Belcanto HB is a young stallion who came 4th in the 7yo final at the 2026 WBFSH Dressage Breeding Championships.
Sometimes we get lucky enough to see a pedigree with duplications within 6 generations which impart important lessons in building pre-potency into pedigrees, and in what mare lines are going to work best with a particular stallion.
Belcanto’s Pedigree – Benicio / Rascalino / Weltmeyer / Golfclub / Wendenburg/ Winnetou.
This horse is providing a blueprint on the best way to breed with Benicio and how to tap into his genetic strengths as well as highlighting pathways to build in new ones. Benicio and Rascalino, along with Weltmeyer are in fact the ideal marriage.
Both Benicio and Rascalino are out of Velten Third mares – another very useful and under utilised stallion. Velten Third unites the important TB sires Ticino / Alchimist and his dam line is a virtual who’s who of breed shaping stallions – Weltmeister, Wendekreis, and Wiesenbaum xx.
In Belcanto, daughters of Velten Third are seen at 3 x 4. Daughters of a sire are what is called a filly factor and in this pedigree position are excellent for performance. With all the focus placed on stallions and their sons, not much notice is taken of lines that only come in through daughters, but daughters of a sire in a pedigree are far more important than sons. Many of the horses we have looked into have daughters of a sire in the ideal position in the engine room. For instance, Secret Agent had daughters of De Niro at 5 x 2. Dynamite had two Sir Donnerhall and two Don Schufro daughters. Ready to Rumble had two De Niro daughters. Weihe’s Happiness has two Sir Donnerhall daughters.
There are also various female families at play both in Belcanto’s pedigree and others possible to build in with Benicio. Perhaps many breeders are unaware that Benicio’s tail female line is the World Cup family line. His 5th dam Lunenixe is grand dam of World cup I.
Having this on the dam line makes World Cup I and his siblings an ideal match for Benicio. Here, Weltmeyer brings in World Cup I on the 4th generation. And as if this wasn’t enough, Rascalino then brings in full brother World Cup III on the 5th generation and through a daughter which sex balances the line.
Full brothers are particularly powerful for stallions in terms of their producing power and in combination with their grand dam Lunenixe on the 6th generation – which can be seen on the tail female line of Benicio – this is bringing in three different progeny lines from the one mare – something very rare to see in hybrid horses comprised of many different breeds. This makes Lunenixe what is called a tap root mare. Lunenixe is by Lugano I and this line is reinforced three times throughout the pedigree which helps to amplify her genetics and bring more power to her line.
These siblings are positioned at 6 x 5 x 4 – right in the engine room of the pedigree where they have the highest likelihood that these close gene groupings will be transmitted to the progeny – in this case Belcanto.
It is also an example of what is meant by returning the best blood of his dam to the stallion, and stallions ‘have a great affinity for their female line.” (Ken Mclean). It is a feature often seen in top horses.
The other vital element here is that being on the tail female line of Benicio, this brings into play the likelihood of inheriting valuable mitochondrial DNA from this superior dam line. Mitochondrial DNA only passes on the tail female line of the mare – never from the stallion. It is responsible for the entire cellular and energy systems of the horse, and can be the key to elite performance and vitality. It is so important to keep recycling and reinforcing famous and top producing mare families, and this is an illustration of an ideal way to do this.
Reinforcing the tail female line of an important family by bringing in siblings related to that line is as good as it gets – it concentrates the genetic material of a top proven maternal family and increases the predictability and the expression of desirable traits. It also doubles the specific identical maternal haplotype, and concentrates nuclear genes (inherited from both parents) that have co-adapted to work in harmony with that particular mitochondrial DNA.
This is the most powerful element in Benicio’s pedigree and a study of his best progeny would reveal that many would have one of the World Cup brothers on the dam line.
There are many other factors in the pedigree as well. Some of these require going out to further generations on AllBreed Pedigree site.
It is common to find Rubinstein on the dam line for Benicio as it sex balances the Romadour II line seen at 4 x 6 here. Romadour II is mainly seen through his sons only.
Wendekreis is at 6 x 7 x 6 sex balanced.
Grande is 5 x 7 sex balanced
Pik Konig is at 6 x 7 sex balanced
Another female family opportunity presented by Benicio and shown in Belcanto is daughters of the mare Atlastaube – this occurs whenever Bolero and Grenadier appear in a pedigree together and these are at 7 x 7.
This pedigree is a great example for breeders in terms of sex balancing bloodlines, showing daughters of a sire in a prominent position, and it gives an example of returning the best blood of his dam to the stallion, with siblings built in from the same dam line. It demonstrates the line that mitochondrial DNA follows and is great example of a genetically compatible pedigree with balance and flow that is great for both performance and breeding and for both sexes.