TrueNicks : Recent Winners, Sire Lines

A Mega Nick for Discreet Cat

Alan Porter — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 18:20:00 GMT

In addition to a strong affinity with Mr. Prospector line mares in general, the son of Forestry has two graded winners from two starters out of Marquetry mares....(read more)

A Key Ancestor for Encosta de Lago

Byron Rogers — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:45:00 GMT

Encosta de Lago has established an impressive record with mares carrying strains of three-time Australian leading sire Bletchingly....(read more)

Monsun Season Underway in Europe

Alan Porter — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 20:20:00 GMT

Progeny of the late German stallion Monsun have been on a tear recently, with Maxios and Silasol winning group I races May 26....(read more)

A.P. Indy and Stallion Ratings

Byron Rogers — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:50:00 GMT

The A.P. Indy sire line is the premier sire line source of classic speed in the North American Thoroughbred....(read more)

Is Silverbulletday Skipping a Generation?

Alan Porter — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:30:00 GMT

Hall of Fame filly's daughters are turning into sterling producers....(read more)

Filly 'Same Cross' is Bred on the Right Cross

Ian Tapp — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 19:25:00 GMT

Cleverly-named filly is bred on same cross as champion Proud Spell....(read more)

Pedigree Time Machine: Brigadier Gerard

Alan Porter — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 20:00:00 GMT

The versatile champion is now seen as the benchmark of greatness for Frankel....(read more)

Da Doo Ron Ron

Alan Porter — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:15:00 GMT

In his first try at 10 furlongs, Full Mandate's son Ron the Greek captures the Big 'Cap....(read more)

Can Union Rags Stretch Out?

Alan Porter — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 20:00:00 GMT

The answer, as is so often the case with the modern North American Thoroughbred, is a definite "maybe."...(read more)

Saint Ballado Sire Line: So Near, So Far

Alan Porter — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:15:00 GMT

Ill-fated Saint Ballado sons sired grade I winners Havre de Grace and Weemissfrankie earlier this month....(read more)

Gallant in Defeat: Zenyatta & Seattle Slew

Ian Tapp — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 19:00:00 GMT

Slew's greatest performance came in defeat....(read more)

In Reality Line has Lock on 2YO Colt Division

Alan Porter 1 — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 20:00:00 GMT

Sons of Officer and Successful Appeal lead juvenile ranks....(read more)

Ice Box Avenges His Sire

Alan Porter 1 — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:36:00 GMT

Ice Box won last Saturday's Florida Derby (gr. I), a race that eluded his sire Pulpit in 1997....(read more)

Quality in Abundance

Alan Porter 1 — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:55:00 GMT

Elusive Quality's son Quality Road confirmed his brilliance in the Donn Handicap (gr. I) last weekend....(read more)

Halo Effect

Alan Porter 1 — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:57:00 GMT

Halo appears to be working well with both Prince John and Blushing Groom....(read more)

Not Your Father's Cross

Alan Porter 1 — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:10:00 GMT

Unlike their sires, sons of Kingmambo and Gone West are working well with Deputy Minister line mares....(read more)

The Ramsey's Joy

Alan Porter 1 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:17:00 GMT

Ramsey Farm has struck again with Kitten's Joy, America's leading first crop sire of stakes winners...(read more)

No Doubt

Alan Porter 1 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:37:00 GMT

It might seem hard to believe, but only a handful of years ago, Sadler's Wells' legacy as far as the extension of his male-line appeared to be in severe doubt....(read more)

The Aga Khan Stars Also Shine

Alan Porter 1 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:31:00 GMT

Horses bred or owned the Aga Khan swept seven French group events, five of them group I last weekend and they came all across the distance scale, with all manner of pedigree patterns....(read more)

Sadler's Wells/Mill Reef Running Wild

Alan Porter 1 — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:55:00 GMT

The cross of Sadler's Wells' sons over daughters of Mill Reef and his sons is an established nick -- and one that has met with multiple successes recently....(read more)

Runaways Run Away From the Field

Alan Porter 1 — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:59:00 GMT

The Runaway Groom branch of Blushing Groom had a very useful weekend....(read more)

Storm Cat-Line Stallions Dominate Weekend Action

Alan Porter 1 — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:13:00 GMT

If Sir Thomas More was the man for all seasons then Giant's Causeway (TrueNicks,SRO) is the sire for all-weather. His fellow Storm Cat-line sires also saw success over the weekend of racing....(read more)

It's a Danzig Affair

sgillies — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:16:00 GMT

It was quite a weekend for the Danzig. First of all, Danzig himself was represented by 200th stakes winner when Olympic captured the Mataji Stakes at Calder. And a review of stakes activity around the world shows that an awful lot of Danzig-line horses were keen to get in on the act, with no less than 15 other Danzig-line horses winning black type events. Five of these took group or grade I events...(read more)

Quick Step

admin — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:06:00 GMT

It's no secret that Seattle Slew and Mr. Prospector have been combining well in pedigrees for a considerable amount of time (and probably no coincidence that both go tail-female to the Myrtlewood branch of the family of the great tap-root mare Frizette, who is incidentally doubled in Seattle Slew's granddam).

One of the most successful versions of the combination has been Seattle Slew-line stallions crossed over Seeking the Gold and vice versa. This has the added virtue of linebreeding to another great mare, La Troienne, as Seeking the Gold's dam is by Buckpasser (out of Busanda, who is by War Admiral out of a daughter of La Troienne) and Seattle Slew's dam is inbred to La Troienne through the sisters Busher and Striking, who are also three-parts-sister to Busanda.

The poster child for the Seattle Slew/Seeking the Gold cross has been the outstanding mare Surfside, although the cross did come up with another very good distaffer in Lu Ravi. Seeking the Gold himself has sired six stakes winners out of Seattle Slew mares, including grade I winners Cape Town and Seeking the Pearl. Seeking the Gold' son Petionville has also struck up a particularly beneficial affinity for Seattle Slew-line mares, and has no less than eight stakes winners on the cross, the most recent of which is the Affirmed Handicap (gr. III) winner Two Step Salsa. Commercial factors initially dictated that Petionville was generally covering mares by sons of Seattle Slew, rather than daughters of the stallion himself. That cross came up with five stakes winners including graded scorers True Passion, Voodoo, and Runway Model.

Two Step Salsa, who is rated A++ by TrueNicks, is one of three stakes winners by Seattle Slew himself. The winner of four of his five starts, he is particularly strong in the La Troienne strain, as he has three crosses of Buckpasser; two more La Troienne strains via Seattle Slew; and another two via the dam of Petionville.

Distorted Facts

admin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:06:00 GMT

As a grandson of Mr. Prospector, Distorted Humor (TrueNicks, SRO) has been given plenty of opportunity with Northern Dancer-line mares, even though he himself is out of a mare by Northern Dancer son Danzig. Some versions have proved better than others, but overall, the broad Distorted Humor/Northern Dancer cross gets a TrueNicks rating of C+ and it has produced 10 stakes winners, six of them graded.

What is particularly interesting, however, is the pedigrees of two of Distorted Humor's three grade I winners bred on the cross with Northern Dancer-line mares. One is Bit of Whimsy, and the other is Hystericalady, winner of the Fleur de Lis Handicap (gr. II) at the weekend.

Since Bit of Whimsy is out of U.S.-bred Kristi B., a daughter of El Prado (TrueNicks, SRO), and Hystericalady is out of the Chilean-bred Sacramentada, it might be thought that there would be little similarity between the pedigrees of these two grade I winners. However, a closer look reveals that El Prado is by Sadler's Wells (by Northern Dancer out of a mare by Bold Reason) and that Hystericalady's broodmare sire, Northair, is also by Northern Dancer out of a mare by Bold Reason, so Sadler's Wells and Northair are three-quarters related. Since these two are in the male line of the dams of two of the three grade I winners bred on the Distorted Humor/Northern Dancer cross, one might think that there is something significant in their shared background.

This becomes obvious when we look at the pedigree of Distorted Humor's dam, Danzig's Beauty: she is by a son of Northern Dancer, out of a mare by Mr. Leader. By Hail to Reason and out a mare by Djeddah, Mr. Leader is a three-quarters relative to Bold Reason, all of which means that Danzig's Beauty, Sadler's Wells and Northair are bred on very similar lines.