Audience the big heart mare and my girls!

My girls have lots of Big Heart blood in their veins. In 1789, an autopsy of Eclipse showed that he had a 14 lb. heart as compared to the average of 6 lb hearts of the time. He had a big heart. Secretariat was found to have a heart over 22 lbs, much higher than the 9 lb. average. In fact, of Secretariat's heart, his autopsy physician, Dr. Thomas Swerczek, said, "We just stood there in stunned silence. We couldn't believe it. The heart was perfect. There were no problems with it. It was just this huge engine." They now believe that big hearts are tied to the female X chromosome. So, you can be a "single copy" or "double copy" mare and if you are a big heart stud, you can pass your X to your children too. If a "double copy" mare is bred to a large-hearted stallion, she will always produce large-heart foals and double copy fillies. Violet is directly related to four of the most famous Big Heart stallions, Princequillo, War Admiral, Blue Larkspur, and Mahmoud. Hailee also has big heart studs, including Moon Deck, Three Bars, Easy Jet, Top Deck, and Leo. Man 'O War was a big-heart stud. The thing with big-heart stallions is that they can only pass their big heart to their daughters. So, often since it takes a crop or two for their big heart gene to express or show itself, thoroughbred stallions will be "sold down river" to the Quarter Horse industry which is why the American Quarter Horse is filled with Big Hearts from their thoroughbred relatives. Man 'O War blessed both breeds with his big-hearted heritage. Among the relatives suspected of having big hearts, my girls have Rock Sand, Count Fleet, Eclipse, Pocahontas, Glencoe, Lexington, Domino, and La Troienne. And they have Audience, daughter of Sir Dixon (the Belmont Stakes Winner) and grand-daughter of Hindoo, the Kentucky Derby winner. She foaled Whisk Broom and in her own racing day, she won the all-important Kentucky Oaks! She is considered a big-hearted gal!! Among the ways she's related to my girls are through Po' Chile for Violet and Sir Bim for Hailee. The photo has a picture of her baby, Whisk Broom. You can read more about the X-Factor at the following links:

http://www.robertsfox.com/x_factor.htm

or

http://www.circledhorses.com/The%20X-Factor.htm

Whisk Broom and my Girls!

My girls are related to the famous Whisk Broom II, born in 1907 to Broomstick and Audience. Audience was sired by the 1888 Belmont Stakes winner, Sir Dixon, and her dam was sired by Hindoo, a major stakes winner and Kentucky Derby winner. Whisk Broom was born at the Kentucky Horse Park, then called Senorita Farms, and was sent to England to race. In Great Britain, he won the Prince of Wales Plate, the Trial Stakes, Select Stakes, Peril of the Peak, Victoria Cup, and came third in the 2,000 Guineas. When he came to the United States, he raced only three times, but won the most difficult Triple Crown of Racing, the New York Handicap Triple Crown -- the Metropolitan, Suburban Handicap and Brooklyn Handicap. Only Tom Fool and Fit to Fight ever duplicated this amazing feat of winning the Handicap Triple Crown! In his last race ever, he carried a staggering 139 lbs to the second place horse's 112 lbs and still set a scorching track record!!! His final race record was 26: 10-7-1 for total earnings of $47.931. He won the 1913 U.S. Horse of the Year Award and U.S. Champion Handicap Horse of the Year, and the U.S. Handicap Triple Crown. In retirement, he sired 163 foals with 23 stakes winners for a stakes percentage of 16%. He was inducted into the National Museum and Racing Hall of Fame in 1979. Among his children, he sired Upset, the only horse to deliver Man 'O War a defeat. He also foaled the Kentucky Derby winner, Whiskery, and Whiskaway, as well as the Preakness winner, Victorian, who was the damsire of Seabiscuit. You can visit him in his family cemetary at C.V. Whitney Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. He is related to both Hailee and Violet. An obvious connection for Hailee is in her Bim-a-Nick line, where Whisk Broom produced the sire John P. Grier. This is a pretty interesting line -- Whisk Broom and Fair Play were the sires of horses crossed to produce Algeria who was bred to Bubbling Over to produce Airegla to be bred to Bimelech to produce Sir Bim. For Violet, you can see Whisk Broom in her Boodle line where his son John P. Grier is crossed with the famous mare Elf to produce Boojum. You can read more about the fabulous, tough, world-travelling, Triple Crown winning sweetheart at the following links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisk_Broom_II

or

http://www.tbheritage.com/Portraits/Broomstick.html

or

http://www.tbheritage.com/TurfHallmarks/Graves/cem/GraveMattersWhitney.html

or

http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=160

or

http://www.spiletta.com/UTHOF/whisk.html

Commando and my girls!

Commando was the 1900 Champion 2-year-old colt and Horse of the Year and 1901 Champion 3-year-old colt and Horse of the Year. He earned Horse of the Year twice before retiring with a 9:7-2 record. He won the Belmont Stakes, and Carlton, Montauk, Zephyr, and Junior Champion Stakes. He died very young of tetanus, but not before siring 10 stakes winners from 27 foals. He sired Colin, Celt, and Peter Pan. Just think, he won the Belmont in 1901, and then his kids Peter Pan and Colin won in 1907 and 1908. He was inducted into the National Museum and Racing Hall of Fame in 1956. Hailee is related to him through her Jet Deck, Three Bars, Custus Rastus, Flying Bob, Miss Chicaro, Lady Heart, Sir Bim, Lightning Bar and Black Beggar lines. She has multiple occurrences of Peter Pan (10) and Ultimus (3), Commando's kids. In fact, Ultimus has a double Domino cross on both his sire and dam's side. Violet is also related to Peter Pan, Colin and Ultimus, but I did not explore the number of instances. However, she has Colin through her Stymie line which means that she has nice heavy doses of him with criss-crosses through Man o' War. You can read more about Commando at the following links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commando_(horse)

or

http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=50

or

http://www.spiletta.com/UTHOF/commando.html

or

http://www.tbheritage.com/Portraits/Domino.html

La Troienne -- Hailee and Violet's "Blue Hen"

Hailee and Violet are very proud to have La Troienne in their family tree -- a 20th century "Blue Hen." A Blue Hen is a mare who produces nothing but the best characteristics and nothing but winners!! La Troienne was born in France and imported to the United States. She was not impressive on the race track, but has left an indelible mark on Thoroughbred history as one of the most influential broodmares of all time. She was imported to Idle Hour Stock Farm and bore 15 foals, 12 of which raced, and 10 of which were winners. Her first daughter, Black Helen, was a super-charged race horse who out of 22 starts, won 15 times. She was so powerful as a race horse that Black Helen routinely won against fields of colts. She was declared the U.S. champion 3-year-0ld racing filly. The only colt she could not beat was Omaha, the Triple Crown winner. She was inducted into the National Museum and Racing Hall of Fame.

La Troienne produced many, many famous descendents, including Go for Gin and Buckpasser. She produced many broodmares-of-the-year.

Hailee has an impressive connection to La Troienne. La Troienne and Black Toney produced Bimelech and Bubbling Over (Kentucky Derby winner) was the sire on the dam's side of a Bimelech cross which produced Sir Bim. Sir Bim was crossed on the dam side of a Top Deck sire side to produce a line in Hailee's sire's history! Whoo!

Violet too is impressively connected to La Troienne's history in at least two powerful ways. Again, she has the Bimelech connection and on the dam's side War Admiral (Triple Crown winner) is the sire to produce a dam for Bimelech which produced Better Self, a stakes winner. She also has a La Troienne and Blue Larkspur cross which produced Big Event who was bred to War Admiral to produce Blue Eyed Momo on Violet's dam's side.

Blue Larkspur is very cool as a cross because he won the Belmont Stakes, Juvenile Stakes, Saratoga Special, Classic Stakes, Withers Stakes, Arlington Cup, and Stars and Striples Handicap. He was 1929 Horse of the Year and Champion 3-year-old Colt, and the 1930 Champion Handicap Male!

You can read more about La Troienne, the fabulous "Blue Hen" of the Hailee and Violet Sanchez family tree at my friendly links, The Pedigree Post!
You can also read about her at:
http://www.tbheritage.com/Portraits/LaTroienne.html