The first North American Grade 1 was contested of the year on an otherwise light weekend of stakes action and the Southern California fixture was dominated by daughters of champion and Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense.
Spendthrift Farm’s Street Sense filly Callback took the early initiative and never looked back in Saturday’s Grade 1 Las Virgenes at Santa Anita Park. Callback held off another daughter of Street Sense, Light the City, to score by a half-length in the 1-mile event.
Street Sense, who stands at Darley in Lexington, has had limited success with the A.P. Indy influence until now, but both fillies feature the 1992 Horse of the Year and Belmont Stakes winner prominently in their pedigrees.
Callback is out of the Forest Wildcat mare Quickest and her dam is the A.P. Indy daughter Supercharger, who is also the dam of 2010 Kentucky Derby winner and emerging second-crop sire Super…
The first North American Grade 1 was contested of the year on an otherwise light weekend of stakes action and the Southern California fixture was dominated by daughters of champion and Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense.
Spendthrift Farm’s Street Sense filly Callback took the early initiative and never looked back in Saturday’s Grade 1 Las Virgenes at Santa Anita Park. Callback held off another daughter of Street Sense, Light the City, to score by a half-length in the 1-mile event.
Street Sense, who stands at Darley in Lexington, has had limited success with the A.P. Indy influence until now, but both fillies feature the 1992 Horse of the Year and Belmont Stakes winner prominently in their pedigrees.
Callback is out of the Forest Wildcat mare Quickest and her dam is the A.P. Indy daughter Supercharger, who is also the dam of 2010 Kentucky Derby winner and emerging second-crop sire Super Saver.
Light the City, previously the winner of the Anoakia Stakes in late 2014, is out of the A.P. Indy mare Light From Above.
Street Sense has now sired 24 North American stakes winners and Call Back and Light the City are first two out of dams showing A.P. Indy anywhere in their pedigrees.
Curlin’s surge over the second half of 2014 carried him to the top of the year’s third-crop sire list. The Smart Strike stallion continued on through the opening month of 2015 with a pair of new 3-year-old stakes horses, including the highly promising Ocean Knight.
Gusty winner of Saturday’s Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in his second start, the unbeaten Ocean Knight is the 15th stakes winner from Curlin’s first two crops and his third graded stakes winner. The colt is out of a mare by the Storm Cat son Stormy Atlantic, the 13th such black-type winner.
Curlin, who stands at Lane’s End in Versailles, Ky., has three additional stakes winners out of direct Storm Cat mares, all listed winners. Also worth noting is that the first graded winner by another young son of Smart Strike, Lookin At Lucky, is also out of a Storm Cat daughter. Smart Strike himself is the sire of six stakes winners, four graded stakes winners and Grade 1 winners My Miss Aurelia (an Eclipse Award winner) and Streaming out of daughters and granddaughters of Storm Cat.
Ocean Knight is one of a dozen 2015 Triple Crown nominees for Curlin.
Another is Measured (dam by Gilded Time), runner-up in Laurel Park’s Frank J. Whiteley Jr. Stakes Jan. 29 in his third career outing.
We all know that Tapit has clearly established himself as North America’s premier sire and about all that’s left for the son of Pulpit to do is secure himself as a sire of sires. Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm’s Concord Point is doing his part so far.
The winner of the Grade 2 West Virginia Derby in 2010 was represented by his third stakes winner last week when Arctic Ocean sailed down the lane to gain a neck victory in the filly division of the $100,000 OBS Championship Stakes. The 3-year-old filly is out of a mare by the Storm Bird stallion Ocean Crest with a third dam by Crimson Satan. That means Arctic Ocean’s dam is bred along similar lines to Storm Cat (by Storm Bird, second dam by Crimson Satan) who has been such a key ancestor for Tapit so far.
The Florida-based Two Step Salsa made headlines last spring when his striking son, the late Dance with Fate, won the Grade 1 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland in stylish fashion. He now has another exciting runner in Conquest Two Step, who is emerging as a force in the West Coast sprint division. Beaten only a neck by champion Shared Belief in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes Dec. 26, Conquest Two Step defeated former Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Secret Circle in the Jan. 31 Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes. The 4-year-old colt is out of a mare by Pioneering, a Mr. Prospector half-brother to Storm Cat. So Two Step Salsa’s first crop of just 52 foals has now yielded a pair of graded stakes winners and Grade 1 performers.
Two Step Salsa stands at Get Away Farm, also the owner of his latest stakes horse, Two Step Temper (dam by Temperence Hill). The 3-year-old was second behind runaway winner The Great War (by War Front) in the $69,345 96Rock Stakes at Turfway Park.
Two Step Salsa is a son of the Seeking the Gold stallion Petionville, who now stands in Maryland after many productive years at Crestwood Farm in Lexington. While the Seeking the Gold grandson Dubawi is one of Europe’s very best stallions, Two Step Salsa (and perhaps Conquest Two Step) may the last, best hope to keep the Seeking the Gold branch of the Mr. Prospector sire-line alive in North America.
There were 24 black-type stakes events around North America last weekend and the progeny of white-hot Central Kentucky sire Medaglia d’Oro won three of them.
A stakes winner in 2013 and a graded stakes winner last season, Micromanage got the ball rolling for his sire during the Jan. 19 Martin Luther King Jr. holiday card at Aqueduct. He gutted out a three-quarter length victory in the $100,000 Jazil Stakes, named after Shadwell Farm’s late 2006 Belmont Stakes winner. Micromanage, a newly turned 5-year-old owned by Repole Stable and trained by Todd Pletcher, is out of a mare by Flying Paster.
Five days later it was Lochte, another son of Medaglia d’Oro, who got his picture taken after the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. Out of a mare by Lemon Drop Kid, Lochte became one of his sire’s 11 Grade 1 winners with his upset score in last year’s Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap. The Tampa Bay Stakes is his third overall stakes victory and second at the graded level.
Medaglia d’Oro’s latest stakes winner is Exodus, who led the field home in last Saturday’s Allen’s Landing Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park. The Allen’s Landing was the stakes debut for the 3-year-old colt out of the Grade 1-winning Cure the Blues mares Stop Traffic. If the pedigree looks familiar it’s because Stop Traffic is already the dam of 2013 Whitney Invitational Handicap winner Cross Traffic to the cover of Unbridled’s Song.
Medaglia d’Oro is also the sire of two another January stakes winners, Notte d’Oro, winner of the Jan. 17 Marie G. Krantz Memorial Handicap at Fair Grounds and Mshawish, victor in the Grade 2 Ft. Lauderdale Stakes Jan. 10. Notte d’Oro is out of a mare by Gulch, the maternal grandsire of Mshawish, who is out of a daughter of Thunder Gulch. Medaglia d’Oro’s first Grade 1 winner, Passion for Gold, is out of a Thunder Gulch mare as well.
For those scoring at home, that’s five North American stakes winners already in 2015 for the Darley stallion (and six if you count Monday’s Australian Grade 3 winner.).
Gainesway‘s Tapit, North America’s leading sire in 2014, currently ranks second with a trio of early-year stakes winners. His 2014 Monmouth Oaks winner Cassatt, who is out of a daughter of Giant’s Causeway, earned her fourth career stakes trophy in Saturday’s $400,000 Sam Houston Ladies Classic Stakes. A week prior, Mufajaah got her first stakes victory in the $100,000 Pippin Stakes at Oaklawn Park. Both are out of granddaughters of Storm Cat and Tapit has now sired at least 10 stakes winners out of Storm Cat-line mares (eight graded, three Grade 1s).
Lane’s End‘s Candy Ride sired his first two stakes winners of 2015 last Saturday, both with similar pedigree elements. His 4-year-old daughter Sugar Shock shrugged off a seven-wide excursion to win the $100,000 American Beauty Stakes at Oaklawn. The race is one of the early season features in Hot Springs, Ark., where Sugar Shock won the 2014 edition of Grade 3 Fantasy Stakes en route to an eighth-place run in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks. She’s out of mare by Distorted Humor, a son of the Mr. Prospector stallion Forty Niner out a mare by Danzig. Sugar Shake is among Candy Ride’s two stakes winners from seven starters out of Distorted Humor daughters, with listed stakes winner Mr. Jawbreaker the other.
Candy Ride’s latest stakes winner, Dubai Sky, is out of a mare who is herself bred on the Mr. Prospector-Danzig cross. Her dam is by the late Juddmonte Farms Mr. Prospector stallion Chester House out of a daughter of Danzig. Dubai Sky took down the $100,000 Kitten’s Joy Stakes over the Gulfstream Park grass course for his third consecutive score. The full brother to Grade 1 winner Twirling Candy is his sire’s 43rd stakes winner from 526 starters, an 8.2 percent strike rate.
Barbados, a son of WinStar Farm‘s Speightstown, is the first multiple stakes winner of 2015. Winner of the Spectacular Bid Stakes on New Year’s Day, he doubled down with an odds-on tally in Saturday’s Grade 3 Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream. The 3-year-old is Speightstown’s 63rd stakes winner and 25th at the graded level. He’s also the 12th stakes winner out of a mare by Street Cry.
The Eclipse Awards were handed out on a glitzy Saturday night at Gulfstream Park and several stallions were represented by their first North American champions.
Take Charge Brandi was named champion 2-year-old filly after a late-season graded stakes triple. It’s hard to believe but she’s the first Eclipse Award champion by Ashford Stud’s Giant’s Causeway, owner of three North American sire titles.
Giant’s Causeway is much like his own sire, Storm Cat, in this respect.
As many top horses as the great Overbook Farm stallion sired, only his daughters Storm Flag Flying (2002 2-year-old filly) and Sweet Catomine (2004 2-year-old filly) were Eclipse Award winners.
On the other side of Take Charge Brandi’s pedigree we find a little more Eclipse success. She’s out of a Seeking the Gold sister to 2013 champion 3-year-old Will Take Charge and is the fifth Eclipse Award winner out of a mare by Seeking the Gold. That puts the son of Mr. Prospector in a tie with another former Claiborne Farm stalwart, Nijinsky II, for most all-time as a broodmare sire.
City Zip’s big Breeders’ Cup weekend translated into his first Eclipse successes.
A pair of runners by the Lane’s End stallion took home hardware Saturday – Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf heroine Dayatthespa and Xpressbet Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Work All Week.
City Zip is the 12th sire with two individual Eclipse Award champions in the same year following his grandsire Mr. Prospector (1982), Seattle Slew (1984), Cox’s Ridge (1985), Nureyev (1987), Alydar (1988), Deputy Minister (1989), Seeking the Gold (1994), Cee’s Tizzy (2001), Sadler’s Wells (2003), Saint Ballado (2005) and Smart Strike (2007).
Two other prominent Central Kentucky stallions were represented by their first Eclipse Award champions in 2014 – City Zip’s half-brother Ghostzapper (Judy the Beauty, female sprinter) and second-crop sensation Pioneerof the Nile (American Pharaoh, 2-year-old male).
WinStar Farm’s Pioneerof the Nile started to emerge about this time last year with Triple Crown contenders Cairo Prince, Vinceremos and Social Inclusion. He has one of the early favorites for the 2015 classics in American Pharoah.
A son of Empire Maker, Pioneerof the Nile finished last season as North America’s leading second-crop sire and has an additional runner on the 2015 Kentucky Derby trail after Pioneerof the West ran third in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes Jan. 10 at Santa Anita Park.
American Pharoah (dam by Yankee Gentleman) and Pioneerof the West (Forestry) are out of granddaughters of Storm Cat. Empire Maker also had good success with the Storm Cat line, siring the likes of Grade 1 winners Bodemeister and In Lingerie out of Storm Cat daughters and Grade 2 winner Magical Feeling out of a mare by Forestry.
Champion older female Close Hatches broke the Eclipse Award maiden for Juddmonte Farm’s First Defence, a close relative to Empire Maker. A five-time Grade 1 winner in her career, Close Hatches is also out of a Storm Cat daughter. Storm Cat now has one more Eclipse Award champion as a broodmare sire than he did as a sire (2004 champion sprinter Speightstown and 2013 champion 2-year-old mare Shared Belief are the others).
Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male California Chrome is also the first champion for his sire, the California-based Lucky Pulpit, and his pair of 2014 titles makes it two straight years, and three of the past four, that a California-bred has earned hardware at the Eclipse Awards ceremony.
Acclamation (by Unusual Heat) parlayed wins in the Grade 1 Eddie Read Handicap and Grade 1 Pacific Classic Stakes into a 2011 older male championship. In 2013, the ill-fated Pointsoff the Bench (by Benchmark) got the nod as champion male sprinter after a pair of California Grade 1 victories.
Tapit and Elusive Quality were represented by their third Eclipse Award champions, respectively, Saturday night.
Untapable, the unanimous choice for 3-year-old filly, joins Hansen (2011 2-year-old male) and Stardom Bound (2008 2-year-old filly) as champions by her prolific sire. Elusive Quality is the sire of 2014’s champion steeplechase horse Demonstrative to go along with Smarty Jones (2004 3-year-old male) and Maryfield (2007 female sprinter).
Smart Strike remains the active leading Eclipse Award sire with four.
Today’s stallions have a lot of work to do to even approach Smart Strike’s sire, Mr. Prospector, the sire of 10 Eclipse Award champions.
A pair of promising young stallions were represented by their first stakes winners last weekend, while some veteran sires continued their 2014 success into the New Year.
With 20 first-crop winners and five stakes-placed runners in 2014, it was only a matter of time before the sons and daughters of Majesticperfection started earning stakes trophies. That time came on the second day of 2015 when Majestic Affair rolled home in the $100,000 Frank “Cappy” Capossela Stakes on the Aqueduct inner track. The well-traveled gelding was making his fifth career start over on a fifth racetrack and was coming off of a runner-up finish in Laurel Park’s James F. Lewis III Stakes in mid-November. He’s out of a mare by Blumin Affair, a member of the late, great Dynaformer’s very first crop foaled back in 1991.
Majesticperfection, a son of Harlan’s Holiday, stands for $10,000 at Airdrie Stud in Midway, Kentucky.
With a second-place run in the House Party Stakes in late November, Ekati’s Phaeton became Tale of Ekati’s first black-type runner. With a gutsy win in the Jan. 3 Old Hat Stakes the 3-year-old filly is now her sire’s first stakes winner and first graded stakes winner. She’s out of a mare by Capote, a cross that’s already been quite successful.
Daughters of Capote have also produced Grade 1 winner Cat Moves, by Tale of Ekati’s sire Tale of the Cat, and Grade 1 Arkansas Derby winner Line of David, by another Tale of the Cat son, Lion Heart. Capote is also the damsire of the winner of the last Futurity of 2014, the Louisiana Futurity Dec. 30 at Fair Grounds. That race fell to Cook Some Rice, a son of the Unbridled’s Song stallion Half Ours, also sire of the third-place finisher in the race, Slowpoke Sam. Capote daughters have now produced a total of 93 black-type winners.
Tale of Ekati stands for $15,000 at Darby Dan Farm in Lexington.
Unbridled’s Song was all over stakes pedigrees during the first weekend of 2015.
His newly turned 3-year-old daughter Devine Aida made it three wins in a row when she captured Gulfstream Park’s Ginger Brew Stakes by 3 1/2 lengths in her stakes debut. She’s out of a mare by the Gone West son Came Home and is the latest black-type product of the sneaky good Unbridled’s Song-Gone West cross that’s responsible for at least seven other stakes winners, five of them graded winners, including Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Ria Antonia.
If the overall success of the producing daughters of Unbridled’s Song is any indication, Devine Aida has a very promising second career on the horizon. The dam sire of Grade 1 winner Carpe Diem, by Giant’s Causeway, along with quintet of Grade 2 winners last year, Unbridled’s Song mares have picked right up where they left off in 2015.
One of those 2014 Grade 2 winners, Kentucky Jockey Club victor El Kabeir, outclassed his rivals Jan. 3 in Aqueduct’s Grade 3 Jerome Stakes. That same afternoon in Florida, Bluegrass Singer hit all the right notes in the Mucho Macho Man Stakes. Both are by Storm Cat-line stallions, bringing the total of stakes winners on this cross to at least 19 (13 graded).
El Kabeir is one of 12 Northern Hemisphere graded winners by Ashford Stud’s Scat Daddy, a son of the Storm Cat grandson Johannesburg. Bluegrass Singer is the 23rd Northern Hemisphere stakes winner for the Storm Cat son Bluegrass Cat, who will stand the 2015 season at Ballena Vista Farm after stints at WinStar Farm in Kentucky and Rockridge Stud in New York.
Giant’s Causeway also continued his hot streak on both sides of the New Year.
The Ashford Stud stalwart added a 22nd stakes winner to his 2014 scorecard Dec. 30 when Praetereo crossed the wire first in Valley Forge Stakes at Parx Racing. It was the first career stakes winner for the then 6-year-old who is out of a mare by the recently repatriated Silver Charm.
After the ball dropped in Times Square it took just about 63 hours for Giant’s Causeway to sire his first stakes winner of 2015, and a graded winner at that.
Night Prowler got the half-length victory in the Grade 3 Dania Beach Stakes one of the features on the first Saturday of the year card at Gulfstream. The 3-year-old Chad Brown pupil is the first Giant’s Causeway stakes winner from three starters out of mares by More Than Ready.
Crestwood Farm’s promising first-crop stallion Tizdejavu got on the board with his first stakes winner and Medaglia d’Oro was represented by a pair of stakes winners last weekend.
Tizdejavu’s Tizgorgeous capped off a seven-race juvenile campaign with a score in the $68,225 Pat Whitworth Illinois Debutante last Saturday at Hawthorne Race Course. Along with being her sire’s first stakes winner, she’s the 10th stakes winner out of a mare by Siphon. Other good runners out of Siphon daughters include 2014 multiple Grade 1 winner Private Zone (by Macho Uno).
Tizdejavu is perhaps the best turf runner to date sired by Tiznow with a quartet of grassy graded stakes wins on his resume. He’s the sire of five other winners from his first 12 starters through Tuesday.
Along with Super Saver, Lookin At Lucky is the first crop co-leader with four stakes winners. One of those, Good Luck Gus is now a multiple stakes winner after a victory from post 11 in Sunday’s $100,000 Damon Runyon Stakes at Aqueduct. Also the winner of the rich New York Breeders’ Futurity in early October at Finger Lakes, Good Luck Gus is out of a mare by Deputy Minister and is one of at least 14 stakes winners bred on the highly-successful Smart Strike/Deputy Minister cross.
Smart Strike, himself, is the sire of six graded winners out of daughters and granddaughters of Deputy Minister, including two-time Horse of the Year Curlin. Lookin At Lucky is the third Smart Strike son with a stakes winner on the cross. Curlin has sired a pair of stakes winners out of mares by the Deputy Minister sons Awesome Again and Silver Deputy, respectively. Calumet Farm’s English Channel has sired the multiple graded winner Heart to Heart out of a Silver Deputy mare and a pair of graded winners out of mares by Deputy Minister, including 2014 Travers hero V. E. Day.
Ashford Stud’s Lookin At Lucky was also represented by his first Grade 1 performer last Saturday when Maybellene (dam by Giant’s Causeway) finished third in the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos. Lookin At Lucky’s first graded stakes winner, Grade 3 Iroquois winner Lucky Player is out of a mare by Giant’s Causeway’s sire, Storm Cat.
Darley’s Medaglia d’Oro was the only North American stallion with multiple stakes winners last weekend. Mshawish is now a stakes winner in three countries after a 2-length tally in the $100,000 El Prado Stakes Saturday at Gulfstream Park. The 4-year-old was a listed winner in France last year and took the Group 2 Zabeel Mile at Dubai’s Meydan racecourse earlier this season. He’s one of two graded winners by Medaglia d’Oro out of Thunder Gulch mares (from 10 starters) with the other being French Group 1 winner Passion for Gold.
Micromanage is Medaglia d’Oro’s only starter out of a mare by Flying Paster and he earned his fourth stakes win in the $100,000 Queens County Stakes Saturday at Aqueduct. Racing in the colors of Repole Stables, the 4-year-old has also earned trophies in the Grade 3 Skip Away and Birdstone in 2014 and the 2013 Long Branch.
Sequel Stallions New York‘s Freud made last week’s Breeding Watch post as the broodmare sire of two new juvenile stakes winners Dec. 6. Eight days later, his newest stakes winner, Freudie Anne, emerged with a dominant performance in the $100,000 East View Stakes in New York. The Eddie Kenneally-trained filly rolled to a 9 3/4-length victory for her third win in four career starts. She is also the first stakes winner out of a mare by the Grade 1-winning Awesome Again son Toccet.
Freudie Anne is her sire’s 38th lifetime stakes winner from 427 starters, a very impressive 8.8 percent strike rate. With more than $4.4 million in 2014 progeny earnings, Freud is poised to earn his second title as New York’s leading sire.
Northview Stallion Station’s Not For Love has been a perennial leading sire for more than a decade and the veteran son of Mr. Prospector showed no signs of slowing down with a stakes trifecta Dec. 6.
Not for Love’s gallant 8-year-old Eighttofasttocatch closed out a magnificent 47-start career with his fourth consecutive score in the Jennings Handicap at Laurel Park. The victory put the gelding over the $1 million mark in career earnings, the first son or daughter of Not For Love to reach seven figures. Eighttofasttocatch retires with 12 stakes victories.
While Eighttofasttocatch will enjoy his golden years as a show horse, Not For Love’s next star just might be a 2-year-old colt named Golden Years. The West Virginia-bred rolled by 7 1/4 lengths in the $100,000 Marylander Stakes Saturday at Laurel card to earn his second stakes trophy in his first four starts. He is the second stakes winner by Not For Love out of a mare by Oh Say, from nine starters.
Down in South Florida, Loverbil became Not For Love’s 79th stakes winner with his tally in the Claiming Crown Express Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The 5-year-old holds an interesting pedigree as he’s out of a daughter of Polish Numbers, a former Not for Love barnmate at Northview and a product of the same Phipps-curated female family. Polish Numbers (by Danzig) is out of the Buckpasser mare Numbered Account while Not For Love is out of Numbered Account’s daughter Dance Number.
Loverbil is Not For Love’s third stakes winner out of a Polish Numbers mare and his fourth overall stakes winner inbred to Numbered Account. There are now a total of 16 stakes winners showing a double of the great mare, who traces back to the legendary La Troienne.
This trio of stakes winners are among the nine sired by Not For Love this year and he’s about to capture his 10th championship as Maryland’s leading sire since 2003.
The surging first-crop sire Munnings enjoyed a very good Saturday as well with a pair of stakes winners.
Lake Sebago (dam by the El Prado son Borrego) came from off the pace to earn her second straight stakes win in the $100,000 Gin Talking Stakes at Laurel. At Tampa Bay Downs, it was Catalina Red scoring in the $100,000 Inaugural Stakes. The chestnut colt entered the contest a maiden after three starts but more than proved he belonged, romping by 7 1/4 lengths. He’s out of a mare by Giant’s Causeway’s full brother Freud and is the 28th stakes winner inbred to Storm Cat. Four of the others are by Munnings’ sire Speightstown, who’s out of the Storm Cat mare Silken Cat.
Munnings sired 24 first-crop winners through Wednesday and was tied for the lead in North America with his mate in the Ashford Stud barn, champion and classic winner Lookin At Lucky. He ranks just behind that one and WinStar Farm’s Super Saver with three first-crop stakes winners.
Catalina Red is actually one of two new juvenile stakes winners out of mares by Freud Saturday. Across the continent at Golden Gate Fields it was Stand and Salute standing in the winner’s enclosure after the $75,210 Gold Rush Stakes. The Jerry Hollendorfer trainee was bred in Florida and is by the A.P. Indy stallion Saint Anddan. There are now four stakes winners from the first 49 starters out the Freud daughters (8 percent stakes winners from starters) with the others being by Bustin Stones (by City Zip) and Stroll (by Pulpit), an A.P. Indy grandson.
The two North American graded races over the weekend both fell to first-time graded stakes winners.
The Grade 2 Bayakoa Stakes at Los Alamitos was taken down by the up-and coming Midnight Lute filly Tiz Midnight. She’s the 12th stakes winner and sixth graded winner for the Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms-based third crop son of Real Quiet. She’s also the third graded stakes winner out of a mare by Tiznow in 2014 after Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks winner Personal Diary (by City Zip) and Grade 3 Schuylerville winner Fashion Alert (by Old Fashioned).
Airdrie Stud’s Istan (by Gone West) has but 59 starters in his first four crops but Turkish makes it four stakes winners from that group, all of them graded (6.7 percent stakes winners from starters). The 5-year-old helped close out the Woodbine season by winning Sunday’s Grade 3 Valedictory Stakes going 14 furlongs on the Polytrack. Out of a mare by Pleasant Tap, he’s at least the ninth stakes winner bred on the larger Gone West/Pleasant Colony cross.
Tapit has been hogging headlines all year, Giant’s Causeway has been especially hot in recent weeks and Unbridled’s Song has emerged as an elite broodmare sire. Those three trends continued over a stakes-packed Thanksgiving weekend in North America.
Ashford Stud’s Giant’s Causeway capped off a stellar November with two more new graded stakes winners, giving him a total of five stakes winners (four graded) for the month.
Distance specialist Red Rifle struck Nov. 29 in the 10-furlong Grade 2 Hawthorne Gold Cup and Big Cazanova came home first in Del Mar’s Grade 3 Native Diver Stakes.
Red Rifle is Giant’s Causeway’s second black-type winner out of a mare by Gulch and he’s sired at least four others black-type winners out of Gulch granddaughters that include a German Group 1 winner out of a mare by Torrential and three stakes winners out of mares by Thunder Gulch.
Big Cazanova is out of a mare by Morning Bob, a son of Blushing Groom and also Giant’s Causeway’s maternal grandsire (so a Blushing Groom double at 3×4). The Argentine-bred is the 12th Giant’s Causeway stakes winner out of a mare showing Blushing Groom within four generations and there are now a total of 109 stakes winners inbred to Blushing Groom.
Big Cazanova and Red Rifle give Giant’s Causeway a total of 13 graded stakes winners in 2014, tops among North American stallions and one ahead of Tapit.
Gainesway Farm’s Tapit didn’t yield the lead in graded stakes winners quietly.
Cassatt, winner of the Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks during warmer days, kicked off her sire’s big week by shipping West to get the money in the $300,000 Zia Park Oaks Nov. 26. Three days later, two more Tapit fillies, West Coast Belle and Snowbell, joined her among the ranks of graded stakes winners. West Coast Belle backed up her win in the listed Rags to Riches Stakes with a score in the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs.
In New York, Snowbell made a successful stakes debut in Aqueduct’s Grade 3 Comely Stakes. Cassatt (dam by Giant’s Causeway) and Snowbell (Storm Cat) are the latest examples of Tapit’s strong affinity for the Storm Cat broodmare line.
Tapit has how sired at least nine stakes winners out of daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters of Storm Cat. All but one of them are winners at the graded level, including a trio of Grade 1 winners.
The pedigree of West Coast Bell is a little more interesting.
She out of a mare by Unbridled’s Song, a son of Unbridled and also Tapit’s damsire (so Unbridled at 3×3). There are 10 starters so far on this direct cross with West Coast Belle the first stakes winner. West Coast Belle is the fourth overall black-type winner (and third of 2014) inbred to Unbridled within four generations. The Unbridled grandson Birdstone (by Grindstone) is the sire of two of the others, including 2014 Ontario Derby winner Florida Won.
West Coast Belle, along with El Kabeir and Decision Day, gave Unbridled’s Song three Nov. 29 stakes winners as a dam sire.
The Scat Daddy colt El Kabeir took the featured Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes during Churchill’s Stars of Tomorrow II card that also featured West Coast Belle’s Golden Rod victory. The colt is out of the unraced Unbridled’s Song daughter Great Venue and is only the third starter Scat Daddy has sired out of any granddaughter of Unbridled (all three are winners). Decision Day completed the trifecta for his broodmare sire when he won the $250,000 Coronation Futurity at Woodbine in his first stakes attempt.
Unbridled’s Song is now the dam sire of 17 stakes winners in 2014 and 76 black-type winners lifetime, or 6 percent from starters. Nine of those are winners at the highest level, including the 2014 Grade 1 winners Carpe Diem and Toho Jackal.
Decision Day also is the latest stakes winner by the Adena Springs stallion Macho Uno, who was also represented by Grade 1 Cigar Mile Handicap winner Private Zone Nov. 29. The latter is the third horse to win the Grade 1 Vosburgh and Cigar Mile in the same year, following the champions Kodiak Kowboy and Left Bank.
Claiborne Farm’s Flatter is another stallion with a pair of holiday weekend stakes winners.
Classic Point was the game winner of the Grade 3 Go For Wand Handicap Nov. 28 November 28 for her second stakes and first graded victory. The 4-year-old is out of a mare by the Danzig son Langfuhr and is Flatter’s fifth stakes winner (second graded) out of a Danzig-line mare.
Needmore Flattery has emerged as a star on the Ohio circuit over the past year. The 3-year-old filly added a sixth stakes win to her resume with a triumph in the Nov. 29 First Lady Stakes at the newly christened Mahoning Valley Racecourse. She’s out of a mare by the Afleet stallion Left Banker.
Flatter is the sire of 10 stakes winners in 2014, the second time in three years he’s reached double-digit stakes winners in a season.
Last week saw the end of the yearling sales season in North America and the release of the 2014 Jockey Club Report of Mares Bred. Let’s take a look at some figures and trends from the Jockey Club data followed by some insights on 2014 yearling averages.
Ramsey Farm’s Kitten’s Joy led all stallions with 204 mares bred in 2014. He was among a trio of stallions that bred over 200 mares along with Into Mischief (203 at Spendthrift Farm) and Scat Daddy (202 at Ashford Stud). A pair of Hill n’ Dale Farm stallions rank next: Midnight Lute (186 mares) and Violence (181 mares).
The latter was the most popular first year stallion in Kentucky this year and is among four new stallions that covered more than 150 mares. Spendthrift’s Flat Out covered 169 mares, Ashford’s Shanghai Bobby greeted 160 and WinStar Farm’s Overanalyze courted 151 dams. Animal Kingdom is right behind having covered 148 mares at Darley America after a busy Southern Hemisphere season in Australia.
Among stallions standing their second seasons Winstar’s Bodemeister retained his immense popularity. The speedy son of Empire Maker covered 176 mares, two more than his first year. Two Lane’s End Farm stallions, The Factor and Union Rags saw their book size increase as well. The Factor bred 151 mares in 2014, up from 135 in 2013 and Union Rags saw 141 mares, four more than last year.
Breeders apparently like what they see in the first foals by the third year stallions Uncle Mo and Gio Ponti. The former covered 166, mares a 28% increase from 2013 and Gio Ponti bred 154 in his third season, up from 113 last year (an increase of 38%)
Not surprisingly the most popular fourth year stallions can be found near the top of the freshman sire standings. Warrior’s Reward bred a crop-high 164 mares (166 last year) while Super Saver saw 154 mares, a 58% increase over the 97 mares he bred in 2013.
Curlin was among the biggest winners from last year covering 152 mares, 98 more than last season. That’s an increase of 181%, highest among Kentucky stallions that bred at least 20 mares in 2013. Claiborne Farm’s Stroll saw his book increase by 89% with Tale of the Cat (up 71%), Runaway and Hide (up 64%) and Artie Schiller (up 64%) rounding out the top five in percent increase of mares bred.
The three-day Fasig-Tipton Fall Yearling sale in Kentucky was the last major yearling showcase in America so we can safely crunch some numbers.
It’s certainly not surprising to see that Tapit finished the sales year tops among North American stallions with a 2014 yearling average of $611,125. That figure is buoyed by six seven figure youngsters, including a $2.2 million colt at Keeneland September, and is 49% higher than Tapit’s 2013 average.
Everyone wanted a War Front yearling in 2014 too. The Clairborne Farm-based son of Danzig is the only other stallion with a 2014 average over $400,000 and his $539,556 average is 40% higher than last year. Medaglia d’Oro ($337,550), Bernardini ($332,968) and Distorted Humor ($272,375) round out the top five by 2014 yearling average. It’s interesting to note that Bernardini’s 2015 service fee is dropping a bit from $100,000 to $85,000 even with his yearling average increasing 26% this year. On the other hand, his barn mate at Darley, Medaglia d’Oro, saw his 2014 yearling average dip by 11%, yet he’ll stand the 2015 season for $125,000, $25,000 more than 2014.
Five Kentucky stallions (who stood for $10,000 or more in 2014) saw their yearling averages increase by 50% or more over the past year. Kitten’s Joy leads this group with an average 76% higher than 2013 ($184,475, up from $104,451). 2014 freshman sire Majesticperfection doesn’t have a stakes winner yet but yearling buyers were sold on his second crop through the ring. His yearling average rose from $61,031 to $105,750, an increase of 73%. English Channel (55% increase), Flatter (54%) and Awesome Again (53%) are the other three big commercial winners this year.
We usually pick a horse from the previous weekend to highlight as our Horse of the Week. We went back a little further this week, to 1988 to be exact. Long before Zenyatta came to the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs in search of perfection, it was unbeaten Personal Ensign who provided as dramatic a finish to a horse race as you’ll ever see. And her impact on the Breeders’ Cup didn’t end there.
A product of the famed Ogden Phipps breeding program, Personal Ensign was dominant in a Maiden Special and the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park in the fall of 1986. She would have gone favored in that year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies but a fracture to her left hind pastern put those plans on ice and threatened to end her career.
The brave filly’s return to the races in September of 1987 helped put renowned equine surgeon Dr. Larry Bramlage on the map. She won her comeback, an allowance, along with the Rare Perfume Stakes (G2) and the Beldame Stakes (G1) over older mares. She didn’t even notice those five metal screws Dr. Bramlage had put in her pastern. With another Grade 1 secured, trainer Shug McGaughey elected to bypass a cross country trip to the 1987 Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park.
McGaughey’s patience was rewarded with a longer and more sensational 1988 campaign. She made her first start on May 15 in the Shuvee H. (G1) and won with her typical ease. Two more graded wins against females followed before a tilt against males in the Whitney H. (G1) at Saratoga. Only two dared face Personal Ensign that day, the tough gelding King’s Swan and the top sprinter/miler Gulch. An early afternoon monsoon turned the Saratoga strip into a lake and Personal Ensign seemed to struggle early on, a portent of things to come on Breeders’ Cup day. But she simply had more class than her male rivals and got to the wire first. Her record was now a perfect 10 for 10.
A filly named Winning Colors won the Kentucky Derby in 1988 and it was only a matter of time until she crossed paths with Personal Ensign. The showdown came in the one-mile Maskette Stakes (G1), now called the Go For Wand S. on September 10, 1988. In one of the greatest races nobody saw (attendance that day was under 10,000, no national TV) Personal Ensign and rider Randy Romero reeled in a loose-on-the-lead Winning Colors.
Personal Ensign added another Beldame win to her resume and brought a pristine 12 for 12 record into her final start, the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Winning Colors was there again too, along with Kentucky Oaks/Mother Goose/Coaching Club American Oaks winner Goodbye Halo.
The rains also came that Breeders’ Cup Saturday and Personal Ensign would have to conquer a sloppy track again to retire with a perfect record. I was at Saratoga the day Personal Ensign won the Whitney over that water-logged surface and I was half a country a way watching the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on TV. About half way through both races I said out loud:
“Uh oh.”
In both contests Personal Ensign just didn’t seem comfortable running over those soggy surfaces. But she was a champion and, watching the replays over a quarter of a century later, I almost get the sense she was using each stride early on to figure out how to navigate the slop. Each time her legs hit the soggy ground they gave her just a little more comfort and confidence. Or maybe she just couldn’t stand to see other horses in front of her. All I know is that it looked pretty hopeless at the top of the stretch in the Distaff. Winning Colors was rolling, Personal Ensign had put herself in the race but still had too much to do, still five lengths away. A gallant second or third on a track she hated would be her final salvo.
But no. She would dig deeper, stretch her stride to the limit, even if she felt like she was running on taffy. That that big gray Derby-winning filly is in front of me. And that’s not acceptable.
Personal Ensign got there first. I don’t know how. I still can’t tell who won when I watch that race but the photo tells the story: “Personal Ensign, you’re the first major runner to retire undefeated in 80 years.”
Personal Ensign was just as incredible in her second career and produced, among others, 1995 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner My Flag, who in turn is the dam of 2002 Juvenile Fillies heroine Storm Flag Flying. Not many other horses, male of female, have had a greater impact on racing’s Championship weekend. Or the thoroughbred breed for that matter.
Matt O'Neil Consulting 