suddenbreakingnews supplies some insights into sexual development of colts and his future prospects

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Belmont Stakes, Kentucky Derby, suddenbreakingnews

Some of the most surprising, and intriguing, news of the May 29 weekend came during the press conference at which trainer Donnie Von Hemel announced that Suddenbreakingnews, previously listed as a “gelding” in past performances, actually is not.

That was so surprising that I peeked out of the hedgerow bunker where I do most of my writing for a closer look.

One of the first things of note is that a racer with a live chance in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes around the massive mile and a half oval in New York has an important equipment change.

Then the questions started popping like flashbulbs. What happened and does it mean anything to the horse? What does this mean to the owner, Samuel Henderson, in terms of having a very good colt instead of a very good gelding, and is there a chance that Suddenbreakingnews could have a stud career?

What happened first is that Suddenbreakingnews was offered for sale at the 2014 Keeneland September sale as a colt. A May 2 foal, the good-looking prospect was sold for $72,000 to Henderson, who sent his new purchase to a farm for turnout and time to grow up some more before breaking and training, according to Von Hemel.

At some point, Henderson asked to have Suddenbreakingnews gelded, and at some point in the process of transforming the sales horse into a racehorse, someone checked, and it appeared that the young animal had been gelded.

This is truly understandable because there were no testicles evident.

But that didn’t mean they weren’t present. Somewhere.

As Von Hemel noted, ultrasound examinations discovered two small testicles in the abdominal cavity of Suddenbreakingnews.

Prior to this, the absence of visible, palpable testicles caused everyone associated with Suddenbreakingnews to assume that he had been gelded. It was an innocent assumption borne out by the physical evidence available for everyone to see.

If Suddenbreakingnews had turned out to be an average horse, nobody would likely have bothered to inquire. But he has turned out to be quite a good athlete, and if he won the right sort of races, he could find himself in demand as a stallion prospect.

Or maybe not.

According to experts in Thoroughbred reproduction, having testicles isn’t a guarantee of much, and having them in the wrong place is pretty nearly a guarantee of nothing.

Technically, Suddenbreakingnews is a bilateral cryptorchid, which means that both his testicles were retained, rather than dropping down into the scrotum. The norm is two fully descended testicles, and if even one descends, the colt (usually termed a ridgling) may have normal breeding function.

In cases when only a single testicle descends, the visible testicle may become larger than average and may produce a greater sperm volume. This may be the body’s way of compensating for the situation.

That is not how things are likely to work for a young animal with both testicles retained, however. For one thing, neither is outside the body, and that is key to sperm production because body heat (approximately 101 degrees for a horse) is too high. Furthermore, that neither has descended at this point, when Suddenbreakingnews is a 3-year-old, is not encouragement that the situation will change.

And if it did, all the veterinarians that I consulted believed that there was little chance of any horse possessing normal fertility.

As one vet said, “in 35 years of working with breeding stock, I’ve never seen it happen.” So we’re dealing with a situation that, while interesting to those of us who write about horses and breeding stock, is unlikely to have any effect on Suddenbreakingnews or his prospects.

That’s unfortunate because Suddenbreakingnews is a truly progressive and upwardly mobile young racer who may have many better days ahead.

A good-sized, rangy 3-year-old by Horse of the Year Mineshaft out of a mare by Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner Afleet Alex, Suddenbreakingnews has shown himself to be a very good athlete through the winter and spring. And prior to the Kentucky Derby, the bay had been out of the first two places only once in seven starts, with victories in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes in February and the listed Clever Trevor Stakes last year.

In the Derby, Suddenbreakingnews had come flying through the stretch to be fifth behind Nyquist and Exaggerator, with Gun Runner third and Mohaymen fourth, a head and a nose ahead.

In the Derby, Suddenbreakingnews came within inches of making his mark with a placing in the grand classic at Churchill Downs, and it appears that we could say the same thing about his potential career at stud.

But given his prospects as an improving racehorse, the status of Suddenbreakingnews as breeding stock may be a stroke of luck for racing fans because they should get the opportunity to see Suddenbreakingnews race for years to come.

exaggerator follows pattern of his sire, horse of the year curlin, in physical type and racing aptitude with victory in preakness

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curlin, exaggerator, preakness stakes

With a splashing victory in the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes on May 21, Exaggerator showed why Triple Crown winners come around so infrequently. The Triple Crown requires a horse to adapt instantly to multiple situations for pace, track conditions, trip disadvantages, and sheer luck.

And if any horse were to take advantage of something happening in his favor or to the disadvantage of favorite Nyquist, who better than the hard-charging second-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby to profit from the situation?

So Exaggerator became the second Triple Crown race winner for leading sire and Horse of the Year Curlin (by Smart Strike). A big, strongly made chestnut who stands over a lot of ground, Curlin burst onto the classic scene of 2007 with a startling maiden victory and a quick advance up the class ladder.

After victories in the G3 Rebel Stakes and G2 Arkansas Derby, Curlin was third in the 2007 Kentucky Derby behind the previous season’s 2-year-old champion Street Sense (Street Cry) and the classy Danzig colt Hard Spun.

As Exaggerator has just done, Curlin reversed the decision in the Preakness, defeating Street Sense narrowly in a thrilling stretch run. Thereafter, Curlin was second in the Belmont Stakes to Rags to Riches (A.P. Indy), was third in the Haskell, and finished strongly through the fall with victories in the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup and Breeders’ Cup Classic, the latter over a sloppy racetrack.

Named Horse of the Year off those efforts, Curlin followed with an even better season at 4, winning 5 of 7 starts, including the G1 Dubai World Cup, Stephen Foster, Woodward, and a second Jockey Club Gold Cup, before ending his career with his only race off-the-board in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on synthetic at Santa Anita. Curlin’s season was so impressive, however, that he was named Horse of the Year for a second time.

Curlin sired his first classic winner, Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice, in his first crop, then had G1 Acorn and Coaching Club American Oaks winner Curalina in his third crop, and the Preakness winner comes from his sire’s fourth crop.

Dawn Raid as she appeared at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton November sale, where she was bought back for $625,000 while carrying a full sibling to 2016 Preakness winner Exaggerator

 

Bred in Kentucky by Joseph B. Murphy, the Preakness winner is out of the stakes-placed Vindication mare Dawn Raid. Third in the Fanfreluche Stakes at Woodbine, Dawn Raid is a half-sister to Canadian champion Embur’s Song (Unbridled’s Song), stakes winner Ten Flat (Meadowlake), and stakes-placed Embattle (Phone Trick).

They are all out of Embur Sunshine, a daughter of Bold Ruckus, who was for many years a top-tier sire in Canadian breeding. Embur Sunshine was second in the Candy Éclair and Blue Sparkler Stakes at Monmouth, third in the Polite Lady Handicap at Woodbine.

Bred in Ontario by Josham Farms Ltd., Dawn Raid sold to W.S. Farish Jr. at the Keeneland September sale in 2006 for $70,000 and gained her stakes placing in the colors of a Woodford Racing LLC partnership. Consigned to the 2008 Keeneland November sale by Lane’s End, agent, Dawn Raid sold for $50,000 to Murphy, who raced her once unsuccessfully and retired her to breed for 2009.

The mare’s first two foals were winning fillies by Any Given Saturday (Sweet Saturday) and Pioneerof the Nile (Nile Queen), and Exaggerator is Dawn Raid’s third foal.

Dawn Raid’s subsequent foals are a 2-year-old filly by Pioneerof the Nile named Rose Garden and a filly at side who is a full sister to the Preakness winner.

Carrying that foal, Dawn Raid was consigned to the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky sale last November and was bought back at $625,000.

Joe Murphy said, “Dawn Raid is a nice mare and gets good-looking foals. So we still have her here at Stoneleigh Farm. A number of people have called to inquire about her, but my dad is in no rush to sell her, and we’ll probably keep the foal as well.”

The full sister to Exaggerator was born March 1, and Dawn Raid is back in foal on a cover to leading sire Medaglia d’Oro (El Prado).

Dawn Raid was a money-making producer when the future Preakness Stakes winner sold for $110,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale in 2014, and judging from the improvements that Exaggerator keeps making to the mare’s production line in 2016 with a G1 victory in the Santa Anita Derby, then a second in the Kentucky Derby, and now a victory in the Preakness, the sky’s the limit.

depth of family figures in the continuing success of blofeld, a spectre of spring hill farm’s legacy

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blofeld, gallorette, omaha, quality road, spring hill farm

A tremendously talented horse who became a Grade 1 winner early at 3 with his victory in the Florida Derby, Quality Road (by Elusive Quality) made such improvement from 3 to 4, it should be no surprise that his stock are showing further improvement as well.

It is all the more interesting then that the stallion’s big winner on Mar. 5 was Blofeld, a colt whose ability was immediately obvious from his début as a 2-year-old, winning all three of his starts that season, including the G2 Futurity and Nashua Stakes.

Triple Crown winner Omaha – shown in training – comes from the same female family as 2016 G2 stakes winner Blofeld.

The progressive colt made two unsuccessful starts at 3, then was sidelined by issues that now appear behind the good-looking gray. In Saturday’s Gulfstream Park Handicap, Blofeld roared up the rail to nip Stanford (Malibu Moon) and confirm a third G2 victory for his résumé.

Bred in Kentucky by Keats Grove Farm, Blofeld has been good to a succession of owners. Bred and raised at Indian Creek Farm for the breeder, Blofeld sold out of the Indian Creek consignment at the 2012 Keeneland November sale as a $135,000 weanling to Woods Edge Farm. The latter pinhooked the colt through the 2013 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale for $275,000. Sold to Redwings & Phase II, Blofeld was again resold at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton Florida sale of 2-year-olds in training for $225,000, selling to JSM Equine and Greathouse Properties, which race the colt.

The multiple graded stakes winner is the fifth foal of his dam, the gray Storm Cat mare Storm Minstrel. The first foal of Colonial Minstrel (Pleasant Colony), Storm Minstrel was a useful stakes winner, winning five races and earning $299,339.

At the 2011 Keeneland November sale, Storm Minstrel, who was pregnant with Blofeld at the time, sold for $150,000 out of the Ned Evans dispersal. Storm Minstrel’s yearling colt by Arch brought $575,000 at the 2015 Keeneland September sale, and the mare was bred back to Quality Road in 2015.

With homebreds as his sire and dam, Blofeld represents a thorough Spring Hill Farm family.

His second dam is the high-class graded stakes winner Colonial Minstrel, who was bred by Evans. A winner of the G2 Shuvee Handicap and nine other races, earning $556,586, to date the mare has produced two stakes winners and two stakes-placed horses.

Barren from a cover to Quality Road at the 2011 Evans dispersal at Keeneland, Colonial Minstrel sold for $200,000 to Bluegrass Hall.

A half-sister to G3 winner Minidar (Alydar) and listed stakes winner Unrestrained (Unbridled), Colonial Minstrel was the most accomplished racer from Minstrella (The Minstrel), and yet another mare in this family line bred by Evans. Once-beaten at 2, Minstrella was the highweight filly in England and Ireland in 1986 when her four victories included three G1s — the Phoenix Stakes, Moyglare Stud, and Cheveley Park.

Roi Herode, shown in training as a 4yo, is the conduit of much of the gray found in modern Thoroughbreds, including Blofeld.

Evans bred Minstrella from the gray Misty Flight mare Flight Dancer, also the dam of major winner Misty Gallore (Halo). Flight Dancer was third in the Queen Mary Stakes at 2 and was a half-sister to major winner Dancing Moss (Ballymoss), winner of the Jockey Club Cup and second in the Irish St. Leger in 1967. Their dam is Courbette, a daughter of Horse of the Year Native Dancer and champion Gallorette (Challenger).

Courbette and Mlle Lorette (Lovely Night) were the two stakes winners out of Gallorette from only seven foals. One of two tip-top horses by the imported Swynford stallion Challenger, Gallorette raced from 2 through 6, winning 21 races and finishing second or third in 33 more races from 72 starts.

A ruggedly made chestnut with tremendous individuality, Gallorette thrashed contemporary colts as well as fillies. She won numerous filly stakes, including the Acorn, Delaware Oaks, and Beldame, but the factor that elevated her into the pantheon of great mares was winning repeatedly at the top level against colts.

Her major victories against horses and colts included the Metropolitan Handicap, Brooklyn Handicap, Whitney, and Carter.

Gallorette’s dam was the Sir Gallahad III mare Gallette, who didn’t win a race. But Gallette was a half-sister to the high-class mare Flambino (Wrack), who became the dam of Triple Crown winner Omaha, and Gallette was a full sister to La France, the dam of Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Johnstown (Jamestown).

From Blofeld to Gallette and beyond, this is the kind of family that serious owner-breeders cherish for its depth and quality.

cathryn sophia shows ’em who’s ‘boss’ in davona dale

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cathryn sophia, charles zacney, robert manfuso, street boss

In addition to the thrashing performance of Mohaymen (by Tapit) in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream on Feb. 27, Gulfstream hosted a robust selection of stakes on the day. Horsemen at the track, as well as those watching across the country, also voiced strong praise for the victory of another unbeaten 3-year-old.

That was Cathryn Sophia, a bay daughter of Street Boss (Street Cry), who won the G2 Davona Dale Stakes by seven lengths in 1:36.61 for the mile. Unbeaten in four starts, including three stakes, Cathryn Sophia has leapt to national prominence through the commanding nature of her last two victories in the G2 Forward Gal and Davona Dale, both at Gulfstream.

Bred in Maryland by Robert Manfuso, Cathryn Sophia is from the fourth crop by Street Boss, a massively constructed chestnut son of leading sire Street Cry (Machiavellian). A G1 winner at sprint distances himself, Street Boss shows considerable influence from his broodmare sire, Futurity Stakes winner Ogygian. Although a son of classic winner Damascus, Ogygian showed his best form up to nine furlongs, winning three stakes at the G1 level: the Futurity, Dwyer, and Jerome.

A useful sire at Claiborne Farm before his sale to Japan, Ogygian sired stock with a great deal of speed, and his best were noteworthy for their powerful build and what one leading breeder called an “Ogygian head,” typified by a large, intelligent eye and attractive expression. Street Boss inherited all those qualities, plus the generous frame of his famed sire.

Current statistics list Street Boss as the sire of 400 foals from five crops of racing age, including 2-year-olds of 2016. The stallion has sired 17 stakes winners in North America, and the best of these by grade are G1 winners Danza (Arkansas Derby; 3^rd Kentucky Derby) and Capo Bastone (King’s Bishop), with Holy Boss (Amsterdam Stakes) joining Cathryn Sophia as a winner at the G2 level.

Owner Charles Zacney of Cash is King Stable picked out Cathryn Sophia at Fasig-Tipton’s Midlantic yearling sale because “I was looking for a Maryland-bred,” he said. “They had improved the program there, and I was a fan of both Street Boss and Mineshaft,” the filly’s broodmare sire.

“She was not a big filly but looked athletic and well-balanced,” Zacney recalled. “I got her for $30,000, which was very reasonable for a filly of this quality, and it was certainly worth the gamble.”

That gamble has paid off in spades for Zacney, and the filly has current earnings of $335,520.

The sale has also paid off for breeder Bob Manfuso, whose mare and her relations have now appreciated significantly in value. Having bred this family for three generations, Manfuso bought fourth dam Sailing Leader (Mr. Leader) for $11,500 in foal to John Alden and bred the third dam, the unraced Cruising Haven (Shelter Half), who produced two graded stakes winners, including the second dam, Belterra (Unbridled).

The latter looked like a star in the making when she won the G2 Golden Rod Stakes as a 2-year-old but did not entirely train on, and her best effort afterward was third in the G1 Ashland at 3.

On the strength of Cruising Haven’s produce record, Manfuso sold the mare at Keeneland November in 2002 for $600,000 to Gaines-Gentry, Twin Creeks, and Rancho San Miguel. The mare was in foal to Unbridled’s Song at the time. The resulting foal was a grand-looking colt later named Bond Street who sold at the 2004 Keeneland September yearling sale for $2.8 million, the highest price of the year for a yearling by his sire.

One of the reasons that Manfuso could part with such an upwardly bound commercial broodmare was that he had the daughter, then-3-year-old Belterra, that he could retire to replace the dam.

Manfuso said, “Belterra was a truly serious talent, but she had a couple issues that came up and limited what she accomplished. She is also a big, rangy individual who has furnished out into an imposing broodmare.”

Belterra has produced stakes winner Taketheodds by Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense (Street Cry); so this family is clearly working well with sons of Street Cry. With Street Sense, Street Boss, and other sons of Street Cry available to breeders with other mares in this family, the opportunity to use this cross will no doubt be used liberally.

Manfuso now can bask in the glory of raising one of the best fillies in the country, but he humbly said, “It takes good people at every step of the process to produce a top athlete like Cathryn Sophia. John Mayer and his people at Nursery Place in Kentucky do first-class work getting my mares in foal there; we have tremendous people here in Maryland who work with these horses at every step to help keep them moving in the right direction; and then it is so important to get them into the right hands with trainers like John Servis, who has done such a fabulous job with this filly.

“Good people let good horses show what they can do. It’s as simple as that.”

elusive bluff makes a case for class winning out in the end

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apex ratings, bill oppenheim, elusive bluff, red river farm

There are a number of ways to evaluate stallions in addition to the general sire list, which ranks stallions by gross progeny earnings. The leader on that list, once again, is the great gray ghost of Gainesway Farm, Tapit. A beautiful horse who has grown nearly white with age, the son of Pulpit is fertile, frisky, and blessed with a book of mares that is the envy of any farm.

In addition to ranking by raw earnings, those statistics can be sliced and diced in a variety of ways to look at horses with fewer foals, lesser opportunity, and so forth. The average earnings index (AEI) takes some of those factors into account, as does the standard starts index (SSI). The AEI list is led by Pioneerof the Nile, with Tapit fifth, and only a dozen sires have an AEI of 2.0 or greater.

Another angle that involves some greater sifting of the data is called the APEX rating used by the international bloodstock adviser Bill Oppenheim. The APEX ratings evaluate the class of races runners are competing in, and you might expect that Tapit or Pioneerof the Nile would be top of the heap in this regard too.

Au contraire, my friends.

The top-rated stallion by the APEX numbers is Elusive Bluff. I know. Elusive “who”? And thereby hangs a tale.

This son of leading sire Elusive Quality was bred in Kentucky by Eldon Farm and sold out of the Gainesway sales consignment at the 2006 Keeneland November auction for $275,000 to Bob Courtney, agent. After a couple less-remunerative trips to the sales arena as a yearling and 2-year-old in training, Elusive Bluff went into training with Bill Badgett.

The good-looking colt won his debut in September 2008 at Belmont Park in a maiden special going a mile for owner Pegasus Dream Stable. Then the colt was sold privately and went to racing for Southern Equine.

Nearly four weeks after his debut, Elusive Bluff won the Grade 3 Pilgrim Stakes at Belmont going 1 1/16 miles on turf. And he never started again.

Although the colt had an injury, trainer Eric Guillot did not give up on the horse. As a result, Elusive Bluff did not enter stud until 2010, after two years of being on the sidelines, and as one might expect, there was not a mad rush to “secure him for stud.”

But Southern Equine found the colt a place at stud in Louisiana with Jay Adcock’s Red River Farm not far from Shreveport, La. Adcock recalled that the owners “bought him after the maiden, then were going to put him in the Breeders’ Cup, but his ankle blew up. They tried everything, but he didn’t stand training after that.

“We stood him for $1,000 live foal, or free to approved mares, and the owners were cooperative about getting mares to him in an effort to help prove the horse as a stallion,” Adock said.

The stallion’s first two seasons in Louisiana at Red River Farm resulted in 29 reported foals. Then Elusive Bluff was sent to stand in California for a season, then back to Louisiana at another farm. From his first four crops, Elusive Bluff has 36 reported foals, including 2-year-olds of 2016.

From those, the stallion has 17 starters, 10 winners, two stakes winners, including graded winner C. Zee, and gross progeny earnings of $874,618, according to Equineline stats.

Adcock recalled Elusive Bluff as a “big stout horse who weighed about 1,300 pounds, with very good fertility, who became a good-breeding horse.” The sire’s leading racer is the now-5-year-old C. Zee, and he was conceived at Red River in the stallion’s first crop.

The owners of Southern Equine “sent the mare to Elusive Bluff,” Adcock recalled, “and then they sold her at a sale in Texas while she was carrying that colt.”

At Fasig-Tipton’s 2010 Texas winter mixed sale in December that year, Jacks or Better Farm picked up the mare Diamondaire, a stakes-placed daughter of Distorted Humor, for $18,500, and they took her to their property in central Florida, where the colt was born. Bred by and still currently racing for Jacks or Better, C. Zee won the G3 Gulfstream Park Sprint Stakes and is G2 and G3 stakes-placed.

In the meantime, Elusive Bluff had a second stakes winner and other winners and earners. But as a result of the respectable results from limited numbers, the horse came to the attention of Kentucky breeder Greg Justice, who purchased Elusive Bluff privately and is moving him to Southern Indiana Equine to participate in that state-bred program.

Justice said that standing stallions “is a hard row to hoe, but I believe he will fit well in the program I’m sending him to there in Indiana. Both of his stakes winners won on dirt, and I’m going to support him with 10 of my own mares. I’m realistic about the horse, and I’m hoping that a few Indiana breeders will come in and support him too.”

The purses for the Indiana program are set to rise this year, and Justice is optimistic about standing regional stallions there. He also stands Lantana Mob (Posse) at the same farm and is one of the leading stallions in Indiana.

With a minority of stallions making enormous books of mares, there will inevitably be others who have not earned a special place and will fall through the cracks. So perhaps the inequalities of the marketplace will shower benefits on attentive breeders who win the bloodstock lottery.

kentucky derby winner super saver shining brightly for winstar and as a reminder of his sire, pin oak stallion maria’s mon

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broken vow, maria's mon, pin oak stud, runhappy, super saver, winstar farm

With a smooth victory in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita, Runhappy put a smile and a bow on 2015 for his sire Super Saver (by Maria’s Mon). Bred in Kentucky by Wayne, Gray, and Bryan Lyster, the dark bay 3-year-old took his third G1 of the year in the Malibu, following successes in the King’s Bishop at Saratoga and the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland in November.

With that record, Runhappy is a strong possibility to win the Eclipse Award as the leading sprinter of 2015, although that accomplishment is actually rather surprising since his sire is best known for winning the 2010 Kentucky Derby and since Runhappy’s broodmare sire is the lovely Unbridled stallion Broken Vow, a grand and sturdy influence but not typically mentioned in relation to “champion sprinter.”

Broken Vow, an 18-year-old who was bred and raced by Pin Oak Stud and who has spent his entire career as a stallion there, has carved a significant niche at stud with G1 winners like Unbridled Belle (Beldame), Rosalind (Ashland), and Cotton Blossom (Acorn), as well as G3 Illinois Derby winner Done Talking and G3 American Derby winner Divine Oath.

Generally, the Broken Vows do their best running at a mile or farther, but the stallion has enough breadth and depth to his stud career that he has shown the ability to get some serious speed for shorter distances on occasion. Notably, multiple G1 winner Sassy Image was both a top juvenile and a very fast filly, and Private Vow (Futurity Stakes) was also cut from that cloth.

Even so, the early stud returns from Super Saver indicate that he is an unexpectedly strong factor for speed. His sire was a champion juvenile with four victories in five 1995 starts, but after being sidelined near the end of that season, Maria’s Mon never regained his form in two starts at 3 and went to stud at Pin Oak.

A handsome, fast horse who was attractively priced and not overbred, Maria’s Mon succeeded beyond the hopes of most stallion managers anywhere. A really good sire, the gray son of Wavering Monarch reached a pinnacle touched by few sires with a pair of Kentucky Derby winners: Monarchos and Super Saver.

While Monarchos was a beautiful animal who sired some very quick youngsters, his offspring appeared disadvantaged by soundness issues, but those who handled the game well included champion filly sprinter Informed Decision (Breeders’ Cup Filly Sprint and two other G1s) and Oaklawn Handicap winner Win Willy.

Super Saver, on the other hand, became the star of the 2014 sales of 2-year-olds in training with his first crop of young athletes. They were mid-sized, nicely balance athletes, but on the racetrack, they showed excellent stride qualities, as well as uncommonly good and consistent mechanical traits.

Some of the most exciting of the stallion’s juveniles in 2014 sold for very good prices, making a lot of money for consignors. And then the youngsters came back to win well for their new owners.

As his juveniles had suggested, Super Saver became a top sire of 2-year-olds with his first crop, ranking second among the freshmen sires of 2014, and the son of Maria’s Mon is second among 2^nd-crop sires in 2015 by progeny earnings. By graded stakes winners and G1 winners, he is the leader among that group.

From the racing results of 2014, the stallion’s star of the first crop was G1 Hopeful Stakes winner Competitive Edge, who trained on well enough to win a pair of stakes this season and who will enter stud in 2016 at Ashford.

In addition to Competitive Edge, Super Saver added two more G1 winners from his first crop in 2015.

Of these, Embellish the Lace struck first, winning the Alabama Stakes. Then a week later, Runhappy made good on a monster reputation by getting his first stakes victory in the King’s Bishop. Both of these G1 winners have shown the more expected pattern of improvement at 3 so closely associated with much of Super Saver’s pedigree.

That tendency has been borne out by the earning statistics from his offspring. The stallion’s runners earned just over $1.5 million in 2014, and they tripled that figure in 2015.

The quantity and quality of their achievement has been noted by the breeders and buyers, as well as WinStar Farm, which stands Super Saver. The horse’s stud fee will rise to $65,000 live foal for 2016, and with that assurance of increasing respect and quality of mates, the future looks bright for Super Saver.

‘mo’ power to leading freshmen sires of 2015

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giant surprise, leading freshmen sires 2015, society's chairman, uncle mo

With 2015 now in our rear-view mirror, the runaway leading freshman sire (and overall leading sire of juveniles) was Uncle Mo, who led the completed annual list with the kind of dominance that he showed during his own juvenile campaign. The Ashford Stud stallion by deceased Indian Charlie had more than $3.6 million in progeny earnings ($3,675,388), $2.5 million more than second-placed Twirling Candy (by Candy Ride), who has $1.1 million.

The results of the freshmen sires futurity are not surprising in general terms because the well-supported stallions with big books earned most of the attention and most of the silver. Uncle Mo, not surprisingly, was the leader in numbers of foals with 138, followed by Cape Blanco (Ashford, 133 foals, 14^th on the freshmen sires list) and Archarcharch (Spendthrift, 104, 3^rd). Those were the only freshmen with 100 or more foals of 2013, but they were closely followed by Paddy O’Prado (Spendthrift, 91, 8^th) and Wilburn (Spendthrift, 90, 12^th).

That group of five were the only ones with 90 or more foals, but only one stallion who placed in the top 10 freshmen sires had fewer than 50 foals. That was the New York-based Giant Surprise (Giant’s Causeway), who had 19 foals in his freshman crop and ranked 6^th on the freshman list. From his initial crop, Giant Surprise has 11 starters and four winners, and of those four, a pair became stakes winners in the lucrative New York-bred breeding and racing program.

Giant Surprise stands at Rockridge Stud near Hudson, NY, and he is advertised for 2016 at $5,000 live foal. The stallion’s stakes winner Sudden Surprise won the Bertram Bongard Stakes for NY-breds on Sept. 27 at Belmont Park, and on Nov. 21, he won the Notebook Stakes at Aqueduct. The sire’s other stakes winner is the filly Super Surprise, who won the Maid of the Mist at Belmont on Oct. 24, and Giant Surprise also has the stakes-placed Taken by Surprise and Surprise Cameo.

Ranking only a bit lower on the list at Number 13 comes another stallion with even fewer foals, Society’s Chairman (Not Impossible), who had 16 foals and seven starters, with three winners. However, each of those winners won a stakes. That pushed the stallion’s percentages to 18 percent stakes winners to foals with first-crop progeny earnings of $555,365.

Those three foals are Caren (Princess Elizabeth, Victorian Queen), Sparkles’ Girl (Ontario Lassie), and Code Warrior (Golden Gate Debutante, Golden Nugget). All are fillies, and the first two won their stakes at Canada’s highly competitive Woodbine Racecourse.

Both of these little-known stallions showed some significant holes in their resumes when they came to stud. Giant Surprise won his only race, a maiden special at Saratoga, but lots of horses do that. Society’s Chairman didn’t even get to the races until he was five, but he made up for the dilatory beginning by winning a stakes that year and also at six and seven, becoming a G3 stakes winner of $772,775, with three G1 placings.

Although he possessed a respectable race record, Society’s Chairman did not possess a commercially appealing pedigree, being by the unraced Sadler’s Wells stallion Not Impossible out of a winning daughter of Olympio.

A full brother to Canadian champion Perfect Soul, Not Impossible sired 43 foals, most of them for his breeder Charles Fipke. The breeder got Queen’s Plate winner Not Bourbon from Not Impossible, as well as Impossible Time, and both won Sovereign Awards as champions in Canada.

Society’s Chairman was one of the few by Not Impossible that Fipke didn’t breed, but he raced the horse in partnership with George Waud. When it came time to send Society’s Chairman to stud, what should the owners do?

That worldly observer of the breeding scene, Sid Fernando, reported recently that Fipke “sold the horse for stud duty for a dollar but kept 10 lifetime breeding rights in him, because, well, you never know.”

Ain’t that the truth.

Last year, Not Impossible’s son Not Bourbon was the leading freshman sire in Canada and is the leading 2^nd-crop sire there in 2015. And this year, Not Impossible’s son Society’s Chairman ranks 11^th among all North American sires with results from a whopping crop of 16.

One moral of the story is that good stallions can come from less commercial backgrounds, and they will express their genetic potential if only given half a chance. Clearly, we are losing some of these stallions with the emphasis on breeding larger and larger books to fewer and fewer stallions.

Giant Surprise and Society’s Chairman offer a pleasant Christmas reminder that allowing more stallions an opportunity to prove themselves can pay off all round.

sunday silence speaks volumes

Tags

arthur hancock, breeding in japan, halo, stone farm, sunday silence, tom tatham, windfields farm

Much like not seeing the forest for the trees, sometimes we don’t see the horse for the pedigrees.

Seldom has that seemed more significant than with the 1989 Horse of the Year Sunday Silence. The tall, dark, handsome son of leading sire Halo was not on anyone’s list of “must-have” yearlings when he went to the sales at Keeneland in July 1987.

The future classic winner had been foaled and raised at Arthur Hancock’s Stone Farm in Bourbon County, Ky. He was a son of the farm’s banner stallion Halo — one of the three best stallion sons of leading sire Hail to Reason. A champion juvenile colt, Hail to Reason had risen to the top of the stallion ranks through the 1960s and ‘70s as a result of the toughness and classic quality of his offspring, including Preakness winner Personality.

Hail to Reason had a lot of high-class sons on the racetrack, including English Derby winner Roberto. The latter went on to become a stallion of high international significance. He had classic stock and top juveniles, as well as rugged older horses of high caliber.

In addition to Personality, Hail to Reason’s best sons included Kentucky Derby winner Proud Clarion, Belmont Stakes winner Hail to All, and Travers winner Bold Reason, also third in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.

So Halo had to be pretty special to rank among such company among the sons of Hail to Reason.

Indeed, both as a striking individual and as a force at stud, he was an animal of the first rank. A near-black horse with a stripe down his face, Halo was a high-priced sales yearling, then progressed during his racing career to be a major racehorse, especially as turf performer as an older horse.

The leading stud farms were not greatly interested in Halo as a stallion prospect, however, and after a cancelled sale to the UK, because Halo was a cribber, E.P. Taylor had the good fortune to secure Halo and send him to stud in Maryland at his expanding annex of Windfields Farm located there in the 1970s.

From the first, Halo was an unqualified success at stud. Like big raindrops ringing against a tin roof, the good Halos started pouring down. The first crop included champion Glorious Song, and a few years later, her full brother Devil’s Bag became an unbeaten champion 2-year-old colt and made a lot of people believe he was the best racehorse in a long time… at least for a short time.

In between, Halo sired Kentucky Derby winner Sunny’s Halo, and the acclaim for Halo climbed higher and higher.

Tom Tatham’s Oak Cliff Thoroughbreds made an offer to purchase Halo from Windfields, succeeded in that high-dollar endeavor, and moved the dark horse from Maryland to Stone Farm in Kentucky.

There, Halo sired Sunday Silence for Oak Cliff. The colt went through the July sale unprotected and was bought in by Hancock, who later commented that he thought he had just thrown away $17,000 when Tatham said he didn’t want the colt back.

Three years later, Hancock ended up having to sell Sunday Silence because the tax law “reforms” had worked their magic on the horse business and several other business sectors, and nobody wanted to buy into horses, especially ones that had to be held a long time like stallions and mares.

Sent to stand in Japan at Shadai by the visionary Zenya Yoshida, Sunday Silence became a legend in his new home, setting records for quality and quantity of success.

But at the time he was set to go to stud, not many breeders in this country could see the horse for the pedigree, which in Sunday Silence’s case was considered to be weak on the bottom half.

The problem with that line of thought was that the horse had clearly gotten all the good traits that were available, as he had shown on the racetrack, and he then went on to transmit them with exceptional regularity to his offspring.

The effect of their quality and consistency is still felt in Japan.

This year’s Japan Cup winner is Shonan Pandora, winner of Japan’s Group 1 Shuka Sho last year. To date, she has earned $4.8 million. The second dam of the Japan Cup winner is a full sister to Japanese champion 2-year-old and champion sprinter Soccer Boy. That full sister also produced international G1 winner Stay Gold, by Sunday Silence.

Shonan Pandora is one of 71 stakes winners by Sunday Silence’s son Deep Impact. That stallion is the best of Sunday Silence’s many sons who went to stud, but even if Deep Impact were subtracted from Sunday Silence’s record, there would be a herd of good and important sires by the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner.

Deep Impact also sired Satono Lupin, winner of the G3 Keihan Hai on the same day as the Japan Cup, and Sunday Silence’s son Suzuka Mambo sired Sambista, winner of the Champions Cup (Japan Cup Dirt).

In America, the best son of Sunday Silence available to breeders is top-rated miler Hat Trick, and he had G3 winner Dressed in Hermes, winner of the Cecil B. DeMille Stakes at Del Mar on Nov 29. The 2-year-old gelding is from the first crop after European high-weight Dabirsim drew attention to Hat Trick with G1 successes as part of that stallion’s first-crop racers.

 

mohaymen and classic dreams for leading sires

Tags

bernardini, mohaymen, remsen stakes

As the racing season winds toward winter, serious classic watchers are ever aware of the late-maturing colts who may progress to become the stars of their second season.

One of the sires who is a consistent source of later-maturing juveniles is A.P. Indy’s son Bernardini. A horse who did not come to his form until 3, Bernardini usually gets stock that will be goodish at 2, then improve out of sight through the early months of their 3-year-old season.

On the Nov. 22 race card at Aqueduct, Bernardini had a couple of nice prospects, both winning their maidens while racing a mile on dirt. In the fourth race, Seymourdini became a winner in his third start after a pair of sharp seconds going six furlongs. The bay ridgling went the mile in 1:38.40 and cruised home by nine lengths as the 2-5 favorite. Out of the graded stakes winner Graeme Six (by Graeme Hall), Seymourdini is a half-brother to Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks winner Delightful Joy (Tapit) and to stakes winner Cali Star (Street Cry). Bred in Kentucky by Besilu Stables, Seymourdini sold for $900,000 to Iris Smith Stable at the Ocala Breeders Sales Company’s April auction this spring.

In the sixth race at Aqueduct, Shagaf won his début by five lengths in 1:37.61. Bred in Kentucky by owner Shadwell Farm, Shagaf is out of the stakes-winning mare Muhaawara, by Unbridled’s Song. Muhaawara is a half-sister to Breeders’ Cup Marathon winner Eldaafer (by A.P. Indy), and their dam is G1 winner Habibti. The latter is not the superb Irish-bred mare by the great Sir Gaylord stallion Habitat but is one of the best performers by Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner Tabasco Cat (Storm Cat).

In addition to Shagaf being another bright maiden winner for the stable, Shadwell has one of the most intriguing stakes juveniles of the late fall season in Mohaymen (Tapit). Winner of both his starts to date, Mohaymen defeated Seymourdini in their debuts and then progressed to win the G2 Nashua Stakes in a mighty professional sort of second start.

Mohaymen is expected to race next in the G2 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct over nine furlongs, and that race, of all the stakes on the East Coast at this time of year, is the launching pad for classic dreams.

In addition to classic winners like Northern Dancer, Damascus, and Pleasant Colony being past winners of the Remsen, the race has been won recently by such progressive racers as Honor Code, who defeated the talented Cairo Prince in a thrilling renewal of the event in 2013.

In other years, the race has been won by some extraordinary future slugs, but let’s not think about them just yet.

A victory in the Nov. 28 Remsen would be a serious step forward in Mohaymen’s prospects for the classics, emphasizing both his ability to race the distance at this point in his young career, as well as his obvious progressiveness.

The good-looking gray will need both class and stamina as he moves along the unforgiving path to the Kentucky Derby and other classics in 2016.

Bred in Kentucky by Clearsky Farm and bought for $2.2 million as the equal high-priced yearling of the season at the 2014 Keeneland September yearling sale, Mohaymen would appear to be worth every cent if he wins the Remsen and makes himself the wise guys’ choice for the classics of 2016. Furthermore, he would be a really exciting prospect for Shadwell, which has been among the most successful breeders in the world for three decades, although rather quietly so among American fans because the operation infrequently races youngsters in the States.

If sent to follow the program pursued this year by Godolphin stable star Frosted (also by Tapit), Mohaymen would be an exciting prospect to exceed his stable companion (both trained by Kiaran McLaughlin). Frosted was second in the Remsen last year, improved to win the G1 Wood Memorial, then was fourth in the Kentucky Derby and second in the Belmont.

And of such things as these are classic dreams made.

 

**(Written last week before Mohaymen’s victory in the Remsen)

mr (red) smith would enjoy the feel-good tale of mr maybe and ‘forty coats’

Tags

chuck zacney, Gainesway Farm, ghostzapper, michael hernon, mr maybe, red smith handicap, sales success

With a victory in the Grade 3 Red Smith Handicap at Aqueduct on Nov. 14, Mr Maybe became the latest stakes winner and graded winner for Horse of the Year Ghostzapper, the most successful stallion son of Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Awesome Again.

Journalist and racing scribe Red Smith, for whom the handicap was named, would be proud of the winner because there is a story to go with the gelding’s victory by four and a quarter lengths.

Bred in Kentucky, the gray went through the sales ring for the first time as a weanling in the 2011 edition of the Keeneland November sale. The youngster sold for $3,000, but that is only a snip of the story.

Gainesway Farm’s Michael Hernon recalled that he had seen the colt in the back ring at Keeneland, liked him, and followed him to the ring. He said that Mr Maybe “was a gray; so he threw to the dam and to her sire With Approval. Then the second dam was by the gray Caro.”

Caro was also the sire of Gainesway’s grand old stallion Cozzene and of the farm’s famous broodmare Winning Colors, winner of the 1988 Kentucky Derby.

Hernon also noticed that “he was a foal-share between breeders Stonestreet and our friend Rob Whiteley. This was a strong colt, was unlikely to be reserved because of the foal share. Also, I thought he was possibly a little advanced in placement at the sale, and he was medium-sized, at best. So when I went to the ring, I had a reasonable budget, and I remember the bidding opened at a thousand, and I made one bid, expecting there would be continued bidding. And it never materialized.”

Instead, Hernon picked up a future graded stakes winner for $3,000.

The lucky buyer “signed the ticket ‘Forty Coats,’ after a character from an Irish television series back in the day. He traveled around, wore several coats, though not 40, and was a bit wild-looking, and yet went around doing good deeds.”

Hernon’s good deed earned its reward the next year. The future stakes winner improved with maturity, as might be expected from his pedigree, and Mr Maybe “certainly grew up a lot and continued to grow,” Hernon said. “Trainer Chad Brown calls him a big teddy bear.”

Mr Maybe as a yearling at Gainesway Farm

The colt’s two first dams were both stakes winners, and the pedigree has a strong tint of turf and stamina, which Mr Maybe’s physique suggested would be his trump cards, as well.

Reading the colt’s physical type and need to progress, Hernon did not push to put the well-pedigreed young animal in a sale too early in the year.

“I nominated him to the October sale at Fasig-Tipton,” Hernon said, “because I wanted to give him every opportunity to strengthen and to stand out for perceptive buyers to see.”

The little gray weanling became a notably bigger gray yearling, and Hernon said that Mr Maybe began with “a strong body, good bone, and I put him in the Fasig October sale to give him a chance to stand out a little. Then my friend and go-to guy Chuck Zacney bought him. I had already bought Chuck One Smokin’ Lady (by Smoke Glacken), who went on to win stakes and placed in graded stakes. So Chuck was looking for a few more nice racehorses, and he sent me five names for the October sale, and of those, one name jumped off the page. So I called him up and told him that the Ghostzapper colt was mine, and he said that as long as I could recommend him, that was fine with him.”

Zacney proved the most tenacious bidder for the Ghostzapper colt, getting him for $85,000, and Mr Maybe won his second start, then went through a series of close efforts, always earning a check in his subsequent starts. When his form seemed improving this fall, Zacney sold Mr Maybe privately to Michael Dubb, Head of Plains Partners LLC, and Highclere America.

Winner of his last three starts, Mr Maybe won the Red Smith for those partners, and they are the latest beneficiaries of the “Forty Coats” trail of good deeds.

Mr. Smith would surely approve.