Pedigree Consultants : Thoroughbred Pedigree Analysts and Consultants

LOOK AT THAT

Alan Porter

We just love to see a pedigree upgraded by clever inbreeding and linebreeding, and the day after Christmas gave us a great example in the shape of the rapidly improving Australian horse, Just Look.

Trainer Lyn Tolson, and owners D. Sottile, R. Sottile, S. Kasam and P. Zucca, received a late Christmas present when Just Look came from last to first to take the Lord Stakes at Caulfield. As recently as early November – when he was second in a Class 2 Handicap at Mornington – Just Look didn’t look any better than useful. However, he’s improved hand-over-hand of late, and has now taken his last three.

Just Look’s sire, Fraar, was a son of the beautifully-bred Topsider. By Northern Dancer, Topsider was out of Drumtop (by Round Table, and out of Zonah, a three-parts-sister to the renowned quartet of Ridan, Moccasin, Thong and Lt. Stevens). Champion Turf Horse in Canada, Drumtop was stout enough to defeat colts in races like the Hialeah Turf Cup and the Bowling Green Handicap. Topsider wasn’t as good a runner as either of his parents, but was a decent sprinter, who did earn black-type with a win in the Sport Page Handicap. As a stallion, Topsider frequently outsired himself, and among his 63 stakes winners were six grade one winners headed by Champion U.S. Older Mare North Sider.

Topsider was generally an influence for speed, but, perhaps due to the presence of the staying Drumtop as his dam, could also get middle-distance runners when bred to mares with more stamina in their pedigree. Although it didn’t initially seem so, Fraar (out of the Seattle slew mare Alchaasibiyeh) turned out to be an example of such a horse. Fraar began his racing career in England. A winner over six furlongs and a mile in three starts at two, he failed to add to the win column at three, and appeared not to stay in his two attempts at distances beyond a mile. Sent to Australia, Fraar displayed a different aptitude, improving with time and distance. He scored his first black-type victory in the Coongy Handicap (gr. III) over 2000m., and added the Eclipse Stakes over the same trip, before backing up to 1400m. to capture the Chester Manifold Stakes. Continuing to progress, Fraar took third in the Australian Cup (gr. I) on his grade one debut, and second in the Hong Kong International Cup (gr. I). Then on the twenty-eighth start of his career, at odds of 31-1, Fraar ran the race of his life to take the Caulfield Cup (gr. I) over grade one winners Air Seattle and The Phantom. Despite his grade one win, and quality pedigree, Fraar never became a popular commercial sire, but he did get 200 winner from 321 starters, and six other stakes winners, headed by the Adelaide Guineas (gr. III) victor, Nina Haraka.

Just Look’s dam, the Brocco matron, Brocco Dancer, was an A$40,000 yearling purchase, but after a racing career that saw win just once, was resold for only A$11,000 just two years later. Just Look is her first foal, and since then she has produced minor winners by Hemingway and Hillman. Just Look’s granddam, Satska, was a daughter of the French and Irish Derby (both gr. I) winners, Assert. Foaled in the U.S., she raced in Ireland, where she won over a mile at two. Satska spent her entire stud career in Australia, where she produced two other minor winners from a total of five starters. Satska is half-sister to French group two and group three winner Glenorum – by Prove Out, one of the few horses to win a race against Secretariat – and to the Canadian listed scorer North Downs. Further back this becomes a top-class Canadian family. Just Look’s fourth dam, Canadiana, defeated colts in the principal Canadian classic, the Queens Plate, as well as the Cup and Saucer and Coronation Stakes, the top two-year-old events in the Dominion. Sent to the U.S she also accounted for the Test Stakes and Vagrancy Handicap.

Canadiana’s half-sister, Victoriana, produced another Queen’s Plate victor in Canadiana’s three-parts-brother Victoria Park. Another daughter of Victoriana, Victoria Regina, was Champion Two-Year-Old Filly in Canada, and subsequently produced Champion Viceregal, and that horse’s brother, Vice Regent. Champion Sire in Canada for more than a decade, Vice Regent was responsible for the outstanding stallion Deputy Minister, and was responsible for Australia sires Archregent and New Regent.

The pedigree of Just Look (who is TrueNicks rated A+) is an object lesson in how to upgrade with clever inbreeding and linebreeding. Fraar has the three-quarters relatives Drumtop (dam of Topsider) and Poker (who is responsible for the dam of Fraar’s broodmare sire, Seattle Slew) 2 x 4 in his pedigree. If we look at the distaff pedigree of Just Look, whe find that his third dam is by a horse called Right Combination. Right Combination is not only by Round Table out of a Nasrullah mare – as are Drumtop and Poker – but his dam, Oak Cluster, is a 15/16ths relative to Glamour, the dam of Poker. In addition, Topsider the grandsire of Just Look, is by Northern Dancer out of Drumtop, and Satska, the granddam of Just Look, is by a son of Northern Dancer out of a mare by Right Combination (three-quarters related to Drumtop).