SOUNDNESS:

PEDIGREE NOTES

So who in his pedigree is "The Great Skip Away" most like? The answer maybe revealed by comparing some of the unusual racing achievements of his ancestors with several of the remarkable racing feats of Skip Away.

Both Skip Away and Skip Trial (his sire) both won the Gulfstream Park Handicap and Massachusetts Handicap. Skip Away and Skip Trial both will have started a remarkable 38 times during their racing careers.

Both Nashua and Skip Away won the Jockey Club Gold Cup twice, once as a three year old and once as a four year old.

When have we last seen a colt like Skip Away, who could run for 4 consecutive years, maintain first class stakes form, and never leave the racetrack. Skip Away race all over the country, shrugged off injury while continuing to compete and win top quality races, while running uninterrupted against elite competition in virtually every race of his career? The answer is maybe never. Indeed, in today’s racing world, its seems almost impossible for a horse to compete at the top level of competition and stay sound.

Thanks to the marvelous work of his trainer Sonny Hine, Skip Away did his racing without the use of extreme medication which is so much a part of today’s racing environment. He wore Queen’s Plates (flat horseshoes) in front and just shoes with toe grabs on his rear feet. His racetrack vet bills were rarely much over $100 per month. As Sonny’s vets said, "If we had to rely on Skip Away for income, they would quit practicing."

During a career of fierce competition from coast to coast Skip Away ran against a much larger racing population of horses than Nashua, Damascus, Never Bend and Man o’ War, his immortal super star ancestors. Big, powerful, fast, versatile, and sound, Skip Away, the 1998 Horse of the Year, and Eclipse Award winner in 1996, 1997 and 1998 is truly one of the most remarkable thoroughbreds to race in the twentieth century.

BREEDING TO SKIP AWAY

Sir Charles Leiscester in his book Bloodstock Breeding points out, in the General Principle of Bloodstock section, some elementary aspects regarding thoroughbred reproduction. In the chapter regarding Hereditary Factors, Sir Charles states "The genes are self-reproductive and responsible for the build-up of the new individual. They are heterogeneous, some operating to produce bone, others muscle, colour, blood, brain, organs, constitution, soundness, racing ability, temperament, etc., -- in fact, broadly speaking, all the basic factors of the new-born." Sir Charles also maintains that, "the physical attributes of the parents are more likely to appear in the foal then those of the grandparents. Each breeding generation has a reduced chance of reviving its own peculiarities until the time comes when the remote ancestors’ have little or no practical portent."

No man can predict with accuracy whether the visible or the latent characteristics will comprise the make-up of the foal at time of conception. That remains Nature’s Secret. Be that as it may, Skip Away is truly a remarkable individual whose visible attributes offer unrivaled quality of virtually every important factor of the racehorse. A true physical titan, The Mighty Skip Away is already know for his incredible stamina. Skip Away’s workouts demonstrate his effortless blinding speed. He can boast of about 100 black type bullet workouts during his career, one of which was 108:3 for six furlongs.

Skip Away and his ancestors, represent the much needed racing soundness, now so absent in the American Thoroughbred. We need to face the fact that the racing soundness of the American Thoroughbred has become a crisis situation. Let us not blame the trainers and the racing surfaces for causing so many break downs, but rather the way in which horses are being bred in the United States. Far to many horses are retired to stud with very short racing careers. Their unsoundness is passed on and then inbred which virtually guarantees more weaknesses for the racehorses to be born in the future.

Now, let’s begin with how the impact of breeding to Mr. Prospector line mares to Skip Away. Breeding the female descendants of Mr. Prospector gives inbreeding to the sound Nashua since both Skip Away and Mr. Prospector both have Nashua on the distaff side of their pedigrees. Champion Nashua won 22 of 30 races over 3 years racing in top company and was retired sound.

If you find Damascus in the pedigree of a mare, such as in the case of a Private Account mare, you are inbreeding to Champion Damascus who won 21 of 32 races and raced three years in top company.

Champion Nashua is the sire of SKIP AWAY’s very successful broodmare sire Diplomat Way. Arlington-Washington Futurity winner Diplomat Way whose race record includes 46 starts with 14 wins, 10 seconds and 7 thirds, winning or placing in 19 stakes, is the sire of 34 stakes winners. More significant is the fact that Diplomat Way is Broodmare Sire of 50 mares who have produced 65 stakes winners from his 245 daughters for an outstanding 20% stakes producing mares. Diplomat Way boasts an impressive total Broodmare Sire Earnings of $46,241,361. The noted runners from these mares encompass 6 champions including Skip Away and prominent stakes winners, Farma Way ($2,867,175-G1), Exclusive Partner, General Practitioner, Explosive Bid, Frosty the Snowman, La Soufriere, etc.

Champion Never Bend, who boasts a races record is 23 starts with 13 wins, 4 seconds and 4 thirds is the sire of Mill Reef and Courtly Dee. He is also the sire of Iron Ruler, the very successful broodmare sire of Skip Away’s second dam. Jerome Stakes winner Iron Ruler, whose race record includes 35 starts with 9 wins, 13 seconds and 9 thirds, winning or placing in 22 stakes races, is the sire of 30 stakes winners including Preakness-G1 winner Aloma’s Ruler. Iron Ruler is the Broodmare Sire of 50 stakes winners including the prominent stakes winners Stalwart, Box Office Gold, Muskoka Wyck, Avie’s Copy, etc.  The first winner by Skip Away is Heart Ofa Champion who is inbred 5S x 4D to Never Bend and is also inbred to Nasrullah 5S x 6S x 6D x 5D x 7D.  Thus the fantastic speed of Heart of a Champion can easily be attributed to the Never Bend inbreed.  Keep in mind that the speed ball is four generations free of inbreeding.

Champions Never Bend and Nashua are sons of Nasrullah who appear in Skip Away’s pedigree in the form of his descendants. You can inbreed to Nasrullah with Bold Ruler line horses like Seattle Slew mares or Secretariat mares using a different inbreeding pattern than that which is conventionally used. This is another approach to breeding soundness and not giving up speed which is so much a desirable part of the American thoroughbred.  New York Maiden Special Weights and Allowance winner, Heart of a Champion is inbred.

Skip Away is a horse with very solid proven sire lines throughout his pedigree. Consider that their is no Northern Dancer, Mr. Prospector, Turn-to or Buckpasser bloodline in the pedigree of Skip Away. That provides a wonderful opportunity to outcross your Northern Dancer, Mr. Prospector, Turn-to or Buckpasser line mare.

The rest is left to the breeders, many who have Northern Dancer and Mr. Prospector mixes in their broodmare bands. As a stallion Skip Away, will provides the ingredients needed, to breed a sound, classy, versatile, fast American Thoroughbred of the future.

When you review the history of the American Thoroughbred, it is apparent that the excellent breeders of the past looked with great intellect for the specific type of stallion that could shape the breed. Stallions were selected to mate with various broodmare bands when breeders required specific qualities. These stallions were essential outcross selections that proved so valuable to the development of the American Thoroughbred of the Twentieth Century.

Les Sellnow, noted Equine Research and Genetics expert provides the following information regarding breeding the thoroughbred in the Back to Basics section of his Genetics Primer.

While the goal always should be to improve the offspring, there are too many breeding programs that breed for only a single trait and forget all others. Racing is a case in point. Far too many runners which cannot compete because of weakness in leg bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons are put into the breeding shed and mated with others who cannot compete for the same reason. It doesn’t take a Gregor Mendel to determine the probable outcome for such a cross. The colt or filly might inherit blazing speed, but the opportunity to display it likely will be short-lived before the same weakness that ended the careers of the parents will do the same for the offspring.

Imagine for yourself and your broodmare band, the many unique benefits that breeding to SKIP AWAY will offer to your procreation program. Certainly, SKIP AWAY’s soundness and versatility, so absent in our racehorses of today, are now more than ever extremely important to the development of the American Thoroughbred of the Twenty-first Century.

Here are some historical notes that I hope you will find thought provoking. My source for a great deal of this information was found in Abram S. Hewitt’s publications of Sire Lines and The Great Breeders and Their Methods.

THE HANCOCKS began with the importation of SIR GALLAHAD III. A good to moderate stakes performer, this French import gave his speed and excellent front leg confirmation to his progeny. In his first crop he sired Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox.

English Derby winner BLENHEIM II imported in 1936 and was already the sire of English Derby winner Mahmoud. He added stamina to our breed and sired Triple Crown winner Whirlaway in his first American crop.

In 1949 A. B. Hancock, Jr. added a wayward, mulish, unreliable racehorse horse named NASRULLAH to the Claiborne stallion roster. Nasrullah was highly ranked by British Handicapper Phil Bull and proved just the right ingredient, siring Bold Ruler, Nashua and Never Bend among many others.

The unfashionably bred, late maturing stayer PRINCEQUILLO seemed to be the wrong type of racehorse to become a leading American stallion. This former $1,500 claimer disproved that theory when he sired Champions Hill Prince, Round Table and Prince John.

WARREN WRIGHT, SR. of CALUMET FARM purchased BULL LEA in 1936 at the Saratoga Yearling Sale. He was a sickle hocked, lop eared son of the moderate racehorse but successful sire, Bull Dog (brother to Sir Gallahad III) out of the 19 year old mare Rose Leaves (a virtually useless racehorse, but superior producer). It is said that Bull Lea’s make up was like hybrid corn, the crossing of two distinct, but very pure strains, the result being superior to either of the parent strains. Bull Lea sired Triple Crown winner Citation and led the North American General Sire’s List on 5 occasions.

DARBY DAN FARM owner JOHN W. GALBREATH imported the unbeaten European Champion RIBOT in 1957. He had strong development in his thighs and gaskins which accounted for his unmistakable driving power. When he arrived in America, early maturity and sheer speed were the most desired characteristics for American racehorses. Ribot demonstrated just the opposite traits during his racing career. Ribot sired 15.7% stakes winners including Horse of the Year, Arts and Letters. Graustark (sire of Key to the Mint, Jim French, Avatar, Prove Out and Caracolero), Tom Rolfe (sire of Hoist the Flag, Run the Gantlet and Droll Role) and leading sire and broodmare sire His Majesty are among his most influential offspring.

C.V. WHITNEY imported Champion Two Year Old and English Derby winner MAHMOUD to provide the necessary outcross to his broodmare band which was composed of mares by Broomstick, Whisk Broom II, Peter Pan, Pennant and Chickle. As a result, Whitney had found just the right horse in the speedy classic winning Mahmoud. Mahmoud sired 24 stakes winners for Whitney.

E. P TAYLOR was in search of some genuine European quality to augment the broodmare band at Windfield Farm. It was in 1952 that Taylor had gone to the December Bloodstock sale to obtain the best, a mare by Hyperion that traced back to Pretty Polly, a winner of 22 of her 24 starts. The mare was in foal to the great Nearco. This gave Taylor a mix of the two best sires in England. A miserable looking chestnut colt born in 1953 by Nearco out of Lady Angela was the result. The colt later named NEARCTIC was offered with all of Taylor’s other yearlings at his "one price" auction for $35,000. There were no takers. Nearctic was a good but certainly not excellent racehorse winning 21 of his 47 starts and earning $152,384. He is the sire of NORTHERN DANCER another horse that did not fetch his reserve of $25,000. Northern Dancer was a small, late foal and the offspring of an unproven sire and dam. The rest is history. Taylor’s technique was to acquire European broodmares and breed to a variety of stallions. He became the breeder of 251 stakes winners.

SKIP AWAY is a unique horse of remarkable quality and durability. He is sure to become another splendid progenitor in the legacy of great American Stallions.