Dont Stopp Twice
Dont Stopp Twice & Ryan Rapp scored their biggest win together at The Cattlemen's. • Photo by S. Sylvester Photography

In the Blood—Dont Stopp Twice and The Formula One Breeding Pattern

When Ryan Rapp and Dont Stopp Twice recently entered the arena for the finals of the Southern Cutting Futurity 4-Year-Old Non-Pro in Jackson, Mississippi, they were one cut away from solidifying the title of NCHA Non-Pro Horse of the Year.

They would win with a score of 221 earning $11,134. It was their second consecutive win after taking the Brazos Bash 4-Year-Old Non-Pro title in a year marked by consistency as they went down the road. It’s the kind of consistency that saw them start the year with wins in the Abilene Spectacular 4-Year-Old Non-Pro Gelding, the 4-Year-Old Non-Pro Novice and a tie for third in the 4-Year-Old Non-Pro. They have total earnings of $112,016 for the year to earn the title.

Dont Stopp Twice (Dont Stopp Believin x Dont Happen Twice x Woody Be Tuff) was bred by the Waco Bend Ranch LTD and is owned by Phil and Mary Ann Rapp, Ryan’s mom and dad. The pedigree of this gelding has an interesting pattern that highlights the role of the tail-female line or that bottom line of mares in a bracket pedigree. It’s a pedigree design known as The Formula One Breeding Pattern.

Dont Stopp Believin (Dual Rey x Dont Look Twice x High Brow Cat) was the 2015 NCHA Super Stakes Open Co-Champion and the 2015 AQHA Reserve World Champion Senior Cutting Horse, amassing earnings of $463,962 and earning a membership in the NCHA Hall of Fame. His sire, Dual Rey (Dual Pep x Nurse Rey x Wyoming Doc), had show earnings of $105,038 winning events like the Memphis 4-Year-Old Open Futurity. He is a perennial leading sire with EquiStat earnings of more than $50 million.

Dontt Happen Twice (Woody Be Tuff x Dont Look Twice x High Brow Cat) has won $91,069. Her sire is Woody Be Tuff (Nitas Wood x Tuffs Junie x Tuff Lena), who has earnings of $351,063 and is the winner of events like the Cotton Stakes Classic Open and the Augusta Classic Open. He is the sire of foals like 2012 NCHA Futurity Open Co-Champion CR Tuff Hearted Cat. Dontt Happen Twice was the 2018 Abilene Spectacular Open Co-Reserve Champion. She is the dam of Dont Stopp Twice and he is the first of two foals out of her and the only one to show at this point.

As you see, Dont Look Twice is both the paternal and maternal grand dam of Dont Stopp Twice. This gives Dont Stopp Twice a 2 x 2 breeding pattern to Dont Look Twice, the EquiStat all-time leading money-winning cutting mare with earnings of $850,638. She was the 2011 NCHA Open Horse of the Year, the 2010 NCHA Super Stakes Open Co-Champion and an AQHA World Champion Junior Cutting Horse and Senior Cutting Horse. Dont Look Twice is the dam of horses with EquiStat earnings of $895,470; her leading money winner is Dont Stopp Believin. Her foals also include Dont Look For Troubl, winner of the 2022 Abilene Spectacular Derby Open, and Dont Look Now, winner of the NCHA Summer Spectacular Classic/Challenge Non-Pro Championship.

Tapt Twice( by Dual Pep) is the dam of Dont Look Twice. She was the 2004 NCHA Classic Non-Pro Reserve Champion. Her earnings were $285,226. She is the dam of horses that have EquiStat earnings of $1,536,037, including Dont Look Twice, as well as Tapt Out, a Tunica Classic OpenCo-Reserve Champion; Twice Is Right a PCCHA Futurity Non-Pro Champion and Reyz Me Twice, winner of the Southern Cutting Futurity Open.

Tap O Lena (Doc O’Lena x Tapeppyoka Peppy x Mr San Peppy) is the dam of Tapt Twice. She earned $502,145. She was the 1994 NCHA Super Stakes Open Champion, the 1994 NCHA Derby Non-Pro Champion, the 1995 NCHA Classic Challenge Open Champion, the 1995 NCHA Classic Challenge Non-Pro Champion, the 1996 NCHA Super Stakes Open Classic Challenge Champion and the 1996 NCHA Super Stakes Non-Pro Classic Champion. The foals of Tap O Lena have earned $640,121, including Lahaina Lena, a Bonanza Open Classic Reserve Champion. Tapeppyoka Peppy, the dam of Tap O Lena, is the winner of $123,555, earning the NCHA Bronze and Silver Awards. This mare carried Phil Rapp to his first AQHA Youth World Championship in cutting.

THE FORMULA ONE BREEDING PATTERN

The appearance of Dont Look Twice in the tail-female line of the sire and dam of Dont Stopp Twice takes us to The Formula One Breeding Pattern. This pattern appears when a sire and dam have the same tail-female line and they are mated producing a foal. They trace in that line to the same taproot mare or foundation mare. In this case, the taproot mare is Tap O Lena.

The Formula One Breeding Pattern is like all pedigree patterns. It has a genetic basis to it and how that influences the foals born. The most significant has to do with the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and how it is carried down through the generations to the foals. The mitochondria are the part of the cell that is located outside the cell nucleus that produces cellular energy for the cells to function.

The mtDNA is the source of genetic information that runs the workings of the mitochondria. We all inherit our mtDNA from our mothers, allowing the passage of this material through the tail-female line. The mtDNA the individual inherits from the sire is not active in the next generation. It is lost or overshadowed by the mare’s mtDNA. This phenomenon gives the individual a unique tie to its dam and the tail-female line.

This breeding pattern allows the breeder to keep the tail-female line of his stallion in the foals that stallion sires — keeps it in the family so to speak. This is interesting, because the stallion also contributes his Y chromosome to the individual produced. Thus, a colt born with this pattern will recombine the Y gene of the sire with his tail-female line that would be lost. This is another step we can use to put together as many of the genes we want to duplicate from the common ancestor in our linebreeding effort.

Another factor in linebreeding using The Formula One Breeding Pattern is that it allows the breeder the opportunity to line breed to an outstanding mare line, which allows the duplication of genes other than the mitochondria. Thus, this increases the chance of duplicating genes from the common ancestor in that line as an influence on the foal produced.

There is a lot of ongoing research into how the mitochondria influences an athlete both human and animal, and they have found a number of factors, but they haven’t settled on the exact reason for how it influences the foal. But it is obvious that it plays a role. We see that when we look at the tail-female line in the sale catalog that profiles the female family of the horse we are looking at. We see a lot of great mares influence our horses through the tail-female line.

We see it in Dont Stopp Twice and his success as the 2022 NCHA Non-Pro Horse of the Year and the utilization of The Formula One Breeding Pattern to give him the mare line founded by Tap O Lena. It keeps that line of mares in the family.