blue grass winner sierra leone and uae derby winner forever young stem from same family

Tags

churchill downs, horse, horse racing, horses, Kentucky Derby

Now a winner in three of his four starts, Sierra Leone (by Gun Runner) made himself one of the hottest choices for the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby with a steady stretch run at Keeneland to score a length-and-a-half victory in the Blue Grass Stakes.

Coming from fourth and a 2 ½-length deficit at the stretch call to win his race, the dark bay colt showed a stride length of 24.5 feet through the final three furlongs of the classic prep. The colt’s strength and steady propulsion allowed him to sweep past his competition through the stretch at Keeneland and solidify his position among the Derby contenders.

Bred in Kentucky by Debby Oxley, Sierra Leone won his classic prep just six days after his foaling date three years ago. The colt is the second foal out of the Malibu Moon mare Heavenly Love, who won the G1 Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland in 2017.

Like Sierra Leone, Heavenly Love was bred in Kentucky by Oxley from the mare Darling My Darling (Deputy Minister), whom Oxley’s husband John had purchased as a yearling at the 1998 Keeneland September sale and presented to her. A $300,000 yearling, Darling My Darling proved a very fine racer, as well.

She won her maiden on debut and then proceeded to finish second in the G1 Matron Stakes and Frizette Stakes. At three, Darling My Darling won the Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland, and the following season won the Doubledogdare Stakes at the Lexington course.

In addition to obvious athletic talent, part of the international appeal of the family by the time Sierra Leone came to Saratoga was due to Darling My Darling’s half-brother Zenno Rob Roy (Sunday Silence), who was Horse of the Year in Japan after winning multiple major events, including the Japan Cup, the Tenno Sho Autumn, and the Arima Kinen.

Darling My Darling and Zenno Rob Roy are out of the Mining mare Roamin Rachel, a G1 stakes winner who was consigned by Lane’s End, agent for owner Will Farish, at the 1998 Keeneland November sale to Nobuo Tsunoda for $750,000 in foal to Storm Cat. That foal proved to be Stray Cat, who has produced four stakes winners in Japan, all fillies, and set up a considerable branch of the family there.

In the States, the family is breeding on principally through Darling My Darling and her daughters. The mare’s other graded stakes winner, Forever Darling (Congrats) was purchased privately by Katsumi Yoshida after that filly had won the G2 Santa Ynez Stakes in 2016, and later that year she was exported to Japan.

There, Forever Darling has become a successful broodmare and is represented this year by Forever Young (Real Steel). The unbeaten colt has won the G3 Saudi Derby and G2 UAE Derby this season and ranks sixth on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard for points earned to get into the Run for the Roses. His cousin Sierra Leone ranks first.

Sierra Leone is accustomed to being first. He was consigned to the 2022 Saratoga select yearling sale, where he brought $2.3 million, and the well-developed bay was the highest-priced yearling of the sale. Sierra Leone races for Peter Brant, Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg, and Brook Smith.

With his victory on Saturday, Sierra Leone won the 100^th running of the Blue Grass, although only 88 have been raced over the track at Keeneland. The race was previously held at the Kentucky Association track located near downtown Lexington, and a dozen renewals of the event passed from 1911 to 1926, when subsequent Kentucky Derby winner Bubbling Over (North Star) won the race for owner-breeder E.R. Bradley. It was the third of four runnings of the Blue Grass won by Bradley’s horses.

All of Bradley’s victories came after the break in racing for the Blue Grass during the First World War from 1915 to 1918. All four of Bradley’s colts raced for the Kentucky Derby, with Black Servant (Black Toney; 1921) and Bimelech (Black Toney; 1940) finishing second in the classic, and Busy American (North Star; 1922) bowing a tendon and not finishing.

Bradley did not have a connection to the first winner of the Blue Grass, 1911 winner Governor Gray, a bay gelding by Garry Herrmann. A seriously talented racer, Governor Gray subsequently won the American Derby and the Latonia Derby. He started favorite for the 1911 Kentucky Derby, as well, but finished second to Meridian (Broomstick), who had been second in the Blue Grass.

Named for a contemporary lieutenant-governor of Alabama, Henry Gray, Governor Gray won 13 races, with 12 seconds and six thirds from 41 lifetime starts. The second-leading money winner of 1911, Governor Gray earned $19,163 through his racing career, but tragically, the gelding died in a barn fire in late November of 1911.

The Blue Grass Stakes has had many exciting finishes and highly talented winners; Sierra Leone and his racing fortunes will write another chapter in the sport’s history in the coming weeks and months.

laurel river adds another g1 to the list for into mischief crossed with empire maker mares

Tags

dubai world cup, garrett o'rourke, into mischief, laurel river

With a merciless cadence, the blaze-faced bay Laurel River (by Into Mischief) ground his opponents into the dust of Meydan for the second time in succession.

Having won the Group 2 Burj Nahaar on March 2 by 6 ¾ lengths, Laurel River returned to win the G1 Dubai World Cup on March 30 by 8 ½ lengths.

Now a winner in five of his last six starts, Laurel River has lost only the G3 Al Shindagha Sprint, which was the brawny bay’s return to the races after an absence of 17 months. Built like a muscular miler, Laurel River had won his last U.S. start, the G2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at Del Mar, and might have needed the race earlier this year.

The strongly built horse did not appear to need anything more than a perceptive jockey in his first attempt at 10 furlongs at Meydan on Saturday.

Bred in Kentucky by Juddmonte Farms, Laurel River is the result of a conscious plan set in motion by Khaled Abdullah several years ago. 

“At the time, we were looking for a cross with the Empire Maker mares we had from our best families,” noted Juddmonte’s Garrett O’Rourke.

The choice fell on Harlan’s Holiday and his son Into Mischief, and as part of that, Juddmonte became a supporter of the multiple leading national sire early on. The results include classic winner Mandaloun and now Laurel River.

“The Into Mischiefs are lovely horses to be around: happy, healthy, eager to go to the track,” O’Rourke said. “Some can be high energy, but they love what they do every day, and horses like that are important for the breed. They have great enthusiasm for racing and are very healthy to train and race.

“It would have been after his first 3-year-olds had shown their ability that we bought into him, and we did that specifically to breed him to our Empire Maker mares that lacked that little bit of zip, toughness, and zest, which Into Mischief supplies in spades,” O’Rourke added.

Whereas the family of Mandaloun had been acquired by Juddmonte when forming its broodmare band back in the 1980s, the second dam of Laurel River, Soothing Touch (Touch Gold), had been purchased at auction in only 2005, bringing $550,000 at the Keeneland September sale.

Racing for Juddmonte with trainer Bobby Frankel, Soothing Touch was once second from six starts at four different racetracks, but that was as close as she came to winning. O’Rourke said that “the Prince never referred to her by name. He always referred to her as ‘Teddy’s mare.’”

As little as “Teddy’s mare” managed to accomplish on the racetrack, she was not judged “surplus to requirements” and has done rather more in the paddocks. As a broodmare, Soothing Touch produced three stakes winners, including Hofburg (Tapit), who also was second in the G1 Florida Derby and third in the Belmont Stakes.

But most importantly, “Teddy’s mare” became the dam of multiple G1 winner Emollient and her full-sister Calm Water.

“Trainer Bill Mott and all of us here at Juddmonte thought quite a lot of Emollient,” O’Rourke said, “and a group of us went to Gulfstream for [her stakes debut at three in] the Florida Oaks.” Dreaming of Julia (A.P. Indy) won by 21 ¾ lengths, with Emollient fifth of six.

“Emollient never ran her race,” O’Rourke said. “We were all disappointed with it, and we didn’t talk much afterward. Then the next thing we saw, she was entered in the Ashland here at Keeneland, and she went wire to wire. Bill just smiled.”

A four-time G1 winner, Emollient has produced a pair of stakes winners by Juddmonte superstar Frankel (Galileo), most notably Raclette, winner of the G2 Prix de Malleret.

Her full-sister, Calm Water, did nothing noteworthy on the racetrack, with her best effort a second in a maiden special at Keeneland, but has produced Laurel River as her third foal. Calm Water has a two years’ younger full-brother to the Dubai World Cup winner named Castlewarden. He won his maiden at Oaklawn Park on March 15.

The mare has a 2-year-old filly named Long Waves (Constitution) and a yearling colt by the same sire. Calm Water produced a full sister to Laurel River and Castlewarden last month, and the mare returns to Into Mischief.

This is the family of Almahmoud through Natalma (Native Dancer), and E.P. Taylor sold the fifth dam of Laurel River to Stavros Niarchos for $825,000 at the 1983 Keeneland July sale. Named Coup de Folie (Halo), the filly was inbred to Almahmoud 3×3; racing for Flaxman Holdings, Coup de Folie won the G3 Prix d’Aumale and was twice G1-placed, with four victories from seven starts.

For Flaxman, she produced G1 winner and leading sire Machiavellian (Mr. Prospector), as well as his full sister Coup de Genie, who won twice at the G1 level (Prix Morny and Prix de la Salamandre against colts).

Coup de Genie became the dam of four stakes winners, including French highweight juvenile filly Denebola (Storm Cat) and Glia, the third dam of Laurel River.

When Flaxman Holdings sent Glia’s daughter by Belmont Stakes winner Touch Gold (Deputy Minister) to the sales, “this filly had a pedigree that we would love to get into,” O’Rourke noted. “Teddy Grimthorpe had come over here with Prince Khaled, and at the sales, she made quite a bit more than we valued her at, and yet Teddy kept bidding.

“We bought her essentially as a breeding prospect, because horses from these families can run on dirt, on turf, and this is a pedigree that stays good all the way through. All credit to Prince Khaled for being such a sound decision-maker and for his family for carrying on in the same manner,” O’Rourke concluded.

Pedigree counts in that too.

hatton writes on … misty morn

Tags

champion filly, high voltage, misty morn, princequillo, wheatley stable

Charlie Hatton on 1955 champion three-year-old filly and handicap mare Misty Morn from the 1956 American Racing Manual.

————————————————————————————-

Breeders used to feel that they had been ambushed when their mares produced more filly foals than colts. Their disappointment stemmed from the fact that not many decades ago the associations offered meager opportunities for the female of the species to pay their way in competition among themselves, with the result that fillies were “a drug on the market” at the yearling auctions. How very different now. There are scores of stakes, ranging in value up to more than $100,000, for fillies and mares. And often as not fillies command the highest prices at the sales. It seems that racing men and breeders have come to realize that while we have a superabundance of Thoroughbred sires, high-class producers still are comparatively rare, and matriarchs such as La Troienne, Myrtlewood, Alcibiades, La Chica and others are the next best thing to a license to print one’s own money.

There are prepotent mares, just as there are dominant sires, and in the Blue Grass and other production centers, generations of sportsmen and breeders have founded successful studs on the issue of one matron and her daughters and granddaughters. Indeed, these illustrious matrons are regarded as pearls beyond price, almost as members of the family, and it would be unthinkable to sell one of them or any of their female descendants who showed the quality in training to perpetuate the line. As Brownell Combs said of Myrtlewood, “One would have to be quitting racing to sell a mare like that.”

The Wheatley Stable of Mrs. J. S. Phipps in 1955 was doubly fortunate to have two three-year-old fillies of top class and the highest breeding, either or both capable to establish a family of her own. We refer to High Voltage, who was the ’54 two-year-old filly leader, and to Misty Morn, who was voted not only the outstanding three-year-old filly last season, but the champion of the handicap mares as well. Both, further, are products of the Phippses’ select stud, which is maintained at the Hancock family’s historic Claiborne near Paris, Ky. This circumstance enhances the pleasure which their owner derives from their racing successes.

Misty Morn and High Voltage were by common consent the two most capable three-year-old fillies of the season, the only question being which one was entitled to the honors. Trainer James Fitzsimmons and his staff estimated, for a time, that High Voltage was the “tougher” of the two. But in the end, when their records were balanced, there was clearly no alternative but to award the laurels to Misty Morn. She met all comers, including the colts and the older mares, over all sorts of tracks and at all distances and won nine races—an arduous campaign of 22 starts. She was four times second and twice third and amassed $201,850 during a season which would have completely depleted most of her sex.

Further, Misty Morn climaxed her long and brilliant career on November 12 at Jamaica with what was perhaps her most distinguishing success. Carrying 113 pounds and conceding weight on the scale to all her eight rivals except Thinking Cap, Misty Morn won the important Gallant Fox Handicap over the searching mile and five eighths route in 2:42 2/5, rewriting the track record. Additionally, the going was considered no better than “good.” She raced almost continually from February through November, which speaks for her toughness of fiber.

It was not until June that the Wheatley filly ventured out of the allowance division to compete in stakes. She had been a trifle backward at two, when she won only two little races in 15 starts, but she showed steady improvement with more maturity at three. In her first appearance in a stakes, Misty Morn chose no less ambitious a placing than the nine furlongs of the $35,000 added Providence at Narragansett Park. The field included the colt Saratoga, who was the Preakness second behind Nashua, and was quixotically attempting to concede her 17 pounds, himself carrying 123. He was an odds-on favorite. He made two runs at the filly, but she beat him a length and a half.

The form of this race was questioned at the time, most of the cognoscenti taking the skeptical position that Misty Morn simply outran herself. But she came back to account for the Monmouth Oaks, the Diana Handicap at Saratoga and then was beaten a diminishing head by Manotick at a seven-pound weight disadvantage in the mile and a half of the Ladies Handicap at Belmont Park’s brilliant autumn meeting. She tried the colts again in the Yankee, conceding weight on the scale to most of them, but was blocked. Then came the Gallant Fox, in which she met older males at a weight disadvantage and won in record time.

Misty Morn was said to have been unwound for the remainder of the season in sound condition, and of course she cannot have had anything very clinical wrong with her when she won the Gallant Fox in her finale. It seemed to us that the Wheatley filly had come a long way in a relatively short time. There is a story, nor do we know that it is untrue, that she was so slight as a yearling that the wisdom of making any attempt to train and campaign her was doubted. But given the opportunity, she soon made it clear that she liked to run and was intuitively a racehorse, so it was decided to continue her career.

This is by no means the first time that a horse has seemed a poor risk as a yearling, and then agreeably surprised everyone by proving a performer of the top notch. Social Outcast was so crooked in front his people were dubious that he would stand training and he served as a menial, a workmate and traveling companion for Native Dancer during the first several years of that champion’s career. The overgrown Osmand was one of the “chain gang” of Elmendorf yearlings when he and the highly esteemed Chance Shot were being broken. Efforts were made to give away the filly Strange Device, she showed so little promise as a yearling, but nobody cared to have her and by the end of the following season she was acknowledged to be one of the best of her age and sex. These and many others have appeared from time to time to flout those who fault unraced Thoroughbreds and deal in generalities.

If Misty Morn was painfully sparse as a yearling, her legs were in order and she obviously has a big heart. A sandy bay with a narrow, rather long star as her only marking, the Wheatley filly measured 15.3 hands at the withers upon the conclusion of the ’55 season, when she was sent to Claiborne to vacation briefly. She girths 69 inches, measures 15 ¾ inches around the gaskin and has 7 ¼ inches of bone. She is very racing like, almost delicate in appearance, but this last is deceptive. What flesh she has when in condition was maintained throughout her long campaign.

Mrs. Phipps’ homebred reminds one vaguely of those old-fashioned prints of Firenze, another bay mare of rather small model, who nevertheless was up to carrying big weights over long routes with the colts and fillies alike. Her head is attractive and very effeminate, with good width between the eyes and jowls and neatly tapered ears having an inward turn. The rein length is in homogenous proportion with the rest of her conformation and extends into high withers and a short back.

She has fair length from hip to hock and her hind legs are reasonably straight. The croup slopes just a trifle and the flag is set high. Her quarters are not remarkable for any unusual development of muscular investiture, instead they are those of the stayer. She is the antitype of the rumpy, precocious colts and fillies who show blazing early speed as two-year-olds. Misty Morn has a pleasing middle piece in that it provides ample heart and lung room for one of her moderate size, and she is not particularly light in the flank for all her racing experience. That she is a good doer goes almost without staying.

The Wheatley filly has a stout, well-laid shoulder, which is one of her salient physical attributes. The muscle is developed a little beyond the norm without being heavy. This, along with her rather narrow front fork, assures a freedom of action and minimizes the chances of tiring unduly when racing major distances. Her forearm is, like her gaskin, more notable for angulation than conspicuous muscularity.

She has broad, flat, closely knit knees and stands over them in a barely perceptible manner. This construction and her springy pasterns, which are of the correct length and angle, suggest that Misty Morn may stay sound longer than most of her age and sex division.

At a glance, she is a charming bit of blood, with all the balance for which her sire Princequillo and so many of his progeny are noted. As highly precisioned “as a watch,” as horsemen are wont to say, one has the impression that she will mature into a lovely specimen of broodmare.

Though Misty Morn has never been very dashing out of the gate, she has a low, sweeping stride and is a bold-going filly. Her Monmouth Oaks showed her to have more pluck than most of her sex, for she was in quarters a trifle close at the crucial stretch turn, but she resolutely forged her way between her rivals to attain the lead. There are not many fillies who have the daring to move up in a flying cordon of horses.

The ’55 champion is a beautifully bred young mare. Foaled on May 21 at Claiborne Farm, she is by the classic sire Princequillo out of Grey Flight, who also raced for Wheatley and won stakes and purses in the amount of $67,990. Grey Flight, in turn, is by the Epsom Derby winner and noted sire Mahmoud out of the fast mare Planetoid. The latter introduces Ariel into the pedigree and is out of El Chico’s dam, La Chica. It is the immediate family of Native Dancer. Though it was thought to be specifically a source of sheer speed rather than stamina, the tribe has produced some excellent stayers in recent generations.

Princequillo, a tail-male St. Simon, was the best cup horse of his day and represents a distinct outcross for most American mares. He stems from Rose Prince and Papyrus. The Mahmoud cross also adds strength, for he is by Blenheim II and comes of the family of Nasrullah and Royal Charger, tracing to Mumtaz Mahal. Misty Morn’s pedigree challenges comparison.

——————————————————————————————-

Misty Morn did indeed “mature into a lovely specimen of broodmare.” She was Broodmare of the Year in 1963, and in 1964, her son Bold Lad was juvenile champion; two years later, her son Successor (by Bold Ruler, like Bold Lad) was the 1966 juvenile champion. 

endlessly puts his sire oscar performance in the spotlight

Tags

endlessly, history, horse, horse racing, horses, jerry amerman, john amerman, oscar performance, rodeo, society dream

When Endlessly (by Oscar Performance) went four-wide on the turn to take command of Turfway Park’s Kentucky Derby prep, the track announcer yelled that the dark bay colt was “winning powerfully,” and that is a significant comment to understand the colt’s success.

Power is overused in most commentary on racing performance, and it can mean different things. Functionally, power is derived from hindquarter leverage and muscle power that allow a racehorse to finish.

Horses with excellent power are frequently unable to use much of their power at the end of a dirt race because the nature of dirt is to break away from a very strong push; dirt performers tend to do better with good early pace and a steady mid-race and ending-race pace. The winner is usually the horse who is slowing down the least.

In contrast, both turf and synthetic surfaces are much more responsive to the finish potential of highly powered animals. Horses with great power can sometimes race effectively on dirt, especially if their stride rhythm and other qualities allow them to get into an effective stride early enough to pass or even lead their opponents fairly early in a race (think American Pharoah, for instance).

Trainer Michael McCarthy and owner Amerman Racing LLC are apparently estimating their colt’s turf/synthetic potential well and are reportedly pointing him to the Grade 2 American Turf, rather than the “most exciting two minutes in sports.”

Four-time G1 winner Oscar Performance has six stakes winners so far in 2024 and carries the torch as the best stallion son for his sire, Kitten’s Joy (El Prado), with racers who race well early and continue improving with age. (Mill Ridge photo)

Endlessly raced like a “turf horse” at Turfway, coming from well back and finishing with a final three-eighths that was faster than the first three-eights, and the progressive colt certainly has the performances (a winner in five of his six starts over turf or synthetic) and the pedigree to be very effective on turf. A son of the Amermans’ highly regarded turf star Oscar Performance (Kitten’s Joy) and out of mare by Langfuhr, Endlessly has both a very turf conscious pedigree, as well as some legendary dirt performers farther back.

A four-time G1 winner who earned $2.3 million, Oscar Performance won at the top level as a juvenile, 3-year-old, and 4-year-old. That is testament to a high level of athletic ability, and “there was significant interest in this horse from overseas, especially from Japan,” Headley Bell said.

“We were fortunate, because of our nearly 20-year relationship with the Amermans,” Bell recalled, “and we approached them about standing the horse here at Mill Ridge. We suggested that they retain half the horse and we would attempt to syndicate the other half.

“They were willing to do that. With that, we were then fortunate to find an illustrious group of shareholders, including Eclipse breeders of the year George Strawbridge and the Gunthers, to breed to Oscar Performance and work with us.

“Despite significant interest from Japan, this horse was never going to Japan, and it bodes well for our American breed to have breeders and owners racing like them. There was even another significant offer from Japan before his first crop had ever raced, and the offer just wasn’t of interest.

“That’s how much the Amermans believe in this horse and how much this horse means to them.”

The breeders and owners of Oscar Performance took a refreshing attitude toward sending to stud a colt who was naturally viewed as a “turf horse,” a designation that is virtually synonymous with “noncommercial.”

Despite that, some of the sire’s stock found a good response in the commercial market, such as his first-crop star Red Carpet Ready, who was a $180,000 Saratoga select yearling purchase by Bo Bromagen. The multiple graded stakes winner returned on March 8 at Gulfstream to win the G3 Hurricane Bertie Stakes and push her overall record to five victories from eight starts.

A homebred for the Amermans, Endlessly is out of Dream Fuhrever, one of three producers of stakes winners out of Society Dream, one of the few stakes winners by European G1 winner Akarad (Labus), a long-lived stallion who is not often found in American pedigrees.

Society Dream, however, is Jerry Amerman’s foundation mare, and “Jerry is a breeder of champion German shepherds,” Bell said. “After becoming fascinated with Thoroughbreds, Jerry has applied that passion to the breeding of horses.”

The three stakes-producing daughters of Society Dream have all found success on turf. Miss Chapin (Royal Academy) produced G1 Just a Game winner Coffee Clique (Medaglia d’Oro) and Admission Office (Point of Entry), winner of the G3 Louisville and G3 Arlington Stakes on turf. Post Script (Quality Road) produced Act a Fool from the first crop by Oscar Performance, and he won the Hawthorne Derby on turf.

Clearly, this family has found a functional affinity with the son of Kitten’s Joy, and it is working well for all. The female line goes back through successful producers and racers by Blushing Groom and Mr. Prospector to fifth dam Sleek Belle (Vaguely Noble), the dam of four stakes winners, and thence back to 10^th dam Nectarine, a full sister to nothing less Bull Lea, the five-time leading national sire and source of multiple champions and classic winners, including Horses of the Year Twilight Tear, Armed, and Citation.

These latter champions did not race on turf, mostly because there was nearly no significant turf racing at the time, but they were racehorses of the highest order and laid a foundation of soundness and athleticism for the future.

While Jerry Amerman is focusing her attention and skills on breeding the best from Oscar Performance, John Amerman, former chairman of Mattel Inc., is racing manager for the stable. 

Bell concluded, “We went against the trend, and it looks like that might be the right way to go. For the owners, for the shareholders, and for the breed, this horse is an important animal. Maybe he’s a turning point.”

Oscar Performance looks ready for center stage.

hatton writes on

Tags

charlie hatton, high voltage

Charlie Hatton on 1954 champion 2-year-old filly High Voltage from the 1955 American Racing Manual.

——————————————————————————————-

The late William Woodward noted, quite accurately, that the success of a stud depends upon the quality of its mares. The only satisfactory criterion of desirable broodmare prospects is the crucible of the racetrack test. We are happy to say contemporary racing associations are providing Turfmen with many more, and more valuable, events for this sex than existed only a decade or so ago, when fillies were “a drug on the market.”

It is interesting to see each new generation of the stud’s future producers pass in review, and the 2-year-old fillies of 1954 struck most observers as a particularly gay lot. Mrs. Henry Carnegie Phipps’s graceful High Voltage was voted the title and was patently deserving of it. But the season produced others of more or less class in Delta, Myrtle’s Jet and Lea Lane. Their development augured well for the 1955 Oaks renewals. The homebred High Voltage had a fairly busy campaign extending over 12 starts. She won six, was second twice and third three times. Her total earnings of $167,825 made her the leading money winner of her age and sex division in ’54.

The Wheatley broodmares, like those of Belair Stud, are maintained at Arthur B. Hancock’s Claiborne Farm in Kentucky, and it was there High Voltage first saw the light of day on May 8, 1952. She was trained and developed by James Fitzsimmons, the “Sage of Sheepshead Bay,” who also brought out the champion colt Nashua. While she was beaten in six of her starts, she was usually conceding weight and coming on like the genuine performer she is at the finish. In fact, jockey Eddie Arcaro considers “it is too bad she was ever beaten.”

High Voltage campaigned from April to November and seemed to thrive on racing. The striking gray stripped for the Matron, at Belmont in the fall, looking like a filly who had been in training only a few weeks, and of her “Mr. Fitz” commented, “It seems you just can’t hurt her.”

The Phipps filly began, rather casually, by finishing third in a maiden race at Jamaica, but she picked up the winning thread in her next start and supplemented this on April 14 by accounting for the Rosedale. Soon thereafter she won the filly division of Belmont’s National Stallion Stakes.

In the National Stallion, High Voltage encountered, and debited with defeat, Claiborne’s classy Nasrullah filly Delta. The latter’s apologists insisted this was not a true bill, however, explaining that the Kentuckian had experienced some misfortune at the break. On the basis of the from at Arlington and Washington, Delta was the cleverest of the 2-year-olds of her sex seen in the midlands during the season.

The Wheatley homebred also won the Colleen and Selima, as well as the important Matron, and was narrowly beaten in the Astarita and Fashion. In the Astarita, she carried 125 pounds and was gaining steadily on the successful Two Stars, to whom she conceded six, making up a deficit of several lengths at the start. In the Matron, High Voltage maneuvered her way through an unwieldy field to win with impressive elan. But probably her smartest performance was in the mile and a sixteenth of the Selima at Laurel.

This event placed her versus Myrtle’s Jet, who had just won Keeneland’s Alcibiades from a stylish field, and who now attempted to purloin the Maryland fixture. She seemed about to bring it off midway of the backstretch, where she was 10 lengths before the favorite with no indication of faltering. But High Voltage responded beautifully when Arcaro called on her and, cutting down the pacemaker’s lead with long, relentless strides, she yoked this rival in midstretch and beat her in a desperate finish. Arcaro estimated she might have won with more authority except that the sun seemed to bother her as she popped around the turn into the stretch and it shone in her eyes. In her next and last start of the season, High Voltage was fourth to Myrtle’s Jet in the Frizette, run in the slop, in which she stumbled and lost all chance. Incidentally, she races without blinkers, running on heartily as if she delighted in the sport.

High Voltage is a fairly short-backed specimen of curvaceous lines, and she makes a considerable esthetic appeal, with her romantic gray coat and a head of exquisite quality and refinement. Also, she has manners, and a poise in the paddock and during the heat of conflict which must be a joy to her handlers. Though her neck is breedier than most fillies, she is quite feminine, with no reminiscence of such masculine mares of late years as Conniver and Gallorette,

The Wheatley filly appears to verge on 15.3 hands at the withers. She is round in her lines, rather than of the greyhound type, and she is not at all light in the flank and back ribs, as are many of her sex. It is clear High Voltage is what Turfmen call a “good doer.” Her hocks are a bit behind her, as were those of her grandsire, Tourbillon, and many of his progeny. But she compensates for this by having much evident propulsive power and a good front.

High Voltage’s shoulder is deep and at the correct angle and her forelegs are well under her. These appear clean and flinty, and of course she cannot have campaigned as she did were she not very “sound for racing purposes.” The muscularity of her forearms is exceptional for a 2-year-old filly, and indeed this is the most distinctive point of her conformation. It suggests the length and sweep of her extended action.

She is altogether charming and reflects much credit on her rising young French sire, Ambiorix, now serving at Claiborne Farm. Mrs. Phipps’ pet is from that stallion’s second crop of foals. Ambiorix is out of the noted producer Lavendula, by Pharos, ancestress of My Babu, Turn-to, and other splendid performers. Ambiorix was considered the best middle-distance campaigner of his time on the Parisian circuit.

High Voltage is out of the youthful mare Dynamo, a dark bay by the excellent Menow, foaled in 1945. Dyanmo herself was bred by Wheatley and was a winner at 2 and 3. Her first foals to race were Power Plant and Coastal Trade, both of whom won. High Voltage is her third. The next dam, Bransome, is by Royal Minstrel, to whom High Voltage’s coat color is traceable. The third dam was Erin, the source of some of Wheatley’s ablest campaigners.

The pedigree is an admixture of some of the most fashionable French, English and domesticated strains. The noted French breeder Marcel Boussac would fancy this pattern, for it is his premise that it is essential that all studs periodically introduce vital new lines.

—————————————————————————————–

High Voltage raced through age 4 and won five more stakes at age 3, when she lost the champion 3-year-old filly title to her stablemate Misty Morn. High Voltage retired with a record of 45-13-5-7 for earnings of $362,240.

At stud, High Voltage produced 10 foals, eight starters, six winners, and three stakes winners: Bold Commander (1960 colt by Bold Ruler), Impressive (1963 colt by Court Martial), and Great Power (1964 colt by Bold Ruler).

ghalia princess is still showing the spark from her illustrious ancestor high voltage

Tags

ghalia princess, high voltage, misty morn

The victory of Ghalia Princess (by American Pharoah) in the Cicada Stakes at Aqueduct on March 16 could be seen as a continuation of the promise displayed by her dam, Ghalia (Medaglia d’Oro), who won three of her four starts, including the Sunland Park Oaks in 2017. The dam raced only once more, was retired, and produced the Cicada Stakes winner as her second foal.

Bred in Kentucky by Oussama Aboughazale’s International Equities Holding Inc., Ghalia Princess was sent to the 2022 Keeneland September yearling sale and bought back for $575,000. The filly races for Aboughazale under his Sumaya US Stable banner, as did her dam.

International Equities acquired Ghalia at the 2014 Keeneland November sale, paying $600,000 for the weanling filly, who was consigned to the auction by Warrendale Sales for breeders Edward A. Seltzer, Beverly Anderson & Darley.

Polymelus: a foal of 1902 who won the Champion Stakes, this son of Ascot Gold Cup winner Cyllene and great-grandson of Derby winner Bend Or became England’s leading sire five times and got five classic winner: Black Jester (St. Leger), Cinna (1,000 Guineas), Fifinella (Derby and Oaks), Humorist (Derby), and Pommern (2,000 Guineas, Derby, St. Leger). Then, he became one of the essential elements of pedigrees in the 20th century and hereafter, most notably through his son Phalaris and great-grandson Nearco. He is a male-line ancestor of Ghalia Princess and liberally scattered throughout the rest of her pedigree.

In addition to her obvious physical excellence, Ghalia attracted breeders and racehorse owners such as Aboughazale with the quality and depth of her pedigree.

The broodmare sires along the female line include some of the great names of international breeding. In addition to Medaglia d’Oro, the second dam is by Rahy, the third by A.P. Indy, the fourth by Danzig, and then successive dams are by Graustark, American champion Bold Ruler, and French highweight Ambiorix. Nor did they lack for racing ability. Only two of the seven first dams failed to earn black type.

The seventh dam of Ghalia Princess was Ambiorix’s champion daughter, High Voltage. At 2, she won half of her 12 starts, including five stakes: the Selima, Matron, Colleen, National Stallion, and Rosedale. She placed in three more. That earned her the title as champion of her sex and division in 1954 from all the voting organizations (there were no Eclipse Awards at that time).

During her second season of competition, High Voltage was equally successful, winning six more races, although from 16 starts. Among these were the Coaching Club American Oaks, Black-Eyed Susan, Acorn, Delaware Oaks, and Vineland Handicap.

That was a pretty good season, but there was another filly in the same stable who won even more. Both trained by Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons and bred and racing for Wheatley Stable, High Voltage was usurped by Misty Morn (Princequillo), whose nine victories that season began in June and included the Molly Pitcher, Monmouth Oaks, and Diana against fillies but also included the Providence Handicap and the Gallant Fox Handicap against colts and older horses.

Essentially, Misty Morn’s late-season successes outranked the early-season excellence of High Voltage, and the daughter of Princequillo received the laurels as champion 3-year-old filly and champion handicap mare of 1955 from both Triangle Publications (Daily Racing Form and Morning Telegraph) and Thoroughbred Racing Associations (racing secretaries of member tracks).

Both became important broodmares, although Misty Morn took higher rank immediately. In addition to multiple early stakes winners, she produced two champions, both by Wheatley Stable’s Horse of the Year Bold Ruler: Bold Lad (2-year-old champion colt of 1964) and Successor (2-year-old champion colt of 1966), and was named Broodmare of the Year in 1963 before her champion sons had raced.

The best produce from High Voltage, however, were sired by stallions other than the Wheatley marvel. Her champion son Impressive was by the English-bred Court Martial (Fair Trial), and her best daughter was Irradiate, by European champion Ribot (Tenerani), later the dam of the important racer and sire Majestic Light (Majestic Prince). In 1966, Impressive won a half-dozen stakes, in addition to defeating Horse of the Year Buckpasser (Tom Fool) in an allowance at Hialeah; all that form led to Impressive being named champion sprinter of the year.

From five foals by Bold Ruler, High Voltage also produced two stakes winners: Bold Commander, winner of the Chesapeake Stakes, became the sire of 1970 Kentucky Derby winner Dust Commander, who was the first Bold Ruler-line horse to win a classic but far from the last. The second of High Voltage’s stakes winners by Bold Ruler was Great Power, who was a winner of 11 races, including the Sapling at 2 and the Delaware Valley Handicap at 3. He possessed such high speed that he was one of the pacemakers used for the potential benefit of stable star Buckpasser in the 1967 Woodward, when Great Power and Hedevar teamed up to pressure Dr. Fager with a speed duel that set up the race for Damascus (Sword Dancer), rather than Buckpasser, who was second.

A medium-sized filly who stood about 15.3 at maturity, High Voltage was noted, even as a 2-year-old for the muscularity of her physique, and that, no doubt, was one of the traits that she passed to her offspring and helped to make them fast. She was described by the Racing Form’s scribe Charlie Hatton as being “round in her lines, rather than of the greyhound type,” and possessing the reputation of being a “good doer” around the stable.

Certainly, her personality was one of high energy and her record on the racetrack one of high performance. High Voltage’s daughter by Bold Ruler was one of the non-black-type winners in the line leading to Ghalia Princess, but that daughter, Overpowering, proved more than able as a producer.

Overpowering’s six foals by Graustark (Ribot) included four stakes horses. Among them were graded stakes winner Proctor and his stakes-winning full sister Over Your Shoulder, who became the next link in the lineage toward Ghalia Princess.

beauty in the eye of the beholder: sweet azteca keeps the much-loved family of cee’s song in the grade 1 winner’s circle

Tags

cecelia straub-rubens, cee's song, eric anderson, horse racing, horses, kathy berkey, news, pamela ziebarth, sharp azteca, sports, sweet azteca, tiznow

A powerful victory for Sweet Azteca (by Sharp Azteca) in the Grade 1 Beholder Stakes at Santa Anita makes her the latest good gift of speed and gameness from the bloodline nurtured by Cecelia Straub-Rubens and her most important broodmare, Cee’s Song (Seattle Song).

A good winner on the racetrack who became a wonder as a broodmare, Cee’s Song foaled four stakes winners, including Horse of the Year Tiznow (Cee’s Tizzy) and his full siblings Budroyale, Tizbud, and Tizdubai.

Two daughters of the mare who didn’t earn black type became producers of top racehorses.

Unraced Tizamazing became the dam of two stakes winners, including Oxbow, winner of the G1 Preakness Stakes and second in the G1 Belmont Stakes. He is now a sire at Calumet Farm.

Tizso, who was unplaced in two starts, became the dam of three stakes winners. The most prominent of these is Paynter (Awesome Again), who won the G1 Haskell and was second in the Belmont Stakes. Paynter is the sire of champion Knicks Go, winner of the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic and Horse of the Year. In November 2023, Paynter was euthanized at WinStar Farm in Kentucky.

The female family of Sweet Azteca has had numerous G1 winners in recent years and includes one of the favorites for this year’s Kentucky Oaks: Tarifa (Bernardini).

On the other hand, Sweet Azteca is the first G1 winner for her sire Sharp Azteca (Freud), who went to stud in Kentucky at Three Chimneys Farm and was a leading freshman sire in 2022 but is now at stud overseas. In October last year, Three Chimneys Farm announced that Sharp Azteca had been sold to Shizunai Stallion Station in Japan, and the horse was exported to Japan for the 2024 breeding season.

Bred in Kentucky by Pamela Ziebarth, Sweet Azteca is out of the Grand Slam mare So Sweetitiz. The breeder is the daughter of Cecelia Straub-Rubens, and Sweet Azteca is a fourth-generation descendant of Cee’s Song.

Following Sweet Azteca, “So Sweetitiz has a 2-year-old named Mucho Dulce (Mucho Macho Man), a yearling by Tonalist, is back in foal to Sharp Azteca on May 24 cover, and is booked to Hard Spun for this year,” according to Eric Anderson, who is an adviser to Pam Ziebarth.

The breeder’s broodmares, foals, and yearlings are kept in Kentucky at Columbiana Farm, and “Mrs. Zeibarth purchased a Kentucky farm of her own last year. Some of her California-breds are there as part of their retirement, and she uses that farm primarily for pensioners, as well as for some of the show horses,” Anderson concluded.

Adviser Kathy Berkey said, “I buy horses for Pam and plan matings for mares. Pam rarely sells a horse; this is a labor of love for her.

“Cecelia would sell horses from time to time, but Pam tends to keep them all. It’s wonderful to have clients who love to breed and race their own.”

Berkey continued: “I think this was the fifth Grade 1 winner that Pam’s been connected with. She and her half-brother became partners with the original co-owner, Michael Cooper, in Tiznow and were part of the ownership when the horse won his second Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“Before that, she was already into the Grand Prix horse show world, and then she decided to get into Thoroughbred racing. That was when Pam and I connected, and I bought some horses for her, both mares and younger stock. I bought Healthy Addiction for her [from the 2002 Keeneland September yearling sale], and she won the G1 Santa Margarita. Then she became the dam of My Sweet Addiction (Tiznow), who won the Vanity, now called the Beholder. Another filly I bought didn’t make it to the track but produced Tiz Flirtatious, who was by Tizbud,” one of the full brothers to Tiznow.

And now Sweet Azteca is the fifth.

On a bare reading of the pedigree before Sweet Azteca’s race, with the filly’s dam So Sweetitiz being the only stakes winner in the first three generations before Saturday, it looked a little light, compared to other branches of this family. Berkey noted that appearances might be deceiving: “The second dam is unraced because Sweetitiz (El Prado) flipped in the paddock when she was in training and fractured a pelvis. That kept us from finding out how good she was.”

The pedigree of Sweet Azteca contains influences from around the world, some of them relatively rare in modern pedigrees. The pedigree even features some inbreeding to French star Massine, winner of the Arc de Triomphe and 11 other races.

Without Ziebarth’s patience and the conscientious training of Mike McCarthy, we might not have found out about the talent within Sweet Azteca, either. After winning her debut at Churchill Downs last May, Eric Anderson said that the “Sweet Azteca was laid up in May 2023 due to a stress fracture of the left tibia that needed 60 to 90 days.”

The powerful gray returned to racing on New Year’s Day with a third-place finish in the G3 Las Flores Stakes, returned on Feb. 2 to win an allowance, and added her first stakes success on March 9 in the Beholder.

According to Berkey, it’s all down to patience and long-term planning. “Pam is a huge believer in patience. She has her horses in training at 2 so they can grow and develop properly but doesn’t push them until they’re ready,” she said. Trainer “Mike McCarthy always has been very high on this filly, and the results speak for themselves.”

Patience pays, in the experience of Ziebarth and her advisers. And especially by having faith in a broodmare whose influence keeps following the sport like a benevolent angel.

a tale of two brothers features a pair of their daughters who are aiming for the kentucky oaks

Tags

american pharoah, brent fernung, gil campbell, journeyman stud, st patrick's day

This is a tale of two brothers, as well as two daughters.

Can there be a racing fan in the world who doesn’t know the name of the first brother, American Pharoah (by Pioneerof the Nile)? He became the first winner of the Triple Crown in 37 years with his memorable successes in 2015 and later added the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Classic to his roll of eight G1s from nine victories in 11 starts. Coolmore purchased the breeding rights to the big bay and stands him at their Ashford Stud outside Versailles, Ky.

Many, however, would be stumped to name his brother based in Florida at Brent and Crystal Fernung’s Journeyman Stud. That would be St Patrick’s Day, a three-years younger full-brother to the Triple Crown champ. Bred in Kentucky by Summer Wind Farm, St Patrick’s Day was purchased privately to race for Susan Magnier. From 10 starts, the muscular bay won a maiden as a 2-year-old at Del Mar, then was sent abroad and, at three, was also second in the G3 Renaissance Stakes at Naas racecourse in Ireland and third in the Celebration Stakes at the Curragh.

After a pair of unsuccessful starts at four, the lads at Coolmore decided that the colt needed a second career and sold him to a partnership based in Florida. 

“Sean Feld called and offered to let us come in on the horse,” Brent Fernung recalled. “I knew the colt and really knew that pedigree, which has so many ties to Florida breeding. So I told Sean, ‘Let me call a man, and I’ll let you know if we’ll go in on the horse. So, I called Gil Campbell, and he said, ‘Yes, let’s buy half.’ It was that quick with Gil.” Fernung said.

Also a partner with Fernung in Florida’s leading sire, Khozan (Distorted Humor), Campbell bred and raised his own racehorses at Stonehedge Farm with his wife Marilyn. After St Patrick’s Day was brought to stand in Florida in 2020, Campbell died in September 2021. Fernung noted that “the sport would be a different world if we had a thousand owner-breeders like Gil Campbell. He knew breeding and he loved racing his own stock. Fortunately, Marilyn loves the game too, and she was at Gulfstream over the weekend to see her horses run.

“Entering stud at Journeyman in 2020, St Patrick’s Day found solid support in Florida’s breeding community and covered 114 mares. From these, he had 74 mares in foal, and those resulted in 70 live foals, which are his first crop, now three. On March 2, Fiona’s Magic became the first stakes winner and first graded stakes winner for her sire with a victory in the G2 Davona Dale Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

Bred in Florida by Stonehedge LLC, Fiona’s Magic represents just a part of the commitment to breeding and racing in the Sunshine State from Stonehedge’s founder Gil Campbell.

“Unless something happens between now and then, the plan for Fiona’s Magic is the Oaks,” Fernung said. “We are thrilled for Marilyn, who was at Gulfstream for the Davona Dale and texted us ‘Here we come, Kentucky!’ All of us are really missing Gil, but we’re having a great time cheering for Marilyn because she absolutely loves the game.”

On the same afternoon as the Davona Dale, Jody’s Pride (American Pharoah) won the Busher Stakes at Aqueduct. Now a winner in four of her five starts, Jody’s Pride won the Matron Stakes last fall and then was a neck runner-up to divisional champion Just F Y I (Justify) in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita. The Busher was the 2024 debut for Jody’s Pride.

Bred in Kentucky by Steve Weston, Jody’s Pride is out of the Scat Daddy mare Jody’s Song. The winner of the Busher Stakes is the second foal of her dam. The mare has a 2-year-old full brother to Jody’s Pride named Moreperfectunion, as well as a yearling full brother who has already been named Jody’s Legacy. Jody’s Song was bred to champion Epicenter (Not This Time) last year and is a half-sister to stakes winner Make Mischief (Into Mischief). They are out of the Speightstown mare Speightful Lady, who won a maiden special on debut, then was sent into the then-G2 Matron Stakes, in which she was unplaced.

Ranked sixth in 2023 on the general sire list, American Pharoah has sired 38 stakes winners, including seven G1 winners. Four of those are G1 winners on turf, and the plan for Jody’s Pride is to send the filly to the G2 Gazelle Stakes and then potentially to the G1 Kentucky Oaks.

As a result, the two daughters of the two brothers may meet on the racetrack in Kentucky to decide another sort of sibling rivalry.

señor buscador takes a long and winding road to glory in the saudi cup

Tags

joe peacock, saudi cup, senor buscador

One of the glories of racing is that the sport provides a journey for which we cannot know or even hazily predict the outcome. Take the experience of Señor Buscador, who won the Group 1 Saudi Cup at King Abdulaziz Racecourse on Feb. 24.

In the $20-million race, the 6-year-old Señor Buscador (by Mineshaft) beat out the 7-year-old Ushba Tesoro (Orfevre) by a head, and the success of that dramatic finish was only the latest in the dramatic and unpredictable life of Señor Buscador.

Bred in Kentucky by Joe Peacock Sr. and Joe Peacock Jr., Señor Buscador was the last horse the father-son team bred together. The elder Peacock, a Texas horseman who had been in racing from the 1960s, died in San Antonio in September 2021. Earlier that year, it had appeared that Señor Buscador might be the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for every committed racehorse owner: taking a trip to the Kentucky Derby.

Having won his debut at Remington Park in November 2020, Señor Buscador returned six weeks later to capture the Springboard Mile at Remington by 5 ¾ lengths. The Peacocks and their trainer, Todd Fincher, had a live prospect.

For the colt’s 3-year-old debut, they selected the G2 Risen Star Stakes at the Fair Grounds, and both the connections and the betting public were very high on the Mineshaft colt’s prospects. Señor Buscador started as second favorite to Mandaloun (Into Mischief), who won the race, and was favored over subsequent Grade 1 winner Proxy (Tapit) and the multiple Grade 1-placed Midnight Bourbon (Tiznow), who were second and third. After going wide on both turns and extremely wide in the stretch, Señor Buscador was beaten 7 ½ lengths into fifth.

That was disappointing, but worse was to come. While training for the G2 Rebel Stakes, Señor Buscador reportedly injured a suspensory ligament in his right front leg and didn’t race again until July 2022.

Later in 2021, the senior Peacock passed, but Señor Buscador continued his rehab and training toward a return to racing. The colt came back to win an allowance at Lone Star racetrack on July 3, 2022, and next was eighth in the G2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar. Señor Buscador was third in the G2 Pat O’Brien Stakes and then won the G3 Ack Ack Stakes at Churchill Downs in his prep for the G1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland in 2022.

For the first half of the race, Señor Buscador alternated with Cody’s Wish (Curlin) to see who could be last; then Cody’s Wish bade him farewell and went up to be third at the three-quarters, second at the stretch call, and win dramatically from Cyberknife (Gun Runner). Señor Buscador, on the other hand, played tag with the middle of the track through the stretch and was eighth.

Perhaps the Dirt Mile was a bridge too far at the time, but the disappointment did not alter the owner’s and trainer’s belief in their colt. Señor Buscador stayed sound and stayed in training.

The late-running son of Mineshaft returned to racing four months after the Breeders’ Cup for a start in the Curribot Handicap at Sunland Park in New Mexico. Favored at 1-to-10, Señor Buscador won by four lengths in his 2023 debut and never has raced in anything but graded stakes since.

The horse’s only other victory last year came in the G2 San Diego, and trainer Fincher commented: “Something bad always happens to him.” Indeed, as a committed deep closer, Señor Buscador is always at a disadvantage. After finishing close up in multiple G1 events last year, he was tried in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic and came home seventh behind White Abarrio (Race Day).

But the racing gods seemed almost to smile on Señor Buscador in his subsequent starts. He was second in the G2 Cigar Mile to Hoist the Gold (Mineshaft) and again second in the G1 Pegasus Invitational to National Treasure (Quality Road).

And when all the money was down in Saudi Arabia, Señor Buscador came through with the most thrilling victory of his career.

Bred by the Peacocks, Señor Buscador is a half-brother to three other stakes winners, including Runaway Ghost (Ghostzapper), who won the G3 Sunland Derby. Their dam, Rose’s Desert, won 10 of her 15 starts, including a race named in honor of Peppers Pride, the unbeaten champion of New Mexico racing who won all of her 19 starts.

Both Rose’s Desert and Peppers Pride are by Desert God (Fappiano). The mare’s sire had a world-class pedigree, being by a leading national sire and out of Kentucky Oaks winner Blush With Pride (Blushing Groom). Desert God proved a multiple leading sire in New Mexico.

Rose’s Desert is also the dam of a 3-year-old filly, Aye Candy (Candy Ride), winner of her debut at Zia Park last November; a 2-year-old filly, Rose A (Hard Spun); and a yearling colt, The Hell We Did (Authentic). The mare was bred to Into Mischief in 2023 and will be sent to Uncle Mo this year, Peacock noted.

Señor Buscador is the eighth G1 winner for his sire, Mineshaft, who was Horse of the Year in 2003 and is one of the last surviving sons of Horse of the Year A.P. Indy still at stud. From 19 crops of racing age, including 2-year-olds of 2024, Mineshaft has sired 1,243 foals, 958 starters (77 percent), 683 winners (55 percent), 60 stakes winners (5 percent), and has progeny earnings of $96,485,674. The scopey bay stands at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky for a stud fee of $10,000 live foal.

Mineshaft began his 4-year-old season as a well-respected but still undeveloped talent and ended up as champion of his division and the Horse of the Year. Twenty-one years later, Señor Buscador has started his 6-year-old season very strongly with a second in the Pegasus and a win in the desert last weekend.

Who knows where it all will lead?

tarifa is yet another smart performer for a female family that is lighting up

With a brave victory in the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra Stakes at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans, Tarifa put the spotlight on herself as one of the better fillies in this crop and made her sire and dam objects of increased interest.

Her sire Bernardini (by A.P. Indy) needs no introduction. The champion 3-year-old of 2006 became a leading sire whose best racers included G1 Travers Stakes winners Alpha and Stay Thirsty, as well as more than a dozen other G1 winners, including Art Collector (Woodward, Pegasus Invitational), Cavorting (Personal Ensign, Test), Rachel’s Valentina (Spinaway), To Honor and Serve (Woodward), and West Will Power (Stephen Foster).

On July 30, 2021, Bernardini was euthanized due to complications of laminitis. He was 18 years old. His final crop were foaled in 2022 and are 2-year-olds. Tarifa is from the stallion’s next-to-last crop and is his most recent stakes winner.

Raced by Godolphin and bred in Kentucky at their spacious holdings in the Bluegrass, Tarifa is out of the Awesome Again mare Kite Beach, who was unraced. Kite Beach is out of a very distinguished mare, Tizdubai, who is a graded stakes winner and a full sister to Horse of the Year Tiznow (Cee’s Tizzy) and two other stakes winners: Budroyale (four-time G2 stakes winner and earner of $2.8 million) and Tizbud.

With those relations and a fetching physical presence, Tizdubai brought $950,000 at the 2001 Keeneland November sale out of the Denali Stud consignment, agent for breeder Cee’s Stable LLC.

On the racetrack, Tizdubai won her only two starts as a juvenile for Godolphin and trainer Eoin Harty, including the G2 Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar. After the Sorrento, Tizdubai was found to have a condylar fracture in her right foreleg and was put away for the season.

The filly went abroad and raced twice in England the following year. She was sixth in the G3 Princess Elizabeth Stakes at Epsom and then seventh in the G1 Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket in 2004. Timeform did not give her a rating off those two efforts but described her as a leggy, attractive filly and reported that she had suffered a fracture to her left hock and was retired.

Tizdubai went to the paddocks with immense expectations, but her best runner on the evidence of the racetrack proved to be Madinat Jumeirah (Bernardini), who won three times in Bahrain, where he was champion 3-year-old colt. That, however, was not a very high bar and did not qualify for black type, according to the international cataloging standards as codified by the Society of International Thoroughbred Auctioneers.

As the colts did not carry the banners high, Godolphin chose to sell on the daughters of the mare, including the dam of Tarifa.

At the time of sale, Tarifa had a dam with no black type among her own produce, and her oldest daughter, the Storm Cat mare Genisa, had produced only a restricted stakes winner. So Kite Beach went to the 2021 Keeneland November sale while carrying her second foal to a cover by Bernardini. The mare’s foal of 2021, retained by Godolphin, was Tarifa.

Even with a quiet first dam, Kite Beach looked the part of a likely producer of quality at the sale and sold for $100,000 to M T Stables. Then, three months later, she went through the Fasig-Tipton February sale of 2022 and sold for $115,000 to Calumet Farm.

“One of the nice things about the purchase was that the mare foaled at the sale,” Calumet’s manager Eddie Kane said. “She’s a Fasig-Tipton-bred.

“Seriously, Kite Beach is a lovely mare, medium-sized, plenty of quality, and very nice to be around. She has the 2-year-old Bernardini filly that we sold as a yearling, has a yearling colt by Knicks Go, slipped to Lexitonian, and was bred to Cody’s Wish. We’ll check her this week for pregnancy.”

The boost to the Calumet operation comes because Godolphin chose to sell some of its stock. In the simplest terms, “You can’t keep them all,” the operation’s director of bloodstock Michael Banahan said of the sale.

Indeed, an operation the size of Godolphin, for instance, would need to buy up practically half of the Bluegrass just to house mares and foals if it kept all of its annual production of about 100 foals. Instead, Banahan said, “We’ll cover about 160 home mares, but a good number of those will then go through the sales, and we’re looking to keep around 120 to 130 broodmares so that we would have about 100 yearlings or 2-year-olds coming each year.”

In the case of Tizdubai and her offspring, when Kite Beach came to the Keeneland sale three years ago last November, it was an awfully quiet family. Only Genisa has a black-type winner. Now, how different the page looks. Kite Beach is the third daughter of Tizdubai to produce a graded performer.

In addition to Five Star Rampage (Quality Road), Genisa has a pair of Deep Impact stakes performers in Japan (Kaiser Barows and Grand Slam Ask); the younger Fancy Day (Shamardal) has Cabo Spirit (Pioneerof the Nile), who won the G2 Twilight Derby and G3 La Jolla Handicap, and the multiple stakes-placed Convention (Constitution); and Kite Beach has G2 winner Tarifa, who is the mare’s first foal.

The outlook is better and better for this branch of a fascinating family.