by Paul F Spears 14/2/2012
Revenue S 8, 1:51.3 ($1,998,608) (Reve D’Udon – Hazel Sund) will stand service in Norway for the 2012 breeding season for a booking fee of 3000kr and 22,000 kr live foal fee. Winner of 47 lifetime races mainly in Europe, Revenue S made four starts in North America in 2004, taking his record in the $208,000 Allerage Trot in Lexington. I personally remember his dominating 26.3 second final quarter to win the $300,000 Nat Ray Trot in 1:53 at the Meadowlands, the same day that Windsong’s Legacy won the Hambletonian.
Soon thereafter, Revenue S began his stallion career at Perretti Farms in New Jersey. Through 2010, Revenue S sired 328 USTA-registered foals. US racing statistics are available for his foals through 2008. Of 267 US foals of racing age, 161 (62.5%) were starters, 73 (27.3%) in 2:00, 11 (4.1%) in 1:55, with total earnings of $7,872,307. His top two US performers have been the Trond Smedshammer- trained Break The Bank K 3, 1:51.3 ($1,011,365), and the Jonas Czernyson-trained Hot Shot Blue Chip 5, 1:51.3 ($791,987).
My personal mares produced three foals by Revenue S during his US stallion career. Sir Winston 4, 1:53.2 ($252,367) is listed among his sire’s “Top 10” US performers (#4 by record, #6 by earnings). Out of a half sister to double World Champion Queen Serene, Sir Winston is racing in Conditioned classes at Woodbine/Mohawk in Ontario. He was a great looking yearling. Candy Is Dandy 4, 1:57.3f ($26,676) was out of Dandy Hanover, a full sister to Davidia Hanover. Last year at 4, Candy Is Dandy was winning in Open classes at the Running Aces track in Minnesota. The third foal was Let’s Boogie, a chestnut filly that was exported to Russia, out of Lady Windsong of the Classic Casette family.
Let’s look at Revenue S’s best US performers. His American maternal family makes it far easier to “match” US bloodlines than many other French-American stallions. Revenue S is from the immediate maternal family of Speedy Scot, and his tail female line traces to Expressive (1891). The pedigrees of his granddam Rare Chance and dam Hazel Sund are fine examples of progressive inbreeding, which then was completely outcrossed to the French stallion Reve D’Udon to produce Revenue S. Here is the pedigree of Rare Chance:
As you can see, Rare Chance is the product of a line breeding plan that matched Volomite, Dean Hanover, Scotland, and Peter The Great. The 4×4 line breeding cross to Dean Hanover is in the powerful X position. The Inbreeding Co-efficient of Rare Chance is 8%.
Mated with Sugarcane Hanover, Rare Chance produced Hazel Sund, the dam of Revenue S. Here is the pedigree of Hazel Sund:
The mating features a 4×2 full sibling cross – Speedy Scot and Rare Scotch, dam of Rare Chance. The first three maternal sire lines of Sugarcane Hanover (Star’s Pride, Hoot Mon, and Dean Hanover) are linebred in Rare Chance. The 5x5x5 line breedings to Dean Hanover are all in X position, as is the 4×4 line breeding to Hoot Mon. As a result of these close matings, the Inbreeding Co-efficient for Hazel Sund rises to 12.5%.
Hazel Sund’s repeatedly inbred pedigree called for an outcross mating, and there was no greater outcross than a French stallion. Her mating with Reve D’Udon produced Revenue S, with only a 0.4% In-breeding Co-efficient. Revenue S is therefore another successful example of the mating of a repeatedly inbred mare with an outcross stallion. We can now look at the pedigree of Revenue S, to predict what kind of mares might be successful with him:
Revenue S’s first three maternal sire lines are Arnie Almahurst/Speedster, Nevele Pride/Star’s Pride, and Speedster. Broodmares that bring those lines back to him, with Dean Hanover maternally as a bonus, might be especially successful. With his inbreeding relationships to Speedy Scot, double Speedy Crown mares should do well with him too.
Let us look at his top 10 best US performers, and check their pedigrees:
Horse Maternal 3. generation sires (sire lines)
Break The Bank K
American Winner (Star’s Pride)/(Speedy Crown)/Florida Pro (Arnie Almahurst)
Hot Shot Blue Chip
Muscles Yankee (Speedy Crown)/(Speedy Crown)/Texas (Star’s Pride)
Whiskey
Tax
Muscles Yankee(Speedy Crown)/(Speedy Crown)/Bonefish (Star’s Pride)
Reven
Damour
Super Arnie (Star’s Pride)/French/(Speedy Scot)
Pricevalleyrevitup
Bonefish (Star’s Pride)/Speedy Crown/Hoot Mon
Sir
Winston
Mr Vic (Speedy Crown)/Sierra Kosmos/Speedy Crown
Keystone
Thomas Lindy
Lane (Speedy Crown)/Joie de Vie (Star’s Pride)/Speedy Crown
Tall
Cotton
Balanced Image (Noble Victory)/Dream of Glory (Speedster)/Lumber Boy
Bastille
Cumin (Star’s Pride)/(Speedy Crown)/Flash Ex Hanover (Volomite)
Fool’s
Revenue
Armbro Goal (Speedy Crown)/Tuneful Contest (Noble Victory)/Caper (Hoot Mon)
Note that the dams of most of Revenue’s best performers have Speedy Crown/Star’s Pride combinations (in either order) within their first three sire lines, or two lines of Speedy Crown often reinforced by a third Star’s Pride line. Outliers on the list are Tall Cotton and Fool’s Revenue. The pedigree of Reven Damour would suggest fine opportunities with mares by Super Arnie and Express Ride, both of which have Arnie Almahurst dams. Mares by Dream Vacation, Enjoy Lavec, Gunslinger Spur, and Pine Chip would also bring the Arnie Almahurst line back to Revenue S. Mares by Speedy Tomali would present line breeding opportunities with Star’s Pride, Hoot Mon, and Dean Hanover farther back in the pedigree of Revenue S. Mares by Armbro Kissed would give a very interesting but close 3×3 linebreeding to the full siblings Sugarcane Hanover and Sunkissed, dam of Armbro Kissed. You can see that Revenue S is open to breeding opportunities from a very broad selection of broodmare sires!
Revenue S is 161 cm. in height, and 165 cm. in length, with very good conformation and beautiful head. He is a sire best suited for Europe in many ways. His maternal family matches best with prominent European broodmare sires, and European racing programs will give his foals time to develop their natural abilities.
By Paul F. Spears 9/9/2011
I am sure that my Norwegian friends will wonder why I am writing about an oddly named horse familiar only to racing fans on the eastern shore of Maryland (US). Googoo Gaagaa established a 2YO trotting colt World Record of 1:56h taken at Ocean Downs, a tiny ocean resort track. To date, Googoo Gaagaa has won all six of his lifetime starts at Ocean Downs in the Maryland Sires program with earnings of $38,512. His last three starts have been won by a combined 90 lengths, and his 1:56h win found him ahead by an incredible 41 lengths. Holy Secretariat! Well, maybe I exaggerate. Nevertheless, this is an impressive young horse.
What is his breeding? His sire is Cam’s Rocket p,3, 1:52 $234,164 (Cam’s Card Shark – Queen of Rock – Meadow Skipper), who has stood a leisurely stallion career for six years in Illinois and Maryland. Cam’s Rocket won New Jersey Sire Stakes races at 2 and 3, and his most productive year was at 5 when he won $80,000 in Invitationals and Opens at small Midwestern tracks. To date, Cam’s Rocket has sired only 23 pacing starters, 3 of which have taken a record of 1:55 and won a collective $353,009.
Plus one trotter, Googoo Gaagaa. Here is his pedigree:*
His dam is Kora’s Trotter 4, 2:02.1f ($2,229), winner of one of eleven lifetime races. By the Speedy Somolli stallion Veeba Roba out of the Jurgy Hanover (finally, a horse I know!) dam Misty Tickles, Kora’s Trotter would not be described as a broodmare with commercial appeal.
Her first two foals were by trotting stallions. Rosy Picture by Broadway Hall took only a 2, Q2:03.3f record and earned no money. My Baby Momma by Tejano is a very good filly. My Baby Momma is currently three, and is also a star in the Maryland Sires program at Ocean Downs. Her lifetime mark is a respectable 3, 2:00h with $50,665 in earnings, racing entirely in Maryland where good purses are scarce. This year, My Baby Momma is 11 – 6 – 1 – 0 and has earned $38,069, with 5 wins and 1 second in the Maryland Sires program.
Plus Googoo Gaagaa. How did this happen?
When we examine the tail female line of Kora’s Trotter, we are surprised to find her seventh dam is the immortal Rosalind TT 1:56 3/4. Rosalind is also the sixth dam of Fern 4, 1:52.3 ($1,245,502); and fifth dam of Ohyouprettything p,3, 1:50.4 ($1,279,368), dam of Jereme’s Jet p,4, T1:47 ($1,519,321). Rosalind is therefore a direct female ancestor of both great trotters and pacers. The tail female line eventually leads to the great Nervolo Belle, dam of Peter Volo who was the sire of Volomite. We also find that the third dam of Kora’s Trotter, Misty Wiggles, was by the obscure stallion Yield, whose fourth dam is also Rosalind! Misty Wiggles was therefore 5×4 to the great Rosalind in her tail female lines. Distantly, Kora’s Trotter’s tail female line shines brightly with the progenitors of the Volomite sire line.
But what about this crazy pacing cross? In my previous blog titled “What Is An Outcross Breeding?”, I talked about the limited trotting stallion lines in North America, and how pacers might be an unusual but theoretically useful source of outcross bloodlines. I thought Volomite might be an important “bridge” because this bloodline is still shared prominently by both trotters and pacers. I mentioned that pacing stallions with prominent Volomite bloodlines such as Rocknroll Hanover and Somebeachsomewhere might be candidates for outcross experiments with trotting broodmares.
Oddly, Cam’s Rocket is also such a stallion. Two of his four primary maternal sire lines are through Volomite. His dam Queen of Rock is by Meadow Skipper, whose dam Countess Vivian is by Kings Counsel by Volomite. Queen of Rock’s second dam Armbro Hardy is by Bye Bye Byrd by Poplar Byrd by Volomite. In addition, Countess Vivian is the fifth dam in the tail female line of Queen of Rock, making Queen of Rock closely inbred 2×4 to Countess Vivian. Volomite lines reinforce each other repeatedly in the pedigree of Cam’s Rocket.
In an interview published on page 30 of the August 31, 2011 edition of The Horseman and Fair World Magazine, his breeder Richard Hans explained that the mating was one of convenience: “We sent the mare to New Jersey to be bred to a trotter, but she didn’t get in foal. We brought her back here and since breeding season was over and we have Cam’s Rocket here on the farm, we bred her to him. I was afraid he would be no good anyway. I owned the mother and she would just hit everywhere. But he would trot so clean and always stayed flat. He can just really go. He’s perfect – the best horse I’ve ever been around. He’s not a gelding because he’s always so well-behaved.” Unfortunately, Mr. Hans also reported that Kora’s Trotter has since died. There will be no more brothers or sisters to Googoo Gaagaa.
Perhaps the success of Googoo Gaagaa can be explained by a reawakening of the greatness of the tail female line of Kora’s Trotter from which came the Volomite sire line, and the outcross bloodlines of a pacing stallion with a maternal family highly inbred to Volomite. What would happen if top rated pacing stallions like Somebeachsomewhere or Rocknroll Hanover with significant Volomite bloodlines were mated to well bred trotting mares? The success of a modestly bred horse like Googoo Gaagaa makes me want to know the answer more than ever.
*Courtesy of Pedigree Matching Globetrotter
by Paul F. Spears 5/7/2012
Readers may remember my blog last year about the pedigree of Googoo Gaagaa, a very unusual cross between the obscure pacer Cam’s Rocket p,3, 1:52 ($234,164) (Cam’s Card Shark – Queen of Rock – Meadow Skipper) and the even more modest trotting mare Kora’s Trotter 4, 2:02.1f ($2,229). His breeder and owner, Richard Hans, has given a comfortable retirement to Cam’s Rocket on his Maryland (USA) farm. After Kora’s Trotter did not get in foal to a trotting stallion, Hans simply bred her to the stallion in his pasture. He didn’t worry that he was breeding a pacing stallion to a trotting mare, or about what others would think of his choice. The foal became Googoo Gaagaa.
My blog discussed the need for outcross opportunities for inbred US trotters, and that US pacers could be an answer to this problem. I suggested that horses with major Volomite bloodlines might be good candidates, and that Googoo Gaagaa was the product of such a mating.
Googoo Gaagaa is quickly proving himself to be a super horse, with consecutive blazing fast miles of 1:51.3f and 1:50.4f at Mohegan Sun Pocono Downs in Pennsylvania (USA). He won both races entirely on his own, without much encouragement from his driver. His reach is tremendous, and his gait is almost effortless. Sadly, he is not eligible to the Hambletonian. We can only hope that he has the opportunity to display the limits of his speed against elite competition this year. I do not exaggerate when I say that he could become the first 1:50 3 year old trotter.
His humble beginnings and modest parents are unusual for a great champion. Some will say that he is a “freak”. The word does not do justice to his talent. The word implies that his abilities can neither be understood, nor likely passed on to his offspring. I think such people will be wrong for the reasons I outlined in my blog.
If we as breeders can try to understand the reasons for Googoo Gaagaa’s success, we can have more confidence that he could be successful as a trotting sire. For many years, Standardbreds have been divided for racing and breeding purposes into two increasingly exclusive groups according to gait. Pacers and trotters therefore have had some opportunity to diverge genetically. Although we believe that pacing is naturally faster than trotting, pacers in recent years seem to have developed an especially fast racing style. If the speed and endurance of the pacer have evolved beyond those of the trotter, then the mating of pacers to trotters could likely produce some very fast trotters. Is this idea so very different than bringing American bloodlines to France? American bloodlines seem to have improved the speed of French trotters, so much that a significant percentage of stallions standing in France now carry American bloodlines.
I hope that someone may be interested in taking this concept another step. If such modest parents can produce Googoo Gaagaa, what kind of trotter could be produced by the cross of a great pacing stallion with a fine trotting mare?
Following the example of Googoo Gaagaa, we would want to identify pacing stallions with major Volomite bloodlines. Somebeachsomewhere and Rocknroll Hanover are leading candidates. Of the two stallions, I prefer Somebeachsomewhere for this purpose:*
The grandsire of Mach Three is Direct Scooter. Direct Scooter is a Volomite line sire, and his dam Noble Claire is by the Volomite line trotting stallion Noble Victory . The grandsire of Wheres The Beach is French Chef, whose dam La Pomme Souffle is by the great Volomite line trotting stallion Nevele Pride. Armbro Nesbit, the sire of Beach Towel’s dam Sunburn, is by the Volomite sire line stallion Bye Bye Byrd. Armbro Nesbit is 3x4x5 linebred to Volomite. The pedigree of Somebeachsomewhere is also very heavy with Meadow Skipper bloodlines (4x5x4x5). The dam of Meadow Skipper, Countess Vivian, is by the Volomite line sire King’s Counsel.
Rocknroll Hanover is also a good choice because of multiple links to the Volomite line through his dam Rich N Elegant, who is by Direct Scooter. However, because of the strong influence of a 3×3 line breeding to Abercrombie that has no major Volomite connections and the lack of Meadow Skipper (Countess Vivian) in the maternal pedigree of Rocknroll Hanover, I would favor Somebeachsomewhere.
Mares with multiple major sire line crosses to Volomite would be good choices. These mares should have very smooth trotting gaits, good racing records, and long bodies. Somebeachsomewhere is a powerfully built horse. I would be careful about breeding very large mares to him. Like any experiment, I would expect some disappointing outcomes. However, I also believe that some very good horses would be produced. Think of a trotter with the speed and stamina of Somebeachsomewhere! It just might be possible.
Disclaimer: Somebeachsomewhere stands at Hanover Shoe Farms. I am Vice President of Hanover Shoe Farms. I hope that readers will believe my comments are not based upon Hanover’s interests in Somebeachsomewhere. Otherwise, try Rocknroll Hanover instead, and let the best stallion win!
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