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Menhammar Stuteri sends Maharajah, Readly Express and From Above to Hunterton/Stoner Creek

Simply sensational!

While the French studbook is still closed for foreign blood (although many breeders want an opening for US Standardbred blood after decades …), Swedens breeding champion farm Menhammar Stuteri is thinking one step ahead and will transfer frozen semen to Hunterton Farm and therefore to the US market. That seems to be more than welcome to the American breeders who face a little problem with the inbreeding of the dominant blood of Valley Victory and Garland Lobell respectively their sons and grandsons.

Menhammar sends 10 portions of semen each of Prix d´Amérique winner and Swedish hero Maharajah (Viking Kronos – Chili Khan – Giant Chill), the new young star Readly Express (Ready Cash – Caddie Dream – Viking Kronos) and a few portions of Elitlopp winner From Above (Zoot Suit – A Gift From Heaven – Armbro Goal). The foals will be eligible for the Kentucky Sire Stakes.

Before we want to match the pedigrees of the 3 stallions, let´s have a look what they have done so far in breeding:

From Above (born 1998, first crop 2005): Best offsprings / All offsprings
Maharajah (born 2005, first crop 2013): All offsprings
Readly Express (born 2012, first crop 2017)

Coverings in Sweden 2016 (the book of Readly Express was limited to 110 mares due to of his ongoing racing career)

The Pedigrees:

Paternal lines:

All three stallions are from the Star's Pride line, which is quite pleasing for all breeders who own a mare from the lines of Valley Victory or Garland Lobell. The legendary Star's Pride line is currently underrepresented in its home continent, the branch of Super Bowl lives more or less by Credit Winner, the line of Nevele Pride experienced an unexpected comeback through Kadabra.

This could now be fundamentally changed by importing the new stallions. Maharajah comes from the line of Super Bowl, whose grandson Viking Kronos (who is also damsire of Readly Express) had an enormous influence on breeding in Europe. From Above and Readly Express, on the other hand, they actually go back to Nevele Pride, From Above to his grandson Zoot Suit, a frequent champion stallion in Sweden, and Readly Express to the Bonefish son Mickey Viking, who was exported to France and leads over Viking´s Way and Indy de Vive to Ready Cash, who has now replaced Love You as the most successful Sire in Europe. 

Who would have expected these comebacks?

Maternal lines:

From Above comes from the mother line of Belle (*1866), Maharajah from the rather rarer of Star Queen (born in the 1860s), Readly Express from the worlds best of Medio (*1887). If you take a closer look at the offsprings of the lines, you can hardly get out of the astonishment because of the multitude of trotting heroes.

French factor:

Many American breeders are at least cautious as far as the influence of the French trotter blood is concerned due to the experience of the last decades. With these three stallions, however, this seems unjustified. From Above is 100% from US Standardbred blood, Maharajah has about 10% French blood over his second damsire Tibur, while it is about 27% at Readly Express. However, if you look at the exterior of Readly Express alone (a very small stallion), you can clearly see a sire that corresponds to the American ideal rather than the coarse French. It should also be mentioned that his father's Ready Cash usually shows rather small than large horses.

Hypothetical matings:

We have chosen a typical mare for the US market, which goes back on the paternal side to Valley Victory, as damsire we have chosen a representative of the line of Garland Lobell.

All three stallions achieve the desired effect. Although the American Standardbred breed has achieved great success through inbreeding respectively linebreeding, and this is now continuing strongly in Europe, even in France (see, for example, Bold Eagle), the pedigree is now virtually free of inbreeding in the first 3 generations.

Pedigrees: www.pedigreematching.com

2017_03