Family husky, not a thoroughbred of course (9)
I believe the answer is:
racehorse
'thoroughbred of course' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both animals as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'family husky not a' is the wordplay.
'family' becomes 'race' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'husky' becomes 'hoarse' (synonyms).
'not' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'hoarse' with 'a' taken out is 'horse'.
'race'+'horse'='RACEHORSE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for racehorse that I've seen before include "jumper?" , "Animal" , "runner" , "Steeplechaser, maybe" , "Arab possibly" .)