Theatrical (Ire)

It was just another day making sales calls. About eight years ago, I walked into a Farmstead Veterinary clinic in rural Indiana and looked at their wall-mounted cork board--the kind with tacked-up business cards. There was a gleaming picture of a horse with a flaxen mane and tail. I said to Ken Kimmick, DVM, "I know that horse. That's Hap." A stunned Dr. Kimmick replied that was indeed Hap, and the story unfolded. Hap had a royal pedigree and was bred and owned by Allen Paulson. But Hap's recent passing...

Now I do realise that I am in a minority of one here. But while everyone else seems to perceive some unique alchemy between Galileo (Ire) and Danehill, to me the number of good horses obtained by that cross is pretty much as you should expect when one breed-shaping stallion is mated with the daughters of another. After all, their dams will in turn have been well-bred and/or accomplished runners, simply to have gained access to an elite sire. If we call this "selective breeding", we are surely flattering ourselves....