Just what the heck is a "nick" anyway? Being curious
as to where this term came from, the author consulted Webster's
New Collegiate Dictionary and discovered that it actually had
a genetic definition: "to complement one another genetically and
produce superior offspring." Yup. That about sums it up. A nick
is a cross of two bloodlines that seems to produce superior results.
Nicks have been around as long as there have been
Thoroughbreds, and probably as long as there have been animal breeders.
Some of the earliest include the Godolphin Arabian crossed on daughters
of The Bald Galloway, a cross that produced this foundation sire's
most important offspring Lath, Cade, and Regulus. Lath and Cade
were out of the same mare, Roxana, while Regulus was out of a second
daughter of Bald Galloway named Grey Robinson.
Another important early nick was that of Eclipse
on Herod mares, and in the next generation, of Herod's son Highflyer
on daughters of Eclipse. Moving forward through time, we also have
the Lexington/Glencoe nick, Galopin/Hampton, Bend Or/Macaroni, Isonomy/Hermit,
Fair Play/Rock Sand, Nasrullah/Princequillo, Raise a Native/Nasrullah
cross, Seattle Slew/Buckpasser, Storm Bird/Secretariat, and Pleasant
Colony/Nijinsky II.
Modern examples include A.P. Indy on Mr. Prospector
mares, or Gone West on The Minstrel mares, or Sadler's Wells on
Darshaan mares. Nicks can also describe a male line trend, for example,
Seattle Slew line sires (like A.P. Indy) on Mr. Prospector line
mares, or Mr. Prospector line sires (like Gone West) on Northern
Dancer line mares (like those by The Minstrel). Of course, going
back a generation on either side of the nick theoretically reduces
it's genetic impact by half, so the further back the sireline is
traced, the less influence the ancestor can have on the mating itself.
This is where some become distracted, by strict
adherence to the male line/male line tracking of sire and dam. The
further back one goes strictly by sire's male line and dam's male
line, the less of the pedigree is being examined. For instance,
crossing a son of A.P. Indy on a daughter of Seeking the Gold gives
the Seattle Slew/Mr. Prospector nick in the third generation of
the resulting foal. The third generation includes eight possible
ancestors, and this nick involves only two of those eight. What
about the influence of the other six ancestors? Clearly the bulk
of the pedigree is being ignored.
A fourth son of the Godolphin Arabian, also an important
runner and sire, was Blank, out of the Little Hartley Mare, a daughter
of Bartlett's Childers. No Bald Galloway there, nor in his second
dam, Flying Whigg by Williams' Woodstock Arabian, but Blank's third
dam was the mare Points, a full sister to The Bald Galloway. Hmmmm.
Likewise in modern pedigrees, if we look at the
pedigrees of the best stakes winners of any given stallion, a pattern
often emerges that may not be obvious if one was just tallying up
his best nicks to broodmare sires or broodmare sirelines. And the
pattern often helps us understand the "why" behind the nick. With
the Godolphin and The Bald Galloway, we'll never know because both
of their pedigrees disappear from the record rather quickly. Is
it possible there's some genetic relationship tying the Godolphin
Arabian to The Bald Galloway? But consider that the Godolphin came
to England via the court of France, and that the Bald Galloway was
sired by a horse known as the St. Victor Barb, who also came to
England via France. Although separated by thirty years, it's possible
that the St. Victor Barb shares some ancestors with the Godolphin
Arabian, since both probably came from a royal stud in North Africa,
but it's purely speculation on the author's part.
But take for instance, Holy Bull, who apparently
has a nick with mares from the line of Nijinsky II, producing the
three stakes winners, Confessional (G1), Turnofthecentury (G2),
and Crash Course (G3). The first two of these are out of mares by
Nijinsky II's son Green Dancer, and Green Dancer's son, Greinton,
respectively. The third is out of a mare by Shahrastani (by Nijinsky
II). What's unique about Green Dancer's pedigree is that he is from
the same immediate family (that of Ampola) as Grey Dawn II, who
is the sire of Holy Bull's second dam.
Considering the proliferation of Nijinsky II blood,
with few close pedigree ties to Holy Bull, through his many sons
and daughters, is it a complete coincidence that he's working with
Holy Bull through one of the few sources that has a strong link
to Holy Bull's pedigree? Is this the true "nick" with Holy Bull?
It's also interesting that while none of Holy Bull's stakes winners
is out of a mare that goes back in male line to Princequillo, quite
a few of these have close or multiple strains of Princequillo or
his son Prince John. As to why Holy Bull nicks with Princequillo
and Prince John, we'll leave that for another day.
The point here is that the male line/male line nick
has some value in pointing out successful patterns, but some equally
influential patterns will often be overlooked if the student does
not look at the entire pedigree of the top runners sired by any
given stallion or produced by any given mare. The most important
thing to remember is that nicks don't have to be the cross of a
sire's male line on a dam's male line. Look at the whole pedigree
and get the whole story.
This article originally appeared on the website
Pedigree Post, October 7, 2001. Copyright by Anne Peters 2001.
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Godolphin
Arabian x The Bald Galloway mares = Lath, Cade, Regulus |
Eclipse
x Herod mares = Dungannon, Sergeant, Whiskey, Gohanna |
Lexington
x Glencoe = Kentucky, Norfolk, Asteroid, Idlewild, Maiden, La
Polka, Gilroy, Acrobat, Daniel Boone, Optimist, Monarchist,
War Dance, etc. |
Galopin
x Hampton = Diamond Jubilee, Persimmon |
Bend Or
x Macaroni = Ormonde, Bona Vista, Kendal, Laveno, Orvieto, Martagon,
Ornament, Ortegal, Doremi |
Isonomy
x Hermit = Gallinule, Star Shoot, Seabreeze, Prisoner, Ravensbury |
Fair Play
x Rock Sand = Man o'War, Mad Hatter, Mad Play, Chatterton |
Phalaris x Chaucer = Pharos, Fairway, Sickle, Pharamond
II, Colorado, Caerleon, Fair Isle, Warden of the Marches, Meadow
Rhu |
Man O'War x Ben Brush = War Admiral, Seabiscuit |
Nasrullah
x Princequillo = Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Mill Reef, Bold
Lad, Bold Bidder, Riverman, San-San, Revidere |
Raise
a Native x Nasrullah = Alydar, Mr. Prospector, Native Royalty |
Seattle Slew x Prince John = Slewpy, Slew The Dragon,
Vernon Castle |
Seattle
Slew x Buckpasser = Slew o'Gold, Fast Play, Slewacide |
Northern
Dancer x Secretariat = Secreto, Summer Squall, Storm Bird,
Chief's Crown
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Exclusive Native x Crafty Admiral = Affirmed, Our
Native |
Storm
Bird x Secretariat = Summer Squall, Storm Cat, Cinegita |
Danzig
x Sir Gaylord = Green Desert, Danzig Connection, Magical Strike |
Danzig
x Somethingroyal = Chief's Crown, Green Desert, Danzig Connection,
Magtical Strike |
Pleasant
Colony x Nijinsky II/Northern Dancer = Cherokee Colony, Colonial
Affair |
A.P. Indy
x Mr. Prospector = Mineshaft, Pulpit, Bernardini, Malibu Moon |
Gone
West x Northern Dancer = Zafonic, Elusive Quality, Grand Slam |
Sadler's
Wells x Darshaan |
Fappiano
x Vice Regent = Victory Gallop, Cryptocloser, Halfbridled, Bright
Feather |
Fappiano
x In Reality = Unbridled, Real Quiet |
Maria's
Mon x Seattle Slew = Wait A While, Super Saver, Latent Heat |
Roberto
x Nureyev |
Deputy
Minister x Princequillo = Open Mind, Forest Camp |
Unbridled's
Song x Storm Cat |
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