TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1021151
O ne needs only to cast an eye across the sires' chart to recognise the extraordinary influence of Nearco, founding father of so many domi- nant subsets of the Thoroughbred male line. His grandsons Never Bend, Grey Sovereign, and Turn-To have all established influential dynasties of their own, responsible for the likes of Mill Reef and Sunday Silence, but most potent of them all is Northern Dancer, whose legacy is now be- yond superlatives and remains the overwhelming tale of modern-day bloodstock. N e a r co a n d t h e d u a l A r c w i n n e r R i b o t w e r e a t t h e p i n n a c l e o f t h e a c h i e ve m e n t s o f l e g e n d a r y I t a l i a n breeder and trainer Federico Tesio, whose own influence still looms large over the industry, not least in the annual repetition of the famous line attributed to him about the importance of the Epsom winning post to the breed. It should be a source of enormous regret to the wider bloodstock industry that Italy, through political strife, is to an extent in danger of being isolated from the wider European bloodstock community. After a series of downgrades to black-type races in the countr y, i n cluding the loss of Group 1 status for the Derby Italiano, the European Pattern Committee issued a stark warning earlier this year, stating that it "remains very concerned" for the future of Italian racing and breeding while "the number of overseas runners in Italy continues to fall and the quality of [its] black-type races also, with Italy's sole remaining Group 1 race, the