In just over a week, Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable’s Forte (Violence), bred by South Gate Farm and trained by Todd Pletcher, will be crowned the 2 year old male champion of the year 2022. He watches the tailed female of imported La Troienne (Fr), one of the most influential mares in the world Research Books. There are so many champions and elite racehorses following her that it is futile to try to list them all here.
La Troienne was born in 1926 and was bred by Marcel Boussac. Her grandfather, Teddy (Fr), had a son, 1923 French Guineas winner Sir Gallahad lll (Fr), who was purchased by an American consortium led by AB Hancock Sr. topped out at $125,000 and entered Claiborne the year she was born. Sir Gallahad quickly changed the course of racing in the United States, winning Gallant Fox by William Woodward, the 1930 Triple Crown winner, from his first American crop (he stood a year in France). In contrast, Claiborne-based Gallant Fox bred Omaha, the 1935 Triple Crown winner, also to Woodward. (There’s a book about this by Jennifer Kelly, “The Foxes of Belair: Gallant Fox, Omaha, & William Woodward,” coming out in May.)
Sir Gallahad’s full brother Bull Dog (Fr) was imported by Coldstream Stud a few years later, and he has also made his mark. Mr. Bull’s son meadowat Calumet, Citation stud, Triple Crown winner in 1948.
By this time, Teddy’s influence had spread through La Troienne at the bottom – she was a rival to champions Black Helen and Bimelech, along with many of her daughters in production – and Sir Gallahad and Bull Dog above.
Teddy, a pony born in 1913, was imported as an old stallion for the 1932 season at Kentmere Ranch in Virginia, from which he bred two other stallions, stallions. stallions are important in retrospect. Sun Teddy, a foal born in 1933, is the direct male ancestor of Damascus through the Sun Again/Sunglow/Sword Dancer (son of Damascus) sire chain. And Case Ace, a pony born in 1934, is a male like the parents of Raise a Native – the son of Mr. Prospector, who was crossed 4×5 with Teddy, because his third dam is Bull Dog.
Male Teddy lines are no longer important in this country – the Damascus branch is the last hope, and there is some symmetry to this because Damascus was bred and raced by Edie Bancroft, daughter of William Woodward, who bred and raced the Gallant Fox and Omaha and was a shareholder of Sir Gallahad – but his influence in the private areas of the pedigree was strong throughout the last century and is still felt today. And in many cases, the tailed mares of many of the iconic runners have dams bred by Teddy stallions and some lines contain multiple Teddy lines. The third dam of the 1973 Triple Crown winner’s Secretariat was Teddy’s own; the 1977 winner of Seattle Slew’s dam was bred 3×3 with sisters Busher and Striking, granddaughter of Teddy’s La Troienne; and 1978 winner Affirm was 5x5x6 inbreeding with Teddy, while his dam had three crosses with Sir Gallahad and one with Bull Dog in its first five generations.
What about the last British Triple Crown winner, Nijinsky? His dam is by a Teddy series horse and 4×6 for Teddy. Spectacular bid, Triple Crown winner almost? His dam, by the Promised Land Teddy, is 5 × 5 Teddy. Sunday’s silence is from a mare of Knowledge – the son of the Promised Land – and he is also distantly descended from Teddy. And Forego’s smash, by a Teddy stallion, was 3 × 3 ahead of Sir Gallahad and Bull Dog on the stallion junction.
More recently, the sixth dam of Flight route is the champion Lady Pitt, the daughter of the Teddy’s Blade Dancer.
There are too many others bred this way to list here, but you get the big picture.
Teddy’s Sire Line
This is Teddy’s four-generation tailed male line: Teddy/Ajax (Fr)/Flying Fox (GB)/Orme (GB)/Ormonde (GB). The latter is a child of the Bend Or (GB), from the Doncaster (GB)/Stockwell (GB) line.
Teddy was bred by Edmond Blanc and sold as a foal to Jefferson Davis Cohn, who raced him, then bred and raced his sons Sir Gallahad and Bull Dog.
Blanc, who owned Haras de Jardy (later acquired by Boussac), also bred and raced with Teddy’s father, Ajax, winner of the 1904 French Derby. Ajax was in the Flying Fox’s first litter, winner. Three British Crowns in 1899 for the 1st Duke of Westminster, who died the same year.
In March 1900, Blanc bought the Flying Fox at auction for the equivalent of $189,000 – a record price at the time – and brought him to stand at Haras de Jardy, where he succeeded. and influential. Jardy (Fr), from Flying Fox’s second, won Middle Park S. by two and finished second in the English Derby with three to Blanc, who sold him to Argentina for a price. the equivalent of $150,000. Blanc also bred and raced the Val d’Or (Fr), another from the second Flying Fox. Val d’Or won the French Guineas and the Eclipse S. in the UK, and Blanc also sold him to Argentina for the equivalent of $140,000.
Argentina was a wealthy country at the time and tended to import European Classic winners and fine racehorses, such as the 1900 British Triple Crown winner Diamond Jubilee (GB), for about 151,000 dollars; 1899 Cyllene (GB) Ascot Gold Cup winner, for approximately $158,000; the winner of the English Derby disqualified from the infamous 1913 run, the Craganour (GB), for about $150,000; and winner St. Leger in 1912 was American bred and finished third in the English Derby, Tracery, with the equivalent of $180,000.
It’s not just Argentine breeders who pay large sums for European horses. August Belmont paid $150,000 to 1903 British Triple Crown winner Rock Sand (GB), Tracery’s male and Man o’ War sire. Tracery is from a mare of Orme, son of Flying Fox and son of undefeated Ormonde, winner of the British Crown Trio in 1886 and “horse of the century”.
Ormonde
The Duke of Westminister bred Ormonde, his son Orme, and his grandson Flying Fox at his Eaton Stud, and all three were trained by John Porter, who also trained the Triple Crown winner. Common (GB) of the UK in addition to Triple Crown winners Ormonde and Flying Fox.
Ormonde was the winner of the 1880 English Derby of the Duke, Bend Or, who stood at Eaton, and he was undefeated in 15 starts (some records say 16, including the race itself as 16). walking), according to the book “John Porter of Kingsclere: An Autobiography,” co-written by Edward Moorehouse.
One of the most fascinating parts of Porter’s book is where Ormonde begins to develop wind sickness before his victory over St. Porter wrote: “The satisfaction I derived from Ormonde’s performances that year was sadly diminished by a discovery I made on Kingsclere Downs one foggy morning just before he won the St. As Ormonde galloped past me, I heard him whistle. I was dumbfounded.”
Porter continued: “The next night I could barely sleep. My mind will focus on the fact that Ormonde had fallen victim to that roaring calamity. I immediately wrote to the Duke, who was naturally deeply saddened by this news. It was very mild at the time, but gradually it got worse.”
In the winter when she was four years old, Ormonde was treated with an electric sponge “applied every day to the paralyzed nerve in her throat,” but when the foal was active again “we You can hear it breathing nearly half a mile away. ‘ wrote Porter. However, Ormonde ran a few times that year and won, but he retired in July and enrolled at Eaton in 1888.
The following year, 1889, Ormonde was leased to another farm, where he contracted pneumonia and became seriously ill – and this is thought to be the cause of his low fertility. He guarded only a handful of mares that season before returning to Eaton in the summer. He was then sold by the Duke to an Argentinian breeder, Juan Boucau, for the equivalent of $58,000 and sent abroad in September. Likely wind and fertility issues of Ormonde led him to be sold at a price significantly lower than the high-end horses brought in by Argentine breeders during this period.
Ormonde spent three Southern Hemisphere seasons in Argentina–1890, 1891 and 1892–before being sold again, this time to Californian William O’Brien MacDonough of Menlo Park Ranch (later renamed The Ranch). Ormondale) in San Mateo on the San Francisco peninsula. The purchase price was $150,000, because at the time, some of Ormonde’s first crops, headed by Eclipse winner S. Orme, were winning impressively.
Ormonde’s fertility remained poor and he left behind a number of ponies in Argentina and California, which died in 1904. None were of the same quality as Orme, who bred English Derby winner Orby (GB) in addition to Triple Crown Flying Fox winner. One of his best American runners, however, was Ormondale, winner of the 1905 Futurity S. New York Championship. He then stood among other farms at Hamburg Place in Kentucky.
Ormondale, like Teddy, his prolific male relative, has played a role in the genealogy of several American Triple Crown winners, believe it or not. 1941 winner of Whirlaway’s Third Dam is Ormondale’s daughter, and more recently 2015 winner American PharoahOrmondale’s eighth dam.
How about that?
Sid Fernando is the chairman and chief executive officer of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., the company that started Werk Nick Rating and eNicks.
