War Horse Place | Heart Score

Heart Score

The Discovery of Kitalpha's Large Heart

Since the discovery of Secretariat's extraordinary heart, and before, horseman have been aware of the importance of cardiovascular capacity in race horse performance. Marianna Haun in her books "The X-Factor" has documented the relationship between inherited heart size and racing performance.

In deciding to purchase Kitalpha we had given no thought to the size of his heart. Our final decision was based primarily on his first crop performance, his pedigree, and the fact that his full brother, Kingmambo, was so successful at stud. Marianna Haun made us aware of the special heart possessed by Miesque, Kitalpha's and Kingmambo's dam. At Marianna's urging we agreed to have Dr. Fregin measure Kitalpha's heart on his next trip to Kentucky. Dr.Fregin and Marianna together knew that Kitalpha carried the great heart of Miesque. I reluctantly agreed to have Kitalpha's heart scored, and had no idea of the outcome and what might follow.

Dr Fregin and Marianna Haun have been students of the equine heart and race horse performance for nearly forty years. I have forgotten the day, but we were in Florida when they completed the evaluation of Kitalpha's heart. Dr Fregin called and informed us that Kitalpha's heart was the largest he has scored in his forty years of heart measurement work. Marianna Haun wrote:

"When we measured her son (Kitalpha son of Miesque) we found one of the most impressive ECG patterns we have ever

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seen. It had all of the elements of the Secretariat line ECG tracings. In our research we have found that the QRS wave of the ECG tracing is like a finger print for the X chromosome expressed. It is amazingly consistent. If a horse expresses the same heart as Secretariat, he or she will have a similar tracing and heart score. This is what Kitalpha had. It is a very dramatic tracing with all the elements we have found in the greatest of hearts and even more so. This is the heart of Papyrus, Forli, Special, Nureyev, and Miesque. It is as good as it gets."

Within a couple of months, armed with this knowledge, the owners of Kingmambo ordered Dr. Fregin to score the great sire's heart. The results were a duplicate of Kitalpha's score. Two sons from the great mare Miesque, with her great heart.