One thing is certain about U. S. breeders - they know more about how to not appreciate a good horse than just about anybody around.   Give them a hard-knocking sire like Lord Avie or Air Forbes Won or Island Whirl or Relaunch and often as not they don’t really sing his praises until he’s dead.

Our current subject, Runaway Groom, is not dead yet.   But at 28, he’s sure not getting any younger.  Plus he has three sons at stud worth talking about - Cherokee Run, Wekiva Springs and Down the Isle.

The poor old fellow has been wasted a bit - he has several good ones who ran in Puerto Rico.  Plus his Argentine foals are difficult to judge, but we imagine they are good ones.   Yet in spite of being in the background, the former Canadian champion had sired 51 stakes winners through the end of 2001 and his daughters had produced twelve more.  (Keep in mind that a broodmare sire is only as good as the families of his daughters).

There is little doubt that Runaway Groom made his biggest splash at the races when he defeated eventual Horse of the Year Conquistador Cielo in the 1982 Grade 1 Travers at Saratoga.   Earlier in the year, Runaway Groom had won two-thirds of the Canadian Triple Crown, the Prince of Wales and Breeders Stakes and had run second in the third leg, the Queen’s Plate.

The grey son of Blushing Groom began his stud career at El Rancho Murietta in California in 1984 then moved to Double Diamond Farm in Ocala, Florida in 1985, where he remained through 1991.   In 1992, he moved to his current home, Vinery in Lexington, Kentucky.

Runaway Groom has a fascinating pedigree.   He descends from Artful (a full sister to Artless), family 4-R.   This female line has also produced such good horses as Home At Last, Darby Creek Road, Sunshine Forever, Brian’s Time, Legendra, Mrs. Warren, Ganges, Mrs. Peterkin and Shareef Dancer.

His pedigree composition contains four Lady Josephine lines - a 5 x 5 cross of half sisters Sansonnet and Jurisdiction and a 4 x 4 cross of three-quarter siblings Mumtaz Begum and *Mahmoud.   He has three Selene lines (*Pharamond II/Hyperion x2).   Plus Peter Pan and Teddy are both 6 x 6 and balanced and Fairway/Pharos are 5 x 5.

Available Reine-de-Course lines in his lineage are Alcibiades, Eclair, Baba Kenny, and *La Troienne.   He is, therefore, very versatile.

We’d love to see him with Nureyev-line mares, mares with Mill Reef or *Khaled, Lear Fan and Sir Ivor as well as horses rich in *La Troienne like Seattle Slew, Woodman and Private Account.

Runaway Groom has three well-bred sons at stud:  Cherokee Run, who is proven and rather popular;  Wekiva Spring, who has sired five stakes horses (three stakes winners) in his first two crops, but has not been as spectacular as Cherokee Run;  and Down The Aisle, who has a questionable female family but who held his own against very good runners and was a very good turf horse.

Cherokee Run is a champion sprinter from the 15-C (Pliant) family and most of the major activity in his family has been recent, including two other stakes horses (Damian’s Groom and Groomstick) by Runaway Groom.   Cherokee Run has eight Lady Josephine lines and is a wonderful source of sound speed, since he also possesses four *Bull Dog crosses.

In addition, Cherokee Run is inbred to *La Troienne (5 x 5 to Bimelech and Big Event) and has a similarly-bred Spring Run/Tom Fool (Menow/*Bull Dog) cross.

We would like to try mares with Mill Reef, *Forli, Dunce, Swoon’s Son and Seattle Slew lines with Cherokee Run.

Wekiva Springs, who won major stakes on both coasts, has a most unique pedigree containing many history lessons.   He is linebred x3 to the foundation mare Bathing Girl via War Admiral/Eight Thirty and Buffet Supper (his fourth dam).   His own dam, Jetting Angel, has a closer-in cross of this family via a 4 x 3 cross of Eight Thirty/Buffet Supper.

Wekiva Springs also has a 5 x 5 x 6 cross of three-quarter siblings Mumtaz Begum/*Mahmoud/Badruddin in addition to his sire’s Sansonnet/Jurisdiction cross for a total of five Lady Josephine lines.   And he picks up more speed from his dam’s Olympia double (via daughters).

We’d be tempted to keep after that Bathing Girl treble and add to it, but admittedly it is very difficult to find a line of, say, Bold Hour.   Other thoughts are Twilight Ridge’s daughters; Sensitive Prince; Agitate; Stage Colony and Marlin.   All this in concert with those things which we mention for Runaway Groom himself, of course, e. g. *Forli.

Down The Aisle is something of a longshot as he is from the not-so-spectacular family of Spectacular Bid.   This family does go on back to the mare Elope, a three-quarter sister to Flying Witch, the third dam of Almahmoud.   Therefore, Down The Aisle’s dam is inbred to these sisters, since she has a Northern Dancer line via Fanfreluche.

Down The Aisle is a difficult horse to breed.   His bottom line is not good enough to inbreed to, though Halo can be brought in with the Northern Dancer blood in place. L’Enjoleur, his broodmare sire, is from a female family (4-G) which is more highly regarded than it ought to be and is not really good enough to inbreed to.

However, Down The Aisle is inbred to *La Troienne (Bimelech/Businesslike) and if one can find a *La Troienne inbred with, say, a *Forli cross, that should strengthen the pedigree considerably.   There is also an outside chance that Prove Out (say via Kingmambo) might be viable.   Down The Aisle has a cross of Man o’ War and his full brother, My Play. Prove Out’s fourth dam, Masda, is a full sister to the pair.

*Nasrullah-line sires are precious to us at this point in the history of breeding.   Grey Sovereign is getting harder to find (God bless Caro!!!!); Fleet Nasrullah, T. V. Lark, Nashua and Naskra are hanging on by their fingernails.

Never Bend is doing somewhat better and of course Bold Ruler, thanks in large part to Seattle Slew, is in pretty good shape.

Blushing Groom is doing relatively well, too.   But we need to be ever-watchful of these lines. Blink for a couple of seasons and they are gone.

Runaway Groom has never gotten the credit he deserves and as a result he has had to do his work with lesser mares (a 1.42 CI).   But not only did he move them up to a 1.76 AEI, he sired a son in Cherokee Run that moves his 1.63 mares up to 1.87.  That means the line is improving.

And this was not done with books of 100 mares - Runaway Groom had as many as 98 mares only once, Cherokee Run’s books average about 40 mares.   So if you’re lucky enough to have some of this bloodline, do work it properly and try to keep it alive.   It’s really pretty precious stuff.