Nantallah may not be a horse most people recognize as in the same league with many other great ones. But a closer look at the absolute quality he begat with the limited opportunity of just 202 foals, and he is really quite remarkable. And the achievements of several very special daughters make his name unlikely to disappear from the stud book any time soon.

Most often described as "brilliant and brittle", Nantallah was a handsome, muscular bay with a distinctive blaze. He ran only seven times, winning four of those contests and placing in two stakes, the colt division of the now-defunct National Stallion Stakes and the Juvenile Stakes. He earned the munificent total of $17,825.

Today Nantallah would most likely have been sent to Texas or New Mexico to cover Quarter mares. But wise Bull Hancock saw something special in the son of Nasrullah and gave him a world-class chance. Nantallah responded with world-class offspring.

On the surface, his family was fairly good. His dam Shimmer by Flares, a son of Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox, ran third in the Demoiselle Stakes and she was a full sister to the ultra-sound Ripey, a multiple stakes winning sprinter of 16 of 67 starts who earned almost $300,000 in the late 1940’s.

Shimmer traced to the Rosetta branch of the Cream Cheeks family (6-A). In recent years, the best runners from this immediate family include the Irish Oaks and One Thousand Guineas winner Godieta and Moyglare Stud (G1) winner Belle Genius.

Other branches of the family include G1 winners Stella Madrid and Super Quercus, Irish Oaks winner Winona and 1914 Kentucky Derby winner Old Rosebud.

From there, the 6-A family thins out and is a remarkably spotty clan with huge gaps in quality, then a patch of excellent runners, then back to the gaps again. It is a frustrating family, which claims Count Fleet (but little else in his immediate family until European stakes winners Vaguely Pleasant and Fabulous Noble came along), promising much but often delivering little. At best it is a tease, with the constant promise of a Personal Ensign, but little or no guarantee of anything close to her perfection.

Nantallah on the surface looked like obvious speed on speed, which is to say Nasrullah on a mare inbred to Domino. Which is fine. But there was more.

Nantallah had a double of Ajax, which is tail-male to Orme, he out of St. Simon’s sister Angelica. Since the pedigree also carried a great deal of St. Simon (Chaucer, Rabelais, Desmond, etc.), this Angelica blood was most welcome.

Bend Or appeared more than via Orme - there was Polymelus (Cyllene), Vahren (Bona Vista), Goldfinch (Ormonde), and Radium...speed on speed. And of course, from the same family there was Roi Herode. (In fact, his glorious son The Tetrarch, sire of Mumtaz Mahal, was 3 x 3 to half siblings Rose Of York/Bend Or)

Wise man that he was, generations back that he was known to look at pedigrees, might not Bull Hancock have seen Nantallah as a possible catalyst for the future? We would not doubt it for a minute.

Ridan was the champion two-year-old colt of 1961 and a G1 winner at three. He ran third in the Kentucky Derby.

At stud, he gave us the brave Spanish Riddle, who lived long enough with an artificial leg to sire the gallant Love Sign, a near-millionaire who won or placed in 18 graded stakes. Sadly, Love Sign never reproduced herself at stud, but she has never been crossed back to *Rough Shod II, either.

Ridan also sired the G3 stakes winner Jeffo, dam of G1 winner May Day Eighty and G1 placed Jefforee, the former a stakes producer as well as Ridin’ Easy, the second dam of Irish St. Leger and successful sire Niniski. Retsinato, the second dam of G1 winner Golden Act, is also a daughter of Ridan.

Moccasin was a champion at two and the only filly or mare to be named Horse of the Year as a juvenile. That year, 1965, the rangy chestnut won the Gardenia, Matron, Selima, Spinaway and Alcibiades Stakes. She returned at three and four to win two more stakes, including the Test.

At stud, Moccasin produced nine foals and seven of them won stakes: Indian, Apalachee, Nantequos, Brahms, Belted Earl, Scuff, and Flippers. Both Apalachee and Belted Earl were champions.

Today, Moccasin lives on through Apalachee’s many good producing daughters and his son, K One King, whose first foals race this year. She is also the third dam of the excellent young sire Hail Atlantis.

Lt. Stevens was a multiple stakes winner, but it was as a broodmare sire that he really shown, landing second on that list in 1987 and fourth in 1988. Those were the years that his daughter, Bel Sheba, had out champion Alysheba.

Bel Sheba’s full sister, Wac, gave us the great runner and sire Lear Fan, a Group 1 winner in France who ran third in the Two Thousand Guineas and who has excelled at stud in the U. S., siring among others Windsharp, Sikeston, Ryafan and Labeeb. Windsharp, of course, is the dam of Breeders’ Cup Turf (dead-heat) winner Johar.

Lear Fan also sired Sefa’s Beauty, a millionaire and G1 winner and dam of successful sire Sefapiano and champion sprinter Chou Croute, one of his few daughters who has not foaled anything of note.

Finally there is stakes placed Thong and it is she who has made the most commercial contribution to the Nantallah-*Rough Shod II cross. She is the dam of G1 winner King Pellinore, treble champion Thatch and G2 winner Lisadell. More importantly still, she is the second dam of two international super-star sires, Nureyev and Sadler’s Wells.

The most obvious thing one sees is a 6 x 3 cross of half siblings Charles O’Malley and Simon’s Shoes. However, this cross would also have been present in Ruffrullah, the *Nasrullah filly which *Rough Shod II produced.

But we really don’t know what Ruffrullah was because she had so few foals. Barren in four of her eight years of service, her owners did not cover her two more. She then produced a colt named Riot who was stakes placed but who was obviously of no use to the family line and a filly named Candy Maid by Exclusive Native, a sire who did not fit her.

Candy Maid in turn was bred to nothing that helped and though she had a handful of winners, she produced no black type offspring. Her daughters were in general bred very poorly until one of them was crossed with Moccasin’s champion son Belted Earl. Even that did not help after adding all the lines which altered the complexion of the pedigree, and the Ruffrullah branch of *Rough Shod II is, sadly, pretty much dead.

In any event, the Nantallah-*Rough Shod II cross produced more than a Charles O’Malley/Simon’s Shoes cross. There were multiple lines of St. Simon and Angelica, he added Domino to *Rough Shod II where there was none and she brought two more Isinglass crosses via John O’Gaunt and Goody Two Shoes to his John O’Gaunt, Goody Two Shoes, Lygie and Samphire.

Most important of all, however, was her double of Orby and crosses of Bend Or via Chevele D’or and Kendal. The more Bend Or the more speed and the more Bend Or via Orme, the more balance with St. Simon and Angelica.

What occurred, in other words, was that the right kind of speed was laid down, but it also melded with all the St. Simon blood that Bull Hancock had on the farm (*Nasrullah, *Princequillo and Round Table all were inbred to St. Simon as was *Rough Shod II.) And let us not forget the Domino background that Shimmer brought to Nantallah’s pedigree. Claiborne foundation mares like Grey Flight were inbred to both St. Simon and Domino, as was Miss Disco, the dam of Bold Ruler.

This is the kind of long-term planning that made Claiborne great. And all these years later it takes us deep into the heart of the classic European Thoroughbred via Sadler’s Wells and to any number of Americans via Nureyev, Apalachee and Lear Fan.

On one final note, there is also the mare Nosey Nan (Nantallah out of *Rough Shod II’s granddaughter Aphonia). Nosey Nan is the dam of stakes winners Regal Rumor and Table The Rumor.

Out of Ragtime Band by Johnstown: Dixieland 2nd, dam of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Canonero II.

Out of Vestment by Pavot: Visp, 2nd highweighted filly at two on the English Free Handicap and Rudoma, winner of the Arlington Lassie.

Out of Legato by Dark Star: Tallahto, multiple G1 winner (Vanity, Santa Barbara H., Oak Tree Invitational). Dam of Le Duc de Bar (G2), Prince True (G1), Hidden Light (G1).

Out of Barber Shop by Counterpoint: Zip Pocket - Set world records for five, 5 1/2 and 6 furlongs at Turf Paradises.

Out of Shy Dancer by Bolero: Lady Dulcinea - Winner of the Adirondack Stakes. Dam of Kentucky Oaks winner Heavenly Cause, dam of Two Punch; Monmouth Oaks winner Quixotic Lady.

Out of Be Ambitious by *Ambiorix: Nanticious, Duranza S., Dam of G2 winner Group Plan, G2 winner Cut Class, Belmont second MacKenzie Bridge.

Out of Princess Nanta: Tina Tina Too. Won G1 Ladies H., G2 Firenze H.

Out of Tea And Toast: Dundee Marmalade. Won G2 Westchester H.

Nantallah’s best son at stud was probably Bolinas Boy (out of Elude by Revoked). Winner of the Gravesend Handicap, Bolinas Boy was most likely a victim of the same syndrome which prevented his sire from establishing a male line. The roots of his family (Court Dress) were just fine, but the branch (Creese) was on the weak side, giving us only To Market as a stallion to support the "sire source" aspect of the family.

Bolinas Boy was, however, a useful sire, getting 8% stakes winners from foals, and moving his mares up with a 1.95 AEI vs. a 1.50 Comparable Index. Among his best offspring were Illinois Derby winner Fame And Power, Princess Doreen Handicap winner Faneuil Hall (a multiple stakes producer), $346,149 stakes winner Faneuil Boy, San Diego Handicap winner Good Report, and Hallandale Handicap winner Noble Royalty.

Noble Royalty is of special note, as she is the second dam of K One King, who is inbred to Nantallah via Moccasin/Bolinas Boy. K One King is out of Noble Royalty’s daughter Tis Michelle, a listed stakes winner of $184,395.

For quite some time, though one admittedly finds Nantallah most frequently via the *Rough Shod II "kids", we have considered him far more than just her favored mate. Nantallah, when handled properly (that is to say by Claiborne Farm), was a major source of quality speed and remains so today. If we named Chefs, he would most certainly have long ago been designated as ‘brilliant’.

He stands tall, too, as a prime example of Bull Hancock’s highly developed ability to look forward several generations. Not just anyone would have taken a chance on Nantallah, but Hancock knew what he was and allowed him to prove it.

We owe Hancock plenty - from his diversified stallion paddocks in the days when Round Table, Sir Ivor, *Forli, Buckpasser, *Herbager, *Le Fabuleux, Pago Pago, Sky High II and the like romped the green fields of Claiborne to the building of great families like *Rough Shod II’s. It is time to acknowledge that we owe him something very special in Nantallah as well.