Nashwa, this year’s three-year-old super filly, winner of multiple Group 1 races, with the ability to both come from behind (dead last to first with less than two furlongs left) and go gate-to-wire, represents a stunning cross for the stellar sire Frankel. Like his biggest earner and multiple Group 1 winner Cracksman, she is out of a Pivotal mare, and this cross  earns an 8.38 average earnings index, with 38 such foals being represented by 17 winners (45%) from 27 starters. With 10% winners from starters considered excellent, this cross is off the charts.

          But the most superficial of glances reveals the beginning of what makes this cross work, and what is revealed is, of course, mare power. Nashwa is inbred 5 x 5, on both sires’ and dams’ side, to Special, the most prolific granddaughter of Blue Hen Rough Shod II. Inbreeding to Rough Shod II simply works, and Nashwa’s pedigree boasts two of the most esteemed offspring of Special, her daughter Fairy Bridge, the dam of Sadler’s Wells, and her son, Nureyev, who provides the extra, different dose of Northern Dancer that Frankel so appreciates in his mares. Special’s sire, Forli, presents inbreeding to Lady Juror (Son-in-law x Lady Josephine), who is a half-sister to Mumtaz Mahal, the great Mahmoud’s grandmother. Mahmoud will become important in Nashwa’s pedigree, so this inbreeding to his female family through Forli becomes significant as well. This Frankel/Pivotal cross is responsible for four Group 1 winners, with the two in addition to Cracksman and Nashwa being Veracious and Wild Beauty. The continuing influence of Rough Shod II (1944) and Lady Josephine (1912) cannot be doubted, and reinforces the importance of certain Blue Hen mares, no matter how long ago they lived, in contemporary pedigrees.

        Before deeper analysis of the mare power in Nashwa’s pedigree, it’s worth examining the Frankel/Pivotal cross more fully, which can be done by looking at examples of the Galileo/Pivotal cross which is also brilliant. Racehorses with this cross account for 35 starters, and 28 winners (42%), almost identical to Frankel’s 45% winners from starters, and Galileo’s AEI with Pivotal mares is a fantastic 9.63, while Galileo’s AEI with the general population of mares is 3.22, and Pivotal’s AEI as a broodmare sire is a not shabby 1.52. Clearly Galileo’s and Frankel’s numbers with Pivotal mares are through the roof, and this is partially because of the doubling of Special in all these pedigrees, but also because of the canny pedigree knowledge of such breeders as Coolmore. Coolmore has utilized this cross to create multi-millionaire and Group 1 winner Magical, and Group 1 winner Love, two outstanding mares. Returning to Galileo’s son Frankel, Juddmonte used a cross very similar to Nashwa’s to create the Group 1 winning Quadrilateral. She is out of a Mizzen Mast mare, Nimble Thimble, with Mizzen Mast being by Cozzene, just as Pivotal was out of the Cozzene mare Fearless Revival.

        If you were lucky enough to visit Gainesway, in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1999, you could see Cozzene in the flesh, and what a thrilling looking stallion he was. Pure white, with a doll head and huge, doe eyes, the thing I remember most about him were his short, thick cannon bones: clearly Cozzene could make sound babies that could run all day with those cannon bones (his equal in this department, also at Gainesway in that late Jurassic period, was Irish River, whose bone was equally astounding). Both stallions created turf legacies through their progeny that will last forever. However, Cozzene interests us because of his white color, and his presentation, in both Nashwa and Quadrilateral, of doses of the great Mahmoud (1932) and his female family, as mentioned above, through Lady Josephine.

        The most common multiple crosses of Mahmoud in contemporary pedigrees comes via Northern Dancer’s dam, Natalma, out of the Mahmoud mare Almahmoud (1947), and the tripling of Natalma/Almahmoud in Nashwa’s pedigree, through his prominent sons Sadler’s Wells, Danzig, and Nureyev itself brings the power of Mahmoud to this pedigree, but it is just the beginning. Cozzene’s grandsire was Grey Sovereign (1948) by Nasrullah, who was out of Mumtaz Begum, daughter of the Aga Khan’s “flying filly” Mumtaz Mahal, also the dam of Mahmoud’s dam, Mah Mahal. Nashwa’s third dam, Aiming, was by Highest Honor, who was himself by Kenmare, closely related to Cozzene because of Grey Sovereign, who is also in his sire line. Nashwa’s second dam, Aiming, also offers two doses of Nasrullah (with that Lady Josephine dams’ side), and one of Turn-to, by Royal Charger, from that same dams’ side going back to Mumtaz Begun and her granddam Lady Josephine. Frankel’s third dam, Rockfest, is out of a Roan Rocket mare, Rock Garden II. Anywhere we find names indicating gray or roan coloration, you can bet the farm that Mahmoud will appear prominently in that pedigree, and, indeed, Roan Rocket’s second dam, Faramoude, is by Mahmoud himself. This may be the most intense concentration of Mahmoud and is female family that I’ve ever seen.

        Rumour has it that Princess Loulou, Nashwa’s dam, is back in foal to Frankel, a wise move by owner Imad Alsagar. There are other riches in this pedigree, such as inbreeding to My Babu and Turn-to, closely related to each other and to the aforementioned Nasrullah, and a doubling of Sir Gaylord, giving us two doses of the great mare Somethingroyal. But, to me, this pedigree is all about Mahmoud and his female family, and its power reaching out from the early twentieth century to make Nashwa a wonderful race filly whom we can all look forward to seeing soon, perhaps at the Breeders’ Cup Fillies and Mares Turf-G1, especially as she is trained by John and Thady Gosden, and ridden by Hollie Doyle, who all know how to get fillies ready for the big races.

-- Roberta Smoodin