effectively, there’s only one male line left in the thoroughbred

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darley arabian, ormonde, sire lines

Most of the sources of information about the Thoroughbred declare that there are three founding fathers of the breed. These are the three lines that were still active when bloodstock writing became important toward the middle and end of the 19th century. There are actually quite a few more stallions who played a part in the early formation of the breed, and many of them are still in pedigrees, far back and of little specific consequence to horses today.

As has become increasingly clear over the past century, the “three lines” is pretty much a thing of the past also. At least in the male line. That spot is nearly the private preserve of the Darley Arabian – Eclipse – Bend Or – Phalaris set of horses that make up about 90 percent of the male line in Thoroughbreds today.

Ormonde was unbeaten in 16 races. The greatest son of Bend Or might have become as significant a force in breeding, except for his small number of foals: 8 born in England, with about 18 or 20 born in each of his spells at stud in Argentina and California. The male line from Ormonde, through Orme, Flying Fox, Ajax, Teddy, Sir Gallahad III and his full brother Bull Dog, accounted for some of the grandest racehorses of the 20th century, including Triple Crown winners Gallant Fox, Omaha, and Citation. Ormonde was euthanized at Menlo Stud Farm on May 21, 1904, aged 21.

Although the Godolphin Arabian is still out there, the best lines have nearly all retreated into the inner reaches of pedigree, and Man o’ War’s branch of the line through In Reality – Relaunch – Tiznow seems destined for the history books unless something quite unexpected happens to resurrect the line. Again.

The line from the Byerly Turk has been lingering for a century, and it lost its last great chestnut hope when Precisionist, a champion sprinter who stayed 10 furlongs and was tough as hickory, proved all but sterile at stud.

Regarding sire lines, however, the “influence” of those lines is still around. These three and all those others that have died out in male line are still represented among the internal lines of pedigrees, so long as the performance of those strains continues to justify people using them. It’s all about probability and opportunity.

The hard fact is that most stallions or stallion prospects do not have the genetic consistency to sire a reasonable proportion of good, highly successful racers. That’s the probability side that allows horses like Danzig, Mr. Prospector, and Phalaris to come up trumps when they aren’t world champions. Instead, they are pretty good racehorses but are genetic champions.

Opportunity is the other side of the coin. Without a fair number of reasonably good mares, a stallion cannot have consistent, high-quality success. It wasn’t a hindrance that Phalaris became a miracle sire when based at Stanley House; nor did standing at Claiborne prove a barrier to Danzig. Mr. P started in Florida, where he was widely appreciated for speed and pedigree, and with immediate success, Mr. P went to Kentucky to stand at Claiborne for the rest of his long career at stud.

As a result of the chance association of genes and overall tendency for this to regress to the mean, most stallion prospects fail; most male lines die out. It’s not a popularity contest, at least not when the runners come to the races.

So the effect of male lines dying out is inevitable. The male line is the most competitive position in a pedigree. Only the most successful contemporaries continue in the male line. The preference of breeders for the most successful stallions means that lesser sires will not get sons, will die out in the male line. Both of the lesser male lines were tenuous more than a century ago. Then Hurry On in Europe and Fair Play in the States set the Godolphin Arabian line alight once more.

With broad representation for those three lines among horses going to stud, as well as the ones before them, the lines would not die out as easily. They would simply lie in abeyance until the next genetically gifted sire came into service. But in the practical world of breeding horses, the earliest lines died out quickly because so few stallions were actively important; nobody cared much at the time, nor should they have done. The majority of those old sires, and many more modern ones, still continue along the internal lines of descent. Probability has winnowed out the population in the male line, however.

So a perceived lack of diversity is not that, in fact.

The three lines that survived did so by chance. They sired good racers who sired good racers, whose grandsons sired a great racer, etc. The odds of chance decree that most will lose, but contrarily, they decree that some will win. Someone will win the Derby every year, no matter how little deserving compared to Ormonde, Hyperion, or Sea-Bird.

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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?

patience paid off with dowager winner temple city terror

Earning a first graded stakes success in the Grade 3 Dowager Stakes at Keeneland, Temple City Terror (by Temple City) is no Silky Sullivan (more on him later). For one thing, she doesn’t drop far enough out of her races.

That’s not to say that Temple City Terror was near the pace. Nope. She was next-to-last as favored Beside Herself led the race through a half in :48.14 and three-quarters in 1:13.40. But that was a fairly quick tempo for a 12-furlong race, and the favorite paid the price for burning up so much energy. She finished eighth.

Temple City Terror, on the other hand, was ninth of 10 at the half and the mile, then put in huge move to be second by the 10-furlong point of call. She maintained her stride and momentum for the final quarter-mile, which she ran in :22.93.

As that final quarter and other points of call clearly show, Temple City Terror has speed. It is not gate speed, however. The mare takes a bit to get fully in motion, but Newton’s first law of motion asserts that a body in motion remains in motion, and that is how Temple City Terror turns on the speed in a race. She gets into stride, somewhat slowly out of the gate; she gains enough momentum early, then maintains through the middle part of the race; and when the crucial part of the race arrives, she is able to push her advantage in comparison to her competition.

It has worked well enough for her to win a half-dozen races and earn $696,218.

Bred in Kentucky by Upson Downs Farm, Temple City Terror is by the leading stallion son of top sire Dynaformer (Roberto), and this branch of the Nearco male line through leading juveniles Turn-to and his son Hail to Reason has been a source of exceptional performance for decades. This line is especially known for the occasional superstar performers who possess both a high cruising speed and classic stamina in the manner of Barbaro and others.

There is more than a hint of turf friendliness to this line, as well, and yet this does not make it more popular at the sales. Instead, this is often a spot where bargains are found, and Temple City Terror was one of those.

The dark bay filly sold for $22,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September sale as hip number 3654, which was way back in the sale. But the fact is that the September sale presents good athletes in every book throughout the sale.

Temple City Terror is one of those, and she was snapped up by Pocket Aces Racing, which races the mare in partnership with Somewhere Stable Kentucky LLC. They didn’t get quick rewards with this filly, however. That’s the reason she wasn’t in great demand; she required time and patience.

And even when they began racing her at age three, she required 10 starts to win a maiden special. The connections knew she was a good athlete, or they would have deposited her in a claiming race and let someone else reap the rewards.

Temple City Terror had a pair of seconds, a pair of thirds, and a trio of fourths from her nine starts before winning. Then she won a pair of allowances at four, won and placed in stakes at five, and just won her first graded stakes at six.

That is so contrary to the pattern of demand for American racing performance that it boggles the mind.

Just as Temple City Terror has turned the typical pattern of development and racing on its head, so Silky Sullivan (Sullivan) turned typical racing patterns upside down.

Orby won the Derby at Epsom and at the Curragh in 1907, then sired the 1919 Derby winner Grand Parade. A son of the top sire Orme and grandson of unbeaten Ormonde, Orby was out of Rhoda B., by the great American racehorse and sire Hanover. Orby is the male-line ancestor of Silky Sullivan, descending through The Boss, Sir Cosmo, and Panorama.

A racer of exceptional charisma in 1958 when he sometimes dropped 25 lengths or more behind the leaders, Silky Sullivan brought tens of thousands of racing fans to their feet, screaming wildly, when he would come thundering around the turn and gobbling up ground through the stretch.

The burly chestnut scored his greatest victory in the 1958 Santa Anita Derby, making a dramatic dash through the stretch to win the race and becoming one of the greatest fan favorites of racing.

Silky Sullivan came to Kentucky for the Derby, was followed by the press and video coverage every time he came out of his stall, started co-second favorite for the classic, and ran a dud of a race, finishing 12th of 14. After dropping back 30 lengths at a half-mile, Silky Sullivan was able to pick up a dozen lengths or so but nothing like his California stretch runs.

Calumet’s Tim Tam (Tom Fool) won the race by a half-length as the other co-second choice, and Elizabeth Arden’s favored juvenile champion Jewel’s Reward (Jet Jewel) was fourth, seven lengths behind the winner.

Silky Sullivan went back to California, where his popularity never really waned. In all, he won 12 of his 27 races. The fan favorite went to stud in California, and each St. Patrick’s Day made a special appearance at Golden Gate Fields.

So, with Temple City Terror and Silky Sullivan making a success of a back-to-front racing style, who’s to say that upside down is wrong?

special is as special does: hard-luck broodmare earns her forever home with first-class racers

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carrie brogden, david hayden, nocardioform placentitis, special me

Gina Romantica, winner of the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, is the fourth graded stakes winner from her dam, the Unbridled’s Song mare Special Me. The daughter of Into Mischief (by Harlan’s Holiday) is the second Grade 1 winner from the mare. All of them were bred by Machmer Hall, Carrie Brogden, and Craig Brogden.

And yet, that these foals even exist is nearly a miracle. Their dam Special Me was born compromised by nocardioform placentitis, a particularly harmful infection of the placenta that frequently results in late-term loss of a pregnancy or a foal that is notably small or low weight.

Obviously, with Special Me, the pregnancy survived, but breeder David Hayden recalled, “She was an absolute midget.

“I know a lot of people wouldn’t keep a foal like that, especially one bred on a big stud fee,” Hayden said, and Unbridled’s Song stood for $125,000 live foal in 2005, the season that Special Me was conceived. “The vet said, ‘Leave the barn and I’ll take care of this.’ I said, ‘No. I can’t do that. We’re going to play it out.

“She was alive, jumped up and nursed right away, was okay if really small. I couldn’t put her down,” Hayden admitted.

That would have been the smart economic decision because Dark Hollow had to pay a big stud fee, then significant vet bills when the young filly ran into a fence and injured her left shoulder, and finally the continuing costs because Special Me couldn’t be sold because of her diminutive size, and when put into training, couldn’t have outrun me.

“Dave Hayden is the hero of the story,” Carrie Brogden said. “What he did for this mare was amazing. They took a terrible financial hit.”

When Special Me had raced unsuccessfully three times and had just turned three, “we’d had enough and put her in the Keeneland January sale in 2006,” Hayden said. “We knew going in, it was going to be big loss, but on the other side, we claimed the dam of Safely Kept for $11,000, and we’ve bred our share of good horses.

“We sold her as a broodmare prospect for $6,000, and full marks to Carrie for making it work,” Hayden concluded.

Even the Brogdens’ acquisition of Special Me wasn’t as straightforward as usual.

“We were ready to claim this mare before she went to the sale, and the trainer that we had to make the claim for us refused to do it,” Carrie recalled. “He said she was the size of a large pony, and he wasn’t joking.

“So we didn’t get her through a claim. Then we saw she was in the Keeneland January sale, and I went to look at her at David’s consignment. He told me all about the placentitis, and I looked at her, and I couldn’t resist. I love Unbridled’s Song mares.

“The only reason I found her Special Me was that I was specifically searching for Unbridled’s Song mares. That’s what led me to her at the racetrack, then at the sale.”

There was no question that the mare was severely compromised by the nocardioform placentitis. And although the disease did not affect this mare’s ability to produce good foals, Carrie voiced a caveat about buying other mares of this type: “We have bought four mares who were compromised as foals. Half worked out; half had small foals like themselves. But there’s only one Special Me.

“Eltimaas, the dam of [2016 champion sprinter] Drefong, and Special Me have funded our children’s educations and our home and operation. It’s an amazing experience.”

And normally, the Brogdens would have sold Special Me after her first or second stakes winner.

Carrie Brogden said, “We make our living by selling horses, and normally we sell on the update,” when a mare hits with a big runner, she goes to the sale. “But we had to keep Special Me because she’s a large pony … and now we just hope for a safe foaling” with the 16-year-old mare.

The happy owner-breeder said: “Special Me is about 14.2 but is a normal-bodied mare. Her genetics weren’t compromised the way that her body was, and she gets beautiful foals.

“When she’s done breeding, she’ll have a paddock here. This is her home.”

bully for bourbon (county) as local stallion operations have impressive weekend successes

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blame, claiborne farm, curlin, hill 'n' dale, war front

Maybe it’s something in the water.

Whatever it is, the stallion operations in neighboring Bourbon County (northeast of Fayette County, which includes Lexington) have been ringing the bell repeatedly. Today, there are only two commercial stallion operations in Bourbon County: Claiborne Farm and Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa.

On Keeneland’s second day of racing this fall, in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity, which is sponsored by Claiborne, the first two finishers were out of mares by 2010 champion older horse Blame (by Arch), who stands at Claiborne. Annapolis, winner of the Grade 1 Turf Mile at Keeneland, is by Claiborne stallion War Front (Danzig); Nagirroc (Lea) won the G3 Futurity Stakes in New York; and a few days earlier on the West Coast, Midnight Memories won the G2 Zenyatta Stakes to become the first graded winner for Claiborne stallion Mastery (Candy Ride).

In the Breeders’ Futurity, the winner was G1 Hopeful winner Forte (Violence) by a neck over Loggins (Ghostzapper). The sires of both stand at Bourbon County’s Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa, which also stands Curlin (Smart Strike), the sire of Saturday’s G2 Vosburgh Stakes winner Elite Power. On Sunday, Curlin’s daughters Nest and First to Act finished one-two in the G2 Beldame Stakes, and later that day, the stallion’s Malathaat won the G1 Spinster at Keeneland.

Malathaat was last year’s champion 3-year-old filly, and Nest is a virtual certainty to win the Eclipse Award for that division this year after impressive victories in the Coaching Club American Oaks and Alabama, then a blowout victory in the Beldame against older fillies and mares.

Curlin stood the 2022 season at Hill ‘n’ Dale for $175,000 live foal, and with 89 stakes winners to date, including five G1 winners this year, Curlin is an eminently “proven” stallion. He, like Ghostzapper, won a Breeders’ Cup Classic and was named Horse of the Year, then followed up those racing performances by siring repeated successful performers at the top level of sport.

Violence, however, had a more limited racing career of four starts. The strikingly handsome dark brown won the first three of his races, then was second in the G2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream to subsequent Kentucky Derby winner Orb (Malibu Moon).

The handsome son of Medaglia d’Oro raced no more and was retired to stud at Hill ‘n’ Dale for the 2014 breeding season. He proved very popular with breeders, getting 119 and 116 named foals in his first two crops, which included G1 winner Volatile in the second crop. Overall, the stallion’s first two crops produced 84 percent starters to foals, compared to 61 percent for the breed overall; 71 percent winners (42 percent); and 7 percent stakes winners with 16, compared to 3 percent for the breed.

That counted as a positive start to a stallion career, and Violence is still standing in Kentucky to sizable books of good mares and stands for a fee of $25,000. The young Three Chimneys Farm stallion Volatile, along with third- and fourth-crop G1 winners No Parole (Woody Stephens) and Dr. Schivel (Del Mar Futurity; Bing Crosby Handicap), have been excellent indicators of what Violence is capable of siring, but the stallion needed a national champion, a home run colt, to break into the ranks of elite sires like Curlin, Tapit, or War Front.

Could Forte be that colt?

He is certainly talented, fast, and brave. When he ranged up outside of Loggins in the Breeders’ Futurity, it appeared the Violence colt would blow past his rival. Loggins had other ideas and never gave up, but at the wire, Forte was a neck in front of his rival and claimed the victory.

The third-place colt, Red Route One (Gun Runner), was seven lengths behind the winner.

The suggestion of the form is that both Forte and Loggins are quite good and that the future holds high promise for them both.

Bred in Kentucky by South Gate Farm, Forte has now won three of his four starts and is one of two juvenile colts with a pair of G1 victories. The other is Cave Rock (Arrogate).

Forte is out of the Blame mare Queen Caroline, a four-time stakes winner, and the colt’s second dam, Queens Plaza (Forestry), won the Sorority Stakes at 2. The third dam, Kew Garden (Seattle Slew), was only a winner, but her dam was the multiple graded stakes winner Jeano (Fappiano). Another daughter of Jeano, Contrive, produced the champion 2-year-old filly Folklore (Tiznow).

South Gate sold Forte for $80,000 as a weanling at the 2020 Keeneland November sale, and the colt was pinhooked into the following year’s September sale, where he brought $110,000 from Repole Stable & St. Elias Stable, which entities own and race the colt.

Forte’s dam Queen Caroline was purchased by Amy Moore of South Gate Farm for $170,000 at the 2014 Keeneland September sale. Queen Caroline won four stakes and $401,608, placing in four other stakes. Forte is the mare’s first foal, and she has a yearling colt by Uncle Mo who sold to Mayberry Farm for $850,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September sale. Earlier this year, Queen Caroline was bred to Not This Time (Giant’s Causeway), the sire of Epicenter and other good racers.

cotillion winner society is another top performer for breeder peter blum, sire gun runner, and a female family nurtured for generations by the phippses and the aga khan

Continuing to make history with his first crop of racers, Gun Runner (by Candy Ride) picked up a sixth Grade 1 winner on Sept. 24, when he had a total of five stakes winners on the day. Among those five were Taiba, who won the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby, and Society, who became a Grade 1 winner with victory in the Cotillion.

Foaled in Kentucky, Society is bred and raced by Peter E. Blum Thoroughbreds LLC. Blum also bred but sold Authentic (Into Mischief), who won the 2020 Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic. Based on those achievements, Authentic was named 2020 Horse of the Year.

A summertime development after her seasonal debut in May, Society propelled herself to a ranking among the elite fillies of 2022 with her Cotillion success, and among those behind her were Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath (Arrogate); stakes winner Green Up (Upstart), unbeaten this year until the Cotillion; Monmouth Oaks winner Shahama (Munnings); Adare Manor (Uncle Mo), winner of the Las Virgenes earlier this year; and Mother Goose Stakes winner Gerrymander (Into Mischief).

With five victories from six starts to date and a Grade 1 success, Society would also rank as the best racer in some time from her branch of this illustrious family tracing back to Missy Baba (My Baby) and Uvira (Umidwar).

Blum bred not only Society but also her dam Etiquette (Tapit). Now 10, Etiquette might have been a slow learner. In her first seven starts, she was four times second or third. In the eighth start, however, the chestnut filly read the script and won off by 10 lengths as the favorite. The filly was twice second in her remaining three starts, earning $89,177.

Sent to stud, Etiquette has done much better.

The mare’s first foal was a colt by Quality Road (Elusive Quality) who sold for $500,000 at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale of select yearlings, and Society is the second foal from Etiquette.

Blum bred Etiquette from the Pleasant Tap mare Archduchess, who is a half-sister to three stakes winners, including Rookie Sensation (Unbridled’s Song), winner of the G2 Twilight Derby at Santa Anita, and Mark One (Alphabet Soup), winner of the G3 Eclipse Handicap at Woodbine.

Archduchess was a product of the Adena Springs breeding program, where she produced a good horse – Pleasant Prince (Indy King), winner of the G3 Ohio Derby and listed Oklahoma Derby, as well as second in the G1 Florida Derby.

The dam of Archduchess and her stakes-winning siblings was the stakes winner My Marchesa (Stately Don), who was one of two stakes winners out of Sooni (Buckpasser). Michael Phipps, cousin of Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps, bred Sooni and some of her celebrated siblings from Missy Baba, whom Phipps had bred from Uvira.

This is where we find other racers of similar merit to Society. Bred in Ireland by the Aga Khan, Uvira, for instance, won the Irish Oaks, was imported to the States, and changed hands a couple more times before coming to rest at Claiborne among the broodmares of Michael Phipps.

A quality racemare, Uvira was a good producer of five stakes winners. Her daughter Missy Baba was a moderate racer but perhaps an even better producer. In all, Missy Baba produced a half-dozen stakes winners, and a pair of stakes-placed racers, including Sooni, who was third in the G3 Seashore Handicap.

Missy Baba produced the next high-class racer in the family, foaling Gay Missile in 1967, and that daughter of Sir Gaylord went on to win the 1970 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. Gay Missile’s branch of this female line is the one that has brought it the greatest acclaim with Horse of the Year A.P. Indy, classic winner Summer Squall (Storm Bird), Belmont Stakes winner Lemon Drop Kid (Kingmambo), all of whom became sires of significance.

In addition to Sooni and Gay Missile, Phipps had bred a pair of Bold Ruler colts from Missy Baba, and both of them became stakes winners. Master Bold won the 1968 Dade Metropolitan and was second in the Fountain of Youth; he proved a fairish sort of sire.

The other Bold Ruler colt was foaled in 1968 and named Raja Baba. The handsome bay won a stakes at two, a pair of them at three, and retired with seven victories from 41 starts. He was more effective as a sprinter and had the build of a very strong, very fast horse.

A son of the most important sire of the time in Bold Ruler and from a distinguished family, Raja Baba found a home in Kentucky at Hermitage Farm. At a time when there was a son of Bold Ruler under every cabbage leaf, however, not a great deal was expected from Raja Baba.

So, the handsome bay made everyone who believed in him look really smart.

With his first crop to the races in 1976 (Seattle Slew’s juvenile season), Raja Baba rocketed to the top of the freshman sire list over Bold Reasoning (Slew’s sire), and such was his dominance that he led the juvenile sire list, as well, by both gross earnings and races won. Raja Baba’s leading earner that season was Royal Ski, winner of the Remsen.

In 1980, Raja Baba led the general sire list and was leading juvenile sire a second time. He sired 62 stakes winners (10.5 percent from foals), including 1987 champion 3-year-old filly Sacahuista, Canadian champion Summer Mood, and 1988 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Is It True.

From a family of depth and significance, Society has added a new luster to her branch of the old line.

juvenile champ good magic is conjuring up success among freshmen sires of 2022 with iroquois stakes victor

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juvenile champions

Juvenile champions are an elite subset of the population, and for many years now, Coolmore has made a project of collecting as many of these as possible to stand at its Ashford Stud outside Versailles, Ky.

This has worked well, most notably with champion Uncle Mo (by Indian Charlie), champion and classic winner Lookin at Lucky (Smart Strike), as well as champion and subsequent Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile).

Coolmore doesn’t catch ’em all, however, and a pair of juvenile champions that went to other studs were responsible for the winners of the juvenile stakes at Churchill Downs over the weekend. The 2008 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and champion Midshipman (Unbridled’s Song) sired Fun and Feisty, who won the Grade 3 Pocahontas Stakes. The dark bay filly is owned by Lucky Seven Stable and was selected out of the Fasig-Tipton July sale last year by trainer Kenny McPeek for $100,000. The filly has now earned more than a quarter-million.

Midshipman, the most successful stallion son of Unbridled’s Song to date, stands at Darley‘s stallion operation at Jonabell. The Godolphin/Darley combine had acquired the colt shortly before the Breeders’ Cup as part of a giant package deal for the broodmares, farm, and racing stock of Robert and Janice McNair, which paid immediate and lasting dividends.

Following Midshipman in 2008, Coolmore acquired five of the next six juvenile champions, excepting only the eminently talented Shared Belief (Candy Ride), who was a gelding. Darley picked up the 2015 juvenile champion Nyquist (Uncle Mo), who subsequently won the 2016 Kentucky Derby. Coolmore bought the 2016 juvenile champion Classic Empire (Pioneerof the Nile), and Hill ‘n’ Dale stepped into the ring by securing the 2017 champion Good Magic (Curlin).

The latter’s first foals are juveniles this year, and he sired the winner of the Churchill Downs companion feature to the Pocahontas, the Iroquois Stakes.

That race featured the odds-on favorite Echo Again (Gun Runner), winner of an impressive maiden special at Saratoga, and the unbeaten Damon’s Mound (Girvin), winner of the Sanford Stakes at Saratoga. That pair led much of the race but collapsed in the stretch to finish unplaced as Curly Jack (Good Magic) and Honed (Sharp Azteca) pulled away to finish one-two in the 8.5-furlong Iroquois.

Curly Jack is the second stakes winner (both graded) for freshman sire Good Magic, and Honed is the fourth stakes horse for freshman sire Sharp Azteca (Freud; Three Chimneys), who leads all freshmen by number of winners (18).

At the moment on the first-crop sires list, the two freshmen sires above stand in reverse order to the finish of the Iroquois. Sharp Azteca is in fourth place to Good Magic’s fifth, with progeny earnings of $1.03 and $1.01 million.

The freshman leader at the moment is Bolt d’Oro (Medaglia d’Oro; Spendthrift), who is narrowly ahead of Army Mule (Friesan Fire; Hill ‘n’ Dale) $1.24 million to $1.20. The leading freshman by number of stakes winners is Justify (Scat Daddy; Ashford), who has four and earnings of $1.12 million. He’s in third place on the freshman list.

With less than a quarter-million dollars separating the top five freshmen sires, this is a competitive and tightly bunched group, and we’re only now into the turn for home.

At this point, Sharp Azteca leads with total number of winners (18) from Bolt d’Oro (16), but they are tied for total starters with 52 from crops of 117 and 141.

Volume matters and not simply the number of starters. Only eight freshmen sires have more than 100 foals in their first crop, and five of those (Bolt d’Oro, Justify, Sharp Azteca, Good Magic, and Mendelssohn) are in the top seven crop leaders at present. Not only are these the most popular young prospects to go to stud for the 2019 breeding season (foals of 2020), but the leaders by number of foals also have more numerical opportunity to hit the long ball that goes over the fence, clears the bases, and makes that lucky stallion the all-star of the game.

The crop leader by number of foals among the 2022 freshmen is the “other” son of Scat Daddy, Mendelssohn, who stands at Ashford, like Justify, and is a half-brother to Into Mischief (Harlan’s Holiday) and to champion Beholder (Henny Hughes).

The only two young sires to have broken through against the power of numbers are Army Mule (89 foals; 40 starters; 15 winners) and City of Light (79; 17; 8).

The offspring of these well-intended young sires will continue to make competitive racing this fall, and we have miles to go before we sleep, as Mr. Frost might say.

a pair of g1-winning juveniles are making arrogate’s legacy even more bittersweet

How soon they forget!

Had this year’s leading juveniles been switched with last year’s, what headlines would the papers be carrying? Over the weekend, a pair of juveniles by champion Arrogate (by Unbridled’s Song) won the Grade 1 features at Del Mar. A colt and a filly by the same sire taking Grade 1 honors? Has that happened before?

A year ago, minus a week or so, Gun Runner had Echo Zulu winning the Grade 1 Spinaway and Gunite winning the G1 Hopeful. The world stood agog, and Gun Runner began his ascent into the pantheon of stellar stallions.

Mavens of the horse world, however, are not as fickle as yesterday’s headlines. Not quite, anyway.

Gun Runner had first run with top juveniles, followed up with some excellent performers at three, and he is the toast of the Thoroughbred breeding and selling world. Poor Arrogate is gone, but at least he is not quite forgotten.

The winner of the Del Mar Futurity was Cave Rock, a dark brown, nearly black son of Arrogate bred in Kentucky by Anne and Ronnie Sheffer Racing LLC. The colt is out of G3 Schuylerville Stakes winner Georgie’s Angel, by Wood Memorial winner Bellamy Road, who also was a dark brown, nearly black racer of immense talent.

And there is no doubt about the talent in Cave Rock. The good-looking colt sold for $550,000 a year ago at the Keeneland September sale, purchased by Three Amigos Racing Stable, and Cave Rock races for Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman. The colt is trained by some neophyte named Baffert.

The latter name is also important in the saga of Cave Rock’s sire Arrogate. After Juddmonte Farms had purchased Arrogate and sent him to Baffert, the colt was showing hints of the talent typical of an Unbridled’s Song, but the trainer sent the colt back to the farm.

“He had some baby things going on and needed to finish growing up and fill out,” Juddmonte’s farm manager Garrett O’Rourke recalled, “and after some time playing and galloping on the farm, we sent him back to Bob. A few months later, Arrogate had his first start” in a maiden special at Santa Anita on April 17 of his 3-year-old season.

The rest is history.

In the Del Mar Futurity, Cave Rock indicated the level of form that Arrogate might have been able to show if his growth pattern had been a little different. The juvenile colt was away a step slow, then got into gear, and by the time the field had gone a quarter-mile, Cave Rock was slightly in front of his quick stablemate Havnameltdown (Uncaptured), who is owned by the same trio as the winner.

The pair staged something of an exhibition of speed with a quarter in :21.56, a half in :43.65, three-quarters in 1:08.55, and seven furlongs in 1:20.99. By the finish, Cave Rock had pulled away to win by 5 ¼ lengths, but it was impressive for both colts.

The previous day’s Del Mar Debutante was run in opposite fashion. The Arrogate filly And Tell Me Nolies was bumped at the start, was fifth of seven at the half, came wide on the outside at the turn, moved up to second by the stretch call, and won the race at the wire by a head. The winner’s time was 1:23.29.

Bred in Kentucky by Lara Run LLC, And Tell Me Nolies is out of the Exchange Rate mare Be Fair. The bay filly was sold for the first time at the 2021 Keeneland January sale for $70,000 to D.J. Stable, then resold at the 2022 OBS April sale for $230,000 to Bryan Anderson, agent. The filly races for Peter Redekop B.C. Ltd. and is trained by Peter Miller.

The dam of And Tell Me Nolies won the G3 Lake George Stakes at Saratoga, was third in the G1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn, and showed improved form at three and four. Be Fair, in fact, was highly tried against the best fillies of her crop, finishing fourth or fifth in G1s such as the Ashland Stakes, Kentucky Oaks, Acorn, and Ruffian.

She clearly had some talent, and on retirement and carrying a first cover to leading sire Indian Charlie, she was sold at the 2011 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall sale for $300,000 to Dell Ridge. The mare sold at Keeneland November in 2018, carrying a foal by Practical Joke, for $50,000 to Lara Run.

Most recently, the then-15-year-old mare sold at the 2021 OBS winter sale, cataloged in foal to Gun Runner, for $35,000 to Jim Ballinger. The resulting foal was a colt who sold as a weanling at Keeneland November last year to McMahon & Hill Bloodstock for $150,000. Be Fair was bred to Mo Town in 2022.

In similar fashion to Be Fair, Georgie’s Angel, the dam of Cave Rock, sold before her G1 performer was known. The mare produced Cave Rock on March 12 and sold later that year at the 2020 Keeneland November mixed sale for $75,000 in foal to Arrogate. Georgie’s Angel produced a filly by Improbable this year, and she was bred back to Connect. The mare’s yearling, a full brother to Cave Rock, brought the top price at the Fasig-Tipton sale of select New York-breds, selling for $700,000 to Tom McCrocklin, agent for Champion Equine.