orb shines brightly on historic kentucky derby traditions

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breeding classic winners, Kentucky Derby, lady liberty, malibu moon, ogden mills phipps, orb, shug mcgaughey, stuart janney iii, unbridled

The following post first appeared in Paulick Report last week.

On Kentucky Derby day, no sun shined brightly. Instead, it was a dark and rainy day, but there was an Orb who shined nonetheless. That was a dark bay colt gleaming with water and streaked with mud from the sloppy Churchill Downs surface.

The fire within that lit the Derby winner’s eyes, that powered the remarkable stroke of his stride, is part of a legacy from his famed forebears, which include classic winners A.P. Indy (Belmont Stakes) and Unbridled (Kentucky Derby).

The Derby winner’s pedigree is part of a long history of dedication to Thoroughbred breeding and racing that can be read in the Paulick Report’s owner-breeder story. It is part of the breeders’ continuing search to find the best bloodstock and breed the best racehorses.

Part of that tradition is Claiborne Farm, which has raised Thoroughbreds for the Phippses and Janneys for decades. Claiborne also stood Bold Reasoning, a grandson of the Phipps family’s great stallion Bold Ruler. In the first year of his brief career at stud, Bold Reasoning became the sire of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, the sire of Horse of the Year A.P. Indy, who was bred by Will Farish in partnership and stood his entire stud career at Farish’s Lane’s End Farm, where the grand old stallion still resides.

Now pensioned, A.P. Indy has proven a landmark stallion, both because of his individual accomplishments as a sire and because he has been a major force in reviving Claiborne’s greatest male line of Nasrullah and Bold Ruler and putting it again on the pinnacle of American breeding.

With Princess of Sylmar winning the Kentucky Oaks on Friday and Orb succeeding in the Derby, the A.P. Indy male line won both classics. This is the glittering hallmark of quality that has made the A.P. Indy male line the preeminent source of classic ability in North America.

The sire of Princess of Sylmar is Coolmore’s Majestic Warrior, a son of A.P. Indy whose first foals are 3 and who stands at the operation’s Ashford Stud outside Versailles, Ky. The Kentucky Derby winner is by Malibu Moon, a thoroughly proven son of A.P. Indy who stands at Wayne Hughes’ Spendthrift Farm north of Lexington.

Bred and raced by Hughes, Malibu Moon showed exceptional speed and precocity, winning a 5-furlong maiden special before injury sent him into retirement. He had shown such speed that he found a spot at stud in Maryland at the Pons family’s Country Life Farm. After the success of his first two crops to race, including champion juvenile Declan’s Moon, Malibu Moon moved to Kentucky, and his star has risen year after year.

Ned Toffey, general manager of Spendthrift, noted that the high class and natural ability of the stock by Malibu Moon have continued to elevate the stallion’s status, crop after crop, and the stallion’s stud fee has risen in similar fashion. From 11 crops of racing age, Malibu Moon has 67 stakes winners to date.

This season, Malibu Moon has a book of about 150 mares, and one of them is Lady Liberty, the dam of Orb, and a daughter of Unbridled.

Toffey said, “I like the mating that produced Orb because it incorporates some of the suggestions that I’ve made to breeders, that they look to add scope and try to lighten up the resulting foal. That’s what I see in Orb. He’s a good-sized, strong horse, but he’s not what I’d call heavy.”

In physical type, Orb clearly takes a good deal from his dam and her celebrated sire Unbridled, a truly big horse with tremendous scope and bone. He was a stakes winner at 2, then improved out of sight at 3 under the handling of trainer Carl Nafzger, winning the Kentucky Derby, finishing second to Summer Squall in the Preakness, and winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic in the fall.

As a stallion, Unbridled exceeded even what he proved on the racetrack.

At stud, Unbridled sired the winners of all three Triple Crown races: Grindstone (Kentucky Derby), Red Bullet (Preakness), and Empire Maker (Belmont Stakes). The stallion also sired winners of many other G1 races, including multiple Breeders’ Cup victors, and now, as the broodmare sire of Orb, Unbridled has added a second classic to add to Preakness victory by Shackleford (by Forestry out of the Unbridled mare Oatsee).

Unbridled, representing a strain of Mr. Prospector that is essentially classic, is out of a mare by the important French-bred stallion Le Fabuleux. After early success at stud in France, Le Fabuleux was imported to Kentucky to stand at Claiborne in the 1960s by A.B. “Bull” Hancock Jr., and one of the shareholders in that syndicate and consistent supporters of the stallion was Ogden Phipps, the father of Orb’s co-breeder and -owner, Dinny Phipps.

Among the most successful breeders to use Le Fabuleux was Tartan Farms, which bred Unbridled and sold him at the Tartan Farms dispersal to Frances Genter, who raced the colt, then retired him to stud at Gainesway Farm.

When Unbridled hit the brass ring with a first crop that included Kentucky Derby winner Grindstone and major winner and sire Unbridled’s Song, overseas interests came calling with the intent to purchase and potentially export Unbridled.

A group led by Rich Santulli thwarted that effort, buying a controlling interest in the horse and sending him to spend the rest of his career at Claiborne, where he sired Lady Liberty, the dam of Orb.

With his performance last Saturday, Orb glittered with a hard, gem-like flame that reflected the time, tradition, and generations of commitment that produced him.

emory a hamilton discusses verrazano and developing the family of too chic

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breeding thoroughbreds, emory a hamilton, helen alexander, verrazzano

The following article first appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

One advantage that home breeders have in the selection of stock is that they can make themselves aware of subtleties in stock that are meaningful and can disregard things that are not.

For Emory Alexander Hamilton, who bred and sold the unbeaten Kentucky Derby prospect Verrazano, knowledge of one of her family’s King Ranch Thoroughbred lines led her to purchase a landmark mare that has shaped Hamilton’s breeding program for three decades.

In a recent interview, Hamilton recalled that her sister, Helen Alexander, “had taken over the management of the King Ranch Thoroughbreds after our grandfather died. She sold some colts, and in 1980, she also included fillies in the King Ranch consignment.”

Among those fillies was an elegant bay by French highweight Blushing Groom and the second foal out of the talented Dr. Fager mare Remedia, a daughter of French classic winner Monade.

The yearling filly was Too Chic, and Hamilton purchased her at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July sale of selected yearlings for $100,000. At the time, Blushing Groom was a well-regarded but unproven sire, and the filly wasn’t perfect in front.

Hamilton said that Too Chic “didn’t move that well in front, but she was a good walker, and Tom Cooper of the BBA (Ireland) agreed to buy her for me as a friend.”

Going against the grain of the hyper-critical marketplace, Hamilton wanted to buy high-class stock. She said, “Her crookedness didn’t bother me. She was a pretty nice filly” for scope and quality, “and Monade was that way too and was good-sized.”

Having secured a filly who would prove a more potent foundation mare than others who would cost much more in the sales ring, Hamilton did right by the filly to let her show her class on the racetrack by giving her time and sending her to the proper sort of trainer.

Hamilton said that “Tom Cooper persuaded me to be patient with Too Chic and put me with trainer Jim Maloney. That worked out pretty well.”

Yes, indeed. Making her début at 3, Too Chic won four of her eight starts, including the Grade 1 Maskette Stakes, and placed second in two stakes, including the G1 Alabama over 10 furlongs at Saratoga.

Retired to stud, Too Chic was sent to the important young sire Mr. Prospector and produced a pair of G1 winners in Chic Shirine and champion Queena.

That makes breeding good racehorses seem simple, doesn’t it?

Chic Shirine emulated her dam by winning a G1, the Ashland, at 3 and running third in the G1 Mother Goose. And her younger full sister won three times at the premium level during her championship season at 5.

At stud, Chic Shirine produced a pair of G2 stakes winners, Tara Roma and Waldoboro, both by leading sire Lyphard (Northern Dancer). The mare’s last foal was by Northern Dancer’s great-grandson Giant’s Causeway, and she is named Enchanted Rock.

Hamilton said that Enchanted Rock, the dam of Verrazano, “is a very big mare, standing about 17.1. Shug had her, ran her one time, and she got hurt. So we bred her to Pulpit because he was proven, had good speed, and was smaller, thinking to go against size because we didn’t want anything bigger.”

After breeding four generations of this family, Hamilton knows her stock, and her first result from Enchanted Rock was graded stakes winner El Padrino.

The second was Verrazano (More Than Ready), now a G1 winner and one of the chief favorites for the Kentucky Derby.

Hamilton noted that Verrazano is a “good-sized More Than Ready and was a good-looking colt” when sent to the yearling sales at Keeneland in September of 2011, where the bay brought $250,000 from Let’s Go Stable.

Hamilton “generally sells the colts and keeps the fillies” from her broodmares, and that is the pattern she followed with Enchanted Rock’s first three foals. The first two are El Padrino and Verrazano, and the third is the Tapit filly La Madrina that Hamilton has in training with Shug McGaughey as a 2-year-old.

As all the world and especially those closely associated with the Kentucky Derby contenders watch them train at Churchill Downs this week, Hamilton noted that, “Enchanted Rock’s babies have very good minds. They don’t get worked up like some.”

That might be an observation to remember about a colt who will experience the most exciting 30 minutes of a racehorse’s life just before he competes in the most exciting two minutes in sports.

departing wins a derby, aims at preakness for claiborne and dilschneider

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adele dilschneider, claiborne farm, departing, homebred racehorses, war front

The following post first appeared at Paulick Report last week.

With the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby less than two weeks away, the Coolmore Lexington Stakes at Keeneland and Illinois Derby at Hawthorne were essentially the final two preps for classic colts, especially since trainers apparently can no longer prepare a colt for the Derby on less than two weeks’ rest.

What would the great trainer Ben Jones think about this puzzle of highly trained and lightly raced colts?

All the thinkage may be moot, however, because neither winner of the weekend preps is likely to start in the classic at Churchill Downs.

The Lexington Stakes winner, Winning Cause (by Giant’s Causeway), is trained by Todd Pletcher, who already has five colts confirmed for the first classic (the highly rated and unbeaten Verrazano, as well as Revolutionary, Overanalyze, Palace Malice, and Charming Kitten). Pletcher noted after the race that Winning Cause had been entered for the Lexington because he had raced so well at Keeneland before, not because the connections were gunning for points to make the classic.

If the Giant’s Causeway colt, now a winner in three of his seven starts, challenges for a Triple Crown race, it is more likely to be the Preakness, two weeks after the Derby and four weeks from the Lexington.

That race is also a possible target for Illinois Derby winner Departing (War Front). Although a winner in four of his five starts, Departing doesn’t have sufficient points to be in the top 20 among prospective Kentucky Derby starters, even if his seasoning suggested that he would benefit from the experience.

So few colts actually come out of the Derby better than they went in that the horsemen overseeing Departing’s development are more likely to choose a conservative course that will offer the gelded bay son of War Front the time to develop and show his ability through the season.

Bred in Kentucky by co-owners Adele Dilschneider and Claiborne Farm (Departing races in the Claiborne colors), the son of War Front is the third foal of the Pulpit mare Leave. Unplaced in her only start, Leave is a full sister to Laity, winner of the Cradle Stakes and the John Battaglia Memorial. The mare is also a half-sister to the highly accomplished stakes winner Trip (Lord at War), who won a trio of G3 stakes and $888,773, and to the speedy stakes winner Joke (Phone Trick), who is also the dam of freshman sire Zensational.

Leave and her siblings are out of the stakes-winning Forty Niner mare Tour, and she is one of three stakes winners out of the Full Pocket mare Fun Flight, a stakes winner herself. This is a family known for its speed and quality, and Departing represents another generation of its success at Claiborne.

The first two foals out of Leave are solid winners by Claiborne stallion Arch, but Departing is a major step up in class from his siblings. A winner of his début on Dec. 22, Departing bowled over his opponents for his next condition with victory in a Feb. 1 allowance, both races at Fair Grounds racetrack in New Orléans. Departing became a stakes winner in his third start, the Texas Heritage Stakes at Sam Houston over a mile on March 2.

The gelding’s only loss to date was a third in the Louisiana Derby, and after four victories in five races, Departing’s earnings now total $628,000.

The Illinois Derby winner is by the Claiborne stallion War Front, a son of the great sire Danzig. War Front had a good weekend, when Departing ran successfully in Illinois and the year-older Summer Front won the Miami Mile at Calder.

The 11-year-old stallion has 20 stakes winners to date. A winner of the Alfred Vanderbilt and second in the Vosburgh, Forego, and Tom Fool, War Front had impressive speed. That is the signal quality of his offspring, allied with an enthusiasm for racing and class.

Speed and class such as that seen in the stallion’s sons The Factor and Soldat, and now in Departing, have made War Front one of the most prominent young stallions, and his offspring are in high demand, just like seasons to the stallions, who now stands for $80,000 live foal and is receiving stronger books of mares each year.

war pass scores with derby colts

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blue grass stakes, charles fipke, classic colts, homebreds, keeneland racetrack, war pass

The following post first appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

Victory in Saturday’s Toyota Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland made Java’s War the first Grade 1 winner from the progeny of 2007 champion juvenile War Pass (by Cherokee Run). The Blue Grass winner joins G2 Louisiana Derby winner Revolutionary as hot prospects by their sire for the upcoming Triple Crown, with the Kentucky Derby being run the first Saturday in May.

Revolutionary and Java’s War are the two best racers by their sire, who unfortunately died after only two seasons at stud in Kentucky at Lane’s End Farm. The previously named colts were only weanlings when War Pass died of unknown causes after being turned out in his paddock on Dec. 24, 2010.

With his abrupt loss, the prospects of War Pass leaving an important mark on the breed seemed remote, but already the stallion’s two most prominent sons are ensuring a measure of respect and recognition for War Pass that may someday equal his fame as a racehorse.

On the track, War Pass was an exceptional performer. He was unbeaten at 2, winning both the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Champagne Stakes. War Pass was unquestionably the best colt of his crop at 2, with great strength and early maturity, but he failed to train on at 3, with his best effort from three starts being a second in the G1 Wood Memorial to Tale of Ekati, a colt owned and bred by Charles Fipke, who bred and races Java’s War.

War Pass had been a very good sales yearling, going for $180,000 at the 2006 Keeneland September sale out of the Claiborne Farm consignment. Bred by Cherry Valley Farm, War Pass was out of the Mr. Prospector mare Vue and was a half-brother to G1 winner Oath (Known Fact).

Trainer Nick Zito helped to select the colt for buyer Robert LaPenta, who raced the colt through his unbeaten juvenile season before syndicating him for stud.

War Pass entered stud at Lane’s End for the 2009 season for $30,000 live foal and had 63 reported foals from that crop. He covered 83 mares in his second year, standing for $20,000 in a rapidly declining economy, and had 61 foals that are now 2-year-olds.

By War Pass out of a mare by Rainbow Quest, Java’s War is linebred to Blushing Groom through the male line and broodmare sire line. That is both intriguing and potentially unimportant. It’s intriguing because this line in generally in abeyance in the States and worldwide; yet here it is doubly represented in this obviously good-class racer.

While Nashwan was Blushing Groom’s best racing son in Europe, although perhaps by a narrower margin than the headlines for that classic winner might suggest, Rainbow Quest was his sire’s best stallion son across the pond. Elsewhere, Runaway Groom, Rahy, and Mt. Livermore were the most prominent stallion sons in the States, with Candy Stripes taking the limelight in South America.

The linebreeding may not be of too great importance because Java’s War, from all the evidence of his racing performance, is much more a Rainbow Quest than a Blushing Groom.

In the Blue Grass, Java’s War has turned in his best performance at nine furlongs, the longest distance he has yet raced, won at the G1 level on a synthetic surface that usually suits closing horses, and shows every evidence of being a maturing colt who should improve further.

The colt’s racing style and success are thrilling to owner-breeder Charles Fipke, who purchased Java, the dam of Java’s War, for $350,000 from the Lane’s End consignment at the 2009 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. The colt was born the following spring on May 4, and Java’s War will be 3 by the calendar on Derby Day.

Fipke, a serious student of the logic of pedigrees, said at the Blue Grass post-race interview that the rationale for the mating that produced Java’s War was crossing the early speed of champion War Pass onto the classic potential of a Rainbow Quest mare.

The English-bred Java was not an average Rainbow Quest mare. Only a winner on the track, Java is a full sister to the high-class racemare Fiji, who had sold for $3.1 million as an 8-year-old in foal to Danehill in 2002, then resold in foal to Hard Spun as a 14-year-old in 2010 for $110,000 to Bluegrass Hall.

This is a robust family of good performers that have shown their best form on turf racing a mile or more. Java’s War should write further chapters in their saga.

verrazano looks ready for the classics after victory in the wood memorial

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Kentucky Derby, more than ready, wood memorial, verrazano, emory alexander hamilton, helen alexander, middlebrook farm, monade, enchanted rock

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

Now unbeaten in four races, Verrazano made himself one of the chief favorites for the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby with his victory in the Wood Memorial over the Tapit colt Normandy Invasion.

Those two, along with Florida Derby winner Orb, Santa Anita Derby winner Goldencents, and a couple more who will be rising to the occasion in the next week or two, figure to make up the top half-dozen selections for the Run for the Roses on the first Saturday in May.

Verrazano was bred in Kentucky by Emory Alexander Hamilton and raised at Helen Alexander’s Middlebrook Farm on Old Frankfort Pike, where Hamilton keeps all her mares.

Middlebrook is home to most of the broodmares from this family, descending from the French highweight and classic winner Monade, whom Robert J. Kleberg Jr. purchased and imported in the early 1960s. (For more on the history of this importation, see the previous column here.)

Much of the success of this line, including champion Queena, G1 winners Too Chic and Brahms, and other high-quality performers, has come from grafting classic-quality speed horses onto this robustly classic line. Among the sires used successfully with the Monade family have been Horse of the Year Dr. Fager, French classic winner Blushing Groom, and the great sires Mr. Prospector and Danzig.

The dam of Verrazano, Enchanted Rock (by Giant’s Causeway), was one of the exceptions to racing success in the family. She was unplaced in her only start, but she has begun her career the right way.

Both of the mare’s first two foals of racing age are graded stakes winners: G2 winner El Padrino (Pulpit) and now Verrazano.

Enchanted Rock’s 2-year-old is a filly by leading sire Tapit, and the mare has a yearling filly by Pulpit who is a full sister to El Padrino. On April 3, Enchanted Rock produced a chestnut colt by Pulpit, and the mare is booked to return to More Than Ready, the sire of Verrazano.

A 16-year-old son of the supreme South American sire Southern Halo, More Than Ready was a high-class 2-year-old in 1999, when he won four stakes while showing more speed and precocity than stamina. The colt returned the following season to win at the G1 level with a success in the King’s Bishop at Saratoga and also placed second in the G1 Blue Grass and G1 Vosburgh.

More Than Ready had better precocity and a higher turn of speed than most of this male line coming from the Hail to Reason stallion Halo through Southern Halo. More Than Ready also offered an outcross, but the stallion had to earn his way into the good graces of many breeders, as this line was not and still is not overly strong in North America.

In South America, Southern Halo and his sons get champion juveniles and 10-furlong classic winners, along with much of everything between. And in Australia, where More Than Ready began shuttling several years ago, the stallion has earned an even higher ranking among breeders than he enjoys in the States.

As evidence of this, the stallion’s stud fee of $121,000 ($Aus, including tax) in Australia is quite a bit higher than his Kentucky fee of $60,000 live foal.

More Than Ready earned his success with consistency and quality, and he has managed to show consistency, even though he entered stud in the era of over-large books. From more than 2,000 foals worldwide, the stallion has 118 stakes winners at present.

Verrazano is the 13th G1 winner for his sire, and given mares with scope and strength and more stamina in the family, More Than Ready is showing the capacity to get high-class performers across a variety of distances and surfaces in North American, and as his successes build, so do the quality of his mates.

When Enchanted Rock first went to More Than Ready, she was an unproven mare with a good family and potential. Now, she will be one of the stars of the stallion’s 2013 book, and some canny observers of racing form believe that the mating will look even better after the first Saturday in May.

smart strike succeeds with a wide variety of types and aptitudes

Tags

lane's end farm, mr. prospector, smart strike, stallion success

The following first appeared in the Paulick Report sale special prior to the Fasig-Tipton Florida sale of select 2-year-olds in training at Palm Meadows.

A multi-year leading national sire, Smart Strike sires a wide variety of excellent athletes, such as the top sprinter Fabulous Strike, the champion turf performer English Channel, champion juveniles Lookin at Lucky and My Miss Aurelia, and Horse of the Year Curlin.

Several of Smart Strike’s top performers have shown their best form when given time and sometimes a good deal of distance, but the successful son of the great sire Mr. Prospector is also the sire this year of the most expensive 2-year-old sold in training.

That big performer in the sales ring was the gray colt who topped the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s auction week before last at $1.8 million. The leading sales colt was from a prominent family developed by the leading breeder Edward ‘Ned’ Evans and sold initially at the dispersal of stock from the Evans estate.

Let’s not jinx anyone by predicting a similar result in the Fasig-Tipton sale of juveniles in training held at Palm Meadows, but Smart Strike does have a pair of promising juveniles entered in the sale as Hips 19 and 71.

The first is a filly out of the unraced Unbridled’s Song mare Music Room, a half-sister to the smashing performers Music Note (by A.P. Indy), winner of the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks, Mother Goose, Gazelle, and Beldame Stakes; and Musical Chimes (In Excess), winner of the G1 French 1,000 Guineas and John Mabee Handicap. The filly’s third dam is champion It’s in the Air (Mr. Prospector), and this filly is inbred to the landmark sire Mr. Prospector 2x5x4.

Hip 71 is a chestnut colt who is the first foal out of the Rahy mare Tejida, a winner of more than a quarter-million dollars who ran second or third in the Bewitch, The Very One, Doubledogdare, Gallorette, and All Along, all G3 stakes named for famous racemares. This colt’s second dam is the multiple G3 winner Batique, a daughter of Storm Cat.

As a leading sire, Smart Strike has earned excellent books of mares with deep pedigrees, as the preceding pair of yearlings indicate. The stallion’s best books of mares have come in his latter years as the 21-year-old stallion has continued to succeed at a high level. Smart Strike was sired when Mr. Prospector was 22, and this is a sire line that continues producing premium individuals at a very late age.

Although Smart Strike is the last-surviving son of Mr. Prospector at the top of the stud fee list ($85,000 live foal), there are also Not for Love ($15,000), Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus ($7,500), and major winner E Dubai ($7,500), who sired Fort Larned, winner of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic.

animal kingdom offers the prospect of international greatness

Tags

animal kingdom, arrowfield stud, dubai world cup, international racing, team valor

The following article first appeared last week in Paulick Report.

“He who is tired of watching Animal Kingdom race is tired of sport.” That’s a rough rewriting of Samuel Johnson’s comment about London, but it captures the spirit that the great man of letters was working to convey.

So, it is good news for those of us who hold the 5-year-old chestnut son of Leroidesanimaux in high esteem that owner-breeder Team Valor (Barry Irwin) and John Messara, whose Arrowfield Stud bought the controlling interest in the breeding rights to Animal Kingdom, have been sounding both sporting and adventurous in the wake of the horse’s impressive victory in the Group 1 Dubai World Cup on Saturday.

In addition to the discussion of a race at Ascot in June, Messara told the press corps that he was high on the idea of trying Animal Kingdom in Australia in a pair of prestigious races this fall and next spring.

Participating in those races would necessarily delay the horse’s retirement to stud from August of this year, which had been planned so that Animal Kingdom could enter stud in Australia at Arrowfield for the Southern Hemisphere season, to probably a year later for the 2014 season in Australia.

That would be great news for racing and potentially for Messara, who could see the horse’s stud value escalate radically if Animal Kingdom strung together important victories in these different racing environments.

No horse since the great New Zealand champion Strawberry Road has covered that much territory and carried his form at the highest level through all the changes of climate and competition. But Animal Kingdom might take the challenge a step further.

The Kentucky Derby winner has shown excellent quality, courage, and racing ability in his four most important races to date: 2011 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, 2012 Breeders’ Cup Mile, and Dubai World Cup. Winner of the first and fourth of those, Animal Kingdom pushed Shackleford to a peak performance in the Preakness and caught 2012 Horse of the Year Wise Dan at his best form and distance in the BC Mile.

Animal Kingdom’s improving form with age is almost a given with his pedigree, by a Brazilian-bred champion in Leroidesanimaux who had speed and high class that reached a peak during his 5-year-old season on the track, winning the Eclipse Award as leading turf horse.

Likewise, the World Cup winner is out of the G3 stakes-winning Dalicia, a German-bred and -raced  filly that Team Valor bought and brought to the States, where she raced and then became the dam of Animal Kingdom.

Dalicia is a daughter of the great German racehorse, sire, and broodmare sire Acatenango (by Surumu), who won seven times at the G1 level, including the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

So, from the top and bottom of his pedigree, Animal Kingdom is loaded with ancestors who were travelers, who showed international form and high class, such as Blushing Groom, Lyphard, Lorenzaccio, and Dancing Brave.

And, although he doesn’t look much like him, I was most reminded of Dancing Brave when Animal Kingdom smoothly took command of the World Cup coming into the home straight and pricked his ears.

Was the World Cup that easy for this horse?

Whether it was or not, as Animal Kingdom stretched away to win comfortably from his multiple G1-winning opponents, the impression he gave me was that rather cheeky expression of superiority that Dancing Brave could convey even when faced with champions or classic winners.

Should this talented and handsome classic winner become the contemporary equivalent of the globe-trotting Strawberry Road but win all the big events, Animal Kingdom will be taking the racing public of Australia, North America, and potentially the rest of the world along for the exhilarating ride.

As social media and immediate internet access have made racing in the UAE as easy to follow as racing at our local tracks, the worldwide net of racing fans has likewise grown. Sports fans love a winner, especially one who has come through the fire of adversity to win the great events, and Animal Kingdom is the face of racing to millions of potential fans and punters.

And, should all these “ifs” come to bear successful fruit, Animal Kingdom would become the most sought-after stallion prospect in the world.

racers by midnight lute show their class around two turns

Tags

bob baffert, hill 'n' dale farm, macon wilmil, marjac farms, midnight lute, mike pegram, real quiet, stallion success, tom evans, trackside farm

The following article was first published last week at Paulick Report.

With a Sunland Park double in their Derby and Oaks, Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm’s young sire Midnight Lute scored successes that confound simple analysis of stallion potential and performance. The stallion’s son Govenor Charlie won the Sunland Park Derby by five lengths for owner-breeder Mike Pegram, and the Midnight Lute filly Midnight Lucky won the Sunland Park Oaks by eight lengths for Pegram, Watson, and Weitman, who also campaigned Midnight Lute. Both are trained by Bob Baffert, as were Midnight Lute and his sire, Real Quiet.

A resounding champion as a sprinter on the racetrack with victories at 4 and 5 in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, Midnight Lute was not pedigreed to be a specialist sprinter, and his performance at stud has been in keeping with his bloodlines, more so than his racetrack performances.

This is not surprising, as the stallion’s sire is the champion and premier 10-furlong performer Real Quiet, whose best races came with victories in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Pimlico Special. As a sire, Real Quiet did not reproduce himself with a classic-winning colt. His best son was Midnight Lute, although some of his best daughters performed at the highest level at classic distances.

A tall and elegant horse of classic proportions, Real Quiet did not typically sire the broad and precociously muscled type of yearling preferred by the sales market. As a result, most breeders abandoned the horse quickly, with better mares moving to stallions with more saleable produce.

One exception was Midnight Lute’s co-breeder Trackside Farm, whose owner Tom Evans said, “Real Quiet had runners by the time we decided to send Candytuft to him, and in addition to fitting the stud fee range we could afford for the mare, the reason to make that mating was that I loved Real Quiet’s profile. He was a really beautiful horse, and we thought the match was what the mare needed to add some stretch to the foal.”

After the mare had foaled in 2002, she went to Real Quiet in May and did not conceive. The breeders’ options were to send Candytuft to the stallion in June or pass and breed her early the following year. They opted for the first, and Evans said, “I remember that every time I send a mare to a stallion in June. Midnight Lute was a May 13 foal,” and that is typically considered a non-commercial foaling date.

In the case of Midnight Lute, it didn’t matter. The yearling colt combined his dam’s correct conformation and general attractiveness with the sire’s scope and class to produce a very nice specimen. For breeders Trackside Farm (Tom Evans and Pam Clark), Macon Wilmil (Ted Forrest), and Marjac Farms (Rich Burke), the colt was a resounding commercial success, selling for $70,000 at the 2004 Keeneland September yearling sale to Tom McGreevy.

Evans approached the buyer after the sale to thank him, and McGreevy said, “I was always going to buy that colt,” Evans recalled.

Pinhooked the following spring to the sales of juveniles in training in Florida, Midnight Lute was an RNA at $290,000 and sold after the auction. Trainer Bob Baffert, who had selected Real Quiet at auction, was instrumental in the acquisition of the stallion’s best racing son for Pegram and partners.

Another take on the potential of Midnight Lute as a stallion comes from my associate at DataTrack International, pedigree commentator Robert Fierro. He noted that, on the results of the stallion’s biomechanical profile, “We loved Midnight Lute. His profile on one of our programs was very unusual for a horse his size, in that he matches nearly 50 percent of the mares in our test book. That is very unusual for a horse as big as Midnight Lute,” who towers over man and beast at 17 hands-plus.

Fierro continued, “In size, Midnight Lute is in a category of his own. Stallions like him usually project to be modest at best, but what tipped the scale for him is that he matched a number of modest-sized mares, which is unusual but very beneficial, as the norms of the breed tend to breed toward the horses of that size.”

One of the implications of Midnight Lute’s results on his biomechanics is that it appeared he would get racers who would appreciate racing two turns, rather than simply sprinting, as many people would have expected from a racehorse who was “limited” to sprinting himself.

Although Midnight Lute showed his best form by clubbing his contemporaries with come from behind finishes at sprint distances, he did race successfully at longer distances, and his natural aptitude was clearly suitable for racing at longer distances from his size, scope, balance, and physical proportions.

Midnight Lute’s offspring are consistently showing that they appreciate the opportunity to mature and race distances of a mile, at least, and there is plenty of reason to expect that they will continue to improve at even longer distances as opportunities come to them.

congrats solidifies appeal as a leading young stallion

Tags

claiborne farm, congrats, paul mellon bloodstock, sons of ap indy, stallion success

The following article was first published as part of the Paulick Report Special to the OBS March sale last week.

One of the best-looking stallions anywhere, Congrats (A.P. Indy) had proven himself a high-class racehorse for breeder Claiborne Farm before his sale to Cloverleaf Farms as a stallion prospect. Winner of the G2 San Pasqual Handicap at Santa Anita and an earner of $998,960, Congrats also descends from one of the grandest families in the stud book.

The stallion’s female line is a branch of La Troienne through Searching to Glowing Tribute, a stakes-winning daughter of Graustark whose seven stakes winners included Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero. Claiborne acquired Glowing Tribute’s stakes-winning daughter, Wild Applause, from the dispersal of Paul Mellon’s Thoroughbreds. Already the dam of G1 Futurity Stakes winner Eastern Echo (Damascus) at the time of the sale, Wild Applause has produced stakes winners Roar (G2 Jim Beam) and Yell (G2 Davona Dale) for Claiborne.

Not among the stakes winners but very near stakes class is Praise, who is “only” a winner but is a daughter of the great sire Mr. Prospector and has done good work for Claiborne. In addition to Congrats, the mare produced graded stakes-placed Flatter, a successful full brother to Congrats who stands at Claiborne and counts top older horse Flat Out among his premium offspring.

As nearly conformationally perfect as horses come, the 16.2 hand Congrats has been used by some breeders to try to improve less “perfect” broodmares. This has not always worked because heredity is not exactly a straightforward process, but to his credit, some of the stallion’s offspring who did not pass the test of theory proved themselves as racehorses.

Emma’s Encore, for one, was little respected at the sales, but given her chance at the racetrack, she proved her ability at the G1 level with victory in the Prioress Stakes.

One of the stallion’s strengths is the speed he normally imparts, and Congrats has seven 2-year-olds cataloged in the OBS March sale (Hips 3, 8, 14, 96, 237, 285, and 315). They will receive just consideration from buyers who’ve realized that the sire can get good racers from various lines and types. [At the sale, the results were: 3 out; 8 :10 4/5 work, late scratch; 14 :10 2/5, $175,000; 96 out; 237 :10 2/5, $50,000 RNA; 285 :10 1/5, $400,000; 315 :10 2/5, late scratch.]

From his first crop, Congrats sired G1 winners Turbulent Descent (Test, Hollywood Starlet, and Ballerina) and Wickedly Perfect (Alcibiades Stakes), and Emma’s Encore was in the second. The 13-year-old stallion moved to Kentucky for the 2011 season, and his first crop of Kentucky-sired foals are yearlings. He now stands at WinStar.

malibu moon is one of the signs that bloodlines are a-changin’

Tags

a.p. indy, lane's end, male line success, malibu moon, orb, sires of stallions

The following article was first published last week as part of the Paulick Report Special to the OBS March sale.

There is a pattern to the stallion spotlights for the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s March sale of selected 2-year-olds in training. Both are by the great sire A.P. Indy (1989 b. h. by Seattle Slew x Weekend Surprise, by Secretariat), and the pattern represents the fundamental shift in breeding toward the Bold Ruler – Nasrullah male line coming through Seattle Slew’s champion son A.P. Indy.

An outstanding racehorse who was named Horse of the Year in 1992, A.P. Indy became a landmark stallion, gifted for imparting classic quality, size, and stamina. And among several excellent contemporary sires, his greatest accomplishment has been the foundation of a group of high-class stallion sons, including the recently deceased Pulpit (and his best stallion son Tapit), Bernardini, Congrats and his full brother Flatter, Horse of the Year Mineshaft, and Malibu Moon.

Among these most successful members in the ranks of his best sons, there is one further common denominator. Except for Bernardini, each is out of a mare by Mr. Prospector (1970 b. h. by Raise a Native x Gold Digger, by Nashua).

If there was anything that A.P. Indy needed as a sire, it was a finer edge of speed burnished with a boot-leather toughness. The grand old son of Raise a Native seems to have supplied that time after time.

Malibu Moon inherited a full dose of speed and class from his famous forebears, and he hit the big time as a stallion with the unbeaten champion juvenile, Declan’s Moon, from his sire’s second crop. Declan’s Moon won the G1 Hollywood Futurity and the then-G2 Del Mar Futurity at 2, as well as the Santa Catalina early at 3.

The stallion’s other G1 winners include Ask the Moon (Personal Ensign), Devil May Care (Mother Goose, CCA Oaks), Eden’s Moon (Las Virgenes), Funny Moon (CCA Oaks), and Life at Ten (Beldame and Ogden Phipps).

As a tribute to the quality of speed and early maturity among many of Malibu Moon’s foals, he has more juveniles cataloged for the OBS March sale than any other sire. The 11 are Hips 15, 48, 55, 120, 137, 173, 177, 244, 317, 328, and 343. Earlier this month, a colt by Malibu Moon brought the highest price of $675,000 at the Barretts sale of 2-year-olds in training. [The sales results were: 15 :10 3/5, late scratch; 48 :10, $185,000; 55 out; 120 :10 2/5, $370,000; 137 :10 3/5, $145,000; 173 :10 3/5, $65,000 RNA; 177 :10 4/5, late scratch; 244 :21 1/5, $130,000; 317 :10 1/5, $130,000; 328 :10 2/5, $85,000 RNA; 343 :10 1/5, $485,000.]

As the prestige and success of Malibu Moon’s progeny has continued, he has earned an increasingly high stud fee, now at $75,000 live foal, and an increasing select book of mares. And this year, the stallion’s son Orb recently won the G2 Fountain of Youth Stakes and is among the favored prospects for the Triple Crown.