Page 39 - April 2016

MILLION DOLLAR SIRES
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by Larry Thornton
It’s that time of the year when we focus on the million dollar sires. The million-dollar sire list can be used as a barometer to measure the sire lines influencing the industry. It’s almost like a who’s hot and who’s not list, and this tells us the direction the industry is going in the pursuit of good racehorses through the stallions being used.
Over the last 300 years, breeders have extolled the role of the stallion through the sire line.
The sire line being that line of decent along the top line of the bracket pedigree. The genetic factor that ties the sire line together is the “Y” chromosome that the sire passes to his sons.
The genetic information that consistently passes from sire to son comes through what geneticist call haplotypes on the “Y” chromosome. Haplotypes are a series of genes that are passed down intact generation to generation. The “Y” chromosome then becomes the genetic basis of sire line genetics that ties a stallion to his sons and the perpetuation of the sire line.
We have seen this take shape through discussions in the Thoroughbred and how virtually every Thoroughbred traces in their sire line to one of three stallions: the Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Arabian, and the Byerly Turk. Then, we have seen how the Darley Arabian sire line has come to dominate through horses like Eclipse and Whalebone.
This takes us to today and how the Phalaris branch of the Darley Arabian sire line has come to dominate the Thoroughbred. Phalaris goes in his sire line to Whalebone through his sire Polymelus to Cyllene and on down the sire line to Stockwell, who is a son of The Baron who is a grandson of Birdcatcher who is a grandson of Whalebone.
The dominance of the Phalaris sire line
and its influence comes through the stallions Nearco and Native Dancer. Nearco gave his
sons Nasrullah, Royal Charger and Nearctic. Nasrullah gave the Bold Ruler branch. Royal Charger gave the Turn-To line and, of course, Nearctic gave Northern Dancer. Native Dancer has given Raise A Native, who in turn has given Mr Prospector. These stallions and others have made the Phalaris sire line the dominant sire line in the Thoroughbred.
When we look at the million-dollar Quarter Horse sires we see that Phalaris is adding his influence through horses like Beduino TB, Azure
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Ballot
Midway
Thirty-Third
Sir Dixon
Percentage
High Degree
Bulse
Gossip
Avenue
THREE
BARS TB
Rosewood
Disguise
Nethersole
Magneto
*Rose Tree II
Luke
Midge
Patriot
Commando
Ultimus
Running Stream
Mcluke
*Trenton *Sandfly
Myrtle Dee
Ben Brush
*Sandfly
Civil
Maid
Civil Rule
Carlsbad
Semper Victoire
Three Bars, who won the Agua Caliente Speed Handicap and set a New Track Record for 5-furlongs at the Arizona Jockey Club Track, won 12 races and earned just over $20,000 racing from 1943-1947. He became a legend in the Quarter Horse industry, siring 14 AQHA Racing Champions.
SPEEDHORSE, April 2016 37
SPEEDLINES