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The rush to judgement that we mentioned last time with regard to Ghostzapper (TrueNicks,SRO), along with the current economic climate has led to opportunities for some countries to purchase stallions that would have been well-beyond reach a year or two ago. One such example is Lion Heart, who was exported to Turkey for the 2010 breeding season. The son of Tale of the Cat (TrueNicks,SRO) had made a perfectably acceptable start with eight stakes winners in his first crop (four-year-olds of 2010), including graded winners Soul Warrior, Azul Leon, Heart Ashley, Silent Valor and Pretty Prolific, but with no one defining star, it wasn’t enough for him to retain his place alongside his sire at Ashford. His second crop had produced two stakes winners, neither graded, until yesterday when Line of David, put up a remarkably brave front-running effort in the Arkansas Derby (gr. I).
 
Out of the Capote mare, Emma’s Dilemma, Line of David (TrueNicks A++) has a very clever pedigree. His granddam, Kentucky Lil is by Raise a Native, out of Lillian Russell, a stakes winning half-sister to Mr. Prospector, so is three-parts-sister to that horse. Of course Mr. Prospector is broodmare sire of Tale of the Cat, the sire of Lion Hearted, so Line of Davide has Mr. Prospector/Kentucky Lil 4 x 2. That’s not the end of the story, however. Lion Heart now has two graded winners from just 11 starters out of mares by Seattle Slew and his sons, a considerable better strike-rate than his sire (one stakes winner from 42 starters on the formula). We think that there is a reason for this. His dam, Satin Sunrise, has the three-quarters relatives Mr. Leader and Bold Reason 1 x 3 in her pedigree. They are both by Hail to Reason out of mares by Djeddah. Djeddah was closely inbred to the Frizette family. Seattle Slew’s granddam is inbred to the Frizette family, and Capote has a third cross. Since Mr. Prospector also goes back to Frizette, Line of David’s pedigree is practically awash in that strain.
 
Before closing out this look at three-year-old weekend graded stakes winners, we’ll also mention the Comely Stakes (gr. III) victress, Touching Beauty, who has a very unusual pedigree. The fourteenth stakes winner, and sixth graded winner for her sire, Tapit (TrueNicks,SRO), Touching Beauty is out of the black-type winning Victory Road, who in turn is by the relatively little-known Seattle Slew horse, Ikari. Tapit, as a son of Pulpit (TrueNicks,SRO), by A.P. Indy (TrueNicks,SRO), is also a Seattle Slew line representative, and in general, the pattern of crossing a mare back to a horse from her own immediate male line tends to have a below par strike-rate. The A.P. Indy/Seattle Slew version of the Seattle Slew/Seattle Slew cross is no exception and Touching Beauty is only the third stakes winner and first graded winner, bred this way. However, when we look at the pedigree, we note that Pulpit is a Seattle Slew/Mr. Prospector (Raise a Native) cross, as is Tapit (the Mr. Prospector through Fappiano, the grandsire of his dam). Ikari is a parallel Seattle Slew/Raise a Native cross to both Pulpit and Tapit, and his dam, Clabber Girl, is by Alydar (son of Raise a Native, and bred on similar lines to Mr. Prospector), out of a half-sister to Fappiano (so Clabber Girl’s grandsire and granddam are the sire of dam of Fappiano, who is under Seattle Slew in the pedigree of Pulpit).

 

Filed under: Recent Winners, Mares, Sires, Pedigree Elements