by Alan Leavitt

Celebrity Bambino, who is by Muscle Hill and out of Celebrity Ruth, by Archangel, is both inbred to Muscles Yankee and linebred to American Winner, which in this kid’s opinion has something, maybe a lot, maybe a little, to do with his ability on the racetrack. He was also the beaten favorite in the recent Hambletonian.

As a quick reminder, when the sum of the generations in which the same horse’s name appears twice is six or less, the horse so bred is technically described as Inbred.

When the sum of the two generations in which the same horse’s name appears twice is seven or eight, the horse so bred is technically described as Linebred.

When no horse’s name appears twice in any generations totaling eight or less, any horse so bred is technically described as an Outcross.

What we are describing here RE: Celebrity Bambino is his genotype, or genetic makeup. How powerful it is won’t be conclusively known until he enters the stud and has progeny on the racetrack. But for our purposes, as breeders, our goal is to successfully predict a stallion’s future success as a sire before he actually leaves the racetrack.

There are two aspects of any horse’s composition to consider. They are his genotype, discussed in brief above. The other is his phenotype, which describes the living horse and his success, or lack of it, on the racetrack.

The greatest thoroughbred breeder of all time was the Italian Federico Tesio. He dominated the European stakes for 50 years, and his masterpiece was the undefeated champion Ribot.

Tesio believed that 2-year-old brilliance was the most essential element in forecasting the future sire success of any racehorse. Since he was operating between the First and Second World Wars, records were spotty or even nonexistent at times, but somehow Tesio managed to find stallions that had a bright streak of ability at 2, and when he sent his mares to those horses, even if they were quite obscure, they produced future stakes winners for him to train.

I subscribe to the same belief as Federico Tesio when it comes to predicting a horse’s sire potential while he’s still on the racetrack: it is 2-year-old brilliance that gives a breeder the best insight into his future success as a sire.

However, today there is a commercial side of our business that also comes into play. Although this kid believes that a stallion’s success in the stud is predetermined by his racing ability at 2, the rest of our world puts its weight on the 3-year-old racing season, with the Hambletonian as the Holy Grail.

The major farms turned up their noses at Rebuff, because he was unplaced in the Hambletonian. This despite being dominant at 2 and winning the Kentucky Futurity at 3. So, Rebuff wound up standing in Indiana, at a good farm, but not one with a big, national name.

I predict Rebuff will not only tear the roof off in the Indiana Sires Stakes program, he’ll send out top contenders in the Grand Circuit Stakes, even though he wasn’t treated to the cream-of-the-crop mares he would have gotten at a major farm. So there.

Back to Celebrity Bambino and his pedigree. He’s inbred to Muscles Yankee 2 by 4, and he’s inbred to American Winner, 3 by 4. You won’t find a lot of stallions with two such close crosses, and I’m sure they play a role in his ability on the track.

The fact that Celebrity Bambino raced hard at 2 and then has come back at 3 in top form is a tribute to his trainer, Ron Burke. Although Burke operates an incredibly large racing stable, he gives his top horses the personal benefit of his good horsemanship.

So what does this all tell us in the end? I don’t know about you, but it tells me that Celebrity Bambino will be a top sire, and whoever is lucky enough to stand him, please put Walnut Hall down for a first-year booking.