Reserve Bank
Pedigrees can sparkle with the repetition of certain superior mares, the likes of Natalma, Lalun, Plucky Liege and La Troienne.
Another is 1950s US mare Flower Bowl (Alibhai), and she might be part of the strength behind rising star Reserve Bank (Capitalist), who made it three wins on end in Saturday’s The Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m) at Morphettville.
Bred in Virginia and born in 1952, Flower Bowl was a daughter of the British-bred Alibhai (Hyperion), a quirky stallion in that he was unraced due to injury but became a runaway siring success, leaving 18 top-level winners. Flower Bowl’s dam was a handy broodmare herself, throwing three stakes victors.
Flower Bowl won seven times, including twice at the elite level, in Belmont’s Ladies Handicap and in the Delaware Handicap.
Though plagued by reproductive problems, she became a designated Reine-de-Course mare, throwing three black type winners among just five foals, two of them successful in the top tier.
Flower Bowl’s first foal was Bowl Of Flowers (Sailor) – not the most imaginative of names perhaps, but very useful on the track. She was America’s Champion 2YO and 3YO Filly, winning 10 of 16, six stakes races and four Grade 1s, including the Coaching Club American Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m), and is in the US Racing Hall of Fame.
Five years after her, Flower Bowl threw Graustark (Ribot), a dual stakes winner who was Grade 1-placed before retiring hurt aged three. On the back of his mother and big sister’s success, he was syndicated to stud for a then-record $US2.4 million and became a successful sire of 52 black type victors including 12 at the elite level, among them Key To The Mint (four Grade 1 wins), Avatar and Proud Truth (three Grade 1 wins each).
Flower Bowl’s fifth and final foal – she died after giving birth – was Graustark’s full-brother His Majesty, who in an injury-marred career won five times including a Grade 2, and was Grade-1 placed. At stud he was just as successful as his brother, leaving 56 stakes winners and ten at the top tier, including Pleasant Colony (four Grade 1s), Cetewayo (two) and Mehmet (one).
For a mare with only five foals to her name to become so influential in modern pedigrees speaks volumes for her impact. Natalma is Natalma, but she did have 14 babies.
Flower Bowl is also a Double Copy mare which, simply put, means they have a good stock of the much-sought large heart gene. More complicatedly put, both of their heart size genes on each of their X chromosomes are large heart genes. All their colts will be large-hearted. Their fillies will only be large hearted if they gain another large heart gene from the stallion.
Segenhoe Stud’s Peter O’Brien, who bred Reserve Bank, feels Flower Bowl’s presence is definitely a factor in his ability.
For starters, Reserve Bank is in-bred to Danehill (Danzig), 4f x 3m in the gender-balanced way that achieves statistically the best results in the tricky art of duplicating Danehill.
Whenever you have double Danehill, you’ll have double Flower Bowl, since His Majesty is the sire of Danehill’s dam Razyana.
Better still, Reserve Bank’s dam Our Songbird (Fastnet Rock) is line-bred to Flower Bowl. Danehill is her grandsire, bringing His Majesty, and Flower Bowl is there again through her other star son Graustark, who’s in a key direct position as Our Songbird’s third damsire.
All of which adds up to Reserve Bank having Flower Bowl at 7m x 6m, 6m through her two star brothers.
“With Flower Bowl there, that’s close enough for me,” O’Brien told It’s In The Blood.
“Everyone has their own preferences when they do their matings, and in-breeding or line-breeding to superior females is top of the list for me. And Flower Bowl, she’s right up there with the best of them for mine.
“So, when breeding Our Songbird, we’re always looking for a stallion with Flower Bowl in his pedigree.”
Anamoe (Street Boss) is one, and he has her even closer in the fifth remove, but O’Brien won’t be sending Our Songbird to him. No disrespect to Anamoe, but he’s a little too big. This is what Segenhoe has deduced with Our Songbird who – typical of many Fastnet Rock mares – is also on the larger side.
Our Songbird was a decent type. Fetching $330,000, she was the fifth-top lot at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in 2012, at a time when Fastnet Rock (Danehill) was so all the rage he sired five of the top six.
Though she’s ended up a half-sister to two Listed winners, her price and type didn’t transfer to racetrack prowess, and she retired with a Kensington maiden for Chris Waller to her name.
Segenhoe put her to Rubick (Encosta De Lago), who has one appearance by Flower Bowl in his pedigree, and the result was Jailbreak, a decent type who made $470,000 at Magic Millions Gold Coast, before winning one in town and four in the bush.
Our Songbird next went to the powerfully built Dissident (Sebring), another with Flower Bowl behind him, and threw Madmoonah. She was large and short on ability, winning none of 15.
A return to Rubick, after Jailbreak had shown early promise, produced the more compact The Monza, who was good enough to be bought for Hong Kong, but not good enough to run a place there.
Then in 2020, O’Brien pinpointed another, compact, stallion with Our Songbird among his ancestors – Newgate Farm’s Capitalist, whose first two-year-olds were hitting the tracks, with good reports. The result was the ideally sized and shaped Reserve Bank.
“We’d realised we needed to send the mare to a neat stallion,” O’Brien said. “And she’d gone to three unproven stallions in a row.
“We wanted to send her to a stallion that was semi-proven, and primarily one who suited her physically.
“With Fastnet Rock mares, the best idea is to send them to neat stallions, but there’s really only a handful of them around. And there’s very few stallions in the country who have Flower Bowl that would suit her.
“This year, we were tempted to send Our Songbird to Anamoe, because we’ve had some beautiful foals by him, but he wouldn’t suit her. He’s too big.
“But Capitalist fitted the bill. And we got what we wanted. Reserve Bank was our best looking yearling that year.”
O’Brien sent him to Premier – “because we needed a flagship horse in our draft there”. After a bidding duel between Trent Busuttin and Mick Price, the latter snared him for $410,000, ranking ninth in the sale.
“Reserve Bank was a big yearling for a Capitalist, but he was a beautiful big scopey horse, and a beautiful mover,” O’Brien said.
“The cross of Capitalist over Fastnet Rock is unbelievable statistically. Mick Price thought Reserve Bank was the best Capitalist he’d ever seen. I quoted him some stats and he said it made perfect sense, because Fastnet Rock puts a bit more size and scope into them.
“Capitalists are not great movers generally. Fastnet Rock mares put the action in the Capitalists. They put a bit more size and scope and a better action into their progeny in general.”
After bearing what O’Brien described as “nice” colts by Darley sires Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) and Pinatubo (Shamardal) – who don’t descend from Flower Bowl – Our Songbird missed to Capitalist in 2023 but went back to him last year.
With the mating having been proven by Reserve Bank – now a triple stakes winner, of five races from nine starts – she might go back to him again this spring too.
“She’s a beautiful mare. Big, scopey, but plenty of quality,” O’Brien said.
“When we were discussing the mating for her last year, we were saying she has to throw a good horse at some stage, because they’re all so good looking – all bar her second Rubick (The Monza).
“She was limited on the track – a winner, but limited ability – but now that she’s a Group 1 winning broodmare, we may have to look at her in a different light.”