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We were interested to note the victory of Apapane in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies (gr. I), the most important contest for two-year-old females in Japan. The race has been won in recent years by such stars as Buena Vista and Vodka, and Apapane was scoring for the third straight time in four starts.

Apapane (TrueNicks rated A++) is by Kingmambo (TrueNicks,SRO) ’s son, King Kamehameha, out of a Salty Bid, a Japanese black-type placed daughter of Salt Lake (TrueNicks,SRO). We can also note that another son of Kingmambo, Lemon Drop Kid (TrueNicks,SRO) , has sired graded scorer Sweet Hope and Hello Maggie May out of mares by Salt Lake, as well as the stakes winners Lemon Drop Mom and Lemonlime out of mares by Salt Lake’s sire, Deputy Minister. What’s interesting is that Kingmambo himself had 13 foals, and ten starters out of Deputy Minister mares, without a single stakes horse, and also never sired a stakes winner out of a mare by any of Deputy Minister’s sons. There are times that crosses that might seem promising from a pedigree standpoint, sometimes work better (perhaps because of biomechanics, or aptitude) a generation further on. In this case, perhaps Kingmambo, a horse who is predominantly a turf influence, was suited by Northern Dancer line mares in general, but less so by Deputy Minister, whose influence has tended towards dirt. This didn’t apply to Lemon Drop Kid who is one of his sire’s most notable dirt runners, and who is out of a three-parts-sister to A.P. Indy, a horse who combines very well with Deputy Minister.

Funnily enough, Deputy Minister appears in another similar example with a Mr. Prospector son. Gone West, one of Mr. Prospector’s most successful sons, had 18 foals and 11 starters out of Deputy Minister line mares, but no stakes winners. However, the Gone West sons Elusive Quality (TrueNicks,SRO) , Grand Slam (TrueNicks,SRO) , Mr. Greeley (TrueNicks,SRO) and Speightstown (TrueNicks,SRO) have all sired multiple stakes winners out of Deputy Minister line mares.

Gone West reminds us of another combination that “got good when it got back.” This is Bold Ruler and Tom Fool. On pedigree it looked well worth a try, but in reality, and most notoriously – with Tom Fool’s great son, Buckpasser, over Bold Ruler mares – it was very disappointing close up in pedigrees (the combination yielded a lot of unsound and arthritic knees, possibly because of the linebreeding it created to the brilliant, but unsound, Pompey, and his sister Laughing Queen). Gone West’s dam, Secrettame, was a Bold Ruler/Tom Fool cross, and additions of those strains, particularly in tandem proved excellent for him, so the pedigree potential of the cross is being born out, albeit several generations later.
 

Filed under: Broodmare Sire Lines, Sire Lines, Pedigrees and Breeding, Recent Winners, Mares, Emerging Nicks, Pedigree Elements, Asian Racing