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Bloodlines By Leon Rasmussen 1 1Greek Greek Ship Proving Self Successful Sire Plion and Belleau Chief Worthy Offspring Showed Speed and Stamina in Competition CompetitionResults Results of the Blue Grass Stakes and the Stepping Stone Purse before the Kentucky Derby directly and the result of the Derby itself indirectly indicates that Crown Crest Farms 11yearold Heliopolis stallion Greek Ship is about ready to join the club that includes Kentuckys more suc ¬ cessful sires In the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland Greek Ships son Plion scampered away with the spoils while his son Belleau Chief ran down Gone Fishin and Lincoln Road to cap ¬ ture the Stepping Stone Purse This was the second time that Belleau Chief had upset Lincoln Road in preDerby preps having also edged the With Pleasure colt in the Biscayne Bay at Gulfstream Park Considering that Lincoln bad made his halflength loss to Tim Tarn in the Florida Derby ring as true as genuine crystal by again finishing within a halflength of the Calumet colt in the Kentucky Derby one must concede that Belleau Chief is one of the best of this as yet suspicious generation It was unfortunate for Belleau Chiefs immediate connections and also for Mr and Mrs Howard Reineman Greek Ships owners and proprietors of Crown Crest that Belleau Chief popped a splint and was unable to participate in the Derby Greek Ship on both performance and bloodlines has the credentials to succeed as a sire As a race horse he won 312050 by winning 17 of 54 starts in four seasons He won one or more stakes each year he raced There are many breeders who will not con ¬ sider a stallion a sire prospect unless he won stakes at two and followed this by winning distance fixtures at three and older This is they believe an assurance that those necessary qualities speed and stamina are present As for Greek Ship he had the speed to win stakes at 5 furlongs and the stamina to win them at 1 miles His versatility was further emblazoned by his setting a track record at 10 furlongs on the dirt and over 1 316 miles on the grass His stakes wins included the Wakefield Flash and Mayflower at two the Louisiana Derby Metropolitan Mile Monmouth Handicap Choice Stakes and Gold Cup at three the All American Handicap at four and the Royal Palm Ocean City Atlantic City Turf Handicap and All American Handicap at five fiveHeliopolis Heliopolis Led American Sire List ListOn On pedigree Greek Ship is a going concern His sire Heliopolis by Hyperion has twice led the Amer ¬ ican sire list and annually is weU up among the leaders But Heliopolis Hyperion and all that amazing tail male dynasty need no elaboration the deeds of Hy ¬ perions descendants having flooded turf literature for years Actually so have the successes of the pffspring from Greek Ships tailfemale family The brown horse is out of Boat a nonwinning daughter of Man o War who has produced nine winners five of them stakes winners These include in addition to Greek Ship the superb race mare Rampart winner of 190 840 Noble Hero winner of the choice Sky Ship a Florida Derby winner and Ria Rica Boats dam Cro tola by Black Toney also produced Boats full sister War Flower dam of Ace Admiral and Helioscope win ¬ ners of over 700000 between them themGreek Greek Ships granddam Crqtola was a halfsister to Herodiade dam of Jezebel dam of Jezrahel win ¬ ner of an Arlington Futurity and of Banish Fear dam of Cosmic Bomb winner of the Arlington Futurity and Lawrence Realization and of Not Afraid the daugh ¬ ter of Count Fleet who produced Prince John winner of the Garden State Crotola and Herodiade are both halfsister to Pilate the son of Friar Rock who sired that sire of great quality Eight Thirty and the quite successful Phalanx This is the Bruce Lowe Family No 14 and this branch of it traces directly to Geheim niss by Rosicrucian winner of the 1882 Epsom Oaks OaksRomps Romps Around FiveAcre Paddock PaddockVisiting Visiting Lexington recently we had the pleasure of inspecting Greek Ship He is a well put together stallion although still quite light for a horse in his profession His intense curiosity and vibrant animation probably account for this Romping in his fiveacre rolling paddock and feeling the impulses of spring he will come steaming down the hill like an erstwhile Silky Sullivan put on his brakes at the last second and throw a cloud of blue grass dirt and all into the corner where the fences meet Ee does this so often and with such force that every few days farm workmen have to level off the hill he has built so he can start over again Between such extra curricular antics and a full book of mares it is little wonder that Greek Ship doesnt look too many pounds away from a race However his vitality is impressive and certainly he can already stand on the record recordOther Other stallions standing at Crown Crest and about whom we hope to have time to discuss in future col umns include Errard King Grand Admiral Hasty Road Nahar H Oil Capitol Sea O Erin One Count Pet Bully and Windy City n The latter an old ac ¬ quaintance who shall not soon be forgot looks won ¬ derful and seemed genuinely proud and happy to hear that his brilliant son Old Pueblo was training like a demon with a hot foot for his favorites role in todays Debonair Stakes at Hollywood Park
