secretariat dreamin’

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anniversaries, belmont, bold ruler, champagne, dust commander, form on off tracks, general assembly, high echelon, Kentucky Derby, Preakness, secretariat, somethingroyal, spectacular bid, track surfaces, Triple Crown

The anniversary of the birth of the great chestnut son of Bold Ruler and Somethingroyal prompted some imagining, some wondering about what might have been.

If Secretariat’s high-class second-crop son General Assembly had caught muddy or sloppy tracks in the Triple Crown, he might have turned the tables on Spectacular Bid. Now don’t get me wrong, you ‘Bid” lovers! I’m not suggesting that General Assembly was a better horse day in or day out. But he had the peculiar misfortune never to catch Bid when General Assembly was super, or at least as super as he was in the Travers he won by 15 lengths.

That day, Bid would have been in real trouble. Off their best form in the Champagne at 2 and the Kentucky Derby at 3, Spectacular Bid had only 2 or 3 lengths on General Assembly when the latter was near the top of his game. With an actual advantage, say slop or Saratoga, how could bid have held the flying chestnut son of Secretariat?

Likewise, I pondered and discussed with a likewise facetious comrade, what might have happened if General Assembly had come across Triple Crown races similar to those of 1970, when Dust Commander splashed home in the Kentucky Derby and High Echelon won an even wetter Belmont that was slower than death.

At the very least, it would have pushed Spectacular Bid to reach down for ability and amaze us with even more speed.

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cabo de noche: dam of louisiana derby winner

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cabo de noche, cape town, jump start, louisiana derby, overbrook farm, pants on fire, produce records, sales of stallions out of kentucky, wt young

The ties of WT Young’s Overbrook Farm to Saturday’s Louisiana Derby winner could scarcely be more visible. The winner was Pants on Fire (by former Overbrook stallion Jump Start out of Cabo de Noche, by former Overbrook stallion Cape Town).

Both stallions were bred and raced by Overbrook, then retired to begin their stud careers there. Jump Start is now at stud in Pennsylvania, and Cape Town was sold to Brazilian breeders in the dissolution of the Overbrook stock.

The produce record of Cabo de Noche is below:

1st Dam: Cabo De Noche, dkbbr, 2001. Bred by Equus Farm (Ky). Raced 3 yrs in NA, 16 sts, 1 win, $57,673 (ssi = 1.37). ($52,000, 2002, keesep, yrlg; $147,000, 2003, obsmar, 2yo; $27,000, 2005, keenov, brdmr; $120,000, 2006, keenov, brdmr)

2007:	Louderthanthunder, b c, by Thunder Gulch. Raced 2 yrs in NA, 14 sts, 1 win, $11,456 (ssi = 0.22).
2008:	PANTS ON FIRE.
	At 3: Won Louisiana Derby (gr. 2); 2nd Lecomte S. (gr. 3); 3rd Count Fleet S. (ssi = 23.95).
2009:	Slipped.
2010:	Unnamed foal, dk b/ f, by War Chant.
2011:	Unnamed foal, f, by War Chant.

One interesting fact about Cape Town, a Seeking the Gold horse born in 1995, is that he has only 69 daughters producing as yet who have 139 registered foals. He is a broodmare sire to watch.

 

valerio found a gem in the factor

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barretts may sale, barry eisaman, bob baffert, claiborne farm, classic candidates, danzig, developing 3yos, early training of thoroughbreds, fasig-tipton sales, fog city stable, fountain of youth stakes, george bolton, h & w thoroughbreds, keeneland sales, kim valerio, michael shustek, Oaklawn Park, physique as a guide to selection of racing prospects, psychology and sales, rebel stakes, sales of 2yos in training, selecting horses at auction, soldat, stockplace, the factor, tom van meter, war front

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

With his powerful victory in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park, The Factor put the spotlight on himself in the run-up to the Kentucky Derby. The colt’s success is further gratification for trainer Bob Baffert and owners George Bolton and Fog City Stable.

The good-looking gray is also the second son of the Claiborne Farm stallion War Front who has won a major Kentucky Derby prep and is highly ranked by most Derby handicappers. (The other is G2 Fountain of Youth winner Soldat.)

And all the people who have had a share in the breeding and development of The Factor also are basking in the reflected glory of the colt’s achievements.

The Factor was bred in Kentucky by H & W Thoroughbreds. Their sale of first the colt at the 2008 Keeneland November sale for $50,000 and then the dam in a private transaction was chronicled in an earlier column.

Between the November sale and the following year’s July sale of selected yearlings at Fasig-Tipton, the sales market slumped even further, and The Factor resold as a yearling for only $40,000 in 2009.

The buyer was show horse veteran Kim Valerio, acting for Mike Shustek. Valerio said, “Until last year, I bought only two to four yearlings a year. In 2009, I bought three, including The Factor.”

Part of the reason she was drawn to the colt by the good but not famous Danzig stallion War Front was physique. Valerio said, “I come from a horse show background, where a lot of the best horses have Northern Dancer in them, and I love the Danzig line and the long, curvy look those horses get from Northern Dancer. At the time of the sale, his neck was longer in proportion to his body, but as he’s matured, his shoulder has filled in more.”

Another of the trio of yearlings that Valerio bought in 2009 is a Dynaformer colt named Wegner, who won a good maiden at Santa Anita earlier this year, then was unplaced to Anthony’s Cross and Tapizar in the G2 Robert B. Lewis Stakes in February.

Valerio said, “Both colts were purchased for a gentleman (Shustek) who puts up the money and then decides what to do with the horses. Typically, they are bought to race.”

But in this case, Shustek chose to retain Wegner and sell The Factor. The gray went through the ring at the 2010 Barretts May sale of 2-year-olds in training and brought $250,000.

The process from yearling sale to in-training auction was not a hurried one for The Factor, however. Valerio said, “After the July sale, he was turned out at Tom Van Meter’s farm outside Lexington in a field with a group of yearlings. They didn’t go to Florida till January, and Barry Eisaman broke both of them and put them into early training.”

Both the Dynaformer colt and his War Front companion progressed so well that “they never missed a beat, and we didn’t even breeze them until March. That’s what decided us on sending The Factor to the (May) Barretts sale.”

“I loved that colt,” Valerio admitted. “He was the only colt I bid on at the July sale, and I wanted him to go into the right hands. So I kind of nagged Bob Baffert about buying him. We went to breakfast and he was asking, ‘Who is War Front?’ That guy is such a bluffer. Not two seconds after the hammer falls at the sale, he calls me and says, ‘I bought your horse! I bought your horse!’

“And I told him ‘You’re such a bluffer. If I’d known you were on him, I’d have set the reserve higher,’” Valerio concluded.

Valerio has never regretted the sale because Baffert has gotten so much out of the colt. Now the winner of three consecutive races in fast time, The Factor would become the fourth Kentucky Derby horse that Valerio has been connected with in the last eight years.

She selected Magna Graduate, who was eligible on earnings for the Churchill Downs classic, but the colt’s connections opted not to rush their horse into the Derby. Valerio “selected Scat Daddy and privately bought Joininthedance,” who led the 2009 Kentucky Derby won by Mine That Bird.

If The Factor goes in the Derby, he is almost certain to lead part of the race. The exciting question is, “Which part?”

was secretariat the most important sire of the last 40 years?

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20 top sires in the fourth generation, a.p. indy, bloodstock statistics, bold ruler, boojum's bonanza, gone west, influence of stallions, performance of stallions, secretariat, stallion statistics, statistics as a tool in evaluating stallions, storm cat, success and influence

By one way of looking at the impact of horses, particularly stallions, the answer is “yes.” The tremendous number-crunching machine over at “Boojum’s Bonanza” has evaluated the 20 most successful stallions in the fourth generation of pedigrees in terms of their sales value and racetrack success, and Secretariat (known more humbly as “His Chestnut Perfection”) was top of the tree. Read more here.

The Boojum wrote: “Secretariat had the highest prices of all 20 sires in the fourth generation, was expected to have the best results, and did have the best results overall. And his results (1.36) were even higher than his prices (1.21). His daughters were better than his sons (no surprise at all there), but his sons were not bad.”

Does that mean that Secretariat was actually as great a sire as he was a racehorse?

Well, purely in terms of his offspring’s results on the racetrack, the answer is “no.” But in terms of lasting success and continuing impact on the breed, the answer is much more in the positive category.

The difference between the great horse’s performance on the racetrack and his results as a sire of racehorses is a puzzle that has fascinated legions of Secretariat fans (and I am one of them and not the least of that number).

That Secretariat’s sons and his daughters both fared well in this study is very interesting. Most of us have become accustomed to thinking of the great chestnut son of Bold Ruler as a massively important broodmare sire, but his other avenues of influence should be considered as well.

And as the broodmare sire of Storm Cat, Gone West, and AP Indy, Secretariat’s contributions to the breed will linger yet a while.

produce record of the factor’s dam

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broodmare success, danzig, greyciousness, the factor, uncertainty of breeding, war front

Although a daughter of the eminent broodmare sire Miswaki (1978 Mr Prospector x Hopespringseternal, by Buckpasser), Greyciousness was a pretty middling sort of producer.

To the cover of important sires like Seattle Slew and Kris S, she had produced winners but nothing important.

But the potential gelled when the mare was mated to first-crop sire War Front, a larger and very powerful version of his famous sire Danzig. The result was The Factor, now a winner in his last three starts and one of the favorites for the Kentucky Derby after a powerful victory in the G2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn on Saturday.

His dam’s record reads:

Greyciousness, gr/ro, 1995. Bred by Atwood Richards, Incorporated (KY). Raced 2 yrs in NA, 14 sts, 2 wins, $64,680 (ssi = 2.19). ($48,000, 1996, keesep, yrlg; $775,000, 2000, keenov, brdmr; $47,000, 2007, keejan, brdmr)

2001:	Slewcious, b c, by Seattle Slew. Raced 3 yrs in NA, 6 sts, 1 win, $21,257 (ssi = 1.29). ($15,000, 2004, keejan, rac age)
2002:	Slipped.
2003:	S. S. Kris, gr/ro g, by Kris S. Raced 3 yrs in NA, 22 sts, 3 wins, $26,020 (ssi = 0.42).
2004:	Delicias, gr/ro f, by Deputy Minister. Raced 1 yr in NA, 1 st, 0 wins, $400. ($360,000, 2005, keesep, yrlg; $20,000, 2008, keenov, brdmr)
2005:	Gone Grand, gr/ro c, by Grand Slam. Raced 4 yrs in NA, 36 sts, 4 wins, $82,949 (ssi = 0.72). ($55,000, 2006, keesep, yrlg; $120,000, 2007, besmar, 2yo)
2006:	Kutanga, dkbbr f, by Deputy Commander. Raced 1 yr in Eng, 3 sts, 0 wins, $0. ($30,000, 2007, keesep, yrlg; $1,374, 2008, tathit, 2yo)
2007:	Atlantic Vision, b c, by Stormy Atlantic. Unraced in NA, Eng, and Fr. ($22,000, 2008, keesep, yrlg)
2008:	THE FACTOR. ($50,000, 2008, keenov, wnlg; $40,000, 2009, ftkjul, yrlg; $250,000, 2010, besmay, 2yo)
	At 3: Won Rebel S. (gr. 2), San Vicente S. (gr. 2).
2009:	Fifty Five South, b c, by Cuvee. Unraced in NA, Eng, and Fr. ($2,000, 2009, keenov, wnlg)
2010:	Unnamed foal, dk b/ f, by Run Away And Hide.

 

selecting 2yos involves many factors

Tags

breezefig, cynthia mcginnes, differences in price, dixie union, flatter, obs march sale, physique in racing and sales, size in racehorses, variables accounting for price

In a response to my earlier post about the OBS March sale, Cynthia McGinnes asked about the Dixie Union filly (Hip 387) out of the Horatius mare Big City Dream.

The gist of her query was why would the prices between the Flatter colt and the Dixie Union filly be so large when they worked in the same time for the same distance.

It’s an excellent question, and in a great degree it boils down to the mundane fact that there were two bidders willing to pay $900,000 for the colt. That’s not a knock on the filly, but colts tend to sell for more than fillies. Presumably because fillies cannot be syndicated for umpteen million if they win a championship or a classic and go to stud.

Other factors played into the equation also (although I was not involved in the purchase of either individual. These are inferences drawn from observation and participation in other purchases). For one thing the Dixie Union filly was a bit small for some buyers’ inclination. I would not accuse her of possessing any other “faults,” however.

Standing about 15.2 hands, the filly is quite lovely. She has a beautiful and feminine look about her, is a very good mover, is nicely balanced, and has a very powerfully developed hindquarter.

In her work, Hip 387 sped a quarter in :20 3/5 with a stride length only slightly shorter than average. She was, however, very smooth and was ticking on nicely through the work and the gallop out to score a very good BreezeFig.

All in all, I thought she was a star and pick her and the Bernardini filly as my two favorite juveniles in the auction.

premier pegasus a star for derby-winning sire

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classic trials, fusaichi pegasus, jun park, kentucky derby prospects, mating trends, mr prospector - northern dancer cross, myung kwon cho, norfolk stakes, popular breeding crosses, premier pegasus, san felipe, stallion success, street cry, street hero, summer squall

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

The victory of Premier Pegasus in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday offered a huge lifeline to his sire, the relatively unappreciated Fusaichi Pegasus. The once-popular stallion’s rehabilitation from “failure” to “solid sire” began last year with 2010 G1 winner Champ Pegasus, who also ran second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf and has won at the G2 level again this year. In addition, Fusaichi Pegasus had a pair of 2-year-old stakes horses of note last season.

More surprising than that was the fact that both were racing for Myung Kwon Cho, who owns and bred Premier Pegasus and who purchased Riveting Reason.

The San Felipe winner is the second high-class winner out of Cho’s broodmare Squall Linda. The 15-year-old Squall Linda has long been a part of the Cho racing and breeding program. The owner-breeder-trainer purchased the daughter of Preakness Stakes winner Summer Squall for $62,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale in 1997.

Cho raced the mare successfully, winning three races from 17 starts and getting a second in the G3 Monrovia Handicap with her for earnings of $154,727.

When Cho decided he wanted to give his better mares more opportunity in breeding, he began working with Jun Park, an international bloodstock agent and adviser based in Lexington. Park said, “Mr. Cho wanted to give Squall Linda a good chance to be a good mare. So he sent the mare to Kentucky, and I picked some stallions for her. We discussed which would match with her. Since she’s a Northern Dancer-line mare (descending from Northern Dancer’s European champion son Storm Bird and his son Summer Squall), I recommended Mr. Prospector stallions for her.”

In this plain, commonsense approach to mating, Park was pursuing the most popular cross in breeding over the past 20 years or more, and once again, it worked.

The first winner on this cross for Squall Linda was her second foal, the Grand Slam colt Double Galore, who won $133,640. The second horse bred on the cross, and the mare’s fourth foal, was a colt by Street Cry.

Park said, “I liked Street Cry as a racehorse. He not only won the Dubai World Cup, but he also was a top-class 2-year-old. I liked the speed and early maturity for this mare. In the discussion about this mating, Mr. Cho picked out some very interesting factors in the match relating to inbreeding to Natalma that made the suggestion even more appealing.”

The result was Street Hero, a scopy and athletic bay colt who won the G1 Norfolk and ran third in both the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and the Del Mar Futurity. Now standing his third season at stud in Kentucky at Vinery, Street Hero has yearlings of 2011.

Premier Pegasus is two years younger than Street Hero and is even more directly a product of the Mr. Prospector – Northern Dancer cross because Fusaichi Pegasus is a son of the grand old stallion.

Ironically, however, their work on the mating that produced Street Hero made the breeder and adviser want to repeat it when they saw how well the result turned out. But when Cho tried to go back to Street Cry with Squall Linda, the now hyper-fashionable Street Cry could not accommodate her. But the Kentucky Derby winner could.

And the rest is a fascinating story about the unpredictable twists of breeding lore. Premier Pegasus was the result, and the handsome bay colt has won four of his five starts and will be one of the hot properties coming into the G1 Santa Anita Derby. Success there will bring him to the Big Show in Louisville.

Squall Linda has a 2-year-old by the Seeking the Gold stallion Bob and John, and Park noted the colt is training well. The mare has a yearling full brother to Street Hero, but her foal of 2011 by Empire Maker was born two months early and died. Plans for this year’s mating are not completed.

 

obs report: cream to the top

Tags

bernardini, flatter, juvenle sales horses, niall brennan sales, obs march sale, physical attributes of racehorses, quality and presence, sales topper, size and scope in racehorses

In assessing this week’s Ocala Breeders Sales Company’s auction of 2yos in training, the two pristine individuals – a colt by Flatter and a filly by Bernardini – topped their categories emphatically.

They should have. They were sterling individuals who worked very fast, showed no holes when examined back at the barns, and had the presence and quality to inspire buyers to think they might have found the “one.”

Maybe they did.

Buyers and fans would have to look hard to find more beautiful or more perfectly prepared specimens of the young racehorse than this pair.

It is hard to imagine a sweeter filly than the Bernardini. A really big young athlete standing nearly 16.2 hands, Sweet Dreams is a scopy individual with plenty of quality. She was still narrow and somewhat lightly furnished but nonetheless went a furlong in 10 2/5. Even more important, she did it so smoothly and efficiently that all the BreezeFig observers were all over her.

The filly showed a 25 foot stride in her work, more than a foot and a half longer than the average. Now that is the material to use in winning some races. Consigned by Niall Brennan for breeder Peter Blum, Sweet Dreams has a pleasing balance of Bernardini’s qualities mixed with those of her broodmare sire Unbridled.

So, is she the next Zenyatta? Time will tell.

The leading colt and overall sale topper in price was the Flatter colt, hip 265, from the consignment of Eisaman Equine. After flaming through a quarter-mile work in :20 3/5, there were no secrets about this colt. He was a pure runner, and he looked the part too. One of the best-looking offspring of his sire Flatter (a full brother to last year’s leading freshman sire Congrats), Hip 265 stood 16.1 hands, with a very strong hip and beautifully shaped hindleg.

The colt showed the immediate development and physical quality to attract all the bidders at a 2yo sale, and he worked out as a great coup for all concerned.

Best of luck to them all.

desert party: new ky stallions for 2011

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new ky stallions for 2011, physique and stallion success, racing ability and stallion success, street boss, street cry, street hero, street sense

Desert Party (2006 b by Street Cry x Sage Cat, by Tabasco Cat)

Darley at Jonabell $10,000

This son of Street Cry is one of the more interesting prospects of 2011 for a couple of reasons. First, he is a roguishly good-looking horse whose physique and precocity made him the chief target of a Darley acquisition party when he went through the sales.

A very powerfully built horse who showed useful form on the racetrack, Desert Party did not reach the heights hoped for him. Otherwise he would not be standing for this stud fee.

But the second point of interest is that he is a good son of one of the most successful younger stallions in Kentucky: Street Cry. A son of Machiavellian who won the Dubai World Cup and was a championship contender at 2 and 4 in the US, Street Cry was able to reproduce his best qualities from his first crop.

The stallion’s first champion was Street Sense, who who took the BC Juvenile at 2, then won the Kentucky Derby at 3, and now has some promising 2yos from his first crop coming to the races this year.

Street Cry’s second champion was Zenyatta, and the sire has young sons at stud like Street Hero, a horse with a very good physical profile, and Street Boss, who had the most speed of any Street Cry.

Of these, Desert Party is most like Street Boss, possessing the tank-like body and heavy muscling usually associated with high speed, although Desert Party carried his speed a longer distance than the other horse.

With both standing at Jonabell, it will be interesting to see which one breeders prefer and which fulfills expectations more effectively.

secretariat’s physique, per charlie hatton

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action in thoroughbreds, boojum's bonanza, charlie hatton, Daily Racing Form, function of the hindquarter, proportions of the hindleg of the horse, racehorse conformation, secretariat

The noted teller of tales and watcher of racehorses, Charlie Hatton, penned a column at the Daily Racing Form for decades, and he also wrote many of the individual essays about champion racehorses for the American Racing Manual over the years.

At the end of his career, he watched the development and continued success of a chestnut colt by the name of Secretariat.

Hatton was, with reason, one of the colt’s most ardent fans, and he also wrote the profiles of the champion son of Bold Ruler for the ARM in 1972 and 1973. The first of these is reprinted, in excerpted form, at Boojum’s Bonanza here.

Now as a rival admirer of His Chestnut Perfection, I could not pass the opportunity to read and to comment on the ruminations of Brother Hatton.

One of Hatton’s observations was the construction of Secretariat’s hindquarters and the horse’s action at a gallop and at the walk. He wrote:

The pelvis is exceedingly sloping, however, giving him a vaguely goose-rumped aspect at first glance. This is a characteristic of the Nearcos, including his classicists, though horsemen used to consider it the mark of a sprinter. The flag is set on low, accentuating the precipitate droop of the quarters.

Here again, as in the shoulder, a particularly desirable point rescues him, for below the pelvis is a massive and very low stifle joint, extending into gaskins muscled right into the hock in the straightest hind legs seen in years.

This construction comes to a sort of scooting action behind. He gets his hind parts far under himself in action, and the drive of his hind legs is tremendous, as he follows through like a golfer.

Ribot went in this fashion, and that wire-hung filly Top Flight, whose stifles were set on singularly low. Rather long, springy pasterns and legs like a deer’s combined with a gorgeous forehand to give her stealthy action.

Walking off after a race, Secretariat divulges nothing of his extended action. He goes frightfully short behind, like so many Princequillos, and wide in front, like most the Bold Rulers. At a glance, one might suspect he had bucked.

Hatton’s last comment was not intended as humor, I believe. But Secretariat kept that rather choppy shuffling action all his life, and it is worth pondering because this is the opposite of the extensive and elastic reach so preferred today in the sales rings.

It is also worth wondering how greatly his action behind and in front would be penalized by evaluators of yearlings and 2yos today, which would like him and which would not. And would the perceptions of his walk and motion have kept the horse from becoming a Triple Crown winner and two-time Horse of the Year?