1973: When Eugenics Stopped Working

All 19 entrants in the Kentucky Derby were descendants of Secretariat, but why can't thoroughbred eugenics produce a faster horse than the legend?

In today’s Kentucky Derby, Sovereignty upset Journalism (which sounds like some kind of omen that would appeal to Curtis Yarvin).

From the Louisville Courier-Journal:

Every horse running in Kentucky Derby 2025 is a descendant of this racing legend

Stephanie Kuzydym

… In fact, a search of pedigrees shows every horse [there were 19 entrants] running in the 151st Kentucky Derby is a descendant of Secretariat.

While it sounds impressive, more often than not, if you go back six generations in most horses, you'll find they're a descendant of some great, like Secretariat or Northern Dancer.

Secretariat sired 663 named foals, so it’s not surprising that four to eight generations later, an awful lot of thoroughbreds count him as an ancestor. Similarly, it’s widely believed that all Europeans today are descendants of Charlemagne from about 40 generations ago (if you go back 40 generations in your family tree, you have over a trillion slots for ancestors).

Note that very few thoroughbreds are conceived unless somebody thinks it would be worth investing money in them because they have a chance to be a winner in racing (or in the few other competitions that can use thoroughbreds, like dressage). They’re too huge, high-strung, and generally terrifying to be bred for casual horseyback riding.

As they say: How do you make a small fortune by owning race horses?

You start with a large fortune.

So, virtually all thoroughbreds have carefully curated aristocratic family trees.

This can be a problem for screenwriters of horse racing movies. From my review of the 2003 movie Seabiscuit by Bill Clinton’s speechwriter Gary Ross:

Ross rewrites history to inject a bogus political analogy between Seabiscuit and the New Deal. …

According to Ross, the plucky little horse's 1938 defeat of the elitist War Admiral gave the Little People a Reason to Hope -- just like the Roosevelt Administration did. …

Thoroughbreds are inbred aristocrats. Seabiscuit was actually the grandson of Man O' War, the most blue-blooded horse of the age, and the half-nephew of his archrival War Admiral.

Secretariat, who still holds the records in all three Triple Crown races from his legendary 1973 campaign (his Belmont performance remains the world record at 1.5 miles on any track ever), went on to be a successful sire (especially through his daughters). But he doesn’t rank with the greatest sires of all time like Northern Dancer and Bold Ruler (father of Secretariat and grandfather of Seattle Slew).

My offhand guess is …

Paywall here.