Happy (Belated) Sire’s Day!
Many of today’s great racehorses have come from a long line of strong and fast sires. One might say they have royal blood pumping through their veins! England isn’t the only one with its own set of monarchies!
I may not be a princess but my pops is Muscles Yankee (pictured on the left) and had a lifetime earnings of $1,424,938 on the racetrack and sired 13 MILLIONAIRES! At least I know where I get my speed and my gorgeous good looks! (Photo credit: www.perretti.com/cms/index.php/muscles-yankee)
The newly crowned, 12th Triple Crown Winner, American Pharoah does have a royal bloodline. His great-great-great grandsire is SECRETARIAT! Who knows, maybe they will make a movie about American Pharoah in a couple of decades?!
Many of the great racehorses (including several Triple Crown Winners) have a long lineage dating back to the 1800s beginning with Hambletonian (1849-1876)! Some of the significant Standardbred sires of pacing and trotting are:
Pacers
- The Abbe (1903-1929)
- Hal Dale (1926-1955)
- Adios (1940-1965)
- Tar Heel (1948-1982)
- Meadow Skipper (1960-1982)
- Most Happy Fella (1967-1983)
- Albatross (1968-1998)
Trotters
- Peter the Great (1895-1923)
- Guy Axworthy (1902-1933)
- Volomite (1926-1954)
- Scotland (1925-1956)
- Speedy Scot (1960-1990)
- Speedy Crown (1968-2000)
- Super Bowl (1969-1999)
- Valley Victory (1986-Present)
They have transformed the way we see Standardbreds today. Through selective breeding, many high-quality traits have been passed down to their offspring, making them as fast as a bullet on the racetrack! Here at the Center, we have dedicated ourselves to understanding exercise and cardiovascular physiology in horses. I have been a part of numerous studies on my muscles that I inherited from my sire, Muscles Yankee! (Or at least that’s what I like to think!)
For Father’s Day, have your pops check out our Exercise Physiology section on our “Scholarly Publications” while you play “Exercising HorsePower,” where you can experience a day in my life as a research mare by putting a horse on a treadmill!
Talk to you soon!
Stardust