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Crowfoot Rates as Triple Crown Sire Even Without Acceptable Credentials Nothing in Record, Pedigree4 To Hint at Top Threat Easy Spur in Downs Classic Today By LEON RASMUSSEN Ah, Sweet Mystery of Breeding. The 21 -year-old stallion Crowfoot hardly has the credentials of a Triple Crown sire, yet he just missed being one in 1953 through his son Jamie K., and now he is threatening again in 1959 with Easy Spur. Excepting the unraced Alibhai, sire of the 1954 winner, Determine, no sire of a Derby winner is modern times had as poor a racing record as did Crowfoot. Alibhai set an unofficial track record for a mile in a workout at Santa Anita while breaking dov. -i in both front legs before he ever started in a race. On the racetrack, Crowfoot started twice at 2 and placed, earning 50. At 3, he won ; two off-track sprints in 13 starts and earned ,235. His lifetime record shows 15 starts, two victories and earnings of ,385. He failed when tried with stakes horses. His most searching test was in the mile and three-sixteenths Yankee Handicap. In this race, in which Our Boots defeated Market Wise, Crowfoot finished last of nine after showing some early foot. This is hardly the racing record to qualify a horse for stud purposes. There are numerous horses of superior racing ability in the entries every day. Nevertheless, Crowfoot, used essentially as a private stud by James E. Norris Spring Hill Farm, has proved a moderately successful sire. In addition to Jamie K., who lost narrow decisions to Native Dancer in both the Preak-ness and the Belmont Stakes, Crowfoot sired Nell K., a stakes-winning mare and now a producer. Considering his ineffectiveness as a racer, one might assume that Crowfoot possessed such an impeccable pedigree that he was given a chance at stud because of it. But his pedigree is nothing exceptional. His aire, Blue Larkspur, was an outstanding race horse and a successful progenitor, but this alone is not enough. Crowfoots dam, the imported Ann Earn, did not win, and his second dam, Ancona, won but once. Nor did Ann Earn shine as a matron. She produced several winners in this country, but nothing of consequence. Ancona only produced two modest winners, but two of her daughters, like Ann Earn, non-winners, bred horses of class and stamina. One of these, Gallantry, foaled Coraly, winner of j a major two-mile stakes in Brazil, and the ! other, Double Yolk, bred the French Derby winner Duplex. Crowfoots third dam, Game Chick, was j a filly of intense speed plus quality, win- ! ning the National Produce, Gimcrack and l Dewhurst Stakes at five, six and seven furlongs, respectively. It is rather incredible that the fleet Game Chick, who produced six moderate winners, should be an ancestress of classic stamina through Ann Earns half-sister Double Yolk. But then there is a great deal of incredibility in the Crowfoot story. Before leaving Crowfoots female family, Ann Earn was by Bridge of Earn, who, like Crowfoot, was a better sire than he was a racer. He won two minor races. Bridge of Earn was a half-brother to Santa Cruz, dam of Drift, the dam of Heliopolis and other noted winners. Blue Larkspur, Crowfoots sire, died in 1947. A scion of the native line of Domino, Blue Larkspur was a success, although his name appears to be living on more through his daughters than his sons. Probably his best breeding and racing son was Blue Swords, "Count Fleets shadow." However, this line is very weak in tail-male at this time. Of Blue Larkspurs many fine daughters, Myrtlewood was his best and undoubtedly his most influential. Crowfoot is inbred in the third and fourth generation to Cyllene, who was so small as a yearling he was not nominated to the English classics. However, he attained full size and won the Ascot GcM Cup. ! As a sire he proved an outstanding success, sending out four Derby winners, including ! Cicero, the sire of Ancona. Cyllene also sired Bridge of Earn, the sire of Ann Earn. The latter was closely inbred to Cyllene, | having him in the second and third rand-moves of her pedigree.
