I’ll admit
it: I’ve never been one to put much stock in pedigree when it comes to
determining the outcome of a horse race. After all, did anybody see Johnny
Manziel’s dad strut his stuff at the NFL Combine this past week? Does anybody
actually care what the old man’s 40-yard dash time was... or is?
I think
not.
Yet, clearly,
horse racing is different than football. For one thing, human athletes aren’t “bred,”
much to the dismay of some of my more athletic — and immature — friends.
And there’s
big money in those planned matings. In 2013, over half a billion dollars was
spent at the various Keeneland sales alone. In 2006, a record $16 million was
spent on a single horse — The Green
Monkey, a son of Forestry who never won a race and has flopped as a sire as
well.
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on image to enlarge)
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Still,
there’s something to be said for pedigree. Just like the phrase “now, there’s a
level-headed chap” is rarely applied to any of the Baldwin brothers, Kentucky
Derby Champion is a title generally reserved for three-year-old colts and
fillies with some stamina in their bloodlines.
So, with
the Kentucky
Derby Future Wager Pool 3 kicking off on Wednesday, I thought it would be a
good time to do a little research on past Derby winners and present Derby
contenders. I want to find out which animals have the pedigrees to win and which do
not.
What does the fox... uh, I mean numbers... say:
1) Every Derby winner since 1999 was sired by a stallion with an average winning distance (AWD) of 6.6 furlongs or greater.
1) Every Derby winner since 1999 was sired by a stallion with an average winning distance (AWD) of 6.6 furlongs or greater.
2) Just two (War
Emblem and Smarty Jones) of the past 15 Derby champs had a sire whose progeny competed in routes
(races of a mile or greater) in less than a third of their starts.
3) 14 of the last 15
Derby winners had sires whose progeny improved their average Brisnet speed
figure by at least two points when routing as opposed to a sprinting.
Now let’s take a gander at the individual KDFW Pool 3 contenders:
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on image to enlarge)
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What the numbers say:
A) Based solely on bloodlines, Bayern, California Chrome, General A Rod, Uncle Sigh, Vicar’s In Trouble and Wildcat Red are all Derby tosses.
A) Based solely on bloodlines, Bayern, California Chrome, General A Rod, Uncle Sigh, Vicar’s In Trouble and Wildcat Red are all Derby tosses.
B) Intense Holiday,
Samraat and Tamarando are question marks in the pedigree area.
While I certainly don’t think a horse’s breeding necessarily
dictates its performance on the track — remember, Secretariat was believed to
have distance limitations — these stats do make the case that good parenting matters.
If you need further proof, just look at Justin
Bieber.