Blame it on Chelandry.

How many times have you had your choice of stallion for your beloved broodmare "set in concrete" prior to the breeding season only to change your mind to another stallion seemingly at the last minute?
Our guess is this happens more frequently than one is prepared to admit for a multitude of reasons.
Well, it has also happened to us here at Premier Pedigrees so you are in good company.
This particular story has it's origins back at the NZ Bloodstock Broodmare Sale in May 2011 when my good Taranaki breeding friends Johnny ( Silver ) and wife Helena Goodin purchased the mare Nicole's Niner from Cambridge Stud ( vendor ) for $16,000+gst.
I was with them at the Sales when they were in discussion post-sale with Garry Chittick ( Waikato Stud ) about the mare and about how he acclaimed her as being part of " a great International family".
One of her first breedings for the new ownership was to Windsor Park resident stallion Rip Van Winkle ( we had no part to play in this breeding ).
This produced the talented "turn of foot" mare Lady Rudolph, a mare that has been dogged from reaching higher honours because of chronic back issues as well as perpetual "tying-up" problems.
Lady Rudolph is currently still racing in the quest for black type ( like a lot of other racemares ) but around Christmas-New Year Johnny did casually ask me if I could suss out a good mating for her with the view that the foal could either go to the Yearling Sales or be retained to race.
And for a good while we thought we had found the right stallion for her ( and we still may have ) in the Windsor Park based Turn Me Loose, yet another "turn of foot" horse.
After all, everything looked good ( in fact very good ) on the Tesiopower 7-generational test-mating printout with the resultant foal presented with a breeding core based on a 4x4 reverse-sex cross to Sadler's Wells, a position in a pedigree that the late father figure of pedigree consultancy, Harold Hampton, acclaimed to be one of the most effective positions in a pedigree.
This is ably supported by a 4x5 sex-balanced cross-duplication to Nureyev via the latter's son Stravinsky ( Lady Rudolph ) and daughter Pastorale ( Turn Me Loose ) whilst an even more desirable, and more rare, cross-duplicated sex-balance occurs to the revered speed influence Ahonoora at 5x6 through his son Don't Forget Me ( Lady Rudolph ) and daughter Park Appeal ( Turn Me Loose ).
These two sex-balances to highly influential male forebears really connects the maternal bloodlines of Iffraaj ( sire of Turn Me Loose ) with the maternal bloodlines of Rip Van Winkle ( sire of Lady Rudolph ).
Whilst Turn Me Loose is a Mr Prospector-line stallion ( his great grandsire Gone West being a son of Mr Prospector ) it is Lady Rudolph who contributes a great deal more Mr Prospector blood ( 3 lines ) including an all important female sex-balancing line of Mr Prospector ( via daughter Prospector's Fire ) where Rip Van Winkle's balanced lines of Mr Prospector add to those of Lady Rudolph's damsire Forty Niner who is also a son of Mr Prospector, the resultant foal being 5x6x7x4 in sex-balance to Mr Prospector.
Things do not stop here either in this mating which also carries a significant under-pinning to Northern Dancer ( considered the Siamese twin of Mr Prospector ) at 6x5x5x5x5x6x7 albeit all via sons but we are hopeful that this is far enough removed not to trouble any resultant colt foal.
In fact, the resultant linebreeding that occurs to Northern Dancer's own dam Natalma may have a diluting effect on the likely influence of Northern Dancer in this mating as she can be found in sex-balance courtesy of Turn Me Loose's own dam Indomitable being bred on a 4x4 reverse-sex cross to Natalma through the latter's son Northern Dancer and daughter Spring Adieu ( granddam of Danehill, damsire of Turn Me Loose ).
The resultant foal carries sex-balanced linebreeding to Natalma at 7x6x6x6x6x6x7x8 whilst another broodmare bluehen in Special is found in Lady Rudolph only via her son Nureyev so will appreciate the balance that Turn Me Loose provides through having balanced lines of Special via son Nureyev and daughter Fairy Bridge, the foal thus being the benefactor of 5x6x6 sex-balanced linebreeding to Special.
With four lines of Natalma in Turn Me Loose through Northern Dancer and another line through Spring Adieu it is easy to see that Turn Me Loose is well-immersed also in lines of the quality speed influence Native Dancer ( damsire of Northern Dancer ).
These should work well with the multiple speed lines of Nasrullah that can be found in Lady Rudolph where we find amongst them that her dam Nicole's Niner is bred on a 5x5 reverse-sex cross to Nasrullah.
Just a darn good mating and one that in all honesty should probably still be proceeded with.
So what's holding us back from giving it the full green light? Probably a little trepidation as well as a little impatience.
Given the books Turn Me Loose has served to date one might have expected good numbers to have already trialled and raced and for him to have had a flagbearer "out there" by now......but we are still waiting at this moment.
And the longer you wait......the more time you have for other thoughts!
I was reading through a thoroughbred website a couple of weeks ago which had numerous interesting articles on past Influential Broodmares of the World featuring a number of Reines-de-Course. And one of them in particular caught my eye.
Her name was Chelandry, a Family 1-n member born way back in 1894. The first paragraph on her struck accord.
"Chelandry was one of those rare individuals which Thoroughbred breeders and owners pray for, but very rarely possess. Chelandry was exquisitely bred, a beautiful individual, a racetrack performer of the highest class, and a broodmare who went on to become one of the most renowned of her era and one whose influence is still being felt in the breeding world".
As a branch of Family 1, Chelandry's line of descendancy goes back to the very beginnings of the modern thoroughbred where in the late 1600's the Taffolet Barb mare was put to the Byerley Turk stallion at some time in the 1690's to produce the Byerley Turk mare who in turn was put to the Darley Arabian stallion in the very early 1700's to produce the Darley Arabian mare.
The Darley Arabian mare was bred to the stallion Bay Bolton producing in 1723 a filly named Bonny Lass and so the Family evolved to the birth of Chelandry in 1894.
We will not digress into the Family achievements, which have been colossal right up to this present day, other than to say these accomplishments can be caught up with at www.reines-de-course.com/chelandry if one wishes to delve far deeper.
So what significance does Chelandry hold for Lady Rudolph who is a Family 14 member like Turn Me Loose?
The answer does not lie in Lady Rudolph's direct maternal line but rather in that of her damsire Forty Niner who surprise, surprise, is a Family 1-n member as best found on the website www.bloodlines.net/TB/Families/Family1n.htm where a full Chelandry family tree including recent and past performers can be found.
A quick perusal of this threw up some significant finds including names so familiar to us  such as Americain ( Melbourne Cup winner and now a sire in Australia ), Never Say Die ( former stallion and still found in pedigrees today behind the likes of Battle Wagon ), Genuine Risk, High Chaparral, Princess Coup, Wahid, Once Were Wild, Brazil and Just A Dash to name just a few.
And so, for Lady Rudolph, the dice started to roll again.
Of the lot mentioned above, High Chaparral became of particular focus, or more specifically give that he is deceased, his sons and grandsons.
We thumbed through the NZ Stallion Register for the best one and bingo baby!
We hit the jackpot!
Super Seth is not only a grandson of High Chaparral ( via Dundeel ) but he is also from the Family of 1-n and thus a direct maternal descendant of Chelandry.
Here is a wonderful opportunity to linebreed to Chelandry through three different parts of the foal's pedigree i.e. twice through Super Seth's pedigree ( top and bottom ) and once through the third quartile of Lady Rudolph's pedigree via the bottom line of her damsire Forty Niner.
Potentially, the best part of doing this lies in the fact that you can return the blood of Chelandry from Lady Rudolph straight back to the stallion's ( Super Seth ) direct maternal ( bottom line ) bloodlines also featuring Chelandry.
This is a long recognised and highly successful breeding technique widely utilised by breeders for developing speed enhancement in the foal.
And the cream on top? Super Seth is another "turn of foot" stallion.
​With Helena Goodin being an avid Masters Games tennis player, the ball is well and truly back in the Goodin's court when it comes time to breed Lady Rudolph.