crey-zee-pedigree

In the Blood: Crey Zee

The biggest accomplishment for a 3-year-old cutting horse is to win the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Futurity Open Championship. Crey Zee won the 2018 NCHA Futurity Open with a score of 222, earning $183,061 with Equi-Stat Elite$2 Million Rider Tatum Rice. Then, Crey Zee did the difficult task of winning back-to-back championships by taking The Ike Derby Open with a score of 229. She went three-for-three next by winning the Bonanza 4-Year-Old Open with a score of 224.

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Crey Zee & Tatum Rice • Photo by Hart Photos

The story didn’t end there, as Rice and the mare were Derby Open Co-Reserve Champions in March at The Cattlemen’s Derby & Classic. In their first four months showing together, Rice and Crey Zee earned more than $242,000.

Crey Zee (Dual Rey x Eazee E x Dual Pep) is owned by breeders Kevin and Sydney Knight. The pedigree of this mare highlights the sire accomplishments of the late Dual Pep, a sire of sires and a legendary broodmare sire. We will see a couple of “magic crosses” in this pedigree, as well. The linebreeding we see to Dual Pep will also show us a breeding pattern that functions on the phenomenon of balancing the pedigree to take advantage of sex-linked genes.

Crey Zee — Sire Line

The stallion Dual Rey (Dual Pep x Nurse Rey x Wyoming Doc) was an aged-event finalist with a career that included a tie for sixth in the 1997 NCHA Futurity Open, as well as winning the following year’s Derby Open Championship at The Ike. He retired with earnings of $105,038 and went on to be ranked third in sire charts in the 2018 Equi-Stat Lifetime Cutting Statistics with $36.4 million in offspring earnings, a number that has since grown to more than $41 million.

His leading money-winners are 2015 NCHA Open World Champion Special Nu Baby ($486,156), Don’t Stopp Believin ($451,493) and Rey Down Sally ($412,181).

Dual-Pep
Dual Pep • Photo by John Brasseaux

Dual Pep (Peppy San Badger x Miss Dual Doc x Doc’s Remedy) has proven to be a significant pedigree ingredient in today’s performance horse. He started on his road to success as a show horse, earning $307,384 while placing in the finals of more than 20 limited-age events as an open and non-pro cutter.

The stallion won or was reserve in 13 of those events. This includes a dual championship at the NCHA Summer Spectacular, where he won the Classic/Challenge Open and Classic/Challenge Non-Pro in 1990. He was also a dual winner at the Bonanza with a championship in the 1989 Bonanza Derby Open, returning in 1990 to be the Bonanza Classic Non-Pro Champion.

The sire record for Dual Pep shows that he has foal earnings of more than $25.9 million, which ranks him fifth on the sire list in the 2018 Equi-StatLifetime Cutting Statistics. His leading earner is Dual Rey Me ($818,177), who was the 2006, 2007 and 2009 NCHA Open World Champion.

Dual Pep has proven his ability to be a sire of sires with his paternal grandget earning more than $50 million, which ranked him seventh in the Lifetime Cutting Statistics published in the July 15, 2018, issue of Quarter Horse News (QHN). Sons of Dual Pep are becoming leading paternal grandsires, as well. Dual Rey is the paternal grandsire of more than $23.5 million with foals like 2013 NCHA Futurity Open Champion Dual Smart Kitty ($317,758).

Nurse Rey earned $84,500 in aged events, including such wins as the 1988 Reno Western Open Classic and 1987 Cutting Horse Association of Nebraska 4-Year-Old Futurity Open. Her foals have earned $674,510, and her leading money-winner is 1995 NCHA Futurity Non-Pro Reserve Champion High Brows Nurse ($138,460).

Nurse Rey is out of Jay Moss (Rey Jay x Mos Tony Top x Moss’ Cottontopjoejr), an NCHA money-earner and the dam of foals that have won in excess of $822,000, including 1989 and 1990 NCHA Non-Pro Reserve World Champion Rey Lynx ($595,310).

Crey Zee — Dam Line

Eazee E (High Brow Cat x Zee Dualy x Dual Pep) earned $212,534. She was the 2017 NCHA Open Reserve World Champion, winning such titles as the Mercuria Open at that year’s El Rancho Futurity. Eazee E is the dam of six foals, and Crey Zee is her first performer.

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Zee Dualy, pictured during the 2005 NCHA Preferred Breeders Sale, where she brought a final bid of $225,000. • QHN File Photo

Zee Dualy ($228,257) was the 2003 NCHA Super Stakes Non-Pro Reserve Champion. This mare is the dam of horses that have won more than $1.2 million, with her leading earner being 2013 NCHA Non-Pro World Champion Smooth Asa Zee ($608,712).

Dual Pep, the sire of Zee Dualy, is the broodmare sire of horses that have won more than $33.9 million. Last year, he was the fifth-ranked maternal grandsire in the Equi-StatLifetime Cutting Statistics.His maternal grandget include NCHA Non-Pro World Champion Sister CD ($852,612) and 2012 NCHA Open World Champion Dont Look Twice ($850,628).

Zee Dualy is the leading earner out of Jae Bar Pamela (Doc’s Jack Sprat x Supreme Question x Leo’s Question), a mare that won $14,382. Jae Bar Pamela was the 1989 All American Quarter Horse Congress $10,000 Non-Pro Champion. Her foals have earned $274,768, and her No. 2 money-winner is 2007 Cutting Horse Association of Nebraska 5/6-Year-Old Maturity Open Champion Fuego Del Corazon ($31,173).

Supreme Question was the dam of horses that earned $73,156. Jae Bar Pamela’s full sister, Jae Bar Fawn ($25,848), is her leading earner.

Crey Zee gives us a magic cross of Dual Rey on High Brow Cat mares, which was ranked first in the Equi-StatMagic Cross Cutting Statistics published in the Dec. 15, 2018, issue of QHN. As of publication, the cross had produced the winners of $5,347,747. The leading performer from this magic cross was Dont Stopp Believin, who, as of the time the stats were compiled, had earned $368,922. Since then, Dont Stopp Believin has pushed his lifetime earnings to $451,493.

The fifth-ranked pairing in the 2018 Equi-StatMagic Cross Cutting Statistics was High Brow Cat on Dual Pep mares, which, as of the issue, had generated $2,307,510. The top two money-winners from that cross were Cattalou, who earned $283,324 as of publication but in the months since has upped his lifetime earnings to $301,843, and Eazee E ($212,534), the dam of Crey Zee.

Balancing Crey Zee’s Pedigree

On the surface, Crey Zee has a breeding pattern of 2 x 3 to Dual Pep, telling us that she is pretty intensely inbred to this great stallion — a stallion that has been a successful sire of performers, a successful sire of sires and a successful sire of daughters. So, Crey Zee takes advantage of Dual Pep’s success through all three of these areas in her pedigree.

This is an example of balancing the pedigree to Dual Pep with a cross at the top of the pedigree through the sire and a cross at the bottom of the pedigree through the dam. We often see many balanced pedigrees, but the pedigree of Crey Zee gives us an example of “sex balancing” the pedigree, as she is linebred to Dual Pep through a son and daughter.

The genetic purpose of this type of linebreeding is to take advantage of the sex-linked genes that come from the son and sex-linked genes that come from the daughter. Thus, she has taken advantage of linebreeding to Dual Pep through a successful son and a successful daughter.