Jorge wrote:Thanks Donna for bringing up this issue.
When I ponder on what it takes to a rare color to become mainstream it is important to relate to the trajectory once followed by the gray coat color.
The gray coat color was among the founders of the Thoroughbred breed but it took nearly 200 years until the appearance of a genuine top notch talented runner like champion The Tetrarch (gray H 1911) in order to catapult his phenotype into common spotlight, regardless of its coat color.
Even when this first echelon was achieved, this alone was not sufficient. It was necessary to wait until the appearance of a prepotent gray lineage of the caliber of Mahmoud (gray horse 1933) to really see effervescence on the gray color ---thanks to the many gray broodmares he produced. A couple of generations later, many good gray horses, mainly coming via good gray broodmares began tilting the scale in favor of the appearance of extraordinary gray champions like the ones we are accustomed seeing today. If you want to verify what I am saying, just go to the historical racing charts of the K-P-B participants and you will see a constant increase of so-so grays, then excellent ones, and their achievements, decade by decade. This comes as no surprise.
It is my opinion that in order for the whites, perlinos, and cremellos, to achieve top-notch standing, regardless of their color, we have to pinpoint and promote their exposure towards racing careers. Seeking to link our rare colored Thoroughbreds to the best racing lineages of the world and hoping for a Mahmoud factor to appear.
Jumping, dressage and other similar careers are really quite meritorious activities which we all should encourage with kind enthusiasm, because it is an important and necessary life support medicine. But for the sake of exponentially blossoming the endeavors of coat color breeding, in my opinion there is no shortcut but to aim directly to the top of the racing pyramid (namely, successful racing careers) and from there disseminate through the air all your phenotypical seeds (diseminate these rare coat colors) and then every step of the pyramid (all the different horse activities) will be influenced by these colors and the "maize" will grow..
Right now there is a living example that proves my point. It is the white filly YUKICHAN, recent winner of a Grade 2 Oaks race in Japan. Yukichan is a daughter of Shirayukihime, an unexpected white daughter of the perennial top-notch Japanese stallion, Sunday Silence. Since Shirayukihime was reagally bred from a meritorious racing family, she was sent to another reagally bred sire and track record holder named Kurofune to be bred. The produce was YUKICHAN. You can be sure that YUKICHAN will visit all the best breeding sheds in her country and most probably, if properly guided, her breeding influence will remain available and ready to extend for future generation. Not all our white Thoroughbreds are so blessed, but there is a good chance that YUKICHAN will promote her coat color and assist the rest of all white Thoroughbreds in exponential terms. But only God knows.
In short rare coat colors need to achieve 3 steps:
01. The appearance of an unusually good talented runner
02. The subsequent appearance of a profilic broodmare sire coming from the cited talented runner
03. The exponential appearance of many talented runners (future sires) coming from the daughters and descendants of the prolific broodmare sire.
In the meantime, we are all very proud of the extraordinary efforts breeders like you and many others are devoting to the production of rare phenotyped Thoroughbreds. Right now, we are very fortunate to witness the existance of some of the finest examples you and others are producing.
(p.s. Go Faux Finish! and go for the rest of all those very fine boulervardiers! )
A very interesting recently article on The Tetrarch and the gray color:
Shades of Gray
by Kellie Reilly