by Les Brinsfield ©

Webster's defines fountainhead:

1] A spring that is the source of a stream
2] A principal origin or source

La Troienne is easily the best source of a steady stream of good stakes winners, classic winners, champions and foundation mares imported to America in this century. Close kin to French Oaks winner Adargatis (by Asterus, by Teddy and out of the same dam as La Troienne), she was bred in France by Marcel Boussac, born in 1926 and imported to America in foal to Gainsborough by Idle Hour Stock Farm. She was a non-winner and unremarkable in physical attributes. Her Gainsborough filly did not survive.

Now Myrtlewood was born in 1932 and could be called a contemporary of La Troienne for comparison. Though the ancestress of the likes of Mr. Prospector and Seattle Slew, Myrtlewood pales by comparison in sheer volume of tail female production. Myrtlewood had seven daughters to breed on while La Troienne had nine, but the ratio of quality production is further out of tilt by far than nine to seven tally or by the few years difference in their age might account for. [La Troienne did have Champion Bimelch - denied a Triple Crown when second in the Kentucky Derby]. The detailed analysis is beyond the scope of this article, but is mentioned here to establish a basis of comparison to La Troienne.

The pedigree of La Troienne is a smorgasbord of sibling crosses, sex balanced multiples and invitations to other quality prepotent ancestors in the gene pool. A littany of those precedes a look at what she did not have - which, when finally introduced, may explain the fact her offspring were super race horses and producers.

La Troienne carries 24 lines of Pocahontas [by Glencoe] via one each of three daughters, Araucaria, Ayacanora and Heroine of Lucknow. The rest are 14 of Stockwell, three of his brother Rataplan and four of King Tom. The latter is damsire of St. Simon who is present along with a double to his sister, Angelica. La Troienne has Sterling from daughters Black Corrie and tail female ancestress, Inchbonny with a double Isonomy in her damsire, Helicon. She has Melton (and invites returns of his own sisters, Bridget and Editha). She is tail female to Doxa (sister to Absurdity, she the dam of Black Jester who is sure to please). She is tail female to Oaks winner Cobweb whose un-named sister is 2X2 in the dam of *Eclipse (sire of Alarm from a Stockwell mare). Wenlock is a half-sister to Kisber: both from a Rataplan mare and both crossed in Goody Two Shoes by Isinglass by Isonomy.

As if this were not sufficient material to aim for in linebreeding plans, La Troienne has one of each gender in each parent by Bend Or from Macaroni mares summing to four and featuring Doremi and Bona Vista as well as the full brother and sister tandem of Ormonde and Ornament. Ormonde, an undefeated Triple Crown winner and Ornament, dam of immortal, four time Classic winner Sceptre. This pair is also crossed in Roman via Ormonde's son Orme, and Ornament's daughters Sceptre.

But the key to why La Troienne became a fountainhead lies not so much in what is, but rather, in the answer to the riddle of what is not. Outside of her first foal, a filly by Gainsborough which was euthanized as a foal, in the United States, she was never bred to any sire that was not a Domino line horse except Idle Hour homebred Bubbling Over, whose dam was tripled to Domino and laced with his five-eighths sister, Lady Reel, dam of Hamburg.

Domino is tripled Lexington, who led the American sire list on 16 occasions, and quadrupled to Lexington's sire, Boston, he a grandson of Sir Archy, he a son of Diomed as was Ball's Florizel. Lexington had a double Sir Archy along with a strain of Ball's Florizel.

And Diomed is the rub. He won the first Epsom Derby in 1780, languished in a mediocre stud career in England and found his way to Virginia in Colonial America at the turn of the century. His stud career was in for a retroactive growth spurt as he left behind a great mare in Young Giantess, she the source of many good horses in rapid succession of close up generations: Sorcerer, Phantom, Langar, Priam, The Cure, Muley, The Picton as well as several lesser sires. Young Giantess and distaff descendants took a while to get this done and these producers are the reason for re-assessing Diomed after his export. They had help also as Diomed left a sister, Fancy as well as three-quarter brother and sister, Dragon and Young Juno.

In the aggregate, theses Diomed factors had plenty of opportunity to accumulate in the gene pool and they did. By the time La Troienne was born, there were hundreds of such strains in her pedigree, mostly Young Giantess, and of her descendants, mostly Sorcerer - to the tune of hundreds of occurrences. Examine the foregoing and what is conspicuous by absence is a MALE strain of Diomed.

While this buildup was taking more than a century to produce La Troienne, the male line was accumulating at fever pitch in America as Sir Archy was first a brilliant racer retired for lack of competition and then a brilliant sire. He left at least 23 sons who bred on but none more important than Timoleon, sire of Boston, sire of Lexington who, to remind is tripled in Domino, whose male line was responsible for most of the carnage to follow from La Troienne. The exception of course, was Bubbling Over whose dam was tripled to Domino and has five-eights sister Lady Reel.

For a century, more or less, the gene pool, separated by an ocean and with a clearly demarcated partition, produced La Troienne with a total void of male strains of Diomed while simultaneously correcting that oversight with a vengeance in Domino, respectively.

To summarize - every foal from La Troienne was the result of the reunion of male and female strains of Diomed after segregation for over a century. Barring an error in our pedigrees, this is undeniable. Equally undeniable, these foals were superior to the norm and the cumulative impact of their offspring is astounding.

Offspring of La Troienne:
Baby League by Bubbling Over
Besieged by Balladier
Big Hurry, Black Helen and Bimelech by Black Toney
Bee Ann Mac, Belle Histoire, Belle of Troy, Big Event and Businesslike by Blue Larkspur

Anyone who wants can take any daughter of La Troienne [or all] and trace them through pedigrees to today's stars. It will be a rare week when there is no stakes winner linebred to La Troienne. Along the way, you will be as amazed as I was when I did [and keep on doing] this exercise. It has produced more than enough material for a book and I just might attempt that project someday - again: first time scratched the surface and left me confused as I ever want to be. Converting what is clearly seen in the mind to written words depicting the same vision is an art form beyond me but one I respect deeply. And you have my sympathy for trying this far.

This same scenario accounts for Bold Venture, Count Fleet, Gallant Fox, Man O'War, Nearco, and Whirlaway, with three Triple Crown winners among them. In the aggregate, they account for three more: Bold Venture/Assualt - Gallant Fox/Omaha - Man O'War/War Admiral when they were bred back to mares returning male stains of Diomed. Nearco got Nasrullah the same way.

I submit those by War Admiral from daughters of La Troienne are SUPER mares whose real impact on the breed is in its infancy as foals find themselves linebred to the likes of Blue Eyed Momo, Busanda, Busher, Searching, Striking and their male counterpart, Mr. Busher have won, are winning, and will continue to win good stakes the world over. It is hardly possible to avoid this as I tally about 100 sires out of mares by Buckpasser (out of Busanda) or out of mares by these maternal grandsons of Buckpasser.

There was brief mention of things in La Troienne that invited certain returns. Roman, packing Ormonde/Ornament, can be found with La Troienne in Con Game (by Buckpasser), dam of Seeking the Gold. Editha is in Bubbling Over who got Baby League from La Troienne. Domino himself is a male line issue of *Eclipse, he with La Troienne's ancestress Cobweb crossed with her sister in his dam, Gaze. The most obvious function of La Troienne is to sex balance Teddy given the huge multiples of Bull Dog/Sir Gallahad III.

Now this article was always going to be an expose' of the Diomed situation, as well as an attempt at discussing the pedigree of La Troienne. As proof of the Diomed situation, the gene pool offers up a control group of one to support the supposition: Spend A Buck. This guy ran the fastest nine furlong prep for the Kentucky Derby in my day and confirmed form with a wire to wire run on the first Saturday in May, some 16 years ago. He descends from the aforesaid Adargatis, she by Teddy's son Asterus [also free of male Diomed] and like La Troienne, out of Helene De Troie.

Coming forward, Adargatis had Donatella by Tourbillon [carrying Lexington and Sir Archy mare in double Hanover in his dam] - Donatella had Tellaris who had Armorial [carrying Man O'War] - Armorial had Battle Dress [Nearco, Nasrullah, High Time, Lady Reel] - Belle De Jour was next and featured Blur Larkspur and Correction [sister to Domino] as well as male lines of Tourbillon and Asterus from Speak John. Add to this concoction a cover by Buckaroo and along comes an under-appreciated Derby winner and sire who did get the good racemare Antespend from a mare doubled to Tourbillon and FREE of Domino. Buckaroo has War Admiral, Blue Larkspur and La Troienne on the dam of his sire and the sire of his dam. The final twist is a sex balance cross of Bull Dog/Edwina by Teddy.

One little mare came to America and one stayed home!