When Round Table passed away in 1987, Leon Rasmussen made a comment to me I’ve never forgotten.  “Don’t let them forget him,” he cautioned.  Not likely, Leon.

   So after we had seen K One King for the first time, we knew we had to cheer him on, even though he bears little resemblance to Round Table besides having the most beautiful shoulder in all the Bluegrass.  King, you see, looks like his sire’s dam Moccasin and he is a big, scopy horse reminiscent of the *Rough Shod II tribe from whence descends that lovely mare.

   We originally wrote about K One King when he was still in training and owned by Madeline Paulson (Pedlines #53, May 2000).  But a great deal has changed since then, including Mrs. Paulson’s involvement with the horse, which no longer exists.  Thus, our original story concerning how he would cross on Theatrical, a Paulson-owned horse, no longer applies.

   This is not to imply that Theatrical somehow does not fit King anymore, he fits him fine and two Theatrical mares were, in fact, bred to K One King.  However, he likely will not see as many – or as good a Theatrical mares – as he might have had Mrs. Paulson kept some special ones just for him.

   Given that his sire line is so precious to us – and that it should be precious to the breed, we were interested in two things:  The first was what kinds of lines and crosses already existed in the first K One Kings that were on the ground.  The second was what types of things had not been done that could be a help to the big fellow.

   There were 40 matches we had to consider in King’s first three crops (there were actually more than 40 foals since several mares had had foals by him twice or more).  But of the individual 40 matches, we were really surprised to find that there were ten individuals that were inbred to *Rough Shod II and/or Simon’s Shoes.  We were even more surprised to see that 12 of the matches offered Aloe inbreeding, either via Round Table doubles, crosses of Round Table and his full sister Monarchy or via Round Table and other Feola/Aloe branches.

   Three matches stood out for various reasons:  One of the Round Table/Monarchy crosses resulted in a 2003 filly named Golden Arsenal.  Her second dam, Tiny Blade, is a three-quarter sister to I’m Just Costin’, dam of our beloved Gordo, and her full sister Daintily.

   Another mating resulted in a 2004 colt out of the mare Caress the Wind.  We picked Caress the Wind out of a Keeneland sale for a client when she was a yearling.  We liked her because she was inbred to Lt. Stevens and Thong as well as to Bold Reason/Never Bend (x2 Lalun). 

   Caress The Wind was never in one trainer’s barn long enough to get anything done, but she won close to $30,000 and is certainly bred to be a good producer.  Her foal by K One King has three crosses of full siblings Moccasin/Lt. Stevens and Thong.

   Another mare, Awasarumor, belonged to a client of ours, but  her partners chose to sell her.  We recommended K One King for the mare before she was sold and a 2003 filly is the result of that mating.  This youngster is inbred to half sisters Moccasin/Gambetta and has three lines of Feola (*Knight’s Daughter/Above Board/Hypericum).  It’s a delicious mating.

   K One King only has 13 foals of racing age, and obviously things happen to all horses’ offspring and the smaller the crop the less chance he has of getting that ‘big’ horse.  But so far he has a handful of winners, all of which show a degree of promise. 

   Our favorite to date is a youngster who broke his maiden at Aqueduct on Feb. 19.  Named King’s Choice, he went off favored and won in hand by 2 ½ lengths.  He was never asked for his best.

   Out of the Cobra King mare Pollywilldoit, he is 3 x 5 to Round Table/Monarchy and is from the Ins An Mala clan (Family 52).  He is the first foal of his unraced dam.  Second dam Polly Daniels won the Waterford Stakes in Ireland and ran second in the Group 1 Chevley Park Stakes.  This is the family of Canadian Oaks winner Par Excellence, she dam of Washington Singer Stakes winner Khozaam (by Seattle Slew).

   King’s Choice has yet to feel the turf beneath his hoofs.  Want to make a small wager on how he’ll like it?

   The other horse from the first crop we’ve seen a few times is Queens Over Jacks, a filly out of the hard-knocking winner Itsaroughlife by Carborundum (Best Turn).  She is from a California family and her black type is a bit “local” in that regard, though fourth dam La Comedienne is a half sister to Bay Shore Stakes winner Determined Man. 

   Queens Over Jacks does not have as strong a family or inbreeding as does King’s Choice, but she tries hard.  She has won three of her nine starts and placed in two others.  Her first stakes attempt was a disaster; she was never meant to earn black type in a sprint. 

   We’re hoping that she is given a chance on grass.  With her Pretty Polly inbreeding from second dam Life Stride’s Polly Flinders/Molly Desmond cross and multiple Hyperion lines added to her Apalachee line, the turf is in her blood.

   Finally, there is King Of Jazz.  This fellow has a cross we’ve written about before in that he has Round Table and Hail to Reason in the same generation 3 x 3.  (Such a cross has accounted for Seattle Slew, Miss Turkana, Martial Law and many other good ones).  King of Jazz is tail-female to Reine-de-Course Betty Derr via Mlle. Grundy.  He has run twice to date, winning once and finishing third the other time.           

   We expect several of the so-far unraced K One Kings to turn the corner and make appearances as they grow older.  And there is little doubt there is enough inbreeding power to feel hopeful, too.

   So far as family lines are concerned, the scariest is Esfumandose, a 2002 filly whose dam is inbred to the notoriously unsound Bird Flower clan via Broadway and Medici.  If this one makes it to the races, Round Table will have taken over the pedigree. 

   The best tail-female lines include Lady Be Good (tail-female of 2002 filly Megan’s Vision out of Megan’s Navy by Polish Navy), *Boudoir II (tail-female of 2003 colt Spirit To Run out of Jilly by Unreal Zeal), Friar’s Carse (tail-female to an unnamed 2004 colt out of B. A. Sensation by Apalchee – yes, that’s right this fellow is 2 x 2 to Apalachee), Khara (tail-female to an unnamed 2004 filly out of Hip Huggers by Magloire) and Myrtlewood (tail-female of Royal Monarch, a 2004 colt out of Love Quarrel by Fit To Fight). 

   Now here’s some suggestions for the future:

   K One King is inbred to both Nantallah and Heliopolis.  In turn, each of these sires is inbred to Canterbury Pilgrim via sons Chaucer and Swynford.  Another cross of Swynford comes into play via *Rough Shod II in Apalachee’s pedigree (her dam is by Blandford by Swynford).  This totals five Canterbury Pilgrim lines – Swynford x3/Chaucer x2.

   This suggests that, for deep linebreeding, K One King might like a cross of Star Kingdom (think Noholme II) to pick up a daughter line of Canterbury Pilgrim via St. Victorine (sixth dam of Star Kingdom).  Also of interest would be Swynford and Chaucer’s brother Harry of Hereford by Isonomy, most commonly found in War Admiral as the sire of his second dam, Annette K.

   K One King’s Aloe blood, which has been addressed to some degree, would be particularly nice with a Monarchy cross via State in Tale of the Cat or Minardi.  Minardi brings in a Round Table daughter cross, Tale of the Cat is Monarchy only.  State is also important as she brings in Nijinsky II, who has an Omaha line to go with Flares in Nantallah.

   Rough Shod II has also been addressed – and inbred to.  So we feel people are on the right track with that inbreeding.  But we would still like to see Cutlass Reality, Stormy Atlantic and Storm Boot mares bred to K One King:  Cutlass Reality to bring in Gambetta, Storm Boot to bring in Drumtop, who shares a Round Table/*Nasrullah/*Rough Shod II nexus with Apalachee, and finally, Stormy Atlantic to bring in a daughter cross of Moccasin to balance Apalachee.

   We know this is an uphill battle.  But we also know that anything worth having is worth working for.  We’re behind you, King.  Now let’s go out and save that sire line and make Leon proud!