by Alan Leavitt

An article about Jujubee caught my eye, and I forcibly ran away from his five-generation lineage. To begin with, he is by Creatine and by La Cantera, by Cantab Hall. He was made and run in his first starts on 2 by Greg Wright, Jr. Wright is a top rider, well known for developing outstanding young horses, a large number of which he then sold and saw them continue to win for their new connections.

Jujubee had an easy overnight campaign at 2, then came back last year at 3 to completely destroy their division, winning everything including Kentucky Futurity and the Breeders Crown. Hambletonian Week, for which he was not eligible, he won the $ 50,000 Muscle Hill bet at Meadowlands in 1: 49.4.

By comparison, Captain Corey, a great stallion himself, went in 1:51 and won the Hambletonian. And I must point out that Captain Corey was started on the road to championship form when he was driven to a well-rated second in his first start of life by Sarah Svanstedt, aka Mrs. Åke Svanstedt. I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that if Mrs S. offered to sell me a bridge I would just ask how much the down payment is?

But back to Jujubee, whose name, it turns out, is originally the name of a famous drag queen. How it became the name of a standard bred horse is a bit beyond me. As they still say, in some circles, Go Figure.

Jujubee is line bred, 3 out of 4, to Garland Lobell, and also line bred, 4 out of 4, to Valley Victory. As a quick refresher, if the sum of the generations where the same name occurs is six or less, the horse bred in this way is said to be inbred to that ancestor.

If the sum of the generations in which the same name occurs is seven or eight, a horse bred in this way is described exactly as Line-Bred to that ancestor.

If no horse’s name appears in less than a total of nine, a horse bred in this way is described as an Out-Cross.

Here, a personal reminiscence of the great father, Garland Lobell. When I ran Lana Lobell Farms, Jim Harrison was my boss.

Just before the annual Harrisburg sale in 1971, he pointed out that Hanover had just settled Ayres as a father and sold him to the darkest part of Italy. But two years earlier they had bred him to some nice mares, and their annual mares were sold that year in Harrisburg.

There was really no knocking on Ayres as a breeding mare, but the fact that the Shoe Farmers had just sold him abroad took all the glow out of his one-year-old mare.

Jim and I bought five Ayers mares in one session. The most we gave was $ 9,700 for Genya Hanover.

Now it’s a few years later and I get a call from a coach who speaks fluently from Illinois. He convinces me that his daughter from Genia Hanover is a $ 20,000 steal, because he’s going to spend $ 1.58 or faster on her full brother, which he’s taking to Lexington next week.

So I bite, hook, line and plow. But when I tell Jim about my purchase, he goes a little.

“Who the hell are we going to raise a daughter to Speedy Crown for when we stand him and his son, Speedy Somolli?”

This was followed by a crash of Jim’s phone in its cradle. I should mention that Jim’s office phone had to be replaced regularly.

But by the next breeding season, things had cooled down a bit, and Gamin Lobell, my Speedy Crown mare, was bred to ABC Freight. The result of that pairing was Garland Lobell, and as they say, from then on, everything was rock n roll.

When it comes to ABC Freight, he was another perfect example of a stallion’s 2-year competition career that pointed out his great breeding potential. On a day when there were not many races for 2-year-old trotters, ABC Freight won the only decent wallet on offer, a stakes race at Roosevelt.

Then he went over to the newly opened Meadowlands and beat a good field of aged trotters at 2: 00.4. On the basis of which he was shipped to California, where Joe O’Brien drove him to a new world record of 1: 57.2 in a single time travel. USTA only shows him with revenue of $ 176,965, but I’m sure it’s wrong on the low side.

Although ABC Freight was plagued by low fertility, he was given a Hambletonian winner in Historic Freight by limited opportunities. In retrospect, Jim and I should have given him a bigger chance, but at the time, all our attention was devoted to Speedy Crown and Speedy Somolli.

* * *

Finally, I had a short chat with Dr. Rebecca Bellone, the lady doing USTA genetic research. I told her that with all my compulsive printing of five generations of pedigrees, I had not found one that was truly inbred. Which bodes well for our breeds of American trotters and American pacers, as both breeds are now well diversified.

* * *

And even more finally, I apologize to all the Swedes I have encountered for their ban on all trotters who compete with trotting hobbles (heartbreaking-news-about-monte-mikis-retirement). That apology applies especially to Anders Malmrot at Solvalla and Ulf Lindström. I am afraid that I have also upset my dear friends Lina Alm and Thomas Moberg, which I deeply regret.

I hope they all come to Lexington this fall, and I will have the opportunity to personally apologize.