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by Les Brinsfield © Fame is fleeting, glory lasts for a while, but greatness is immortal. "Here lies the fleetest runner the American turf has ever known and one of the gamest and most generous of horses" Domino, enshrined beneath this epitaph, achieved immortality in his all too brief life. Between birth in 1891 and death in 1897, he was brilliant as a racer and left his seed of greatness in the gene pool for all time. He is a 1955 inductee to the Hall of Fame. Undefeated at two, he won 19 of 25 lifetime starts and earned $193,550. He won eight stakes and ran six furlongs over a century ago in 1:09 flat. He died in his second season at stud and left just 20 foals, 19 named, seven stakes winners - a seldom seen 35 percent. Just nine bred on and these included two sons: Commando won the Belmont and sired Belmont winner Peter Pan while Disguise defeated English Triple Crown winner, Diamond Jubilee. His daughters produced Hippodrome and Ultimus [both by Commando] as well as High Time [by Ultimus] and Sweep, the damsire of Triple Crown winner War Admiral and Kentucky Derby winner, Bubbling Over. Another was the second dam of Upset, the sole victor over Man O'War. Finally, Cap And Bells was the first American-bred winner of the English Oaks. Domino is a genetic key also to the American Quarter Horse. He was an intensely linebred horse and his first two dams were intensely inbred. It can be seen from the summary above that success was had in inbreeding to Domino. Indeed few, if any, can top the 3X3X2 cross to Domino in High Time. Moreover, the pedigree of Domino was no fluke as it also produced his champion sister, Correction, a winner of 38 races, dam of Yankee: second dam of Haste [damsire of Triple Crown winner Count Fleet] and ancestress of Triple Crown winner, Affirmed and another Kentucky Derby winner, Lil E. Tee. Note the impact Domino and his sister Correction had on the classic races. To assign the characteristic of speed to Domino is to miss the point: he passed on classic speed. Hamburg is out of Lady Reel who further confirms the pedigree as she is 5/8 related to Domino, being by Fellowcraft (Australian - Aerolite by Lexington) and out of Domino's dam, Mannie Gray. We begin the pedigree analysis of Domino with his second dam, Lizzie G.. Her sire and damsire are War Dance and LeCompte. War Dance is by Boston's immortal son Lexington, who led the American sire list 16 times. LeCompte is by Boston. Both are out of Reel, she by Glencoe out of Galopade. Hence Lizzie G. is 1X2 to 3/4 brothers and 2X3 to Reel, who can be seen in this picture (on the Thoroughbred Heritage website) to be stunningly beautiful. Lizzie G. has Judith for her third dam and Judith is by Glencoe out of a daughter of Galopade. Judith is thus 3/4 related to the doubled Reel or, put another way, Lizzie G. is 2X3X3 to Reel, Reel and her 3/4 sister Judith, and 3X4X5 to Galopade. Yet again, five 3/4 relations in the first 3 generations - Lexington/LeCompte and Reel [twice] and Judith. Mannie Gray is the dam of Domino and her sire is Enquirer out of Lida, a mare by Lexington. Mannie Gray is thus 3X3 Lexington and 4X4X4 to Boston. Lida carries two sons of Diomed, Sir Archy and Duroc. Lexington is tail male to Sir Archy and Boston is out of a mare by Ball's Florizel, another son of Diomed. Lexington has Sumpter, another son of Diomed. To sum - Lida [2], Lexington [2 times 3] and the third Boston [2] gives 10 male strains of Diomed in Mannie Gray. By the time we get to Domino, we have a pretty fair idea of what is going on. The tripling of Lexington 3X4X4 and the 4X5X5X5 to Boston is familiar. This new strain of Lexington brings three more male strains of Diomed and Hira adds a Sir Archy and we now have 14 male strains of Diomed in Domino. His second dam is tripled to Galopade, his first is tripled to Boston and he is tripled to Lexington. The careful delineation of male strains of Diomed was done for a reason. Diomed won the first English Derby in 1780, left a full sister [Fancy], 3/4 sister [Young Juno], 3/4 brother [Dragon] and a prolific daughter, Young Giantess, she the dam of Sorcerer as well as a Walton mare who produced Langar, in addition to the three sisters: Julia, Cressida and Eleanor [English Oaks/Derby] and their brother, Young Whiskey who came to America at the turn of the century. Julia had Phantom [English Derby]. Cressida had Priam [English Derby] and was third dam of The Cure. Eleanor, one of the few to accomplish the Oaks/Derby double, produced Muley and the dam of Picton. She is ancesstress of minor sires Father Thames, Luzburough, Springbok and Esher. Reminding, the reason male strains of Diomed are important is that none of his sons bred on prior to his arrival stateside and were thus non existent in the gene pool. Sir Archy and all the other sons who bred on were sired while Diomed stood in America. These males strains accumulated in America over time until their were 14 such in Domino in 1891. Meantime, for a century and beyond, the sister, 3/4 siblings and the many sires descending from Young Giantess accumulated in gaggles across the pond - totally void of male strains of Diomed. What, dear reader, was to happen when such build ups finally got a return of male Diomed? Plenty! Domino had no fewer than 13 lines of Young Giantess along with three other daughters of Diomed in his first 13 generations to go with 14 male lines of Diomed. There are many startling illustrations of crossing sire and dam with one void of male Diomed [note - the sister, daughters and 3/4 sibs of Diomed are endemic to the breed and have been for nearly two centuries, so both parents by definition had these]. Nearco amd Man O'War are two great ones - Triple Crown winners Count Fleet and Gallant Fox are others. But there is no clearer example of this explosive combination than what transpired in the case of the brilliant imported producer, La Troienne. Upon arrival in America, she brought with her hundreds of strains of all things Diomed built up without a male cross from the birth of Diomed in 1777 until her birth in 1926 - more than a century. In the clever and capable hands of Olin Gentry and Col. Bradley during Idle Hour Farm's heyday, she was never bred to anything except a Domino line horse with the exception of their homebred Kentucky Derby winner, Bubbling Over and his dam was tripled to Domino featuring Sweep, Hippodrome and Lady Reel from above. This union gave us Baby League, dam of Busher, Mrs. Busher and Striking - all by War Admiral [Sweep]. Striking and Busher are 3X3 in dam of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew. War Admiral got Busanda, dam of Buckpasser from Businesslike by Blue Larkspur from La Troienne Offspring of La Troienne: La Troienne is a distaff force for good in the gene pool. She produced five stakes winners. Her daughters were runners that produced runners. Her son, Bimelech, was denied a Triple Crown when second in the Kentucky Derby. I attribute the superiority of her offspring to the first ever return of a male line of Diomed from the sires she visited. All featured Domino - Domino featured 14 male lines of Diomed - Bubbling Over won a Kentucky Derby and his dam was tripled to Domino. Domino is very close to endemic to the thoroughbred - so much so that one would have to do some serious work to breed a horse in today's world that was free of Domino. Brilliant, beautiful, a prepotent sire and a case study on linebreeding. Domino was all this and more - grown men wept at his burial. July 8, 2001. Copyright by Les Brinsfield 2001. |
