Taking Stock: Varola, Hewitt Discuss Vaguely Noble & Caro

If you are a student of pedigrees, you'll know of Franco Varola and Abram S. Hewitt. If not, take my word for it that they were two giants in the field of pedigree research, and both were excellent writers. Varola, an Italian whose first name was Francesco, is known for two iconic books, “Typology of the Racehorse” and “The Functional Development of the Thoroughbred,” both of which examined influential stallions by aptitude and classified them as “chefs-de-race” within the dosage framework originally developed by Lt. Col. J.J. Vuillier at the beginning of the last century; Hewitt, an American, is a major name among pedigree writers in North America and is the author of the classic “Sire Lines.” Hewitt worked with Dr. Steven Roman and Leon Rasmussen in the early days of classifying chefs for American racing.

Rasmussen was another pedigree giant and outstanding writer who penned the longtime “Bloodlines” column for Daily Racing Form, and he frequently referred to Hewitt as the “doyen of American turf writers,” a testament to his respect for Hewitt.

Hewitt and Varola published their books at the time Rasmussen was writing his column for DRF. Varola's “Typology” came out in 1974; Hewitt's “Sire Lines” was published in 1977; and Varola's “Functional Development” was released in 1980. All three men communicated with one another through letters during this period, which coincided with a 16-year-old–me–sending a note to Rasmussen in 1976 about a stallion he and Hewitt had been discussing as a potential breed shaper. Long story short, I never expected Rasmussen to reply, and when he did, it began a longtime pen pal relationship that developed into a lifelong friendship, which even included a family trip with my wife and two young sons to visit Leon and his wife in Los Angeles.

Leon died of cancer at 88 in August of 2003. On a solo visit to the Rasmussens at their Los Feliz home about a year or so before that, Leon told me he didn't have much time left. “They found this growth behind my ear, pal,” he said. Leon then took me into his office and showed me about eight cardboard boxes he'd packed, addressed to me in Brooklyn. “I'd like you to have all my racing correspondence, if you don't mind?” I said I was honored, but not to expect me to attend the funeral. He saw I was visibly shaken by his news. “Let's get some Chinese food and martinis, then, and celebrate now,” he said, and we did. That was the last time I saw Leon in person, and I kept my word to not attend his funeral.

Unfortunately, I wasn't a good steward of that cache. I went through each letter over a period of a few years after Leon died, and it was fascinating reading. Leon detailed notes about his trip to Dormello to see legendary breeder Federico Tesio's operation, for instance, and there was correspondence with many of the greatest breeders and owners of the last century. All of it perished during a storm that flooded my basement, and all I had were my memories, I thought.

Vaguely Noble and Caro

Just the other day, as I was preparing to move from Brooklyn to Tampa, I found some correspondence from Leon that I'd brought upstairs years ago to write about but had forgotten to do: letters between Varola and Hewitt from 1977. Hewitt had given copies of them to Leon.

They are captivating historical artifacts that illuminate the relationships of Varola and Hewitt with some notable breeders and horses, and they reveal how some matings were planned. I'm going to be specific here for space reasons and I quote the writers to only discussions they had about imports Vaguely Noble (Ire), who was controlled by Nelson Bunker Hunt during his stud career at Gainesway during the John Gaines era; and Caro (Ire), who started off at stud in Europe but was then moved to Brownell Combs's Spendthrift in the late 1970s. Caro was the champion sire in France in 1977, but his sire line went dormant for a period after he was long gone, resurging in North America only years later, first through California-bred Indian Charlie and then through the latter's son Uncle Mo, one of the best young sires at stud today. Vaguely Noble's sire line has all but disappeared here, but during his career he was one of the great transmitters of stamina, which is something of an anomaly for U.S.-based stallions nowadays.

By the Hyperion-line Vienna (GB), who was owned by Sir Winston Churchill, Vaguely Noble was a Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner, and he came to Kentucky after Gaines purchased a quarter of the horse from Bunker Hunt and his partners, Robert and Wilma Franklyn.

At the time, Hewitt was doing the Bunker Hunt matings, which he wrote about to Varola in a letter dated Jan. 15, 1977. Varola, who lived in Rio de Janeiro from March to September and in Rome from October to February, was late getting the letter, which had been sent to Rome and then was forwarded to Rio.

In a reply dated Apr. 13, Varola responded, after explaining the reasons for the tardy reply [I'm reproducing the exact language they used with no edits for punctuation or style]: “I do appreciate the magnitude of the job which you have undertaken on behalf of Mr. Bunker Hunt, involving as it does 176 mares, which is more than double any single similar job I have undertaken in the past. I am sure however that you will derive great personal satisfaction from it, and I wonder if you would care to send to me some of the tabulated pedigrees of matings which you may have devised for one reason or another, and if you would be further agreeable to my quoting some of these matings in my coming book.”

On Apr. 19, Hewitt responded: “You probably already know that Bunker Hunt has bred virtually all the good racers by Vaguely Noble. The program has been basically simple. Since Vaguely Noble was a very high-class horse who stayed exceptionally well, he was bred to very fast mares, who typically came from 'speed' strains. This has balanced out very well.

“One of my hobbies has been to listen to horses' hearts. Vaguely Noble has much the best 'staying heart' of any sire in Kentucky; Secretariat is also exceptional.

“Doing the matings for the Hunt Stud is enjoyable. However, I have by no means a free hand. Mr. Hunt likes to move matings around, like moving chess pieces. In addition, he owns a controlling share in Vaguely Noble, Mississipian, Ace of Aces, Youth, Empery, and Sir Wiggle. This means that I am very restricted in the use of 'outside' sires which I would like to patronize. To some extent, I have been permitted to do so, and must say, that the foals of these 'outside' sires are on the whole superior to the others, except for 5 or 6 by Vaguely Noble.”

At the time of these letters in 1977, the Bunker Hunt-bred-and-owned Dahlia, a member of Vaguely Noble's first crop, had been retired and covered for the first time, by Bold Forbes. Foaled in 1970 and raised at Claiborne for Bunker Hunt, Dahlia was one of the best of her generation, which included Secretariat, Forego, and Allez France in the same crop. She raced until she was six, winning 15 of 48 starts and nearly $1.5 million. Like many of Bunker Hunt's homebreds, she'd started off in Europe, where she won the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. against older males at three, among other races of note, before returning to the U.S. full time as an older mare. Dahlia was a champion in England, Ireland, and the U.S.

As Hewitt noted, the mating that produced Dahlia was based on the idea of using a fast and precocious mare. Her dam Charming Alibi, a daughter of Honey's Alibi, was a tough and fast California-bred who won stakes races in the Midwest, making 13 starts at two and 71 altogether. There was nothing blue-blooded about her pedigree.

In 1976, the last year Dahlia raced, Bunker Hunt won the G1 Epsom Derby with the Vaguely Noble homebred Empery, whose dam was the champion Peruvian-bred mare Pamplona II. She'd previously produced his 1970 French 1,000 Guineas winner Pampered Miss, a daughter of Sadair. Like Charming Alibi, Pamplona didn't come from a fashionable sire line, but she had performance on her resume, plus production, at the time she was bred to Vaguely Noble.

Bunker Hunt also won the G1 French Derby in 1976 with Youth, a son of Ack Ack. He must have been one of the Bunker Hunt homebreds that Hewitt liked by an “outside” stallion. His dam was Gazala II, a daughter of Dark Star–the horse who defeated Native Dancer in the Kentucky Derby. Gazala, a small, unimpressive, and delicate mare, won the French 1000 Guineas and the Oaks for Bunker Hunt in 1967, displaying terrific acceleration. She was by far Dark Star's best runner. Before Youth, Gazala had produced the Vaguely Noble colt Mississipian, the champion 2-year-old colt in France in 1973, and after Youth, she foaled the Vaguely Noble colt Gonzales, who won the G1 Irish St. Leger in 1980.

Hewitt wrote to Varola again July 29. By this time, he'd digested Varola's “Typology of the Racehorse,” difficult as that was, he noted, and was experimenting with Varola's diagrams within Vuillier's framework of dosage. He wrote: “I have been doing a certain amount of investigating with the use of your diagrams, with the added use of the names of key American stallions which do not appear in your tables; and in addition to this I have tried assigning numbers to each name in accordance with the Vuillier dosage method. The results to date have been quite illuminating.

“Mr. Hunt, [sic] horse Vaguely Noble, for instance, works out at a consistency figure about 2 1/2 times the average, suggesting a lack of brilliant offspring and the probability of somewhat late maturity. This has proven to be the case. In fact, all of his best stock have been from mares with a high turn of speed and tending towards early maturity.”

Hewitt then turns his attention to Caro, whose first foals were 4-year-olds at this writing. Caro, by the way, was a horse that Leon frequently described as a product of a “fish and fowl” mating, because he was by the sprinter Fortino (Fr) out of a stayer, Chambord (GB). Hewitt suggested that the same analysis he'd used for Vaguely Noble didn't provide an accurate reading of Caro's aptitude to that point in time. “Caro, which has made such a brilliant start at stud in France,” he began, was showing more brilliance at stud than was expected, he said, to paraphrase. “This is somewhat surprising to me in a horse that was as late maturing as Caro was and showed as little sheer brilliance as he did.”

What Hewitt didn't know when he wrote that to Varola was that Varola himself had planned Caro's mating for his owner and breeder, Countess Margit Batthyany, a prominent European breeder whose family owned the famed Gestut Erlenhof in Germany.

Varola's reply from Rio Aug. 31 first expressed dissatisfaction with Hewitt's methodology of mashing up his work with that of Vuillier's, and then of Hewitt's opinion of Caro. He wrote: “As regards assigning numbers in Vuillier-like fashion, I am very much more doubtful. I am afraid there are already a lot of numbers in my own basic method such as it is, but the main reason is that since my task is to spot functional types, this is something that is done mainly on personal impression and without any interference of numbers in the initial stage of the analytical process.

“For instance, my own view of Caro [whose dosage diagram was, by the way, designed by me personally back in 1966] is that he has turned out to be exactly what we had hoped at that time he would be, that is a sire with distinctly Intermediate vocation and destined no doubt to influence future pedigrees on the distaff side as well. By the way, I do not agree that he was a horse without brilliance. It was rather a case of a horse of high genetic potential, which tends to manifest himself on the racecourse with good class but without ever attaining the status of a smasher. Big Game was another such example.”

This months-long conversation of two giants of the pedigree world offers more than an insight into Vaguely Noble, Caro, their connections, and the thought processes of the protagonists. For one, it's a record of the early development of dosage in this country; Hewitt, Dr. Roman, and Rasmussen would chisel some of Varola's work into practical usage through Dr. Roman's easily accessible diagrams and formulations, which were first introduced in “Bloodlines” in 1981.

There's something else we are privy to only in hindsight. Caro's breeder and owner Countess Batthyany had Nazi ties and was implicated in a massacre of Jews, which I wrote of in 2018 here. Hewitt, who among many other accomplishments was also a notable owner and breeder, was part of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)–which later became the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)–during WWII and was a Nazi hunter. Varola was an Italian living in Rio de Janeiro, a destination of Nazis after WWII. I have no knowledge that he was associated with Nazis or Nazi sympathizers, other than the revelation that he planned the matings of Countess Batthyany.

What if Varola and Hewitt knew of the other's background and their respective associates as they wrote to each other? Maybe they did, but in these letters they confined their discussions to horses.

Sid Fernando is president and CEO of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., originator of the Werk Nick Rating and eNicks.

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Kateri Proving a ‘Souper’ Purchase for Newtown Anner

In his early days in the Thoroughbred business, Hanzly Albina served the Foustok family's Buckram Oak Farm as assistant farm manager and later managed Four Roses Thoroughbreds for the same operation.

“As a young person in the business, you don't get to do a lot, but you get to study a lot,” Albina recollects.

The horseman is now applying that and other knowledge he's acquired over the years as an advisor to Maurice and Samantha Regan's Newtown Anner Stud, the breeders of 'TDN Rising Star' and GII Rachel Alexandra S. presented by Fasig-Tipton hopeful Souper Sensational (Curlin).

The broodmare band at Newtown Anner numbers around 65, split between their Versailles, Kentucky, farm on a little more than 1000 acres that once belonged to Standardbred operation Brittany Farm on Pisgah Pike. The couple also maintains a farm in Millbrook, New York, as well as a farm in Ireland.

On behalf of Newtown Anner, Albina and partner Nick Sallusto went to $167,000 for then 4-year-old Kateri (Indian Charlie), in foal to Paynter, at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton February Sale. In signing for the mare, Albina was drawing upon the lessons he gleaned from one of Thoroughbred breeding's legends.

“I am big fan of John Nerud and I try to learn about everything he did and how his thought process worked. This is a family that connects to him–Cozzene is down the page,” Albina explained, referring to the 1985 Eclipse Award-winning turf male that was campaigned by Nerud. “Now, I'm not one of these guys that is going to breed mares based on sixth and seventh generation, but the short answer is, there was a lot going on in the first dam [Sue's Good News] and it was a beautiful first dam. There was a lot of beauty in the family and I thought I could work with that. She was a beautiful Indian Charlie mare. I loved the fact that it was Indian Charlie, because it goes back to Caro (Ire),” sire of the aforementioned Cozzene.

Albina was well-acquainted with the Caro-line, as Buckram Oak raced the sire's son Siberian Express, a $320,000 purchase out of the 1984 Keeneland July Sale by Mahmoud Foustok. Siberian Express was, in turn, the sire of In Excess (Ire), who was bred and raced through part of his career by Mahmoud Foustok's brother, Ahmed.

“It's been proven time and time again that this European influence of Caro coming through, for whatever reasons, has been very good for American racing and keeps on coming up.”

Kateri foaled a colt by Paynter the day after her purchase and Albina was pleased with what he saw.

“I thought the Paynter was a pretty good horse,” he said. “I kind of gave her a pass being her first foal, she wasn't a spectacular sort of specimen. Then we went to Tiznow and that was a magnificent horse. We took it to auction and no one wanted the horse. Nick and I decided we weren't going to let this beautiful horse go, Tiznow was a little cold. So we tried to sell him again and the same thing happened, we didn't get the money we wanted. Nick took the horse down to Florida and started prepping him. He went to the sale and that's when Red Oak bought in and we raced it together.”

Bought back for $275,000 at Keeneland September in 2018, the Tiznow colt was led out unsold on a bid of $175,000 at the Fasig-Tipton October Sale. Connections' faith in the colt was rewarded when he fetched $420,000 at the OBS April Sale in early 2019.

“He was a stunning horse and the money we got from the 2-year-old sale kind of validated what we thought about the mare,” Albina said. “Since I held the Tiznow in high regard, I said, 'Now it's time to make a move with this mare' and overbreed her a touch. We made a jump to Curlin, he was a stallion we really liked at the time. He was much cheaper than he is now and physically, we loved him.

He continued, “In [Kateri's] second dam you have Easyfromthegitgo (Dehere), Deputy Minister-line, similar to Curlin on the bottom, and it had worked on the pedigree with Conquest Curlgirl [a daughter of Easyfromthegitgo's GSW half-sister Sue's Good News]. Typically I look for something a little closer, but it was close enough to where I was OK with it and the physical really worked.”

Kateri dropped her Curlin filly Mar. 28, 2018, and she was as straight-forward as could be, Albina remembers, as she grew up and as she was prepped for a date in the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale.

“What stood out about her was how unremarkable the process was,” he said. “She was always a very good-looking horse, always well-balanced, there were never any issues. She got to the sale and looked beautiful, took it all in stride, never any hiccups. It's not always that way. I don't remember her ever being sick, I don't remember any issue with her. She got to Saratoga and we had a very good sale. She was our highest-priced horse that year.”

The Kateri filly caught the eye of the team at Charlotte Weber's Live Oak Plantation, who were extended to $725,000.

“This was the best horse we had for Newtown Anner that year,” he said. “We thought about keeping her, but we set a line on her and if we get more than our number, we'll let her go and if not, we'll race her. That's kind of the exercise we do with all our horses.”

Albina, who consigns yearlings with Ron Blake as Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services, also sold Peter Brant a Quality Road filly for $525,000 that year. Now named Boston Post Road, that full-sister to MSW & GSP Top Quality was a maiden winner at first asking at Gulfstream Park Feb. 7.

Albina said that the philosophy of Newtown Anner is to “breed the horses we typically don't go out and buy.”

“Then we test the market and we trade,” he explained. “For [Souper Sensational], our reserve would have been very high and if someone paid it, they could have her and if not, then she comes back and we get to keep a nice horse. We aren't going out there and buying million-dollar horses or consistently paying $500,000 and $600,000 for horses. If we can sell the ones that bring in excess of what they're worth, that's kind of the goal. The stuff we don't like, we put little to no reserve on and move them on. We just try to make good decisions and I think offering all our yearlings at auction is a mechanism by which we can keep ourselves sharp and that we're making good business decisions.”

After graduating and earning her 'Rising Star' at first asking, Souper Sensational added a facile success in the Glorious Song S. at Woodbine last October. The chestnut exits a good second when trying two turns and dirt for the first time in the Jan. 16 Silverbulletday S., and Albina believes she'll continue to improve from here.

“I think she's going to get better and better with distance,” he said. “We'll let her show us. I'm not worried about any surface with her, I think her action tells me she can be very good on the dirt. I think she got a little unlucky in her last start, but she finished well. Some people are disappointed when they finish second, but I think the races she has to win are ahead of her. I'm very pleased with everything she's done so far.”

While Souper Sensational has done her part to enhance her page, the family remains live elsewhere. Kateri's Grade I-winning half-sister Tiz Miz Sue (Tiznow) is not only the dam of the Japanese-based, UAE Group 3-placed Serein (Uncle Mo), but also of $2.5-million KEESEP graduate Tatweej (Tapit), a hugely impressive allowance winner at Aqueduct Feb. 4. Another half-sister, Tiz News (Tiznow), is the dam of 2020 Trapeze S. runner-up Tiz Splendid News (Maclean's Music), who has returned to the worktab at Keeneland for trainer Wesley Ward. Tiz News changed hands for $190,000 in foal to Curlin's champion son Good Magic at KEENOV last fall.

Albina reports that Kateri's foal of 2019, a colt by Maclean's Music, was ticketed for last year's Saratoga Sale, but was sadly put down after suffering a freak injury. The agent said that Souper Sensational's yearling full-sister “resembles her sister greatly and we're very excited about her” and will be aimed at one of the major yearling sales later this year. Kateri is currently carrying to American Pharoah on a later cover and is booked back to Curlin for this year.

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Body & Soul: Don’t Look Now… Well, Maybe We’d Better

This business about sire lines has been driving your correspondent a bit nuts for the past 40 years, dating from when he first came to understand the realm, initially through the discourses of the great analyst Dr. Franco Varola and the estimable author Abe Hewitt. In those days we all not only relied on the historical database of a rather limited number of stallions but also on the patience needed to assess the long-term impact of form, function, and pedigree. You had Phalaris and Swynford, then Nearco and Hyperion, then Nasrullah and Prince Bio, then Bold Ruler and Princequillo, then Northern Dancer and Raise a Native, then Storm Cat and Mr. Prospector, then A.P. Indy and…yada, yada, yada.

Those sire lines developed over time, as did most data-driven assessments in those eras. Ironically, it was the infinitely patient Varola who gave rise to the now half-century-long obsession with various programs assessing nicks, crosses, affinities (or, whatever)–a reflection of the instant gratification culture we have developed. As a result, we are faced with a wide variety of macro and mini “sire lines” these days, real or imagined–none of which we are going to explore today.

Rather, we are going to look at what may be developing right under our noses, and why it is a potential ground shifter. That would be the rather remarkable fact (as of this writing) that the Leading Freshman Sire and two others among the top five on that list are sons of one of the top three Leading General Sires. In addition, those three freshmen sires are from the first crop of their sire’s sons with foals of racing age.

We are speaking, of course, about Nyquist, Laoban, and Outwork, plus their big daddy, Uncle Mo.

What sparked our interest was a nagging curiosity about how a stallion like Uncle Mo could come out of the clouds of sire-line pedigree retrogression to put paid to the thought (among some) that he might be something of an outlier and might fade in both form and favor as the years go on. After all, he is by Indian Charlie, the lone nationally prominent member of a sire line that was most successful in Europe and California. Secondly, he is one big fella, which often requires studious examination of the size, if not shape, of the broodmares sent to his court–“like to like,” if you please.

Our research indicates that Uncle Mo is really no accident of genetics. Indeed, he and his better racing sons who have been dispatched to cover upscale broodmare bands are basically denizens of a remarkably consistent cluster of stallions dating back to an almost iconic and very commercial stallion who was not only not their color (he was gray) but also not quite like any of them biomechanically.

That would be Caro (Ire), who sired Siberian Express who begot In Excess (Ire), who stamped out Indian Charlie. By the Grey Sovereign stallion Fortino, Caro won the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (French 2,000 Guineas) and went on to be an internationally successful stallion. Though probably best remembered in North America as sire of GI Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors, influential sire Cozzene (whose son Mizzen Mast is still going strong), as well as the broodmare sire of Unbridled’s Song and Maria’s Mon, Caro left a genetic trail behind that was as diverse in aptitude as one could possibly have projected for a horse of his racing record and heritage.

Two of his sons, French Derby winner Crystal Palace and German Horse of the Year Nebos, became influential sires in their home countries. But it was another one–ironically, his only son to duplicate his French 2,000 Guineas success–who became an unexpected linchpin of the sire line aside from Cozzene.

That would be Siberian Express, bred in Kentucky but raced in France and retired to stud in England.

A big, strongly made gray, Siberian Express gained some success at stud but left an indelible mark on the North American racing and breeding scene with his son In Excess–and, according to our research, created a distinctive biomechanical branch of the Caro sire line.

Hold that thought.

In Excess was fast at two and three in England and was purchased at the end of his sophomore campaign and sent to California where a career on turf and dirt spookily bore truth to his name. He won turf stakes before testing the dirt. On dirt, he not only set track records in California and New York, but also became the first horse since Kelso, 30 years before, to win the Metropolitan, Suburban, Whitney, and Woodward, stamping himself the best racehorse in North America. Only an uncharacteristically dull effort in the GI Breeders’ Cup Mile prevented him from becoming Horse of the Year.

After a modest record the following year, In Excess was retired to stud in California where he not only became the leading sire in the state multiple times but, among his more than 40 stakes winners, begot a charismatic and brilliantly fast colt named Indian Charlie, who was the undefeated favorite in the 1998 Kentucky Derby, finished third, then was retired later that summer after injuring a suspensory in a workout. A strongly made dark bay, Indian Charlie was successful while standing in Kentucky with a less than commercial pedigree. He became well worthy of an eventual $70,000 stud fee in 2011 and sired four champions before he died of cancer at the age of 16 that year. He left behind a number of sons, several of them promising or accomplished, but the one for which he will be remembered is Uncle Mo.

Now, go back to that thought we asked you to hold. In our article last month about Super Saver, we referred to a biomechanical program we utilize which compares various measurements of a stallion to those of several hundred successful sires who were born as early as the 1950s to see which ones are similar in size and scope to that sire. We referred to those that were similar as being in “clusters.” What we were looking for at that point was whether there were instances where the same sires appeared in the clusters of various stallions in the Super Saver sire line because pedigree assessments over six generations of sires were only part of the story.

What prompted us to apply the same program to our current task is when we looked at the generally inheritable biomechanical measurements of the branch of the Caro line that began with Siberian Express, we noticed a sharp difference in the size of those two with the latter not only being larger but also having apparently passed most of those measurement sizes on to In Excess, Indian Charlie, Uncle Mo, and the latter’s first three sons with foals of racing age.

We then took those measurements to the next step to determine if there were similarities in clusters among those eight stallions. What we discovered was–in our experience–quite remarkable: Caro was in a cluster that has him closest in size and scope to Stormy Atlantic, Time for a Change, Grand Slam, Lear Fan, A.P. Indy, and Wild Rush. None of those sires appeared in the clusters of the other eight stallions, but every one of those stallions, except one, was in a cluster that included those closest to Siberian Express: Tiznow, Buckpasser, Unbridled, Quality Road, and Royal Academy. Other duplicates included First Samurai and Capote and two of them are in clusters that include In Excess, Indian Charlie, and/or Uncle Mo.

That these clusters are so similar indicates that members of this tribe descending from Siberian Express are of a distinctive “type.” We have rarely seen this kind of data before and, at this point, even though we are hesitant to name one of them as the progenitor of a line, we do know attention must be paid.

Bob Fierro is a partner with Jay Kilgore and Frank Mitchell in DataTrack International, biomechanical consultants and developers of BreezeFigs. He can be reached at bbfq@earthlink.net.

 

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