Book an Easy Date with breeding success

The pedigree of Australia’s latest Group 1-winning 2YO Miracles of Life (Not A Single Doubt-Dazzling Gazelle by More Than Ready) offers further evidence that line-breeding to quality female ancestors can produce an above-average ratio of black type performers.

Pictured: Not A Single Doubt’s daughter Miracles of Life & jockey Lauren Stojalovic make the Blue Diamond dream come true. (PHOTO: Bronwen Healy)

As Arrowfield’s pedigree analyst Peter Jenkins writes, it’s already clear that the duplication of the outstanding broodmare Easy Date found in Miracles of Life’s pedigree can be highly effective in matings with Not A Single Doubt (by Redoute’s Choice from Easy Date’s daughter Singles Bar). His early statistics for named foals with a duplication of Easy Date are:

27 Named Foals, 21 Runners, 11 Winners, 3 Stakes Horses (2 stakeswinners & 1 stakes-placed) – that is, 14.3% Stakes Performers/Runners and 9.5% Stakeswinners/Runners.

Drilling down a little further, the pedigrees of three of the 27 foals show a duplication of Easy Date exclusive of her son Snippets (in other words, they are from mares who are daughters or grand-daughters of Easy Date herself). The only colt in this trio is yet to race, but the two fillies are the full sisters Pink Power and Spontaneity who are both winners.

Of the remaining 24 named foals, 11 are from mares whose dams are by Snippets, while the balance of 13 are from mares by Snippets himself.

The 11 foals from mares whose dams were by Snippets have far out-performed foals in the second group. They include all 3 stakes performers: Group 1 2YO winner Miracles of Life and 2YO stakeswinner Single Style plus the stakes-placed colt Dominant. In fact, 5 of these 11 foals are already winners, compared with only 4 winners from the 13 foals out of mares by Snippets himself.

To summarise, the statistics for Not A Single Doubt progeny whose dams were daughters of Snippets mares are:

27.3% Stakes Horses/Runners and 18.2% Stakeswinners/Runners.

Although it’s a small sample, the ?trending? message here is to send Not A Single Doubt mares whose dams are by Snippets, in preference to Snippets mares themselves. This conforms to the general observation that 3 x 4 duplications produce better outcomes than 3 x 3 patterns.

On a slightly different tack, the presence of Snippets in mares mated with Not A Single Doubt is significant, not just for the duplication of Easy Date, but also for the sex-balanced duplication of Lunchtime, the sire of Snippets and damsire of Canny Lad, who appears in Not A Single Doubt’s pedigree via Redoute’s Choice.

The closest female line-breeding in Lunchtime’s dam, Great Occasion, is to Lady Josephine through a son of Fair Trial and the less common factor of a female line of Nasrullah.

In the matings that produced Snippets and Canny Lad’s dam Jesmond Lass, their respective dams Easy Date and Beautiful Dreamer both possessed pedigrees particularly strong in lines of Lady Josephine.

Easy Date was 4 x 3 to Nasrullah and 5 x 4 to Mahmoud (3/4 blood brother to Nasrullah?s dam Mumtaz Begum). Beautiful Dreamer was inbred 3 x 3 to Nasrullah?s half-sister Dodoma, while her sire Coeur Volant II is a tail-male descendant of Fair Trial.

The consequence of this is that Jesmond Lass and Snippets are considered intricate genetic relatives, being by the same sire (Lunchtime), with similar line-breeding patterns in their respective dams.

A successful combination of Jesmond Lass and Snippets can be seen in the 2010 Golden Slipper winner Crystal Lily (Stratum-Crystal Snip, by Snippets) and our own Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice-Snippets’ Lass, by Snippets). Group 3 winner That?s The One (by Snippetson out of a Redoute?s Choice mare) shows the nick in reverse.

This is notwithstanding the excellent lines of the Lady Josephine family supplied by More Than Ready in the pedigree of Miracles of Life: a double cross of Royal Charger (Nasrullah?s ? blood brother), a double cross of Mahmoud?s daughter Almahmoud, and no fewer than 4 lines of Nasrullah, including a female strain.

More Than Ready is also an excellent foil for any Redoute?s Choice stallion due to his four lines of La Troienne – another positive pedigree factor for Redoute’s Choice and his sons.

Finally, let’s take a look at Not A Single Doubt’s other brilliant 2YO daughter, dual stakeswinner Villa Verde. In light of the pattern described above, it’s interesting to see in her pedigree a 4 x 3 duplication of the Queen Mary Stakes winner Rory?s Rocket.

Roan Rocket, the sire of Rory?s Rocket, is closely line-bred, 4 x 4, to Mah Mahal, through her sons Pherozshah and Mahmoud. Mah Mahal is a half-sister to Mumtaz Begum, the dam of Nasrullah, so Roan Rocket offers yet another concentration of Lady Josephine’s genetics likely to interact with the line of Canny Lad in Redoute’s Choice and his sons, and with Easy Date (4 x 3 to Nasrullah).

Furthermore, Villa Verde’s dam Young and Free is by Kenmare, whose sire Kalamoun is inbred 3 x 3 to the full siblings Nasrullah and Rivaz (both by Nearco from Mumtaz Begum) and carries a line of Fair Trial through Kalamoun?s 2nd damsire Palestine.

Kenmare?s dam adds further ?grist to the mill? by introducing Badruddin (Blandford-Mumtaz Mahal) and an additional line of Nasrullah. It won’t surprise pedigree students if Villa Verde proves to be the best of Not A Single Doubt’s gifted juveniles!