Of the 10 finalists in the North America Cup, seven are out of mares either by Abercrombie or one of his sons.

Another one has an Abercrombie mare as his second dam.

And the two remaining finalists were sired by a son and grandson of Abercrombie.

That says something about the influence of this extraordinary stallion, doesn’t it?

Abercrombie never raced in the North America Cup because it wasn’t started until after he’d been retired. I do recall seeing him race at Mohawk in early July of his sophomore season, one in which he won 22 of his 33 starts.

He won the race, but I do recall that the colt skipped offstride for a few steps near the 3/4-pole. You won’t find it on the charts, but take my word for it---Abercrombie was offstride for second.

In fact, I wasn’t too sure that my eyes weren’t deceiving me, so at a post-race soiree that night, I asked his trainer-driver, Glen Garnsey, if Abercrombie had indeed run for a few steps in the far turn. Garnsey nodded his head.

Still, the influence of Abercrombie in pacing pedigrees today is undeniable. It’s been said that access to Albatross mares helped make Abercrombie successful in the stud, but now Abercrombie is contributing to the success of others, particularly Western Hanover and sons. Let’s take a look at the dams of the NA Cup starters:

Dial Or Nodeal is out of an Abercrombie mare.

If I Can Dream, Well Said, Chasin Racin, and Millionaire Cam are all out of Artsplace mares.

OK Boromir is out of an Albert Albert mare and Mr Wiggles is out of a mare by Life Sign.

That accounts for seven of the 10 finalists. Annieswesterncard has an Abercrombie mare as his second dam.

That leaves two finalists. They are Art Colony by Artsplace and Keep It Real by Artsplace’s son Real Artist. The second dam of Keep It Real is by Bruce Gimble, a half-brother to Abercrombie.)

The dominant male line among NA Cup finalists is Western Hanover as the late champion sired three finalists and his sons Badlands Hanover, The Panderosa, and Western Ideal each sired one.