TrueNicks : Sire Lines

Q&A - Why Does It Mean When a TrueNicks Rating is a 'No Rating'?

aporter — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:16:00 GMT

A TrueNicks user asks for clarification of the 'no rating'....(read more)

The Ramsey's Joy

aporter — 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

aporter — 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

aporter — 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)

Q&A - What are the Differences Between TrueNicks & Other Nicking Systems? What's More Important, a 'Good' Dosage Profile or a Good Nick Rating?

aporter — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:26:00 GMT

Dawn asks : I am somewhat new to this and really need some help. have a mare named Buy You A Bear (Bayou Hebert x Sheckyrilla - Shecky Greene) that I am contemplating breeding to Borrego ( TrueNicks , SRO ) or Leroidesanimaux (BRZ) ( TrueNicks , SRO ) . These are my questions: 1) Based on TrueNicks, she nicks better with 'Leroi' than Borrego, but her Dosage is better with Borrego and she has more stakes...(read more)

Sadler's Wells/Mill Reef Running Wild

aporter — 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

aporter — 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

aporter — 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)

Cherokee Run and Rahy -- A Blushing Groom Nick

aporter — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:12:00 GMT

While the cross of Blushing Groom (FR) stallions over daughters from the same line is debatable, there's no question that his son Rahy is emerging as a true damsire of sires....(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.

Three Cool Cats

admin — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:06:00 GMT

There is no doubt about who is the early sensation amongst European freshman sires. One Cool Cat has already sired 10 individual winners, but more importantly, has three individual black type winners. His daughter Knavesmire captured the Hilary Needler Trophy at Redcar. Then the colt Icesolator captured the National Stakes at Sandown Park. Finally, at the weekend, the Premio Alberto Giubilo, in Rome, was captured by another colt, Diglett.

What is particularly interesting is that the pedigrees of Knavesmire and Icesolator (who are both rated A++ by TrueNicks) are remarkably similar. Knavesmire's dam, Caribbean Escape, is by Pivotal, a grandson of Nureyev, out of a mare by Junius (by Raja Baba).

Icesolator is out of Zinnia, a daughter of Zilzal (by Nureyev) out Ibtihaj, a Raja Baba half-sister to Danzig.

We can note that this means both mares are a product of a Northern Dancer/Bold Ruler cross, as is One Cool Cat's sire, Storm Cat. Diglett, One Cool Cat's third stakes winner, is out of a mare by Cadeaux Genereux. This gives something of an outcross pedigree - the only two stakes winners on the cross are Diglett and his three-parts-brother Black Mazambo, a son of Statue of Liberty, who won last year's Premio Alberto Giubilo - but Diglett's third dam is by The Minstrel, a close genetic relative to Storm Bird, the grandsire of One Cool Cat.

Perhaps one shouldn't be terribly surprised at this level of early success for the sire. One Cool Cat himself won three group races at 2, including the National and Phoenix Stakes (both gr. I), and was rated champion 3-year-old sprinter in Europe the following year.

Success Rate

admin — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:06:00 GMT

One stallion that has been on the move, both physically and in terms of his stud fee, is Exchange Rate (TrueNicks, SRO). The son of Danzig - Sterling Pound (by Seeking the Gold) retired to Padua Stables in Ocala, Fla., where he stood for as little as $7,500. However, after a flying start, the gray has earned a move to Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky., where he was advertised as standing for $25,000 in the most recent season.

For a relatively inexpensive sire, Exchange Rate made a sensational start with his first crop, which was headed by grade I winners Ermine and Swap Fliparoo. He was represented by five more stakes winners in his second crop, including the multiple graded stakes-winning colt, Xchanger. From his third crop, he sired Rated Fiesty, who defeated colts in the Kentucky Breeders' Cup Stakes (gr. III), took the Debutante Stakes (gr. III), and was shaping as one of the best juveniles fillies of the crop until sidelined by injury, and the multiple stakes-winning and graded stakes-placed Zee Zee.

This year, Exchange Rate already has a very smart 2-year-old in Southern Exchange, who took his record to two-for-two with a 4 3/4-lengths win in the Victoria Stakes at Woodbine. Southern Exchange is rated A+ by TrueNicks on the basis of the Exchange Rate/Mr. Prospector cross, which has already produced four stakes winners. His pedigree, however, is particularly interesting: Exchange Rate is out of a mare by Seeking the Gold, who in turn was by Mr. Prospector out of a mare by Buckpasser. Southern Exchange's dam, Miss Madeleine, is out of a mare by Woodman, who is also by Mr. Prospector out of a Buckpasser mare, so Southern Exchange has three-quarters relatives 3 x 2. We should also note that Exchange Rate has also sired graded-placed Bereba out of a mare by Miswaki, another Mr. Prospector/Buckpasser cross.

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

admin — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:06:00 GMT

Vision d'Etat retained his unbeaten record with a head victory in the Prix du Jockey-Club - French Derby (gr. I). Vision d'Etat has a pedigree that is obscure by almost any standard. Chichicastenango - the sire of Vision d'Etat - was one of only two stakes winners for his sire, Smadoun. A son of Kaldoun (by Caro), Smadoun started 63 times over five years, and was a prolific scorer in provincial black type company, winning nine stakes events. He tackled group company on only three occasions, his best effort being a third in the Prix Andre Baboin (gr. III). In Chichicastenango, Smadoun succeeded in outsiring himself. Winner of the Prix Thomas Bryon (gr. III) on his last start at 2, Chichicastenango took the Prix Lupin (gr. I) and Grand Prix de Paris (gr. I), and finished second in the Prix du Jockey-Club (gr. I) at 3.

As far as his sire career is concerned, Chichicastenango is throwing more to his race record than his pedigree (although we can note that his dam is line-bred to Sir Gaylord and his full sister, Swansea, who appears as Chichicastenango's sixth dam). Vision d'Etat is a member of Chichicastenango's second crop, and his first crop included group winners Chinandega and Chichi Creasy. None of Vision D'Etat's first three dams produced a stakes winner, but there is some classic blood in the fourth dam, Folie Douce. She bred French champion 3-year-old filly Mi Carina; stakes winner and English Oaks runner-up Mother Goose; and the Gazelle and Ladies Handicap heroine Sweet Folie. Another daughter of Folie Douce, Peroxide Blonde, bred champion 3-year-old and Belmont Stakes winner Stage Door Johnny.

Vision d'Etat is rated A++ by TrueNicks. He is one of only three starters by Chichicastenango out of mares by Garde Royale, but one of the others is group winner Chichi Creasy, which leaves us to conclude that two (stakes winners) out of three (starters) ain't bad.