Bloodlines of Eventing Champions

Bloodlines of US Eventing Hall of Fame Inductees

Plain Sailing

This is the last in a series of articles looking at the genetics of the best Olympic style horses that have competed in this country. We will be looking at the bloodlines of the eventing champions that have made it to the ultimate honor of the Hall of Fame.

There are 9 Hall of Fame inductees: Jenny Camp 1926, The Grasshopper 1948, Kilkenny 1957 and Plain Sailing 195?, Good Mixture 1962, Bally Cor 1965, Irish Cap 1967, Bilko 1984 and Custom Made 1985.

Overall we find in these 9 that the Thoroughbred is king of the genetics as 4 are full Tb, and the remaining 5 are 1/2 to 3/4 Tb. That is an overwhelming affirmation that the sport genetics of the much maligned Thoroughbred are supreme in the sport of eventing. And the funny thing is we have found that they are also the top breed in the best Show Jumpers. And surprisingly we even found one of the 6 Dressage Champions was a full American Tb. I hope this helps put to rest the common lore that the Thoroughbred is not the proper ingredient for Olympic style success, rather the facts and the history demonstrate not only the excellence of this sport breed, but that it probably is the only constant to be found in the successful sport horses today.

In eventing we find the influence of the Irish Horse, both the Irish Draught and the Connemara Pony, are of significant importance. When crossed with the Thoroughbred these horses have led the sport leader boards since the mid-1800s, which is long before anyone thought of having a Hall of Fame. The roots of this successful cross reach back to the 1500s all the way to the racehorse studs of Ireland (pre-Thoroughbred), where a saddle-racehorse was perfected, they were known as the Irish Hobbies. These horses, along with their cousins, the Scottish Galloway and the English Running Horse (Hobby), were the base stock that gave birth to not only the English Thoroughbred, Irish Draught and Connemara, but they crossed the Atlantic as well and became the base of our own Colonial saddle-racehorse breed: the American Running Horse. Our Running Horse was a premier racehorse at all distances from 1/4 sprints to grueling 4 mile heat stamina contests- all 100 years before the English Thoroughbred arrived on our shores. This Running Horse, like those in the British Isles, became the base of our Thoroughbred, Morgan, Standardbred, Saddlebred, Tennessee Walker, Missouri Fox Trotter and several extinct breeds. These native breeds then are the base of our own sport horses of today. I provide this history lesson so that you may begin to understand why it is that the Irish Horse and the English Thoroughbred have such an affinity for our own native breeds- it is because they all arise from the same base stock.

Now in our Hall of Famers, we find only 4 of the 9 have full pedigrees (Tbs) and that none of the part-breds have full recorded lineages, and unfortunately the only Irish part-bred that has any of its Irish lines showing is Custom Made, so we will be only able to partially determine the genetic strengths of many of these champions. In Custom Made we can see the Galty Boy line is concentrated, but through sons only. Galty Boy is a proven hereditary transmitter of jumping talent, but unfortunately is usually found only by son lines as he is here. Custom Made's sire line, the Tb Bassompierre, is also a male leaning pedigree, led by a double of Wild Risk sons- although because the are 3/4 related and are represented by a son and a daughter, they then deliver more power to Custom Made. There are four lines of Teddy, sex balanced, and we find Pharos and his sister Mirawala. Custom Made won the individual Gold medal at the 2000 Sidney Olympics.

Kilkenny

Two of the other Irish/Tb crosses, Plain Sailing and Kilkenny are out of the same sire: Water Serpent. Water Serpent has a pedigree worthy of study, not only because he was such a wonderful sire of top eventers, but because he possess a very strong genetic design. Water Serpent is living proof that we should strive to build up the maternal influences we find in our stock. He was an immensely successful sire of eventers in Ireland. His pedigree reveals a strong filly factor of Gallinule daughters: Lady Drake, Hammerkop and Joie De Vivre 4x3x4. Further he carries the ever present Swynford with his 3/4 brother Chaucer- also through daughters 3x3, but they are then reinforced through their dam Canterbury Pilgrim who finds her brother Loved One here also- these are the lines that Lord Derby built his racing empire on- the sound progeny of the mare Pilgrimage. Plain Sailing won team Gold at the 1967 Pan Am Games, team Silver at the 1968 Olympics, team Silver at the 1972 Olympics and in 1979 team Gold at the World Championships.

A Note on Swynford - He is by the elite mare Canterbury Pilgrim, a daughter of Pilgrimage, as is her brother Loved One. The mare Pilgrimage was the target line that Lord Derby built his racehorse stud on. The presence of Swynford, plus his 3/4 brother Chaucer are what is called a 'standard pattern' in the Tb- because it is more common to find them in the average Tb pedigree, then it is not to find them. Swynford is not an entirely sound line, his sire John O'Gaunt gave unsound joints, although his great-grandson Mahmoud is a sound line. How can a bloodline that has some unsoundness become such a successful sport transmitter? It is because of the way genes divide and combine in a mating- so that the progeny do not get all of the horses genes- this can be a positive or a negative. When a bloodline has immense talent but also some unsoundness, then pick the descendants who did not demonstrate the weakness as your target bloodlines- in this case you will find Mahmoud is a sound representative of that line.

In more modern lineages we see the same thing with Nasrullah, his 7/8 brother Royal Charge and their 3/4 brother Mahmoud. However, this does not detract from their importance and several of these stars here have a strong concentation of them. For American breeders especially, realize that War Admiral, plus his 5 full sisters (Admiralette, Military Brush, Our Colors, War Brush and War Hysteria) and his 3/4 brother War Glory or 3/4 sisters Marching Along and Harrannette- all carry Harry of Hereford who is the rarely seen full brother to Swynford, and including these lines will add to the potency in a large way.

Strong marelines don't just appear in the event sire Water Serpent, as we find three other top eventers have a tremendous build-up of Pocahontas with significant additions of the often missing daughter lines coming from these sources: Wellingtonia, Teddy and Tracery. Pocahontas is a daughter of Glencoe- a great broodmare sire and a source of the large heart gene, and Pocahontas herself is the main source of the large heart gene in the modern Tb, however Glencoe had many other daughters and we find multiples of them in Gordon Russell who is the sire of the first Hall of Fame inductee Jenny Camp and Glencoe daughters also found through the Spearmint progeny such as Plucky Liege, Chicle, Catnip and Bathing Girl. Other female strength appears from concentrations of Brown Bess, a good source of impulsion, who we find in the lines of Quiver and Carbine, who is also found in Spearmint.

Spearmint is an interesting character, a great race horse (Derby winner), but also unsound in his front legs. However, he established one of the most lasting performance lines in the modern Tb. We found other unsound individuals such as John O'Gaunt, the sire of Swynford, and Phalaris, all three had poor front legs, but the excellence of the athletic ability made them great sport bloodlines.

So let's look at a few of these full Tb stars of eventing to see what is powering their amazing careers. Here is Irish Cap he has Swynford 6x6x5 sex balanced, plus 2 lines of Gondolete who is a daughter of Loved One 6x7, so this then is a notable concentration of Pilgrimage. Also of interest to us is the perfect symmetry of this performer's sire and damlines: Roman and Maimaison who are 3/4 siblings, a son and daughter of Sir Gallahad (Teddy son), with a son and a daughter of Sunstar as the 2nd dam and damsire. Irish Cap won the 1974 individual and team Gold at the European Championship.

Irish Cap

Another Hall of Famer with a strong pedigree is Good Mixture showing a strong Spearmint build-up of Chicle, Plucky Liege and Petite Marmite 4x5x4x4 (Spearmint is strong in Pocahontas and Brown Bess). The full brother Teddy sons Bull Dog/Sir Gallahad are sex balanced 4x3, Swynford and Chaucer are 4x5, the full siblings Sainfoin/Sierra are 6x6, plus the impulsion lines of Polymelus 5x5. Even as a cull from the racetrack, this gelding was the USCTA Horse of the Year, he won team Silver at the Munich Olympics and in 1974 the individual Silver and team Gold at the World Championship.

Bally Cor is a full Tb with the usual strong Swynford and his relatives, but another factor keeps arising in these stars and we see again here- that is the reinforcement of the Pocahontas lines. This mare carries a triple of Negofol, who in turn carries Wellingtonia, a stallion who brings us more daughters of Pocahontas. Teddy and Tracery are the other most often found carries of these essential lines. Bally Cor's sport record is: team and individual Gold in the 1975 Pan Am Games, team and individual Gold in the 1976 Olympics. The other Hall of Famers with these key concentrated lines are Good Mixture with Teddy, Biko with Teddy and extra lines of his sire Ajax, Irish Cap with both Teddy and Tracery and Custom Made with Teddy.

Bally Cor

What we can conclude from this series of study on the bloodlines of the Hall of Fame inductees is that overall the Thoroughbred is the most important sport resource available to us. No other breed comes close to it in the top performers of eventing and show jumping and it is second only to the Hanoverian line of Duellant in the dressage stars.