Saarland

Saarland: More of the Same

by Les Brinsfield ©

Saarland won the Remsen at nine panels and established himself a classic hopeful for 2002.

Coincidentally, some friends and I just did some work on what makes Danzig work and found War Admiral in about half his quality offspring. This is not hard to believe as Danzig is blessed with War Admiral as damsire of Crafty Admiral. War Admiral is out of Brushup by Sweep and Sweep is out of Pink Domino by Domino. Crafty Admiral is tail female to Pink Domino giving a double to this grand mare in the dam of Crafty Admiral. Worse yet, Northern Dancer, sire of Danzig, is from Natalma by Native Dancer whose second dam is double Pink Domino.

The short version is this. Danzig is quadrupled to the dam of Sweep, he the damsire of War Admiral who is a common denominator in half of Danzig's quality offspring. So from Algebra I comes the formula A+B=3X where A is Native Dancer and B is War Admiral and X is Pink Domino.

Danzig promptly got Versailles Treaty, 4 time Grade I winner and earner of nearly $1.3 million and dam of Saarland, from Ten Cents A Dance, a mare with the A+B formula giving seven lines of Pink Domino, remembering the extra one in Crafty Admiral. Now comes Unbridled whose sire Fappiano is an A+B formula horse and whose third dam is double War Admiral summing to five lines Pink Domino. So from Danzig to Ten Cents A Dance to Versailles Treaty to Unbridled to Saarland, the path is cluttered with a steady accumulation of Pink Domino from Native Dancer, who lost once, and War Admiral, who was a Triple Crown winner and damsire supreme.

This game is hard enough without the folly of missing the obvious crosses that work, so why fight the feeling? Saarland is double Buckpasser and triple Native Dancer by a sire (Unbridled) double to Aspidistra by Better Self and Rough'n Tumble. Better Self and Buckpasser feature La Troienne and War Admiral with the latter showing up five times, four with La Toienne. These five Pink Domino along with two from each of the three Native Dancer give 11 from just these two sources. [There are three more in addition to the extra on in Crafty Admiral].

Rough'n Tumble is doubled to Whisk Broom and gets this back from the tripled Native Dancer with a spare from the dam of Mr. Prospector. Saarland gets plenty of support for Pink Domino.

Saarland is tail female to Panoply by Peter Pan and that son of Belmont winner Commando is present 22 more times. Panoply also carries the only other son of Domino, Disguise - he the damsire of John P. Grier, sire of Miyako, second dam of Native Dancer.

It's early yet, but an exacta box on this guy and Johannesburg would do in the Derby.