By Elaine Belval
Technology has changed a lot of lives over the years, but Werk Thoroughbred Consultants still manually enters SWs, just like we did 20 years ago. Some may think it is time consuming and wasteful, but it allows for a good look at each stakes-winning pedigree—and it’s easier to catch interesting patterns, which is what happened recently.
Remember when inbreeding to Mr. Prospector was first appearing in pedigrees? Now, hundreds of SWs every year are inbred to Mr. Prospector, and even sons of Mr. Prospector, including Fappiano and Seeking the Gold, are appearing in inbreeding.
So what happened recently? A colt named House of Wax won the Drum Star S. in South Africa. House of Wax is by Count Dubois out of a daughter of Western Winter. Count Dubois is a G1-winning son of Zafonic (who was arguably the best son of Gone West at stud), and Western Winter (another son of Gone West) was a listed SW in Florida. He was sold to stud in South Africa and has become one of their leading sires. This makes House of Wax inbred 3 x 3 to Gone West.
House of Wax is only the second SW inbred to Gone West, the first being Indian SW Dandified (by Rebuttal, a G1-placed son of Mr. Greeley, out of a daughter of Zafonic). Dandified has won five stakes, including the Indian Champion Cup, which in India is a G1 race. India is classified as a part II country by International Cataloguing Standards, meaning that the Champion Cup carries black-type in the US and Europe, but without the Grade.
Gone West is a foal of the famed 1984 crop (Alysheba, Bet Twice, Cryptoclearance, etc.), and it could be said he was the best stallion of the bunch. He had his first foals in 1989, and these included G1 winner West by West. Zafonic followed in his second crop, while Grand Slam was a foal of 1995 and Champion Speightstown was born in 1998. His most recent G1 winner was the filly Zaftig in 2008.
As a broodmare sire, Gone West is probably best known for English Derby winner Motivator in Europe and 2YO Champions Awesome Feather and Dixie Union in the US. His sons have done well in the broodmare sire capacity, too. Daughters of Zafonic have produced dozens of SWs, and Grand Slam is the broodmare sire of G1 winner Malibu Prayer.
Gone West has a dozen sons and grandsons at stud. In 2011, sons Speightstown (7th), Grand Slam (21st) and Elusive Quality (36th) finished in the top 50 on the General Sire List. It is too early to say whether we will see more inbreeding to Gone West in future SWs but with many sons and daughters doing so well, it seems certain.