b4breeding

This blog is a tripler – all connected to Somebeachsomewhere and what maternal lines bring (or don’t bring) to the table, and whether sire/damsire crosses are all they are cracked up to be. It doesn’t offer nice and simple solutions but is really trying to keep our “breeders minds” open, to keep us thinking.

Where to for Artsplace mares? Equineexcellence does some research.

Ray Chaplin of equineexcellence.biz has once again produced a thought provoking article challenging a simplistic interpretation of “Breed the best to the best and hope for the best”. I mentioned this in my last blog and will explain a bit more now.

He asks:

If the “go to” sire for Artsplace mares was Rocknroll Hanover, with the tragic death of that horse, should breeders with Artsplace mares switch to Somebeachsomewhere as the next best thing on the block – after all, Captaintreacherous is out of an Artsplace mare (Worldly Treasure).

He also looks at whether the Somebeachsomewhere cross with Artsplace mares is all that Captaintreacherous makes it appear.

Check out Ray’s take on this match, and why he advises caution:

The contribution of broodmare sires is often over estimated in valuable breeding tools such as the USTA and HRNZ “Crosses of Gold” publications. Whilst they can often provide a good lead as to which stallion to breed a mare to, they can just as often mislead breeders.

What I like about Ray’s approach is that he does the homework to back up his observations. This is good thought-provoking stuff for breeders.

I recommend you order a free copy of this report by emailing contact@equineexcellence.biz

Can you duplicate success by following the same cross?

Now I want to look more closely at SBSW’s maternal pedigree. The focus has been on the Mach Three cross with a Beach Towel mare. But I believe a quick glance at his pedigree raises some interesting things. His maternal greatgrandam is The Booger Lady, who got 12 wins herself and was the dam of the very good Cam Terrific (by Cam Fella) and some other well performed racehorses.  The descendant families have had very mixed results, with a couple of very nice horses popping up in several of the branches but nothing consistent.

The best performed branch is his granddam’s Where’s Sarah (by Cam Fella) who has had two by Artsplace who earned over $300,000.

SBSW’s dam Where’s The Beach (by Beach Towel) has had 9 foals for 6 winners including SBSW and 2 others that have won over $100,000 – the rest just average. Four of her foals were by Astreos which indicates perhaps a belief that a top performing son of Artsplace would nick well with the mare given Where’s Sarah’s results with Artsplace.  The mare has had two other foals by Mach Three (as well as SBSW) but to date the results are not mimicking the success of Somebeachsomewhere. But the faith is strong: In 2011 a full brother yearling Some Of The Beach sold for $430,000 – the highest price ever paid for an Ontario-sired yearling.

With these results it is quite a long bow to draw that the Mach Three x Beach Towel cross is the major factor in the family’s recent results.

A 7 win Astreos half sister to Somebeachsomewhere, named Child From The Sea,was bought off the track and exported to Australia and bred (almost inevitably) to Mach Three for a filly who is now a 3yo called Mariquita Amor.  She  has had only two starts this season for 1 win and just over $11,000. A Mach Three colt and another Mach Three filly have followed before a switch in breeding was made last season to Courage Under Fire. These matches of course put Beach Towel further back in the pedigree and bring in another totally different maternal line via Astreous (and one that at first glance doesn’t look particularly strong but it’s not a family I’m familiar with). It will be interesting to see what eventuates!

Overall, Somebeachsomewhere has a very nice family but not an outstanding one. You could argue the Beach Towel x Cam Fella mare cross (same as Jenna’s Beach Boy) and now the Mach Three x Beach Towel mare cross (Somebeachsomewhere and Sir Lincoln) are really underpinning the family’s success – but I think the family picture is more complex and less certain than that.

If you want up-to-date information about SBSW’s siring career, follow enthusiastic supporter blog for Somebeachsomewhere here

Somebeachsomewhere had tremendous speed aided by a sensational gait and willpower. In my view his ability to stamp those mental and physical attributes may be more important for breeders to consider than what he brings to the table via his maternal pedigree.

Credit should go to strong maternal lines

Let’s have a look now at Somebeachsomewhere’s outstanding son Captaintreacherous, and another instance where it is tempting to grab hold of a potential golden cross (Somebeachsomewhere x Artplace mare).

Captaintreacherous’s dam, Worldly Treasure, is a full sister to pacing mare Worldly Beauty, who was a two-time Dan Patch Award winner and earned nearly $2 million lifetime. Their dam was World Order (1:53 $267,205) and her dam was Rodine Hanover.

Yes, that’s the Rodine Hanover who is grandam of Art Major, Perfect Art, and Panspacificflight as well as being the dam of Real Artist and other very good racehorses from a range of sires.

Suddenly we are getting into such a strong maternal line that we need to take more into consideration than a simplistic click between a sire and damsire which sort of ignores the tremendous wealth of genetic talent along the maternal bottom line.

Here is a very interesting quote from Hickory Lane’s  Harness Racing Update 3 February this year about Captaintreacherous:

(Brittany racing manager) Myron Bell likes to say that any horse can be a great 2-year-old but it takes pedigree to be a great 3-year-old. Great 2-year-olds that come back to be great 3-year-olds have to have the maternal pedigree to carry them through the 3-year-old year. Any horse can get away with just having speed at two. This horse has a star pedigree and that is why we paid what we paid for him (Captaintreacherous) as yearling.

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