Monique Rene may or may not have been the kind of mare Leon Rasmussen had in mind when he put out his namesake hypothesis of inbreeding to "superior females." A Louisiana-bred by stakes-placed Prince of Ascot out of the undistinguished winner Party Date, by the equally undistinguished Speedy Frank, she certainly couldn't boast a fashionable pedigree. And while she outran that pedigree in remarkable fashion to become the queen of Louisiana racing in the early 1980s, she was still no glamour girl by national standards. She retired without ever having won or placed a graded stakes, and she earned black type outside the Pelican State only once.
Calling Monique Rene a "superior female" based on her production record might be something of a stretch as well. Not that she did badly: her produce included 1995 Ark-La-Tex Handicap (USA-G3) winner Prince of the Mt. (by Mt. Livermore) and his stakes-placed full brother Mt. Rene. Further, her record might have been better had she not spent half her career being put to indifferent sires. Nonetheless, she was not exactly the kind of blue hen breeders dream of having in their paddocks even though two of her daughters did become graded stakes producers: Ronique (by Raise a Native), dam of 2000 Pegasus Handicap (USA-G2) winner Kiss a Native (by Kissing Kris), and Clever Monique (by Clever Trick), dam of 1999 Frank J. de Francis Memorial Dash Stakes (USA-G1) winner and successful sire Yes It's True, by Is It True. (For good measure, Clever Monique also threw listed stakes winner Honest Deceiver, a full sister to Yes It's True.)
Here the plot---and the genetics---thicken. Having acquired Monique Rene's daughter Walk Away Rene (by the Grade 3-winning Mr. Prospector horse Gold Alert), the late John Franks proceeded to mate her to Yes It's True, setting up a 3x2 cross to Monique Rene. The resulting filly, Catch My Fancy, caught enough potential buyers' fancy that she sold for US$50,000 as a yearling and US$150,000 as a 2-year-old in training. While she didn't quite win herself out, she did win two minor stakes in California and showed good enough form at 2 and 3 that she sold for US$195,000 in February of her 4-year-old season.
The 2008 mating of Catch My Fancy to Malibu Moon followed a pattern familiar to students of the 17th Earl of Derby's stud. While providing an outcross to the Monique Rene inbreeding in Catch My Fancy, the mating set up a 3x4 cross to Mr. Prospector as well as a 5x5 cross to the great racer and sire Bold Ruler. The resulting filly, Catch the Moon, never raced and was bred as a 3-year-old to multiple Grade 1 winner Colonel John. This stacked up another layer of the same inbreeding/outcrossing pattern, for while Colonel John's pedigree is free of Monique Rene, Mr. Prospector and Bold Ruler, the foal produced by this mating---2015 Iroquois Stakes (USA-G3) winner Cocked and Loaded---is inbred 5x4 to Seattle Slew and 5x5 to Mr. Prospector's sire Raise a Native.
This pattern of inbreedings to and through quality animals that reinforce different parts of the pedigree does not guarantee a good horse as a result, but when one does emerge, it is often blessed with genetic prepotence as well as racing ability. Cocked and Loaded is, of course, years away from proving that point, and while he looks like a nice colt, he has some improvement to make if he is to be ranked among the leaders of his crop. Nonetheless, it is nice to think that he owes some of the ability he has already shown to a tough mare from Louisiana and an unconventional breeder who wasn't afraid to double up on genes he considered worth preserving.
Calling Monique Rene a "superior female" based on her production record might be something of a stretch as well. Not that she did badly: her produce included 1995 Ark-La-Tex Handicap (USA-G3) winner Prince of the Mt. (by Mt. Livermore) and his stakes-placed full brother Mt. Rene. Further, her record might have been better had she not spent half her career being put to indifferent sires. Nonetheless, she was not exactly the kind of blue hen breeders dream of having in their paddocks even though two of her daughters did become graded stakes producers: Ronique (by Raise a Native), dam of 2000 Pegasus Handicap (USA-G2) winner Kiss a Native (by Kissing Kris), and Clever Monique (by Clever Trick), dam of 1999 Frank J. de Francis Memorial Dash Stakes (USA-G1) winner and successful sire Yes It's True, by Is It True. (For good measure, Clever Monique also threw listed stakes winner Honest Deceiver, a full sister to Yes It's True.)
Here the plot---and the genetics---thicken. Having acquired Monique Rene's daughter Walk Away Rene (by the Grade 3-winning Mr. Prospector horse Gold Alert), the late John Franks proceeded to mate her to Yes It's True, setting up a 3x2 cross to Monique Rene. The resulting filly, Catch My Fancy, caught enough potential buyers' fancy that she sold for US$50,000 as a yearling and US$150,000 as a 2-year-old in training. While she didn't quite win herself out, she did win two minor stakes in California and showed good enough form at 2 and 3 that she sold for US$195,000 in February of her 4-year-old season.
The 2008 mating of Catch My Fancy to Malibu Moon followed a pattern familiar to students of the 17th Earl of Derby's stud. While providing an outcross to the Monique Rene inbreeding in Catch My Fancy, the mating set up a 3x4 cross to Mr. Prospector as well as a 5x5 cross to the great racer and sire Bold Ruler. The resulting filly, Catch the Moon, never raced and was bred as a 3-year-old to multiple Grade 1 winner Colonel John. This stacked up another layer of the same inbreeding/outcrossing pattern, for while Colonel John's pedigree is free of Monique Rene, Mr. Prospector and Bold Ruler, the foal produced by this mating---2015 Iroquois Stakes (USA-G3) winner Cocked and Loaded---is inbred 5x4 to Seattle Slew and 5x5 to Mr. Prospector's sire Raise a Native.
This pattern of inbreedings to and through quality animals that reinforce different parts of the pedigree does not guarantee a good horse as a result, but when one does emerge, it is often blessed with genetic prepotence as well as racing ability. Cocked and Loaded is, of course, years away from proving that point, and while he looks like a nice colt, he has some improvement to make if he is to be ranked among the leaders of his crop. Nonetheless, it is nice to think that he owes some of the ability he has already shown to a tough mare from Louisiana and an unconventional breeder who wasn't afraid to double up on genes he considered worth preserving.
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