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Northern Dancer motherline

Does anybody know if there are any American horses out of Northern Dancers mother line that have been successful sport horses in eventing and or jumping?

You can’t swing a cat without hitting a TB that has Natalma in their pedigree at this point, but I would say one example that stands out in my mind of a horse that has had success in other sports is Danehill. He is linebred to Natalma 3x3.

There is Machiavellian, who is linebed to Almahmoud, Natalma’s dam. He sired Street Cry, and many eventers seem to like him. Street Cry is the sire of Zenyatta and Winx. His sons Street Boss and Street Sense seem to make handy eventers but I haven’t seen any at the UL yet.

If you want to expand a little bit, look into horses by Mahmoud. His best daughter was ND’s mother, Almahmoud. Almamoud is responsible for Halo, and Halo shows up with regularity in TB horses used for sport. Some of Halo’s most notable descendants are well known event lines: Devil’s Bag, Saint Ballado, Pine Bluff, and Rahy to name a few.

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Not quite what I’m looking for. I am interested in the mother line and not what the mother line has produced via the stallions coming out of it. I.e. there is a Canadian horse named Autumn Leaves that depending on which site you look her up may or may not be born in 1978 and may or may not have competing in eventing or dressage. This horse is from the same mother line as Northern Dancer. Those are the horses I am interested in.

I totally understand your question; the reason I answered as I did is because you are much more likely to find exceptional stallions the motherline produced considering Northern Dancer is in over 70% of modern TBs. He has positively dominated the breed through his sons, many which were broodmare sires.

There are very few tail female descendants from this motherline still producing, as, surprisingly enough, horses coming directly from the female family did not make competitive race horses unless through the sons. Generally speaking, this impacts whether the family continues to flourish in modern pedigrees.

Your best bet would be to investigate Coup de Folie and Cosmah’s progeny (out of Almahmoud), but it is unlikely they have trickled into sport. They make too good race horses (and race horse sires) to relegate themselves to sport pursuits.

This may interest you:
http://pedigree.me.uk/Articles/almahmoud.htm

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FYI, here are a couple of photos of Natalma.

image

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Good info but still I am interested in the mother line itself in relation to modern sport horse breeding. The son and their sons are an interesting topic but the mother line itself even more so to me.

I hope you find something; if you do, please report back. I’d love to learn of any, as well.

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I’m not certain I comprehend OP’s question. Aren’t most mares with good pedigrees and/or good race records retired to the paddocks to breed more race horses?

Yes, but there are some incredibly well bred geldings being used as sport horses. Not every well bred mare produces only fillies and successful stallions.

A friend of mine had an event horse whose dam had also produced a millionaire and multiple G1 winner, and sired by a major sire with a 6-figure stud fee.

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Do you want to know what the female family has produced for sport?

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As I understand the question, it would be necessary to go into the JC record of the initial mare and then the record of every subsequent female descendent to see what stayed in racing/breeding and what disappeared, presumably sold outside racing or dead. Then comes the problem of tracing those missing animals in other equestrian sport (where performance records are scattered, comprehensive pedigrees are not maintained and JC named are habitually discarded) and by looking through enough results, begin to trace specific TB mare lines in sport. TB breeders are focused on stallions for cultural and commercial reasons. One stallion covers up to hundreds of mares each year, producing racers as well as all those OTTB sport geldings and a few exceptionally slow mares (as pointed out by @ejm). A very good broodmare might have fifteen or so foals, of which maybe ten might reach the race course over a period of fifteen or so years. Clever TB breeders, nonetheless, are focused on mares’ pedigrees as they seek a “blue hen” and certain stallions gain a useful reputation as broodmare sires. WB studbooks do maintain mare lines because they have a centralised system that records breeding and performance across multiple sports and - not certain here -I don’t think horses are habitually renamed for different sports. The pedigree/registration is deemed to be important both by the owners and the studbook organisation. The TB studbook is focused solely on racing performance.

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https://www.pedigreequery.com/natalma

It seems she produced 5 fillies (and had 2 geldings racing.) You could go from there…
https://www.pedigreequery.com/progeny/natalma

This daughter of Natalma produced 10 fillies and 2 colts. Plenty of names to research. https://www.pedigreequery.com/progeny/raise+the+standard

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Something like that yes :slight_smile:

I have found another one that comes out of the same mother line. A US competing eventer named Street Call. He seems to be an OTTB who did 18 starts in his racing career and also won :slight_smile: Then it is that Autumn Leaves but I cannot get any confirmation on any results.