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by Bill Lathrop ©
Dixie Union is a looker. He’s the equine equivalent of Denzel Washington or Brad Pitt. A 16 hand, deep chocolate colored horse, wearing three white socks, and a dashing blaze down his handsome face. I would call him a “wow” horse. He’s a nice guy, easy going with no vices. His muscles, sinew and bone are all hooked together for maximum performance, and he moves with the easy strength and grace of a world-class athlete, which, of course he was, being a Grade 1 stakes winner, and earner of nearly one and a quarter million dollars. His first crop of babies will reach the track this year, and his yearlings are turning heads at the sales. He seems to be stamping his get with the beauty and quality that he himself possesses. His pedigree intrigues me, and after delving into his lineage, I am struck by the maternal line influences of the family history. Bruce Lowe’s division of the thoroughbred into female families more than 100 years ago initiated a new tool to use in evaluating pedigree. His work has evolved through the expansions made by Bobinski and others into the female families that we know today. Dixie Union is a case in point where the female family thrusts itself into prominence. He is line-bred 4x5 to Native Dancer, but the significance of his pedigree, in my mind, lies in the fact that both Dixie Union’s sire and dam are from Bobinski family #4m. If you look at a pedigree as a piece of mosaic art, with bits and pieces of color representing each female family, you will detect, in Dixie Union’s pedigree, two unbroken lines of the same color, one on his sires side, and one on his dams. These lines of color trace back 137 years to one of America’s great race-mares, that being Maggie B B (1867). Maggie B B when bred to Leamington, produced the mare Jaconet, who in turn foaled the Belmont stakes winner Sir Dixon. When bred to Alarm (paternal grandsire of the great Domino), Maggie B B gave birth to the mare Sallie McClelland. Sallie McClelland was then bred to Sir Dixon in 1900, producing the mare Audience (winner of the Kentucky Oaks). The mating was repeated the following year, and produced the mare Martha Gorman. The sisters were inbred 3x3 to Maggie B B, family 4m to family 4m, intensifying that mare’s genetic influence. This was the start of something big, because down through the years some amazing quality has flowed through these two sisters, each establishing their own branches of family 4m. Many noteworthy individuals abound, such as Broodmare of the Year, Fall Aspen, through Audience, and the fine race-mare and matron, Kittiwake (dam of millionaire Miss Oceana), through Martha Gorman. Dixie Union’s pedigree offers us an example of how optimum evaluation of female family can create fantastic results. His sire, Dixieland Band, traces tail female to Martha Gorman, while his dam, She’s Tops, traces tail female to Audience. She’s Tops has three instances of family 4m visible in her pedigree within 6 generations. In addition to her own tail female family through Audience, she has one (4m) through Bold Reasoning, who traces back to Maggie B B through Sir Dixon’s dam Jaconet, and one (4m) through Bald Eagle, who traces to Maggie B B through Sallie McClelland. So, after 100 years, the coupling of family 4m to family 4m, and the reunion of the sisters Audience and Martha Gorman, has, in the case of Dixie Union, once more reaped rewards. A further look at the production of quality runners and producers from this family has indicated a “nick”, so to speak, between family 4m, and family 6e. In the case of Dixie Union, you will find four instances of family 6e in the pedigree of his sire, Dixieland Band within 6 generations, which repeats that “nick”.
I feel that a close examination of the intermingling of the female families within a pedigree can lead to some very interesting revelations, Dixie Union being a prime example. It would be interesting to see what a mating of Dixie Union to a descendant of Kittiwake would produce. Anyone have the equine equivalent of Jennifer Aniston out there? |
