by Les Brinsfield©

First off, I wish each of you had seen Monarchos loop the field and draw off in the Florida Derby, a Grade 1, million dollar prep dela prep for the Kentucky Derby.

He is a poster child for the premise that linebreeding and good pedigrees produce good horses. Regal Band is a beautifully bred mare by Dixieland Band out of Regal Roberto, they respectively of the Maggie B.B. and Miss Obstinate [Nearco] branches of Family 4. First there are 4 Nearco and 2 Bull Dog crosses and the next dam is triple Sir Gallahad combining with the known equivalent to these brothers, Nogara, dam of Nearco.

There is a cross of sisters Delta Queen and Rarelea which leads to triple Blue Larkspur. There is a double Heliopolis and a triple Alibhai, and a Hyperion in Northern Dancer tallies 6. A cross of Traffic Court leads to tripling Discovery who has more of Domino's family than Domino himself. There is a double of Eight Thirty whose dam's sire, High Time is closely [3x3x2] tripled to Domino.

Now comes Maria's Mon to advance causes twofold - Caro as a dam's sire and linebreeding in general. Here was a modestly bred champion at two who stood for a modest fee primarily because his sire, Wavering Monarch, is not fashionable - tsk tsk!

Maria's Mon brings the following strains in common with Regal Band: 3 Nearco, 2 Alibhai, 1 each Eight Thirty, Bull Dog, and Ribot. Other strangers are Nervesa, daughter of Nogara and the Relic/Blue Larkspur lash-up. A double Menow adds Pharamond and Sickle to the damage done by Selene via the Hyperion buildup. Menow is heavily laden with Domino in his dam, and a double War Admiral gives Pink Domino. Double La Trioenne gives female Teddy and more Domino by definition - every sire ever bred to her was tail male to Domino except Bubbling Over, whose dam was tripled to Domino and carries his five-eighths sister, Lady Reel. Additional Teddy from brothers Bull Dog / Sir Gallahad bodes well with Teddy's equivalent, Gainsborough.

There are several compelling future crosses for Monarchos - he screams for Striking and Busher [War Admiral/Baby League / Bubbling Over] for obvious reasons from above, plus Discovery has Bridget, Bubbling Over has Editha and La Trioenne has Melton - all full siblings. Also, the second dam of this new star is a full sister in blood to Dynaformer - check it out.

It does little good to go through a littany of linebreeding crosses if we cannot learn how to exploit the newly gained knowledge in the future. Suppose the next few sentences were a methodology to accomplish the pedigree of Monarchos [they are]. Why not heed what follows in your very next mating?

List the dominant, quality, prepotent ancestors in your mare by sex. Be especially attuned to full siblings. Now go shopping in your databases and sales catalogs and stallion registers and brains for a stud that has the same ancestors on the list you compiled for your mare. Try to get these ancestors through opposite sex strains [Bull Dog and La Troienne are opposite sex strains of Teddy]. Try to arrange to have the common ancestor crossed in the same generation in the offspring of the mating. Chose a sire that has a brother or sister to an ancestor in your mare. Chose a sire that brings in an ancestor that only appears just once in the mare. Chose a sire who brings in ancestors for the very first time. Chose a sire that reinforces the family you mare comes from - double your score if sire and dam are equidistant in tail female to the same mare, especially if it involves sisters.

Just for kicks, go get the pedigree of Regal Roberto and make the shopping list out for her. Check the methodology out regarding the selection of Dixieland Band for Regal Roberto. As you look at the reasons enumerated above for selecting a sire, study what that reason causes to happen the the projected foal's pedigree. Repeat the process for Regal Band and Maria's Mon. Seems to work - right?

Kind of makes you think maybe the breeder knew this way back when. It is not news - linebreeding produces horses like this via matings done on purpose at direct expense of random chance. You can do it and you can use the same procedure to profile a mare and plan her mating before her purchase. This procedure will identify a suitable sire for most mares. Why own the other kind of mares?