Pedigree Pointers: Cassie Tully on whether elite racemares go on to produce quality offspring

There is something perpetually endearing about great racemares. We all love a champion of any sort rising to the top, but the journey of a mare consistently toughing it out at the highest level, especially if against the boys, is something that captivates even the weakest of followers.

While stallions produce hundreds of soldiers to campaign their father’s name to paternal fame, mares still only have one opportunity per year to showcase their ability as producers.

Some of the greatest racemares of all time never managed to pass on their genes of glory, while others have turned out to be some of the greatest producers.

Of course the best ones always launch to mind – Urban Sea. The most well-documented Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner has not only produced the world’s greatest sire Galileo, but three other Group 1 winners, and her daughters are all currently producing one Group 1 performer after the other.

Another example is 10-time Group 1-winning champion Miesque. She produced the two champions Kingmambo and East Of The Moon as well as Group 1 winning grandchildren Alpha Centauri, Karakontie, Rumplestiltskin, Loves Only You and so on.

Mares with such legacies are rare not only due to their limited production ability, but to consistently produce top level horses, with the capability of beating the rest of their generations, is about as difficult as selecting the winning lottery numbers on each attempt.

Alas, we must dream and expect those that excel on the track to gift us with the next generation cut from the same cloth.

So what about the champions and stars of recent times? How are they faring production-wise? Are they the likeliest source for our future champions?

For the purpose of research – I have narrowed the sample groups to those who excelled in their three-year-old season.

The Classic winners are more often than not the best fillies over their respective distances each year and therefore the most appropriate place to start.

To include those who have produced at least two or more runners, the selected group begins in 2012 and goes back to 1993 for 20 years of Classic winners.

The 1000 Guineas and Oaks in both Britain and Ireland over 20 years gives us 80 races in total. We have 70 mares, however, as ten notable subjects managed to win two of the Classics.

Out of 70 stars, 13 of them have gone on to produce a Group 1 winner in their second careers. That equates to 18.5%.

40 of them produced some level of Stakes winner (57%) and 12 did not manage to produce a Stakes performer of any description.

Four of the Classic-winning mares in particular are standing out a mile from the other 66.

Three individual mares have managed to produce more than one Group 1 winner. Halfway To Heaven, Misty For Me and Nightime have all produced two top level winners so far.

The three mares who all achieved their Classic success in the Irish 1000 Guineas, have won eight Group 1s between them and have produced the celebrities Magical, Rhododendron, U S Navy Flag, Roly Poly, Zhukova and Ghaiyyath respectively.

The fourth mare who has made quite the mark to date is Moonstone. Although she has not produced a Group 1 winner, the Irish Oaks conqueror has produced the most Stakes winners of the 70 mares with five individual Stakes winners to her name, including US Army Ranger who was second in the Epsom Derby.

This quartet all have quite a few years of production left to add to their tallies and become the next Miesque or Urban Sea.

Due to the fact that there are other top mares that don’t win Classics – the second sample group are fillies who performed to a Timeform rating of 120 or higher in their three-year-old season.

Taking a 10-year span from 2012 back to 2003, there were 63 fillies in total that earned a Timeform rating of 120 or higher.

11 (17%) of those individual mares went on to produce Group 1 winners (four Classic winners from the previous sample were also included in this).

There was a higher proportion (one third) of mares that did not produce any form of Stakes performers in this group. As well as a slightly lower percentage of Stakes producers. Perhaps indicating that the Classics are a sterner test and represent a higher level of quality.

The figures overall highlight both the difficulty and magnitude of producing a top-level winner. Quality will usually always find its way back to the surface however as three mares who did not manage to produce top-level winning progeny, still had daughters who did just that.

Mehthaaf, who won the Irish 1000 Guineas in 1994, is the grandam of four-time Group 1 winner Ribchester as well as Group 1 winner Matterhorn through another daughter.

A daughter of Oaks winner Moonshell produced dual Australian champion Miss Finland.

And Airwave, the Cheveley Park Stakes winner who achieved a 120 Timeform in her third year, produced three Stakes winners including a daughter Meow who has subsequently delivered recent champions Churchill and Clemmie.

Unfortunately, there are many famous champions of note that did not or have not yet produced anything near to their own calibre. Ramruma, the treble Oaks heroine produced 12 named foals, only one of which placed in a Stakes race. As well as dual Guineas winner Finsceal Beo, who just got our hopes up once with Ol Man River in the Group 2 Beresford.

Treble Group 1 winner Lush Lashes has not yet bred a winner and dual Classic winner Blue Bunting is yet to produce a Stakes winner.

Generally, it is accepted that for the best chance of future success, you look to those who have already achieved it. Yet clearly there are many more Group 1 winners than those accounted for out of the mares above.

There are countless top-producing mares that did not achieve greatness or glory themselves and have blossomed into champion producers in their second careers. Some of the best racehorses and sires around are not out of Group 1-winning mares and these will all be discussed next week.

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