by Alan Porter

Aldebaran is a sprinter/miler of Eclipse Award winning class. A horse who may well be the last top-class son of Mr. Prospector to retire to stud, he is out of a Champion racemare, who is a multiple grade one producer, and from the excellent family which descends from Aldebaran's fourth dam, Broodmare of the Year Best in Show (ancestress of at least eight stallions who have sired group or grade one winners).

Since Aldebaran is a Mr. Prospector son with only one distant strain of Northern Dancer (which will be in the fifth generation of his foals), he is an obvious mate for Northern Dancer line mares. Among the Northern Dancer strains which appear particularly promising are Storm Cat, Summer Squall, Danzig, Dixieland Band, Deputy Minister, Nijinsky II, Lyphard, El Gran Senor and Topsider.

The other male line which looks particularly outstanding here is Seattle Slew. The Mr. Prospector/Seattle Slew cross is becoming an extremely successful one, and Aldebaran is half-brother to two Seattle Slew line stakes winners.

Aldebaran should do well with mares which give inbreeding to Raise a Native and his genetic relative Alydar, a pattern which is becoming an increasingly successful source of stakes winners.

On a more outcrossed note, one could consider selected branches of the Ribot and Turn-to lines. Strains of Ribot which would appear to have particular promise include Graustark, His Majesty and Hoist the Flag. From the Turn-to line one would recommend mares descending from Cox's Ridge (particularly through Sultry Song and Out of Place) and Drone, and from the Hail to Reason branch of the Turn-to line, mares descending from Roberto and Halo.

Other strains which might be usefully combined with Aldebaran include those of Riverman, Fleet Nasrullah, and any additional sources of the War Admiral/La Troienne cross.