Stallion Selection Matters
by Roger Lyons
Bethany (Dayjur-Willamae, by Tentam), the dam of Met Mile (G1) winner Tizway, had good reasons for failing to produce a foal of any merit until her sixth season as a broodmare–I mean, besides her body refusing to cooperate in her fourth and fifth seasons. Or maybe she was trying to say she didn’t like the stallions she’d been bred to previously.
In retrospect, it’s clear she was bred beneath her station in 1998 when she conceived a foal by Benny the Dip. Seeking the Gold, sire of her 2000 and 2001 foals was her equal, more or less, but he lacked the commitment she required. Bethany is by Dayjur, whose broodmare sire is Mr. Prospector, and Seeking the Gold really didn’t want a foal inbred to his sire. Of the 24 mares he’d tried that with lifetime, only two produced stakes winners by him.
Finally, when bred to Capote, she had a chance with a sire that could have some affection for her. He didn’t like Danzig line much, but he was 3/8 with Tentam, sire of her dam, and 4/27 with Hoist the Flag, sire of her second dam. Not only did Bethany produce listed stakes winner Ticket to Seattle by Capote, but so did her half-sister, Ms. Teak Wood, the dam of Acceptable (G3). Bethany wasn’t the girl of his dreams, but Capote liked her well enough.
Tiznow, sire of Tizway, went downright goofy over her, and it was her speed. Her sire, Dayjur, was a Champion sprinter, and her broodmare sire Tentam was out of Tamerett, the second dam of Gone West. If a mare contributes the speed required to control or press the pace, then Tiznow will contribute the ability to carry that speed as far as it deserves to go. Tizway resulted from a match made in heaven.
Then Bethany went stone cold the next two years when bred to Gulch in 2005 and then to Aldebaran the next year. Lifetime, Gulch went 0/5 with Dayjur, 0/6 with Tentam, and only 1/48 with Mr. Prospector. Seeking the Gold, Gulch, Aldebaran–what difference could it possibly make? They’re all by Mr. Prospector!
Then, after a 2008 unraced foal by Vindication, she slipped in 2009, produced a 2010 foal by Elusive Quality, and that year went back to Tiznow. The good news, besides her second chance with Tiznow, is that Elusive Quality, by Gone West, by Mr. Prospector, is 3/10 with Dayjur–3/8 with daughters of Dayjur, including G1 winner Elusive City.
I’ve written in the past about how well daughters of Dayjur buffer inbreeding to Mr. Prospector, but every good thing has its limits. The lesson here is that, if the inbreeding notation on your pedigree printout says 2 x whatever, then just try something else.
Posted by Roger Lyons on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 6:46 am.
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Dayjur and his Daughters
By Roger Lyons
Although not one to beat the drum for inbreeding, I’m willing to relent on the occasion of the pensioning of Shadwell Farm’s Dayjur, a stallion that’s been very good value for breeders on a budget. Bred Danzig over Mr. Prospector, he was bound to be almost exclusively a sire of sprinters, regardless of the mares he got, but he did get some very good mares early on. That and his speed contribution probably both figure prominently in the early results of crossing his daughters and their daughters with certain Mr. Prospector-line stallions. Dayjur apparently has an uncanny ability to mediate inbreeding to Mr. Prospector. (Click here to view Dayjur’s Conformation photo, stats, etc)
Gone West provides only an inkling of that since he only had four mares with Dayjur in their ancestries. From the mare Top Order (Dayjur-Victoria Cross, by Spectacular Bid) he got the colt Top Cross, winner of the listed Lamplighter S. (9f-T), but that’s a little too close for comfort at 2×4 to Mr. Prospector. Gone West sons Elusive Quality and Mr. Greeley have done a lot better.
Elusive Quality has had foals out of ten mares with Dayjur in their ancestries, and three of those mares produced superior runners. Elusive City, out of Star of Paris (Dayjur-Liturgism, by Native Charger), picked up on the speed angle winning the 6f Prix Morny (G1). So did multiple listed stakes winner Princess Janie, out of Petite Princess (Dayjur-Classy Women, by Relaunch), winner of the Just Smashing S. and the Mongo Queen S., both at three and both at 6f, and Great Notion, out of Evening Primrose (Dayjur-Water Lily, by Riverman), winner of the Southwest S. at 8f.
That one-generation break in the distance of inbreeding makes a huge difference. Just ask Mr. Greeley. He’s had seven mares with Dayjur in their ancestries, and three of those mares have produced listed stakes winners by him. At two, the filly Foxy Danseur, out of Ravish Me (Wild Again-In Conference, by Dayjur), won the Sharp Cat S. at 8.5f and at three the Cascapedia S. at 7f. The filly Parisian Affair, out of Star of Paris (Dayjur-Liturgism, by Native Charger–same mare as above), won the Phoenix S. at five going 5f on turf. The filly Zona, out of Miss Gaily (Dayjur-Gaily Gaily, by Cure the Blues), won the 8f Premio Seregno.
Almost everything Dayjur touches turns to speed, which is not a bad limitation for an ancestor to offer, as is suggested by other stallions that have had good Mr. Prospector inbreds from mares in descent of Dayjur–and from precious little opportunity.
Awesome Again, whose second dam is by Mr. Prospector, has Everyday Heroes, out of Lucette (Dayjur-Thirty Zip, by Tri Jet), one of only two opportunities with mares in descent of Dayjur. Everyday Heroes won the 6f Hirsch Jacobs S. (G3).
From only three mares, E Dubai, by Mr. Prospector, has sired the 2005 colt Dubai Destination, out of Darlin (Dayjur-So Endearing, by Raise a Native). Dubai Destination won the Eillo S. at 6f.
Northern Afleet sired Nay’s Tap, a gelding out of Tapforaly (Pleasant Tap-Aly’s Daylite, by Dayjur) and winner of the Sophomore Sprint Championship S. at 6f, that from only two opportunities.
If the good filly Shadow Cast, by Smart Strike and out of Daily Special (Dayjur-Nafees, by Raja Baba), were the only representative of inbreeding to Mr. Prospector by way of a mare in descent of Dayjur, she would qualify as the wildest of flukes. Smart Strike hasn’t otherwise done his best work with mares in descent of Mr. Prospector, either. Shadow Cast, in fact, is the only superior runner by Smart Strike and out of a mare in any descent of Mr. Prospector from 57 chances, only four of which involved Dayjur. Nevertheless, she won six stakes, four of them graded, including the Personal Ensign S. (G1) at 10f. Not everything Dayjur touches turns to speed after all.
One case does not a pattern make, but, even though Shadow Cast truly is an outlier, the good results by a variety of stallions from very small numbers of similarly inbred foals suggest that she is nonetheless part of a pattern of uncharacteristically effective inbreeding involving Dayjur.
Tesio insisted on using close inbreeding at least once per crop although very few of his crops yielded as many as two instances. Never mind that Nearco was one of those. Don’t forget that Tesio’s number one criterion for close inbreeding was that it involve the soundest individuals, and Dayjur’s record of 78% runners and 52% winners probably weighs as much in the accounting as his speed and the quality of the families he got in his early crops.
Posted by Roger Lyons on Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 1:03 pm.
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