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Southern Horseman
01/ 1997
Larry Thornton
Many of the sires that have a lasting influence on the industry will have long and productive careers as sire. Zippo Pine Bar is the all time leading sire of Register of Merit show horses. He is the sire of over 1585 foals with 656 ROM to his credit. Zippo Pine Bar is 28 years old, but will have an influence on the modern Quarter Hose for many years to come.
The legendary sire of speed Domino sired only 20 foals and yet his blood flows through the veins of thousands of Quarter Horses. He died at the age of six. He sired 8 stakes winners from the 20 foals, which is 42% stakes winners from foals. Many race sires are happy siring 10% stakes winners from foals produced. Domino was foaled in 1891.
Commando by Domino is another example of a stallion having a limited sire record. Commando died after siring only 25 foals at the age of eight. Commando sired ten stakes winners, which is 40% stakes winners from foals. Commando was foaled in 1898.
The blood of Domino and Commando can be seen in such famous Quarter Horse sires as Leo, Three Bars and Top Deck. So through these great stallions he blood of Domino and Commando has had a lasting influence on the modern Quarter Horse, despite their limited careers as sires.
This month's "Working Lines" is going to take a closer look at the sire record of The Big Investment. Last month we saw that The Big Investment brought a new style to the modern pleasure horse. A style that was based on this wonderful conformation. This month we will look at what a bright future this sire had before his untimely death in 1986 at the age of six. Then we will look at one of the reasons why the influence of The Big Investment may continue through his offspring.
The Big Investment sired only 129 foals with 93 of them being born in his 1986 and 1987 foal crops. He sired 74 AQHA performers with 66 point earners that have earned 63 ROMs and 27 Superior Awards. This gives him an average of 89% point earners/performers. This gives him 48.8% ROM from foals produced. He has an average of 56 points per performer.
Here is an interesting side note on The Big Investment's sire record. The McWhirters have retained 20 daughters or 15% of The Big Investment's foals as broodmares. Most of these mares have not been shown.
During our interview, Steve Heckaman had this to say about The Big Investment's sire record, "Had The Big Investment lived to be the same age as Zippo Pine Bar, he may have rewritten the record books."
The Big Investment has an average of 56 points per performer.
The 1990 All American Quarter Horse Congress Three Year Old Snaffle Bit Futurity will put Heckaman's statement into perspective. The Invester and his son The Big Investment accounted for 6 of the top 10 finishers. Investment Asset was third; Principle Investment was sixth; Investment Creditor was eighth and Vested Glory was tenth. These four horses were sired by The Big Investment. Impulsions was first in this class with Investor Cluso finishing ninth, both sired by The Invester. Investor Cluso is a full brother to The Big Investment.
We learned last month that one of the factors that made the decision to buy The Big Investment easy was his ability to mark his colts. Carol McWhirter described it this way, "We were confident because we could see from the beginning he was prepotent. His colts all looked alike, real pretty headed, real pretty over the back, real pretty in the front legs. A little bit upright in the pasterns, but beautiful in their tailset. They looked like cookie cutters, all standup pretty colts in the same mold."
Prepotency is the ability of a stallion or mare to make their colts uniform in such factors as conformation, color and markings. Prepotency is at its best when the stallion or mare can produce this uniformity when crossed on a variety of bloodlines.
The Big Investment's Superior performers give us an interesting view of this sire's ability to get foals from a variety of bloodlines. The leading point earner was Hesa Cute Investor. This good show gelding has earned Superiors in Amateur Hunt Seat Equitation, Amateur Hunter Under Saddle, Youth Halter and Showmanship to go along with his 783 AQHA performance points. He was an AQHYA Reserve World Champion in Hunt Seat Equitation and an AQHA Champion in the open and amateur divisions.
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