Troy's Pedigree
[Pedigree][5 Gen Pedigree][Dam Line][Sire Line]
Troy's
pedigree was not, and never would have been, in the height of fashion, devoid as it was of
Northern Dancer and Raise A Native blood. However it is still a good, solid pedigree, much
suited to a top-class middle distance horse and very typical of that era just after the
Second World War when stamina was at a much higher premium than it is in today's
Thoroughbred. It shows a 100% European bias, stoutly bred and containing a not
insignificant amount of Dormello blood, at a time (of Troy's foaling in 1976) when
breeding horses with European style staying pedigrees was rapidly being abandoned in
favour of the more speed-biased American ones.
Having said this, Troy was hardly badly bred by any means, being by
Champion Sire and top-notch runner Petingo, who
was responsible already for the likes of Pitasia, Pitcairn, Sandy Creek, Pitskelly etc.
out of the admirable La Milo, all of whose foals
were winners, including already a top-notch runner in Admetus.
The most interesting point about Troy's immediate pedigree is that his
sire was, as a runner, a miler who blatantly did not stay much beyond this distance. This
was one of the reasons, according to an old breeding adage that Derby winners should have
horses that stayed 10f or more as sire and broodmare sire, why Troy should
not have been considered for the Derby! However, delve further back into Petingo's
pedigree and you will find an awful lot of stamina hidden away there. By the 10f horse
Petition out of Alcazar, a daughter of the out-and-out stayer Alycidon, Petingo's dam line
is laden with staying blood and it is quite clear why many of his get could stay a lot
further than he did himself. In addition, Petition's dam line is stamina biased, and the
only influence for speed in his near pedigree is Fair Trial, who was himself a miler and
tended to sire speedy horses. Even then, Fair Trial himself was a bit of a freak - both
his sire Fairway and dam Lady Juror did their best running at distances beyond 12f. Lady
Juror took after her staying sire Son-In-Law in racing aptitude, but Fair Trial's speedy
characteristics appear to have come from his grand-dam Lady Josephine, a sprinter also
responsible for that famous grey flyer, Mumtaz Mahal.
Even if Petingo had not shown himself capable of siring middle-distance
horses when bred to relatively speedy mares, when put to the Hornbeam mare La Milo it
would be thought likely that combining her genetic makeup with Petingo's could thus have
resulted in a good 10f-12f horse. Best described as possessing a stout pedigree, La Milo
was by the stayer Hornbeam, a son of Hyperion who had been placed in the St. Leger (in the
days when that race had some prestige), out of Pin Prick by the Derby winner Pinza. Pinza
himself was bred for stamina, stamina and stamina, by Chanteur II out of the Donatello II
mare Pasqua. It is not until we reach Pin Prick's dam, Miss Winston, that we find a horse
whose racing record was best at under 12f!
Troy was La Milo's seventh and last foal. Although the mare herself did
not win anything of consequence, she had already bred several notable runners before Troy.
By far the best of them was the Reforn gelding Admetus, who won several Group races in
France before crossing the Atlantic for his finest hour when winning the Washington D.C.
International. In addition, La Milo had bred Tully, who won the Group 3 White Rose Stakes.
All in all, Troy's pedigree can be described as classic European stamina,
perhaps not of the highest class but certainly solid and showing the right traits for a
horse who showed absolute brilliance over a mile and a half, and whose running style was
such as to catch the others with a powerful, sustained run to the line from 4f out rather
than a late burst of sheer acceleration. The old-fashionable nature of his pedigree
certainly did not help Troy when he was retired to stud, and it has to be said that the
books of mares he received were not of a class normally associated with a stallion of his
racing ability. In some ways one of the saddest aspects of Troy's early death was the lack
of a chance he had to prove himself 'above' his pedigree, with the better books of mares
he surely would have received following the successes of Trojan Fen, Helen
Street, Ilium and Walensee in his
first two crops.
[Pedigree][5 Gen Pedigree][Dam Line][Sire Line]
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