Fashionable pedigrees, associated with top sires and renowned broodmares, are not always the cornerstones of success in thoroughbred breeding.
The offspring of unpopular or lesser-known sires and broodmares often produce stunning results, evident again last Saturday when two-year-old Quid Pro Quo added the Gr2 Zulu Kingdom Explorer Golden Slipper to her Gr1 Allan Robertson Championship trophy.
Writing on his Off The Record weekly column on the www.4racing.co.za website, Charl Pretorius writes that Quid Pro Quo is a filly by Lance out of Delightfull Diva, a pedigree that was never going to get as much as a glance from bloodstock gurus.
Lance’ daughter Quid Pro Quo (Pic – Chase Liebenberg)
Lance won two races, a Maiden Plate and the Listed Secretariat Stakes before he was retired due to injury.
He’s covered just a handful of mares in his seven years at stud, and only seven foals have made it to the track. Delightfull Diva won five races up to lower handicap level. Her sire, The Sheik, has only twice made the list of top 100 broodmare sires in South Africa in the last six racing seasons.
Quid Pro Quo was predictably overlooked at the 2023 KZN Yearling Sale, and bought back by her owner Gerald Kalil for R60,000. She was sent into training with Barend Botes, who also trained Delightfull Diva and, with his own avid interest in pedigrees, had advised Kalil that the mare would be well-mated with Lance.
Barend Botes – finding the right mix! (Pic – 4Racing)
Botes told: “We wanted to send Delightfull Diva from her base in KwaZulu-Natal to a Jet Master stallion and Lance, then at Summerhill Equestrian in Mooi River, was the only qualifying sire in the region. We didn’t want to incur extra costs to send her to a Cape breeder. We considered that Lance’s trainer Sean Tarry believed he was destined for the top before his untimely injury, that he beat subsequent Triple Crown winner Louis The King in a common canter and that his half-brother Liege won the Summer Cup.”
The skeptics reading this will choke on their morning croissants, but Botes firmly believes he has found the ‘Silver Bullet’ for pedigree nicks in a software programme he has systematically developed over the last 15 years.
He has the data to prove it, and his door is open to anybody who wants to put his system to the test.
Botes revealed: “I am a reserved person and tend to stay within my comfort zone. I’d rather be at home with those close to me than surrounded by crowds. When the mornings at track are complete, I tend to spend the day in my office behind my triple screen setup, manually capturing data into my programme. My typing skills are questionable at best, but I have worked on this nearly every day for the last 15 years and believe I am onto something good.”
“I’ve studied the available material on matings extensively. I have utilised software like Tesio and G1 Goldmine among others. At a point, I attended every online seminar and particularly enjoyed those hosted by Dr Byron Rogers who co-developed the leading pedigree programme, TrueNicks. He is a pioneer in genetic and phenotypic research with a data-driven base and has shaped my own approach to the data I utilise.”
Botes has named his software ‘Pedigree Perfect’, and describes it as a state-of-the-art system that includes all the required stallion statistics, and has a strong emphasis on broodmare sires. It is colour-coded for effectivity and provides concise analytical summaries on suggested matings.
He was assisted in the software development by a young IT specialist Japie Knouwds, originally from Three Rivers in Vereeniging.
“This young man is brilliant at what he does. He is so good that he was employed by a high-profile company in Seattle during the Covid years. He has his Green Card now and has moved to Texas. We communicate online and he still helps me to tweak the software when needed.”
Botes said the mating that produced Quid Pro Quo was certainly not a once-off stroke of luck.
“Before her, I was the underbidder on more than one champion. Grade 1 winners like Kommetdieding, Under Your Spell and Without Question were all horses I had identified utilising my software. I did not have the buying power to acquire them, but I trust that my success with Quid Pro Quo and the knowledge that her breeding was largely based on my software might attract some potential owners and buyers in the near future.
“I have often found myself outbid by John Freeman. Considering the success of the horses he acquires for many big buyers, I have respect for his selections. I can only assume he uses similar criteria as I do, in his choices. I have never been one to ask people for horses and while my list of good picks gets longer, I am not yet training nearly as many of them as I would like.
“One colt I managed to secure via the Hollywood Syndicate back in 2020 was Moya Waya Liga, who is by Rafeef out of a Galileo mare. This is a pedigree cross my system identified as potentially potent long before it was proven with the likes of Aragosta and Mrs Browning. And yes, spotting a good mating also requires that the foal has good legs, good conformation. There is a process of elimination when it comes to physical specimens.
“In time, I would love to be more involved in breeding, both from an advisory stance and possibly with a select few mares myself. Mine goes to deeper levels of analysis than any other programme available on the market. As long as it is updated it will always work, because one plus one is always two. Going deeper into pedigrees has made the Japanese so successful as thoroughbred breeders. They are better than the breeders in Ireland today.”
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