Silvano’s female line runs deep
ONE of history's greatest racehorses, Man O’ War, was bought this month 100 years ago for US$5000 and it is interesting to note that the current South African champion sire Silvano descends directly from a mare who was bred to the same cross as Man O’ War.
It is said that some modern breeders design matings to concentrate the influence of Man O’ War through deep inbreeding. For example, he appears at least 22 times in the bloodline of American Pharoah, who in 2015 became the first US Triple Crown winner in 37 years.
Fittingly, American Pharoah had two yearlings from his first crop sold for over a million dollars earlier this month at the same Fasig-Tipton August sale at Saratoga where Man O’ War was sold 100 years ago.
Silvano has Man O’ War only twice in his pedigree.
However, his ninth dam, Etoile Filante, is by Fair Play out of a Rock Sand mare, which is the exact same sire and damsire cross which produced Man O’ War.
The similarities go further. Man O’ War won the second leg of the Triple Crown, The Preakness, on his threeyear-old debut, and Silvano’s eighth dam Astrolobe, by Sir Gallahad III out of Etoile Filante, is a full sister to the Preakness winner High Quest.
It is interesting to note that Man O’ War was the runner up on the leading American Broodmare sire list 12 times and in eight of those years (1943-1950), he was runner-up to none other than Sir Gallahad III, who was the twelve-time leading broodmare sire.
Furthemore, Man O’ War was an American champion two-year-old male of 1919 and Etoile Filante produced the 1926 champion two-year-old filly Fair Star (Wrack).
Etoile Filante
Etoile Filante was a full-sister to the American champion sire Chatterton, but she has had a far greater influence on the American thoroughbred breed.
Her other stakes winner, Evening Tide by Bulldog, not surprisingly produced a stakes winner when crossed with Man O’ War’s triple crown-winning son War Admiral.
Etoile Filante foaled no fewer than seven stakes-producing daughters.
Man O’ War’s influence is particularly remarkable in that he was limited to just 25 mares a year by his owner Samuel D. Riddle. As a broodmare sire he typically had 40-50 less daughters in production than Sir Gallahad III.
As a racehorse Man O’ War won twenty races and was highly unlucky in his only defeat.
He established three world records, two American records, seven track records and equalled another track standard. He was a sporting hero and attracted massive crowds to the racecourse.
According to Jockey Club records, he sired 219 winners (57.4%) and 62 stakes winners (16.3%) from 381 named foals. He led the American general sire list in 1926 and was runner-up in 1928, 1929, and 1937.
He was also fifth in 1925, seventh in 1927 and 1938, and ninth in 1936. While he never led the American broodmare sire list, he ranked among the top 10 maternal grandsires no fewer than 22 times. Man O’ War stood 16.2½ hands at maturity. He was a powerful chestnut with a slight Roman nose, prominent withers, excellent bone, virtually flawless legs and feet, and a deep girth. He was sometimes faulted as being coarse and having a slightly dipped back that deepened with age; according to Charles Hatton of the Daily Racing Form, he stood 17 hands at the highest point of his hips, an inch and half higher than his withers. He also had an unusually wide chest, though his action showed none of the paddling often associated with such conformation. His action was high and bounding but with a huge stride.
Man O’ War
Courageous and willing on the track, Man o' War showed some of the highstrung temperament of his dam Mahubah and maternal grandsire Rock Sand around the barn, sometimes chewing on his own hoofs in the manner of a nervous human's chewing of fingernails. Those who knew him well considered him highly intelligent but willful; he could be handled by persuasion but not by force. He was deeply attached to his almost equally famous stud groom, Will Harbut, and was also fond of John Loftus, the jockey who rode him throughout his juvenile season.
Will Harbut summed up Man O’ War in his famous phrase, “He was the mostest hoss there ever was.”
Man O’ War died on Kentucky’s Faraway Farm in 1947 of a heart attack, less than a month after Harbut passed away. They say the unbeatable horse died of a broken heart.
Man O’ War's most successful sons at stud were War Admiral and War Relic, and War Relic's branch of the male line survives today. Tiznow, Tourist, Da’ Tara, In Reality, Desert Vixen, Honour and Glory, Bal a Bali, Skywalker and Bertrando are all sire-line descendants of Man o' War.
Female line descendants from Man O’ War include Eight Thirty, Stymie, Nijinsky, Sword Dancer, Pavot, Riverman, Jim French, Sir Ivor and Kelso.
War Admiral
War Admiral was also a leading broodmare sire, especially when crossed with the influential mare La Troienne and his name can be found in many modern pedigrees through such horses as Seattle Slew, Buckpasser and Dr. Fager. American Flag also contributed to Man O’ War's modern influence as he was the sire of the second dam of Raise A Native, who is an almost “omnipresent name in American pedigrees”.
Such is the in-bred nature of the thoroughbred breed, it is always easy to find links between horses, but there can be no doubt that Silvano, upon a closer look at his pedigree, descends from a high quality female line.
Closer up, his dam, Spirit Of Eagles by Beau’s Eagle, has also produced the multiple Grade 1-winner Sabiango. Silvano himself won three Group 1s in three different countries and was the Germany Horse Of The Year in 2001. This year was the third time he had won the SA National Sire’s championships.