The Devil Went Down To Florida

re: The Devil Went Down To Florida

Alan Porter — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 18:23:41 GMT

Hi Dave,

There certainly are plenty of good horses with no inbreeding at 4 x 4, less with none at 5 x 5: Secretariat who had duplications at 6 x 5 and 6 x 6 is about as out-crossed a good horse as I've come across.

Obviously it's possible to breed good horses on outcross matings. For success they tend to rely on deeper linebreeding - an accumulation of related strains further back in the pedigree. This can be hard to track down, and successful nicks are sometimes a shorthand to this.

I'd have to say, though that the reliance on deeper patterns to pay off is a bit more hit and miss.

Obviously you can't - generally - just continue to inbreed to the same strains generation after generation, but inbreeding to a specific strain, say Mr. Prospector, and inbreeding a horse who has double Mr. Prospector to a different individual, isn't a technique that is likely to cause harm to the breed as a whole.

re: The Devil Went Down To Florida

dave york — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 10:56:06 GMT

alan,

It is clear that you have completed a great deal of study and i enjoy reading and evaluating your ratings and supporting reasons. I support your findings and believe they are accurate. However i also believe that this continual inbreeding will in the long run have a negative effect on the thoroughbred population. I wish you would spend more time in evaluating the attributes of breeding where there is no cross at 5 X 5 or closer. Thanks.

re: The Devil Went Down To Florida

Dan — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:07:02 GMT

Check out the feature on Malibu Moon over at Zipse at the Track. zipseatthetrack.blogspot.com/.../bella-luna.html