Letters to the Editor: Rinaldo Del Gallo, III, Esq. on Cara Rafaela

Your story on Cara Rafaela (b. 1993) (click here), failed to mention one interesting point. Cara Rafaela has been mated to Seattle Slew (once, to produce Bold Legacy), Seattle Slew's son A.P. Indy (four times, once to produce Bernardini), and A.P. Indy's grandson Tapit (three times). She was never mated to Pulpit, Tapit's father.

Ordinarily, when a mare is mated to a sire and a sire's son, the offspring are considered three-quarter siblings, since they have in addition to a common dam, the additional one-quarter blood from the senior sire. So Bernardini (b. 2003 by A.P. Indy) is considered by most to be a three-quarter sibling to Cara Rafaela's second child, the colt Bold Legacy (b. 2000, sired by Seattle Slew).

But such thought about “three-quarter siblings” raises interesting questions on how Cara Rafaela's children by Tapit are related to her children by A.P. Indy and Seattle Slew. How is Cara Rafaela's colt Brookline (Tapit) (b. 2014) related to Bernardini (with A.P. Indy as a sire)? Are they five-eighths brothers instead of three-quarter brothers? And how is Brookline related to Cara Rafaela's second child, the colt Bold Legacy (sired by Seattle Slew). Are they nine-sixteenth brothers, since they share one-sixteenth of the common genetic makeup from the father's side?

Another interesting question–how is the near millionaire filly Love and Pride (b. 2008) related to Bernardini? They both share a common sire (A.P. Indy), but Love and Pride's dam is not Cara Rafaela, but Cara Rafaela's daughter Ile De France (b. 1999). Are they also three-quarter siblings using the same logic?

And what do you call the relationships between Cara Rafaela's children with Cara Rafaela's full-sister Well Related's (b. 2004) children? Well Related also has progeny by A.P. Indy and Tapit. Are Well Related's daughters by A.P. Indy, Sister State and Small World (A.P. Indy x Well Related) “blood siblings” with Bernardini (A.P. Indy x Cara Rafaela) by dint of the having the same sire and their dams being full-sisters? By such logic, Well Related's colt Tribalism (b. 2013 Tapit x Well Related) could also be a full-sibling to Brookline (b. 2014 Tapit x Cara Rafaela). But how is Tribalism related to Cara Rafaela's other children by A.P. Indy and Seattle Slew? Are they “blood five-eighths siblings” and “blood nine-sixteenths siblings”?

I'll leave these questions to the readers.

Rinaldo Del Gallo, III, Esq.