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Rare White Standardbred Foal
Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 7:52 pm
by skywatcher
not a thoroughbred so I hope no one minds the link......
http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/news/5 ... -born.html
Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 6:10 am
by Skipitgirl
When I was an arabian show groom back in the 80's I watched a yearling standardbred sale in KY. A gelding went through named Dappers Matre'D. He was dark bay like all the others. Except for the white stockings above his knees and up his hocks and the bald face that wrapped around his nose. He was the talk of the sale. No one liked him. I thought he was gorgeous. I always wondered what became of him.
Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 8:09 am
by Sunday Silence
http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/dapper+maitre+d
Unfortunately the photo link, as usual, is broken.
Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 11:20 am
by erhrdt3
That is a super cool looking colt; with the little bit of reddish fuzz between his ears! I hope he does do very well on the track, he has great parents, so I can't see why they would not keep him a stallion.
Isn't it something how you can tell Standardbreds from TB's? Where I boarded my TB mare up by me here in IL, the owners raced the Standardbreds. It was really weird when they would bring some back to the farm as they would start playing in the field when let out but they would pace around instead of run. Then there's my TB mare running around them in the opposite way! So funny.
Please keep us informed on this white little boy, he sure is interesting.
I have to check in with our friend down in Lexington to see how his pure white TB colt is doing, have not heard anything. Think his name is Chief white fox or something like that.
Thanks for posting
Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 2:59 pm
by Sunday Silence
Re: Rare White Standardbred Foal
Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 4:34 pm
by Jorge
Skywatcher,
Thank you very much for bringing up this case, which factually seems even more rare than a white Thoroughbred, due to the fact that the annual production of Thoroughbreds far exceeds the number of Standardbreds.
Did a little search and found out that a few white Standardbreds were previously produced, but this new 2012 colt comes from a top-notch family. He is by Art Major (Bay H 1999) out of Coochie Mama (Bay M 2000).
Also found out that a previous white Standardbred filly named HISTORICALLY UNIQUE was foaled in Ontario in 1998.
Also found out that in 1992 a previous white Standardbred named
MR CLEAN was foaled in Manitoba from a bay sire named Roarin Snortin (a son of Adios Pick) and a chestnut dam named Shyloh Robin, by broodmare sire Castle Ridge.
That's all I have found through the internet. Perhaps some of our collaborators may assist us with more information on these and other previous instances (if applicable).
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 10:39 am
by erhrdt3
Kind of off topic, but do the Standardbreds come in pure black color? Or are they mainly the "Standard" brown?
thanks
Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 6:58 pm
by ElPrado
Mainly dkb/br and bays. There are not many chestnuts in the breed. You would need to have the true black gene to dominate the chestnut gene (as I understand it) to produce a true black. There are so few chestnuts, and even fewer true blacks that it would be extremely rare to have a true black appear.
Posted: Sat May 19, 2012 10:30 am
by xfactor fan
Chestnut isn't related to black. What you need is a Black base coat gene, and the non-bay gene at the Bay location. In genetic terms E? aa. Looks like there's a high frequency of E (black base coat) and not much e (red base coat) And a lot of A (bay) not much a (black) and a whole lot of Brown.
Posted: Sat May 19, 2012 10:46 am
by pfrsue
When I worked on a Standardbred farm, we did have one true black filly (with bling!) in training. She was uncommonly lovely for the breed, but sadly wasn't fast enough to race. I can say that out of the fifty or sixty horses there, she was definitely the only black. (No grays either, and only one liver chestnut.)
I had a heck of a time when I started there trying to learn who was who when practically every horse on the place was plain bay with a common head.

And just to make it more fun, the manager (a crusty ol' curmudgeon) only identified the horses by their dams. "Go bring in the Begonia colt" narrowed it down to three possible suspects. lol
Posted: Sat May 19, 2012 7:11 pm
by Sunday Silence
Do you remember her name, pfsue?
Posted: Sat May 19, 2012 11:42 pm
by summerhorse
There are black standardbreds but because so many are bays it is hard to find two "a"s to put together. It seems almost every horse has an A!
Posted: Sun May 20, 2012 8:56 am
by pfrsue
Sunday Silence wrote:Do you remember her name, pfsue?
I'm afraid I don't, Sunday Silence. It has to have been twenty-five years ago. As I recall, her dam wasn't on the property, so I can't even tell you what color she was. The filly was definitely true black though. She really stood out.
I'm positive that she never made it as a racehorse and I doubt she was ever bred. In fact, I've sometimes wondered about her fate. Slow Standardbreds in that part of Pennsylvania generally went to the Amish back then, but her markings (four whites and an almost-blaze) were fancy enough that they probably wouldn't have wanted her as a buggy horse.
Posted: Sun May 20, 2012 9:26 am
by ElPrado
I'm not saying it right. The black gene dominates the chestnut. The horse would have to have the black gene rather than the bay gene. The black gene would dominate the chestnut then. The bay gene is far more common than the black.
Posted: Sun May 20, 2012 10:20 am
by xfactor fan
There are two independent sets of genes. Horses are either red e, or black E. A chestnut needs to have two ee, a black can be Ee, or EE.
Bay, or brown, or black modifies only horses that are Ee, or EE, (black based)
When a horse is ee, it can still have the bay, or black or brown, but without the black base, it doesn't show.