After placing in the Grande Prêmio Ipiranga (BRZ-G1), 3-year-old Atila the King came through with his first stakes win on November 9 in the Grande Prêmio Premio Gobernado da Estado (BRZ-G2). Fans of the Rasmussen Factor (inbreeding to superior females) should have been ecstatic, for Atila the King has a pedigree that is a showcase for the RF; he is inbred 3x3 to Terlingua and has an additional 5x5 cross to Sequence.
As the dam of two-time American leading sire and seven-time American leading juvenile sire Storm Cat, Terlingua is probably the more familiar nowadays. The daughter of Secretariat and the sizzling-fast Crimson Saint (herself a first-rate producer) was one of the best juvenile fillies of her year before retiring to the paddocks, where Storm Cat was her second foal. Her third foal was multiple Grade 2 winner Chapel of Dreams (by Northern Dancer), and her eighth was the Mr. Prospector colt Pioneering.
Pioneering won two of his six starts and gained a chance at stud based on pedigree. He has proved worthy of the opportunity. The sire of at least 59 stakes winners including American Grade 1 winner Behaving Badly and Brazilian Group 1 winners Emperor Cat, Farrier and Meu Chuck, he initially stood alongside Storm Cat at Overbrook Farm before being purchased by a consortium of Brazilian breeders in 2009. A top-10 sire in his adopted country, he is the broodmare sire of Atila the King, whose sire is the Storm Cat horse Forestry.
Sequence, a granddaughter of the excellent racer and foundation mare Myrtlewood was, like Terlingua, a good juvenile. As befitted a daughter of Count Fleet, she was also a fine producer and is best known for her daughter Gold Digger, whose brood included Pioneering's sire Mr. Prospector. A great sire of sires, Mr. Prospector heads up by far the most successful branch of the sire line of the great Native Dancer (his paternal grandsire), and Gold Digger's branch of her family has bred on through her daughters as well.
Neither of Sequence's stakes-winning sons had any influence on future generations, but another branch of her family extends through the Bold Ruler mare Bold Sequence. Bred to Dr. Fager, Bold Sequence produced Surgery, dam of Grade 1 winners Sewickley (by Star de Naskra) and Shared Interest (by Pleasant Colony). Shared Interest, in turn, is the dam of none other than Forestry, a Grade 1 winner in his own right and a successful sire in North America before being exported to Brazil in his old age.
Forestry and Pioneering, thus, share strong links to two excellent families, and it will be interesting to see if Brazilian breeders attempt to exploit these links further by crossing these sires and their sons with one another's daughters. As for Atila the King, he appears to be a colt on the improve, and he may just have a future as one of the royalty of Brazilian breeding thanks to a genetic hand that contains two queens twice over.
As the dam of two-time American leading sire and seven-time American leading juvenile sire Storm Cat, Terlingua is probably the more familiar nowadays. The daughter of Secretariat and the sizzling-fast Crimson Saint (herself a first-rate producer) was one of the best juvenile fillies of her year before retiring to the paddocks, where Storm Cat was her second foal. Her third foal was multiple Grade 2 winner Chapel of Dreams (by Northern Dancer), and her eighth was the Mr. Prospector colt Pioneering.
Pioneering won two of his six starts and gained a chance at stud based on pedigree. He has proved worthy of the opportunity. The sire of at least 59 stakes winners including American Grade 1 winner Behaving Badly and Brazilian Group 1 winners Emperor Cat, Farrier and Meu Chuck, he initially stood alongside Storm Cat at Overbrook Farm before being purchased by a consortium of Brazilian breeders in 2009. A top-10 sire in his adopted country, he is the broodmare sire of Atila the King, whose sire is the Storm Cat horse Forestry.
Sequence, a granddaughter of the excellent racer and foundation mare Myrtlewood was, like Terlingua, a good juvenile. As befitted a daughter of Count Fleet, she was also a fine producer and is best known for her daughter Gold Digger, whose brood included Pioneering's sire Mr. Prospector. A great sire of sires, Mr. Prospector heads up by far the most successful branch of the sire line of the great Native Dancer (his paternal grandsire), and Gold Digger's branch of her family has bred on through her daughters as well.
Neither of Sequence's stakes-winning sons had any influence on future generations, but another branch of her family extends through the Bold Ruler mare Bold Sequence. Bred to Dr. Fager, Bold Sequence produced Surgery, dam of Grade 1 winners Sewickley (by Star de Naskra) and Shared Interest (by Pleasant Colony). Shared Interest, in turn, is the dam of none other than Forestry, a Grade 1 winner in his own right and a successful sire in North America before being exported to Brazil in his old age.
Forestry and Pioneering, thus, share strong links to two excellent families, and it will be interesting to see if Brazilian breeders attempt to exploit these links further by crossing these sires and their sons with one another's daughters. As for Atila the King, he appears to be a colt on the improve, and he may just have a future as one of the royalty of Brazilian breeding thanks to a genetic hand that contains two queens twice over.
RSS Feed