♘امیرحسین♞
♘ مدیریت انجمن اسب ایران ♞
by Roxanne Rogers © 1998
As a breeder of Arabian racehorses and researcher of their bloodlines I cannot emphasize enough the importance of considering bloodlines carefully before making a potential purchase or attempting to breed a racehorse. Racehorses are not just born, they are carefully planned, and a good race breeding program should be extremely consistent. The showhorse formula of breeding champion to champion does not apply to breeding racehorses because the racing industry is still growing and a lot of horses are still outrunning their pedigrees. I predict these semi race-bred horses will be left well behind within the next two years. This is a critical time for Arabian racing since it is now a very serious business with serious money involved in the form of racetrack purses and the potential for sales. Top Arabian racehorses have fetched prices well over the $100,000.00 mark and although the WAHO embargo of US registered horses has put a damper on the foreign market this can only be temporary.
In my research of Arabian racehorse pedigrees Polish bloodlines have always dominated in North America. The reason is obvious since Polish Arabians used to come from a thorough racing selection. This is why research is important since many Polish Arabians were imported into North America and not used for racing nor were most of them bred correctly towards racing selection, but some were and these bloodlines can be resurrected for this purpose. Another reason it is a critical time for Arabian racing is that the Polish bloodlines still available from the old selection process are becoming extremely scarce. I will get into more detail about these bloodlines later.
Another source of blood for a racing program and one that cannot be overlooked is the recently introduced French Arabian. Though controversial, this Arabian has been selected even more rigorously than the Polish Arabian for racing and for a longer period of time. French Arabians are very expensive so the best route for North Americans is to breed good Polish mares to French stallions of which some are now available here in North America. This type of cross has been going on for four years now and we will begin to see some of the results on the racetracks in the U.S. starting this year, but more will be proven in the next two years since there should be about 200+ results from these matings to come out. Bear in mind that only about 20% of horses bred for racing ever make it to the racetrack. Is this a risky business? Yes. Is it expensive? Yes. Is it the most thrilling and natural thing we do with our horses? Most definitely. And more importantly it is well known to be the best proving ground for equine selection. So as responsible breeders we should all be looking at it.
Outside of the French and Polish sources there are some British bloodlines that have done well, namely Kon Tiki , Abu Farwa and Nusabre. Favoured dam lines are *Wadduda, Wrdie, Queen of Sheba and mainly Rodania. The Kon Tiki/*Sambor and/or Kon Tiki / *Mohacz combination in pedigrees has been well proven. *Sambor (Czort x *Sabellina) is one of the grandfathers of Arabian racing. He was top racehorse sire even after his death and is now always high up on the broodmare sire standings. Looking at his pedigree it is obvious why. His sire was one of the best racehorses in Poland and so was his dam. Analyzing further back we see that Czort was by Wielki Szlem (preferred over Witraz by racehorse breeders) and out of the leading racing progenetress in Poland, Forta. His dam *Sabellina was a great Polish race mare and her name in a pedigree is extremely desirable for racing. Another desirable female family through the mare Arfa is highly proven as well. This is interesting since Arfa is a full sister to *Bask and *Bask was neither a great racehorse nor was he a racehorse sire (except when crossed with extremely athletic mares like *Sabellina). It is my opinion that Arfa who looked nothing like her brother brings a completely different influence to a pedigree than does *Bask. This theory is borne out further when we see that her daughters were the great race mares: *Arwistawa (Stakes races and 2600m track record), Harfa (Oaks) and *Abhajza (Oaks). There is often a bonus which comes with Arfa in the pedigree in that the horses from this line, especially tail female, are not only very athletic but also very elegant and classy. Another well proven Polish dam line is Piewica but we often find this line diluted except for instance, in the pedigree of the now deceased stallion, *Pierrot (*Czort x Pierzga). *Pierrot had much success on the Polish tracks and is now figuring prominently in American racing through the efforts of R.E.R. Arabians.
Another great Polish dam line is Ofirka especially when crossed with Koheilan Adjuze sire line horses such as Laur and *Pietuszok as in the well proven, *Orzel and the Polish Triple Crown winner, Orla. To have both Laur and *Pietuszok in one pedigree seems to be a dynamite combination for speed and prepotency as noted in the pedigree of the superb racehorse and sire, *Wiking. In *Wiking's pedigree we see Laur appearing as the sire of the second dam, Worskla and *Pietuszok appearing as the maternal grandsire. (I used a similar combination by breeding a mare who has Forta, *Pietuszok and Arfa all within three generations to a Laur , Anarchista grandson - so far the result, Albion, is undefeated at the track). Wiking's sire Etap (by Celebes), brings us to the Celebes influence in racing. I am not so sure that Celebes stands that well on its own but when combined with other strong racing lines seems to act as a very good catalyst as in the other top racehorse and sire, *Mellon. The influence coming through *Mellon's dam is the wonderful horse, Grand and also Poland's "Secretariat", Kaszmir. Kaszmir represents the Kryzyk sire line as does Trypolis. *Mellon has sired very durable racehorses and though dead for some years now is ahead of *Wiking on the stallion standings by percentage though *Wiking has topped the list for many years by number of winning get. On top right now in the earnings category (over $200,000) is the pure Polish *Mellon daughter with tail female to *Sabellina, HT Sarah. I also have a *Mellon daughter just beginning her career and she has won 2 races and placed in another in just three starts. Her tail female is Arfa through *Abhajza and her maternal grandsire is Eldans Wotan, a son of *Pietuszok's best racing son, *Wosk. It is always a good idea to look for different sources of the same bloodline. For instance the proven avenue for *Pietuszok sire line in US racing is *Orzel but with so many racehorses sired by *Orzel and so many other sons of *Pietuszok available I chose to use this line through our foundation sire *Gay Polka (*Pietuszok x *Caliope - full sister to Celebes) and *Wosk through Eldans Wotan. Another stallion incorporated was the now deceased, *Chutor (Chazar -Koheilan Adjuze sire line x Czatanoga). In doing this, under utilized bloodlines get a chance to shine and in changing the proven formulas slightly but without getting completely off track it is possible to compete on the same level as the leading players. The second leading racehorse by earnings is The Wiking (*Wiking x *Nadoba by Ariel) Looking more closely we find that *Nadoba is by an Arfa son and out of a *Sabellina granddaughter). Starting to see a little pattern emerging yet?
Although some farms continue to send many get to the track by stallions such as RD Five Star and SW Dawid and some of the get turn out to be quite decent runners as in Don Condare and Magna Terra Smoky (who is out of a *Pietuszok granddaughter incidentally) we don't see the high percentage of winners from runners that we find from more consolidated racing pedigrees as in *Wiking, *Mellon, *Sambor and his son Samtyr, *Orzel etc. Another thing that a good racehorse sire should do is upgrade his mares and we know that *Wiking does this very well as did *Mellon, *Sambor and *Orzel. There are other avenues as I have mentioned to the above bloodlines and I encourage people to take them in the hope that they may find and prove some new sources and possibly even surpass what has already been proven. Breeding for racing is quite different than breeding for a racing market of course. It is already evident that Arabian showhorses are generally the antithisis of Arabian racehorses but there is also a difference in breeding for the Arabian racing market and trying to breed a racehorse for oneself. To breed for a racing market you might take a proven race mare of Polish and/or Kon Tiki breeding and breed her to *Wiking. However we need to guard against inbreeding Arabian racehorses, as has already happened with Thoroughbred racehorses. Therefore its important to use bloodlines that are of a racing bent but not as proven as the big names when we are trying for our own stock. Also it's a little boring as a spectator when you look at the racing form and see, as we now do at Turf Paradise, a preponderance of RD Five Star get running against a preponderance of SW Dawid get.
RD Five Star is an interesting Russian horse. He has sired some good racehorses and so has his sire *Patent. In looking at the pedigrees at first glance it's a mystery as to why, since there is Aswan twice and Negatiw (not strong racing lines) until we see the French dam line coming through Prodruga to Dikarka. SW Dawid with his show sire *Etiw is another head scratcher until we look at his dam, the *Sambor daughter Sir WM Dambra, who is line bred to Wielki Szlem. Remember in breeding racehorses anything past the third generation is of little interest unless it is line bred. I am very careful about Russian horses in my program. I have only used one Russian mare and she was all Polish bloodlines with the exception of her French dam line. A nicely bred Russian stallion is *Susdal and he set track records in Germany where the calibre of racing is not much higher than that in Alberta. His get are running well but nothing has set the track on fire so far. *Novator is another very well bred Russian sire but he has yet to sire volume winners. Bev Scott's horse, Statuss fits into this category also. Sometimes well bred sires have a lot of potential but need a little help from the mare. That's where research comes in.
Representing the Egyptian camp we find horses like ZT Ali Baba and Cre Run's MHF Eclipse. As a farm, Cre Run has done a lot of work towards promoting Arabian racing and bringing new people in. MHF Eclipse recently died but he had a good race career and his first foals are hitting the tracks this year. Even Cre Run says they cannot understand why the get that are doing well are having success, based on their formula of breeding race record to race record. ZT Ali Baba is quite inconsistent as a sire. His claim to fame is a big one though since he sired the impossibly fast full sisters, Unchainned Melody and Victorias Secret. Both mares are out of Blu Bint Halima, a *Sambor daughter.
I have just lightly touched on some of the obvious racing lines in this article in the hopes that it may get some breeders thinking about what they are doing. Remember weak links in a pedigree can create too much uncertainty and inconsistency in a breeding program. Its important to cull vigorously when breeding racehorses and don't imagine that if you have been breeding for the showring for years you can just take your show culls to the racetrack and keep up. There are other factors such as "heart" and random throw-backs that we can't account for in individuals but since breeding is a big enough gamble as it is we should do the best pedigree research we can when planning our matings so that we can have the most possible fun when we get to the track!
As a breeder of Arabian racehorses and researcher of their bloodlines I cannot emphasize enough the importance of considering bloodlines carefully before making a potential purchase or attempting to breed a racehorse. Racehorses are not just born, they are carefully planned, and a good race breeding program should be extremely consistent. The showhorse formula of breeding champion to champion does not apply to breeding racehorses because the racing industry is still growing and a lot of horses are still outrunning their pedigrees. I predict these semi race-bred horses will be left well behind within the next two years. This is a critical time for Arabian racing since it is now a very serious business with serious money involved in the form of racetrack purses and the potential for sales. Top Arabian racehorses have fetched prices well over the $100,000.00 mark and although the WAHO embargo of US registered horses has put a damper on the foreign market this can only be temporary.
In my research of Arabian racehorse pedigrees Polish bloodlines have always dominated in North America. The reason is obvious since Polish Arabians used to come from a thorough racing selection. This is why research is important since many Polish Arabians were imported into North America and not used for racing nor were most of them bred correctly towards racing selection, but some were and these bloodlines can be resurrected for this purpose. Another reason it is a critical time for Arabian racing is that the Polish bloodlines still available from the old selection process are becoming extremely scarce. I will get into more detail about these bloodlines later.
Another source of blood for a racing program and one that cannot be overlooked is the recently introduced French Arabian. Though controversial, this Arabian has been selected even more rigorously than the Polish Arabian for racing and for a longer period of time. French Arabians are very expensive so the best route for North Americans is to breed good Polish mares to French stallions of which some are now available here in North America. This type of cross has been going on for four years now and we will begin to see some of the results on the racetracks in the U.S. starting this year, but more will be proven in the next two years since there should be about 200+ results from these matings to come out. Bear in mind that only about 20% of horses bred for racing ever make it to the racetrack. Is this a risky business? Yes. Is it expensive? Yes. Is it the most thrilling and natural thing we do with our horses? Most definitely. And more importantly it is well known to be the best proving ground for equine selection. So as responsible breeders we should all be looking at it.
Outside of the French and Polish sources there are some British bloodlines that have done well, namely Kon Tiki , Abu Farwa and Nusabre. Favoured dam lines are *Wadduda, Wrdie, Queen of Sheba and mainly Rodania. The Kon Tiki/*Sambor and/or Kon Tiki / *Mohacz combination in pedigrees has been well proven. *Sambor (Czort x *Sabellina) is one of the grandfathers of Arabian racing. He was top racehorse sire even after his death and is now always high up on the broodmare sire standings. Looking at his pedigree it is obvious why. His sire was one of the best racehorses in Poland and so was his dam. Analyzing further back we see that Czort was by Wielki Szlem (preferred over Witraz by racehorse breeders) and out of the leading racing progenetress in Poland, Forta. His dam *Sabellina was a great Polish race mare and her name in a pedigree is extremely desirable for racing. Another desirable female family through the mare Arfa is highly proven as well. This is interesting since Arfa is a full sister to *Bask and *Bask was neither a great racehorse nor was he a racehorse sire (except when crossed with extremely athletic mares like *Sabellina). It is my opinion that Arfa who looked nothing like her brother brings a completely different influence to a pedigree than does *Bask. This theory is borne out further when we see that her daughters were the great race mares: *Arwistawa (Stakes races and 2600m track record), Harfa (Oaks) and *Abhajza (Oaks). There is often a bonus which comes with Arfa in the pedigree in that the horses from this line, especially tail female, are not only very athletic but also very elegant and classy. Another well proven Polish dam line is Piewica but we often find this line diluted except for instance, in the pedigree of the now deceased stallion, *Pierrot (*Czort x Pierzga). *Pierrot had much success on the Polish tracks and is now figuring prominently in American racing through the efforts of R.E.R. Arabians.
Another great Polish dam line is Ofirka especially when crossed with Koheilan Adjuze sire line horses such as Laur and *Pietuszok as in the well proven, *Orzel and the Polish Triple Crown winner, Orla. To have both Laur and *Pietuszok in one pedigree seems to be a dynamite combination for speed and prepotency as noted in the pedigree of the superb racehorse and sire, *Wiking. In *Wiking's pedigree we see Laur appearing as the sire of the second dam, Worskla and *Pietuszok appearing as the maternal grandsire. (I used a similar combination by breeding a mare who has Forta, *Pietuszok and Arfa all within three generations to a Laur , Anarchista grandson - so far the result, Albion, is undefeated at the track). Wiking's sire Etap (by Celebes), brings us to the Celebes influence in racing. I am not so sure that Celebes stands that well on its own but when combined with other strong racing lines seems to act as a very good catalyst as in the other top racehorse and sire, *Mellon. The influence coming through *Mellon's dam is the wonderful horse, Grand and also Poland's "Secretariat", Kaszmir. Kaszmir represents the Kryzyk sire line as does Trypolis. *Mellon has sired very durable racehorses and though dead for some years now is ahead of *Wiking on the stallion standings by percentage though *Wiking has topped the list for many years by number of winning get. On top right now in the earnings category (over $200,000) is the pure Polish *Mellon daughter with tail female to *Sabellina, HT Sarah. I also have a *Mellon daughter just beginning her career and she has won 2 races and placed in another in just three starts. Her tail female is Arfa through *Abhajza and her maternal grandsire is Eldans Wotan, a son of *Pietuszok's best racing son, *Wosk. It is always a good idea to look for different sources of the same bloodline. For instance the proven avenue for *Pietuszok sire line in US racing is *Orzel but with so many racehorses sired by *Orzel and so many other sons of *Pietuszok available I chose to use this line through our foundation sire *Gay Polka (*Pietuszok x *Caliope - full sister to Celebes) and *Wosk through Eldans Wotan. Another stallion incorporated was the now deceased, *Chutor (Chazar -Koheilan Adjuze sire line x Czatanoga). In doing this, under utilized bloodlines get a chance to shine and in changing the proven formulas slightly but without getting completely off track it is possible to compete on the same level as the leading players. The second leading racehorse by earnings is The Wiking (*Wiking x *Nadoba by Ariel) Looking more closely we find that *Nadoba is by an Arfa son and out of a *Sabellina granddaughter). Starting to see a little pattern emerging yet?
Although some farms continue to send many get to the track by stallions such as RD Five Star and SW Dawid and some of the get turn out to be quite decent runners as in Don Condare and Magna Terra Smoky (who is out of a *Pietuszok granddaughter incidentally) we don't see the high percentage of winners from runners that we find from more consolidated racing pedigrees as in *Wiking, *Mellon, *Sambor and his son Samtyr, *Orzel etc. Another thing that a good racehorse sire should do is upgrade his mares and we know that *Wiking does this very well as did *Mellon, *Sambor and *Orzel. There are other avenues as I have mentioned to the above bloodlines and I encourage people to take them in the hope that they may find and prove some new sources and possibly even surpass what has already been proven. Breeding for racing is quite different than breeding for a racing market of course. It is already evident that Arabian showhorses are generally the antithisis of Arabian racehorses but there is also a difference in breeding for the Arabian racing market and trying to breed a racehorse for oneself. To breed for a racing market you might take a proven race mare of Polish and/or Kon Tiki breeding and breed her to *Wiking. However we need to guard against inbreeding Arabian racehorses, as has already happened with Thoroughbred racehorses. Therefore its important to use bloodlines that are of a racing bent but not as proven as the big names when we are trying for our own stock. Also it's a little boring as a spectator when you look at the racing form and see, as we now do at Turf Paradise, a preponderance of RD Five Star get running against a preponderance of SW Dawid get.
RD Five Star is an interesting Russian horse. He has sired some good racehorses and so has his sire *Patent. In looking at the pedigrees at first glance it's a mystery as to why, since there is Aswan twice and Negatiw (not strong racing lines) until we see the French dam line coming through Prodruga to Dikarka. SW Dawid with his show sire *Etiw is another head scratcher until we look at his dam, the *Sambor daughter Sir WM Dambra, who is line bred to Wielki Szlem. Remember in breeding racehorses anything past the third generation is of little interest unless it is line bred. I am very careful about Russian horses in my program. I have only used one Russian mare and she was all Polish bloodlines with the exception of her French dam line. A nicely bred Russian stallion is *Susdal and he set track records in Germany where the calibre of racing is not much higher than that in Alberta. His get are running well but nothing has set the track on fire so far. *Novator is another very well bred Russian sire but he has yet to sire volume winners. Bev Scott's horse, Statuss fits into this category also. Sometimes well bred sires have a lot of potential but need a little help from the mare. That's where research comes in.
Representing the Egyptian camp we find horses like ZT Ali Baba and Cre Run's MHF Eclipse. As a farm, Cre Run has done a lot of work towards promoting Arabian racing and bringing new people in. MHF Eclipse recently died but he had a good race career and his first foals are hitting the tracks this year. Even Cre Run says they cannot understand why the get that are doing well are having success, based on their formula of breeding race record to race record. ZT Ali Baba is quite inconsistent as a sire. His claim to fame is a big one though since he sired the impossibly fast full sisters, Unchainned Melody and Victorias Secret. Both mares are out of Blu Bint Halima, a *Sambor daughter.
I have just lightly touched on some of the obvious racing lines in this article in the hopes that it may get some breeders thinking about what they are doing. Remember weak links in a pedigree can create too much uncertainty and inconsistency in a breeding program. Its important to cull vigorously when breeding racehorses and don't imagine that if you have been breeding for the showring for years you can just take your show culls to the racetrack and keep up. There are other factors such as "heart" and random throw-backs that we can't account for in individuals but since breeding is a big enough gamble as it is we should do the best pedigree research we can when planning our matings so that we can have the most possible fun when we get to the track!