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Tracing the Lines: Ominous Spiritus
Original article written by Autumn Blackmill posted 5 months 4 weeks agoI thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the biggest female lines in the game, and trace them back to their starting point. In this case, let’s take a look at the Ominous Spiritus line, which can hardly do wrong in the dirt sprint division.
The big mare herself (well, she was actually quite average at 16hh) was born in Y33. Her owner/breeder, Nick Gilmore, retained the filly, and after a few name changes settled on what we know her as: Ominous Spiritus. Her career was decent, winning her first two starts but losing that spark and never winning again. She retired with two wins and three seconds out of ten total starts, and began a campaign as a broodmare that can hardly be rivaled. Her daughters and grand-daughters hardly need introducing, and her only two colts were both successful stallions. Her progeny would earn just over $14 million, and take 3 Steward’s Cups and 2 Two Sprint Championships.
But where did this spark come from? It seems from out of nowhere. Her sire was the outstanding stud Delorean, whose total progeny earnings came out to $125 million. But if you based the talent of Ominous Spiritus in the shed on her sire, you would expect many more like her to exist. Yet, she is the one who started an empire. So, you look at the dam-line.
Ominous Spiritus’ dam was the Grade 2 stakes winning Lady Villain. She had a nice career on the track, though nothing truly jaw dropping. She would produce a stakes winner, but nothing too serious, as none of her offspring would win more than 100k in their careers. Mares like this, they are fairly common. Nice stakes types who cannot reproduce themselves in the shed. But perhaps hidden somewhere in her was the key to our mystery? Her sire, Villain, was a successful stallion, though not nearly on the level of Delorean. His progeny earned just over $20 million. Lady Villain’s dam is interesting for one reason alone: She is a created mare.
Lady Fager was her name, and she was created back in Y26 for Karl Smythe. Her sire, Rubiano, and dam-sire, Dr. Fager, both scream dirt sprinter. She would produce the aforementioned Lady Villain, her best foal, as well as two others who would win more than 100k on the track. Her progeny earnings were bearing down on $1 million, falling just 46k short. Not a bad investment of gamepoints! I do wonder if there was a spark in this mare that got passed down through her daughter Lady Villain, and into Ominous Spiritus.
Of course the other obvious reason being Ominous Spiritus’ incredible production record is Luck. Well, slide is probably more like it, but that takes luck. Perhaps with her pedigree, and her outstanding sire, there was a slide that gave her this incredible ability to produce horses who could do what she could not, and dominate the track. These in turn kept that ability and produced the dynasty that we see today in the dirt sprinting division.
It will take some time, and research, to see if other line-founding mares also descended from created mares, who resided fairly close in their pedigrees. Or if they seemingly popped up out of the clear blue.