The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.
More than any other single factor, having a contender for the Triple Crown is the hallmark of achievement for a young stallion. Since the Kentucky Derby and its fellow jewels, the Belmont Stakes and Preakness, are the most coveted treasures in U.S. racing, the effect of siring contenders for them makes that stallion a prized property indeed.
This weekend’s stakes provided ample material for sires of young classic prospects to take a turn on stage. In the Grade 3 El Camino Real, leading freshman sire Scat Daddy had the winner and the third-place finisher in Daddy Nose Best and Handsome Mike.
A big, nearly black son of Johannesburg, Scat Daddy was a top juvenile from his sire’s first crop, winning the G1 Champagne and G2 Sanford before progressing at 3 to win the G2 Fountain of Youth and G1 Florida Derby in 2007.
A truly big stallion standing at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud near Versailles, Ky., Scat Daddy made a more successful transition from his first season of racing to his second than his sire Johannesburg. An international champion at 2, Johannesburg did not train on and was a sore disappointment at 3.
In contrast, Scat Daddy was a prominent 3-year-old, although he failed to figure in the Triple Crown. The stallion’s offspring are following a similar pattern of progress and coming along nicely into their second year.
In addition to Daddy Nose Best and Handsome Mike, Scat Daddy also had Scatman finish second to Secret Circle (Eddington) in a division of the G3 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park.
The winner of the first division of the Southwest was Castaway, another colt by a stallion whose first racers are now 3: Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense.
Champion of his division at 2, Street Sense won the Run for the Roses at 3 and showed high form going two turns in a tough crop that included Preakness winner and Horse of the Year Curlin, Belmont winner Rags to Riches, and the versatile Hard Spun.
Sire also of graded stakes winner Motor City, Street Sense appears to be siring stock that are less precocious than himself but that improve with more distance and maturity.
A $435,000 yearling purchased by Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith, Castaway is out of the Storm Cat mare Priceless Storm and has Futurity Stakes winner Priceless Gem (Hail to Reason) as his fourth dam.
In third behind Secret Circle in the Southwest’s second division was Adironack King, a son of the deceased sire Lawyer Ron and CCA Oaks winner Jostle. Adirondack King was bred in Kentucky by Stonewall Farm Stallions, which is also the breeder of Drill, who won the G2 San Vicente Stakes at Santa Anita.
Already a G1 winner from his campaign at 2, Drill had shown class and speed, but he has not shown the expected distance capacity for a son of his sire Lawyer Ron, who was a really good 3-year-old in 2006, when he won the Arkansas Derby, Rebel Stakes, Risen Star, and Southwest. Then the big chestnut son of Langfuhr progressed to become one of the best horses in the country at 4 with victories in the G1 Woodward and Whitney, as well as the G2 Oaklawn Handicap.
Drill is a member of the first crop sired by champion Lawyer Ron, who died from complications of colic surgery during his second season at stud.
Out of the Storm Cat mare Cat Dancer, Drill was one of the best-looking offspring of his very handsome sire. The colt was an RNA for $170,000 as a 2009 Keeneland November weanling but sold for $300,000 at the following year’s Keeneland September yearling sale.
Cat Dancer is a full sister to G2 winner Magic Storm, and this is the family of champions Little Current (1974 Preakness and Belmont); Chateaugay (1963 Kentucky Derby and Belmont); and Primonetta (Alabama and Spinster, as well as Broodmare of the Year in 1978).
bloodstock in the bluegrass 