Group One Winning Gene Pool Narrows YoY
An interesting study by Bloodhorse showed that tail-male descendants of Mr Prospector, Northern Dancer and A.P. Indy continue to win the overwhelming majority of Group One dirt races in the U.S while only three other sire lines (Caro, Hail To Reason and In Reality) have managed to account for even one percent of the total. Furthermore, of the 218 dirt Group Ones in the past three years, only one was won by a horse from a sire line other than the six listed earlier.
The narrowing gene pool seems like less of an issue in an age when more horses are bred to sell than to race, when furthering genetic diversity means sending a Tale Of The Cat mare to a son of Unbridled’s Song.
Both Maximum Security, who hit the wire first, and Country House, who was awarded the race on his disqualification, are descended from Mr Prospector, and, as such they have much in common with around two Group One winners in every five on U.S. dirt over the last three years.
But maybe if more stallions from these disappearing (and disappeared) lines were still around – if mostly to provide stouter mares for today’s fashionable stallions – horses would be making more than five or six starts per year, and a career would total more than nine or ten.