a small brief on Mystic Quest

Many youngsters - ‘covered’ abroad but born in India ,are doing pretty well encouraging thoroughbred importers to bring more and more mares .Jacqueline, Versaki, Celestial Wave, Polish Patriot and Astral Flash are some of the well performed youngsters who would be prominent in coming classics in winter season 2009-10. Unlike previous years when Set Alight, Southern Empire etc. had clearly established their superiority
over the competitors, at this time, there is no clear-cut runner- India bred or ‘got-abroad’ who can claim the kind of invincibility and this is a good sign for Indian racing and though recently it has become a ‘norm’ that big races are being won by ‘better- priced’ runner – some of them do have merit to beat the favorite!

Aboline’s lucky win of Bangalore Derby , Mystic Quest’s and Messalina’s win- all Indians- in preparatory races for winter classics - trained and sired by different trainers/sires also indicates that local bred thoroughbred can compete successfully with all the ‘hyped’ foreign-bred, nay, ‘foreign-conceived’ imports .

I’ll take just one example – Mystical Quest’s win.

Mystical Quest (Placerville-Free Radical) has beaten Celestial Wave(Orpen-Just Heavens Gate) , a got abroad (not exactly), favorite in Mysore 1000Guiness . How an
Indian thoroughbred(TB ) can beat a ‘fashionably or impeccably bred’ foreigner ? Beats the imagination of many who do not try to take all the factors (parameters) in correct perspective.

Let me start with the facts first.

Mystical Quest( MQ) did not look a frontline contender of MAM’s ‘fighters’ till she ran in Bangalore summer Guinness trial. She ran uninterested (-6L) till bend and realizing at 300/250m that her stable mate is beaten – Imran Khan pushed her hard and she did take over lead momentarily at 100m but was beaten by Jacqueline and Gypsy Magic at the winning post . Then she beat Sprint Star in a fight – with weight advantage , but just one second less than the course record. No big deal – many will say.

Celestial Wave (CW) an import did very well in summer –winning a 1400 race in 1m 25.5s. but her sire is Orpen and the dam is Just Heavens Gate(JHG) and both are ‘classified’ as sprinters. Please note that classified is in inverted commas , meaning thereby that I’ve my reservations on this opinion of ‘experts’ . As I’m no expert – till date no one has said that , I’ve to qualify my statements with these words! Therefore, let us have a look at Orpen – the sire and JHG – the dam of Celestial Wave(CW) .

Orpen (Roman No. 8-7-17-1-1) born in USA(Kentucky- Mecca of most of the successful sires) ran his races in Ireland and France and was retired to stud only after 6 runs though he won more than 1 lakh British Pounds in stakes money. His runs/wins were below a mile and he was termed a sprinter, because in his first 3 generations he has the blood (genes)of sprinter/miler But 4th. generation ancestors Tom Rolfe(USA) and Herberger (France) do provide a few strains of stamina . Many of Orpen’s ‘bachhas’ did well upto a mile! His sire Lure was a confirmed miler in US but his dam Bonita Francita had the staying blood and to top it all had Natalma -dam of Northern Dancer as her grand dam! Breeders will pay a fortune for Natalma’s genes because Northern Dancer’s are readily available .

Just Heavens Gate(JHG) – was a pure sprinter , though a daughter of Slip Anchor who won Epsom Derby and Shirley Heights sire of Slip Anchor and Mill Reef grand sire of Slip Anchor had also won the Epsom Derby – but JHG was and is termed a sprinter ! This is what breeding is . Let us see what her other progeny bring out on the racing scene in next few years .

But with all this blah blah or blabber what I actually want to say? Perhaps only this- that man proposes, nature finally disposes…

Whatever , permutations and combinations the breeders try , finally the will of nature prevails and the common perception that a sprinter sire when mated with a sprinter dam will produce a sprinter or at the most a miler proves true most of the time. And Celestial Wave a product of this combination proved this when she has won a 1400m race in very good time but lost a mile race.

This was from breeding and pedigree point of view , but the past performance which is readily available to even an ordinary punter we can safely say that Mystic Quest was better than Celestial Wave. How can we prove it? Let us try. Watch the run of MQ in Bangalore summer race no 77 and Mysore Monsoon race no 12 .In race no 77 she joined front runners but lost to better Gypsy Magic and Jacqueline but in race no 12 she ran 1600m in just 1 second short of course record ! Pedigree, breeding and past performance gives her the credence to beat a ’better bred’ foreign import and that is all I want to say.

In 1940’s an American used similar words : ‘when local bred beat foreign imports many times – why do we import them’ I echo same sentiments , but with a qualifying remark – we should import to improve the Indian breed . How do we do that is for the breeders to think, because I'm neither a breeder nor connected with them ...