The 2-year-old is now aiming for a debut race (the kind they run for money) at a provincial track (rather than heading straight for the Aussie equivalent of Saratoga or Keeneland) – and her owners now include the eight lucky winners of a contest sponsored by majority owner John Singleton’s brewery, Bluetongue (for which the filly was briefly named) Given her breeding, it seems likely she’ll want a little more distance down the line – her champion 3/4 brother, Might and Power, won the Melbourne Cup and Caulfield Cup (among many other distance races); the current plan is to find a 1300m race for her first official start.

If The Opera House does show Group 1 potential like Might and Power, there will be no cause for concern about how she might react to the limelight – thanks to her unusual coloring, she’s already quite used to being photographed and shown off. And while her connections need not worry about how to toast any success she might have, might I suggest they brew a witbier to commemorate her first start?

Rather coincidentally, White Prince’s 4-year-old half brother, Patchen Prince, found himself in the winner’s circle at Turfway Park only a day or so later – he’s now Patchen Beauty’s third winning white foal. While Patchen Beauty’s offspring have been bred with both racing ability and white color as a goal, you may recall that our favorite white filly from Down Under (pictured) was rather more of a surprise when she was born.

She’s in the news again, with a new official name and an announcement from main owner John Singleton about what is next planned for her. Now going by the name The Opera House (although, according to PedigreeQuery, she is ‘also known as Bluetongue‘), she’s about to expand her ownership circle (and in a manner that seems almost tailor-made for me). Eight lucky drinkers of Bluetongue Beer will get a 10% share in the filly (and all her winnings) and all they need to do is buy a six-pack and then attend the Bluetongue Cup at Wyong Race Club on February 22nd.

As Singleton says in the official press release:

What could be more fun and spectacular than drinking a Bluetongue, watching a horse race and then finding out that you get a stake in an outstanding horse’s prize winnings during its racing career? I love horses, horse racing and beer – and I am sure the majority of Australians do to, and I would love to have a few of them sharing in the winnings of Opera House with me.

Sounds good to me. Too bad I’m a few thousand miles too far away to play, but I’ll be looking forward to her career. It’s a shame a similar promotion would likely fail spectacularly here in the US. Ah well.

It emerges that she was sold at auction earlier this year, and for quite a tidy sum, too – AUS $270,000. While her unexpected color (the result of a chestnut dam and a famously bay sire) no doubt provoked more interest than your average yearling might have garnered, her bloodlines are no novelty – she’s a ¾ sister to two-time Australian Horse of the Year Might and Power. (Incidentally, Might and Power now resides at Living Legends – it’s a bit like our own Old Friends). This article suggests that the white gene expressed in the filly descends from the dam of Hyperion, Selene (and Selene, in turn is by Chaucer – making her part of one of my favorite families), and eventually traces it back to the Darley Arabian. (I would submit that she has so much of the other foundation sires showing up in her pedigree as well, though, that it would take more than a little hard-core research to pin the color on any one of them – if, indeed, they were one of the carriers).

But enough about genetics and historical research (actually, I’m of the opinion you can never have too much of either pursuit, but time is short today) – what is the filly up to now? She was purchased by John Singleton (and a few friends), who also part-owns the Magic Millions horse sales firm, and she will be taking part in one of his more recent business ventures – promoting Australian craft-beer brewers Bluetongue – now her namesake:

Singleton and Johns plan to use the filly in a marketing campaign for Bluetongue beer in the Newcastle and Hunter Valley areas. Singleton’s bloodstock manager Duncan Grimley confirmed that the name ‘Bluetongue’ was being sought for the filly, and proceeds associated with her career will be donated to charity.

Indeed, she seems a filly after my own heart – she even enjoyed the beer, according to ‘Singo’:

“She actually didn’t like the Bluetongue early and I thought ‘well I hope she’s not a (Tooheys) New drinker,” he said, “but then, ‘boom’, she took that big swallow and I knew she was one of us.”

A small aside – while in general I am not a huge fan of Australian beer (even of the craft variety), it seems Bluetongue (the brewery, not the horse) is aiming to follow the Coopers model, and I do recommend Coopers Dark Ale or Coopers Sparkling Ale on a hot day). Of course, if it’s great Antipodean beer you are after, I suggest looking across the Tasman Sea for a Moa Noir – or you can ignore the Southern Hemisphere distinction entirely and just enjoy one of these, regardless of origin.

But back to the horse — Bluetongue is now in training and seems to be coming along nicely so far. There are plans to involve some racing clubs in her career and I would be very curious to see if overseas fans could get in on the action. In any case, I’ll be keeping an eye out for her – and for ‘her’ beer.

I would also suggest that the data is out there to at least make a start on a soundness index; an initial measure could be the percentage of a particular stallion’s offspring who are deemed too unsound to even consider putting them in training. I don’t know what sort of real numbers that might involve, but based on discussions I’ve had with people at some of the major breeding farms, it is a reasonably significant one. Granted, in many cases genetic faults may also lie with the mares involved, but until someone begins to compile and package the statistics, it’s all guesswork.

What is not guesswork is the interesting research that has been done on the equine genome:

Related work on sequencing the horse genome is also uncovering genes in thoroughbreds linked to speed and stamina. Screening for these traits could one day guide owners’ and breeders’ decisions when buying horses, which may sell for many millions of dollars.

“We hope to produce sounder, faster and better-performing horses,” says Cunningham. He and colleague Emmeline Hill at University College Dublin [Ed: Another article well worth checking out is also by Dr. Emmeline Hill -- ‘Genomics of performance in the equine athlete.’] is also using the horse genome to uncover genes that explain why one animal runs faster than another.

…

However, the analysis of thoroughbred genetics is also revealing the other side of the coin, notes Matthew Binns of the Royal Veterinary College in London, UK. Many negative traits are associated with inbreeding in the diminutive gene pool, he says. “The selections we’ve made for fantastic beasts have had some detrimental consequences.”

One tenth of thoroughbreds suffer orthopaedic problems and fractures, 10% have low fertility, 5% have abnormally small hearts and the majority suffer bleeding in the lungs, says Binns. But as well as allowing breeders to select for performance-related genes, elucidating the horse genome may allow researchers to breed out negative traits, he says. “Now we have a good amount of the horse genome, there are interesting times ahead,” says Binns. “Over the next 10 years there will be some changes in this very traditional industry.”

Naturally, as this data could potentially make someone a bit of cash, there’s a company called Thoroughbred Genetics that offers genetic analysis for the racing industry. I see this as no bad thing — it’s very interesting work and clearly someone should be doing it; if the free market helped to breed an unsound horse, it can also help breed a sound one.

Beyond genetics, here is a lot of very interesting research out there (The Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation is a great resource for finding peer-reviewed studies if you don’t already have access to an academic library) regarding training, track surfaces and medications to name just a few areas of interest; with the wealth of studies available, it’s about time the industry takes the recommendations of the Welfare and Safety Summit on board.

Finally, speaking of horse genetics, that’s my excuse for the picture of the NZ-born pure-white filly by Zabeel. I’ll let you coat color genetics folks go to town on this one!

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Horse Racing