by Ann Ferland ©

Mystic Lady has been one of the most consistent of the better three-year-old fillies this year. While she has not made an impact in grade one company, she has captured two grade two races - the Cotillion Handicap and the Fantasy Stakes - and three grade threess, including the Jersey Derby over colts. From 11 starts she has won six and been placed three other times. She runs well on turf and dirt and has won stakes races at six different racetracks, while placing in stakes at four others.

So what is the mystery about Mystic Lady? To me, it was what stimulated her family into the production of top-class animals after generations of so-so runners. One solution could be her sire, Thunder Gulch. The Kentucky Derby winner has made quite a splash this year with his son Point Given (the Belmont and Travers winner), and C.C.A. Oaks winner Tweedside, not to mention last year's Breeders' Cup Distaff champion Spain, who very nearly made it a double this year.

He certainly must deserve some credit for her ability, but not all of it; Mystic Lady's dam has produced two other black-type horses by another sire. Mystic Lady is inbred to Northern Dancer 4x3, the crosses coming through Thunder Gulch's dam's sire Storm Bird and her own dam's sire Compliance. Inbreeding to superior ancestors is one way to bring out the best qualities from (to put it delicately) dormant bloodlines.

But Mystic Lady's dam had two full brothers who were top-notch competitors and were not inbred to Northern Dancer, so this cannot give a full solution. Mystic Lady's dam was named Diane Suzanne and she was a professional racemare, running for five years and making 53 starts. She only won twice but with 16 in-the-money finishes she was able to earn over $133,000. Her two brothers were likewise professionals, running year after year, and both were millionaires - their names should be familiar to racing fans, particularly those in New York, for they were the Empire State-breds Fourstardave and Fourstars Allstar.

Fourstardave was the elder brother and, one would venture, the most beloved. He raced from age two to ten, always on the upper-tier New York tracks, always giving his best. Although five of his 13 stakes wins were in state-bred races, another five were graded races, including the defunct St. Paul Derby (G2), and two runnings each of the Poker Stakes (G3) and the Daryl's Joy Stakes (G3). He raced well on the dirt as a younger horse but as he grew older his home became the turf course.

At age six, he set a track record for 1 1/16 mile on the turf course at Saratoga of 1:38 4/5. And this was appropriate, for Saratoga was the track he was most associated with. For eight consecutive seasons he was able to win at least one race, a string that made him one of the most popular horses of recent times at the Spa. After 'Dave' failed to win a race at Saratoga as a 10-year-old, trainer Leo O'Brien decided to retire the gelding. The chestnut was permitted to parade on the track before the Spinaway Stakes in order to bid farewell to his many fans. The Daryl's Joy Stakes has since been renamed in honor of Fourstardave.

While Fourstars Allstar was not the fan favorite his brother was, he was arguably the more accomplished of the pair. After a juvenile career that saw him win two stakes races on the turf course, including the Pilgrim Stakes (G3), 'Allstar' was pointed towards a formidable task - a tilt at the Irish 2,000 Guineas in trainer O'Brien's homeland. And against all odds, 'Allstar' did it, defeating Star of Gdansk and Lycius to claim the Curragh classic. Back home in the States, the bay colt kept on racing until he was seven, achieving several grade two wins, including two runnings of the Bernard Baruch Handicap, and placing in grade ones, most notably third in the 1993 Breeders' Cup Mile (G1). His less-than-fashionable pedigree assured that Fourstars Allstar would not be sought after as a stallion prospect by the elite farms and he ended up going to stud in Ireland.

Broadway Joan, the dam of these talented brothers as well as Diane Suzanne, had two other foals by the sire of that trio, a New York sire named Compliance. These were Joan's Dancer, a winner of two of 31 starts, and Fourstar Brother, who won three of 28 races and earned over $120,000. Altogether, this group of five siblings ran 269 times for a total of 41 wins.

Obviously, Broadway Joan and Compliance had something good going on, something about the combination of their respective genes that clicked. Part of that good thing may have been Compliance's sire Northern Dancer. After her sons' heroics, humble Broadway Joan went to Ireland for trysts with the noble Sadler's Wells and the results of those unions include group two-placed winner Astor Place and grade two hurdle stakes winner Pittsburgh Phil, who is still racing.

Compliance himself was regally-bred, being a full brother to Irish Derby (G1) winner El Gran Senor and Dewhurst Stakes (G1) winner Try My Best, both of them sires of note. Moreover his dam Sex Appeal, by Buckpasser, was out of Best in Show, Broodmare of the Year in 1982 and ancestress of such stars as Spinning World, Chimes of Freedom, Blush with Pride, Yagli, and Redoute's Choice (in Australia). Compliance ran only three times without winning, but placed third in the Ballychorus Stakes (Listed) in Ireland at three. The Fourstar boys are his best offspring at stud.

And Broadway Joan? Well, she was a daughter of a horse called Bold Arian, whose only black-type was earned in races for New Jersey-breds. He won $117,117 and was victorious in the Cape May Handicap at the age of five. Bold Arian's sire, Noble Jay (by Double Jay - Noble Nurse by Count Fleet) won eight of 14 races including the Leonard Richards Stakes, Atlantic City Handicap and Kent Stakes and was a good, regional sire in the Mid-Atlantic area. The female line of Bold Arian, out of the mare Riverval by Riverwar, hadn't produced a stakes since 1927.

Broadway Joan's own female line was hardly much better. Her dam, Courtneys Doll, produced four foals in nine years at stud, which made a grand total of five starts among them for a record of two second places. Broadway Joan herself was unraced so we must reserve judgment about her racing talent.

It is somewhat astonishing that Courtneys Doll's foals showed so little on the track, for she herself won five of 52 starts in a career that encompassed five seasons of racing. Courtneys Doll's sire was a Nashua horse named Wakefield Tower, who made two starts before he was forced to leave the track, recording a second and a third. He had a half-brother (License Plate by Traffic Judge) who won stakes races in New England, while his second dam produced a Del Mar stakes winner (Lil's Nite Out by Traffic Judge's sire, Alibhai), so there was some class there.

That second dam was named Femme Noir and since she was by Unbreakable out of Black Queen, by Pompey, she was a three-quarter sister to the talented Polynesian (who was by Unbreakable and out of a daughter of Black Queen). So Wakefield Tower went to stud based on the potential of his pedigree rather than his own performance. Thus far, this is the only pedigree of note in which he appears.

Courtneys Doll was the best racehorse produced by her dam Rapport, five of whose six offspring did at least make it to the races, with four of them becoming winners. Like her daughter, Rapport raced for five seasons, winning six of 56 starts. With her, we finally come to a mare sired by a horse that was famous for his own sake and was not just a son of a famous horse. Her sire, Nirgal was a French-bred who won a slew of top races in his homeland and England, from two to six, including the Grand Criterium, Prix Ganay, and Hardwicke Stakes. At stud in this country, Nirgal sired the two-year-old champion Nail and 14 other stakes winners from 301 foals but had little lasting influence.

Wise Ally, the dam of Rapport, visited many famous sires, like Blue Larkspur and War Admiral so it is not surprising that sevenof her nine foals were winners and that one of them (Darby D-Day by Blue Larkspur) placed in several stakes races in California. But Rapport's most significant half-sibling was the one-time winner Golden Beach, by Djeddah, whose two daughters by Better Bee have been producers of note.

The elder, Kankakee Miss, is the dam of stakes winner and sire Clever Trick and second dam of several more stakes horses including the sire Alydeed. The younger, Bambee T. T., produced four stakes winners, including Canadian classic winner Bounding Away, Italian group one winner Petit Loup, and the sire Ascot Knight.

Wise Ally's sire was Wise Counsellor, a horse who is little known today but who was a star in his time. He was the outstanding two-year-old of his crop in the Midwest, winning such races as the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes and the Queen City Handicap. He met and bested subsequent Kentucky Derby winner Black Gold twice. He was not as good at three as he had been at two, but still managed to beat Epinard and other elite runners in the first International Special arranged for the visit of the French star, and he ran third in the second International Special.

Wise Counsellor had an old-fashioned pedigree, even in his own time, with no Domino, Ben Brush, Fair Play or any horse imported after the1870s. He belonged to the male line of Glencoe, tracing through Hanover and Hindoo, and was inbred to Leamington 4x4x4. Wise Counsellor's stud career has to be considered a success by any measure; from 266 foals, he got 94% starters, 79% winners from foals, and 29 stakes winners (11%), excellent figures in any era. Yet his name has nearly disappeared from contemporary bloodstock, surviving through a few mares like Wise Ally. He was a sprinter/miler on the track and got a lot of good juveniles and sprinters, just not the "big horse."

Wise Ally was out of the imported Son-in-Law mare, Belle Alliance, who likewise visited some of the top sires of her day with only middling results. All seven of her foals raced but only three of them won and one, the Supremus gelding Wise Ways, placed in stakes races.

Her dam was Amabel, by St. Amant out of Cretan Belle, by Piraeus, the latter a half-sister to Doncaster Cup winner Wavelet's Pride, the last stakes winner produced by the direct female line until Broadway Joan came along.

So what was there about the combination of Compliance with Broadway Joan that made it so potent? I alluded earlier to the possibility that the presence of Northern Dancer made a difference and it is worth noting that most of the stakes winners listed as descendents of Rapport's half-sister Golden Beach were also by stallions from the Northern Dancer male line. The one exception is Clever Trick, whose sire Icecapade was bred very like Northern Dancer - by Nearctic out of a Native Dancer mare. So perhaps it is these two stallions we should focus on as the important influences.

Interestingly enough, Bold Arian's damsire, the imported River War, was bred very like Nearctic, by Nearco out of a Hyperion mare. And we noted earlier that Wakefield Tower's second dam, Femme Noire, was closely related to Polynesian, sire of Native Dancer. This sort of inbreeding to closely related individuals rather than to one particular ancestor is promoted by some as a method for improving a bloodline.

Another unusual feature of this pedigree involves Courtneys Doll's sire and broodmare sire. The latter, Nirgal, was by Goya II, a son of Tourbillon, and had crosses of the top French runner and sire Sardanapale 3x3 in his pedigree. Sardanapale has been such a powerful source for stamina that Dr. Varola put him in the professional category of his aptitudes, so it is surprising that Nirgal was such a good juvenile and sire of juveniles. Meanwhile, Wakefield Tower's sire Nashua had the Sardanaple mare Sehkmet as his second dam, while his own fifth dam was by that same sire. Did these multiple crosses of this stamina sire give enough "stiffening" to the fast blood of Wise Counsellor and Double Jay to enable Broadway Joan to produce horses of class?

Bold Arian provided a surprise for this author when she looked at his pedigree out to five and six generations. Like most American-blooded horses of his vintage, he carries remote crosses of the great triumvirate of the early part of the 20th century - Domino, Ben Brush, and Fair Play. But unlike most of his contemporaries, he has more crosses of Ben Brush (7) than of Domino (5) (Fair Play is usually third in number). Did the balancing of these numbers resulting when Bold Arian met Courtneys Doll (who had a more typical count of 4 Domino to 2 Ben Brush) contribute to the improvement of the family's record? (Hey, I'm willing to entertain weird ideas - some of them may be right!)

Or maybe it was none of these. Maybe the unique individual Broadway Joan was just lucky to inherit enough good genes from all of her ancestors that fit the genes that Compliance brought from his talented parents to be able to produce the like of Fourstardave, Fourstars Allstar, and the dam of Mystic Lady. It's always possible.