CAN YOU CLONE GREAT FILLY”S?

I was hanging out in chat the other day with Silverny talking about the cloning real life horses article I wrote a few weeks back and she mentioned that she had just bred a clone of a real life horse she had a connection to. I said while I had found little success amongst the clones of the standing sires I had profiled I wondered about success with top fillies. She suggested an article and I asked her which top real life fillies should I look. No sooner had we got to the name Silverbulletday then Sil had bred a clone. The baby Silver Bullets will have the same basic pedigree as the real life champion filly and I hope the foal can duplicate its predecessor.  I did a bit of research to see how a few fillies of the not so distant past have done when stacked up against their sim counterparts. I went in with the notion that while it made sense that cloning sires might not work, I had a belief that cloning some lesser known but very successful gals might work. Lets see how the test turned out.

I had to start with checking on Sil’s favorite the great Silverbulletday. The real life gal was trained by Bob Baffert. Silverbullet day won the BC fillie juvi at 2 and was an 8 time graded winner at 3 (4 G1’s). She won 15 of her career 23 starts and won over 3 million is purses. Her pedigree is Silver Deputy x Tom Rolfe x Quadrangle which is quite cheap in the sim and often available for credits late in the week and nearly always for bps on the weekend. She has no crosses in her 5 x 5 chart. None of her siblings out her mom Rokeby shared her success and surprising that was the only time Silver Deputy was tried to this mare. 

Sil’s newborn Silver Bullets is the first clone of this great filly so we will keep an eye on her.

Makybe Diva was a great champion mare in Australia, a three time winner of the Melbourne Cup (2002. 2003 and 2004). This lady stood toe-to-toe against all comers winning 15 of her 36 starts with an eye popping 14.5 million in purses. A two time Australian horse of the year and an inductee to Australia’s racing hall off fame.  Her Pedigree of Desert King x Riverman x Roberto brings about a 4x4x4 Northern Dancer cross in real life which is only 4x4 in the sim (the real life Makybe Diva’s dam’s dam is out of ND). We also get a whole lot of Natalma in her as well 5x5x5x5 in real life and 5x5x5 in the sim.

There is one clone of Makybe Diva in the sim   http://derbyfever.com/hr/runtime/onehoss.asp?hossnum=35548&maxer=true

Maybe Diva has 33 starts and only two wins. She has hit the board 11 times total and has 125k or so in earnings. Oddly enough the clone of perhaps the greatest 2 mile turf horse of this century has never been tried 16f on turf and has had more success sprinting than routing.

Pure Clan is a very nice filly out of Pure Prize x General Assembly x What Luck (through a mare x Summer Tan).  So far this filly looks like she could be one of the top choices for 3 year old filly of the year. In her first 9 starts she has won 6 ran second twice and showed once. She has already won more than a million dollars and has never lost to a filly not named Proud Spell or Eight Belles. She has graded wins on both surfaces.  Pure Clan’s breeding gives is 4x3 to Secretariat and 4x5 to Northern Dancer and Bold Ruler.

Our sim clone is creatively not a clone but is close enough to qualify Assembly Clan is

http://derbyfever.com/hr/runtime/onehoss.asp?hossnum=169332&maxer=true

Pure Prize x General Assembly x Full Pocket. (Full Pocket and What Luck share Summer Tan as the their DS). Assembly Clan is just a baby but she won her first race easy at 6.5 on the turf and has the looks of one to keep an eye on as the season progresses.

With Eight Belles we find that the clone can predate the original and that sim success might predict successful real life breedings. Eight Belles was the tragically brilliant 3 year old filly who lost her life in this years Kentucky Derby after running a game second to Big Brown. She won 5 of her 10 lifetime starts and only missed the board once. She won just over 700k in her short career. Eight Belles pedigree is Unbridled’s Song x Dixieland Band x Mr. Prospector.  She was 3x4 to Mr. P and 4 x 5 to Raise a Native.

Her predecessor is a 6 year old sim horse who was bred back when 8 Belles was a just a notion. Song of The South

http://derbyfever.com/hr/runtime/onehoss.asp?hossnum=2681&maxer=true

is Unbridled’s Song x Dixieland x Woodman (a son of mr p). This colt has had some decent success and he has never tried the type of route(10f on dirt) that made his female follower a racing legend. He has won 9 of his 43 starts and ran second 11 times. He has 155k in earning and has run a lifetime best in 3 of his last 4 races. Did someone tell this guy that 8 Belles and he shared a pedigree and he suddenly woke up? Keep an eye on this guy if he ever tries a 10f trip.

Serena’s Song was one of the greatest American filly’s of the last 30 years. She was on the board for 32 of 38 lifetime starts and won 18. Her lifetime earning of over 3 million dollars were earned winning 17 graded stakes, 11 grade 1 events. She was champion 3 year old filly in 1995. You would not expect to see her pedigree of Rahy x Northfields x Dancer’s Image much in the sim but there is a bonafide clone and she clearly was no accident.

Serena’s Song

http://derbyfever.com/hr/runtime/onehoss.asp?hossnum=86934&maxer=true

the simmer is an 8 year mare with only 8 lifetime races. She won 1 and hot the board 5 other times. She had the looks of one who may have been nearly as good as her namesake but seems to be part of an inactive or very transient stable owners flock. She never really tested the real life distances her role model was best at 8.5-10 furlongs.

CONCLUSION

I must say that my early premise that there would be lots of successful clones of top recent mares was not borne out by the research. Not only were exact duplicates of these top filly pedigrees (and even close similes) NOT prevalent, they barely existed. Those that did exist were not all that successful.  I am sure there are others out there that I missed and you might find it fun to search back a few of your favorite pedigrees through the sim. Let me know if you find some good clones.

It is really easy if you use http://www.pedigreequery.com and http://planoaxia.vselijak.eu/sea.php toconduct your searches and thanks to both of those sites for the information I provided.