Saratoga

In a day and age when most Thoroughbreds are raised for the commercial market, seven-figure yearlings might as well count as Grade 1 winners on a stallion’s resume.

Storm Cat, for example, was able to command a $500,000 stud fee in the 1990s not only because of a long line of top class runners, but because he also rained down good-looking and pricey yearlings. On the other end of the spectrum, a prolific stallion like Dynaformer only saw three of his yearlings sell for $1 million or more and none until his 15th crop went through the ring.

Of course it’s a different world now than Storm Cat’s heyday, but it will be very interesting so see what Gainesway Farm does with Tapit’s 2015 service fee, especially after his two yearlings at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale of selected yearlings sold for $1.15 million and $1 million, respectively.

Tapit stood the 2014 season for $150,000, his runners already do everything on the track and he’s odds-on to earn his first North American general sire title title at year’s end. Now the commercial market has jumped on board with both fists (full of cash), a trend that actually started last September when four Tapit yearlings commanded seven figures.

Another $150,000 stallion, War Front, sired the Saratoga sale topper with a filly out of Charming, by Seeking the Gold, going to Willis Horton for $1.25 million. That’s the fourth seven-figure youngster in six crops by the Claiborne Farm-based son of Danzig and his first to pass through the historic Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion.

Just down the street and across Union Avenue at the even more historic Saratoga Race Course, half brothers City Zip and Ghostzapper pulled off a rare Grade 1 double Aug. 2. City Zip’s Palace zipped home in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap in 1:08.56. Then, a little more than 90 minutes later, the Ghostzapper gelding Moreno got his Grade 1 in the Whitney Invitational Stakes.

Lane’s End Farm’s City Zip is no stranger to pulling off rare feats as he’s the last (and likely last) horse to sweep all three of the Saratoga graded races for juveniles. He’s also the unique stallion to have started his second career in New York before moving to Kentucky.

Palace is his fourth Grade 1 winner and is out of a mare by End Sweep, a son of the good Mr. Prospector stallion Forty Niner. That means he’s inbred tail-male to Mr. Prospector at 3×4. This pattern has been beneficial for City Zip as at least nine of his 51 career stakes winners are out of Mr. Prospector-line mares. The others include Grade 1 winner Bustin Stones (dam by Prospector’s Gamble) and Grade 2 winner/Grade 1-placed Reneesgotzip, who is out of a mare by Forty Niner’s top son Distorted Humor.

Adena Springs’ Ghostzapper was finishing up his Hall of Fame career in the 2005 Metropolitan Handicap about the time the first City Zip runners were hitting the races. He stood for $200,000 upon his retirement but that fee tumbled to as low as $20,000 before a steady stream of stakes winners began to emerge. He was represented by 16 stakes winners in both 2012 and 2013 and Moreno is among his 10 so far in 2014.

Out of a mare by A.P. Indy, Moreno is Ghostzapper’s seventh winner at the highest level from his first five crops to race. So far City Zip and Ghostzapper have sired a combined total of 91 stakes winners.

Classic winners Lookin At Lucky (Ashford Stud) and Super Saver (WinStar Farm) have been climbing up the first crop sire chart in recent weeks and both were represented by their first stakes winners Saturday.

Super Saver’s Hashtag Bourbon could do no better than third behind Zayat Stable’s Malibu Moon colt Mr. Z in a June 28 maiden at Churchill Downs. But that didn’t deter trainer Kellyn Gorder and owner Bourbon Lane Farm from trying Saturday’s $100,000 Mountaineer Juvenile. The $130,000 OBS March graduate rewarded that faith with a 4 1/2-length tally in the 6-furlong affair. Hashtag Bourbon is out a mare by Robyn Dancer, a son of Crafty Prospector, broodmare of the Grade 3 winner Whimsy by Super Saver’s sire Maria’s Mon.

We could well be reporting on Super Saver again the coming weeks after his high-priced Saratoga maiden winners High Dollar Woman (a $675,000 OBS March juvenile) and Competitive Edge ($750,000 Fasig-Tipton February purchase) run in the upcoming juvenile fixtures at the Spa.

Back in 2010, Lookin At Lucky avenged a troubled sixth-place Kentucky Derby finish behind Super Saver by running off with the Preakness Stakes. His first stakes winner is Four Leaf Chief, who remained undefeated in two starts with a 2-length score in the $50,000 Louisiana Cup Juvenile Stakes. He’s out of a mare by Cure the Blues and is the first stakes winner by Smart Strike or his sons on this cross so far.

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