Page 45 - 8 June 2012 Special Broodmare Edition

LIZZIE G TB
War Dance
Lexington
Boston
Timoleon
Mare by Ball’s Florizel
Alice Carneal
Sarpedon
Rowena
Reel
Glencoe
Sultan
Trampoline
Gallopade
Catton
Camillina
Mare by LeCompte
LeCompte
Boston
Timoleon
Mare by Ball’s Florizel
Reel
Glencoe
Gallopade
Edith
Sovereign
Emilius
Fleur De Lis
Judith
Glencoe
Unknown Dam
Easy Jet was a great sire and broodmare sire.
LARGE HEARTS AND THE X CHROMOSOME
One of the criteria needed by a good racehorse is a good heart to pump blood and give them the ability to run fast. It has been established that the great sire Eclipse had a large heart. He was virtually unbeat- able on the racetrack, and also proved to be a great sire. Eclipse has become the source of the large heart gene we are finding in the modern racehorse.
Eclipse was one of three second-gen- eration foundation Thoroughbred sires,
in which most all Thoroughbreds trace to and thru to the first generation founda- tion sires of The Darley Arabian, The Godolphin Arabian and the Byerly Turk. The three second-generation sires were Eclipse (The Darley Arabian), Matchem (The Godolphin Arabian) and Herod (The Byerly Turk).
On Feb. 28, 1994, the Thoroughbred Times published an article by Marianna Haun called “The X Factor,” which fol- lowed the genetics of the large heart. Much of the material in the article was based
on research and information provided by Dr. Anthony Stewart of the University of Melbourne and Dr. Gus Gothran at that time from the University of Kentucky. The evidence from this research indicates the gene for the large heart is located on the X chromosome and is passed by the mare to her foals. It is also believed to be a recessive gene. This means that the mare can be a carrier without actually having a large heart if her other X is dominant.
The fact that the large heart gene is believed to be recessive is very significant when the gene is passed to a mare’s sons. If a mare passes her large heart gene to her son, it can be expressed because of the fact that the Y chromosome inherited by the son
Lizzie G shows a linebreeding pattern of 3x4x4 to *Glencoe, a source of the large heart gene that originated with Eclipse. Lizzie G is the dam of Mannie Gray, the mother of Domino and Mannie Himyar.
from his sire has very little genetic material. Thus the genes on the X chromosome can express themselves.
Researchers report that the gene for
large heart can be traced from modern Thoroughbreds like Secretariat back to the famous mare Pocahontas and even further back to Eclipse. This is the same Pocahontas that Tesio used in his breeding program. They found that “practically every major broodmare sire zig-zagged on the X chromo- some back to the legendary Pocahontas.”
Pocahontas traces back to Eclipse on
both sides of her pedigree. She is sired by *Glencoe, who got his large heart gene from his dam, who traces to a daughter of Eclipse named Everlasting. The other source of the large heart gene is through the tail female line of Pocahontas, which traces back to a daughter of Eclipse named Everlasting. Using random tracking, genetic researchers found that “the greater the success of the brood- mare and broodmare sire, the greater the number of links to Pocahontas.”
The findings illustrate the potential of “double copy” mares. A double copy mare is homozygous, meaning she has two large heart X genes. This allows the mare to
pass on the large heart gene 100% of the time. Potential double copy mares include Weekend Surprise and Somethingroyal, the dam of Secretariat. Somethingroyal has five tail female line crosses to Pocahontas in her pedigree.
Secretariat is the sire of Weekend Surprise, out of Lassie Dear. Lassie Dear has eight tail female line crosses to Pocahontas
in her pedigree. This gives Weekend Surprise a total of 13 tail female line crosses to Pocahontas. Five of the eight crosses in Lassie Dear would come from her dam Gay Missile, a daughter of Sir Gaylord, another son of Somethingroyal. Weekend Surprise is the
dam of such noted horses as A.P. Indy. When we take a look at *Glencoe and the
large heart we have to make note of horses like Domino and his full sister Mannie Himyar, as well as Pocahontas. Domino is out of Mannie Gray. She in turn is out of Lizzie G. Lizzie G is linebred to *Glencoe. Her sire is War Dance, who is out of Reel,
by *Glencoe. Lizzie G’s dam is a mare by Lecompte, out of Reel, by *Glencoe. The dam of the Lecompte Mare is Edith, who is out of Judith, by *Glencoe. This is a breeding pattern of 3x4x4 to *Glencoe. Domino has proven to be a phenomenal source of speed
in modern horse racing. His sister Mannie Himyar is the taproot mare for Esters Little Klu. She appears in the sixth generation of Esters Little Klu, giving her this breeding pattern in the tail female line.
Some prominent Quarter Horse mares have been designated as large heart carriers, including the great Corona Chick, Dashing Phoebe, Especially For You, Merry For Cash and Lady Meter Reader.
In June 1998, Marianna Haun profiled Corona Chick as a double copy for the large heart gene in The American Quarter Racing Journal article “Heart of the Matter.” Haun noted that Corona Chick would have a great breeding record based on her being a double copy for the large heart gene on her X chromosome. This has proven to be very accurate as she is the dam of seven stakes horses including multiple champion Corona Cash, stakes winners Corona Cartel, Valiant Hero, and Corona Czech, and stakes-placed Mighty Corona and Captain Courage.
It is also interesting to note that her sons are proving to be good sires as well. Corona Cartel is leading the way with foals that have earned over $38,000,000 with four champions including World Champion Blues Girl Too. Corona Cartel is starting
SPEEDHORSE, June 8, 2012 43
Joseph P. Wilson