1.......This article is about an unraced 2yo Chestnut gelding by
SANDTRAP out of EMILY'S COMMAND and some of the
people involved in his breeding, ownership, racing syndicate
and future racing career.
2.....Our involvement begins with ANTHONY QUIRK and
wife ELAINE BUTTERWORTH, wanting to purchase a filly
for their syndicate at the Karaka Yearling sales. They had
already had a lot of success with horses and had purchased a
nice property north of Auckland and built a lovely home there.
In the photo above, Anthony is on the left, Elaine on the right,
with her mum Peggy and brother John in the middle.
Anthony's Dad Michael is a brother to my wife Helen.
3....They raced a durable gelding called OFFER NO BID.
As a yearling we thought he had a nice tough pedigree with
Sir Tristram as his dam sire. He was very small, his dam and
granddam were unraced, but his 3rd dam won the G1 South
Australian Oaks. Our assessment after he was bought was
for 6 or 7 wins and capable of winning in Open Class. He
did better and won 9 races including G3 Cornwall Hcp,
Listed Parliamentry Hcp, 2nd Cornwall Hcp,
2nd Parliamentry, 3rd G3 Rotorua Cup.
4..Another good horse was another durable slower developing
stayer called SUPER SCHEME.. He won 7 races including
Trentham's Summer Cup worth $69,000 but unfortunately
died before embarking on a promising hurdling career.
We thought he would be a little quicker maturing as he was
strongly built, and had some nice crosses to encourage speed.
Got him for half of the projected budget, so that was a bonus.
He was expected to win at least 5 or 6 races and was very
sound and was able to exceed expectations with good training.
5..Below is the pedigree of EMILY'S COMMAND, the dam
of the SANDTRAP unnamed Chestnut gelding-(Stable name
RILEY).
6....We analysed all the fillies at the sale and came up with
a very well made daughter of Centaine that fitted the budget
set at $40,000 for the syndicate. A top trainer was engaged
to do the bidding, but didn't turn up, and the other trainer
added a bid past the limit to get her, and thinking we had her,
got a shock when it was revealed a bidder behind us got her.
7...Of course the well made, nicely muscled quick looking
filly went on and won her first 2 races as a 2yo including a
Stakes race. However, they overdid her and strained her
immature system and she did not come back
8..We went back to the drawing board and checked out the
fillies that remained on the last day and found a small filly, with
some exceptional crosses, and the nicest temperament, and
a very accurate walk. We got her for just over $7,000
Anthony and Elaine named her EMILY'S COMMAND
after their little daughter Emily.
9...As you can see on the chart above, EMILY'S COMMAND
had almost no performance in the first few generations of her
pedigree. THIS IS THE HARDEST WAY TO GET A GOOD
RACEHORSE, AND YOU NEWCOMERS TO RACING
SHOULD MAKE A POINT OF INSISTING ON HAVING
GOOD PERFORMANCE IN THE SIRE, DAM AND
GRANDDAM. It makes sense to have this ability up close,
then you can intensify the pedigree with more confidence,
and have good conformation and speed traits more readily
available to pass on to your foal, and can expect better results.
10...Also, if your horse races well, you may be able to
capitalize on your success if other people would like to buy
it based on the good performing ancestors close up.
Because all expenses relating to breeding and racing are so
high, always try and breed within the commercial
umbrella, to help make some essential sales when success
comes your way.
11... Her sire THE COMMANDER was a big strong horse,
that won 2 trials. He went in the wind, but was race placed.
He had outstanding breeding, being a brother to top fillies
Tristalove-11w-G11, and Antwerp-8wins-LL, and three
quarter to $3.6 million yearling purchase Don Eduardo-G1-
$1,685,110, Octagonal-10xG1 5,892,231, Mouawad-G11 etc
12..Her dam ran 5 times and was a distant 4th, earning $275.
Her 2nd dam was unplaced 6 times and left 2 winners from
her 8 foals.. HARDLY VERY INSPIRING!
13..However, a master of pedigrees was at work here.
BILL PUNCH , a beef cattle and sheep breeder from Te Kuiti
bred Twice As Nice in conjunction with the Bakers, and then
had a hand in EMILY'S pedigree.
BILL was famous for breeding champion BONECRUSHER,
winner of 18 races, 11 Group 1 races and $2,353,720,
plus Counterfeit-5wL,4G11,4thVic Derby, OARSMAN-
6w-A Top ranked NZ stayer-WellingtonCup$300,000,
Fragile Asset-2w-G3, ENDLESS JOY-4w,2G1L,3G2,4L,
and Knucklebones-8wins. All these from very unfashionable
bloodlines, almost devoid of racing performance.
13...Bonecrusher was by a moderate sprinter that won
3 sprint races. His 1st dam was unplaced twice, his 2nd dam
was also unplaced twice, and 3rd dam was a maiden winner.
14..OARSMAN was by a maiden winner sire (The Son)
himself by a non winner sire called Noble Bijou. His dam was
an unplaced daughter of an unplaced sire-(Royal Loch-Injured
in 1st start). 2nd dam was an unplaced daughter of another
unraced sire-(Bold Edge)..3rd dam won 2 races, 4th dam was
unraced, and 5th dam was unplaced 4 times.
15...BILL PUNCH was there to see a couple of EMILY'S
COMMAND's wins and also came up to us at several of the
Stallion Parades to see how she was going.
16...These bloodlines give almost no expectation of any
worthwhile racing performance, but BILL looked extensively
into pedigrees and discovered the terrific concentrations that
also appear in all the pedigrees of such a brilliant thoroughbred
breeder like Frederico Tesio. It seems that this is almost more
important than breeding from Black Type parents on the
commercial method where more than 90% of royally bred
animals fail the racecourse test. We need to realize that after
the first 5 generations, the ancestors that are concentrated
there hundreds of times are outstanding gallopers and breeders
that had the best breeding ability to pass on the best traits to
the future generations. They have stood the test of time, and
these few hundred horses have ousted the hundreds of
thousands of other ancestors who failed to breed on and be
represented in pedigrees today.
17...BILL was able to breed 2 of the countrys best stayers
from exceptionally unfashionable pedigrees with reinforced
lack of ability. If you buy from the most fashionable
commercial bloodlines, you will get over 90% failures and it
will cost you several fortunes, unless you use extensive
pedigree analysis to sort out the the best from the rest.
18...Below is a photo of more people involved in this story.
My Mum and Dad are on the left and Helen and I are on the
right during one of our recent trips to Australia.
Dad has rung several times in the last few months and is quite
keen to see how the SANDTRAP-EMILY'S COMMAND
gelding is coming along. I've gone over the pedigree with him
and indicated there are nearly a dozen good horses bred on
similar principles and breeding.
19... Some examples are:
......TAPPY....7w,9p,31s-$87,025
......PARTEE..7wins..$116,337..LMataCup, 2G2,3G2
.....SHEKA...3wins..$88,875-Listed, Listed
.....INDIKATOR..6w,L-9p-$136,850
.....SANJURA....1w,5thG1-$31,875
.....SALADA......4wins, among several others.
20..This photo was taken a few months ago. Dad is NINETY
in a few months and Mum is EIGHTY SIX. They got a prize
on a couple of cruises for being married the longest.-(67yrs)
Dad has 2 lots of land and still feeds out each morning and
night, a number of his clients horses.. Several times, instead of
doing a bus ride back to the ship, we did a 4 mile, 5 mile and
7 mile walk back to the ship.
Dad is really fit and strides out, so he is very hard to keep
up with. His older brothers Ted (96yrs), Tom (95yrs),
Norm (3 weeks off 95), Jim (90) and Gladys (few weeks off
90) all lived to a good age.
Mum's sister Hazel is 96 and until recently was cooking all
her meals, cleaning her house unaided and doing gardening.
It is this sort of toughness that we need to select for in our
horses.
Helen's Mum recently passed away and she was 93, and
also had those tough Irish and Scottish genes.
21...In the photo above, you can see that Helen has killed us
with kindness, and perhaps if we were out doing a hard days
physical work, we would have a chance of living as long as
our parents. I suspect we are good doers which is another
trait we want to have in our horses.
22..In this photo at ANTHONYS place, he is in the
foreground, with 3 other syndicate members,
Helen-(sitting), Karen and Carl, in the background.
23..Syndicate members, Karen (our eldest daughter),
Carl (our Son-In-Law) and Barbara (our youngest daughter).
All very, very keen horse people, and eagerly waiting
for RED MAGIC and "RILEY" to start racing in the next
few months.
24..They have been very helpful to me with feeding, lungeing,
helping to worm, trim and shift RED MAGIC up the road
to the hill paddock even with cars and trucks whizzing by
on the main road.
24...Here is a photo of "RILEY", the 2yo SANDTRAP-
EMILY'S COMMAND 2yo gelding taken about 6 months
ago just after his actual 2nd birthday.
25..His dam has 9 very strong lots of INTRICATE
INBREEDING which can be stronger than linebreeding,
and more powerful if other crosses, methods and positions
are in place. The risk and problem is that if there is not
a lot of performance close up in the pedigree in the near
ancestors, then more common FAULTS can be doubled up.
In non-performing parents, there are probably many times
more faults in their make-up, and by intensifying a pedigree,
you are multiplying your chances many times over of getting
these FAULTS fixed in a double dose in your foals.
The aim of line-breeding is to double the speed traits, stamina
traits, soundness traits, so better ancestry is very important.
26...It is much harder to get the good breeding back further
to pass through very poorly performed parents and grand-
parents, so try very hard to get that good selection and
performance up close, and you might double your chances
of getting a btter racehorse and halve your chances of having
to CULL all the badly conformed youngsters.
27..The dam also has 173 of the multiple crosses which
dominate BILL PUNCHES pedigrees & TESIOS pedigrees.
As well there are 721 duplicated ancestors with 28,574
crosses. She has 68% balance.
169 male ancestors are 61% balanced.
16 female ancestors are 44% balanced.
671 chains of ancestors, strongest through ROUND TABLE.
36,766 ancestors duplicated to 15 generations.
155,088 ancestor double matchings out to 10 generations.
28.....There are several more importance happenings in the
pedigree and these indicate she should be a very prepotent
mare within her staying framework of selection, as long as
she gets a highly suitable matching sire.
29...SANDTRAP is a strongly made brown horse that
has good size and middle-distance conformation, although
his race record (6wins-$471,116) shows wins over 6f(G3),
6.5f(G3), 1 mile-(L), 6,5f-(G3), 5f-(L).
I suspect he was made to fit the USA pattern rather than be
trained for the 8 to 10 furlongs that he should have been
very capable at.
He has sired about 6 stakes winners, and has had large
books of mostly non commercial mares. Could be called
a useful sire and has been in the top 10 on the NZ Sires
List a couple of times. His stock are partial to softer going.
30....Above is another photo of the SANDTRAP-
EMILY'S COMMAND gelding taken just after his 2nd
birthday. He is a first foal and a recent note indicated he has
an extremely quiet nature, very easy to handle, had a good
action when he did two stints of breaking in and cantering
for a month or two each time, but is not too bright.
Anthony said recently that he was about 15 hands 1 or 2
inches at the moment, but I thought he looked about 15h1inch
6 months ago, so am surprized he is not 15h 3inches.
Anyway, Barbara is arranging for us to go up and see
him next Monday.
31...The bay 2yo gelding beside him is a different kettle of fish.
He is quick, temperamental, been pushed a little too early,
and may have some leg issues. His pedigree is twice as
concentrated on speedy USA bloodlines compared to "RILEY"
32..He is by Top ranked French Sprinter BERTOLINI-
2wG3, 2G111, 3G111, 2G233-P460,570...sire of 12SW.
Out of a broken pelvis (Unplaced 2x) daughter of USA
Champion 2yo RHYTHM-(6w-G11-$1,592532 from a
daughter of PERPETUAL (7wins) that left 2 Stakes Winners.
Some powerful crosses here, so very interesting to see just
what speed he has, and how he races. His yearling full
brother looks to be a good horse if he is taken along very
quietly by a top trainer.He has all the selection, speed,
crosses, conformation and build up to do well on the race
course, and it would not surprize if he won a Stakes Race.
The yearling full sister to "RILEY" looks to have more speed
and muscling and better type than her older brother which
looks to be more of a stayer. She has all the right crosses
and type to win a 3yo Fillies stake race in NZ, so will follow
her career with interest as well.
33...EMILY'S COMMAND....RACING RECORD.
