|
|
    
|
by Anne Meredith and Earl Feck © Sunline's family and close linebreeding The champion mare Sunline is currently rated the best horse in Australia and New Zealand. She has won two Cox Plates (G1), many other group races in both countries, and has performed well in international events, including a game third in the Dubai Duty Free Stakes in Dubai in March. It is not obvious from Sunline's immediate ancestors where she could have inherited such exceptional ability. Her sire Desert Sun was an average racehorse, winning three times and placing at group level. With the exception of Sunline, his performance at stud is also average. His fillies can perform well in age group racing against their own sex, but have not won many open races. His colts have not raced well at all. So far, Sunline is his only Group 1 winner. Sunline's seventh dam Fortune's Wheel is a sister to the champion New Zealand racehorse Phar Lap. Since Phar Lap's time, this family has been a consistent source of winners and there are some good stakes-winning handicappers further back, but overall this family has nowhere near the same class as the families founded by mares such as Eight Carat or Fall Aspen. I believe that the difference between Sunline and the many other horses who are bred each year from similar quality parents is that her pedigree has some exceptionally good linebreeding. Good horses tend to have more linebreeding than average and Sunline is no exception. The quality of the linebreeding also makes a difference. Sunline has well-placed duplications in the fifth and sixth generations, and much of this linebreeding is through similarly bred individuals ("genetic equivalents"). In Sunline's pedigree the position, combinations and background similarities mean that most of her linebreeding contributes directly to her ability. The following is a list of Sunline's
closest and most important linebreeding: Northern Dancer
4 x 4 Like many other good horses, Sunline
also has pockets of strong linebreeding in both her parents.
The most important of these are: The background of most of Sunline's linebreeding is either Carbine or strong elements from his pedigree. This is a common pattern found in top racehorses, where closer linebreeding multiplies and emphasises linebreeding further back in the pedigree. In the second part of this article we will see how this pattern works in Sunline's pedigree. Part Two To summarise from Part One of this article, Sunline is the best horse from her family, and is the only major group winner sired by Desert Sun. Her linebreeding is exceptionally good with a common background of Carbine and elements from his pedigree, especially families 3 and 7. Carbine was born in New Zealand in 1885, by the champion sire Musket from the good English import The Mersey. He was a champion racehorse in New Zealand and Australia, racing 43 times for 33 wins and 9placings. He won two Sydney Cups, and the Melbourne Cup with the astonishing weight of 10st 5lbs. After four seasons at stud in Australia he was sold to England where he was crossed many times with mares carrying the line of champion sire St Simon. However he did much better with less fashionable mares that returned lines to balance his own duplications. His sired the Derby winner and very important stallion Spearmint (sire of Plucky Liege amongst others). Spearmint also sired a Derby winner, Spion Kop, who was in turn the sire of yet another Derby winner Felstead, who is very important in Sunline's pedigree. Carbine's own linebreeding is: The following paragraphs list the
lines of Carbine and his background that appear in Sunline's
pedigree through her own linebreeding. Pardal
and Tellaris are three-quarter brother and sister sharing
Pharis II and Adargatis. Crepuscule
and Mieux Rouge are sisters by Mieuxce - Red Sunset;
they have Ajax 4 x 5, whose sire Flying Fox has Maria as
his sixth dam. They also have St Frusquin 5 x 5, whose dam
is 4 x 4 to Mowerina & Jennala. Mah
Iran and Dastur are reverse Gainsborough / Friar's Daughter
crosses Princequillo is doubled in Sunline
and has Marco 6 x 5, and Marco's sire Barcaldine 6,6,7 x
6. Other important lines, which emphasise
the build-up of family 3 in Sunline's pedigree are: One of the most interesting aspects of analysing a pedigree using linebreeding methods is that, having identified what appears to be the strongest linebreeding, it is usually possible to look behind those duplications and identify the lines that they have in common. We have already looked at Sunline's own closest linebreeding and found that most of her linebreeding has duplications of Carbine and the lines of families 3 and 7 that can be found in his pedigree. So the next question is: What do Brown Bess & Mowerina / Euclid (the source of Emma and Maria) have in common? First, there are many combinations of Waxy with Penelope and Prunella. There are a lot more lines of family 7 through Beningbrough and Buzzard. Finally, family 3 descends from a mare by Honywood's Arabian. Family 7 descends from a mare by Young True Blue, a brother to the unnamed mare by Honywood's Arabian. Since the records don't go back any further, this is where we will stop, in the very early days of the formation of the Thoroughbred. Copyright Anne Meredith and Earl Feck 2001. |
