Letter to the Editor: Empire Maker–Consistent Quality Resulted in 12th Triple Crown Winner

[Wandering Eyes]

The sport of horse racing is not like any other. It is dominated by wealth, yet money cannot guarantee success. It is steered by breeding, yet no pedigree can guarantee glory. There are so many variables involved that it is safe to say that no one is bigger than the game. This intertwining web of variables gives the sport a mystical and karmic aura. It is a sport filled with both blue-blooded and blue-collared heroes. Champion underdogs and blue-collared heroes are as important to shaping the persona of the sport as anything else. However, breeding and aspiring for quality are what ensures the progress of the breed and the sport. Quality is a wildly subjective term and in this context, it is defined as continuous and consistent results at the stakes and graded stakes level. Over the last decade, no North American stallion has embodied this type of quality like Empire Maker has. He is a stallion that really has it all. He himself has one of the best pages in the studbook and a successful racing career including a classic win. His record as a stallion has been as good as any, siring 59 stakes winners including 28 GSW and 11 Grade I winners. He has also proven himself as a sire of sires with two of his sons siring Classic winners including Triple Crown Winner American Pharoah. Empire Maker’s daughters are dams to 27 stakes winners. It is this quality that creates consistency through patterns of successful mating, crosses, and nicks.

The history of Thoroughbreds is that of artificial selection and not of natural selection. Under the mystique of the sport lies an ocean of data that tells the story of the breed and with it the history of its “selectors”. This is important because Empire Maker’s success story is not his alone. He is only one part of the equation. The other part of the equation is played by the mares he bred and the dams of his stakes winners. In order to replicate his prior success, it is important that one studies the dam part of the equation. In this particular case, it tells a very clear story. In analyzing the pedigree data of Empire Maker’s stakes winning and graded stakes-winning progeny, one finds that those pedigrees have very clear binding patterns: The dams of those stakes winners descend from two female bloodlines i) Northern Dancer, ii) Princequillo iii) a combination of the first two. The evidence supporting this theory is strong on all levels and will be examined in detail next. With Empire maker, 27 of his 28 graded stakes winners are bred in support of this theory and as well as all of his 11 Grade I winners. Of the 27 dams, 10 are from the Northern Dancer line, nine are from the Princequillo line, and eight have a combination of the two. Of his 27 listed stakes winners, 25 are bred in a manner that supports this theory. This means that of Empire Maker’s 55 North American stakes winners, 52 (95%) have dams with pedigrees that descend from Princequillo, Northern Dancer, or both.

Princequillo is a stallion that stands in a class of his own. His influence has shaped the female bloodlines of Thoroughbreds over the last 50 years. Princequillo’s influence is so strong that if his breeder hadn’t decided to send him to the U.S. to avoid racing interruptions in Europe due to World War II, the following heroes that shaped modern American horse racing would have never existed: Secretariat, Seattle Slew, American Pharoah, Justify, John Henry, Cigar, Zenyatta, California Chrome and A.P. Indy. Thus his success with Empire Maker, who himself carries Princequillo’s genes, comes as no surprise. This is a mating that is a catalyst for quality. Empire Maker has 26 stakes winners that are descendants from the Princequillo bloodline including 18 Graded Stakes winners and nine Grade I winners. Princequillo’s influence is as a broodmare sire and hence it is always in combination with another sire. One of the more successful crosses in the book is that of Bold Ruler and Princequillo. This cross produced both Secretariat (directly) and Seattle Slew (indirectly). And the cross of Seattle Slew and Secretariat is what produced A.P. Indy. The Bold Ruler X Princequillo cross is also responsible for Key to the Kingdom. The influence of Princequillo, in this case, is strongest through Seattle Slew. He is responsible for the dam line of 14 of his stakes winners of which 13 are graded stakes winners. You can see that influence through A.P. Indy in Royal Delta, Emoillent, Bodemeister, Charity Bell, and Soaring Empire. You can also see Seattle Slew’s influence in Grace Hall, Last Full Measure, Mushka, Country Star, Frivolous, Ijigen, Sky Kingdom and Imposing Grace. The Bold Ruler x Princequillo cross also has influence through Secretariat in Icon Project and through Key to the Kingdom in Pioneerof the Nile.

Another giant of the Stud Book is Northern Dancer; a legend by all measures. Empire Maker’s success with the Northern Dancer female line in undeniable with 38 stakes winners and 18 Graded Stakes winners. This success comes in various ways. The strongest of the influences is Danzig with 10 stakes winners that include: Acoma, Frivolous, Magical Feeling, Brooch, Broadway Empire, Keri Belle. After that comes Storm Cat with eight stakes winners including Bodemeister, in Lingerie, Acting Happy, Daring Dancer. One can also argue that Battle Plan belongs in this group. His second dam Starlet Storm is by Storm Bird out of a Secretariat mare; the same as Storm Cat. The Northern Dancer influence can also be seen through Ezzoud (Ire) in Grace Hall, Deputy Minister in Emollient, Dixieland Band in Ijigen, Nijinsky in Charity Belle, and Topsider in Last Full Measure. While the entire Northern Dancer line has enjoyed success with Empire Maker, Storm Cat and Danzig seem to dominate when it comes to that cross.

Empire Maker has established himself as a sire of sires. He has two sons at stud that already sired Classic winners. Pioneerof the Nile sired Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and Bodemeister has sired Derby winner Always Dreaming. One can see in their stakes-winning progeny that the trend of Princequillo and Northern Dancer still holds.

Pioneerof the Nile has 19 stakes winners of which 17 are from Northern Dancer or Princequillo female lines. Pioneerof the Nile is a horse with Princequillo influence and free of Northern Dancer. As a result, he has done very well when crossed with Northern Dancer. This cross with Storm Cat produced two of his three Grade I winners; American Pharoah and Classic Empire. Northern Dancer’s influence can also be seen through Deputy Minister in Jojo Warrior and Lavante Lion. Dark Nile has both Prinequillo and Northern Dancer influence in its female lineage. Cairo Prince is free of both Princequillo and Northern Dancer, but at closer examination, we will find that his third dam Juliet is bred exactly the same as Northern Dancer being by Neartic out of a Native Dancer mare.

Bodemeister is a young stallion that has sired a Derby winner in his first crop in Always Dreaming. He is by Empire Maker out of a Storm Cat mare and his second dam is by A.P. Indy. This is a tricky pedigree to cross and test with this theory because of the significant inbreeding that will result from him carrying all the genes that support this theory. However, even with a small sample of stakes winners, the cross holds. His other graded stakes winner is American Anthem who is out of an A.P. Indy mare carrying the Princequillo flag. Always Dreaming, at first glance, might look like he is following a different trend being out of an In Excess mare but at closer look one can see that his second dam Somethingperfect is by the Northern Dancer stallion Somethingfabulous. Somethingfabulous is out of the Princequillo dam Somethingroyal, who is the dam of Secretariat. Somethingfabulous brings an influx of genes to Always Dreaming from the gene pool that has proven successful with this pioneering sire line.

This analytic conclusion was first arrived at in 2010 in a mating exercise to select broodmares from Zayat Stable’s portfolio that would fit Pioneerof the Nile. The assumption was made that Empire Maker’s data would carry over to Pioneerof the Nile. At the time 18 stakes winners were investigated and it was found that 11 of the 18 were descendent from the Northern Dancer line. One of the mares that fit this criterion was Littleprincessemma–a descendent from the Storm Cat line. The resulting foal was American Pharoah and the rest is Triple Crown history. Eight years of additional data have done nothing but to strengthen and shed more light on this breeding theory.

Every time a breeder sends a mare to a stallion he is punching a ticket in the genetic lottery. Chance plays a big role in the breeding of quality thoroughbred. It is even clear in the adage of “breed the best to the best and hope for the best.” It is important that the concept of best here also applies to best practices. The world is changing and is relying more and more on data. With it, new analytical tools are introduced every day. We can achieve a level of consistency in breeding through utilizing these tools, quantifying breeding results and materializing new variables because consistency is an inseparable component of quality.

 

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