75-25 Theory?

Back in January, in my article "Why Imports? Why Now?" I noted that for the first time in more than thirty years we are seeing the arrival of top-class Greyhounds from abroad. It isn’t so much about an outcross, or "hybrid vigor," but using well-bred dogs whose pedigrees are loaded with productive bloodlines. It’s also about breeding to major stakes caliber dogs with track record speed.

The Irish have already experienced their import boom. They have imported many studs over the decades, both American and Australian, but except for Sand Man*, brother of Rooster Cogburn and Highway Robber, they have mostly experienced one disappointment after another with nothing resembling a top sire. All that changed, however, when pups by the Australian import Frightful Flash* first hit the tracks in late 1995. Smooth Rumble* soon followed, and even more importantly, was followed by Top Honcho*. What started out as a trickle soon turned into a deluge. With the exception of Staplers Jo and his heir Larkhill Jo, it seemed that if you wanted to win anything, an Australian stud was the ticket to the winner’s circle.

It is more than a decade later and the Irish breeding scene is forever altered. Many Irish pedigrees are one-half, five-eighths or even three-quarters Australian, and breeders are successfully crossing more Australian blood back to their Irish damlines, as well as American sires like Hondo Black*, Kiowa Sweet Trey and Flying Penske.

By comparison, we have not had anything near the number of quality import sires available to us. While the Irish had a large array of productive import sires from which to choose, we had just Fortress* and a number of broods. Interestingly, this tiny cohort of imports has had an effect on American pedigrees far out of proportion to its numbers. Looking at the All America teams just since 2002, 28 of the 43 individuals awarded All America honors had import blood within two generations, or had at least one parent with an import within two generations. It’s clear that imported lines have conferred a competitive advantage when crossed with American lines. In the cases where these crosses have worked, it was the very best bloodlines that have succeeded most often.

Some Irish breeders have even coined a name for this phenomenon, the "75/25 Theory," where a mating resulted in a dog of one-quarter import blood, or derived from a sire or dam of one-quarter import blood, added something tangible to the cross. For the U.S., studs with one American-bred parent and an imported one will create a 75/25 cross to almost any domestic brood. For broods with little import blood up close in their pedigrees, a half-Irish or half-Australian sire makes a lot of sense. Just make sure your choice is a Derby-class competitor out of outstanding bloodlines.