Extremely Rare 'Born Gray' Foal Stands Out At Shawhan Place

In Thoroughbreds, the gene that creates a gray coat must be passed down from a gray parent. All gray Thoroughbreds trace back to the Alcock Arabian - considered by some to be the unofficial fourth foundation sire of the breed - through an unbroken line of gray horses in their pedigree.

Breeders often have a good idea which foals will ultimately turn gray based on the color of their parents and subtle hints in the typical spots where a foal sheds their first coat, but even with two gray parents, there is almost always a transitional period in the coat color.

Frostine, the gray foal's mother, carries the trademark gray coat of her sire, as well as her grandsire Tapit. Frostine's dam, the Ghostzapper mare Haunted Heroine, is also gray.

Girvin, on the other hand, is a dark bay with no gray horses in his pedigree through the first four generations.

Dr. D. Phillip Sponenberg, a professor of pathology and genetics at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine who specializes in coat color genetics, had not come across another Thoroughbred that came out of the womb already gray-coated in his research. 

As such, Sponenberg did not have a genetics-based explanation for what might have caused this gray foal to skip ahead in her color development. However, he did note that the gray gene can be unpredictable in horses.

"I’m not all that surprised that this could occur from time to time, but it is unusual," Sponenberg said. "I don’t know of any other 'early' ones. There are few cases where horses did not turn gray until they were eight years old or so. Those passed the gray along more normally to their foals, adding to the confusion."

Schneider's other experience with a "born gray" foal was a Tapwrit colt later named Tapit Three Times, a 2021 foal who was bred by Shawhan Place, out of the dark bay Harlan's Holiday mare Sea Holiday. 

Tapit Three Times has become a solid runner for owner Robert Cotran and trainer Joseph Orseno, winning two out of four career starts and never finishing worse than second. Cotran claimed the colt following his first start.

"That colt was born so gray, by the time we took him to the sales as a yearling, he was a light silver at that point," Schneider said. 

Schneider expected a similar color journey for the latest member of the exclusive club.

"She's very pretty," she said. "By the time she's a yearling, she might be almost white."