Breeding Watch – July 24

Posted on by DerbyMateo

It’s easy to take stallions like Lemon Drop Kid and Tale of the Cat for granted, but the last two weekends we were reminded that they’re still two of the most consistent and underrated sires and broodmare sires in North America.

Hangover Kid kicked off a sensational mini-run for Lemon Drop Kid when he earned his first graded stakes victory in the Grade 2 Bowling Green Handicap July 12 at Belmont Park. The 6-year-old horse is out of a mare by Rakeen, a Northern Dancer half-brother to Saint Ballado and Devil’s Bag, and he’s Lemon Drop Kid’s 33rd career graded stakes winner.

The following afternoon at Woodbine, Unspurned went gate-to-wire in the $250,000 Bison City Stakes, the second jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown for fillies. Unspurned is her sire’s 77th stakes winner and is out of a mare by the Storm Cat grandson Snow Ridge (by Tabasco Cat).

Fast-forward to July 19 and it was Aurelia’s Belle who received her second graded stakes trophy in the Grade 3 Arlington Oaks and Somali Lemonade who reached the highest level in the Grade 1 Diana Stakes at Saratoga. The latter makes it six Grade 1 winners for Lemon Drop Kid, who stands at the Farish family’s Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, and she’s on the verge of becoming his third millionaire.

Somali Lemonade is out of a mare bred Nureyev over Mr. Prospector, the reverse of the cross that produced Lemon Drop Kid’s sire Kingmambo. She’s among 11 Grade or Group 1 winners around the world that show a double of Nureyev and one of the five total Lemon Drop Kid stakes winners that show this pattern.

Lemon Drop Kid’s 2014 scorecard reads: nine stakes winners, six graded stakes winners and a No. 4 ranking on the North American general sire list. It’s worth noting that in addition to Unspurned, another three of these stakes winners are also out of Storm Cat-line mares: Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap winner Lemon Drop Dream is out of mare by Storm Cat while graded stakes winner Kid Cruz and listed winner Candy Kitty are both out of daughters of the Storm Cat son Tale of the Cat. In fact, of the five foals by Lemon Drop Kid out of Tale of the Cat mares, all are winners, three are stakes winners (two graded) plus an additional Grade 2-placed runner.

Tale of the Cat, who stands at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Versailles, also added another Grade 1 winner to his resume during Saratoga’s opening weekend.

Repole Stable’s Stopchargingmaria (out of a Montbrook mare) was already a three-time graded winner when she broke from the gate in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks July 19. When she crossed the wire 5 lengths ahead of Unbridled Forever, she became Tale of the Cat’s 10th lifetime Grade 1 winner. Stakes winner Unbridled Forever (by Unbridled’s Song), incidentally, is out of Lemon Drop Kid’s Kentucky Oaks winner Lemons Forever.

Tale of the Cat also figures prominently in the pedigrees of two big opening weekend winners across the country at Del Mar. His multiple Grade 1-winning son, Lion Heart, is the sire of Tom’s Tribute, who scored the Grade 1 Eddie Read Stakes July 20. The 4-year-old is the third Grade 1 winner for Lion Heart, who now stands in Turkey, and the sixth Grade 1 winner out of a mare by the late El Prado.

A day earlier down at old Del Mar, the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes fell to Istanford one of the 34 stakes winners so far out of mares by Tale of the Cat. Istanford is by the Airdrie Stud stallion Istan, a son of Gone West out of a mare by the Storm Bird stallion Bluebird. Tale of the Cat is a product of the reverse of this Mr. Prospector/Storm Bird cross and Istanford shows a double of Storm Bird at 4×4. She’s among the 77 stakes winners inbred to Storm Bird within four generations (3.5% from starters).

We saw Tiznow and Unbridled’s Song combine on a couple of stakes winners during the Opening Day card at Saratoga. Fashion Alert, by Unbridled’s Song’s very promising second crop son Old Fashioned, made it two stakes wins in two starts in Grade 3 Schuylerville Stakes. She’s the third graded stakes-winning filly this year for the Taylor Made Farm stallion who ranks as the third leading second-crop sire in North America. Fashion Alert is among the six stakes winners and three graded winners out of mares by WinStar Farm’s Tiznow.

Later that afternoon at the Spa, Tourist, by Tiznow out of an Unbridled’s Song mare, navigated his way to the winner’s circle for the Sir Cat Stakes. He’s the first stakes winner from five starters on this cross along and is Tiznow’s 52nd lifetime stakes winner and the 68th for the daughters of the late Unbridled’s Song.

(originally published on http://www.thisishorseracing.com)

Horse of the Week: Stopchargingmaria

Posted on by DerbyMateo

Owner Mike Repole has had good luck with at least two fillies named after his free-spending wife, Maria. The stakes winner Stopshoppingmaria earned nearly four times her $100,000 purchase price and ran second in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1).

Now comes Stopchargingmaria. This filly came to Repole Stables with a $220,000 price tag that now seems a bargain after her dominant score in the July 20 Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) at Saratoga. The three-year-old miss now has four graded wins and $1,054,000 in the bank.

Winning a prestigous two-turn Grade 1 like the CCA Oaks didn’t seem likely early on based on Stopchargingmaria’s pedigree. She’s a daughter of Tale of the Cat, a speedy son of Storm Cat who is more known for siring speedy and early-developing runners. Stopshoppingmaria doesn’t get any stamina from her immediate female line either as she’s a daughter of the good sprinter and sprint sire Montbrook. In the CCA Oaks she came home in a respectable :13 and earned a 92 Beyer Speed Figure. She may really need to channel her second and third damsires, Kris S. and Sir Ivor, to capture he next expected assignment, the mile and one quarter Alabama Stakes (G1) on August 16.

Once consisdered a ‘classic’ for three-year-old fillies, the Coaching Club American Oaks has been won by such greats as Chris Evert, Ruffian, Davona Dale and Mom’s Command when it was still run at a mile and a half at Belmont Park. Stopchargingmaria is the fourth winner of the CCA Oaks in it’s current incarnation as a nine furlong event at Saratoga. The past two winners, Questing and Princess of Sylmar, have both gone on to capture the Alabama, the long-time Saratoga fixture for two-turn sophomore fillies.

While Stopchargingmaria will likely never be considered in the same class as Ruffian and Chris Evert etc., she has more than done her part to help keep Repole Stables in the black and to keep her namesake shopping and charging.

(originally published on http://www.myfantasystable.com)

Breeding Watch, July 9

Posted on by DerbyMateo

Smart Strike owns two North American general sire titles and is the sire of more than 100 stakes winners, but the 22-year-old Mr. Prospector stallion isn’t done yet.

Smart Strike’s 3-year-old daughter Minorette (out of a dam by Sadler’s Wells) won the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational July 5, becoming her sire’s 14th Grade 1 winner. The newly reconfigured Oaks, formerly the Garden City Stakes, is a 10-furlong event on the grass and looking at Smart Strike’s pool of Grade 1 winners we find a remarkably diverse group.

The group features high-level juveniles like champions Lookin At Lucky and My Miss Aurelia, distance turf runners like champion English Channel, and sprinters and milers on dirt and turf like Fabulous Strike and Soaring Free. And of course Curlin, Horse of the Year at 3 and 4 and soon-to-be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Daughters of Smart Strike, who stands at the Farish family’s Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, are also doing well and produced two more stakes winners over the holiday weekend. The 3-year-old Stacked Deck won the Charlie Barley Stakes July 5 at Woodbine and the following afternoon, the 4-year-old Legacy was best in the Cypress Stakes at the inaugural Los Alamitos Thoroughbred meeting. Smart Strike now has 43 stakes winners as a broodmare sire, an impressive 8 percent from starters.

Stacked Deck helped keep his sire First Samurai one of the hottest sires in North America. He is one of two stakes winners in the first week of July for the Claiborne Farm-based son of Giant’s Causeway. The other, Grade 3 winner Northern Passion, annexed her fourth stakes victory in the Sweet Briar Too Stakes during the Canada Day program at Woodbine. Combined with a pair of new graded winners June 28, that’s four stakes winners now in seven days for First Samurai, three of them first-time stakes winners. He now has a total of eight stakes winners for 2014.

The late Pulpit stood alongside First Samurai at Claiborne and he also sired a pair of stakes winners on the Independence Day weekend here in the U.S., both bred on a familiar cross.

Mr Speaker is a member of Pulpit’s penultimate crop and added to his sire’s career Grade 1 tally by upsetting the Grade 1 Belmont Derby Invitational July 5. The Phipps-bred colt is out of a daughter of Unbridled, and the great Personal Ensign, and is the same cross that produced Grade 1 winner and super sire Tapit. Mr. Speaker is Pulpit’s 11th Grade 1 winner.

Pulpit’s Tea Time is out of a mare by the Unbridled son Empire Maker and she got her picture taken after the Beautiful Day Stakes July 3 at Delaware Park, her second straight stakes triumph. Pulpit has also sired the Grade 3 winner Super Ninety Nine out a mare by Unbridled’s Song and Pulpit’s son Sky Mesa has sired Grade 1 winners out of mares by both Unbridled (Sky Diva) and Unbridled’s Song (General Quarters).

Tea Time is the first stakes winner from 51 starters so far out of daughters of the excellent sire Empire Maker. Like Empire Maker, Henny Hughes now stands in Japan but his first stakes winner as a broodmare sire emerged over the weekend.

Highway Boss is the very first starter out a Henny Hughes mare and he took the Everett Nevin Stakes at the Oak Tree at Pleasanton meeting July 6. The 2-year-old gelding is the second juvenile stakes winner already this year by the Darley USA stallion Street Boss.

Distorted Humor is the broodmare sire of 30 black-type winners and two of them, both by Gone West-line stallions, added stakes victories July 5.

Heart Stealer, a graded stakes winner in 2013 and 2014, found the competition a little easier in the $75,000 Pasaena Stakes at Gulfstream Park. She’s by the top Gone West stallion Speightstown, a barnmate of Distorted Humor at WinStar Farm. That same afternoon in South Florida, C. Zee took the $90,000 Cherokee Run Stakes. The 3-year-old colt is the only stakes winner so far by the Louisiana-based Elusive Bluff, a son of the top Gone West stallion Elusive Quality.

Daughters of Arch have already produced important runners like 2012 champion and dual classic winner I’ll Have Another (by Flower Alley), champion Uncle Mo (by Indian Charlie) and Canadian Horse of the Year Uncaptured (by Lion Heart). Clearly Now might be next in line. The 4-year-old colt is now a three-time graded stakes winner after his scintillating score in the Grade 3 Belmont Sprint Championship July 5.

A lot of good runners have raced 7 furlongs at Belmont Park over the years but the track record for the distance now belongs to Clearly Now. He zipped in 1:19.96 and proved his is clearly the best runner so far by Claiborne Farm’s third-crop stallion Horse Greeley, a Grade 2-winning and Grade 1-placed son of Mr. Greeley. Overall, Arch is the broodmare sire of 17 stakes winners, a sterling 8 percent from starters.

(originally published on http://www.thisishorseracing.com)

Breeding Watch, July 2

Posted on by DerbyMateo

The biggest events on the Prairie Meadows Racetrack’s racing calendar were carded last weekend and the progeny of Claiborne Farm’s First Samurai brought home a pair of graded stakes trophies.

Both are new stakes winners and are closely related products of a rich female line and the hugely successful breeding partnership between Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider.

The 3-year-old First Samurai filly Size was up first, conquering last year’s adjudged Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) winner Ria Antonia in the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks. The victory made it three wins in four starts for the Bill Mott trainee. A little more than an hour later the 4-year-old gelding Carve gutted out a win in the Grade 3 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap for his first black-type win. The filly races for Claiborne-Dilschneider partnership, while Carve carries the colors of owner Michael Langford.

While there are more races to conquer for Size, her breeders are no doubt anxious to see what she can do in the breeding shed. She is the first stakes winner out of the mare Extent, a daughter of Pulpit, who is bred on the A.P. Indy-Mr. Prospector cross.

Extent is out of the mare Limit, a stakes winner and graded stakes-placed runner and dam of a pair of stakes winners/graded stakes-placed runners. More importantly, Limit is a daughter of Bound and a sister to the dam 2010 Breeders’ Classic winner Blame. By Nijinsky II, Bound is daughter of the appropriately named Special, also the dam of Nureyev and grandam of Sadler’s Wells.

Carve hails from another offshoot of this highly prosperous female line. He is out the mare Apt, a daughter of A.P. Indy and Bound’s daughter Liable, by the Mr. Prospector son Seeking the Gold.

First Samurai went to stud with a glittering reputation. He was precocious, winning the Grade 1 Hopeful and Champagne over the speedy Henny Hughes before settling for third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. He added the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes at 3 and retired to Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, as the first major son of Giant’s Causeway to stud in North America.

First Samurai ranked only 15th on the 2010 first-crop sire charts and lost one spot among second-crop sires the following year. Things began to turn around in 2012 and 2013, however, with runners like the Grade 1 winners Executiveprivilege and Justin Philip and graded stakes winners like Last Gunfighter and Swift Warrior. He added another Grade 1 winner earlier this year when Lea used a track record performance to win the Grade 1 Donn Handicap. With Size and Carve now on the ledger, First Samurai is siring nearly 7% stakes winners from foals in his first six crops.

Last week, we mentioned that Carson Jen put herself in the conversation for Broodmare of the Year honors with the emergence of Grade 2 Summertime Oaks winner Jojo Warrior, her fourth stakes winner and third graded winner.

Just a week later, it’s safe to assume that the French Deputy mare Champagne Royal is now the clear frontrunner for this honor. She’s not only the dam of Danza, winner of the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby and third in the Kentucky Derby, but she’s now the dam of Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita hero Majestic Harbor.

It’s also safe to say that she’s been doing the heavy lifting in this pedigree.

A minor black-type runner in Western Canada, Champagne Royal is a sister to a minor stakes winner and there was but one graded winner under the first four dams prior to Danza’s score on April 12. Majestic Harbor is the second Grade 1 winner for the late Rockport Harbor just as Danza is the second Grade 1 winner for his sire, the resurgent Street Boss.

Majestic Harbor joins Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap winner Moonshine Mullin as Breeders’ Cup Classic qualifiers via the ‘Win and You’re In’ program. Interestingly, Rockport Harbor stood next to Albert the Great, sire of Moonshine Mullin, at Pin Oak Lane Farm in Pennsylvania before succumbing to colic in August 2013.

Orientate is the sire of California’s other Grade 1 winner last weekend – Triple Bend Stakes winner Declassify.

Formerly at Gainesway Farm in Lexington, where he sired the Grade 1 winners Lady Joanne and Intangaroo, Orientate now plies his trade at Northview Stallion Station in Maryland. He ranks third in that state behind barnmates E Dubai and Not For Love.

Declassify is out of a mare by Tale of the Cat, who had a good weekend as a broodmare sire. Another one of his daughters, Perfect Story, is the dam of the Street Cry filly Street Story, who scored her third stakes victory and first graded win in Sunday’s Grade 3 Victory Ride Stakes at Belmont Park.

Dams by Tale of the Cat are now responsible for a total of 33 black-type winners, including the multiple Grade 1 winner It’s Tricky.

(originally published on http://www.thisishorseracing.com)

Breeding Watch, June 24

Posted on by DerbyMateo

Pioneerof the Nile kept hold of the top spot on North America’s second-crop sire list with a pair of stakes victories on a weekend that also saw some first-crop stallions start to assert themselves.

The Hollywood Oaks is now the Summertime Oaks and the Grade 2 race went to Zayat Stables Jojo Warrior last Saturday at Santa Anita Park. The 3-year-old filly is the fourth stakes winner from 94 first crop foals by Pioneerof the Nile, a multiple Grade 1 winner by the Unbridled stallion Empire Maker who stands at Kenny Troutt’s WinStar Farm in Versailles, Kentucky.

Another of those, Conquest Top Gun, is now a two-time stakes winner after conquering the feature at Woodbine the following afternoon. The 3-year-old colt took the Marine Stakes on May 25 and he easily vanquished three rivals in the Victoria Park Stakes Sunday. Conquest Top Gun is the second stakes winner out a mare by the A.P. Indy son Jump Start and is at least the 10th stakes winner bred on the larger Unbridled-A.P. Indy cross that’s also produced Empire Maker’s own multiple champion Royal Delta.

Getting back to Jojo Warrior, she’s the fourth stakes winner out of the Carson City mare Carson Jen, who now has to at least be in the conversation as a candidate for Broodmare of the Year honors. She’s already the dam of Bernardini’s first North American Grade 1 winner, 2010 Frizette Stakes victor A Z Warrior. Also to her credit are graded stakes-winning juvenile E Z Warrior (to the cover of the Storm Cat son Exploit) and the four-time listed winner J Z Warrior, who’s by the Storm Cat grandson Harlan’s Holiday. Jojo Warrior makes it 109 stakes winners for the daughters of the late Carson City, who stood alongside Storm Cat at the Young family’s Overbrook Farm in Lexington.

The first round of serious juvenile stakes are in the books in both North America and Europe and progeny of 2014 first-crop sires factored heavily in the results.

Lane’s End Farm’s Quality Road has been among the commercial leaders of his crop and is the first of his generation to sire a stakes winner. His son, the Wesley Ward-trained Hootenanny, took the Windsor Castle Stakes on the opening card of the Royal Ascot meeting. The bay colt is out of a mare by the Storm Cat son Hennessy, his 46th stakes winner as a dam sire.

Warrior’s Reward was mentioned in the June 11 edition of Breeding Watch after his three-winner outburst May 30. Two of those winners are now stakes-placed with Liatris (dam by A. P. Indy) finishing second in the Astoria Stakes June 14 at Belmont Park and Unbridled Reward (dam by Unbridled) the runner-up in the Debutante Stakes at Churchill Downs. The Spendthrift Farm stallion added another starter and winner to his burgeoning resume when Bad Read Sanchez romped by 10 lengths in his debut June 20 at Santa Anita.

We also saw the first black-type horses emerge by Darley’s and Sequel Stallions New York’s Desert Party (by Street Cry) and Airdrie Stud’s Majesticperfection (by Harlan’s Holiday).

Desert Party’s Rousanne, out of a daughter of Valiant Nature, earned the show spot in Churchill’s Debutante while Majesticperfection’s son Homer Matt, out of a daughter of Indian Charlie, placed third in the Santa Anita Juvenile. Lookin At Lucky leads all first-crop stallions with seven winners and we expect to report on his first black-type runners shortly.

The Texas-based Silver City has but 19 juveniles in his first crop but four of them have already graduated at the maiden special weight level.

Among those is the unbeaten Promise Me Silver, who proved best in the aforementioned Debutante going 6 furlongs. Based at Valor Farm in Pilot Point, Silver City won Oaklawn Park’s Dixieland Stakes as a 3-year-old in 2009 before completing an Unbridled’s Song-sired exacta behind Old Fashioned in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes. Promise Me Silver is the first stakes winner out of a mare by Macho Uno and is inbred to Blushing Groom at 4×4. There are now 99 black-type winners that show a double of Blushing Groom within four generations, about 4% from starters carrying this pattern.

The black-type winner strike rate for starters inbred to Storm Cat within four generations is closer to 3% but we can report the 21st such stakes winner – Mark My Way, winner of the male division of the New York Stallion Stakes at Belmont. The 3-year-old gelding is out of a Storm Cat daughter and is by Noonmark, a son of Unbridled’s Song and the Storm Cat mare In The Storm, so he’s inbred to Storm Cat at 2×3. Noonmark previously stood at Becky Thomas’ Sequel Stallions New York before being sold to interests in the Philippines.

Breeding Watch, June 19

Posted on by DerbyMateo

The *Ribot sire line is hanging on by a thread North America, but last weekend’s results reminded everyone that it’s not gone the way of the dodo quite yet.

Moonshine Mullin continued his spring bloom by earning his fifth straight win in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs. The 6-year-old is by Albert the Great, a son of 1994 Kentucky Derby winner Go For Gin, who traces back to *Ribot through Cormorant and His Majesty. A leading runner of his generation for owner Tracy Farmer and Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito, Albert the Great won the 2000 Jockey Club Gold Cup and placed in six other Grade 1 events, including the Breeders Cup Classic.

Albert the Great started his stud career in Kentucky and now stands at Pin Oak Lane Farm in New Freedom, Pennsylvania. While he’s averaged only a single stakes winner in each of his first nine crops, Moonshine Mullin is Albert the Great’s third career Grade 1 winner after Wood Memorial Stakes winner Nobiz Like Shobiz and Donn Handicap and Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Albertus Maximus. The former is out of a mare by Storm Cat and the second dam of Moonshine Mullin is by Storm Cat’s sire Storm Bird.

The Stephen Foster winner is also the eighth Group or Grade 1 winner out of a mare by the former Juddmonte Farms Mr. Prospector stallion Distant View. Among the other Grade 1 winners produced by Distant View daughters is Afleet Alex’s 2013 Travers Stakes hero Afleet Express.

Afleet Alex sired another Grade 1 winner and his third overall Saturday when Iotapa took home the Vanity Stakes at Santa Anita Park. Afleet Express and Iotapa are both out of mares bred Mr. Prospector over Icecapade. Afleet Express’s second dam is by the Icecapade grandson Phone Trick. Iotopa is out of the mare Concinnous, by Mr. Prospector’s great grandson El Corredor and her dam is a daughter of the good Icecapade stallion Wild Again.

Afleet Alex’s sire, Northern Afleet, was one of three North American stallions with two stakes winners on their ledgers last week. His sophomore daughter Saintly Joan (dam by El Corredor) took Saturday’s Little Silver Stakes at Monmouth Park. The following afternoon the 4-year-old colt Fuzzy Dee Jay (dam by Academy Award) won the Sydney Gendelman Memorial Handicap for Ohio-breds at Belterra Park, formerly known as River Downs. The wins were the first black-type scores for both and gives the Taylor Made Farm stallion a total of 47 stakes winners in the Northern Hemisphere.

Sharp Humor was exiled to South Korea a few years ago but his progeny have been running well of late around North America. His Sharp Sensation (dam by Royal Academy) and Angelica Zapata (Evansville Slew) both won minor listed stakes last week. That makes it five stakes winners since April 12 for the son of Distorted Humor. Among the others is Marchman (dam by Indian Charlie), victorious in a pair of graded turf sprints and runner-up in another in that span.

Hall of Famer Ghostzapper has made everyone forget about the sluggish start to his second career and is another with two stakes scorers last week.

Like Moonshine Mullin, the 4-year-old filly Molly Morgan has gotten good this spring at Churchill. After a runner-up effort in the Grade 1 La Troienne on Kentucky Oaks Day, the Dale Romans-trainee was much the best in the Grade 2 Fleur De Lis Handicap Saturday. Out of a mare by the Forty Niner stallion Distorted Humor, it was the first stakes triumph for Molly Morgan.

The Adena Springs-based Ghostzapper has sired two other Grade 2 winners out granddaughters of Forty Niner: Arena Elvira (dam by Twining) and Hear the Ghost (dam by Coronado’s Quest). About half of Ghostzapper’s career stakes winners are out of Mr. Prospector-line mares, including Ghost Is Clear, who added his second stakes win in the Dark Star Stakes Sunday at Canterbury Park. The 6-year-old is out of a mare by Gulch.

Ramsey Farm’s Kitten’s Joy has been incredibly productive with daughters of the Gone West son Grand Slam – four stakes winners (three graded, two Grade 1) from just 11 starters. He sired another stakes winner out of a Gone West granddaughter when Proud Azteca strolled home in the English Channel Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The Indiana-bred colt is out of a mare by Proud Citizen, a Grade 2 winner and classic-placed son of Gone West who stands at Airdrie Stud in Kentucky. That puts Kitten’s Joy’s strike rate with all granddaughters of Gone West at 18% (from 28 starters). Proud Azteca also signals that Proud Citizen is off to a promising start as a broodmare sire as he’s the third stakes winner from the first 36 starters out of his daughters. The others are by Indian Charlie and Cape Cross, a son of the Danzig stallion Green Desert.

(originally posted on http://www.thisishorseracing.com)

Breeding Watch, June 11

Posted on by DerbyMateo

There are Grade 1 winners and then there are classic winners and Tonalist’s gritty victory in the Belmont Stakes filled out the last remaining hole in Tapit’s spectacular resume.

Tonalist is the first classic winner and 14th Grade 1 winner from six crops for Tapit, who already holds a nearly $2.7 million lead on the 2014 North American general sires list. The Gainesway Farm stallion now has three Grade 1 winners to his credit this season, including another 3-year-old colt in Florida Derby hero Constitution. Tonalist is one of only five starters by Tapit out of daughters of Pleasant Colony and he’s the first Grade 1 winner produced by the larger A.P. Indy-Pleasant Colony cross.

Classic winners A.P. Indy and Pleasant Colony both stood atLane’s End Farm, which is also home to North America’s current leading sire of stakes winners, City Zip. The son of Carson City has been on quite a roll with four stakes winners since Memorial Day.

That afternoon his 3-year-old daughter Red Velvet won her stakes debut in the $100,000 Jersey Girl Stakes at Belmont Park. She’s out of a mare by Honour and Glory who, like City Zip’s dam, is by Relaunch. That makes her the eighth black-type winner (from 197 starters or 2.2%) that show a double of Relaunch within four generations.

Another City Zip 3-year-old filly, City by the Bay, earned her second stakes victory in the June 1 Seattle Handicap at Emerald Downs to stay unbeaten in three starts. Out of a mare by Glitterman, City by the Bay is inbred to Relaunch’s sire In Reality at 4×4.

Just five days later Palace, who is out of a mare by End Sweep, graduated to the Grade 2 level with a score in the True North Stakes at Belmont. The following afternoon, Sweet Emma Rose, who is out of a daughter of Deputy Minister, earned her first stakes victory in the Crank It Up Stakes at Monmouth Park. Those victories give City Zip 12 stakes winners for the year, three more than Tapit and Medaglia d’Oro.

The nine 2014 stakes winners by Medaglia d’Oro include Coffee Clique, winner of the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Distaff Turf Mile and the Just A Game Stakes (G1) on the Belmont Stakes undercard. The four-year-old filly is the Darley America stallion’s second new Grade 1 winner of the season after Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap victory by the gelding Lochte. He now has a total of 11 Grade 1 winners on his ledger. Out of mare by the Nijinsky II stallion Royal Academy, it’s surprising to note that Coffee Clique is the only stakes winner by Medaglia d’Oro out of a Nijinsky II-line mare to date.

Of the Medaglia d’Oro Grade 1 winners only four are males, but one of them, Warrior’s Reward, is the early headliner among the 2014 first-crop sires. TheSpendthrift Farm stallion was represented by a trio of sparkling debut winners May 30.

Most impressive of all was Unbridled Reward, who is out of Unbridled Appeal, by Unbridled. She rolled to a 7 3/4 length win going 4 1/2 furlongs on the main track at Churchill Downs. A $330,000 purchase by owner John Oxley at the OBS March sale of selected 2-year-olds in training, Unbridled Reward is the most expensive juvenile by Warrior’s Reward.

About an hour earlier Warrior’s Reward’s first winner bounded down the stretch as Liatris, who is out of Miss Brickyard, by A.P. Indy, scored a 3 3/4-length debut victory over males in a 5-furlong maiden special on the dirt.

Another filly, Strawberry Baby, who is out of Kendall Hill, by Theatrical, completed the hat trick for her sire later that evening at Lone Star Park. She won by 2 3/4 lengths in a 5-furlong dash on the main oval.

That makes three starters and three winners by a combined 14 1/4 lengths out of mares by Mr. Prospector, Northern Dancer and Bold Ruler/Seattle Slew-line mares. Not a bad start at all for the first major son of Medaglia d’Oro with runners on the track.

The Relaunch-A.P. Indy cross has been sneaky good in recent years and two more stakes winners bred on this cross have emerged in late May and early June.

Tiz’naz earned his initial stakes victory in the Grover ‘Buddy’ Delp Memorial May 28 at Delaware Park. The 3-year-old colt is by the Spendthrift Farm Tiznow stallion Tiz Wonderful out of a mare by Pulpit, a son of A. P. Indy, who is the dam sire of Tiz Wonderful’s 2014 Grade 2 winner and Grade 1-placed Scherzinger.

Tiznow’s son Norumbega got up in the final strides to add the Grade 2 Brooklyn Invitational Stakes trophy to owner Stuart Janney’s crowded trophy case. He’s the third stakes winner from 15 starters on the Tiznow-A.P. Indy cross and Grade 1 winner Morning Line is among the others. Two more Relaunch sons, Honour and Glory and Tiznow’s sire, Cee’s Tizzy, have also sired graded winners out of A.P. Indy-line mares.

(originally published on http://www.thisishorseracing.com)