Two Sires and La Paz
by Roger Lyons
Forest Camp (Deputy Minister) and Mission Impazible (Unbridled’s Song) have been the two best foals out of La Paz (Hold Your Peace-Classy Craft, by Crafty Drone), and their respective sires have something very special in common. Now, at this point I could say it’s some form of linebreeding with La Paz, but that wouldn’t be the truth because, as members of a population in which all horses are linebred, linebreeding just wouldn’t count as something special. No, it’s something really special.
It happens that, in the scoring method I use to reflect how well a mare crosses with a given stallion, La Paz scores just about as high as it gets with both Deputy Minister and Unbridled’s Song. In fact, not only does La Paz score in the 100th percentile of mares that produced foals by Deputy Minister, but not a single one of those dams scores higher than she does with Deputy Minister. Only four mares that have produced foals by Unbridled’s Song score higher, and three of them produced superior runners by him (winner of an unrestricted stakes or at least 2nd in a G1 or G2 race). La Paz scores in the 99th percentile with Unbridled’s Song.
In order for that to happen, Deputy Minister and Unbridled’s Song would have to have very similar profiles with respect to La Paz’ ancestry, and indeed they do. In both cases, there’s a simple sire-line nick with Hold Your Peace. Unbridled’s Song has a strike rate of 3/6 with Hold Your Peace (eNicks A+), and Deputy Minister has a strike rate of 2/10 (eNicks A+). Those strike rates reflect each sires’ opportunity with mares representing Hold Your Peace against the number of those mares that produced superior runners.
Both sires, however, also have a whole series of inside-the-pedigree advantages. The sires of La Paz’ second, third, and fourth dams, respectively, are Crafty Drone (Drone), Outing Class, and Royal Coinage–all found largely inside the pedigree these days. Both Deputy Minister and Unbridled’s Song appear to have good numbers with all three of those sire lines.
Unbridled’s Song has strike rates of 3/14 with Drone, 2/9 with Outing Class, and 2/6 with Royal Coinage. Deputy Minister has strike rates of 2/12 with Drone, 3/9 with Outing Class, and 2/4 with Royal Coinage.
It’s rare enough to come across a mare that has a profile at that level with any stallion, much less one that she’d actually been bred to. So, to find one mare that has actually been bred to two different stallions with which she has such profiles is just one of those things that you don’t think of until it happens. Makes you wonder what Deputy Minister and Unbridled’s Song really have in common, of which these similar profiles are a reflection and to which La Paz makes such a favorable contribution.
Posted by Roger Lyons on Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 10:04 am.
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