The Origin of Speed: The Tetrarch and Mumtaz Mahal The Tetrarch<\/B>, aka “the Spotted Wonder\u201d or the \u201cRocking Horse\u201d because of his appperance, only raced as a two-year-old, but the impression he left was of unlimited speed and untested talent. At stud, the big, flashy grey proved a successful stallion, although his infertility once again left horsemen wondering what could have been. Despite this, The Tetrarch’s influence of brilliant speed helped create an international dynasty of stallions, keeping his name alive through the generations. Racing Career There was a brief moment in the saddling paddock at The Tetrarch in The Stud The Tetrarch, sired a mere 130 foals from 11 crops between 1916 and 1926. The decade of work would be a large single<\/B> season crop for modern breeding giants like Storm Cat<\/B> or AP Indy<\/B>. The Tetrarch however suffered from low libido and had fertility issues. From only 130 foals, The Tetrarch forged an impressive but confusing stud record. As one of the best two-year-olds of all time, it wasn’t surprising that he also sired a string of outstanding two-year-olds and sprinters, including champions Tetratema<\/B>, Mumtaz Mahal<\/B> and The Satrap<\/B>, but he went beyond that and also sired the staying winners of the St. Leger three times, and Irish Oaks once. After becoming completely infertile 10 years later he was pensioned. One of the most influential sires of all-time spent the rest of his days making himself useful, often being ridden to the local village to pick up mail and run other errands. The Tetrarch died at Ballylinch Stud on August 8, 1935 at the age of 24, and is buried there under a stone with a plaque denoting his achievements. Mumtaz Mahal \u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>\u00a0<\/SPAN>Halo gave us Grade 1 winners Devil\u2019s Bag<\/B>, Sunny\u2019s Halo<\/B>, Jolies Halo<\/B>, Lively One<\/B>, triple crown winning filly Goodbye Halo<\/B> and the legendary Sunday Silence<\/B>. He also begot fine sires Southern Halo<\/B> and Saint Ballado<\/B> amongst a host of others. I am not going to go into Northern Dancer\u2019s career at stud other than to say he is greatest sire of all time. \u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>The other Muhtaz Mahal daughter named Mumtaz Begum<\/B>, was mother to Nasrullah <\/B>(also Malindi<\/B> and grand dam to Royal Charger<\/B>), the father of the Bold Ruler line. Bold<\/B> Ruler,<\/B> a Preakness winner and champion three year old in his own right, sired 21 G1 winners including 11 champions. \u00a0<\/SPAN>Lamb Chop<\/B>, Successor, Wajima, Queen of the Stage<\/B> and the incomparable Secretariat were among them. He was also a notable sire of sires, <\/SPAN>as the grandsire of Bold Forbes, Foolish Pleasure,<\/B> Honest Pleasure<\/B>, Hall of Fame fillies Ruffian<\/B> and Bold ‘n Determined<\/B> as well as Spectacular Bid.<\/B> He is also great-grandsire of Seattle Slew<\/B>. He was the Leading sire in Halo, Bold Ruler and of course Northern Dancer are three core horses that can be found in nearly every modern horse on the race track. If you include the fact that Mr. Prospector\u2019s mare Gold Digger is a Grand Daughter of Nasrullah, you realize you\u2019d be hard pressed to name a good modern horse that does not have some of this blood line coursing through it somewhere. So remember the nect time you are enjoying the racing game how much you owe to the \u201cRocking Horse\u201d The Tetrarch and his daughter the Flying Filly <\/SPAN>Mumtaz Mahal.<\/P> Sources: tb heritage, wikipedia, pedigree queery, horseracinghistory.com and bloodhorse.com The Dynamic Duo of Speed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":318,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breeding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/318"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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The Tetrarch would go on to have the kind of campaign that won him Timeform\u2019s title of two-year-old of his century. His open length winning performances were awe inspiring. In the words of his rider Stephen Donoghue \u00a0<\/SPAN>‘To be on him was like riding a creature that combined the power of an elephant with the speed of a greyhound. His trainer Atty Persse said ‘I don’t think he would ever have been beaten, over any distance. He was a freak and there will never be another like him.’ \u00a0<\/SPAN>Persse also said “His development in every respect was abnormal. He was a very strong-shouldered horse, possessed of a tremendous long rein, with a wonderful hind leg which gave him that remarkable leverage. His action was remarkable. When he galloped his back seemed to get shorter and his legs longer. That was due to extraordinary hind leverage; his hind legs seemed to project right out in front of his forelegs.\u201d<\/SPAN><\/P>
After reeling off 6 more show stopping wins in a row The Tetrarch injured himself during a morning jog (much the way Big Brown did) striking the off fore with a hind leg, something he was prone to do as a result of an unusually long overstride. The very elements of his gait that his trainer had praised for creating his freakishness also would be his undoing. \u00a0<\/SPAN>
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Almost a century later, the world still remembers The Tetrarch for his brilliant speed, and the many unanswered questions left with his early retirement from racing. As a stallion, he left an extensive legacy and his progeny are at the root of champion turf lines including Fairway\u2019s <\/B>and
There’s no doubt that The Tetrarch’s best runner and most important offspring was “the Flying Filly,” MUMTAZ MAHAL. Mumtaz Mahal was purchased as a yearling by the Aga Khan for a near record 9,100 guineas but unlike the Green Monkey<\/B> debacle this huge sale price was worth every nickel. The grey filly started six times at two and won all but the last of them setting a course record or two along the way. Her three year old campaign was disappointing and she struggled at longer distances before returning triumphantly to sprints to win her final two races before retirement. But while her racing career only netted 14 thousand pounds she was worth her weight in gold as a broodmare. The daughter of The Tetrarch, had many great running foals and scores of great grand progeny, winning countless big races. From a modern perspective though it is two of her daughters performance as broodmares that keeps this family fresh in our minds. The first of these famous daughters, Mah Mahal who gave us Mahmoud<\/B>.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Her English Derby winning son also had great success at stud. He is the maternal grand father of the Northern Dancer<\/B> and Halo<\/B> lines through his daughter Al Mahmoud<\/B> (mother of Cosmah <\/B>and Natlama<\/B>).