Dar Re Mi and the Men in Tights
(With apologies to Robin Hood)
by Roger Lyons
Pedigree consultants have to do some genealogical back-flips in order to get Sheema Classic (G1) winner, Dar Re Mi’s pedigree to conform with their 19th-century notions of pure breeding, the springboard for which is, of course, linebreeding. I would give them about a four, but that’s with a lot of credit for degree of difficulty. Dar Re Mi’s nearest inbreeding is 6×6 to Nearco, which means the linebreeding pedigree consultants will have to suit up for some serious pedigree gymnastics. Sorry, but we’re talking tights.
After bows to the audience, they begin with a daring leap from Singspiel’s eighth-generation ancestor, Flares, the broodmare sire of Nantallah, sire of Thong, to land precariously on Black Devil, in Dar Re Mi’s seventh generation. He’s the paternal great-grandsire of High Top’s second dam. Don’t worry, Flares and Black Devil are not the only close genetic relatives they could find. They’re saving the best for last.
After a couple of ad-libbed pirouettes to regain their footing, they somersault across Dar Re Mi’s pedigree to Forli, the sire of Sadler’s Wells’ second dam and then gather themselves for the finale, a twisting double-back-flip to Abernant, broodmare sire of Top Ville’s paternal great-grandsire, Derring Do, and a close genetic relative of Forli. At least, they finish the performance in range of the audience.
A pedigree floor exercise judge might question our intrepid gymnists’ choice of Black Devil and Abernant as landing marks in the pedigree of Darara. These are both ancestors of Top Ville, and, while Sadler’s Wells line generally has done well with Top Ville-line mares, Singspiel really hasn’t, with only one superior runner (Dar Re Mi herself) from 12 mares, and he has exactly the same strike rate with High Top at 2/24.
The numbers don’t look much better as you follow them back into Top Ville’s ancestry. With Abernant, Singspiel has been about average, but he’s been below average with Black Devil. If Abernant and Black Devil are the reasons why Darara worked so well with Singspiel, then why doesn’t Singspiel have better numbers with those ancestors?
Clearly, there’s something working for Singspiel in the ancestry of Darara, but Top Ville’s credit for it appears limited to his having got out of the way in this case. The real payoff for Singspiel almost certainly has more to do with ancestors of Darara’s dam, Delsy, because the ones that have been favorable to Singspiel comprise a long list.
Besides, Delsy is also the dam of Darshaan, which is one of those mega-nicks with Sadler’s Wells line, and she might actually be the key to it. Singspiel is 2/14 with Darshaan, but with Delsy he’s 3/15. That he’s 4/24 with Astronomie, to which Delsy is inbred 3×4, suggests that the contribution of Delsy probably plays a substantial role in Singspiel’s nick with Darshaan and quite possibly in the greater Sadler’s Wells-Darshaan nick as well. After all, if you take out Darshaan, Singspiel is only 2/18 with the rest of Shirley Heights line.
Regardless of how far it goes, the numbers suggest that this is the most probable pedigree interpretation relating to Dar Re Mi. However, there’s some comical amusement in watching the contortions of pedigree consultants who are really just cheerleaders for linebreeding, blithely oblivious to actual effects.