Did you ever wonder why even the best of
sires have so many "ordinary" performers or why a mare of modest
breeding can suddenly produce a champion? The answer may well be in the
"match" of the bloodlines of the sire to those of the dam. The
concept of matching bloodlines as a way to develop champions has proven
it's worth over the years and serious breeders would do well to study the
theory and results to see if they can improve their chances of coming up
with the right match for their mares. The success of a particular mating
does not have to be a random thing subject more to luck than good
management.
With the growing acceptance of semen transport small
breeders can aspire to breed to any active sire listed in the United
States Trotting Association publication The USTA Sires and Dams. Gone are
the days when breeding to the stallion up the road, because he had a
couple of good ones to the races last year, was a convenient way to handle
your breeding requirements. Breeders cannot afford to take a chance that
such an impromptu mating will succeed. They must make informed decisions
based on pedigree and like any decision the chances of being right can be
greatly improved with good research and a study of past statistics.
Successful breeders will spend time to research the best
matches for their mares and can get most of the information they want
through computer reports from the USTA or CTA (Canadian Trotting
Association). The information they receive, though, is based on
established sires and may be of little help if the boundaries of time,
distance and cost make the "perfect" match unavailable or if the
sire of interest is a new and unproven sire. Not every owner of an
Albatross mare is logistically able or can afford to breed to No Nukes or
Big Towner. And the answer is not necessarily to breed to the closest,
most affordable son of No Nukes either because as any student of Pedigree
Matching will attest, the key is not in the top line of the sire but
rather in the sire lines which show up in the sire's maternal family,
lines which can vary significantly between father and son.
Among small breeders who stand their own stallion there
is the tendency to breed all the farm mares to that one stud regardless of
the pedigree match. Such matings will, in the long run, result in low
success rates and lower prices for yearlings that far offset the short
term savings involved. Smart stud owners will trade breedings with other
farms to get the match that gives their mares the best chance of success.
Articles on breeding tend to focus on individual sires
that have played a dominant role in recent breeding history. Matings are
commonly described in terms of being Meadow Skipper 3 x 4 x 3, or Adios 5
x 4 x 4 x 5, a nomenclature which serves as much to confuse as it does to
edify. The numbers relate to generations in the pedigree in which the sire
of note appears. We must also contend with classifications such as line
bred, inbred and incestuously bred as well as the much sought after
outcross.
Pedigree experts talk about the perils of having horses
inbred or incestuously bred where the same ancestral sire shows up in the
second or third generation of both the stallion and the mare. Incestuous
relationships could not get much closer than the breeding of world record
setting trotter CR Kay Suzie whose sire, Royal Troubadour, is out of a
full sister to Speedy Somolli while her dam is by Speedy Somolli. On the
pacing side the dominance of the Meadow Skipper sire line has seen many
such matings in recent times with excellent results. The end result is
that breeders have increasing difficulty in dealing with the traditional
concepts involved in breeding theory. Perhaps it is time to put some
simplification and order into the process with an approach that is based
on hard evidence that anyone can use to point them in the direction of
potentially successful matings for their mares.
In researching this topic I was struck by the incidence
of "unfashionable" sires in the maternal lines of many of our
most successful sires. For instance the second dam of Niatross is by
Scamp; of Falcon Seelster is by Adios Butler; of Big Towner is by Guinea
Gold; of Walton Hanover is by Bullet Hanover; of Laag is by Task Force
etc. James C Harrison in his authoritative chapter on bloodlines and
breeding in the USTA's book Care And Training Of The Trotter and Pacer,
notes that " All the foundation sires of the breed were relatively
short bred maternally in the sense that none of the female families that
produced them ever established lasting maternal lines of their own".
This would seem to infer that if you want to improve on something you must
focus on the weaknesses, real or perceived, and that is where
"Pedigree Matching" comes into play.
Pedigree matching presents an opportunity to improve on
the bloodlines of a sire where he may be perceived to be deficient, that
is in his maternal line, by returning to him bloodlines from a mare of
similar lineage that have shown themselves to be genetically stronger
through performance. For instance in the case of Hazleton Kay (Jate Lobell
- Season Premiere - Niatross) few would disagree that as a racehorse
Niatross, the sire of the dam, was a superior performer to JR Amy, the dam
of the sire Jate Lobell, yet Niatross and JR Amy trace to the same
lineage. Putting it simply if Jate Lobell could be as good as he was with
the bloodlines of JR Amy, his offspring should be even better if those
same JR Amy bloodlines can be supplemented with an improved version of the
same lineage, in the form of Niatross as was the case in the breeding of
Hazleton Kay.
The goal of Pedigree Matching then is to find a way to
spruce up the bloodlines in the maternal lines of the sire with the
lineage in the bloodlines of the dam. In the words of the experts this is
called "Returning to the sire the best blood of his dam".
Pedigree matching is not to be confused with "line breeding"
which occurs when the top line of the sire matches the top line of the
broodmare sire. This is a simple concept that ignores, however, the impact
of the maternal line of both the sire and the dam on the mating.
Pedigree matching is new in name only as the original
basis for the theory is to be found in Wallace’s American Trotting
Register published in 1871, a publication that was the first attempt of
its kind to document the history of the trotter in North America. While
many theories on how to breed the trotting horse centred on the perceived
need to "breed up" horses with a disposition to trot to
Thoroughbred sires in order to improve speed and stamina, Wallace was of
the opinion that "like begets like" and that breeders would be
wise to seek "to unite again two streams that originate in the same
fountain, but that had been separated for a few generations." His
theories have stood the test of time and are as valid today as they were
over 125 years ago.
Successful breeders in the thoroughbred industry such as
the Aga Khan, Lord Derby, Marcel Broussac and the legendary Federico Tesio
derived their success from practising "balanced breeding", a
concept that evolved from the statistical evidence that inbreeding and
line breeding to selected ancestors through sons and daughters was far
more successful than through sons alone or daughters alone.
In his book "Patterns of Greatness" the noted
thoroughbred pedigree expert Alan Porter cites a study carried out by
Clive Harper in New Zealand that compared the extent of balanced breeding
in moderate versus top class performers. The study concluded that while
both groups showed comparable levels of in breeding and line breeding in
the first three generations there was a marked difference in the incidence
of both when taken back to the sixth and seventh generation with the top
class performers showing a much higher incidence. This finding confirms in
a general way the basis for Wallace’s "two streams from the same
fountain" theory.
There are some who would say that they put their faith
in modern genetics rather than "outdated" theories and while the
great advances in the understanding of genetics have played a role in the
development of many species of plants and animals I am not so sure that
the horsemen of today understand and apply genetic theory any more than
any of their predecessors. There is, however, a school of thought, based
on studies at the Dr. Max Gluck Institute with the University of Kentucky
Equine Program, that hypothesizes the existence of recessive sex related
genes that are mutations of a normal gene traceable to a single source and
can determine such things as heart size. For recessive genes to be
expressed they need to be inherited in double strength (from the sire and
the dam). This theory is best known as the X-Factor Theory as documented
in the book of the same name.
The X-factor is based on the theory that the
X-chromosome or female chromosome, carries certain recessive genes that
result in performance factors such as large heart size. Recessive genes
will only manifest themselves if inherited from both sire and dam and only
if the genes are passed to individuals in a certain way. X-chromosomes can
be passed from mother to son, mother to daughter and father to daughter
but not father to son.
The X-factor is believed to have originated in a single
female through a genetic mutation. From my own research I have found that
keying on those individuals that trace through X-factor connections to
Minnehaha and/or to daughters of Pilot Junior is an important and useful
way to short list prospective sires that initially show compatible
lineups. Minnehaha, by the way, is considered to be the best maternal
family currently with more top performers than any other.
The practice of Pedigree Matching or balanced breeding
or whatever name you may want to give it would automatically provide the
opportunity for such genes to express themselves and result in top
performers.
