The breeding of thoroughbreds is a very inexact science which is why we saw siblings to a pair of Group I winners fighting out the finish of a very pedestrian 1100m maiden at Ballarat on Sunday.
Blue hen The Broken Shore produced her sixth winner from seven runners when three year-old Written Tycoon gelding Espinho scraped in to score a short half head win over Moaksun, a four year-old half-brother by Akeed Mofeed (GB) to Royal Ascot Group I winner Asfoora.
The Anthony and Sam Freedman trained Espinho is a half-brother to triple G1 winner Shoals and was having his fifth race start, but tellingly his first as a gelding. While he seems unlikely to add further Black Type glory to the revered Shantha’s Choice family, this $950,000 Magic Millions purchase from Arrowfield is now a winner.
The Broken Shore has been sale ring gold and her subsequent Written Tycoon colt Chicama sold for $1.35million at Inglis Easter in 2024 and has placed twice in modest company from three starts and the rising two year-old is a colt by Maurice (Jpn) that sold for $450,000 at Inglis Easter this year.
The runner-up in the race Moaksun is trained by Henry Dwyer, who has enjoyed G1 glory with his famous older half-sister Asfoora.
Moaksun is determinedly sticking to his maiden status with six seconds and two thirds from 12 starts…. His turn will come!
What does all of this mean?
It means that slow horses can have good pedigrees and fast ones sometimes come without!
One of the Group I winners at Royal Ascot was a horse called American Affair that won the Group I King Charles Stakes (5f) and ignited an explosion of interest and comment on Twitter from pedigree gurus lamenting his lack of a pedigree, five dams and no Black Type until him! Read more here.
But as someone rightly pointed out a ‘poor’ pedigree might lessen the odds of a horse being a G1 winner, but those odds are not zero chance.
Likewise a great pedigree might increase the chance of success, but won’t rule out the possibility of said horse being a complete dud.
