examining galileo’s place among the greats

The loss of Europe’s greatest stallion, Galileo, on July 10 brought forth the question of where the exceptional racehorse and stallion ranks in the pantheon of the best of the breed. Although unquestionably the best sire in Europe, Galileo’s ranking among the greats will require more time to fully understand.

For a broader perspective on a sire, the internationally known bloodstock commentator Tony Morris wrote in his informative book Stallions that we needed to wait 25 years to properly assess a sire’s long-term influence on the breed. That is distinct from the ranking and perceived importance during a horse’s lifetime, when the immediate success of a stallion or a particularly fancy winner may shine a light on the horse that dims quite a bit over time.

In 1920, for instance, would anyone have expected that the influence of multiple leading sire Phalaris would far exceed that of his great predecessor St. Simon? Or that of any subsequent stallion? No. It was unthinkable and unforeseeable, but nonetheless, that is the bloodstock of today. The heirs of Phalaris.

Among the greatest of these is Galileo.

What we do know today is that Galileo rewrote portions of the record books with the excellence and volume of his better offspring. He sired winners of all the English, French, and Irish classics, including five winners of the Derby at Epsom. A winner of the English Derby in 2001, Galileo sired the Derby winners New Approach (2008), Ruler of the World (2013), Australia (2014), Anthony Van Dyck (2019), and Serpentine (2020).

No other stallion has sired so many, and that gift for classic expression among his many foals is likely to be the most telling of the many fine gifts that Galileo has left us.

To win a classic, especially the Derby, requires a horse to possess stamina, strength, courage, honesty, and the desire to win, along with a lilt of speed to meet the rising ground to the finish at Epsom. Galileo possessed all those and freely shared the same with his legions of sons and daughters.

Like his great sire Sadler’s Wells and world-renowned grandsire Northern Dancer before him, Galileo had a quality, not just in his physique, which was very fine, but in his manner and self-possession, that set him apart. Perhaps it is asking a bit much for a horse to have self-awareness, but with Galileo and some other elite Thoroughbreds, there is something in their character and in their interaction with others, both human and equine, that is akin to such a perception.

Certainly, when I visited Banstead Manor outside Newmarket to see the unbeaten champion Frankel, the big bay son of Galileo showed an awareness and command of his situation that was inspiring. A leading freshman sire and now the sire of two Derby winners this year in Adayar (English) and Hurricane Lane (Irish), Frankel is a key component of the future legacy of Galileo, and a significant part of the enduring legacy is that Frankel possessed so much of the ephemeral but ever-important quality: speed.

Without speed, a Thoroughbred is at the mercy of any racer who does possess it, and Adayar particularly showed that trait in leaving his opponents toiling at Epsom.

In addition to Frankel’s growing role in the Galileo legacy, 19 other sons of the great stallion have sired G1 winners around the world, largely in Europe, and mostly on turf. Will they spread round the world to dominate the breed and raise the influence of Galileo to an even greater level?

Time will tell.

For the immediate future, Galileo will have his final crop of foals born next year in 2022, and his final crop of classic performers will come in 2025. These and others will continue to swell Galileo’s number of stakes winners past 338 over the next few years.

And for those of us who watch and wonder, what if (unlikely as it is), what if the best is yet to come?

seeing was believing: arazi was an international champion who captivated the imagination of fans

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arazi

In general, American dirt racing is dominated by horses with a high turn of early speed. Relatively few winners come from far back, especially in the most prestigious races. As a result, those who do make a greater impression. Few would forget Secretariat’s run from last in the first quarter of the 1973 Kentucky Derby to winning in record time.

Likewise, those of us who were there at the Breeders’ Cup races at Churchill Downs in 1991 won’t forget the Grade 1 Juvenile victory by Arazi (by Blushing Groom). The first trans-Atlantic juvenile champion, Arazi had come into the race with a grand reputation.

Second on his debut at Chantilly on May 30, Arazi had won all six of his subsequent starts, all stakes, including the G1 Prix Morny, Prix de la Salamandre, and Grand Criterium. The acknowledged juvenile champion of Europe, Arazi was untested and untried on dirt, but he was the favorite for the race at slightly more than 2-to-1 over the quick California colt Bertrando (Skywalker).

The latter sped the first two quarters in :23 and change for a half in :46.63, and he ran a remarkably brave race to finish second, beaten five lengths. All the other horses who had attended the early pace were more than 10 lengths behind Arazi, and the colts who were 12th (Snappy Landing) 13th (Arazi), and 14th (Offbeat) at the first quarter-mile finished 1st (Arazi), 3rd (Snappy Landing), and 4th (Offbeat).

Even allowing that the pace took a serious toll, the move that Arazi made had to be seen to be believed, and one of the joys of the internet is that the race is available for all to see. The dashing chestnut in the red, white, and blue silks of co-owner Allen Paulson captured the imagination of the racing public, including thousands who watched racing only occasionally, and for the next several months, anything that Arazi did was news.

The first bit of news about the lovely colt wasn’t good, however. He came out of the race with a chip in a knee. That was operated on, and the winner of seven races from eight starts wintered uneventfully with trainer Francois Boutin in France and made his 1992 debut a winning one in the Prix Omnium.

If Arazi fever had been simmering over the winter, it went to a heady boil immediately. With only a single start since the 1991 Juvenile, Arazi was made the odds-on favorite to win the Kentucky Derby.

Arazi at the mile in the Kentucky Derby. After a powerful move from far back coming into the turn and into the homestretch, Arazi nearly has the lead, but Casual Lies to his inside gallops on strongly to be second, and Lil E. Tee, looming large just behind Arazi, came running to win the classic. (Photo by Richard Mackson/Sports Illustrated)

In the race, Snappy Landing led the field down the stretch the first time, with an opening quarter in :24; at that point, the Irish-bred Dr. Devious (Ahonoora) and Arazi were 15th and 17th in a field of 18. Going into the far turn, Arazi was moving rapidly outside, his diminutive form visible between horses as he picked off one after another. The chart credits the colt with reaching second, but as the field passed into the stretch, the writing was on the wall. This would not be a coronation. Instead, it was a realization that a miler with an exceptional turn of foot was at a great disadvantage in the American classics.

From the quarter pole home, the big classic colts, Lil E. Tee (At the Threshold) and Casual Lies (Lear Fan) took control of the race, and Arazi faded just a bit to finish eighth, a head behind Dr. Devious. A month later, Dr. Devious finished really well up the rising ground at Epsom Downs to claim the Derby after his good prep in Kentucky.

Arazi likewise went back across the Atlantic, where he was unplaced in the G1 St. James’s Palace Stakes over a mile at Royal Ascot, then was third in the G3 Prix du Prince d’Orange at Longchamp on Sept. 20. The colt returned to win the G2 Prix du Rond-Point and crossed the Atlantic again to compete for the G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Gulfstream.

Sent off as the favorite against some of the top milers in the world, Arazi was inexplicably close up early as Lure (Danzig) set fire to the track, made every pole a winning one, and took the Mile by three lengths in 1:32.90, a new track record. Arazi must have been wondering what they were smoking after three-quarters in 1:09.09, and he backed up to 11th, the worst finish of his career.

That was the end of Arazi’s racing, but his long breeding career began in 1993. Sold to Allen Paulson as a foal at the 1989 Keeneland November sale, Arazi had a world-class pedigree to go with his distinguished racing class. As a top-class juvenile who hadn’t quite trained on at three, Arazi nonetheless had shown good form, and he was an attractive stallion prospect.

Sheikh Mohammed had purchased a half-interest in the chestnut colt for $9 million prior to the 1991 Grand Criterium and sent the colt to stud in England at his Dalham Hall in 1993. Arazi was a son of the top 2-year-old Blushing Groom, who stood at Gainesway Farm in Kentucky. Bernie Sams recalled the chestnut champion and leading sire, saying, “Blushing Groom had the best temperament you could find in a stallion. You could work with him, and he’d never get aggressive. His favorite treat was watermelon rind.”

Arazi apparently got much of the generous disposition of his sire and was characterized as a gentleman during his term at stud in Kentucky at Three Chimneys Farm. While there he sired his very best racer, the big chestnut Congaree, who was third in the 2001 Kentucky Derby behind Monarchos. In addition, Congaree won Grade 1 races at seven, eight, nine, and 10 furlongs, showing the versatility and durability that is possible with the Thoroughbred.

Out of a daughter of Northern Dancer, Arazi was pedigreed to be an outstanding sire, but the chestnut champion did not consistently sire racers with his own type and talent. His best in Europe was probably America, a filly who won the G2 Prix de Malleret and G3 Prix Vanteaux. At stud, she is best known for producing Americain (Dynaformer), who won the 2010 Melbourne Cup and entered stud at Calumet Farm in Kentucky.

In 1997, Arazi was sold to stand at the Breeders Stallion Station in Japan. From there, the stallion was sent to stand in Australia at Independent Stallion Station in 2003 in Victoria, spent a single covering season in Switzerland, then returned to the Land of the Koala to spend the rest of his life.

At the time of his death on July 1, age 32, Arazi was a pensioner at Stockwell Stud.

frankel breeding on the classic qualities of his sire galileo, grandsire sadler’s wells, great-grandsire northern dancer

When the great racehorse Frankel (by Galileo) retired to stud in 2013 at Banstead Manor outside Newmarket, England, one of the subjects of continuing conversation (and no little controversy) was whether the brilliant bay ever could match his racecourse performances with comparable accomplishments at stud.

The consensus was that there was little likelihood the great son of Galileo – a champion and unbeaten in each of his three seasons of training – would pull together all the qualities to make a sire equal to that great record. Then especially when the first foals and yearlings came on the public sales market for the broad spectrum of professionals who look at and assess the young stock of new sires, the rumblings were grave indeed.

The word among the cognoscenti was that the Frankels were all over the place; in size, color, and type, they were quite varied, and few seemed to resemble their famous father.

Then, in the Frankel fashion, he and his herd of offspring went to work disproving the wise guys and nay sayers. He became leading freshman sire in Europe, the sire of classic prospects, classic performers, and winners at elite levels around the globe. Those foals may not have looked like Frankel, but more than a few had considerable talent and a willingness to show it.

Certainly, the events of the past 30 days have brought a luster to the sire and his reputation that is hard to rival. At the beginning of June, Frankel’s son Adayar won the Derby at Epsom, and on June 26 at the Curragh, the stallion’s son Hurricane Lane would not be denied through the long straight to win the Irish Derby over Lone Eagle (Galileo).

With five crops age three and older, Frankel has provided us with a reasonably firm answer to the question about his quality as a stallion. The affirmative is found in the facts that the young stallion was the fastest to gain 40 group winners, although this distinction does not extend back beyond the 1970s, when the pattern race scheme was introduced.

To date, Frankel also has sired the winners of each of the English classics: Adayar has won the Derby; Anapurna the Oaks; Logician the St. Leger. Conspicuous by their absence are winners of the Guineas.

That in itself gives the careful observer much to think about because Frankel won the 2,000 Guineas, then was judged too rash a young rascal to attempt the Derby over the demanding and peculiar course at Epsom by no less a judge than trainer Henry Cecil.

He was probably correct. Frankel was a very powerful and potentially willful racer who wanted to tear away from his opponents, especially in his first season and a half. A combination of the horse’s volatile talent and Cecil’s judicious training and management kept him unbeaten in all his races.

But was there stamina in the grand bay that was never tapped?

Quite possibly there was, and quite possibly Cecil was correct in believing that wasn’t the direction to head in terms of managing the horse’s overall career. Cecil did train four winners of the Derby and eight winners of the Oaks; so he was passing acquainted with the demands of the course and the preparation required for its premier races.

But now that Frankel’s a stallion, there’s no question, not a sliver of lingering doubt, that Frankel imparts stamina. Overall, he seems to impart more stamina than speed, and there’s a fair measure of speed in many of his offspring.

Hurricane Lane won the Irish Derby over the weekend by staying the distance more emphatically, more powerfully, at the finish than Lone Eagle, whose stamina had allowed jockey Frankie Dettori to set the pace and slip the field in an apparently winning move early in the straight.

Unbeaten in three starts prior to his start at Epsom, Hurricane Lane had been the second favorite for the Derby in England, then seemed to labor up the rising ground to the finish behind his less-fancied stablemate Adayar, eventually beaten 7 3/4 lengths. (Hurricane Lane, however, had lost both front shoes in the race, according to a veterinary statement after the classic.)

At the Curragh, Hurricane Lane faced a similar task of reeling in an opponent who was well ahead, but this time, he proved up to the task. And when it comes to stamina, that will not be a worry for the grandson of Galileo and German Derby winner Shirocco (Monsun), who also won the G1 Coronation Cup and Breeders’ Cup Turf over his preferred distance of 12 furlongs.

An insightful race for evaluating the speed and stamina of Frankel’s offspring came the same day as the Irish Derby. The Fred Archer Stakes at Newmarket featured a one-two finish for Frankel’s sons as Outbox outran the year-younger Logician, winner of the St. Leger two years ago.

Looking in rather plush condition, despite already having a race this year, Logician stayed on well in this 12-furlong event but was caught out for speed by Outbox. Logician was getting closer with every stride, but if the gray son of Frankel is placed to win at the G1 level again, he almost certainly needs to race at a longer distance, not a shorter one.

So, in mating to Frankel, it would appear, breeders sending him mares with some speed may reap the rewards with offspring suited for the prestigious mile events and races up to 10 furlongs.

northern dancer is a source of contemporary specialist sprinting lines in europe

Just in time for Father’s Day, freshman sire Ardad received the perfect gift when his son Perfect Power won the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot. A winner in two of his three starts, Perfect Power is the first stakes winner for his sire from a dozen winners so far.

Bred in Ireland by Tally Ho Stud, Perfect Power was a 16,000-guinea RNA at last season’s Tattersalls October yearling sale, and the colt returned as a 2-year-old in training at the 2021 Goffs UK breeze up and sold for 110,000 guineas to Blandford Bloodstock on behalf of Sheikh Rashid Dalmook al Maktoum.

Orby, a colt bred and raced by Richard “Boss” Croker, won the Derby at Epsom and the Irish Derby at the Curragh. Retired to stud, he became a sire of considerable importance. His son Grand Parade won the Derby and the St. James’s Palace Stakes. Another son, The Boss, is responsible for the importance sprint lines of Gold Bridge, Golden Boss, and Panorama.

The colt that Perfect Power beat a head to claim the Norfolk was Go Bears Go, a son of second-crop sire Kodi Bear, who is a son of Kodiac, like Ardad. Last year, Kodiac had four freshmen sire sons, and each sired a group-placed horse or group winner. This year, Ardad already has a group winner and a group-placed, after Vintage Clarets was third in the G2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Ardad, like his son Perfect Power, was a pricey juvenile in training (cost 170,000 guineas) and became a winner at Royal Ascot with a victory in the listed Windsor Castle Stakes, then won the G2 Flying Childers Stakes at Doncaster. Rated 111 by Timeform at two, Ardad won three of his six starts as a juvenile but did not train on.

Sent to stud in 2018 at Overbury Stud in England, Ardad proved popular enough to have a first crop of 91 foals, and he is the current leading freshman sire in Europe by earnings and by number of winners. On that list, five of the top six have stud fees priced at 4,000 or 5,000 euros; Ardad’s stud fee for 2021? It was 4,000 euros.

That is history and to what degree depends on how well Perfect Power, Vintage Clarets, and some of the other winners from the sire finish out their first season.

The effect that Kodiac and his sons are having on European racing is evident. They are fast, athletic horses who come to hand early and naturally. The comment of Ardad’s trainer John Gosden is appropriate: “a strong, powerful and precocious colt with a great mind. He was an absolute pleasure to train and was a real Royal Ascot 2-year-old.”

Kodiac appears to be taking the legacy of his sire Danehill in a similar direction to some of that sire’s Australian sons, with speed and precocity being the key words there. And it is important that Europe has such a wide variety of racecourses and racing distances available because sires and their offspring who have a special preference have a likewise broad opportunity to race effectively and win.

This broad specialization and resulting segregation of sires, and sometimes of entire lines of sires, into stayers or sprinters was much more rigid a century ago in Europe and remained so for much of the 20th century until Vincent O’Brien began training American-pedigreed horses who appeared to have miler pedigrees but nonetheless could win classics and all-age events at middle distances.

As the Northern Dancer revolution swept up European racing and breeding, the old sprinting lines disappeared into the history books, but it is intriguing that the Northern Dancer line is the source of what appear to be the best “sprinting lines” in Europe through Danzig’s sons Danehill and Green Desert, as well as through juvenile highweight Try My Best (Acclamation and his sons, especially Dark Angel).

Certainly, Kodiac has been a major-league revelation at stud following a racing career that featured only one stakes-placing. The sire has been a black-type machine, siring 66 stakes winners to this point and another 75 stakes-placed horses. And, although the sire’s top colt, three-time G1 winner Best Solution, won a Caulfield Cup in Australia, Kodiac’s other G1 winners preferred the shorter side of eight furlongs.

Fairyland and Tiggy Wiggy won the G1 Cheveley Park; Hello Youmzain won the G1 Haydock Sprint Cup and Diamond Jubilee; and Campanelle won the G1 Prix Morny and then the Commonwealth Cup last week at Royal Ascot. Now one of the most popular sires in Europe, Kodiac stands for 65,000 euros at Tally Ho Stud in Ireland.

His is a line of serious speed horses who frequently want five furlongs, rather than six; their complement in the Northern Dancer set of sprint influences comes through Danzig’s son Green Desert, a sire of classic winners and top milers himself. He also sired Invincible Spirit, who also won a Haydock Sprint Cup and has become an important sire of speed, with a dash of classic inclination.

Both Invincible Spirit and Kodiac are out of the Prix de Diane winner Rafha (Kris); so, despite all our focus on male lines, should the actual credit for the most persistent expression of specialist sprinting form go to a classic-winning broodmare?

stallion success is the most demanding challenge for horses, owners, breeders

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blame, stallion success

In the great scheme of sport, becoming a stakes winner is a huge accomplishment, with only about three percent of the breed attaining that level of racing success. Only a fraction of one percent wins a graded or group race.

And from that tiny fraction, made even smaller by the virtual requirement of a G1 victory, comes the subset of colts who enter stud and breed on the next generation. For example, of the 18 stallions who covered their first book of mares in Kentucky in 2021 and stood for a fee of $10,000 or more, every one was a Grade 1 winner, and some of the half-dozen new covering sires priced below that fee were, as well.

Yet from that supremely elite group, how many can reasonably be expected to succeed?

Very few. Even with excellent racing records, good to exceptional pedigrees, good to excellent conformation, and very good books of mares to share their genetic potential, perhaps only a third of the entering crop will be in demand a decade later.

Claiborne Farm’s and Adele Dilschneider’s homebred and -raced champion Blame is one of the exceptions who has weathered the trials of the marketplace to achieve stallion success in the past decade. (Claiborne Farm photo)

From a review of the stallions who entered stud 10 years ago in 2011, only five were at stud in Kentucky for a fee of $10,000 or higher (actually, the least expensive of these is Lookin at Lucky at $20,000). The five are leading sire Quality Road ($150,000), Munnings ($40,000), champion Blame ($30,000), Kantharos ($30,000), and champion Lookin at Lucky ($20,000).

From the numbers above, roughly two-tenths of a percent (1.8) of an annual foal crop of 10,000 colts would get a spot at stud in Kentucky, and maybe a third of those will continue to be sufficiently in demand to retain a spot at stud in the Bluegrass at a significant fee.

That is a steep hill to climb.

Among the stakes winners over the weekend, however, two showed up with close relationships to stallions who did not make the grade in Kentucky.

Winner of the Searching Stakes at Pimlico, Blame Debbie is by the aforementioned Blame, one of the success stories among the entering sire crop of 2011. By the good sire Arch, Blame was the champion older horse of 2010, when he won the G1 Whitney, Stephen Foster, and Breeders’ Cup Classic. He is the sire of 31 stakes winners, including classic winner Senga and the additional G1 winners Nadal (Arkansas Derby) and Marley’s Freedom (Ballerina). In addition to last weekend’s stakes win, Blame Debbie won the G3 Dowager at Keeneland last year.

The broodmare sire of Blame Debbie, however, is Horse of the Year Invasor (Candy Stripes), and he is a horse who did not achieve the level of stallion success required to stay in Kentucky. An Argentine-bred who was unbeaten in Uruguay, then purchased by Shadwell and raced internationally, Invasor won 11 of his 12 starts, earning $7.8 million.

In addition, Invasor is by the broodmare sire of the highly regarded stallion Candy Ride (Ride the Rails), and from an elite Argentine family. Yet, even with a very good pedigree and an exceptional racing record both domestically and abroad, Invasor was unable to reproduce his own excellence in his foals and was returned to South America to stand at Haras Cuatro Piedras in Uruguay.

A similar instance to the 2006 Horse of the Year came with the 1997 Horse of the Year Favorite Trick (by Phone Trick), who entered stud in 1999 at Walmac.

A fast and early-maturing horse, Favorite Trick was unbeaten at two, when he won all eight of his starts, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and was elected Horse of the Year. He did not train on at that level of success at three and was retired to stud at four.

Overall, the dark brown horse failed to have the consistent success so important to maintain a permanent residence in Kentucky, and he was sent to stand at stud in Florida, then in New Mexico, where he died in 2006.

Even so, Favorite Trick is the sire of the second dam of Informative (Bodemeister), who won the G3 Salvator Mile at Monmouth on June 12. That second dam is the unraced So Spirited, a half-sister to the G1 winners Roman Ruler (Fusaichi Pegasus) and El Corredor (Mr. Greeley), and their dam, the Silver Deputy mare Silvery Swan, was one of the very best mares that Favorite Trick covered in his stallion career.

Silvery Swan produced three graded stakes winners, a fourth racer who was G1-placed, and a pair of daughters who have produced stakes horses. So Spirited didn’t produce any, but her winning daughter Lucky Black (Hard Spun) is the dam of Informative. The colt’s sire is G1 winner Bodemeister, who has 22 stakes winners from 848 foals of racing age, and he has been sold and exported to stand at Karacabey Stud in Turkey.

The economics of breeding racehorses and standing stallions makes the market intensely dynamic, as this synopsis has indicated, and yet horses by stallions that have been deemed no longer up to standard for the premium market in Kentucky still have viability and the potential to produce quality racers.

the fourth belmont stakes winner by tapit, essential quality adds classic success to his championship form for this quick family

All hail mighty Tapit! The king of American classic stallions sired his fourth winner of the Belmont Stakes when last season’s champion juvenile colt Essential Quality outran the game and good Hot Rod Charlie through the long stretch at Belmont Park to win the final classic of the 2021 season by a length and a quarter. It was another 11 1/4 lengths back of Hot Rod Charlie to last month’s Preakness Stakes winner Rombauer (Twirling Candy).

Now a winner in six of his seven starts, Essential Quality added his third Grade 1 to an outstanding resume. A medium-sized gray, Essential Quality joined the previous Belmont Stakes winners by Tapit: Tonalist (2014), Creator (2016), and Tapwrit (2017). In addition to these, the young sire Frosted was second in the Belmont Stakes of 2015 behind Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, and Tacitus was second in the 2019 Belmont. Also, Tiz the Law, a member of the first crop by the Tapit stallion Constitution, won the 2020 Belmont.

Last year’s Belmont, of course, will go into the record books with an asterisk because it was the first of the 2020 classics, and the classic was held at a distance other than 1 1/2 miles for the only time since 1925. A year later, Man o’ War’s son Crusader won the Belmont Stakes at 12 furlongs after years of renewals at a mile and three-eighths.

The dominance of the sons of Tapit at the international classic distance of a mile and a half by itself is a telling fact in the tale of Tapit’s importance to the breed. The Belmont Stakes is the sole dirt stakes in North America for 3-year-old colts at 12 furlongs, and that is the race upon which the three-time leading American sire has exerted such great influence.

Without making too much of it, Tapit is an unwavering source of stamina and classic quality for the breed, and a breeder can only wonder what the sire’s record might look like if North America had representative racing opportunities for horses of all types and aptitudes. At present, only sprinters and milers have proper opportunities to race and develop their talents; so it’s no wonder that the stallions who succeed most often in the States are milers and very robust sprinters.

For a stallion such as Tapit’s grandsire A.P. Indy to have raced and bred across the grain of the North American racing program and to have succeeded at the proportion and level he did is a tremendous accomplishment.

The proper cross for A.P. Indy was Mr. Prospector, the best domestic source of speed and classic quality aside from the Seattle Slew line of A.P. Indy himself, and Blue Grass Stakes winner Pulpit, an important sire in his own right, introduced quite a lot more speed into his own stock, including his fine son Tapit.

And Tapit himself does get horses with speed, but the majority of his sons and daughters also tend to show their best form at a mile and frequently farther. Many of them would also race effectively at much longer distances if a program of races (maidens, allowances, claiming, and stakes) were available to suit their needs.

Bred in Kentucky by Godolphin, Essential Quality is out of Delightful Quality, a daughter of the extremely fast miler Elusive Quality, from the Mr. Prospector line through Gone West. Delightful Quality is a half-sister to champion juvenile filly Folklore (Tiznow), and both are out of the Storm Cat mare Contrive. The third dam is by Metropolitan Handicap winner Fappiano (Mr. Prospector), and the fourth dam is by Metropolitan Handicap and Florida Derby winner In Reality, a sire of speed and quality.

This is a very fast, high-quality family that has returned to the championship level with the addition of Tapit, and now the family has added a new dimension with the classic success of Essential Quality.

country grammer completes assignment to bring home the g1 for a superb family

This year has been a good one for the family of the mare Nijinsky Star, a half-sister to stakes winner Six Crowns (by Secretariat) who became the dam of champion Chief’s Crown (Danzig). Nijinsky Star herself became the dam of three stakes winners who all produced stakes winners themselves.

In addition, her unraced daughter Willstar (Nureyev) also produced a pair of stakes winners, (Etoile Montante and Uno Duo), and this branch of the family has been making hay in 2021. In addition to the graded stakes winners Bonny South (Munnings) and Obligatory (Curlin), Country Grammer (Tonalist) added further laurels to this set of the family by becoming its first G1 winner since Etoile Montante.

That Miswaki filly won the G1 Prix de la Foret, as well as taking seconds in the Prix Marcel Boussac, Prix Maurice de Gheest, and Matriarch. Speed was her forte, but Country Grammer has shone over more extended trips, and his best effort to date came in the Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita on May 31.

This branch of the Miss Carmie family through champion Chris Evert (Swoon’s Son) has been developed by Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms from the Nijinsky mare mentioned above, Nijinsky Star. Juddmonte purchased her for $700,000 at the Keeneland November sale out of the consignment of Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services (John Stuart), agent for Carl Rosen. (For more about the purchase of Nijinsky Star, click here.)

Entrepreneur and sportsman Rosen had purchased Chris Evert as a yearling, named her for the tennis star who had branded a line of sportswear through his clothing business, and bred both Six Crowns and Chief’s Crown, among others.

Juddmonte bred the subsequent generations of mares leading to Country Grammer, including his second dam Prima Centauri (Distant View), a half-sister to Etoile Montante who had been unplaced in two starts in France. That put Prima Centauri among those who were surplus to needs for Juddmonte, and the mare subsequently sold for $270,000 at the 2005 Keeneland November sale to Dixiana Farm, carrying a foal by Forestry (Storm Cat). Prima Centauri’s best racer was the Marju gelding Bodes Galaxy, who ran second in the G2 Richmond Stakes and third in the G2 Gimcrack as a 2-year-old.

The mare’s later Forestry filly of 2008 was Arabian Song, a winner at three. She is the dam of Country Grammer and his half-sister Joyful Cadence (Runhappy), who is a winner this year and was third in the G3 Miss Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in May.

Bred in Kentucky by Dixiana Stables, Arabian Song had sold for $40,000 to Rabbah Bloodstock at the 2009 Keeneland September sale, won a maiden claiming race ($40,000) at three, and subsequently changed hands privately prior to foaling Country Grammer, who was bred in Kentucky by Scott Pierce and Debbie Pierce.

A May 11 foal, the 4-year-old Country Grammer is from the first crop by Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist (Tapit) and is his sire’s first Grade 1 winner. The breeders sold the bay colt as a yearling for $60,000 at the Keeneland September sale, and he resold as a 2-year-old in training to Bradley Thoroughbreds, agent for Paul Pompa, for $450,000 out of the Wavertree Stables consignment at the 2019 OBS April sale.

Country Grammer raced for Pompa, winning the G3 Peter Pan last season, but after his death in 2020, Pompa’s Thoroughbreds were dispersed by his estate. At the 2021 Keeneland January sale, Country Grammer sold for $110,000 to WinStar Farm, was sent to trainer Bob Baffert, and made his first start of the year in the G2 Californian, finishing second.

The Hollywood Gold Cup was the colt’s second start of the year, and he won by a head over the Brazilian-bred Royal Ship (Midshipman), who had won the Californian on April 17 by a neck from Country Grammer.

One of a half-dozen stakes winners to date by Tonalist, who won four G1 races and earned $3.6 million, Country Grammer appears to be the best athlete from this branch of his famous family for a couple of generations and is the best racer to date for his young sire, who stands at Lane’s End Farm outside Versailles, Ky.

in memoriam: northern dancer

There is much to be said for pausing and considering how much the sport and the breed owes to the great sire Northern Dancer (by Nearctic).

The great little bay, who stood 15.1 hands when he was feeling especially perky, was foaled 60 years ago, on May 27, 1961, and he overcame every barrier placed before him by nature or man.

Northern Dancer, it was said, was too small a yearling to be much good; he was a May foal and would need a lot of time to be any good; he was too small to be a classic horse; he did not have the pedigree to race effectively at 10 furlongs; he was too small to make a stallion; he was foaled in the wrong country; he was by an unimportant sire; he was standing in the wrong place to have a chance to succeed at stud.

With a toss of his dramatically striped head and a flourish of his thick, black tail, Northern Dancer proved all those comments wrong. Every one.

A winner in 14 of his 18 starts, Northern Dancer had a first-rate race record, but there have been horses with even more exemplary records who were, shall we say, less successful at stud. To the contrary, Northern Dancer was even more successful, even more influential, and even more pervasive as an influence at stud.

The greatest of the good sons by Nearctic, Northern Dancer was too big to stay in Canada; mares needed access to the horse, and owner-breeder E.P. Taylor obliged by developing Windfields Farm in Maryland, which became for a time the most important breeding operation in the world due to one stallion.

The demand for the offspring of Northern Dancer had to be seen to be believed, and in the sultry weather of the July select yearling sales in Kentucky especially, the money that his stock would bring in the heady days of the 1980s bloodstock boom would make anyone swoon.

And, if a single offspring of Northern Dancer would be chosen as the wellspring of the sire’s reputation and the early star of his importance to the breed, that colt would be Nijinsky.

A big, stretchy bay rather unlike his sire, Nijinsky sold as a select yearling at the Ontario yearling sale in 1968. He was from his sire’s second crop and was yet an excellent representative of the Northern Dancer type in body mass and racing enthusiasm.

Trained by Vincent O’Brien and racing for Charles Engelhard, Nijinsky won his first 11 races, including the only English Triple Crown from Bahram’s in 1935 to the present. That the dashing, grand colt lost his last two races was unfortunate, but it wasn’t the end of the world. Nijinsky retired, as planned, to stud at Claiborne Farm and became Northern Dancer’s first great son at stud.

Many others followed, and that in itself is the greatest anomaly in all the exceptions to the norm that Northern Dancer flouted.

Even very good sires rarely get more than one really good son to carry on their male-line, but Northern Dancer had at least a half-dozen very high-class sons. In addition to Nijinsky, Northern Dancer’s important sons included Sadler’s Wells, Lyphard, Nureyev, The Minstrel, Vice Regent, Northern Taste, Storm Bird, and Danzig. If any of those are objectionable, there are others to fill their spot, such as Dixieland Band, El Gran Senor, Try My Best, Northfields, and Northern Baby.

Son after son sired a champion, a classic winner, or winners at the premium level in racing around the world.

Yet for all that transformative genetic energy, only a handful of those sons have bred on to the present, as the breed has regressed to the norm of typically only one or no successful sire to carry on for a very important stallion.

Of all the Northern Dancer sons, those male lines today that stand strongest are through Sadler’s Wells (especially Galileo), Storm Bird (the Storm Cat crowd, especially Into Mischief today), and Danzig.

The latter is the male-line source through Green Desert for Helvic Dream (Power), winner of the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh over the weekend. Danzig is also source of the broodmare sire line through Danehill, and there are four other Northern Dancer lines in the pedigree of Helvic Dream. Lyphard through the great racer Dancing Brave and Lomond through his G2-winning daughter Inchmurrin do their part, and Nijinsky is twice in the pedigree, first through his son Green Dancer and then through the third dam of Helvic Dream, the winning Cascassi, who is a half-sister to Diminuendo (Diesis), winner of the English, Irish, and Yorkshire Oaks, all G1.

From the perspective of history, the more Northern Dancer we find in a pedigree, the better. Genetically, he’s as close as we’ve come in breeding to something that’s “all good.”

So on this May 27, take moment. Heave a sigh. Think of past glories and the little bay horse who could.

candy’s dandy: rombauer wins the preakness

Becoming the fifth Grade 1 winner by his sire Twirling Candy, Rombauer rocked the racing world back on its heels with a 3 ½-length victory in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., on Saturday.

Furthermore, if we consider classic success the pinnacle of Thoroughbred achievement, then Rombauer appeared to add another dimension to his pedigree, especially to his quality female family, which has proven itself one of the fastest in the world.

The Preakness winner’s dam, the unraced Cowboy Cal mare Cashmere, is a half-sister to the tremendous sprinter California Flag, a winner five times at the G3 level sprinting. The gelded son of Avenue of Flags (by Seattle Slew) earned $1.2 million making an exhibition of speed, won the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, and set a course record at Santa Anita for 6 ½ furlongs.

California Flag’s full sister was the highly talented Cambiocorsa. She won half of her 18 starts, earning more than a half-million, and becoming the victor in a pair of G3 races. Despite those significant accomplishments, she has shown even more at stud.

And one of the most fascinating things about Cambiocorsa is that she has translated her speed into performers who race with distinction at longer distances than she excelled at herself.

Cambiocorsa is the dam of four stakes winners, and two of her stakes-winning daughters, Moulin de Mougin (Curlin) and Schiaparelli (Ghostzapper) won at the G2 level. Also, both of them showed their form at distances beyond sprints. Moulin de Mougin won the G2 John C. Mabee at Del Mar, and Schiaparelli won the G2 Royal Heroine at Hollywood Park.

As daughters of stallions who each won a Breeders’ Cup Classic at 10 furlongs, Moulin de Mougin and Schiaparelli had reason to show form over longer distances than their dam, but some families do not move up when bred to classic sires. Instead, some families lose both speed and class, becoming lesser performers at distances short or long.

In addition to the racetrack successes of these two fillies, their half-sister Vionnet, by Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense, ran third in the G1 Rodeo Drive. A stud, Vionnet has produced the outstanding Roaring Lion (Kitten’s Joy), who won a quartet of G1 races in England and Ireland at distances from 8 to 11 furlongs. Roaring Lion was placed at the top of the handicap rankings in Ireland and England for performers from 9 ½ to 11 furlongs.

That is a sharp upgrade in distance and level of achievement from “just” being a good-class sprinter family.

Now Cashmere, a half-sister to Cambiocorsa and California Flag, has done her part by producing a U.S. classic winner in Rombauer. Since she was unraced, we don’t know the racing class of Cashmere, but it would appear to have been useful, at least, because she has four winners from four runners, with three of them earning well into six figures, and a pair have black type, with Cono (Lucky Pulpit) being stakes-placed.

It might seem surprising that the classic winner for this family came from Twirling Candy (Candy Ride), whose best victory was the G1 Malibu at seven furlongs. The horse also won a trio of G2 races at nine furlongs, as well as placing a close second in the G1 Pacific Classic at 1 1/4 miles. From the start, moreover, Twirling Candy has shown that his stock are not limited to sprints, and his best go a mile or more.

In addition to siring last year’s winner of the Queen’s Plate in Canada (One Bad Boy), Twirling Candy has G1 winners Gift Box (Santa Anita Handicap), Concrete Rose (Belmont Oaks), Finley’sluckycharm (Madison Stakes), and now Rombauer.

A good-sized horse with scope and good bone, Twirling Candy has sired 26 stakes winners to date and has progeny earnings of more than $34 million from seven crops of racing age.

The stallion also comes from the most classic branch of the Mr. Prospector male line, through the great stallion’s son Fappiano. This is not the omnipresent Fappiano branch through Kentucky Derby winner Unbridled, who sired winners of each of the Triple Crown races, and that has added glories to the sport such as Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.

Instead, this is a branch of Fappiano through Cryptoclearance, one of the toughest of racehorses, through his grandson Candy Ride, an elite sire whose son Rock Your World won the G1 Santa Anita Derby and was one of the favored colts in the Kentucky Derby.

Instead of success there, the male line has prospered through the rapidly progressing Rombauer and his rising tide of a female family.

conscientious support gets its just reward with english channel

Is there a less-appreciated upper-tier sire in the country than English Channel?

Channel Cat’s victory in the Grade 1 Man o’ War Stakes was a reminder of the excellence that the stallion imparts to his offspring and that English Channel showed emphatically during his own racing career.

The 19-year-old son of Smart Strike and the Theatrical mare Belva proved himself a hickory racer, winning 13 of 23 starts over four seasons and $5.3 million. At the races, English Channel began his career the right way: winning his debut at 2 at Saratoga.

The horse then proceeded to win four of his first five starts at 3, including the Grade 3 Virginia Derby, and he also placed second in a pair of G1 races, the Secretariat at Arlington and the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational at Belmont.

English Channel returned to the races at 4 to win a trio of G1 stakes: the Turf Classic at Churchill Downs, the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont, and the United Nations at Monmouth Park. Then the horse returned at 5 and did the same thing. And this time, a trio of G1s, the Turf Classic at Belmont and the United Nations, plus the Breeders’ Cup Turf run at Monmouth Park, brought English Channel the Eclipse Award as champion male turf horse.

And a turn at stud.

English Channel’s sire, Smart Strike, could not have been hotter at the time. He was the leading sire in North America, due not only to English Channel but also to Curlin, who was elected champion 3-year-old colt and Horse of the Year in 2007 after G1 victories in the Preakness, Jockey Club Gold Cup, and Breeders’ Cup Classic.

The cachet of a stallion like Smart Strike – himself a son of the great Mr. Prospector – who could sire such good horses brought considerable attention to his sons and then sent them to stud with lordly expectations of success.

Yet, aside from their sire, high racing class, and chestnut coats, two horses could hardly be more different than English Channel and Curlin.

The latter is a brawny beast who left some breeders wondering whether he might not be too massive a specimen to breed on successfully. Time and the proof of elite racing class have disproven those concerns.

The exact opposite concern was held for English Channel, who came to stud looking so racy, lean, and elegant that some breeders wondered if he would produce enough muscle and mass in his stock to make them high-class racehorses.

Time and the test of the racecourse have proven that English Channel can sire those top horses, with 30 graded stakes winners to date, which is more than half of all his 58 stakes winners. They come in a range of sizes, colors, and shapes that has tended to bewilder the commercial market, which values consistency very nearly as much as quality.

A stallion of similar character is the broodmare sire of Channel Cat: Kitten’s Joy. A champion turf racer like English Channel, Kitten’s Joy throws a wild array of physical types, from the lean-bodied sort who remind us of whippets to the hulking powerhouses similar to himself.

Yet both Kitten’s Joy and English Channel are very good sires, especially of turf horses, and in part that is because a turf horse has to have some level of pace to succeed. It is a great gift if the racer possesses a first-rate change of pace like these two champion turf performers, but the ability to get up to the lead and tough it out to the wire is evidence of a grand racing character and a hardy constitution.

Channel Cat possesses these in spades. He relied upon his strengths so effectively that he made the Man o’ War a considerable test of stamina (starting with an opening quarter mile in :22.69) and then refused to be swamped for speed in the final three furlongs, which he ran in :35.85.

In addition to his own genetic contribution to the greatest game, English Channel has succeeded because breeders, especially the owner of Calumet Farm, have believed in the stallion and have supported him with quality mares. For a stallion who does not often get the “sales type” of yearling, this is an essential support system, and the sport is all the richer for it.