Horse of the Week: Untapable

Posted on by DerbyMateo

Just a few years ago the Cotillion Stakes and Pennsylvania Derby were just two of several fall options for the three-year-old set. But Pennsylvania casino revenue has transformed the stakes schedule at Parx Racing (formerly Philadelphia Park) and on the east coast in general. Now these races are attracting the cream of the crop of the sophmore filly and colt divisions annually. The Cotillion, in particular, has graduated to Grade 1 status and was won by yet another Kentucky Oaks winner this year in Untapable.

A daughter of the red-hot sire Tapit, Untapable has been the consensus leader of the three-year-old fillies ever since her dominating performance in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes (G3) in late February. She had been compared to that race’s namesake after ulta-easy scores in the Fair Grounds Oaks (G2), Kentucky Oaks (G1) and Mother Goose Stakes (G1). However, unlike Rachel, she couldn’t beat the boys when sent to Monmouth Park for the Haskell Invitational (G1) in July.

The streaking multiple Grade 1 winner Stopchargingmaria was originally entered in the Cotillion but was re-routed to Saturday’s Beldame Stakes (G1) by trainer Todd Pletcher after the retirement of Princess of Sylmar. Some suggested Stopchargingmaria could overtake Untapable for year-end honors with a Cotillion victory but that seems unlikely now. Untapable may not have been brilliant last Saturday at Parx but she was professional in defeating fellow Grade 1 winner Sweet Reason and the up-and-coming Jojo Warrior.

Untapable joins Ashado and Plum Pretty as Oaks/Cotillion winners in the past 10 years. The Cotillion has also been won by champions Havre de Grace and My Miss Aurelia in that time span as well as likely 2014 champion Close Hatches, last year’s winner. No wonder the race chased NYRA’s Gazelle Stakes from the September schedule. That former Grade 1 fixture for three-year-old fillies was moved to Thanksgiving weekend in 2009 and has served as a Aqueduct’s Kentucky Oaks prep for the past two seasons.

Untapable is scheduled to face her elders, including Close Hatches and Beholder, in the upcoming Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1). A win there would sew up championship honors and maybe, just maybe, put Untapable back in the conversation as one the all-time greats.

-originally published on http://www.myfantasystable.com

Breeding Watch, August 8

Posted on by DerbyMateo

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)

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)