Postby jagger » Sun Oct 18, 2009 8:08 am
Have studied RF extensively and still have not made any conclusions either way. That being said, it only seems logical that the more good DNA in a pedigree the better. So, if you have a choice of having Somethingroyal on both sides or Somethingroyal and undistinguished mares on the bottom, top and bottom with Somethingroyal would just seem to be better.....unless you factor in "hybrid vigor". It's just too tough for me. Somethingroyal is interesting in that there exists a Somethingroyal daughter negative nick of sorts. There have been 60 horses who have won at least 1 G3 race who have been inbred to Somethingroyal in the first 4 generations. Of these 60, only 2 were through daughters and then in both instances it was on the dam's side. So, it is probably not enough, if you believe in RF, to just have an excellent mare on top and bottom. You must research further and find out what success there has been through the daughters of the particular mare that is being studied. My Goldmine database is >1yr old, I think, and so my numbers may be off a little. This is not unlike the negative Northern Dancer nick that was discovered recently. There have been 1918 horses who have won at least 1 Gr3 race who were inbred to ND. Of these, only 133 were through a daughter on the top of the pedigree, 180 through a daughter on the bottom of the pedigree and only 15 were through daughters on both sides.
In conclusion, I think just like stallions, some mares are going to be more successful when inbred than others. To make a blanket statement that inbreeding to even very successful mares is a good thing, for me, is just not statistically true.
JMHO. Good luck in trying to decipher for yourself the merits of RF.