Before I totally confuse my readers, you might remember that John Henry was a gelding (neutered or "fixed" to the pet owners in the audience). However, when speaking of "families" in the context of thoroughbred horses, that doesn't mean that some of the genes he carried (at least the ones from his mother, Once Double) disappeared with his testicles.In fact, in the breeding world, a horse is only considered a sibling (brother or sister) if they share the same mother.There are full siblings (have the same dad and mom), half-siblings (have the same mom) and three-quarter siblings, which I won't go into, because, frankly, I'm not too clear on that concept myself.
Put another way, there is no such thing as a brother from another mother if you're a thoroughbred race horse.
So, what does this have to do with Exceller?
Once Double, the mom of John Henry, had a daughter, Looigloo, with another horse by the name of Mr. Washington. This pedigree stuff can get as confusing as all of the "begats" in the Bible.That makes her, Looigloo, a half-sister to the fabulous John Henry.Looigloo (still a half-sister to John Henry) had several foals, and three of her kids were from the same horse, Exceller, and here they are:
Ultimate Solution, the daughter of Exceller and Looigloo, was by far their best kid, finding the winner's circle a total of 11 times from 49 starts. She became a producer (mom) herself, and had these kids:
Out of the above three, it was only Indian Corn who continued to spread those John Henry/Exceller genes, to her daughter, Indy's Anna
Read more about Exceller's continued impact on thoroughbred breeding [intlink id="720" type="category"]here[/intlink] and [intlink id="721" type="category"]here[/intlink]
