We read Rommy Faversham's story on the Phalaris line in an issue of  Thoroughbed Times with great interest - and more than a modicum of frustration.   Not at Mr. Faversham, but with the futility of it all. There was nothing new in this article, but it didn't carry the story far enough.  We're willing to take the bull by the horns and do just that.

One of our best pedigree analyst friends frequently refers to the Phalaris "disease".   Given that this fragile, speedy bloodline has spread like wildfire throughout the breed, that's a pretty fair - if fanciful - description.

Consider, for instance, the sire lines of the horses entered in the 2000 Epsom Oaks and the Epsom Derby.   All are Phalaris-line individuals!

In the Derby, only three of the 15 were not either Northern Dancer or Mr. Prospector-line: Going Global (Roberto); Inchlonaig (Blushing Groom); and Sakhee (Riverman).

The Mr. Prospector-line horse was Best Of The Best (Machiavellian).

The Epsom Oaks was no different - of the 18 entrants, 14 were Northern Dancer-line; four are Mr. Prospector line.

Fortunately, the Oaks winner Love Divine (by Diesis), has some variety in her pedigree:  In her fourth generation, the sire lines represented are: 

Phalaris/Hyperion/Hyperion/Teddy/Teddy/Matchem/Blandford/Phalaris/St. Simon/St.Simon/Phalaris/Hyperion/Phalaris/Phalaris/St. Simon/Hyperion.

Many of the horses entered in these classics are inbred to either Northern Dancer or Raise A Native and some carry several lines of these horses.   It is almost impossible to escape.   Even 1997 Epsom Derby winner Benny The Dip, who is by Silver Hawk out of an Ack Ack mare, and at least sounds like a fairly outcrossed horse, is loaded with Phalaris blood via *Royal Charger, *Nasrullah and Amerigo.

So guess what happens when some of these Epsom Oaks fillies meet some of these Epsom Derby runners in the breeding shed?   (One can not honestly say they will come to the U. S. to be bred to Skip Away or to Germany to meet Acatenango, now can he?)

It is not inconceivable that some of the foals of such matings will be inbred three or four times to Northern Dancer, and as many as five or six times to Native Dancer.   What little "outcrossing" that is done will be via horses like Riverman or Blushing Groom, who are also Phalaris-line!

By the way, if you think it's different in the U. S. only two non-Phalaris-line horses ran in the 2000 Kentucky Derby:  St. Simon line Curule and Teddy line Captain Steve.

Varola's Analysis

Varola might have thought Phalaris had not been significantly inbred to when he wrote that comment in his 1980 book The Functional Development of the Thoroughbred, but since that time, we have not only inbred to Phalaris, we have saturated the breed with this blood.   Generally, when this has happened in the past - say with St. Simon - this signals the time for a new sire line to emerge.

But from where will this line now come?   We have so depleted the other sire lines that there are only a handful of good horses from each grouping and many of them are, themselves, inbred to Phalaris.

So we have, in essence, bred ourselves into a corner.   Lacking an infusion of new blood in the form of a group of sires or dams from an entirely different breed, we are at end game and the breed has, literally, bred itself out.

So now what? We scramble to find that rare *Forli great-grandson, that odd Son-In-Law inbred, that good Argentine or German, the French horse with a smattering of Luthier (Herod) blood - who might not carry such a huge percentage of Phalaris blood?

But that is no longer easy either, because of shuttle sires.   The Phalaris blood has seeped to all corners of the globe, with sires from this sire line now getting 100 foals or more in two hemispheres in one year!

This in comparison to the *Ribot, Hyperion, *Princequillo, Son-In-Law or Blandford lines who used to sire 250-300 foals per lifetime!   No wonder there are not ample good non-Phalaris lines to cross with this group of inbreds.

And yet, consider the wonderful year that Unbridled is having: He is most definitely Phalaris-line. However, looking at his fourth generation, we find Phalaris/Teddy/Phalaris/Sundridge/Himyar/Domino/Swynford/St. Simon/St. Simon/Swynford/Ancantara II (Galopin)/ Dark Ronald/Matchem/Himyar/Phalaris/Domino.

But Unbridled has a problem in that the majority of mares available to him are linebred to Phalaris.   So it's no wonder he only gets 61% runners.

Make no mistake about it, this so-called Phalaris revolution is all about greed.   The Phalaris inbreds mature quickly and a quick buck is what high sales prices and quick two-year-olds, and shuttle sires are all about.

Varola also said that sire lines often rise and fall according to the times in which we live.   In an age of instant information and high tech stock gambling, what sire line better to personify instant gratification than Phalaris?

Certainly, this is a business and breeders and stallion owners are in the business to make money.   But if in the rush to fill their bank accounts, they effectively bankrupt the breed, then where do they turn for their next money-making scheme?   And how much fun is the new investor going to have if it consistently costs him $2 million to buy a yearling who may or may not run six times and may or may not be syndicated for enough money to repay the sale price?

Varola likewise stated that Phalaris was "trans-brilliant", and thus able to sire horses whose speed could be carried over a distance of ground.   There is no mystery about this.   In 1977, Abraham Hewitt wrote in Sire Lines, "Initially, perhaps Phalaris blood was regarded as a source of speed.   With the intermingling of the stout blood in Lord Derby's stud, however, the Phalaris strain became middle-distance horses capable of classic performances anywhere."

This is where dosage has always erred - it considers the sire only and not the contribution made by his mates and their families.   Consider the so-called Chaucer "nick" that worked so well with Phalaris.   This cross merely sex-balanced St. Simon, Stockwell and Hermit and effected linebreeding to Pocahontas and Newminster.

In the U. S., Phalaris prospered almost exclusively via Pharos/Nearco and all via horses who were not particularly sound; *Turn-to, Bold Ruler and Northern Dancer.   While Pharos' full brother Fairway was a far better racehorse and was sounder into the bargain, crossing the pair never really caught on and the Fairway line never developed a very strong branch in the U. S.

If we are, in fact, condemned to linebreed to Phalaris ad nauseum, then the least we can do is use Fairway to up the soundness quotient.   Recently deceased Lord At War was a good horse with which to do so, but he was never popular and has only one or two sons at stud.   His daughters will help, but not enough.   The same holds true for under-rated Florida sire Island Whirl, whose priceless blood can be had for a mere $1,000 stud fee.

The other main Phalaris-line sire is *Sickle, largely via Raise A Native, who of course ran only four times. Obviously, *Sickle had two major brothers, full sibling *Pharamond II (tail-male ancestor of Buckpasser) and half sibling Hyperion.   And it works to cross Raise A Native on Buckpasser, but it's well to keep in mind that what you are doing when this cross is effected is breeding bad ankles to bad feet.

Broodmare Sire Nonsense

There is discussed in Faversham's article - and there is a widespread belief throughout the racing community - that some horses are better broodmare sires than they are sires of sires, or even sires of runners.   So, we ask the following - what exactly is a good broodmare sire?

Well, the answer to that is a no-brainer. He's a horse who was bred to mares of good family, because it is the family breeding on, not the broodmare sire.   Thus failures like Spectacular Bid can have some good broodmare daughters because during the time the horse stood at Claiborne Farm he was bred to mares of good family.

There is quite simply no such thing as a broodmare sire who arrived out of the blue from a minor farm in the Midwest to suddenly become a good broodmare sire.   Five of the 10 top broodmare sires on the current list stood at Claiborne Farm. My, what a surprise.

Most good sires - sires who lead the sire lists or who are at or near the top of that list consistently, usually are good broodmare sires, too.   There is little doubt, for example, that Seattle Slew is both a good sire of sires and a good sire of broodmares.   Ditto horses like Raise A Native, Halo and Roberto to mention only a few.

We doubt, too, that what a sire does as a broodmare sire of sires is very important. If his daughters are from families which consistently get good stallions and are bred to good sire of sires which fit them well, then they will produce good stallion prospects.   Thus, every single male out of every single Northern Dancer-line mare would have to be analyzed for overall pedigree content, soundness, opportunity and so forth.

History has taught us that the best racing animals are not always the best producing or siring animals, thus if a good racing daughter of Northern Dancer like say, Fanfreluche, from a family which is not noted for producing good stallions is bred to, respectively; Buckpasser, *Le Fabuleux, Sir Ivor, Tentam, Secretariat,

Hoist the Flag, Slew o' Gold, Spend A Buck, Devil's Bag, General Assembly and Alydar - not a single one noted as a sire of sires - then she is not going to get a good sire son, is she?   (By the way, Fanfreluche was bred to Mr. Prospector once - and foaled a daughter).

And if a stakes winning Bold Ruler mare from the good sire family of La Chica like Bold Princess is bred to Northern Dancer, then she will get a Sovereign Dancer, and so forth. This type thing is far too individual to generalize about.

But even if the daughters are, indeed, not producing their share of good stallions, we imagine it is more a case of their not being appreciated in time to be valued.   This could also be said of any of the other good male-dominant lines of Phalaris, including Bold Ruler.

This also goes back to the old belief that a stallion cannot do both, which is rubbish and it is a self-fulfilling prophecy.   If the only really 'big' money is being paid for a stallion's sons, then the daughters will go where there is less opportunity.

This is equally true of any of the sire lines which are dying out. People want Mr. Prospectors, not sons of a Nodouble-line horse. So just where do you suppose the daughters of that Nodouble-line horse end up?

Why some sire lines are better noted for their sons is that the sire is giving the buyer a quick return. Stamina in a sire line is not fashionable; thus the *Herbagers and *Princequillos and their like are left to contribute via their daughters. If someone had given their better sons a more even playing field on which to operate, we'd still have those sire lines today.

A Handful Of Hope

Is there any hope?   Well, yes and no.   We are not going to rid ourselves of Phalaris, nor should we try to, any more than we should try to rid ourselves of any other good sire line.   But we do need balance.   We cannot consistently breed Phalaris to Phalaris to Phalaris to Phalaris and expect it to hold up.   Remember the lesson of last year's Triple Crown and learn it well.

The Derby winner came into the race with five starts; the Preakness winner into that race with four starts; the Belmont winner into that classic with seven prior races.   That is what the "Phalaris Revolution" has done for us.

We need, therefore, some sires with a mixture of bloodlines which have less Phalaris than the mare population. Here are a handful:

Silver Charm's fourth generation lines: 

Phalaris/Teddy/Matchem/Domino/Phalaris/Domino/Blandford/

Domino/St.Simon/Orme/Phalaris/Matchem/Domino/Blandford/Teddy/Domino.

Skip Away's fourth generation lines:

Teddy/Herod/Phalaris/Hyperion/Teddy/Blandford/Domino/Blandford/Phalaris/

Dark Ronald/St.Simon/Herod/Phalaris/Blandford/Solario/Sundridge.

Go For Gin's fourth generation lines:

St. Simon/Phalaris/Hyperion/Dark Ronald/Hyperion/Swynford/Teddy/Sundridge/St.

 Simon/Sundridge/Phalaris/Blandford/Phalaris/Herod/Phalaris/Domino.

Deputed Testamony's fourth generation lines:

Hyperion/Rock Sand/Matchem/Ben Brush/Sundridge/Le Sancy/Teddy/Phalaris/Phalaris/Hurry

 On/Hyperion/Son-In-Law/Himyar/Ben Brush/Teddy/Domino.

Stalwars' fourth generation lines:

St. Simon/Teddy/Matchem/Tourbillon/Phalaris/Blandford/St. Simon/Domino/Son-In-Law/Phalaris/St.

 Simon/Tourbillon/Phalaris/Teddy/Teddy/Matchem.

Pok Ta Pok's fourth generation lines:

Matchem/Domino/Tourbillon/Teddy/Hyperion/Teddy/Phalaris/Teddy/St. Simon/Blandford/Phalaris/St

. Simon/Phalaris/Sundridge/Teddy/Ben Brush/Herod.

Holy Bull's fourth generation lines:

Himyar/Teddy/St. Simon/Phalaris/Matchem/Matchem/Domino/Teddy/Blandford/

Domino/Hyperion/Swynford/Son-In-Law/Swynford/Teddy/Himyar.

Are we suggesting these are the sire lines of the future? No, of course not.   But if one of their daughters comes along and your sire has a glut of Phalaris blood and she fits him, that daughter may well be a way to avoid some of the pitfalls the "Phalaris revolution" has caused.

Revolution can be a good thing, but it seldom comes without harsh lessons.

As the industrial revolution brought machinery, so too did it bring cruel child labor practices.   And as the Russian revolution brought freedom from Czarist tyranny, so, too, did it bring the dark days of Communism.

The Phalaris revolution brought speed, a commodity without which a Thoroughbred runner is useless. But it also brought fragility and lack of substance. We amended our child labor laws and Communism is dying out around the world.

Now we need to amend the Thoroughbred revolution that tempered our plodders with speed, to tip the scale back toward the middle again.

Without learning from the mistakes that revolutions inevitably bring along with violent change, without finding a happy medium, we are all doomed to fail.

This is the real lesson of the Phalaris revolution.