Oh, Brother! A Look at Full Brothers in Pedigrees

Quite often in catalog pages you will see a nick where a full brother has been used in preference to another. We decided to take a look at the raw data and see what it says in practice. Is it in fact just a matter of names on the page, or is class really that important? There are a lot of circumstances where replacing full brothers in various positions is almost as successful regardless of the racing class of the horses used. A good example is champion sire Sadler's Wells and his overachieving brother Fairy King, who were equally proficient in their production of graded/group stakes winners with mares by Alleged (18% and 10% GSW to runners, respectively), Darshaan (15%/17%), Ela-Mana-Mou (9%/14%), Rainbow Quest (15%/25%), and Shirley Heights (15%/14%). Sometimes they were different, though. Sadler's Wells sired just one listed winner from the eight foals out of Ardross mares, yet his less heralded full brother had four group winners from just five named foals. In reverse Sadler's Wells had 17% graded/group stakes winners to runners out of Habitat mares, and Fairy King failed to strike it for a group horse out of the 10 foals to race out of mares by this leading broodmare sire. It would be interesting to hear some theories on why that occurs. Below are some more recent combinations of full brothers as sires and broodmare sires. Take a look at the data and let us know your thoughts in the comments section. Kingmambo/Miesque's Son/Kitalpha with Sadler's Wells/Fairy King mares Kingmambo o/o Sadler's Wells mares: 106 FORA, 90 starters, 8 GSW (7 G1), 2 SW. Kingmambo o/o Fairy King mares: 7 FORA, 7 starters, 1 GSW (1 G1), 0 SW. Miesque's Son o/o Sadler's Wells mares: 6 FORA, 5 starters, 1 GSW (1 G1), 0 SW. Miesque's Son o/o Fairy King mares: 2 FORA, 1 starter, 0 GSW, 0 SW. Kitalpha o/o Sadler's Wells mares: 5 FORA, 5 starters, 0 GSW, 0 SW. Kitalpha o/o Fairy King mares: 0 FORA, 0 starters, 0 GSW, 0 SW. Galileo (TrueNicks)/Black Sam Bellamy (TrueNicks) with Danehill/Eagle Eyed mares Galileo o/o Danehill mares: 189 FORA, 126 starters, 15 GSW (8 G1), 8 SW. Galileo o/o Eagle Eyed mares: 3 FORA, 2 starters, 0 GSW, 0 SW. Black Sam Bellamy o/o Danehill mares: 2 FORA, 1 starters, 0 GSW, 0 SW. Black Sam Bellamy o/o Eagle Eyed mares: 3 FORA, 1 starters, 0 GSW, 0 SW. Kris/Diesis with Mill Reef mares Kris o/o Mill Reef Mares: 19 FORA, 15 starters, 5 GSW, 1 SW. Diesis o/o Mill Reef Mares: 6 FORA, 6 starters, 0 GSW, 0 SW. Devil's Bag/Saint Ballado with Mr. Prospector mares Devil's Bag o/o Mr. Prospector mares: 38 FORA, 33 Starters, 2 GSW, 2 SW. Saint Ballado o/o Mr. Prospector mares: 13 FORA, 9 starters, 0 GSW, 1 SW. ------------------------ Update:In answer to Sceptre's question below on the brothers His Majesty and Graustark. When they each had at least 5 runners out of mares by a particular sireline, their graded/group stakes winners to runners ratio was fairly even including mares by siures like Bold Ruler (11% His Majesty / 10% Graustark), Hail To Reason (10%/9%),Olympio (16%/20%), Raise a Native (11%/10%) and Swaps (13%/18%).The only two broodmare sires that they differed greatly on were Never Bend and Roberto. Graustark managed to get a graded/group stakes winner from mares by both stallions from 19 foals while his full brother failed to even with 20 foals to try.