Stamina Lines in the
American Thoroughbred

Is our American Thoroughbred only sprinter bred? No it is not, matter of fact America's breeders produce 25% of the world's stamina bloodlines. This means Sport Horse breeders in America can stop listening to the propaganda and start reinforcing those stamina lines your horses already carry.

[Seen below is The Triple Crown winner Count Fleet who is found very often through daughters in American stayer sires.(photo by Bert Morgan]

Princequillo, an Irish-bred Thoroughbred often referred to as Mr. Fixit for his ability to correct leg problems and give soundness, is a great source of stamina in our American horses. In American stayer sires he is often found in conjunction with Count Fleet. If you look at his pedigree you will see it is pretty quiet until you get to the 5th generation with just a few duplications, but then it explodes with concentrated bloodlines in the 6th and 7th. Clive Harper says:"Stamina is basically built up from many mutltiples of the same horse or close relatives, between the 6th and 10th generation."

In Princequillo there are many such build ups, but the overriding influence, the flavor and background strength of Princequillo, is 12 lines of Galopin (classic distance winner and three times leading sire in Britain) in the 5th through 8th generation. Galopin is rated a mid distance runner, but multiplying his lines in the back of the pedigree has created a lasting stamina influence. These lines include 4 of St. Simon and 2 of his full sister Angelica, 3 other 1/2 sisters, and 2 of his brother Galliard.

Many good stayers are inconsistent sires because they do not have a closer focal point of the background build up. To bring forward a desired potency present in the 7th through 10th generation (or beyond) you must provide a closer reinforcement, otherwise the talent will be dissipated. Princequillo however, has those needed reinforcements of his huge stamina factor in the 4th and 5th generation with sex balanced lines of St. Simon and his 1/2 sister Merry Gal. His pedigree pattern is very similar to Gordon Russell.

Building up the far reaches can give you a successful stayer runner or a winning sport horse, but for them to pass the talent on reliably they need a "funnel" closer in the pedigree.

If you own a Thoroughbred or part-Thoroughbred, if you extend the pedigree a little you will surely come across sources of stamina (Fair Play, Rock Sand,Spearmint,Teddy, Herbager etc). If you are not sure what horses are known transmitters of stamina you can look at a useful tool the Chefs-de-race list This list of sires is separated into 5 catagories: Brilliant (sprint), Intermediate (sprint), Classic (mid-distance), Stout (stamina) and Professional (stamina). The list and the dosage system is a sire's list, it does not include the important female transmitters, but we can still use this chart as a helpful identifier of possible sources of speed and stamina in the Thoroughbred. For our study right now we will be looking at the Stout and Professional (S/P). The horses in the far right columns or identified with the letters S or P are known for producing distance runners- stayers. Don't worry if you see some of the horses listed as both a stamina and a speed source (like Princequillo). The stamina sources are lines we can build into the far reaches or middle of our pedigrees to bring more stamina to our sport foals.

As I said above, America has produced 25% of the world's staying bloodlines. This goes against everything we have been taught in our obviously poorly informed sport horse and warmblood breeding circles. The countries that have been continually held up to us as the premier stamina producing countries: Germany, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand actually have produced respectively 4%, 4%, 0%, 0%. With 34% France leads the world in stamina, and England is right there with 30% and then there is us- the American-bred with 25%. The next closest contenders are Germany and Ireland with 4% each. So there really is no contest, there are only 3 significant producers of stamina horses in the world and America is one of them.

Here are the American-bred sires that have made the list: Fair Play, his son Man O'War and his grandson Discovery, Tom Rolfe, Stage Door Johnny, Round Table, Rainbow Quest, Sadler's Wells, Nodouble, Graustark, Mill Reef, Pia Star, Kingmambo, Run the Gantlet, Niniski, Creme dela Creme and Chiefs Crown with their birthdates ranging from 1905 to 1990.

Let's look at two of these more recent American-bred stamina sources to see what makes up a stayer sire in our modern era.

Sadler's Wells is possibly the greatest stayer sire in modern times; the management at Coolmore Stud in Ireland where he stood said he is the greatest sire Europe has ever seen. He was champion sire in both England and Ireland 14 times. Sadler's pedigree is unusual for a stayer in that he has duplications starting in the 3rd- most of the others have them further back. It appears on the surface that he has a male leaning Nearco dominance, that is, until we noticed Lavendula, the Pharos daughter and therefore sister to Nearco, plus Pharos finds his 3/4 brother Sickle behind Native Dancer. Sadlers has a strong Hyperion and Blue Larkspur presence also. Blenheim finds his 7/8 sister Dalmary on the damline, and the 7/8 siblings Riot and Fair Trial, along with the 3/4 siblings Mahmoud/Royal Charger/Nasrullah all build strong genetics. Full and 3/4 siblings are always strong typesetters in a pedigree. What we don't see in the visible pedigree is what exactly is leading the background strength, and to be a successful stayer there has to be a strong build up in the far reaches of the lineage.

When we extend the research to 10 generations we find that Sadlers carries 46 lines of St. Simon and several of his full sister - this makes St. Simon- born in 1881, a stronger presence than Hyperion and Pharos in this horse. Seeing his record, his excellent racing performance as well as his surpremacy in breeding, we can see that Sadler certainly does represent St. Simon in modern form. And this St. Simon concentration is what makes him able to be such a staying influence- as the experts have told us- a strong build up in the background gives stamina.

The English Thoroughbred expert Steve Miller, in conjunction with Dr. Roman, evaluated the distance influence of the important sires for inclusion on Dr. Roman's chef-de-race list, and he has this to say on how he determined Sadler's Wells stamina.

Now let's look at another recent American-bred stayer sire that spent his stud career in the US: Kingmambo. His background genetics are dominated by Teddy and then further back St. Simon- these are good lines to build on and Kingmambo has 41 lines of St. Simon - almost as many as Sadler's Wells. But the most remarkable thing about Kingmambo genetically is how Native Dancer just rules his genotype 3x5- so Kingmambo, a stayer sire is inbred to Native Dancer- sex balanced. Native Dancer is one of the greatest racing Thoroughbreds ever, he rates right up there with Man O'War and Secretariat. His race record was 21 wins in 22 starts; and his riders and trainers remarked that he did it with ease. Like Man O' War and Secretariat he didn't have to try hard to leave them all in the dust. Horses of this caliber are very rare. And like Man O'War he was also an exceptional sire of both sons and daughters- this is rarer still.

I almost missed one other thing- Masda, the full sister to Man o'War is sitting in the 7th and Man O' War is in the 6th- a very nice full sibling strength of the Fair Play line (Man O'War below after his Travers win).

If you add a stamina line close up remember if you double up on it, especially in the 3rd or closer, you could get speed instead of stamina. The American sprint lines of Americus and Domino are examples of this. The placement and pattern of bloodlines is just as significant as their type.

Breeders of race horses use both stamina and speed influences to produce the Classic winners. To breed just speed to speed will result in a horse that may be brilliant at two, but can not train on.

To breed just stamina on stamina results in plodders with little acceleration- however, these horses often have a very good career as a steeplechaser or jumper.

You might not know that America has a healthy Steeplechase circuit mainly located on the Atlantic seaboard from New York to Florida. Over 150 of these "hurtle" races are run every year in this country. For instance, the American Grand National is a 2 1/8 mile race over jumps, the Virginia Gold Cup is another, and then there is the mother of them all: the grueling Maryland Hunt Cup, which is run over 4 miles with 22 solid obstacles. Do the competitors import all the horses that run in these races? No they don't, most are bred right here in the USA. Not only that, but because they retire these horses when they are done racing, this industry could be a source of some nice stamina loaded breeding stock for Sport Horse breeders.

After some careful study of the bloodlines of the winners in sport you may come to the same conclusion that I have, which is first of all the American Thoroughbred is a great source for our sport pursuits, whether pure bred or mixed with other breeds, second that stamina lines are alive and well in our American racehorse, and lastly that we need both stamina and sprint for success in sport.

Follow this Link to Fair Play- a source of stamina, soundness and jump talent

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