OK...you were right on...FC has quite a bit more stamina influence on the dam side...some of it is a little hard to read because they are not the famous stallions and mares that people in the Kentucky part of the business talk about.

For example: Poker, Dan Cupid, Busanda, and Flower Bowl...all very important...the Graustark influence from Flower Bowl is tremendous. Also, remember Poker sired My Charmer, who is found in champions on both sides of the Atlantic (Lomond, Seattle Slew)...they are able to run on and on.

Best of all, to me, this horse has the Busanda/Buckpasser influence, which is a mark that lots of great producing dams carry.

This doesn't mean that FC will sweep the Triple Crown, or even show up for all of them...there are so many other factors. But he has a solid pedigree in all the right places through second and third ranked, but very important sires and dams.

If you want to get a brief, but really terrific history of the shift of the breed over the past twenty years or so, go to equixbiomechanics and read the entire site. They link genetics to horse measurements to make breeding recommendations, which is a lot more intelligent than all the books you can find on bloodlines (which are largely fictional in light of what the Australians discovered.)

Equix recommended Grand Slam and Stravinsky as potentially great stallions in recent years, so I actually tried to bet the 2yo stakes yesterday along those lines. Unfortunately, I bet the Stravinsky, because of the better odds, and the Grand Slam won. The Henessey favorite finished...where?