ALLEGRETTA, INBREEDING AND MULTIPLE QUESTIONS 

As the blinkered Allegretta (Lombard) crossed the line as a long last in the 1981 Park Hill Stakes having virtually refused to race, it’s unlikely that many walked away from Doncaster that day thinking they had viewed a blue hen of the future. Allegretta’s story is one of contrasts, from the stoutly-bred German filly whose talent was compromised by temperament to the Classic-producing mare who swiftly became one of the major influences of the modern era. In between, the daughter of Lombard endured a stuttering start at stud that resulted in an early sale that valued her just $55,000. What a bargain that turned out to be.

Allegretta, of course, owes much of her prominence to her Arc-winning daughter Urban Sea (Miswaki), dam of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) and Sea the Stars (Cape Cross) among her eight stakes winners. But another son, King’s Best (Kingmambo), was a brilliant winner of the 2,000 Guineas before becoming a successful stallion while her Group 3-winning daughter Allez Les Trois (Riverman) foaled a Prix du Jockey Club winner in Anabaa Blue (Anabaa) and became the granddam of a brilliant miler in Tamayuz (Nayef). 

Currently there are close to 80 stakes winners descending from Allegretta, among them high-profile performers of 2024 such as Los Angeles (Camelot), Facteur Cheval (Ribchester) and Twain (Wootton Baasett). Alongside that, at least 20 of her descendants are past or current stallions. Thus there is today a wealth of opportunity to inbreed to the great mare – and for some, such a method has proven to be extremely productive.

Allegretta was bred by Gestüt Schlenderhan out of its famous Asterblute (Pharis) family. At the time of her birth in 1978, the line had been in the stud’s hands for seven generations, starting with the 1915-foaled Arabis, a daughter of the 1902-foaled Eclipse Stakes winner Ard Patrick (St Florian). Along the way, the stud had enjoyed immense success with the family, notably through Arabis’ great-granddaughter Asterblute, the Deutsches Derby, Preis der Diana and Schwarzgold-Rennen winner of 1949. Allegretta’s dam Anatevka (Espresso) was an Espresso (Acropolis) great-granddaughter of Asterblute and having been Listed-placed for her breeder, went on to foal 11 winners at stud. Even without Allegretta, her influence would have been far-reaching since the haul also included Group 2 winners Anatas (Priamos) and Anno (Lombard) in addition to the Group 2-placed Alya (Lombard), herself granddam of Schlenderhan’s Deutsches Derby winner and important sire Adlerflug (In the Wings).

The mating that produced Allegretta, the fourth foal out of Anatevka, is an interesting one. Her sire, Lombard (Agio), was a formidable stayer who was a two-time German Horse of the Year. A member of the Tantième (Deux Pour Cent) sire line, the son of Agio (Tantieme) later had his share of success at stud although were it not for Allegretta, he would be most likely be a long forgotten name. By crossing Anatevka with the stallion, Schlenderhan doubled up on champion sire Alchimist (4×4), Asterblute’s high-class dam Aster (4×5), English Triple Crown hero Bahram (5×4) and the English Derby winner and champion sire Hyperion (5×5).

Who knows if one of those elements turned out to be a trigger. But the end result turned out to be one of the breed’s most important matriarchs.

Schlenderhand sent Allegretta to Sir Michael Stoute and there was an immediate indication of talent when she won her first two starts at Leicester and Wolverhampton and ran second in the Zetland Stakes at Newmarket. It looked at though Schlenderhan had a potentially nice staying filly on their hands, a notion that was vindicated when she ran second to Leap Lively on her seasonal return in the Gr3 Lingfield Oaks Trial. Unfortunately matters deteriorated thereafter. The first sign of temper arrived at the Oaks, where she ran last to Blue Wind (Nijinski) having become wound up beforehand, and was present again in the Park Hill Stakes where equipped with headgear and looking ‘sweaty and unimpressive’ in the words of Timeform, she turned in a dismal performance. It was an underwhelming end to a promising career and did little to enhance her value; at the end of the season, she was sold for 24,000gns (approximately £90,000 in today’s figures) to Big E Farm at the Tattersalls December Sale.

Allegretta was sent to the US by her new connections but failed to get in foal. That prompted a return to the racetrack but in the sprint circuit at Suffolk Downs, hardly a suitable outlet for such a stoutly-bred filly. It was a fruitless return and Allegretta was retired for a second time but again failed to get in foal. So it’s understandable that when she did finally conceive to Irish Castle in 1984, Big E Farm catalogued her to the Keeneland November Sale, where she was bought by Michel Henochsberg of Marystead Farm for $55,000 through Robert Nataf.

In an interview with the French press, Henochsberg later recalled: “She was a useful race filly who gave the impression of not having much heart…but she descended from an exceptional family…I went to look at her. She is not elegant, but she has an exceptional body. I was seduced.”

Yet Henochsberg still had to play a game of patience. The mare’s first four foals were unremarkable although they did turn out to include Anzille (Plugged Nickle), the dam of German Group 1 winner Anzillero (Law Society). However, her fifth was Urban Sea, the long-priced 1993 Arc heroine who left behind an array of stars for the Tsui family. Urban Sea was a daughter of Miswaki (Mr Prospector), a top-class French two-year-old of his era who has since become an excellent influence as a broodmare sire. The stocky chestnut stood at Walmac Farm in Kentucky and kickstarted a trend for Allegretta that saw her work effectively with various turf-orientated Kentucky stallions of the time, notably Kingmambo (Mr Prospector), to whom she produced the brilliant but temperamental 2,000 Guineas winner King’s Best (Kingmambo), and Riverman (Never Bend), to whom she produced French Group 3 winner Allez Les Trois. To Trempolino (Sharpen Up), she also foaled the Listed-placed Turbaine (Trempolino), who was bought back by Schlenderhan for $360,000 in 1994 and subsequently became the dam of Group 3 winner and successful sire Tertullian (Miswaki) and ancestress of Arc hero Torquator Tasso (Adlerflug). A cross with Diesis  (Sharpen Up) also yielded the multiple stakes producer Altruiste (Diesis).

It was Altruiste’s branch that provided an early insight into inbreeding to Allegretta. Lady O’Reilly was widely regarded as one of the most insightful breeders of her time and by sending her Listed-winning filly Alpine Snow (Verglas), a daughter of Altruiste co-owned with Écurie de Meautry, to Sea the Stars, she doubled up on Allegretta to the tune of 3×3. The result was Armande, winner of the 2017 Gr2 Prix Corrida and third in the Gr1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

Around the same time in Australia, Sword of Light (New Approach) leapt to prominence as winner of the Gr2 Let’s Elope Stakes and Gr3 MRC Blue Diamond Preview. Bred and campaigned by Hesket Thoroughbreds, she was a New Approach daughter of a King’s Best mare and therefore inbred 4×3.

In the years since then, there have been numerous foals bred with duplications of Allegretta. So far over 1,000 have run, of which 90 have won black-type. The statistics might not be so inspiring but many of those who have been successful have been exceptional.

The best may well be Ace Impact (by Cracksman and out of a mare by Anabaa Blue), last year’s unbeaten winner of the Arc and Prix du Jockey Club. As far as Cracksman is concerned, the pattern looks well worth considering since it also sits behind this year’s Listed-placed three-year-old Whip Cracker (Cracksman) among six other winners.

Like Ace Impact, the top German performer Tunnes (Giuliani) contains two strains of the line without relying solely on Urban Sea. In fact, he is one of just four foals carrying duplicate strains of Turbaine; by Guiliani, a son of Tertullian, he is a great-grandson of Turbaine. 

However, given that Urban Sea is now so prevalent through Galileo and Sea the Stars alongside her lesser sire sons Black Sam Bellamy (Sadler’s Wells), Born to Sea (Invincible Spirit), Urban Ocean (Bering) and Sea’s Legacy (Green Desert), we are understandably seeing breeders experiment more and more with doubling up on that particular great mare.

Godolphin’s Derby winner Masar (New Approach), also a high-class Grou3-winning two-year-old, is the most high-profile example. By New Approach, he is a direct descendant of Urban Sea via her Oaks-placed daughter Melikah (Lammtarra) and therefore represents a sire over female family cross. 

Last year’s Grand Prix de Paris winner Onesto (Frankel), meanwhile, is sire on sire as a son of Frankel (Galileo) and of a Sea the Stars mare. Such an approach has yielded mixed success so far, perhaps understandable in light of the fact that Galileo and Sea the Stars are both stout influences. As far as Frankel over Sea the Stars is concerned, the figures read 15 winners from 21 starters. Onesto is its sole Gr1 winner but Mohaafeth (Frankel), winner of the Gr3 Hampton Court Stakes at Royal Ascot, was also high-class on his day as was the Gr1-placed Zarir (Frankel).

In the case of Sea the Stars over Frankel, there are two minor winners from five starters while those brave enough to send Galileo mares to Sea the Stars have accounted for six winners so far – but none at black-type level. However, it stands to reason that there is a greater chance of success when one or the other is a generation further back and indeed that is the case with the unbeaten Gr3 Acomb Stakes winner and Epsom Derby favourite The Lion In Winter (Sea the Stars), a son of Sea the Stars whose granddam is by Galileo. Thus he is 2×4 to Urban Sea. 

This type of tight inbreeding is very much the domain of Jim Bolger, today something of a modern era Marcel Boussac. Bolger, of course, has access to a number of Galileo-line horses, notably Teofilo (Galileo), New Approach, Dawn Approach (New Approach) and Parish Hall (Teofilo), and often keeps everything in house by doubling up on Galileo via those horses. It worked to great effect in the case of Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Mac Swiney, by New Approach out of a Teofilo mare, and Gr3 winner Boundless Ocean, who was bred on the reverse. However, plenty have fallen by the wayside as well.

Indeed, there’s a lot to be said for the fact that plenty of success derives from some of the quicker horses carrying Allegretta. That’s particularly true in the case of 2,000 Guineas winner Night of Thunder (out of a Galileo mare), whose stud record is peppered by eight stakes horses inbred to Allegretta, seven of them via Urban Sea. It’s an impressive list consisting of the stakes winners Isaac Shelby (Night of Thunder), Sopran Basilea (Night of Thunder), Thunder Kiss (Night of Thunder), Mauiewowie (Night of Thunder), Tuscan Hills (Night of Thunder) et Night Tornado (Night of Thunder), in addition to the Gr1-placed two-year-old Ornellaia (Night of Thunder). Sea the Stars mares have played a crucial role in that success, accounting for Night Tornado, Ornellaia and Tuscan Hills, who looked potentially high-class when running away with the Listed Tancred Stakes at Pontefract late in the season.

Another Gr1-winning miler Tamayuz, who never operated above €15,000 at Derrinstown Stud, has also proven to be an effective conduit, appearing as the sire of this year’s Gr3 Brownstown Stakes winner Jancis, to date the sole stakes winner out of a Ruler of the World mare, and Listed scorer Torpedo Blu (out of a mare by Sea the Stars. He also features as the damsire of the inbred stakes-placed pair Letherfly (Churchill) and Tamreer (New Approach).

Jancis and The Lion in Winter were among the highlights of a year that also featured Italian Derby winner Borno (Saxon Warrior), out of a King’s Best mare, the aforementioned Tuscan Hills, Australian Gr3 winner Etna Rosso (Decorated Knight) and the Gr1-placed Miss Cynthia (Sea the Moon).

There is an argument to suggest the group are representative more of circumstance rather than any pedigree pattern. Yet it is worth remembering that Etna Rosso remains the only stakes winner sired by Decorated Knight (Galileo), so perhaps some kind of pedigree trigger is indeed in play.

Another high-class performer of 2024, the relentless front-running stayer Grosvenor Square (Galileo), is also inbred but as a Galileo descendant of the actual Allegretta clan. 

Of course, this has become such a powerful family that it will likely produce black-type horses on a regular basis regardless of any pedigree pattern or sire. However, as Masar previously illustrated, some of those who have experimented with inbreeding back to the family were rewarded from an early stage. Appropriately, Schlenderhan are also part of the club as the breeders of Listed winner Tasmania (Australia) a filly out of Turbaine’s granddaughter Tusked Wings (Aderflug) who also ran third in the Prix de Diane. Tasmania actually carries three lines of Anatevka since Tusked Wings is a daughter of Adlerflug, a stalwart Schlenderhan stallion who belongs to the same family. 

Adlerflug was employed effectively as a means of tapping back into the Anatevka family, not just by Schlenderhan but by Klaus Schulte, breeder of the Gr1-placed River of Stars (by Sea the Stars out of an Adlerflug mare), and Gestut Auenquelle, who hit the jackpot as breeder of the Arc hero Torquator Tasso (Adlerflug). Given the German industry’s regard for Allegretta blood, it will be fascinating to see if breeders use Torquator Tasso, now approaching his third season at stud at Auenquelle, as a route into breeding back into the family and which direction that ultimately follows.