My last post emphasized
the importance of the class of runners representing a given breeding
method, as opposed to a high strike rate from opportunity. A conflict
between the two arises, for example, in the case of foals that are by
Malibu Moon and inbred to Mr. Prospector, which has yielded some few
runners of very high class representing a very low strike rate from
opportunity. My purpose in bringing up that case was to suggest that
class trumps strike rate, but what I didn’t say in that post and must
add here, is that such cases, while not particularly rare, certainly are
not the norm. Generally, high class and a high strike rate go hand in
hand.
Insofar as Zenyatta’s celebrity has transcended her beeding, it’s
something of a sacrilege to cite her as a case in point of pedigree, but
I’m going to do it anyway because her pedigree context is instructive
and, in fact, not entirely unique.
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