Hey all,
What a race!!! Zenyatta was a scant nose short at the wire in her bid for perfection. Had she shook loose 10 yards sooner than when she did, Blame would have been the second place finisher and she would have bounded into immortality. Not that she won’t anyway! IMHO she is that good regardless of her finish in that race.
Being one that likes all things pedigree I’d like to note that in both Zenyatta’s and Blame’s pedigrees that they are both line bred to significant individuals. Both are either 4x4 or 4x5 to horses like Northern Dancer, Raise a Native and Nashua for Blame and Hail to Reason, Hoist The Flag and Nashua for Zenyatta. This is in stark contrast to the generally accepted method of having no common ancestors in the first 6 generations.
Both have links for pedigree pages. Please enjoy and comments are appreciated!
I’m certainly not an expert but I wouldn’t have thought the inbreeding to Northern Dancer that uncommon, certainly not in the UK and Ireland, although the other stallions I wouldn’t be so sure of. It’s actually quite difficult to find stallions over here that are free of ND blood.
As for the race itself though that was heartbraking to watch but I don’t think she lost too much in defeat. Really disappointed for her but to come from as far back as she did and get so close to Blame just shows how brilliant she is. And the reception she got before and after the race was amazing.
As an aside, it’s been confirmed that BC Mile winner Goldikova stays in training next year with a fourth win in the race the main objective :D - what chance connections could keep Zenyatta going next year?
Sorry to hijack the thread a bit Myles but this info was posted on another forum regarding info about number of mares covered this year by some of the UK/Ireland based stallions
''Some interesting breeding figures in the RP today - High Chaparral (217) the busiest stallion in GB & Ireland while Yeats managed to get 171 just behind another of Coolmore’s other first season sire Mastercraftsman.
Galileo is down around 20 coverings, Dubawi and Shamardal are not surprisingly both up. Bushranger had the most for a first season sire on 188 with Sea The Stars covering 144.
On the NH side Scorpion covered 277 mares!’’
If you’re looking at ND blood, both High Chapparal and Galileo are sired by ND’s son Sadlers Wells as is Yeats, Scorpion is by SW’s son Montjeu, Mastercraftsman traces back to ND through his sire line via Danehill and Danzig with Sea The Stars also going back via Green Desert, Shamardal similarly traces back to ND through Strom Cat and Storm Bird so only Dubawi (out of this particular list) that doesn’t trace back to ND in his sire line. Just the sheer numbers of mares these guys are covering shows how hard it is to get away from ND blood.
Also, to take it to the extreme, Sea The Stars covered a few mares sired by his half-brother Galileo in his first book this year.