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Classic Winner And Sire Indian Haven Dies At 23

Classic winner Indian Haven (GB) (Indian Ridge {Ire}), a winner of the 2003 G1 Irish 2000 Guineas, died peacefully in his paddock at Chapel Stud on Tuesday. The son of G2 Prix de Royallieu and G2 Park Hill S. heroine Madame Dubois (GB) (Legend Of France) was 23.

Bred by Cliveden Stud, the chestnut was a 62,000gns Tattersalls October yearling, and later brought 95,000gns at the Tattersalls Autumn Horses-in-Training Sale in 2002. Trained by Paul D'Arcy, he was ridden by John Egan for racing owners Peter Gleeson, Julian Smith, and Loz Conway. A first-out juvenile winner at Yarmouth in July of 2002, Indian Haven won the Listed Victor Chandler European Free H. in the spring of his 3-year-old year and landed the Irish 2000 Guineas by a length that May.

Retired to the Irish National Stud in 2005 with three wins from 12 starts and over $300,000 in earnings, he moved to the Bond family's Withyslade Stud in Wiltshire in 2012. Suzi Prichard-Jones leased the stallion from David Bond beginning in 2021 and accordingly he moved to Chapel Stud that year. His 2023 fee was £1,500. Overall, he sired several stakes winners led by group winners Ashram (Ire) and Aspen Darlin (Ire).

Roisin Close, owner and manager of Chapel Stud, said of the late representative of the increasingly rare Byerley Turk line, “It's been an honour to stand Indian Haven on behalf of Suzi Prichard-Jones. He was a pleasure to deal with, and got every mare in-foal during the three seasons he stood with us. He will be greatly missed by us all at Chapel Stud.

“Mostly it is a huge loss to the Thoroughbred racehorse, with another thread in an already diminishing line now gone.”

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Foundation Byerley Turk Sire Line Drying Up In Australia And Beyond

The diluting of the Thoroughbred gene pool is not a concern restricted just to the U.S., with the foundation Byerley Turk sire line in danger of vanishing in Australia, TDN Australia/New Zealand reports.

The Byerley Turk is one of the three foundation sires of the Thoroughbred breed, to which all modern Thoroughbreds can directly trace back to through their sire lines, joined by the Godolphin Arabian and Darley Arabian. Like most horses born in the mid-1600s, formal records on the Byerley Turk can be spotty and contradictory, but history has generally settled on the horse being born in Serbia in 1682 before shipping to Turkey, England, and Ireland as a battalion horse, and eventually becoming a stallion for Capt. Robert Byerley.

From his sire line came names as big as the mighty Eclipse. The Byerley Turk line first set roots in Australia in the mid-1950s with Better Boy, 20 generations on from the taproot stallion, who was a stakes winner on the continent, then became its leading sire on four occasions.

The sire line peaked in Australia with Better Boy's son, Century, who was born in 1969 and won three races that would come to be classified as Group 1 events in the future. He was Australia's leading sire of 1978, and his runners included Rubiton, winner of the Group 1 Cox Plate in 1987.

Though Century was an abundant sire of runners, he died in 1994 without a significant son at stud. That failure to preserve the bloodline has put the Byerley Turk's presence on the continent in jeopardy, to the point where no significant commercial stallions from the line reside in Australia.

Dunaden, winner of the G1 Melbourne Cup, from a separate branch from Century, was another potential contender to pick up the baton, but he died after just four seasons at stud.

Though Australia was the focus of the piece, Suzi Prichard-Jones, author of the book Byerley: The Thoroughbred's Ticking Time Bomb, noted that the disappearance of the Byerley Turk line is a global issue. The line all but dried up in the U.S. by the 1990s, and Prichard-Jones could find only two stallions of any commercial significance residing in Europe: Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Indian Haven, who stands in Ireland, and Group 2 winner Pearl Secret, who resides in England.

Prichard-Jones warns in her book that losing diversity in the breed to the level of an entire foundation line's elimination could have long-term ramifications to the soundness of the Thoroughbred. She theorized that the sunset of the line has been expedited by breeders lacking knowledge of the line's importance to the overall makeup of the Thoroughbred breed, instead chasing the next hot sire to appeal to the auction market.

Tiznow’s Pensioning And The State Of The Godolphin Arabian/Man ‘O War Sire Line

One of the hard and fast rules of the stud book is a Thoroughbred must have descended through its male lines from one of the three foundation sires: The Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Arabian, or the Byerley Turk.

The Byerley Turk sire line that gave us the mighty Lexington dried up in the U.S. in the 1990s; its final gasps being snuffed out when champion sprinter Precisionist was found to be practically sterile and Breeders' Cup Classic usurper Arcangues was sent to stand in Japan with minimal success. With the recent announcement of champion and leading sire Tiznow's pensioning from stud duty, the Godolphin Arabian line is now left facing a similar peril, without an established North American figurehead and a dwindling number of contenders for that throne.

At a point in the North American timeline where the deficit in hybrid vigor has driven The Jockey Club to limit stud book sizes for present and future foals, it's fair to find the potential of losing another core outcross option concerning. A flagging sire line can't be turned around if the stallions themselves can't adequately pass on their own racetrack and commercial success at a high level, but the Godolphin Arabian still has a few cards to play before folding his hand.

Tiznow represents the most prominent and prolific North American branch of the male line that traces back to the Godolphin Arabian and bottlenecks through the great Man o' War. Legend has it, the Godolphin Arabian was born in Yemen around 1724 and he passed from owner to owner through Africa and France before ending up in England, where he became Great Britain and Ireland's leading sire on three occasions.

Fourteen generations later came Man o' War, who was named North America's Horse of the Year in 1920. He was the continent's leading sire six years later. Man o' War's status as a great runner and sire is unquestionable, but his legacy as a sire line-extender is a bit murkier. He's the pivot point for any significant member of the Godolphin Arabian sire line standing today, but his tree doesn't fan out as widely as one might expect from a horse of his stature. If it did, this conversation would be moot.

Tiznow leaves stud duty without a firmly established son to carry the line into the next generation, leaving the responsibility of preserving one of the North American breed's most important bloodlines to a relatively small handful of largely unproven and regional stallions.

Before looking at the present, though, one must look to the future. Tiznow has 194 combined yearlings and 2-year-olds of 2020, and two more crops behind them. Given Tiznow's propensity to sire high-caliber runners, there is always a chance that one or more of them will be the one we've been waiting for to grab the reins and drive the line into future generations.

Among his active runners, Tiznow's best shot at a line-extender is Grade 3 winner Dennis' Moment, who returned to training in September after a seven-month freshening up.

Looking at Tiznow's current sons at stud, one of his most likely successors is Breeders' Cup Mile winner and fellow WinStar Farm resident Tourist, whose first foals are 2-year-olds of 2020. Strong Mandate, a resident of Three Chimneys Farm, has three crops of racing age and a sizable pipeline of young horses to find a suitable heir. However, both stallions are still seeking their first North American graded stakes winners in their young careers.

Regionally, Tiznow's sons are led by Gemologist, who began his career at WinStar Farm before relocating to Louisiana in 2019; and popular New Mexico resident Sporting Chance. Colonel John was given a fair chance at stud in Kentucky, as well, before being sold to stand in Korea in 2017. He left behind Pennsylvania stallion Airoforce to extend his branch of the line.

Tiznow

With no obvious heir apparent for Tiznow, there is suddenly an increased chance that the Godolphin Arabian line could survive through another conduit – the Grade 2 winner Put It Back.

The son of Honour and Glory was exported to Brazil, but his hopes of landing a serious Kentucky stallion lie with a Brazilian Triple Crown winner – Calumet Farm's Bal a Bali. Also a multiple Grade 1 winner in the U.S., Bal a Bali has 96 yearlings in his first crop that will begin hitting the track in 2021.

The Calumet Farm operation has a history of keeping its stallions' books well-populated with its deep roster of broodmares, and a solid debut from his first juveniles could set him up to be supported by outside breeders, as well. Bal a Bali was a Group 3 winner as a 2-year-old in his native Brazil, offering some hope that they could come out running.

Put It Back is also the sire of In Summation, a regular presence near the top of Florida's sire ranks. His crops have dwindled to a trickle as his career has reached its coda, which means the responsibility of keeping the sire line going through In Summation will all but certainly fall on young Indiana stallion Calculator.

Both Tiznow and Put It Back connect to the same branch of the Godolphin Arabian/Man o' War line through Relaunch, who is also the pivot point for a line that runs through Skywalker, then Bertrando, and finally spreading out today through a quartet of California sires: Coach Bob, Sierra Sunset, Stormy Jack, and Tamarando. That group covered a combined 25 mares in 2020, 18 of which were bred by Tamarando.

The Bertrando line got a fizzled boost from Officer, who sent a pair of sons to stud: Boys at Tosconova, who began his career in New York and was exported to join his sire in Korea; and Elite Squadron, who entered stud in Kentucky and has since shuffled around regional markets.

The Godolphin Arabian and his favorite cat, by George Stubbs.

The pickings get even slimmer when one ventures away from the Relaunch branch of the Godolphin Arabian sire line. Relaunch is by In Reality, who is also the sire of Valid Appeal.

From the Valid Appeal branch, the burden lies primarily on the pensioned Successful Appeal and his sons. The star of that group is Kentucky Derby runner-up Closing Argument, who spent time in Florida and Kentucky before arriving in Louisiana. Though he's had a number of prosperous runners, the sons of Successful Appeal to enter stud have been scant, and the ones that did have been marginal residents in regional markets.

Successful Appeal's other son of note at stud is J P's Gusto, who stood seven seasons in Florida before being sent to Korea without a son at stud.

The Valid Expectations offshoot from Valid Appeal sees its last flicker of hope from veteran Louisiana stallion The Daddy, who bred five mares in 2020.

All it takes is one good sire producing another good sire to keep a line alive for another generation. If he can produce several good sires, the line has an even better chance of surviving. Tiznow has put plenty of good runners on the track and he's sent plenty of sons to stud, but there remains work to be done by those sons as their patriarch kicks up his heels in retirement.

It will certainly be an uphill battle, but recent history offers a glimmer of optimism. Upper-crust sires Unbridled's Song and Giant's Causeway exited stud duty without a true heir to their respective lines, but their final few crops provided a late flurry of viable candidates that could alter their legacies as sires of sires.

Just because there's now a finite number of real chances to preserve one of the breed's core lines in North America doesn't mean every option has been exhausted. It's just closer to that point than it's probably ever been.

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Study: Did Thoroughbreds Really Descend From Arabians?

One of the hard and fast rules of the Thoroughbred breed is that a registered horse must have descended from one of three foundation sires: The Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Arabian, or the Byerley Turk. A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests those stallions might not have been Arabians at all.

The study, led by Ben Shykind of Prevail Therapeutics and Elissa J. Cosgrove and Raheleh Sadeghi of Cornell University examined the genetic makeup of 378 Arabian horses from 12 different countries to see how Arabians related to other horse breeds and found “no significant genomic contribution of the Arabian breed to the Thoroughbred racehorse, including Y chromosome ancestry.”

However, the study did find “strong evidence” of Thoroughbred blood in recent generations for Arabians used in flat racing.

The three foundation stallions that are the basis of the modern Thoroughbred were imported to England from the Middle East in the early decades of the 1700s. However, analysis of Y chromosome haplotypes (genes inherited from a single parent) for the Darley Arabian found his lineage actually traces back to the extinct Turkoman horse, an ancient breed from the Middle East and Central Asia under the same grouping of “Oriental Horse” breeds as Arabians, but a different offshoot.

The study does not doubt the existence of Thomas Darley's stallion purchased from the Middle East who went on to shape the modern Thoroughbred, but it does suggest that “its breed was likely of yet unknown genetic origin,” and that the horse's nomenclature carried on the idea that the horse was indeed an Arabian, thus his descendants sprung from that breed. Doubts about the true genetic origin of the Thoroughbred breed, it is noted in the study, were brought up two decades ago in Alexander Mackay-Smith's book “Speed and the Thoroughbred: The Complete History.”

In plotting the 378 horses included in the study by their use – including endurance racing, flat racing, and showing – the 34 Arabians used for flat racing shared the most genetic makeup with Thoroughbreds, while those bred for show purposes traced back to the Egyptian branch of the Arabian breed, and endurance runners tracked with the Polish wing. The researchers found genomic segments in racing Arabians tracing back to Thoroughbreds ranging from two percent up to 62 percent, with some near-full length chromosomes coming from Thoroughbreds.

Five of the 10 male Arabian racehorses traced directly back to the Byerley Turk though their Y chomosomes. Another three shared Whalebone, a significant Thoroughbred sire in the early 1800s, as a common ancestor.

“The presence of Thoroughbred-specific Y chromosome haplogroups among Arabian racehorses indicates that the large chromosomal blocks of Thoroughbred origin detected in flat racing Arabian horses are likely derived, at least in part, from crosses with Thoroughbred stallions that occurred after the emergence of the “Whalebone” haplotype in the 1800s,” the study reads.

Read more about the study, Genome Diversity and the Origin of the Arabian Horse, here.

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