Sire line detours

How some lines come back to prominence from unlikely sources

By Sid Fernando

Got a call from a prominent owner/breeder yesterday about the lack of diversity in the stallion ranks. “The same lines are everywhere, and they’re the same lines of the mares,” he said in frustration. That led to a conversation about where to find the next big stallion.

We discussed the phenomenon of dominant sire lines that go dormant for a generation or two or three and then reappear in the form of an excellent stallion, such as in the cases of Uncle Mo and Candy Ride.

Uncle Mo’s tail-male line goes like this: Indian Charlie/In Excess/Siberian Express/Caro. Caro was imported to Kentucky after beginning his career in Europe and was an excellent sire, but his line had petered out and mostly hinged on the exploits of overachiever Indian Charlie until Uncle Mo took it to another level.

Likewise, Candy Ride, an Argentine-bred, resuscitated a branch of Fappiano that went to South America and appeared fated for obscurity. Now, Candy Ride’s son Gun Runner has taken this branch—Candy Ride/Ride the Rails (exported to Argentina)/Cryptoclearance/Fappiano/Mr. Prospector—to new heights.

Candy Ride has breathed new life into the Cryptoclearance branch of Fappiano.

Both Indian Charlie and Candy Ride went to stud inexpensively because they were by “off” sires.

A case can be made that this is true of leading sire Into Mischief, whose line is this: Into Mischief/Harlan’s Holiday/Harlan/Storm Cat, where the “weak link” to Storm Cat is Harlan.

Same for Seattle Slew, whose line to Bold Ruler travels this path: Seattle Slew/Bold Reasoning/Boldnesian/Bold Ruler.

How about Tiznow? He’s Tiznow/Cee’s Tizzy/Relaunch/In Reality, where the path to In Reality took a left turn at California-based Cee’s Tizzy.

A good example in Europe is Linamix, who went back to the outstanding Lyphard through this rocky road: Linamix/Mendez/Bellypha/Lyphard.

Likewise, Lyphard’s contemporary, Nureyev, an outstanding sire, is enjoying a renaissance through leading European sire Siyouni by way of Polar Falcon, hardly his best racing son. This line is Siyouni/Pivotal/Polar Falcon/Nureyev.

Influential sire lines, it’s been said in the past, may have a link of four (or five) successive outstanding stallions, but after that the chain may not hold. For example, Raise a Native/Mr. Prospector/Fappiano/Unbridled/Unbridled’s Song may be such a case. The belief in cases like this is there’s a natural saturation point.

In Europe, the breed-shaping sequence of Northern Dancer/Sadler’s Wells/Galileo/Frankel bears watching. Can Frankel come up with another Frankel? Or will this line, like so many others from the past, continue from an unlikely source? That’s the question, and it’s also the answer for hunting down the next big sire.