300 years ago , three Arabian stallions ,imported in UK,established the thoroughbred industry in the world which boasts of a 100 billion dollars turnover. Gradually Darley Arabian , through Eclipse and his progeny dominated the breeding industry and today 90 to 95% of thoroughbreds(TB’s) can trace their ancestry to Darley Arabian. When the gambling on horseracing attracted recognition as an industry and not as a pastime sport , Northern Dancer(ND) and Mr. Prospector(MP) arrived on the scene in mid 20th century and majority of breeders all over world tried to include, import or add their blood in the TB’s bred by them. Storm Cat ( covering fee $ 500,000 = more than RS. 2 crores ) in late 90’s and early 21st century and Galileo( CF about Rs. 2 crore) are 2 prominent grandsons of ND. While MP was considered a speed influence, ND was advertised as a stayer ‘s panacea and their direct sons Placerville and Razeen landed in India in mid 90’s. and their progeny started racing from 1997/1998. Both of them were fine specimen of conformation and did perform well on the race tracks. Due to injury ,their racing career was curtailed and they were sold , perhaps below their actual price, to Indian breeders. Landing in India – both Razeen and Placerville established themselves firmly as the leading sires for next 15 years. Their progeny won more than 100 classics and perhaps more than 200 black type races. While their quality mares kept on producing classic and black type winners most of the male progeny were either gelded and few lucky ones who escaped this humiliation and had an opportunity to ‘grace’ the sire club were relegated to ‘has been’ or ‘had been’. Some of them didn’t get a single mare to cover! Whether it was a Squanderer or a Elusive Pimpernel the quality of the number of mares given to them is a clear manifestation of the prejudice of our breeders. There are other sons and daughters of ND & MP but none of them have done so well as these two. In earlier part of 20th century till mid 70’s most of the sires in North America (US & Canada) were imported from Europe and particularly from UK and Ireland but gradually their local breed established and now out of more than 2000 sires , not more than 10% are outsiders. In India out of 160 sires not more than 10% are India bred sires!... The strain- genes or blood of Darley Arabian, Eclipse, Nearco, Pharos, Northern Dancer, Mr. Prospector, Natalme, Urban Sea and many more, is available in Indian thoroughbred , then why this fascination for ‘phoren’ blood… Why a country like Italy or Germany who produce half the number of foals we produce is not so obsessed with US, Irish or British strain as we are…
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:47:50 +0000
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