Is northern dancer sire-line still dominant?

Question

Is northern dancer sire-line still dominant?

Answer 1

Yes,very much so. But it's worth mentioning that there would never have been a Northern Dancer without his great sire, Nearco, who was bred and raised by the great Frederico Tesio of Italy. Nearco had 3 famous sons- of which Northern Dancer was one. Northern Dancer's line includes Native Dancer, Northern Baby, Danzig,and Lyphard. Through his son Native Dancer we have such famous horses as Ruffian, Secretariat, Barbaro, and a whole host of others. Northern Dancer's brother, Nasrullah, became the sire and grandsire of an equally famous line that includes Bold Ruler, Seattle Slew, Mr.Prospector, and many, many others.  My only point is that without Northern Dancer and his 2 brothers, we would never have had most of the racehorses that have dominated the sport for the last 40 or 50 years, and the racing world owes a debt to the work of Mr. Tesio of Italy for being able to spot a horse like Nearco, who made ALL of this possible. What a horse he was !!

Answer 2

It is my opinion though maybe not everyones that Northern dancer may be the best sire of sires seen in the last 100 years. All you have to do is look at the number of Grade 1 winners that either he or his sons have produced. The Northern dancer line includes such sires as Danzig, Nureyev, Sadlers Wells, etc etc. The list goes on and on, but you can look that up for yourself. Even up to today most of the influential sires can trace their bloodlines back to Northern Dancer

Answer 3

yes...thru his best producing sons Nijinsky II  Danzig  Sadlers Wells , Lyphard  the overseas sire of champions, and Danehill (son of Danzig)one of the oft sought australian sires...down to his grandsons and their sons...Storm Bird (a northern dancer second...out of storm bird), currently the most expensive and sought after sire (500000 stud fee) and his son Giants Causeway (300000) as well as many others, this sire line is strong and when cross bred back into any classic performers in the Nasrullah line, which is where the Dancer/Bold ruler lines split via Nearco to Neartic and Nasrullah (Bold ruler...Mr prospector, secretariat, seattle slew) is where some of the nicest bred horses for any distance and surface come from...most of your top performers can be traced to sons of Northern Dancer, and cross bred into his distant relatives Seattle Slew, Secretariat , Mr Prospector and others...

Answer 4

Northern-Dancer line sires are still very much a presence, with his son Sadler's Wells still an active stallion, and his grandson Danehill having sired many horses that are coming on as sires.  And of course Storm Cat and his sons are very much in the ascendancy now, so it seems that the sire line of Northern Dancer may very well go on for decades more.

The only problem is that, increasingly, the best horses in the world have one or more crosses to Northern Dancer and people are going to need an outcross.

The crossing of Northern Dancer-line horses with Mr. Prospector-line horses has been a natural, and it seems to have worked very well.  But it means that the Mr. Prospector line is also becoming more prevalent in the population, and again you have the problem of an outcross.

It will be interesting to see how things shake down as more and more tracks convert to Polytrack.  I don't think there's enough data to say yet whether this could cause a shift in popularity of certain sire lines, but I think it's a foregone conclusion to say that if a sire's horses don't run as well over polytrack as the progeny of other horses, then he and his sire line will fall out of favor.

It's interesting to see how these things shake down.  In my lifetime, I've seen the Bold Ruler sire line, which looked to be dominant forever, thin down to representation by a single stallion and his sons:  Seattle Slew.  (It will be interesting to see if Vindication, the last champion son of Seattle Slew, does as well as A. P. Indy as a sire.)

I think that although Northern Dancer's line looks to last a while longer, especially since the Storm Cat sons are starting to show themselves as good sires, we'll see it start to go into abeyance as breeders look for an outcross to the Northern Dancer-Mr. Prospector crossed stock.  Somewhere out there is a stallion who will benefit from crossing well with the Northern Dancer-Mr. Prospector crosses, and that horse will take the ascendance in the years to come.

Answer 5

Oh yeah, Northern Dancer is still VERY desirable! Did you know he is the Grandsire of Derby winner Street Sense? He won the 1964 Derby, and set a new record that day. He won the Eclipse that year as Champion 3 yo. In his two years of racing, Northern Dancer won 14 of his 18 races and never finished worse than third. In The Blood-Horse ranking of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, Northern Dancer was ranked #43.

Here is what's in Wikipedia on his offspring:

A sire of champions

Northern Dancer stood at stud at Taylor's Windfields Farm in Oshawa, Ontario until 1969 when he was moved to Windfields Maryland farm where he remained until his death. Northern Dancer was the most successful sire in thoroughbred horse-racing in the 20th Century. His offspring have earned more money and won more major stakes races than those of any other sire up until the 1990's era of shuttle stallions, including North American, Japanese, Australian and European champions. He sired 146 stakes winners including the great Nijinsky II, winner of England's Triple Crown, as well as The Minstrel, Shareef Dancer, Secreto, El Gran Senor, Fanfreluche and multiple champion sires Nureyev, Danzig, Sadler's Wells and Storm Bird. He was also the grandsire of 133rd Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense.

An exceptional sire, he was named the 20th century's best sire of sires. Others have given the 'title' to Phalaris, but Phalaris did nothing as a sire when not mated to daughters of Chaucer. In the 1983 Keeneland auction, one of Northern Dancer's colts named Snaafi Dancer became the first $10 million yearling.

Although he has been dead for more than fifteen years, there are more Northern Dancer line Breeder's Cup winners than any other horse.

Answer 6

in middle distance races probably yes one of the more desirable sires ,,,there are however numerous other sires and as each were famed in their own class,,,long distance,sprinters etc it depends on your definition of dominant...Arkle who i am sure you have heard of was probably the greatest steeple chaser,certainly in my lifetime,cost 400gns and was out of the sire archive and an unraced mare called bright cherry,,,,it doesnt follow that a brilliant father produces brilliant offspring.look at the winter favourite who was a dud at stud...and has been brought back into training by aidan o brien