Coloured Thoroughbreds!

Interesting. But, i have seen a horse racing (name eludes me) that has a big white patch on its gut

Bold Personality had his colour changed.

forgot to mention Karamea Snow was Standardbred

Interesting marking on foal born at Roski Stud in SAF, by Curved Ball (AUS) out of Lonhroyale (AUS), by Lonhro (AUS)

That is where the battery plugs in. 

awesome colours Ticino. i can see why there is a following

The 2019 Magic Millions National Sale moves into its third week at the Gold Coast on Wednesday with the yearlings taking centre stage and while there have been many horses offered at this sale so far, none are anything like this one.

A one of a kind roan paint thoroughbred will be going through the ring on Friday 7 June starting at 10am as Lot 2440.




A childhood dream for SE Asian based American Entrepreneur and Owner/Breeder Jesse Davison of Expectations Bloodstock the filly is by Coolmore Ireland's Champion 2yo and twice European Champion 2YO Sire Shuttle Stallion, Holy Roman Emperor (USA) from Lilac In Style.



"The racing industry always needs news fans, and she will truly draw interest from old fans while at the same time creating new ones," said Jesse Davison.

Holy Roman Emperor filly from Lilac in Style

"We kept her off social media and a secret until now as it takes time for colored foals to shed out and show their final adult colors, and unlike grey horses, she should never fade to white and loose the color.


"While it is hard enough to breed a racehorse that can perform, let alone a uniquely colored one, I was lucky enough to have so much industry support to make my dream come true in Australia. Specifically the team and owners at Aquis Farm who stood Holy Roman Emperor, Justin Fung, Shane McGrath, Bernie Kane, Sarah Gardner, Tommy Inglis and Marty Roberts(who is now at Cornerstone Stud) and my good friend Jason Carkeet who raised her at Mojo Park in Baruba and of course Kandice Pritchard of KBL Thoroughbreds in Beaudesert who prepared her for this sale."

Years of planning, research, and a lot of luck all came together after purchasing privately the filly's dam, a minimally marked colored mare named Lilac In Style.

This stunning filly is one of a kind

The color producing genes in this case come from the mare's side of the family (she is by coloured stallion Profile in Style (USA), but Mr. Davison passionately spent hundreds of hours studying the color patterns and white markings of every stallion standing in Australia and their progeny before choosing Holy Roman Emperor as the stallion he best believed with a little luck would produce his dream horse….

"A maximally expressed colored horse that could both run and was loved by the public," Davison revealed.

Paint Thoroughbreds are rare, especially in Australia where according to the Australian Stud book's 2018 Foal Crop Color Trends were the following:

Bay 53%
Chestnut 19%,
Brown 12%
Bay-Brown 11%
Grey 3%
Brown Black 2%
Black 1%

This rare and beautiful thoroughbred will be offered for sale at the Gold Coast this week

Of the 13,082 foals born in 2017 no other thoroughbred is believed to carry the same color genes, both paint and a possible undiscovered new roan color gene not previously seen in thoroughbreds.

The exact number of thoroughbred paint horses born worldwide is unknown but it is believed there are less than 100-200 maximally expressed paint thoroughbreds in the world with most being bred for their color patterns and not to race.

Mr Davison hopes that this filly can follow in the footsteps of other uniquely marked fan favorite and talented racehorses such as multi-millionaire Apache Cat, the much loved but ill-fated Miss Vista, or the spotted Japanese wonder Buchiko.

And while some in the industry may not share his dream of colored racehorses, just to show that he doesn't take things too seriously with the filly, she is branded with a surprised smiley face emoji. Also a first.

See this amazing filly at Stable T 12.

There’s an interesting looking horse going around in SA called Kimmie Quick Shows. Hasn’t shown much in her races, but she’s a lovely looking horse. Would love to see her show one day.

Hi Ticino,

You don’t ever want to linebreed horses with this particular colour pattern. Frame Overo leads to white markings (sometimes very minimal) when heterozygous and is 100% lethal for homozygous offspring. Foals born with Overo Lethal White syndrome do not have full developed digestive systems and will fatally colic within days after birth, assuming they are not humanely euthanized first.

I understand the owners’ desire for a coloured goal but at the same time this horse does have a genetic defect and if she is used for breeding her owners will need to take care with her.

Kimberley Mine wrote: I'm a bit surprised that the Australian stud book allowed her damsire Profile in Style to be imported, given that he carries a known genetic defect.  Pretty spots are all well and good...except it's a horrible way for a foal to die, puts the mare at risk (because every pregnancy is risky), and could be a very expensive mistake for a breeder.

They didn't even know about it!  I rang the studbook to ask, and they were not even told about it by the owners, then they contacted them and were assured it would be ok. Yeah, until people start breeding those lines together

Cheers KM, I am one of those who don't know. And as you say, if Aus QH has already taken a stance why wouldn't the Thoroughbred world.

 And stay on the soapbox as long as you like. The information you have provided is definitley thought provoking, and I agree that minimising harm done to animals by us humans is always worth shouting about.

Furious, white and spotted thoroughbreds are not new. There’s a pretty famous old English painting of a loudly spotted thoroughbred, I’ll see if I can find it.

In the past, they were shipped off to Argentina (where there was a local market), passed along without registration, or killed. Frame Overo is not a new mutation, hence rules about excessive white in various registries. There was no way to verify parentage, so many spotted horses were assumed to be from fence jumpers and not fit to race or breed.

I personally think the Frame thoroughbreds, which all descend from one line, are likely to have been the result of a somebody jumping a fence rather than a de novo mutation. As there was no DNA testing at the time and the mare in question had “normal” white—because Frame can hide—it didn’t get noticed until boom, loud goal. It’s also classic Frame, not some new variation, and the likelihood that the exact same mutation occurred spontaneously in different cases. Even amongst the white TB lines extant, they are all different mutations of KIT.

Other white strains and patterns are the result of de novo mutations, such as The Opera House or Apache Cat. Still other colour patterns can hide for years before being loudly expressed, think flaxen chestnuts with a lot of white whose parents both were Bay or brown with a white suppression gene.