King Ranch inbreeding

Barcaldine · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 7:21 pm Post subject: King Ranch inbreeding

In addition to developing the hybrid Santa Gertrudes cattle Robert Kleberg also utilized significant inbreeding in his racehorses.

STYMIE, for example, was an ill-bred horse by conventional standards but was bred on a modified hybrid model.

http://www.pedigreequery.com/stymie

Dozens of other top stakes winners were bred by King Ranch along this pattern. But the pedigree which most intrigues me is that of the 1960's star PRAISE JAY. Though not bred by Kleberg he was the only foal of a mare which was.

http://www.pedigreequery.com/praise+jay

His sire was a $2000 claimer in Oregon by the forgotten *Nasrullah horse *NATHOO. But when JAYBIL was outcrossed on the intensely inbred APPRAISE they produced one of the best handicap horses in America in 1969.

Bill from WA · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 7:25 pm Post subject:

I remember Praise Jay very well. I watched him win the 1969 Longacres Mile. Tough horse.

Bill
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Bast · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 7:27 pm Post subject: Re: King Ranch inbreeding

Barcaldine · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 7:41 pm Post subject:

Another Kleberg bred horse was the great Quarter Horse sire TOP DECK (TB)

http://www.pedigreequery.com/top+deck

Like STYMIE he was a son of the minor winner Equestrian. And the rest of his pedigree closely resembled that of Stymie. Yet Top Deck was a very fast horse whose influence on Quarter Horses parallels that of *Nasrullah in TB's.

He and Stymie could not have been more different types of racehorses and sires.

vineyridge · Grade III Winner Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 1134

They very tightly inbred their stock horses as well. See the thread on the King Ranch pedigree studies. From that, it would appear that the stock horses were even more tightly inbred than the TBs. IIRC, they bred Old Sorrell to his daughters and granddaughters and nieces and grandnieces, and his sons were bred to close relatives as well.

The breeding patterns that you are showing were very, very common in earlier days. It's really only in about the hundred years or so that patterns like that weren't the normal way to breed. Perhaps when the TB got "fixed" in its traits, breeders started worrying about "incest". Personally, when I see the kind of planned breeding that resulted in Top Deck, my hat goes off to the breeders.
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zinn21 · 3rd Year Sire Joined: 31 Jan 2005 Posts: 3306

I remember Praise Jay running at Bay Meadows. Wow, what a pedigree..
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