Sales: Year of the Siblings

Brothers & Sisters

.

The catalogue for the 2011 Emperor’s Palace National Yearling Sale contains a very large number of siblings to outstanding performers.

But the thing is, not all siblings are the same. Siblings fall into several categories. Full siblings have the same sire and dam. Three-part siblings have the same sire and grandam. Full siblings in blood have the same sire and the same set of maternal grand-parents.So what we’re looking at here is the successful interaction between a sire and a female family.Another category is that of half siblings, where the dam is the same, but the sire different. This is the power of the successful broodmare, capable of producing a string of outstanding runners from a multitude of sires. Some broodmares have this (and establish great female lines), while other mares fluke one good runner and no others.
Consider the mare who has more than one outstanding runner as potentially outstanding.

.

Full Siblings –You Can’t Go Better

One of South Africa’s prolific writers of decades ago is Sir Mordaunt Milner, a successful breeder to boot. In his book “Thoroughbred Breeding’ (published 1987), he writes a chapter about brothers and sisters.

.
Some quotes.
Full brothers and sisters do not receive the same genes, so they will not be exactly alike. They inherit genes from the same well, but nobody can foretell which genes the lucky dip will produce. Professor Robertson says that a mating which produced one of the great celebrities of the turf is unlikely to give even an approximate result when repeated. That may be, but what is important to know is whether a dip in the same well is likely to be luckier than one into fresh waters.’
.
The same chapter quotes some research.
I looked up, in eight volumes of the South African Studbook, mares who had bred horses to finish in the first three of the country’s four biggest races. There were 139 of these good horses who had brothers, either full or half.

Of the 139 there were 63 who had full brothers, in all 101 full brothers, of which 22 were topclass. I do not mean good horses who more than paid their way, but really topclass runners. In addition there were 306 half brothers, of which 42 were topclass. So that is 22% topclass full brothers, vs. 14% half brothers.’ ‘Another analysis was done in respect of of dams that had dropped two colts that could be termed topclass. There were 18 such mares. There were 31 full brothers, 18 of them topclass (58%), and 59 half brothers, 9 of them topclass (15%). With such good mares, the chance of breeding another good horse are above the norm, and when mated to the same stallion very high indeed – better than even money.’‘In addition to this there were five females placed in the big races considered.King’s Pact had two full brothers and a sister. Though not exceptional, all three were better than their five half brothers and sisters.Migraine had only one full brother, Ventral, and he was better than nine half brothers and sisters.Response had two full sisters who did not win. Her dam Reaction bred three other topclass horses – Nervous Tension, Hifrac, and Vivace (a very pre-potent mare).Diza had a full brother and seven half brothers. The best of these wre famous full brothers Muscovite and Arsenal.Ann’s Caprice had two full sisters, of which Annagonda was a topclass racemare and far better than five half brothers and sisters.’

‘It seems that the old adage to breed winners as winners have been bred rings true indeed, which means that a successful mating should be repeated. It is obvious that a buyer of a full brother of a good horse has a better chance of getting a fair return for money than the buyer of a half brother’.

Here are the yearlings who have outstanding full siblings:

67 Casey Tibbs full sister to Gr1 Champion 3yo colt Big City Life (MR 116)

139 Muhtafal full brother to Gr2 filly First Again (MR 104)

220 Silvano full brother to dual Gr1 classic winner Kings Gambit (116)

268 Jet Master full brother to Champion sprinter J J The Jet Plane (120)

388 Dynasty full brother to SA’s highest rated 3yo colt Run For It (MR 111 at time of writing)

399 Kahal full brother to Gr1 Gold Cup winning colt Desert Links (MR 105)

474 Silvino full brother to Gr1 winning colt Tyson (117)

.

Full Siblings in Blood – The Real Thing

When it works, it works.

Certainly it did in Australia this month, when Darley-bred colt Sepoy won the Gr1 Golden Slipper – the A$3.5 million 2yo race everyone ‘down under’ wants to win.

The youngster is one of two Southern hemisphere Gr1 winners for his sire, Darley’s shuttle stallion Elusive Quality. The other is a filly, Australian Gr1 winner Camarilla.

Now for the crunch: the dam of Sepoy (Watchful, a placed daughter of Danehill) and the dam of Camarilla (Gr1 winner Camarena) are full sisters. Which makes the two Gr1 winners full siblings ‘in blood’.

This nugget will be of relevance at our National Sales especially to James Armitage, who consigns a full sister in blood to Champion Bold Silvano, the pair being by Silvano out of full sisters Bold Saffron (a stakes placed winner) and Sarina (a winner), who both are by Al Mufti out of Saffron.

395, Silvano full sister in blood to Champion 3yo colt Bold Silvano (119)

.

3-part Siblings – Almost There

Somewhere between full and half siblings are the 3-part relatives.

They have the same sire and the same grandam, the latter represented by two daughters. Those daughters can be half sisters or 3-part sisters (in which case the resulting sibling is in-between half and 3-part – it does get complicated!). The key here is the perceived interaction of the sire with the grandam. The examples speak for themselves.

14 Western Winter 3-part brother to Gr1 filly Nania (MR 104), and close to Gr1 colt Set Afire (MR 109) , both by Western Winter

28 Fort Wood 3-part sister to Gr1 filly Urabamba (MR 102), who is by Fort Wood

62 Parade Leader 3-part brother to Gr2 colt Senor Versace (MR 105), by Parade Leader

75 Fort Wood 3-part brother to Gr1 Champion & sire Elusive Fort (MR 113), by Fort Wood

88 Western Winter 3-part brother to Horse of the Year Yard-Arm (MR  119)

106 Jet Master 3-part sister to Gr1 filly Love Is In The Air (MR 106), by Jet Master

148 Jet Master 3-part sister to Gr1 SA Derby winner & sire Ravishing (MR 108), by Jet Master

267 Jet Master 3-part sister to Champion sprinter J J The Jet Plane (120), by Jet Master

280 Caesour 3-part brother to Gr1 placed stakes winner Diplomat (MR 102), by Caesour

536 Western Winter 3-part sister to Horse of the Year Yard-Arm (119), by Western Winter

.

Half Siblings – Mum’s The Word

Half siblings to topclass runners have their mums as the main factor. That’s assuming, of course, that you believe in the power of the female line, and don’t just take the top runner’s sire as The One.

Here are the yearling half siblings to major runners. Check who the sires of the winners are. Then check in the catalogue to see if the mare has shown other big winners – you have to cover all bases!

.

If Blood Counts…

There are a good fewyearlings with relatives who didn’t quite make the lists mentioned earlier.Either because the siblings were high class but not Gr1 performers, or because the relationship was slightly different from the ones defined earlier. Of course, they still count!

49 Jet Master full sister to Gr3 stayer Master Of Note (MR 94)

116 Windrush full brother to Gr3 filly Diana’s Choice (MR 98)

176 Tiger Ridge full brother to stakes winning filly Ilha Grande (MR 90)

308 Casey Tibbs full brother to Gr3 winning colts Heat Of The Night & Naughty Prince

533 National Emblem full brother to Gr3 winning colt Shea Shea (MR 107)

61 Muhtafal 3-part sister to Gr3 filly Mzwilili (MR 93), by Muhtafal

122 National Emblem 3-part brother to colt American Emblem (MR 97), by National Emblem

461 Black Minnaloushe half sister to Gr1 placed Gr3 fillies Starlit (Jet Master) and Sweet Theresa (Strike Smartly)

154 Silvano close relative to Gr1 placed Gr2 Oaks winner Happy Spirit (MR 97), by Silvano

215 Western Winter close relative to Gr1 placed Gr2 winning filly Carry On Katie (MR 100), by Western Winter

230 Captain Al close relative to Champion filly Captain’s Lover (MR 104), by Captain Al

Have Your Say - *Please Use Your Name & Surname

Comments Policy
The Sporting Post encourages readers to comment in the spirit of enlightening the topic being discussed, to add opinions or correct errors. All posts are accepted on the condition that the Sporting Post can at any time alter, correct or remove comments, either partially or entirely.

All posters are required to post under their actual name and surname – no anonymous posts or use of pseudonyms will be accepted. You can adjust your display name on your account page or to send corrections privately to the EditorThe Sporting Post will not publish comments submitted anonymously or under pseudonyms.

Please note that the views that are published are not necessarily those of the Sporting Post.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Share:

Facebook
WhatsApp
Twitter

Popular Posts

Time Is Money!

In a new weekly column we look at some of the past weekend’s highlights, and set the fractions with Saturday’s Hollywoodbets Kenilworth WSB Cape Town Met racemeeting

Read More »