Pedigree Profile - Don't Forget Masda

The Fair Play - Mahubah mating always brings to mind its finest product - the champion racehorse Man O' War.  The big red colt put his opponents to shame and shattered numerous American and world speed records, eventually defeating the highly regarded first Triple Crown winner, Sir Barton.

However, it is much too easy to forget that Mahubah was sometimes known as "Fair Play's wife," and there was a handful of other foals from that match.  The first, born two years before Man O' War, was a chestnut filly named Masda.  Thought to be very talented, Masda was a six-time winner in 23 starts and was stakes-placed at two and four years of age.

In 1919, she was caught up in a pre-race scandal; it was believed that someone looking to hurt her chances in the contest had cut her tendons with a knife.  Later, that suspicion was covered up as it was more likely a stray wire that caused the minor injury.  That year, Man O' War was just beginning his meteoric rise to the top of the record books.

Masda went to the breeding shed and produced nine foals, five of them fillies.  Three of her offspring were stakes winners.  Though she didn't turn out quite the producer her brother was - Man O' War eclipsed his siblings in every possible manner - her daughters paved the way for her name to survive in pedigrees today.

The most important of her daughters was Incandescent.  This bay filly was by Chicle, a grandson of the legendary Australian champion Carbine.  Incandescent won thirteen times and produced some solid runners; four of her foals ran more than 100 times, with stakes winner Fuego the most experienced of all, running 173(!) times.  Despite the longevity of her male offspring, the foal that would make the most impact was a sickly filly named Igual.

Igual is Spanish for "equal."  This turned out to be a misnomer, for none of her siblings could match her in the breeding shed.  Although her record was shaky at first, her first of many foals by Kentucky Derby winner Bold Venture would cement her name in racing history.

Known as the "club-footed comet" because of a deformed hoof, Assault made headlines in post-war America when he swept the Triple Crown series, becoming the seventh horse to do so.  He was a Horse of the Year in 1946; besides the classic races, he won events like the Dwyer and the Pimlico Special.  Sterile, Assault lived out his retirement days in peace at King Ranch and died at the old age of twenty-eight.

Igual was the dam of a Triple Crown winner; a little while later, she would become the ancestress of a horse that would spoil the party of a recent Triple Crown winner.

Prove Out was by stakes-winner Graustark and out of Equal Venture, an unraced full sister to Assault.  He was a good racehorse to begin with, but on a sloppy track at Saratoga, his name became famous.  In the 1973 Woodward Stakes, he would face Secretariat, the world-famous Triple Crown winner who was still smarting from a loss to Onion in the Whitney Handicap (then a Grade 2).  Prove Out was 16-1 but defeated Secretariat by open lengths.  Later, Prove Out would also vanquish Secretariat's stablemate Riva Ridge in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Unlike Assault, Prove Out was not sterile.  He was the damsire of Hall of Fame racemare Miesque, who later became the dam of world-renowed sire Kingmambo.  Masda's legacy lives on through Kingmambo and his many famous descendants.