tapit trice is the tip of the classic iceberg for whisper hill

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mandy pope, Tapit, tapit trice, todd quast, whisper hill

Now a winner in three of his four starts, Tapit Trice (by Tapit) bounded into classic consideration with a dramatic come from behind victory in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby.

Last at the start and 11th of 12 after a quarter, Tapit Trice was still in ninth place after three-quarters of a mile, but the gray colt swung out at least five wide around the turn, advanced notably through the stretch, and won by two lengths in the manner of a colt who will prove even better at a longer distance.

Yet another classic prospect by three-time leading national sire Tapit (Pulpit), Tapit Trice was bred in Kentucky by Gainesway Thoroughbreds, and they consigned the grand gray to the 2021 Keeneland September yearling sale, where he was purchased by Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm for $1.3 million. The colt races for Whisper Hill and Gainesway.

Todd Quast, racing manager for Whisper Hill, said that, “Tapit Trice was a good-sized yearling with plenty of scope. Mandy and I had looked through the consignments, had liked him and put a price on him, and Mandy really wanted him. She makes the final decision on the purchases. I was done at $1 million, but she kept poking me in the arm, and we got this guy. Now look where he’s taking us.”

Tapit Trice is the second foal out of the stakes winner Danzatrice (Dunkirk), who was bred in Kentucky by Glenn Justiss from the Orientate mare Lady Pewitt. Fourth in her only start, a maiden special at Woodbine, Lady Pewitt was purchased privately by Gainesway.

The operation bought the mare’s 2-year-old in training, a chestnut daughter of Dunkirk (Unbridled’s Song), at the OBS April sale in 2014 for $105,000 from Grassroots Training and Sales.

From the second crop by Dunkirk, who ran second in the G1 Belmont Stakes, as well as the Florida Derby, Danzatrice won three stakes and was fourth in the G1 Acorn Stakes at Belmont. Dunkirk’s other stakes winners include G1 Champagne Stakes winner Havana, plus Chilean G1 winners El Rey Brillante (Tanteo de Potrillos) and Leitone (Dos Mil Guineas and El Derby).

Danzatrice was the second foal from her dam, and the mare produced a gray filly by the Unbridled’s Song stallion Cross Traffic in 2016. Bred by Gainesway and sold at the 2017 Keeneland September yearling sale for $190,000, that filly was named Jaywalk and became the Eclipse Award winner as a juvenile filly in 2018. Jaywalk won four of her five starts at two, including the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and Frizette. At three, Jaywalk came back to win the G3 Delaware Oaks and was third in the G1 Ashland.

The appearance of Jaywalk in the family added quite a lift to the commercial appeal of this family, which traces to Tapit Trice’s fourth dam La Paz (Hold Your Peace), a winner of three stakes and the dam of four stakes winners, including Mission Impazible (Unbridled’s Song), winner of the G2 Louisiana Derby and New Orleans Handicap, and Forest Camp (Deputy Minister), winner of the G2 Del Mar Futurity.

The year after Jaywalk’s championship season, Gainesway consigned her half-sister to the 2019 Keeneland September sale and sold the filly by Empire Maker out of Lady Pewitt for $2 million. Named Miss Jessica J., that filly is unraced.

Tapit Trice followed suit as a seven-figure yearling in 2021, and he has followed a much different trajectory and is now a highly regarded member of the 3-year-old crop. The colt’s year-younger full sister, still unnamed, brought $1.1 million at last year’s Keeneland September sale when Tapit Trice was still unraced. The buyer?

Whisper Hill.

Quast said, “We already liked Tapit Trice enough last year to reach back in and buy her too,” even though the colt didn’t make his debut until Nov. 6, when he finished third in a maiden special at Aqueduct. The gray is unbeaten since.

In addition to Tapit Trice as a classic prospect, Whisper Hill also has Shopper’s Revenge (Tapit out of multiple G1 winner Stopchargingmaria), who is pointed for the Louisiana Derby next, and Classic Catch (Classic Empire), who has won a maiden special and an allowance and is expected to race next in the Wood Memorial.

Lurking in the shrubberies is homebred Magical Song (Tapit out of champion Songbird), and that 3-year-old filly is entered in a maiden special at Oaklawn on Mar. 17.

What a year it may be for Whisper Hill.

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champion forte leads a pair of classic prospects from famous female families

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forte, hill 'n' dale farm, la troienne, raise cain, violence

You could say it was a Hill ‘n’ Dale Weekend. Not only did the farm’s stallion Violence (by Medaglia d’Oro) have two graded stakes winners in classic preps, but John Sikura’s operation also is co-breeder of Slip Mahoney (Arrogate), who was a good-looking second in the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct behind the Violence colt Raise Cain.

The Gotham winner was unexpected, starting at 23-1 odds, but the star turn on a very positive set of results for Violence was last season’s champion juvenile colt Forte, who was odds-on at 1-2 for his seasonal debut in the G2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream.

The handsome dark bay or brown looked full value for those odds as he sat handily behind the pace, swooped four wide on the turn, and left his rivals with no recourse as he ran on through the stretch to win by 4 ½ lengths from Holy Bull Stakes winner Rocket Can and Cyclone Mischief (both by Into Mischief).

Bred in Kentucky by South Gate Farm, Forte was sold as a weanling for $80,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November sale and then resold as a yearling at Keeneland’s 2021 September sale for $110,000 to Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable.

The striking colt is the first foal of his dam, the multiple stakes winner Queen Caroline (Blame), and this is a family that was developed over generations while in the Frances Genter family stable. This is the immediate female family of champions Essential Quality (Tapit) and Folklore (Tiznow).

A colt of considerable elegance, Forte comes from one of the most distinguished female families in the Stud Book, that of La Troienne (Teddy), who was bred in France by Marcel Boussac and imported as a broodmare carrying her first foal by Col. E. R. Bradley. The mare proved a success beyond the scope of that word in ordinary usage.

La Troienne produced five stakes winners, including the exceptional filly Black Helen and the champion and classic winner Bimelech (both by Black Toney). The distribution of Bradley’s bloodstock came with the purchase of all of the Bradley broodmares and foals by Robert J. Kleberg (King Ranch), John Hay Whitney (Greentree Stud), and Ogden Phipps.

Phipps got La Troienne’s daughter Baby League, the dam of Horse of the Year Busher, and for Phipps, Baby League produced Striking (War Admiral), winner of the 1949 Schuylerville and Broodmare of the Year in 1961. Her branch of this family produced Forte.

La Troienne herself went to Greentree, and she is buried in their equine graveyard, which is now part of Gainesway Farm. Bimelech likewise went to stand at Greentree, and other parts of the mare’s legacy were distributed among the purchasers and went on to play significant roles in racing’s continuing story.

Although La Troienne did not win, she was highly tested against high-class fillies. A winner of the Oaks in 1904, however, is the ancestress of this year’s Gotham Stakes winner. A racer of exceptional character who found lasting admiration among the racing public, Pretty Polly (Gallinule) won 22 of her 24 starts and is generally regarded as one of the greatest racers ever.

This chestnut paragon is the female-line ancestor of Raise Cain. The Gotham winner is out of the Lemon Drop Kid mare Lemon Belle, who is a half-sister to Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Unrivaled Belle (Unbridled’s Song), the dam of champion Unique Bella (Tapit).

Raise Cain is the first stakes winner of his dam, and she has a 2-year-old colt by Frosted (Tapit) and a colt at side by Constitution (Tapit) who was foaled last month.

Bred in Kentucky by Rock Ridge Thoroughbreds LLC, Raise Cain sold for $180,000 by Andrew Warren at Keeneland’s September yearling sale two years ago; returned to auction at the OBS June sale last year, Raise Cain was bought back at $65,000 and races for Andrew Warren and Rania Warren.

Should both of these colts make the rest of the journey to Louisville for the Run for the Roses, they will not lack for classic connections in their ancestral lines.

tapit continues to strike up the beat as a broodmare sire

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Gainesway Farm, into mischief cross with tapit, pretty city dancer, pretty mischievous, Tapit

A victory in the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra Stakes at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans moved the race record of Pretty Mischievous (by Into Mischief) to four wins from five starts, with earnings of $421,310. The filly’s sole loss came as a third in the G2 Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill last fall.

She has come along nicely from her debut win at Churchill in September, and at each step in the progression from maiden to graded stakes winner (accepting the placing in the Golden Rod as a thoroughly creditable effort), Pretty Mischievous has shown evidence of greater strength and maturity.

She is a very nice filly, and both trainer Brendan Walsh and owner-breeder Godolphin must be well-pleased with the result of this mating.

Bred in Kentucky by Godolphin, Pretty Mischievous is the second foal of the G1 winner Pretty City Dancer (Tapit), whose most important success came in the 2016 Spinaway Stakes at two. Pretty City Dancer won Saratoga’s premier race for juvenile fillies in a dead heat with another daughter of Tapit, Sweet Loretta, who won four of her six starts, including the Schuylerville at Saratoga and the Beaumont Stakes at Keeneland.

A lovely gray, Pretty City Dancer was bred in Kentucky by Gainesway and was presented by them at the 2015 Keeneland September yearling sale, where she sold for $825,000 to John Oxley. The filly won the 2016 Spinaway and ran second in the 2017 Forward Gal Stakes. At the end of the filly’s 3-year-old season, Oxley retired her, bred her to Medaglia d’Oro the following spring, and sold her at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November sale. There, Godolphin bought the young mare for $3.5 million.

The foal Pretty City Dancer was carrying at the time of sale is the now 4-year-old Ornamental, and she is the winner of a maiden special.

Godolphin is not the only breeder to have noticed that matching Tapit mares with Into Mischief is a productive cross. This month alone, Interpolate, winner of the Ruthless Stakes at Aqueduct on Feb. 5, and Rocket Can, winner of the G3 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream on Feb. 4, are other stakes winners bred on the cross of Into Mischief with daughters of Tapit. In the Rachel Alexandra, odds-on favorite Hoosier Philly, who ran third after an eventful trip, is bred on the same cross. She was unbeaten coming into the Rachel Alexandra, including among her victories the Golden Rod last year over Pretty Mischievous.

Tapit is proving himself as important a broodmare sire as he is a sire of racers, and he was the leading broodmare sire by number of stakes winners (26) in 2022, finishing in a tie with Giant’s Causeway (Storm Cat). The wave is rolling on even stronger this year, with a half-dozen stakes winners already, and Tapit is second in earnings behind Distorted Humor (by Forty Niner), the broodmare sire of 2023 Pegasus winner Art Collector (Bernardini).

In addition to his stakes winners this year by Into Mischief, Tapit is also the broodmare sire of Hit Show (Candy Ride), winner of the G3 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct and a winner in three of his four starts.

As a broodmare sire or as a sire, Tapit does not match simply a few sire lines. The grand gray denizen of Gainesway Farm’s fabled stallion complex matches a broad spectrum of lines and types. If a mare is big and coarse or rangy and unfurnished, Tapit will bring their offspring back toward the norm, and one of the remarkable qualities of Tapit as a sire is how much he can do to improve the proportions and functionality of broodmares.

As a sire and obviously also as a broodmare sire, Tapit works to normalize leg lengths, body lengths to height, and frame to overall substance. You might say he imparts a good deal of quality and overall balance because that is the visual effect.

Those are good things to add to a mating, and Tapit is a generally dominant force in normalizing the characteristics of his mates.

With Tapit’s two best sons (multiple champion Essential Quality and Horse of the Year Flightline) retired to stud for 2022 and 2023, the best results from Tapit as a sire of stallions is yet to come, but his daughters have given an indication of what can result from judicious matings. There will be more to this story.

pair of graded stakes winners make a real nice week for nursery place

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happy broadbent, hopkins, jim wilhite, john donaldson, john mayer, litigate, nursery place

Breeding two horses that win graded stakes in less than a week is a notable success, made more notable by the fact that John Mayer’s Nursery Place is a relatively small operation. Nursery Place, in partnership with Happy Broadbent and Jim Wilhite, bred the 5-year-old Hopkins (by Quality Road), who won the Grade 3 Palos Verdes Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 5, and the farm is one of three partners that bred the 3-year-old Litigate (Blame), who won the G3 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay six days later. (Editor’s note: The Jockey Club lists Nursery Place as sole breeder of Hopkins.)

Both horses were raised and sold by Nursery Place, as well, and through several decades of work in breeding and raising horses, as well as selling them, Mayer and his associates have developed a reputation for producing good horses.

As a result, the right buyers will have a look at them, and both the graded winners sold out of the Nursery Place consignments. Mayer said, “We were well-paid for them, and now we just hope that they keep on doing well for their owners.”

Bred in Kentucky, Hopkins is the second stakes winner and fourth stakes horse out of the Salt Lake mare Hot Spell, who was second in a stakes at Golden Gate. Her other stakes winner is Saratoga Heater (Temple City), and she has a pair of stakes-placed racers in Of a Revolution (Maclean’s Music), who was second in the G2 Gallant Bob and third in the G3 Swale, and Malocchio (Orb), who ran second in the Sorority at Monmouth.

With those kinds of relations, people came to see Hopkins when he was presented as a yearling, and they clearly liked what they saw because the powerful bay brought $900,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September yearling sale. Expected to travel to Dubai for the upcoming Golden Shaheen Stakes, Hopkins races for SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Stonestreet Stables LLC, Golconda Stable, Siena Farm LLC, and Robert E. Masterson.

The Palos Verdes was the third victory in seven starts for Hopkins, who has a trio of seconds. His only unplaced effort was a sixth in the G2 San Antonio on Dec. 26.

His dam will be bred to first-year sire Olympiad (Speightstown) this year. On selecting the mating, Mayer noted that “a good many years ago, a wise man told me to breed quality older mares to promising young sires and my nice young mares to proven, older sires.”

With that philosophy, Mayer planned matings for his nice young Mineshaft mare Salsa Diavola. “We started her off like she was a good mare, with the mating to Ghostzapper,” Mayer said, “but it was the third foal (Litigate) who got her off the mark” with a stakes winner.

Bred in Kentucky by Nursery Place, John Donaldson, and Happy Broadbent, Litigate has now won two of his three starts, earning $182,590 for owner Centennial Farms. The bay was well-received at the 2021 Keeneland September yearling sale and sold for $370,000 to Centennial for one of its partnerships. Litigate was the top-priced yearling colt for his sire in 2021.

Now, Litigate is the second stakes winner of 2023 for his sire, who ranks as a top value sire in the Kentucky stallion market at $25,000 live foal. The stallion has Litigate on the Kentucky Derby trail, and his other stakes winner of 2023 is Godolphin’s Wet Paint, who will be pointing for the Kentucky Oaks in similar fashion to last year’s winner Secret Oath (Arrogate), who took the path from Oaklawn Park to Churchill.

The partners’ faith in Blame has paid off further. Litigate’s dam Salsa Diavola is in foal to Blame and “is due in a couple of weeks,” Mayer noted. The partners haven’t decided who to send her to in 2023 … yet.

“I’ve been partners with these fellows for 25 years,” Mayer said. “In doing this sort of thing, you develop relationships, and ours has worked very well. We normally buy young mares and sell them in foal. We got lucky, and it didn’t work out to get Salsa Diavola sold,” when she was bought back for $130,000 carrying her first foal to Ghostzapper.

Since then, the mare has become a graded stakes producer, like nearly everything in her family, tracing back through her dam Miss Salsa (Unbridled), the dam of G3 winner Pacific Ocean (Ghostzapper); her dam Oscillate (Seattle Slew), dam of stakes winner and sire Mutakddim (Seeking the Gold); her dam G1 winner Dance Number (Northern Dancer), the dam of champion juvenile Rhythm (Mr. Prospector); her dam champion Numbered Account (Buckpasser), dam of G1 winner and leading sire Private Account (Damascus); then back through multiple top producers to Numbered Account’s fifth dam La Troienne (Teddy), dam of champion Bimelech and several major producing lines, and herself a half-sister to Prix de Diane winner Adargatis (Asterus).

This is the family that keeps coming back, generation after generation. Litigate is the latest.

Mayer said that “this sort of success is great for my kids and for the people on the farm; it jazzes them up. But you can’t live on the expectation of having a week like that, not if you want to survive. There has to be something in it, day to day, that gets you out of bed and provides some kind of personal reward. Because, at the core, it’s just farming.

“But it has been a real nice week.”

in the days of raise a native

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john franks, kentucky scenic, monique rene, raise a native, ronique

A walk through the wintry wonders of Kentucky pastureland this morning, with ice coating the fence boards and the stems of any hardy shrubs and plants, brought to mind an outing with a mare in 1985.

In the early spring, probably the first week of April or a bit earlier, I had the opportunity to ride along with a maiden mare going to Spendthrift Farm to be bred to Raise a Native (by Native Dancer). The man didn’t have to ask me twice.

The mare going to the shed was Monique Rene (Prince of Ascot), a winner of 29 races from 45 starts, including the Pan Zareta Handicap twice, the Chou Croute Stakes, the Mardi Gras Handicap, all at the Fair Grounds, earning $456,250. Well as she raced elsewhere, Monique Rene loved Louisiana Downs, which was pretty much the home track of owner John Franks, and there she won the Valencia, Victoria (twice), Sugarland (twice), Creole State, Suthern Accent, Honeymoon, Diplomat, and Southern Maid. The red mare was fast and game; fans loved her.

She had been a lot of fun for Mr. Franks, and he reciprocated by sending her to some of the best stallions available. For her first match, I was told that he had purchased the season to Raise a Native for $400,000. If that seems impossible today, remember that these were syndicated stallions in the days before syndication agreements allowed essentially bottomless books.

If a breeder wanted a season to a stallion of significance, he had to pay the price, whatever that was.

So, I vaulted into the passenger seat of the box truck, and we headed out to cross Fayette County on a cold morning that looked so much like this one. A freezing rain had coated the timber with a thin layer of ice, and it made a memorable morning even more lovely to look at. The temps must have risen to slightly above freezing by the time we were on the way because the roads were clear. Even the smaller ones held no hazard for a careful driver.

Even so, we went at only a steady pace because we were well ahead of time and arrived to unload the muscular chestnut mare in good time for her to be checked by the breeding crew and take a place outside the old Spendthrift breeding shed. John Williams ran the stallions and breeding shed for Spendthrift; it was a smooth-running machine, nothing out of place.

With Monique Rene being a maiden, I’m sure they jumped her with a teaser, but I don’t recall that. I only remember Raise a Native. He would have been 24 by this time, but he was still such a beast. He pranced into the breeding shed, ears up, tail swishing. He looked like the boss, and he surely was.

Although Raise a Native was no longer a youngster, he took maybe 30 seconds to cover, then was snorting like a train coming round the bend, arching his neck. He was so full of energy and character that you could see why people were drawn to him, and he sired some tremendous athletes. As he walked out of the shed, he flashed his long red tail from side to side as he went, and the morning lit him up in the bright red chestnut that was “Raise a Native red” and must have belonged to his grandsire American Flag, as well as his sire Man o’ War and Fair Play.

Reloading a well-traveled mare like Monique Rene took minutes, and then she was on the road again. Pronounced in foal by the veterinarian and returned to Louisiana, she delivered a red filly about 11 months later that Mr. Franks named Ronique. As a racehorse, Ronique did nothing. She made six starts, finished third once, and earned $700.

Although the young mare’s racing career added nothing to the sportsman’s immense racing stable, as a broodmare, Ronique more than made up for that. Her best racer was the Kissin Kris gelding Kiss a Native, who was nearly as prolific a winner as his granddam. He won stakes at 2, 3, 4, and 7, was second in the G1 Donn at 5, earned $1.1million, and was the 2000 champion 3-year-old in Canada.

Much later, in 2007, I acquired Ronique. No longer a broodmare, Ronique was not a sedentary old codger. That long-bodied red rebel would have run a 3-year-old to death. She was, without a doubt, the most active older mare I’ve ever encountered. My sympathies to her trainer Harold Delahoussaye and groom when she was stuck in a stall on the racetrack.

According to Equibase, Ronique had raced from June 1989 to January 1990, and from what I saw of her hyperactive personality on the farm, they surely gave up on the racing option with her because she was mentally unsuited to spending life in a stall.

Her foals, or at least most of them, did not have that difficulty, and certainly Kiss a Native had a very long career. Ronique spent the rest of her life on the farm with me, and perhaps it was fitting that, being there at the beginning, I was there for her at the end.

lecomte stakes winner instant coffee runs to his heritage

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lecomte, lexington, umpire, wild man from borneo

The victory of Instant Coffee (by Bolt d’Oro) in the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes at the Fair Grounds brings more than hopes of classic glory to the talented colt. It also reminds us of the fast and furious rivalry between Lecomte and Lexington, both sons of the great 19th-century American racehorse and sire Boston (Timoleon).

Lecomte and Lexington were foaled in 1850, the year that California entered the Union, and each was a racehorse of very high quality. Lecomte was unbeaten until his defeat by Lexington, and Lexington met his first and only defeat from Lecomte.

Lexington won the Great State Post Stakes from Lecomte, then the latter turned the tables in the 1854 Jockey Club Purse. At these races, the interstate rivalry was so intense that tens of thousands of dollars, probably hundreds of thousands, changed hands on the results. The deciding race was the 1855 Jockey Club Purse, when Lexington won the first four-mile heat and Lecomte was withdrawn from the second.

After Lexington had defeated Lecomte the second time, the bay son of Boston was retired due to failing eyesight and went to stud that year in Kentucky at W.F. Harper’s stud near Midway, Ky., for a covering fee of $100, $1 to the groom. Robert A. Alexander of Woodburn Farm had gone to England to purchase bloodstock, there met Lexington’s owner Richard Ten Broeck, and purchased the horse for $15,000, an American record price for a horse at that time.

As talented a racer as Lexington was, he proved even more important as a sire. He was the leading sire in the country 14 times in a row, with an additional two more sire titles for 16 total. The great blind stallion died at Woodburn in July 1875 at the age of 25, and his skeleton was preserved and is at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Lexington was lionized in print and illustration, as in this lithograph of the horse in racing trim on his retirement to stud in Kentucky.

An interesting facet of Instant Coffee’s pedigree is that both these great rivals figure in the pedigree of the Lecomte Stakes winner.

The role of Lexington is not a surprise. He is present in essentially all pedigrees. Among other notable connections, Lexington is the sire of 1865 Travers winner Maiden, the sixth dam of Nearco (Pharis), and Mumtaz Mahal (The Tetrarch) has Lexington twice in her sixth generation because her second dam, Americus Girl, is by Americus, who was inbred 3×3 to Lexington through Norfolk and his full sister The Nun.

So Lexington is pervasive in pedigrees the world over, but the same cannot be said for Lecomte.

After Lexington ambled off to stud, the chestnut Lecomte raced on, although he, like his sire Boston, covered mares while still remaining an active racer. Lecomte was bred in 1855 and 1856, then after defeats from a horse named Pryor (Glencoe), was sold to Lexington’s former owner Richard Ten Broeck toward the end of 1856.

From breeder-owner Thomas Jefferson Wells, Ten Broeck purchased not only Lecomte for $10,000 but also his younger half-sister Prioress (Sovereign). Together with Pryor, the two offspring of the great producer Reel shipped to England as Ten Broeck’s troika to take on the best of English racing.

For Pryor and Lecomte, the trip was a disaster. Lecomte had a sore ankle and could not stand a proper training regimen; Pryor fell ill on the trip overseas and never recovered his form. Lecomte suffered colic and died on Oct. 7, 1857, and Pryor died 15 days later, per their obituaries in the Spirit of the Times.

The sole bright spot for this tragic expedition was that Prioress raced into a triple dead heat for the 1857 Cambridgeshire Handicap and won the run-off.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the final foals by Lecomte had been born in 1857. The best racer among these was bred in Kentucky by Ten Broeck. He was a bay colt out of Alice Carneal (Sarpedon) and a half-brother to Lexington by his great rival.

Named Umpire, this colt was taken to England by Ten Broeck, and he was notably successful, at one time the actual favorite for the Derby at Epsom. On the day, Umpire started as third choice 6-1 behind The Wizard, who had won the 1860 2,000 Guineas, and Thormanby. The bettors had the first two tagged but in the wrong order, as Thormanby won by 1 ½ lengths, and Umpire was seventh in a field of 30.

Later in 1860, Umpire raced for the St. Leger at Doncaster, with Thormanby favored, but after taking the lead, Umpire could not hold on and finished seventh behind the winner, St. Albans, as the fifth choice in a field of 15. Thormanby finished 11th.

Sound and athletic, Umpire raced on, winning the Queen’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot in 1863, by which time he was owned by Lord Coventry.

Wild Man from Borneo was a great-grandson of Lexington’s great rival Lecomte and won the Grand National of 1895.

Sent to stud, Umpire had some foals, and his son Decider earned a place in history as the sire of one of the best-named winners of the Grand National at Aintree: Wild Man From Borneo, the victor in the great steeplechase in 1895.

In the present day, however, pride of place goes to one of Lecomte’s daughters. This is the Lecomte Mare 1857 out of Edith, otherwise unnamed. She was bred by Wells and is the 15th dam of this year’s Lecomte Stakes winner Instant Coffee.

As with Instant Coffee, nearly all of the contemporary connections to Lecomte come through the Lecomte Mare’s granddaughter Mannie Gray, the dam of Correction and her full brother Domino. Together, they exerted an extraordinary influence on American breeding, especially in the first half of the 20th century, but are still present in pedigrees today.

instant coffee perking memories as the last runner and stakes winner bred by sagamore farm

Although there is still quite a bit of purse money to race for in the coming 30-odd days of 2022, the freshman sire list has firmed up considerably. Atop the rankings is the juvenile Grade 1 winner Bolt d’Oro (by Medaglia d’Oro). If the bay colt retains his position, he will become the first son of Medaglia d’Oro to lead a sire list and the first descendant of the Sadler’s Wells branch of Northern Dancer to lead a sire list in the States since Kitten’s Joy in 2018.

On Nov. 26, Bolt d’Oro’s son Instant Coffee became the stallion’s fifth stakes victor with a 1 1/4-length success in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. Instant Coffee is his sire’s third graded winner, and the sire has nine racers who are stakes-placed.

Unhurried early behind slow fractions, Instant Coffee came strongly through the final three-sixteenths to win as the 1.54-to-1 favorite over Curly Jack (Good Magic), who was the second choice, had won the previous G3 Iroquois Stakes, and is one of five stakes winners by freshman sire and Eclipse champion juvenile Good Magic (Curlin), who is second to Bolt d’Oro on the freshman sire list.

If $100,000 in earnings represents a length, Bolt d’Oro is currently about three-quarters of a length ahead of Good Magic, and Justify (Scat Daddy) is about 1 ¾ lengths back in third. Then, Army Mule (Friesan Fire) is 3 ¼ lengths back in fourth, with a length on Sharp Azteca (Freud) in fifth.

Clearly, this is no 2021, when Gun Runner won the freshman sire contest by a pole, because even now there is significant room for competition among the leading cadre, and less than two lengths covers the next quartet: Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy), Girvin (Tale of Ekati), Oscar Performance (Kitten’s Joy), and Mo Town (Uncle Mo).

Other points of importance to consider among the freshmen sires is that numbers matter. Of the 73 stallions with first-year starters, only 10 had more than 100 foals. Five of those fill the top six positions, and all 10 rank among the top 18. Only Army Mule (93) broke through the barrier of the most popular stallions, and he’s not far from 100 first-crop foals.

Oscar Performance has the smallest number of foals (72) among the stallions in the top 10, and three in the top set have more than double that number: Mendelssohn (152), Bolt d’Oro (146), and Good Magic (145). In contrast, the stallion with the fewest foals among the top 20 is 12th-place Awesome Slew (Awesome Again), with 36. Yes, some of the stallions have crops exceeding his by more than 100.

Awesome Slew stands at the O’Farrell family’s Ocala Stud in Florida, and Girvin also stood there until the exploits of his first crop racers, notably four stakes winners, including G2 Saratoga Special winner Damon’s Mound, propelled a transfer to Airdrie Stud in Kentucky.

Two of the stakes winners by Girvin won restricted races in Florida, parts of the Florida Stallion Stakes Series, and the chief winner by Awesome Slew, Awesome Strong, won the In Reality and the Affirmed divisions of the stallion stakes.

Although both of those young sires benefited somewhat from standing in a regional market, that fact also circumscribed their opportunities to a degree because there are not as many mares elsewhere as in Kentucky, nor all of an equal quality.

One such good, young, well-pedigreed mare beginning her producing career is the dam of Instant Coffee.

Bred in Kentucky by Sagamore Farm LLC, Instant Coffee may be the last horse bred by Kevin Plank’s Maryland-based operation that was dispersed in 2018. Hunter Rankin, who was president of Sagamore, said that Instant Coffee’s dam, the Uncle Mo mare Follow No One, “didn’t sell at the Keeneland November sale as a broodmare prospect, and Kevin did a deal with my parents [who own Upson Downs Farm]. That’s why Sagamore is listed as the breeder. She and the foal were both at Upson Downs all along.”

Rankin also bought the mare for Sagamore as a 2-year-old in training. He said, “Gatewood Bell had bought her as a yearling for $20,000 at the September sale, sent her to Eddie Woods as a 2-year-old, and I bought her for $100,000 at the April sale.” Still noticeably immature by the time of the sale, Follow No One showed some athleticism while working a quarter on synthetic in :21 1/5.

“Eddie thought she’d run through her conditions,” Rankin continued, “maybe get black type – which is exactly what happened [third in the Alma North Stakes at three]. She had some little things to work through, but she had some talent. It’s really exciting to have her get a really nice colt as her first foal.”

Upson Downs consigned Instant Coffee for Sagamore at last year’s September sale, and the dark brown colt brought $200,000 from Joe Hardoon, agent, and races for Gold Square LLC. “He won his maiden at Saratoga the week before the September sale,” Rankin recalled, which advertised the upside potential of his year-younger half-sister, a filly by Frosted (Tapit). Upson Downs sold their filly at the 2022 Keeneland September sale for $160,000 to HR Bloodstock.

Follow No One slipped to Speightstown (Gone West) but is in foal to Maclean’s Music (Distorted Humor) for 2023. A mate for next spring hasn’t been chosen.

flightline’s feline grace is attracting breeders and fans to his new home at lane’s end farm

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a.p. indy, flightline, lane's end farm

The catlike power and bounding glory of Flightline graced our racetracks for the last time on Nov. 5, and one of the marks of highest merit for the bay son of Tapit (by Pulpit) is that he translated the exceptional speed and overpowering dominance he had shown while racing in California to tracks in New York (for the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap) and Kentucky (for his career finale in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic).

Now being carefully unwound from the bustle and daily routine of life on the racetrack, Flightline is being prepared step by step for his second career as a stallion at Lane’s End Farm outside Versailles, Ky. On the racetrack, a show of particular interest in fillies can earn a colt a sharp correction. This is so because a horse’s purpose on the racetrack is racing, and focus is important. Very important.

Back at the farm, it sometimes takes a moment for a smart colt to realize that a particular interest in fillies will no longer result in a correction. Instead, fillies are the focus of this new life that only a very few colts can attain.

Polymelus — shown in the racing colors of owner Solly Joel — is the male-line ancestor of each of the eight stallions in the fourth generation of Flightline’s pedigree. Joel bought the colt for 4,200 guineas and with him won the 1906 Cambridgeshire Handicap and reportedly about 100,000 pounds in wagers. Polymelus was five times the leading sire in England. His best racers included leading sire Phalaris; the Derby winners Pommern, Fifinella, and Humorist; and 1923 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Parth.

Flightline has made the initial steps of transition to the quiet life of a breeding farm under the guidance of the stallion staff at Lane’s End. Fresh from the accolades he earned after a rousing race in the Breeders’ Cup Classic against his divisional challenger, Life is Good (Into Mischief), Flightline would be one of the most popular horses in the country. Tens of thousands would like to see him; many fewer would like to acquire a season and breed a foal from his first crop. Okay, actually nearly everyone would like a season. The reality is that only a very few have the cash ($200,000 for a live foal) and a mare of the quality to possibly reach that pinnacle.

So, one of the highlights of the latter days of the Keeneland November sale was the opportunity to venture out to Lane’s End and see Flightline being shown to some of his fans and admirers on the grounds trod for decades by champion racehorse and sire A.P. Indy.

A thick-bodied son of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew (Bold Reasoning) and the Secretariat mare Weekend Surprise, A.P. Indy was a leader in every segment of his life. A beautiful young horse, he was the top-selling lot at the 1990 Keeneland July sale of selected yearlings. On the racetrack under the patient training of Neil Drysdale, the colt became a Grade 1 winner at two, then progressed to win the Belmont Stakes at three, ended his racing career with victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and was named Horse of the Year in 1992.

Thirty years late, there is no question who will be Horse of the Year for 2022. That question was answered emphatically and properly (on the racetrack) when the two best horses in training – Life is Good and Flightline – squared off over the 10 furlongs of the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

On the afternoon of Nov. 14, watching Flightline walk the manicured pathways that A.P. Indy, Kingmambo, and others built, there was no doubt that, for racing ability and athletic prowess, here was a young horse who merited inclusion among these champions of sporting history.

Across the quad from the primary showing path where our new champion strode and stood and pricked his handsome ears, a statue of A.P. Indy on a pedestal surveys the domain the great horse ruled.

The son and grandson of Triple Crown winners became the most dominant influence on the American classics of the past 20 years, and Flightline is a son of A.P. Indy’s most famous and important grandson, Tapit.

Whereas A.P. Indy himself was a Goliath, thick-bodied and immensely powerful, Pulpit and his great son Tapit are just a step closer to the norm, nice-sized horses but not immense.

In contrast, Flightline is out of a stakes-winning daughter of the big, brawny, and powerful Indian Charlie (In Excess), and Flightline is cast in a distinctively different model to Indian Charlie and his best son, champion Uncle Mo.

Flightline himself is a lean and elegant racer of considerable individuality. In phenotype, Flightline is definitely more of a greyhound than a mastiff, and the influence of the great Mr. Prospector is evident in the elegant and efficient construction of the horse. Mr. Prospector was no carbon copy of his sire Raise a Native, either, but took a different type, and Flightline is inbred to Mr. P 4x5x5. That might be a point worth considering.

Judicious consideration is always a good ingredient in well-planned matings, but if the brilliant bay champion-to-be is able to pass on a reasonable portion of the qualities he showed on the racetrack, his future will be bright, and the sport will be all the richer.

the oracle has spoken: champions dream becomes the first stakes-winning colt from the first crop by justify

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champions dream, conor foley, jeff weiss, justify, nashua stakes, oracle bloodstock, rosedown racing

“This colt was kinda small when I bought him,” said pinhooker and consignor G.W. Parrish when I was inspecting the gray colt that he had purchased out of the 2021 Keeneland September sale and had trained up to working a quarter-mile for the OBS March sale in :20 4/5.

The colt had turned in a very good work, showing a stride length of 25.3 feet and earning a BreezeFig of 73. In addition the colt was speeding up through his work, attracting further notice for that as he worked around the turn.

In addition to a quick work, the colt was from the first crop by champion Justify (by Scat Daddy) and out of a graded stakes winner by Tapit. Even so, Parrish had acquired the colt for only $25,000 as a yearling.

“I brought him down here and put him in training, and he never missed a day, never did anything wrong,” Parrish continued. “He’s turned into a really nice colt.”

Most everyone else thought so too, and the gray son of Justify brought $425,000 from Rosedown Racing Stables, which is the entity owned by commercial real estate developer Jeffrey Weiss. The owner sent his new colt to trainer Danny Gargan, and the colt, named Champions Dream, won his debut going seven furlongs at Saratoga on Sept. 3 by 2 ¼ lengths.

Conor Foley of Oracle Bloodstock, along with his team, had selected the gray colt for Weiss at the March sale and said “he was one of the best horses in the sale. We loved him and were tickled to bits to get him for Jeff Weiss, although I was surprised by the price. I believe everyone expected him to go for more.

“Danny thought this was a nice colt very early, and Champions Dream then won his maiden at Saratoga comfortably, which is the right way.”

A month later, Champions Dream had a rough trip in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes and finished fifth, but in his next start, on Saturday at Aqueduct for the G2 Nashua, Champions Dream was organized and on cue, winning his first stakes by three-quarters of a length over Full Moon Madness.

Bred in Kentucky by John Oxley, Champions Dream is the fifth stakes winner for Justify from a first crop of 176 foals. That represents 3 percent of his foals to date, but the achievement is most notable for a quartet being graded or group winners. Of the five, four are fillies; Champions Dream is the sire’s first stakes-winning colt, so far.

Justify’s first book of mares included about 40 major stakes winners and dozens of mares who had produced high-class racers from around the world. One of the quality racemares sent to Justify was Dancinginherdreams (Tapit), winner of the G2 Golden Rod Stakes at two. The elegant gray filly also ran second in the G2 Forward Gal and Davona Dale Stakes at Gulfstream but didn’t win another stakes.

Cast in the beautifully balanced mold of her distinguished sire Tapit, Dancinginherdreams was medium-sized and elegant, and her Justify colt was definitely in the type of his dam and Tapit. Having grown well over the winter, adding strength and standing about 15.3 as a 2-year-old in training, Champions Dream had the profile and phenotype of a miler who would develop well at two and possess the potential to be a challenger as a 3-year-old.

How different from his massively constructed sire Justify, who combines the immense strength and muscularity of broodmare sire Ghostzapper with the scope and height of Scat Daddy. Justify is a tank; Champions Dream is a sport vehicle.

That difference is not a bad thing. Champions Dream stood up to the rigors of early training and handled the preparation for the in-training sales well. He prospered under the Parrish Farms regimen and has continued to develop and improve over the summer in Gargan’s barn.

“Champions Dream showed Danny pretty early that this was an above-average colt,” Foley said, “and he keeps on doing things well. He’s going to Florida, gives us the feeling he’d like Gulfstream, and will be on the Derby trail. We’re all very excited for Jeff Weiss and his family to have a colt of this caliber.”

The future looks bright for this progressive young athlete, and if he proves as high-class and tough as Nashua himself, Champions Dream should bring a lot of smiles and dreams.

wests focus on the long game for their breeding and racing operation – stallions, mares, sales, and racing – with top advisers

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ben glass, gary west, mary west, sid fernando

The breeding and racing operation of Gary and Mary West combines racing and selling in a practical attempt to keep the stable on the profitable side of the ledger.

That is a major undertaking in any business, but breeding Thoroughbreds adds a couple extra degrees of difficulty. Yet, when breeders keep and race a colt like Maximum Security (by New Year’s Day), who won 10 of 14 races, earning $12.4 million, balancing the books seems much simpler.

Horses like Maximum Security, however, do not come along every year. In any operation.

So the results of the Grade 2 Fayette Handicap were a welcome way to end the meet. The Wests’ homebred West Will Power (Bernardini) was one of two winners on the card which clinched a first title as leading owners at Keeneland for the Wests. Earlier this year, they had tied with Juddmonte Farms for second among leading owners at the Churchill Downs spring meeting and had been the leading owners at Ellis Park’s meeting over the summer.

West Will Power had been second in a stakes at Ellis in his return from competition after 11 months on the sidelines, then won an allowance at Churchill. Trained this year by Brad Cox, West Will Power has won two of his three starts in 2022, and the Fayette was his first stakes victory.

A winner of his first two starts, West Will Power has now won five of his 12 starts, earning $525,230. Before the Fayette, the horse’s best effort had been a second in the G2 Iselin Handicap last year.

The 5-year-old bay comes from the crop immediately following the one that produced Maximum Security and was one of the colts the breeders elected to retain for their racing stable.

“Gary and Mary like to go to proven stallions,” noted one of the Wests’ advisers, Sid Fernando, “and going back six years to when we at Werk Thoroughbred Consultants helped plan the mating, Bernardini fit that mare best, according to our criteria, and we expected that he would be best at three and up.” And so he has proved.

To get the results that the Wests are aiming for, classic contenders year after year, requires consideration and long-term planning using the best bloodstock and advisers available.

To balance the challenges of mating and managing a sizable broodmare band and racing stable, the Wests have assembled a team of advisers and associates with decades of experience. Chief among these is their racing manager, Ben Glass, who is instrumental in selecting horses at the sales and then managing them for the Wests’ breeding and racing interests.

In addition, Fernando and Roger Lyons of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants assist the Wests and their racing manager with matings and auction recommendations.

Fernando noted that “in the last few years, Gary West has not been buying yearlings at Keeneland, like he had before. Instead, he has been concentrating on breeding more from his home stallions – Game Winner, West Coast, and Maximum Security – as well as well other top-tier sires.”

Among those horses the Wests have bred is leading 4-year-old Life is Good (Into Mischief), which they sold “because their primary focus is the 3-year-old classics, and the thought was that this colt would be better at eight to nine furlongs. They obviously liked him a lot and put a strong reserve on him, but he was such a good-looking prospect that China Horse Club and Maverick Racing (WinStar) bought him for $525,000,” Fernando recalled.

So, the Wests have bred a trio of high-class colts in successive crops, as well as buying Game Winner (Candy Ride) and racing him to a juvenile championship in 2018. The big dark bay now stands at Lane’s End and is one of the stallions that the Wests’ current approach is geared to supporting.

For earlier stallions, Glass purchased at auction the dams of Maximum Security and British Idiom for reasonable prices to breed to stallions New Year’s Day and Flashback, then sold the mares on at moderate prices. At the 2017 Keeneland January sale, the Wests sold Rose and Shine, in foal to Flashback, for $21,000 to Hargus and Sandra Sexton, and as a result British Idiom was not bred by the Wests. Nonetheless, they felt a strong rooting interest when the filly won the G1 Alcibiades Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, then was named the Eclipse Award winner as champion juvenile filly for 2019.

What might be next, with stallions like Game Winner, West Coast, and Maximum Security to work with?