was Annabel. She was the dam of Estabella who in turn was the dam of Princes Royal. Princess Royal’s sire was Chimes (a son of Electioneer) and the foundation of so many of the pacing sire lines of today.
Just check out a few of the influential lines that trace back to her three daughters (I recommend you look through the super Classic Families database to discover all the threads).
Here is a brief summary of her contribution through her three daughters:
Roya McKinney is the dam of 11 foals including great sire Scotland, his fast brother Highland Scott, and his sisters Rose Scott and Elsie Scott (all sired by the Peter Scott, a son of Peter The Great), as well as another daughter La Roya by Guy Axworthy.
Three of Roya McKinney’s daughters bred on particularly well, and her son Scotland has been such an influential sire I can’t possibly list his achievements here:
- The Rose Scott branch gave us the sires Tar Heel, Hickory Smoke, Hickory Pride, Armbro Goal (whose dam was the World Champion mare Armbro Flight), and Earl.
- The Elsie Scott branch contributed with Falcons Future, and No Nukes, and trace through No Nukes sister TMI to the very good mare Artistic Vision and her top performing sons Rock N Roll Heaven (becoming a top sire himself) and Clear Vision.
- The La Roya line can be traced down through several generations from her daughter La Reine (via Maggie Counsel, Meadow Maid and Maryellen Hanover) till you find outstanding branches like Napa Valley (grandam of Vintage Master) and Silk Stockings (dam of NZ sire Silk Legacy and Temujin who is the damsire of Live Or Die) and Village Jiffy; and tracing down through another daughter of La Roya, Midway, you will find Falcon Seelster.
- Scotland’s influence in both pacing and trotting is immense. He turns up multiple times in so many top pedigrees as a sire of top broodmares (Emily Scott, Scotch Claire – grandam of Direct Scooter, and Lady Scotland – and through the latter to Breath O Spring). He is a sire of important sires and damsires including Spencer Scott (who was the sire of Speedy Crown and Rodney), Darnley, Hoot Mon, and The Intruder). In New Zealand one of his sons U Scott has had an incredibly strong and positive influence on our breed.
- One of Roya McKinney’s other daughters, Luxury, traces to El Patron who stood as a popular sire in New Zealand from the mid 1970s to 1990.
Queenly McKinney found herself a place in history when she foaled the first winner of the Hambletonian in 1926, Guy McKinney (f.1923). One of his most enduring legacies as a sire was the colt Spud Hanover, born in 1936 and earned only $7,917 but is the sire of the good racehorse Florican who is the damsire of Speedy Crown (and one of the multiple Princess Royal influences in that remarkable horse). Florican’s sire line leads to Sierra Kosmos. Florican has Spencer as his damsire, and is just one of many examples of the crossing of Spencer with the Princess Royal family for outstanding results. Another of Guy McKinney’s notable credits is the mare Vivian Hanover, the great grandam of Albatross and Henry T Adios. In fact Albatross has three separate traces to Princess Royal in his maternal line – through The Old Maid/Guy Abbey/Regal McKinney, though Tar Heel/Rose Scott/Roya McKinney, and through Vivian Hanover/Guy McKinney/Queenly McKinney. Albatross was by far the best of his dam’s foals of course, so bloodlines are no guarantee in themselves. However leaving something as incredible as Albatross is still something to be wondered at, given the odds that are against any mare. Similar interwoven threads of the three McKinney sisters and Roya McKinney’s son Scotland can be found in many top pedigrees.
Greyhound and Rosalind trotting in their famous dual harness. Scotland (son of Roya McKinney) was the sire of the great race mare Rosalind. Guy Abbey (grandam Regal McKinney) was the sire of Greyhound.
Regal McKinney found a place in standardbred history through her daughter Abbacy who was the dam of Guy Abbey. Guy Abbey was the sire of The Old Maid as mentioned above, but also sire of world champion Greyhound. He turns up in the pedigree of many good trotting sires as the damsire of Hoot Mon. Scotland is the sire of Hoot Mon. So that puts the two sisters Regal and Roya McKinney 2 x 4 in Hoot Mon’s pedigree, and Princess Royal herself 3 x 5.
Another interesting pedigree in this regard is Valley Victory who has Scotland or one of the McKinney sisters through multiple links on many lines of his pedigree.
Princess Royal is a great example of one of those amazing “clusters” or “hubs” of breeding where a mare from a good line suddenly cranks it up another notch or three and creates a number of strong quality branches, both male and female lines. Another is Spinster, who was served by Scotland and Guy Abbey and created yet another hub, and then the line continues to build remarkable momentum with multiple contributions from The Old Maid, Lady Scotland and later Breath O Spring.
Whether you start with Estabella or Princess Royal doesn’t really matter. The wonderous facts are there for all to see in a lasting legacy of quality racehorses, quality mares and broodmares, quality sires and broodmare sires and stunning crosses of gold.
Hip Hip Hooray, Hip Hip Hooray!!
Note: When using the HRNZ Info Horse database, I see that it places Regal McKinney as a daughter of Roya McKinney rather than as a sister. This also occurs in one other publication I have noticed. It is incorrect. She is a daughter of Princess Royal.
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