[sumitas]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

Don't stop there. Tribal Rule also descends from one of the most unsound, albeit talented, families in modern racing.

His dam, Sown, made just 3 career starts. In addition to Tribal Rule, she also produced Grade 1 winner, Key Phrase, who made just 6 starts (and won 5).

Key Phrase in turn has dropped NY stakes sprinter, Key Deputy, a sporadic campaigner for the Live Oak Plantation (12 career starts); Key Maker, a talented, but fragile CA colt that got a triple digit Beyer breaking his maiden off a yearlong layoff before descending into low claiming races (15 starts); highly touted, but never proven sprinter and now popular sire Yankee Gentleman (10 career starts); and Zing (8 starts) who as a broodmare has produced, Half Ours (7 starts), a stakes-winning Unbridled's Song colt (and new sire) that spent more time at the ranch than he did at the track.

Sown herself was a 1/2 to top CA sire Pirate's Bounty, who made 15 career starts.

The irony of it all is that the 2nd dam, Bad Seed, made 44 career starts.

Sown's sire line includes Graustark, a sire known to pass on coffin bone problems. So Tribal Rule (Storm Cat) was crossed with the Graustark line. That is a high risk mating insofar as receiving unsound genes from either or both of his sire lines. Bad Seed has no Graustark; or Storm Cat.