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More than one shrewd commentator has noted that through the centuries, sire lines have frequently been advanced through individuals from certain powerful female lines, frequently through inbreeding to them. The phenomenon goes right back to the late 1600s and the famed Spanker Mare. Her son, Jigg, was by The Byerley Turk, and is one of the links that extended that founding father’s male line to Herod, whose male line is most notably represented in the Northern Hemisphere by descendents of Ahonoora and Indian Ridge; she is the third dam of Bartlett’s Chiilders, who was by the Darley Arabian, and through his great-granson Eclipse, is male-line ancestor of probably way more than 90% of modern thoroughbreds; and fourth dam of Cade, a son of The Godolphin Arabian, who sired Matchem (whose line principally survives through the In Reality branch of Man o’ War).
 
What brought this ancient history to mind was the impressive victory of Amen Hallelujah in the Davona Dale Stakes (gr. II), her second successive graded win, following a score in the Santa Ynez Stakes (gr. II). Amen Hallelujah is a daughter of Florida stalwart, Montbrook, and with thirds in the Hollywood Starlet Stakes (gr. I) and Alcibiades Stakes (gr. I) added to her graded wins, has strong claims to be regarded as Montbrook’s best daughter (he’s actually been a far better sire of colts, and only three of his previous 12 graded winners are fillies).
 
A good-looking sprint specialist, Montbrook, has been valiantly flying the flag for the Buckpasser sire line. His sire, Buckaroo, was a good example of inbreeding to a strong female line, in fact the strongest family in modern U.S. racing history, that of La Troienne. Buckpasser was out Busanda, a daughter of War Admiral, out of Businesslike, by Blue Larkspur out of La Troienne. Buckaroo’s broodmare sire, No Robbery, is out of Bimlette by Bimelech (a son of La Troienne), out of a mare by Blue Larkspur.
 
Amen Hallelujah is out of Sara’s Success, a stakes winning daughter of Concorde’s Tune (by Concorde Bound, a son of Super Concorde – French Champion Two-Year-Old son of Bold Reasoning, also sire of Seattle Slew). Concorde’s Tune has Never Bend (granddam a sister to Bimlette) in his sire, and in his dam has The Pruner (dam by Better Self – by Bimelech out of a War Admiral mare – out of a daughter of Bloodroot), and Francis S. (dam by War Admiral out of Big Event by Blue Larkspur – La Troienne). It’s all bit complicated to follow, but basically there are a slew of genetic relatives shared between Buckaroo and Concorde’s Tune, with La Troienne, Black Toney, Blue Larkspur and the Bloodroot family focused through a few similarly-bred individuals. It’s interesting to speculate whether Amen Hallelujah’s status as the best of her sire’s distaffers has anything to do with this build up of strong maternal lines. By the way, the most recent grade I winning Buckpasser line horse to retire to stud in Kentucky is Einstein (BRZ) (TrueNicks,SRO). He is by Spend A Buck, a Buckaroo son who goes back to Adargatis, a classic winning three-parts-sister to La Troienne.
 
As an odd footnote, on the same card as the Davona Dale, the Sabin Stakes (gr. III) for older fillies and mares, went to Aurora Lights, who is by Pulpit (TrueNicks,SRO) out of the Lord At War mare, Lady Lochinvar. A three-parts-sister to millionaire Master Command (TrueNicks,SRO) , is by a son of A.P. Indy (TrueNicks,SRO), a horse who has three crosses of La Troienne, through the sisters Busher and Striking and their three-parts-sister, Busanda. In tail female line, she goes back to La Troienne through Searching (her fourth dam), another three-parts-sister to the trio in A.P. Indy.