to his prevalence in the gene pool or does that mean that he should be a sought-after name in a sport pedigree? Perhaps it depends on other factors such as what other influences were in the pedigree and the physical type of the descendant.
Future FINDING THE NEXT influential Thoroughbreds for any of the Olympic disciplines is likely to become increasingly difficult if sport breeders continue to rely on the racing industry to produce the horses we hope to use for sport breeding. This is especially true for North America where, if racing
breeders do have a mare with distance characteristics, they will either consciously or due to limited choices, breed that mare to a stallion with more speed characteristics. When stallions that raced over longer distances go to stud, it is common practice for mares with sprinting records to be sought and their owners offered deals for breeding to these distance stallions. And if the predominance of the racing gene pool shows a decline in soundness, as demonstrated by the Jockey Club’s
”... there were a staggering 830 individual Thoroughbred ancestors found within the first four generations of the 199 Olympic competitors at the 2012 Games...”
statistics, the likelihood of producing an individual that is sound and light on the forehand is rather slim. The odds of the current racing market producing a horse that carries the physical traits desired by sport breeders and is potent for those traits are pretty dismal. Unless there is a concerted effort to breed the ‘right’
Thoroughbreds for sport, the purebred Thoroughbred’s role in modern sport will become largely historic in nature. Unfortunately, sport horse breeders dedicated to Thoroughbreds and high-percentage Thoroughbreds are at a disadvantage in today’s immediacy-based market because sport progenitors are usually in their mid to late teens or even deceased before they are recognized by their accomplishments at stud.
CONFORMATIONS COMPARED
narrowed the choices and increased the risk of failure for the sport market. Recent evolution in the racing Thoroughbred shows physical differences, most notably a higher stifle to accommodate sprinting, lower neck sets, more weight on the forehand, the pillar of support emerging behind the heel and a femur shorter than the ilium. None of these traits are advantageous for sport purposes. Although they have remained an integral part of sport
W
horse breeding and are regularly used by several registries for enhancement, it is not just any Thoroughbred that will provide the desired result or results. Eventers and jumpers primarily descend from Thoroughbreds that are built for distance (have a low stifle placement). Dressage horses primarily descend from Thoroughbreds with mid-range (“miler”) stifle placement. And all three disciplines require lightness in front of the pillar of support and soundness/longevity. To illustrate the differences between pure racing
Thoroughbreds and those with sport qualities, we will look at four stallions that descend from Northern Dancer. Why Northern Dancer? Because he is prevalent in the gene pool and proves that there is more to selecting the sport Thoroughbred than just a name in a pedigree.
30 July/August 2013
hile it has been the norm to choose the influential sport Thoroughbreds from what the racing breeders produce, recent trends in racing have
Horse #1
SADLER’S WELLS is the aforementioned son of Northern Dancer. He was a successful racehorse and a phenomenal sire of flat racers (14 times the leading sire in England and Ireland, three times the leading sire in France and once the leading sire in North America) as well as a dominant influence on the National Hunt list before he died at age 30 in 2011. Five of the six Northern Dancer descendants on the top ten NH list are Sadler’s Wells descendants and he is number 13 on that list. In terms of numbers alone, his opportunities exceed most stallions since he had more than 2,200 offspring. As we would expect, the longest part of his rear triangle is
from point of hip to stifle, which equates with the ability to jump from a gallop stride, and his stifle is below sheath level for scope. However, his stifle is not as low as we would want for an Olympic jumper or eventer. His pillar of support emerges well in front of the withers
for lightness of the forehand and into the heel for soundness. His humerus shows a fairly steep rise from elbow to point of shoulder, which adds to lightness of the forehand and aids in quickness of the forelegs over fences. And finally, his base of neck is well above his high point of shoulder for additional lightness of the forehand. It is possible for him to show up in the pedigree of a top eventer or jumper in the future if a lower stifle is evident, but, since his pri- vate stud fee was rumored to be between €250,000 and €500,000, a direct offspring being sent to the sport market is unlikely.
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