By Dennis McKeon
copyright, 2022. The original post can be found here.
In any animal racing sport, there are a very tiny minority of prepotent sires to emerge from any generation. A prepotent sire is one that consistently passes on his good qualities and stamps his type upon offspring, and who might even produce a number of offspring who are superior performers to himself. An even smaller minority of those sires will wind up being historically impactful. This is true of Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds and Greyhounds. It is a part of their respective pedigree records, for anyone with the intellectual curiosity or breed-interest to investigate.
Breeders are always looking at pedigrees of successful greyhounds, to see which bloodlines are compatible with which other bloodlines. When they notice that a certain sire seems to produce a good percentage of quality offspring from females who are daughters of certain other sires, they call that a "nick", or more formally, a "niche". An example of a "nick' that has proven time and again to yield excellent greyhound performers, would be Flying Penske or Flying Penske-line sires, mated to Kiowa Sweet Trey daughters or grand daughters.
Most breeding discussion always seems to focus on sires. Nevertheless, there are direct sire lines and direct dam lines. The direct sire line is the topline of any pedigree. And do you know what? Today, just about 99.99% of sire lines trace back to the same greyhound---a dog named Pilot---born in 1820.
So we may be asking ourselves, "where does this incredible genetic diversity among racing greyhounds come from, if almost all of them trace back to the same sire?" And the answer would be, from the female, and from female families---direct female lines.
The direct female (dam) line is the bottom line of any pedigree. There is a dazzling array of direct female lines among the greyhound population, tracing back to a dazzling array of female "taproot" or foundation dams. The bottom line of female-to-female transference in a pedigree, is the line which carries the mtDNA---it is the female family line, and every greyhound descends from one of these families---of which there are at least 46, and perhaps, as I suspect, quite a few more.
Let's take a look the pedigree of one of the "now" sires of the moment.
Superior Panama is a son of KC and All, out of a daughgter of TNT Star Wars, named USS Ceremony. The first instance of inbreeding in Panama's pedigree, is found behind his sire, KC and All---who is inbred to the 2-time American Derby winner, Dutch Bahama, who appears in KC's 3rd generation, on both the sire and dam side of his pedigree,. This means that Panama is inbred to Dutch Bahama in his 4th generation, but the cross is only on his the sire side of his pedigree. So we say that Panama is 4sire X 4sire, inbred to Dutch Bahama.
The next instance of inbreeding in Panama's pedigree, is to HB's Commander---who appears in Panama's 5th generation on the sire side of his pedigree, and in Panama's 4th generation, on the dam side of his pedigree. So we would say that Panama is 5sire X 4dam, inbred to HB's Commander.
Now, although Panama is not an intensely inbred greyhound, if we look closely at his 4 "grandparents---namely, Gable Dodge, KC Did It Best, TNT Star Wars and Alive N Well---we will note, tracing back through the bottom line of each of their pedigrees---that they are each memberss of 4 different and unique female families.
Gable Dodge is from the female family of Hecuba, whelped circa, 1830. KC Did It Best traces her direct female lineage to Kitty, an 1820-something model. TNT Star Wars is a direct female line descendant of the (circa 1900) foundation dam, Celerity. And Alive N Well---and Panama himself--- belong to the dynastic and multi-branched female family of Marcia, whelped in 1819.
So when we speak of a sire who is bred extensively, keep in mind that the female contribution to any pedigree and to offspring is every bit as valuable, and perhaps even moreso, given the critical importance of DNA, the X-chromosome and the fact that the dam cares for, nurses, nurtures and teaches the puppies.
We can only hope and pray that despite the meddling of dilettantes, politicians and ideologues, who have no standing and no expertise to be adjudicating or making decisions that affect the genetic diversity, health and the future of greyhounds, that these families remain intact---as the vibrant and fruitful root system of the greyhound population, in all their diverse productivity, for now and for all future populations of them.
The reason breeders send greyhounds to adoption, at least in the normal course of events, is that they are not to be selected for purposes of breeding. There are good reasons for that. The breeder knows his bloodlines, and their strengths and weaknesses. What might appear to be a perfectly acceptable breeding prospect to you and me, could be a Typhoid Mary (or Mario) of aptitude and attitude, to a breeder who has developed and nurtured a bloodline over several or more generations. So they were neutered or spayed as part of the process and agreement of adoption, usually because the breeder did not wish for them to be bred.
Without getting into a detailed and highly technical discussion of genetic science, for which I am not qualified, suffice to say that osteosarcoma is not the sole domain of the racing greyhound. The genetics of it are a plague to almost all larger and giant breeds, including other sighthounds.
While the objectified, performance-based selective process that racing demands, has kept the racing breed virtually free of the crippling, degenerative, genetic defects of hip and elbow dysplasia, as well as patellar subluxation, it does not select for health in the geriatric stage or in post middle-age.
While I suspect that members of all greyhound bloodlines / families have been afflicted with the genetics of bone cancers, I don't know of any comparative and contextualized data that might suggest one or the other bloodline or family is more likely to carry and express those genetics. In light of that, the continuing decimation of American bloodlines is only going to complicate and homogenize the situation, for whatever remains of the population and its bloodlines.
Concerning the repetitious breeding of sires, often cited by meddlers and dilettantes as being an irresponsible breeding practice. When I first became aware of greyhound racing, an Australian imported sire named Rocker Mac had led the US sire standings for 7 years in a row.
There were Rocker Mac offspring anywhere you looked in the country---from Portland to Miami to Boston to Arizona. They were over-represented in top grade and stakes races everywhere, and American breeders were clamoring for more and more of Rocker Mac. His 7-year dominance and reign as sire champion was unprecedented in our history, and the cause for some concern among breeders with future vision.
Today, just about the only significant source of Rocker Mac blood is found in the distant background of the pedigree of the outstanding sire, KC and All. Rocker Mac is 7 generations removed from KC and All, on both his sire and dam side, via Dutch Bahama, in each case. Other than that, there is almost nothing left of the great Rocker Mac dynasty.
The point being, that in the case of a truly objectified selective process, in a genetically diverse population, bloodlines tend to sort themselves out, via the various techniques of linebreeding and outcrossing, where there are definitive winners and losers, to prove which was the correct option at the time, and which was not.
Keeping in mind that the casual observer sees only speed as the goal, when in actuality, speed is only one attribute that makes a successful greyhound. Perhaps even more important than speed, are certain intangibles, like that elusive but most sought after attribute we refer to as "heart"---the all consuming desire to lead the pack, despite encountering adversity, or even when overmatched.
Speed, without the desire to win, is like intelligence without curiosity. Speed without the stamina to stay the course, is a recipe for sofa occupation. Likewise for speed without athleticism or track sense---or the courage to run full bore into a turn, while surrounded by other greyhounds, perhaps even unsighted of the lure.
These things are a matter of character as well as skill. And the sum of all these aptitudes, attributes and intangibles, to whatever degree an individual is in possession of them, is what has made the retired greyhound the pet sensation he has become--despite the fact that racing greyhounds have never been bred to be pets, or anything other than athletes.
It's not quite a perfect process, but it is the best one I know of. And the beloved, contemporary Racing Greyhound, in unprecedented demand, should speak eloquently enough to that.