Guest Column: True Blue: La Troienne

24 August, 2015
– Lisa Barrett

When it’s time for a mare to go to stud, breeders often overlook the genetic contribution that the mare makes to a pedigree of the offspring. The argument is that over the course of its lifetime a stallion can produce upwards of 400 or more horses, whereas a mare is limited in her reproduction capacity, and therefore limiting her opportunities to have more of an influence over her resultant progeny.

To some individuals like the great turf and pedigree analyst Ellen Parker this logic was flawed “To ignore or lessen the importance of great mares, because their pedigrees are composed of good stallions is absurd because their pedigrees are composed of an equal number of mares”.

If one looks back over the last century, there are many mares who are termed “blue hen” mares. The term Blue hen is used to describe a mare who’s a consistent producer of high quality progeny that win at Group level and then go onto become producers of Group winning offspring themselves.

It’s important that that a “blue hen” mare continually produce quality offspring no matter which stallion they are mated to. Until fairly recently there was no term used to describe these mares, who Ellen Parker believed should be celebrated for their contribution to breeding and racing, so she came up with a term to describe them, “Reines-de-Course” or “Queens of the Turf”.

Although many breeders overlooked the contribution of mares to their progeny and their successes, there was one who concentrated on stocking his broodmare band with quality mares. The great Italian maestro, Federico Tesio sought out mares with specific bloodlines that had the qualities of soundness and impulsion (movement of the horse and how well it uses the power in its hindquarters to run).

Tesio believed in choosing the best mate possible for the mare, basing it on the record of the subject stallion at the track, he looked to ones that had been performance tested over classic distances (mile). He was so committed to this thinking that if he couldn’t breed with a particular stallion, he would turn to a son or full brother of the stallion, and he rated the genetics above the performance of the subject relative.

Tesio who always looked at the genotype (genetic identity) as compared to the phenotype (the physical characteristics of a horse, like its colour, body type etc), believed that by concentrating on the mares pedigree, her dam, he would produce the right horse.

Keeping in line with this thinking, Tesio snatched up Catnip, a daughter of Spearmint, a stallion who was known to thrown poor legs, but who had won the Epsom Derby in 1905 and whose daughters including the great mare Plucky Liege, had produced many classic winners. Although Tesio’s patience with Catnip would be severely tested, she did produce two top class fillies in Nerra De Bicci who founded her own line which exists in Europe to this day, and Nogra who went onto become the dam of the great Nearco.

Arguably one of the greatest of all the blue hen mares is La Troienne, bred by the great French breeder Marcel Boussac. After a failed career at the track, Boussac decided to that she was not a mare that he wanted to breed with at his Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard stud, so he sold her to the flamboyant American breeder Edward Riley Bradley, nicknamed the “Colonel” and she was imported to stand in America.

What made La Troienne so successful was that both she was able to successfully transmit a winning formula down to her daughters, who then founded their own winning lines, which exist to this day around the world. Daughter Businesslike, was like her mother unsuccessful as a racehorse, but turned out to be a top producer of good horses and her daughter Busanda went onto produce one of America’s great horses of the 1960s, the Hall Of Famer, Buckpasser.

Emulating his great grand dam, Buckpasser also ensured that his daughters went onto produce the likes of Easy Goer, Slew O’ Gold, Woodman and Miswaki, whose own daughter Urban Sea was to become a Blue hen mare herself and produced one of the best stallions of the modern age, Galileo.

La Troienne’s other daughter Black Helen by Black Toney, a successful foundation stallion for the “Colonel”, earnt the title of champion three year old filly of 1935 for her efforts at the track. She emulated her great dam by producing Be Like Mom, who in turn foaled champions But Why Not, Oedipus, Renew, and Hula Hula, whose daughter Hula Bend produced Hula Drum, an Australian Group One winner. In 1991 Black Helen was inducted into the Hall Of Fame, in recognition of her efforts on the track and in the breeding shed.

It wasn’t only La Troienne’s daughters that were winners, son Bimlech was no slouch on the track, winning the 1940 renewal of the Preakness, before persistent injury forced his early retirement.

At stud he would sire 30 Stakes winners, and his line lives on today through the stallions Fappiano (the great grand sire of Noble Tune),Deputy Minister: dam sire of Curlin and the great French stallion, Riverman: sire of Irish River champion 2 year of and miler in France during the 1970s.

Sent to 1926 Kentucky Derby champion Bubbling Over, La Troienne produced the filly Baby League, who produced a champion filly by War Admiral named Busher. When World War II broke out, Busher was sold by Bradley and purchased for $50 000 by movie mogul Louis B. Mayer, and shipped west to California. She swiftly repaid his faith in her by racking up a slew of victories during her three year old season, including the Santa Susana, the Santa Margerita and the Cleopatra handicaps.

Busher’s best performance came in the Washington Park handicap where she beat the top class gelding Armed. Named the champion two year old of 1935, Busher’s legacy lives on through through the American champion Group One and group winner Beau’s Eagle, who can trace his pedigree back to her through her daughter Miss Busher.

South African fortunately has a strong La Troienne connection through several stallions in this country: champion sire Silvano can trace his roots back to La Troienne through his dam Spirit Of Eagles right the way back to Miss Busher; Traffic Guard who stands at one of this country’s best breeders of the modern era, Summerhill, can also trace his lineage back through his sire More Than Ready to Belle Of Troy, another successful daughter of La Troienne; and lastly the late, great Jet Master traces back through his great great broodmare sire Ballade to Cohoes, a grandson of La Troienne.

La Troienne certainly deserves the accolades she has achieved for her efforts in enhancing not only her progeny, but ensuring that her legacy is intertwined through the breeding and racing landscape of the world. A true blue hen mare in every sense of the word.