Penthouse

Penthouse the greyhound who became a Group 2 winner in the Black Top at The Gardens last Saturday night beating an outstanding field.

The evolution of Penthouse's pedigree is simply amazing.

Firstly, let me say, I am a real fan of Run's House (Awesome Assassin-Amy's Sonnet). His city winner to pups born stats are first rate and he is punching above his weight for quality gallopers considering the opportunities he had when he first went to stud.

OK, Jason Thompson who stands him at stud, gave him a couple of pretty quality bitches including Penthouse's dam By Request the Sale Oaks and Geelong Rosebowl winner who was third in the Group 1 Laurels.

But Run's House is a stud dog under the radar. I consider him the perfect alternative to champion sire Collision because the pair is bred almost identically.

Both are sons of Awesome Assassin.

Both have Malawi's Prince via their damline.

Both have daughters of Brother Fox in their tail female line.

I love nothing better than tracing all the elements of a quality greyhound's pedigree (tragic aren't I?).

Penthouse, and his close relations El Galo and High Earner, have as their sixth dam a bitch called Smooth Service (The Smoother-Lucy Borgia).

Anyone remotely interested in greyhound pedigrees should study hers closely.

It is a saturation of dominant female lines. I have said before, in pedigree research one will often come across a broodbitch with a saturated pedigree (just like Smooth Service) who appears to be a foundation bitch of sorts.

Smooth Service's damline traces directly to Venetian Babe, Venetian Rose, Golden Dimples, Jolly Colleen etc. It is the damline of Temlee.

The first thing that strikes you about Smooth Service's pedigree is that she is incestuously in-bred 2x2 to the litter brothers Bandar Prince and The Stripper (Shan's View-Byam Rose).

Byam Rose, anyone remotely interested in greyhound pedigrees will know, is a famous broodbitch.

Rowan Vale, second dam of legend New Tears, is line bred to The Stripper and Bandar Prince as well.

But what is even more significant about the pedigree of Smooth Service is that she also contains a 3x4 cross of Top Linen and his sister Brenda's Daughter (Fine Linen-Brenda Gay) and they are positioned to be able to impact upon Smooth Service much more than Bandar Prince and The Stripper even though they appear 2x2.

Legend Temlee is also line bred 3x4 to Top Linen and Brenda's Daughter in exactly the same position as Smooth Service.

Smooth Service obviously didn't inherit the racetrack ability those genes gave Temlee, but they were there nevertheless.

Without even thinking hard about it, surely a cross of Smooth Service and Temlee would be a natural somewhere in future pedigrees.

Remember, like Smooth Service, Temlee traces directly to Venetian Babe, Venetian Rose etc etc etc.

The fifth dam of Penthouse is Lucky Senoj (Waverly Supreme-Smooth Service). While Waverly Supreme and Temlee's grandsire Tivoli Dreamer are from the same family, this was not quite the mating that reinforced the Temlee/Smooth Service mix.

It was too early, and too close, for such a saturation of like genes to be mixed. Mother Nature will always have a say about the results of intense in-breeding.

Lucky Senoj was mated to champion Brother Fox to produce Senojian Fox. The mating again brought in one cross of Temlee (third sire of Brother Fox) but it was hardly positioned to have any great effect on the resultant offspring (Senojian Fox).

So, Senojian Fox twice went to the import Curryhill Brute and among her offspring was a bitch called Playground. Again there was no reinforcement of Temlee.

The multiples of hybrid vigor allowed Playground to become a better than handy broodbitch. She was ripe for linebreeding and in-breeding.

Playground, to Malawi's Prince who carries one cross of Temlee (in a great position in the pedigree of Malawi's Prince) via his son Tempix, produced WA Oaks winner Roxy Reason and the very smart city performer Roshanna Reason.

Both could run.

Temlee, however, was laying in wait for this damline. It was nearly time for a saturation to arrive.

Roxy Reason would go to Surf Lorian (who has no fewer than 10 crosses of Temlee in his pedigree) to produce champion bitch Miss Hot Gossip.

To Where's Pedro (who has no fewer than nine crosses of Temlee) she produced El Galo.

To Wild Season (seven crosses of Temlee) she produced Gold Coast feature winner Double Guess who in turn to Collision (seven crosses of Temlee) produced High Earner.

Roshanna Reason, a litter sister to Roxy Reason, was mated to Lindale Blue (11 crosses of Temlee) to produce By Request.

By Request, when mated to Surf Lorian (10 crosses of Temlee) produced champion staying bitch Next Top Model the Sandown Cup winner and track record breaker.

To Run's House (15 crosses of Temlee), By Request has produced Penthouse.

Penthouse's pedigree also shows a 4x3 duplication and sex balance to Malawi's Prince (High Earner has a duplication of Malawi's Prince), a 5x4 duplication and sex balance to Curryhill Brute, and many, many other combinations.

This damline has really emerged in the past few generations to become one of the best in the land.

Is it coincidence that only in the past couple of generations has it met up with stud dogs that contained a saturation of Temlee blood all to link with Smooth Service?

Does the Temlee/Smooth Service link have more to do with Penthouse being able to run than the duplication of Malawi's Prince, or Curryhill Brute or any other ancestor within this pedigree?

Who can say for certain.

What I, for one, would have loved to see was a duplication of Smooth Service within a pedigree somewhere along the line.

Maybe that's not too late to happen.