In just about every possible way, Monarchos is the direct, polar-opposite of Austinpower, who is also discussed on this site.  Monarchos is a double Grade 1 winner; he carries a Raise a Native/Northern Dancer cross and his female family, while an excellent one, has produced only one top class sire (Dynaformer) in recent years.  (Darby Creek Road was not a bad sire, but he was no Rahy or Saint Ballado).

Monarchos is also already inbred to three very important female lines - *Boudoir II (via Majestic Prince and Graustark); *Macaroon (via Better Self and Stratmat and supported only by his sire) and *Forteresse (via Delta Judge and Roberto and carried only by his dam).

We would really rather like to see any of those lines reinforced, but via varied sources - i.e. using Strawberry Road to pick up a *Boudoir II cross or using Expelled to breed back into *Forteresse.   Where *Macaroon is concerned, we are thinking a bit differently. Both *Macaroon lines trace to Baba Kenny, which is also the tail-female line of Lear Fan, one of Roberto’s best sons at stud.   Using one of his daughters with Monarchos would give Baba Kenny x3 and a sex-balanced cross of Roberto - not at all a bad idea.

Monarchos has several gorgeous Reine lines that are available for inbreeding including Erin; Lady Be Good; *La Troienne and Almahmoud.   We might suggest inbreeding to his own family, but the majority of horses from the clan have another cross of Graustark and we are leery of doubling Graustark (Gentleman notwithstanding) because of his coffin bone problems.

*La Troienne can, of course, be found many places - just a few of the best are Seattle Slew and Private Account.  (Remember that other good sources like Woodman are automatically out if you want to avoid inbreeding to Raise a Native).   Lady Be Good blood is harder to find than it used to be, but there is still some Zilzal and Polish Precedent to be found, and an occasional line of Posse.   If we are very lucky, one day perhaps one of Goodbye Halo’s foals will be sold in the U. S. and then, provided that foal is devoid of Raise a Native, he or she will also give us more Lady Be Good.

Almahmoud, of course, is rather plentiful - Northern Dancer, Halo, Arctic Tern, Danehill, Cannonade all are sources of this blood of which Monarchos already has a line via Dixieland Band.   Erin is the most plentiful of the lot, with lines available via Impressive, Bold Commander, Pok Ta Pok, Icecapade, Buckfinder, Private Terms, Blue Ensign, Irish Castle, Green Forest and Pine Bluff.

We were a little worried about how long Monarchos would stay sound when we first wrote about him, and there are times we really do not like to be right about things.   However, we are most hopeful that the good people at Claiborne will see to it that in addition to classy bloodlines that he is bred to the type mare that enables his foals to stay at the track for a while so that we can enjoy them.   We didn’t get anywhere near enough of this gorgeous horse for our personal taste.