Rainman

Rainman

by Anne Meredith and Earl Feck ©

They don't have to be expensive to be good

Rainman is a good example of how moderate racehorses can produce progeny better than themselves providing that the mating is compatible from a linebreeding point of view. Rainman is a listed race winner who won four races in a row as a two-year-old this season, and with two placings earlier plus two recent fourths, he looks a good prospect for the early Guineas races in the new season. However his parents are cheap, uncommercial animals whose progeny would not attract a lot of interest in most sales.

Rainbow Myth, Rainman's sire, stands for $1000 (equivalent to approximately US $450). He won nine races in six seasons of racing, with his best win being in the QTC St Leger, an unlisted Australian race over 2900m. Rainbow Myth was consistent and durable, but no champion. At stud he has left nine winners from 41 foals of racing age representing five foal crops, and is not in great demand. His family is quite ordinary, the best performer in recent times being Oak Vue, winner of the New Zealand Cup (G2), a handicap over 3200m.

Cache of Gold, sire of Rainbow Myth, won only one race, but was quite well-related. He is a brother to the dam of Louisiana Derby (G2) winner Mighty, and his fourth dam Douve won the French Oaks (G1). Like many of the Mr Prospector sireline stallions that have come to New Zealand, Cache of Gold was primarily a sire of slow maturing stayers who performed well on rain-affected tracks. He left five black-type winners, the best of which won staying handicaps up to Group Two level.

Rainman's dam Nancora cost a mere $400, but has turned into a reasonable broodmare. She won five races herself, and has now left five winners, including two listed winners, Rainman and the mare Our Aspiration, a recent winner of a listed race. The granddam Glencora was a winner and left the stakes-placed Matthew Ryan, a fast and hardy gelding who won eleven races including four as a two-year-old. The best performer in the last four or five generations of Rainman's family is Weston Lea, a top class three-year-old and potential champion who tragically died young.

So how could a $1000 staying-bred and performed stallion leave a black-type multiple winning two-year-old when mated to a $400 mare? The pedigree which produced Rainman shows a clear pattern to one of the strongest and more common aspects of Mr Prospector's pedigree, the stallion Orion and his sisters Ornis and Isis, by Bend Or from Shotover, of family 13. This, combined with other strong linebreeding, gives Rainman a good deal of potential as a racehorse. This article will concentrate on the linebreeding to Orion and his sisters.

Mr Prospector, being the start of this pattern, has to be considered first. He descends from Ornis in direct line, and his second dam Sequence is linebred 6 x 6 to Orion and Ornis, with the line of Orion coming through Count Fleet's grandsire Sunreigh. Sun Briar, Sunreigh's brother, is found in Pompey, on the damline of Polynesian, giving Mr Prospector two strains of Orion.

Cache of Gold has more of these lines, being 4 x 5 to daughters of Count Fleet. He also has Never Bend, whose damsire Djeddah is 3 x 2 to the sisters Durban and Heldifann. Their third dam is Ornis. Rainbow Myth is 8 x 6 to Pompey, bringing in another strain of Orion. Rainman is 4 x 3 to Never Bend, so that for Rainman the female elements of this pattern were multiplied, which must have contributed to him showing ability as a two year old.

The other factor in his ability to perform early must be the influence of the damsires on his female line. Namnan and Wandering Eyes were both noted as sires of two year olds, Arctic Explorer and Just Whistle left fast runners, and Resurgent was a top sire of two- and three-year-olds.

The combination of compatible linebreeding and some speed in the damline has created Rainman, a useful winner who is already better performed than either of his parents. The overall linebreeding in his pedigree is very good and suggests that he could have the potential to win more and better races. It will be interesting to see how he performs in the new season, which started in New Zealand on 1st August.