Okay, so the highest price at Fasig-Tipton last week was paid for a mare by Frankel (GB), followed by the girls of Justify and his mother Ghost Zapper. But then, with $3.6 million, came a Flintshire (GB) daughter, Surge Capacity, while her own dam, Strong Incentive, earned $2.75 million, although she was also rejected by Kentucky in Warrior’s Reward. Other seven-figure sales included mares by Speightster, Frac Daddy and Marking, while the first such transactions at Keeneland the following day involved daughters of Mastery and Bird Song.

It’s the same thing every year. Seven-figure mares at Keeneland last time included daughters of Big Brown, Afleet Alex, Pastorius (Ger), First samurai and (again) mastery. I would commend any highly paid advisor, invited to initiate a breeding program, who dares to recommend the use of such sires.

These mares increased their value by revealing a genetic feature – whether through performance or production – that allowed investors to please their old-fashioned sires, who typically worked during a brief window of opportunity in their early books. The blue chickens have certainly come out of the darkness. Families evolve. Some go up, some go down, most do a little of both. But between blue collars and blue bloods, one way or another the bull needs his herd.

It was certainly striking last weekend to see how a series of graded stakes scorers were descended from iconic mares.

Fourth dam of GII Red Smith Stakes winner Integration (Quality route) is Chic Shirine. Winner of the GIII Hill Prince Stakes Determinist (Liam’s Card) dates back to Courtly Dee as fifth mother. GIII Long Island Stakes scorer Be your best (Ire) (Muhaarar {GB}) is from a great-granddaughter of Up the Flagpole. Lady Be Good is the sixth dam of GIII Bessarabian Stakes winner Stormcast (Mitolus). And if you go back far enough, you’ll even find the winner of the GII River City Stakes. Battle of Normandy (City of Light) ultimately leads you to Busher.

What does all this prove? Not much, perhaps. The influence of these matriarchs is surely too muted to explain the sporting prowess here and now. But it would be less controversial to suggest that the entire culture they represent, of patient conservation, ensured a depth of genetic soil that conjured up these blooms as only the latest among many.

The breeding of these families was almost invariably the work of owner-breeders, who selected the matings with the odd aim of producing a fast horse, not just a fast male. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that four of those five horses won on turf and the other on synthetic, an environment that we know is favored by many commercial breeders today.

Of course, old-school diligence (and resources!) won’t always pay off, and many good horses, just as obviously, emerge from commercially improvised pages. Perhaps it simply comes down to what gives us the most confidence, as individuals, to judge how best to build on the work of our predecessors.

For example, the three dams that separate Integration from Chic Shirine are from Scat Daddy, Sky Mesa and that excellent distaff influence, Lyphard. The first two are both descended from sires dating back to Claiborne’s matriarch, Narrate, the third mother of Johannesburg, grandmother of Pulpit. I couldn’t pretend to know exactly how this might have helped Harmonize, Integration’s dam, become a Grade 1 winner and now replicate that talent in her son; nor could I say what the same couple – Pulpit, as the father of the second mother; Johannesburg, as grandfather, together contributed to Justify.

But I find comfort whenever the breadth of quality counteracts the unpredictable distribution of genetic influence. Vision Sky Mesa behind a mare, for example, would always reassure me. His extremely strong production, born from limited opportunities, is rooted in the elemental combination of a superbly raised father and a superbly raised mother (dating back to Busanda).

The same elementary formula (genetic gold x genetic gold) produced Mine shaftwho plays a similar role in the Battle of Normandy pedigree, as the sire of the second dam. He was by AP Indy and Prospectors Delite, herself by Mr. Prospector and Up the Flagpole – and this mixture, in this case, is strongly found in the grandmother of Be Your Best, who was by AP Indy and Up the Flagpole’s. Nureyev’s daughter, Flagbird.

Obviously, all of these winners also owe a lot to their fathers and the way their genes complement their mother’s family. But we must never forget that the market’s obsession with stallions is often above all a question of convenience. Modern book formats, in particular, provide a usefully readable statistical overview. But what opens the door, very often, is family.

Never too much of a good thing

If you want to take this saturation of quality further, there is no technique more blatant than inbreeding – something notable in another of the winners mentioned above.

Stormcast is out of an American Quiet mare, which will always guarantee some flavors. Famously, not only are Quiet American himself and his sire Fappiano both out of Dr. Fager mares, but those mares themselves are both out of a daughter of Cequillo (Princequillo).

In Stormcast’s case, however, the second mother, Millie’s Delight, also doubles down on Buckpasser. His father El Gran Senor is out of Sex Appeal, a daughter of Buckpasser from the famous Best In Show, while his mother Defer (Damascus) is out of I Pass, who was out of Buckpasser and Impish (herself a daughter of Lady Be Good and Majestic Prince).

However, in recent days, perhaps no pedigree has been more concentrated than that of Paris Lily (City of Light), a Godolphin student who beat his maiden at Churchill last Friday. We’ve known about Secretariat’s distaff print for a long time, but he tramples this filly all over the place. His first two dams are from sires of Secretariat mares (Storm Cat and Lion Cavern); the same goes for City of Lightmother Dehere’s father; while his great-grandfather is Lion Cavern’s brother, Gone West, and his grandmother is Secretariat’s half-brother, Somethingfabulous.

Battle of Normandy | Coady Media

Paris Lily has also contributed to a healthy journey for City of Lightwho had taken a while to consolidate his breakout champion Fierceness. The latter could hardly have done more, in defeat, than during the Breeders’ Cup. The aforementioned Battle of Normandy is their father’s sixth stakes winner. Illuminare resumed his progress with a 98 Beyer in an optional allowance at Aqueduct and another sophomore, the $750,000 juvenile Benedetta, continued to regroup in a similar sprint at Churchill.

City of Light found itself in a hot spell and cannot yet match the cumulative stake ratios of several peers. But his fee was adjusted accordingly, even as he took a step forward in each of his three years with the riders, giving his stock a profile consistent with his own, like one that thrives with maturity.

A fertile field

The point made above, about the long-term percolation of retained quality, is also borne out by GIII Maple Leaf Stakes winner Elysian Field – a timely illustration, at breeding stock sales, of how breeders sharing the same principles can exploit everyone’s work.

His grandmother Initiation (Deputy Minister), sold as a yearling to the Augustin stable, represented six generations of stewardship from Peter Blum to his founding mare Mono. (Blum had actually sold Initiation’s mother, but later repented and bought her back).

Despite winning stakes during a light career, Initiation was later selected at St Simon Place (confirming his extraordinary flair for bargains) for just $9,000 at the November 2020 sale. She had 15 years old and revealed herself to be a modest producer. However, that same spring, her half-sister Treasure gave birth to a Quality route colt who would eventually become GI Preakness and winner of the GI Met Mile National Treasure.

National Treasure | Sarah Andrew

Meanwhile, Initiation’s daughter by Smart Strike, Elysian, had been sold to Anderson Farms after winning three times in the Strawbridge silks, for $100,000 at Keeneland in January 2018. She was sent to Hard spunand Elysian Field is the result.

Although she didn’t earn more than $50,000 as a yearling, with her mother leaving soon after, Elysian Field won last year’s Woodbine Oaks (also runner-up in the King’s Plate) and her breakthrough in graduated bids allowed Zilli to buy Fasig-Tipton Digital last October. of his mother, carrying a brother or sister, represents a formidable sum at $55,000.

“Strike” is the key word, Hard spun having recently been on a roll with the Smart Strike mares. Saturday’s runner-up, Millie Girl, herself represents the same crossover. The same goes for Sparkle Blue, winner of the GII Hillsborough Stakes; likewise, sophomore scorers Give It a Whirl and Good Lord Lorrie.

Hard spun clicked with lots of different influences and I’ll leave to others all the excitement that three of his four sons (Two Phil the exception) contesting possible succession in Kentucky are also from mares whose sires date back to Mr. Prospector.

It always perplexes me that the same people who “mark” entire sire lines scoff at the idea that the class could be concentrated under equally backward mares. They may consider it ancient history that Blum bought Mono 50 years ago because she was out of a sister to Assault, but they can’t really have it both ways.

Because of the precious link Hard spun supplies Danzig, and a Smart Strike mare doing the same with Mr. Prospector, there is no doubt that Elysian Field will be acclaimed as “Northern Dancer over Mr. Prospector.” But who could reasonably say the same about Occult (Into Mischief), the GIII Monmouth Oaks winner who took her third Grade I podium last month while runner-up in the Spinster Stakes?

Everyone has their own thing. But I’m rather more interested in the fact that Occult’s fifth dam was Mono, and that Blum and his team expertly developed the line until it was sold as a yearling for $625,000, than in finding Northern Dancer five generations behind Into Mischief and Mr. Prospector three behind. Creator of Empire.