Recently, I looked up some data I generated looking at which horses appear more frequently in better horses and found the usually culprits.  I then did the same with a bad bunch and found the same culprits.  This makes one wonder would Vuillier have found the same thing if he had looked at the pedigrees of all rather than just good specimens.

I thought it might help to have a look at a large random list of foals I have in my database from 1995 to 2002 and then calculate which descendants are to be found in stakes winners and non-stakes winners with the view to making a positive list of good stallions and mares found in good stock more often than bad stock.

Some of the winners I threw out even though they did well (Deputy Minister and Ahonoora for example) because I decided there must be a certain number of foals with them in for them to qualify.

Not a very scientific exercise which is why I called it 'Just For Fun' but the results are interesting because the list contains names that I did not suspect.  The top 10 are:

For the 30,000 sample Danzig is in far more stakes than non-stakes and won quite comfortably.  Shall we expect in the next decade or so to see a wave of Danzig inbreds like the Northern Dancer inbreds we are currently seeing.  I will guess yes.

Interestingly, of the three mares only Crimson Saint is a designated reine.

Gentlemen's Relish was the biggest surprise!  I know she's Acatenango's 3rd dam but I was shocked to find her in nearly 300 group winners.  Probably worth an article herself.

Adrian Parry Copyright 2006