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

If you bet the first three home in Saturday’s Grade 2 San Fernando Stakes at Santa Anita according to their sales prices, then you had the trifecta. The winner, Fed Biz (by Giant’s Causeway), was the most expensive of the trio, selling for $950,000 at the 2010 Keeneland September yearling sale. A head behind him came the Tapit colt Tritap, who brought $450,000 at the same sale, and third was Guilt Trip (Pulpit), who was a half-length back of Tritap and sold for $200,000 to Gary and Mary West at the 2010 Saratoga select yearling sale conducted by Fasig-Tipton.

The narrow difference between Kaleem Shah’s winner and Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC’s second-place finisher amounted to more than the $60,000 difference in prize money between first and second. The winner is now a G2 stakes winner at a major track and is a viable stallion prospect, even if he never wins another race.

That is not likely, as Fed Biz has been making a case for himself as an important athlete, and he deserves consideration as perhaps the fastest son of leading sire Giant’s Causeway. The latter is the most significant stallion son of mighty old Storm Cat, and there is gathering evidence that sons of Giant’s Causeway are going to be successful at stud, whether they excelled on turf or on dirt. Perhaps even on rubber.

That is good news for Coolmore, which owns the chestnut stallion and stands him in Kentucky at Ashford Stud, but it is also good news for breeders, who are always on the lookout for avenues for breeding their mares successfully and who want to find proven paths to take, rather than striking out through the wilderness of unproven territory.

And in the case of Fed Biz, both his sire line and female family could hardly be more well-proven. Bred in Kentucky by Colts Neck Stables, Fed Biz is the seventh foal and second stakes winner out of his dam, the Wild Again mare Spunoutacontrol.

Spunoutacontrol was a stakes winner who won four of her five races. Bred in Kentucky by Indian Creek, Spunoutacontrol was a fine-looking sales yearling, who was declared out of the 1997 Keeneland July select auction, but she was purchased privately by Jayeff B Stables. She then trained and raced like a seriously good horse.

None of this was unexpected because her siblings included a pair of sparkling racehorses: Tale of the Cat and Minardi. On the racecourse, Minardi (Boundary) was actually a bit more accomplished, winning a pair of G1 races, the Middle Park in England and the Phoenix Stakes in Ireland, and then running third the following year in the Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh. Tale of the Cat, on the other hand, won the G2 King’s Bishop, was second in the G1 Whitney, and ran third in the G1 Vosburgh twice.

At stud, Tale of the Cat showed his heels to his more accomplished half-brother and is a consistent sire of fast and competitive racers. Like Giant’s Causeway, Tale of the Cat is also a son of Storm Cat and is based at Ashford.

Spunoutacontrol has had some ill fortune with her produce, two dying unnamed, and a third, the $1.2 million yearling Rally Cat (Storm Cat) dying unraced from her first half-dozen foals. The mare’s winners include her first foal and first stakes winner, Spun Silk (A.P. Indy), who won the restricted Ride Sally Stakes, as well as Whichwaydidshego (Storm Cat) and Weave It to Me (Bernardini).

The San Fernando was the second stakes victory for Fed Biz, and every dam in his female line has produced at least one major stakes winner in the U.S. since Bull Hancock imported the classy racemare Knights Daughter (Sir Cosmo) and bred from her Horse of the Year Round Table and his full sister Monarchy (Princequillo).

Knights Daughter is the sixth dam of Fed Biz. Monarchy, winner of the Arlington Lassie, is the fifth dam. Fourth dam State (Nijinsky) produced five stakes winners, including third dam Narrate (Honest Pleasure). Narrate’s claims to fame include producing Frizette Stakes winner Preach, the dam of the important sire Pulpit, and her full sister Yarn (Mr. Prospector), who is the second dam of Fed Biz.

In addition to Tale of the Cat, Minardi, and Spunoutacontrol, Yarn produced the Ogygian mare Myth, who is the dam of Johannesburg, the unbeaten and top-rated juvenile in France, England, Ireland, and the U.S. in 2001.

Sometimes referred to as the Aloe family, this is one of the most distinguished in the Thoroughbred breeding and is well-regarded as a stallion family. These factors, combined with his dynamic looks and solid muscling, made Fed Biz one of the most attractive yearlings in 2010 and now fit just as nicely with his race record to make him a most interesting stallion prospect.