Letter to the Editor: Rob Whiteley

[Wandering Eyes]

I consider Chris McGrath’s article on ‘spreading genetic credit’ a must-read for those of us who are breeders, buyers, or agents. McGrath uses the phenomenal Leslie’s Lady to shine light on misconceptions that negatively impact our industry.

McGrath’s detailed exploration of Leslie’s Lady’s pedigree and how she came to be exposes false notions or myths that percolate through our breeding and sales scene, eventually impacting racing and the development of our American gene pool. I’m going to briefly touch on two of them.

Myth #1. Foals out of older mares have diminished quality. Of course, some do. But when older mares lose their mojo, the resulting foal will tell the story. It will be obvious to anyone who knows what they’re looking at.

Using 23 year old Leslie’s Lady and her spectacular $8.2-million filly as an example, McGrath pokes fun at the “glib prejudice against older producers.” As I wrote a dozen years ago in the CBA sales booklet, Buying Sales Yearlings –Plain and Simple, “If an older mare is healthy, physically and reproductively, she is just as likely to produce a hardy and vigorous foal as a younger mare.” Those who disagree are probably not aware of the maternal origins of Secretariat, Go For Wand, Silverbulletday, Ouija Board, Sea The Stars, over 20 Breeders’ Cup champions, and many thousands of stakes horses out of aging mares.

Myth #2. Stallions and sire lines provide the best evaluation of genetic quality and potential. As McGrath writes, “Stick to your sire lines if you really think such a coarse tool can interpret the myriad genetic variations” of racehorses. In other words, follow the crowd if you don’t want to give females their due or bother digging into a full, refined picture of genetic influence.

For sure, top lines are important, but as McGrath points out, the world of breeding and racing is far more complex. To me, the extent of fascination with sires seems just another remnant of a pervasive chauvinism that has dominated American racing since inception, a chauvinism that commands every cross-section of the business from breeding, sales, and training to industry leadership. Within this crucible, the inherent talent and person-to-horse communication of women in general have forever been undervalued in the sport; and like our horsewomen, so has the importance and DNA of our mares been under-appreciated and undervalued.

Our sport’s history of male domination may even partially explain the seeming man-love embrace of sire lines at the core of commercial nicking programs, often used as a crutch in mating or purchase decisions. As a student of pedigrees with a doctoral level background in research, I find it stunning that alleged “nicks” in their current form are popular and widely used by people who want to be successful. Not only are nick ratings predominantly based on too few occurrences of a direct cross to have statistical significance, but it is not uncommon to see the granddad or great granddad used in place of the subject stallion.

But the biggest nicking fallacy of all is that the ratings leave out half of the pedigree, a very crucial half … the female family. Thus, I very much appreciate McGrath’s in-depth analysis of Leslie’s Lady’s female family which details the importance of distaff contributions and exposes the folly of ignoring or not properly valuing quality females. In the case of Leslie’s Lady, this would mean ignoring the likes of Quill, Flower Bowl, Shenanigans, and Nothirdchance, etc.

Failure to include the contribution of mares, especially great mares, into a nicking calculus is like driving our car down the road on two tires. My suggestion to mare owners and buyers, therefore, is to do your own homework rather than rely on a methodology that has structural and statistical flaws and that contains more fluff than substance or utility.

And, specifically to mare owners, I recommend that you do what the astute David Hager did to mate Crystal Lady and produce Leslie’s Lady. Begin your mating plans by considering the physical characteristics of sire and dam, and try to blend both to get a well-balanced, athletic individual. Next examine the female family for deep and enduring quality. You’ll have a lot more success over time if you follow these first two steps and avoid the temptation to simply go for the fashionable sire of the day, or breed a page to a page, or listen to hogwash like “breed the best to the best and hope for the best,” or jump for an A+ sire nick.

Finally, no matter how long we’ve been in the business, we should heed Chris McGrath’s words when he writes that Leslie’s Lady and “the $8.2 million paid for Hip 498 last week requires professional horsemen everywhere to ask fresh questions of themselves.”

Rob Whiteley
Liberation Farm

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