Tale of Verve
Breeding racehorses is virtuosity in finding a perfect balance between speed and
stamina and likewise, a perfect balance between sire and dam. Tale of Ekati has
shown signals of being an important sire that is void of early speed. Some might
think this is the Darby Dan trait. Verve has not produced anything noteworthy.
When genetically attached these sire and dam produced a runner who has perfect
matches tailor made for the Preakness Stakes distance. Regardless of his sole
maiden win and minimal experience, Tale of Verve is poised to return huge
dividends to his investors. These types of horses usually pull off massive upsets in
high profile races because of pedigree configurations.
In the body of a race an individual horse will run a specific distance at an allocated
speed and he wins when his competition cannot contest his speed. The speed and
distance parameters of this race are within the boundaries of Tale of Verve’s
natural ability. That suggests a good performance. A classic racehorse running
with the full force of his natural energy can complete a taxing distance and
surface slightly better than a faster opponent with less distance trait. There is a
clear distinctiveness between speed of Dortmond or American Pharoah and that
of Tale of Verve. In a sprint race Tale of Verve has no chance against these two
because each horse performs best at an optimum distance, which complements
its natural speed and abilities.
Dam-1, Verve, pedigree is supported by successive stamina oriented broodmare
sires: Herbager, Nijinksy II, and Private Account. Her sire Unbridled adds more
stamina to facilitate a progeny who enjoys distance, humidity, and deep, tiring
surfaces.
Tale of Ekati’s pedigree seems to inherit good sprint speed since third dam, Gold
Beauty was a champion sprinter who produced champion sprinter Dayjur. Silence
Beauty, the first dam was half to champion Sky Beauty. This is where reading a
pedigree becomes complicated and misleading. With that much speed from the
bottom the resulting runner should be a swift sprinter. Not so fast. A deeper
analysis shows Tale of Ekati’s pedigree is comprised primarily of broodmare siring
numbers. These numerical BMS values usually translate to a late running style and
deep closers that are stamina oriented. Again, these horses excel at elongated
sprints, grass races and deep, tiring surface where natural speed horses run out of
steam. Tale of Verve has double doses of those BMS traits. Notice his
Performance Values below:
Pedigree designed for deep closing on wet, heavy surfaces and grass.
222
262
266
219
200
175
150
Speed
134
125
Stamina
Class
108
BMS/Blue Hen
100
70
75
50
25
0
Herman Lammey
Closer
Turf
Wet Track