A useful Snippet on Hussonet
As the analysis of stallion performance data becomes more important (and much easier thanks to online statistics), so newly discovered ‘nicks’ or ‘crosses’ are more often dismissed with, “Yes, but it’s too small a sample!”
In many cases, this is true, but often sufficient sample numbers to confirm the effectiveness of a nick are achieved only when the stallion under scrutiny has passed from this mortal coil.
Today’s little snip of knowledge comes from one of the smallest samples anyone could consider, but its effectiveness is impossible to dismiss. Best of all, the stallion is available to breeders in 2010.
Consider this: in his first 4 years at stud in Australia, Hussonet has covered only three mares by the Australasian Champion 3YO Sprinter Snippets and every one of these mares has produced a stakeswinner to him – a 100% strike rate!
For the record they are the VRC Maribyrnong Plate G3 winner Husson Lightning (ex Snip Snip), the TRC Elwick Stakes LR winner Huiskes (ex Bruschetta) and Girl Hussler (ex Vecchia Signora), winner of last weekend’s BRC Daybreak Lover S. LR.
Why does the cross work so well? It could be for a number of reasons. Hussonet’s closest linebreeding is to Nashua at 3 x 4, while Nashua’s sire Nasrullah occurs at 4 x 4 x 5 in Hussonet but through male lines only.
Snippets returns a sex-balancing female line of Nasrullah, Thicket (who produced Lunchtime’s damsire Hornbeam), while Snippets dam Easy Date is linebred at 5 x 4 to Mahmoud, the three-quarter blood-brother to Mumtaz Begum, dam of Nasrullah.
It could also be the Selene factor at work. Hussonet carries a duplication of Selene’s son Sickle, but is free of Pharamond (Sickle’s full brother) and Hyperion, Selene’s most illustrious son. Snippets carries sex-balanced linebreeding to Hyperion and hails from the sireline descending from Pharamond, to create a perfect match for Hussonet’s Selene factors.
Or it could even be Snippets’ five lines of alternative Hermit-Maid of Masham variants. Snippets carries a line of Arc Light, dam of the Two Thousand Guineas runner-up Sir Archibald. Arc Light is inbred 3 x 2 to the 5/8ths blood-siblings Rainbow and Peter who are immediate tail-female descendants of Maid of Masham. Arc Light is also found in the dams of the following Group 1 winners by Hussonet: Spontaneous, Hush Money, Pecoiquen, Marzuk, Penamacor, Athenea, Perssonet and Weekend Hussler.
Whatever the reason, it’s undeniable that this cross is proving very effective. In fact, if the next 27 Snippets mares bred to Hussonet fail to leave a stakeswinner, the son of Mr. Prospector will still boast a 10% ratio of stakes success for this nick.
Hussonet stands at Arrowfield in 2010 on a foal share basis to approved mares.
