stakes-winning double for the late champion arrogate boosts the stallion on the second-crop list of leading sires

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arrogate, garrett o'rourke, juddmonte farms, second-crop sires 2022, unbridled's song

With stakes winners on the West Coast and the East Coast on successive days, at Del Mar on July 28 and at Saratoga on July 29, Arrogate (by Unbridled’s Song) doubled his total number of stakes winners.

Arrogate at Juddmonte Farm in Lexington. The champion son of Unbridled’s Song died near the end of his third season at stud, and his last crop of foals are now yearlings. (Juddmonte Farm photo)

From the sire’s first crop, now three, Arrogate’s first stakes winner, Alittleloveandluck, came on New Year’s Day, then subsequent Grade 1 winner Secret Oath won the G3 Honeybee on her way to victory in the G1 Kentucky Oaks and becoming one of the best fillies of the year, and a third filly, Fun to Dream, won the Fleet Treat Stakes at Del Mar on Thursday.

Bred in California by Bob Baffert and Connie Pageler, Fun to Dream is unbeaten in two starts. The filly made her debut on May 28 at Santa Anita and won the maiden special by 6 ¼ lengths as the odds-on favorite while trained by Sean McCarthy.

Back to being trained by Baffert after his return from the wilderness, Fun to Dream made her second start in the Fleet Treat, an event restricted to California-bred or -sired fillies, and again was favored. This time, the gray filly won by 9 ¾ lengths in 1:22.67 for seven furlongs.

The dam of Fun to Dream, Lutess (Maria’s Mon), was claimed by Bob Baffert on behalf of Live Your Dream Stable for $8,000 on Feb. 17, 2012, and Lutess thus became a broodmare. Fun to Dream races for Pageler and Natalie Baffert.

The day after Fun to Dream became her sire’s third stakes winner, Artorius won the Curlin Stakes at Saratoga and became the first son of Arrogate to win a stakes.

Bred in Kentucky by Juddmonte Farms, “Artorius isn’t an overly big horse,” according to Juddmonte farm manager Garrett O’Rourke, “and he isn’t especially heavy either. He’s more of a greyhound type, very athletic. He had shins, and things like that delayed his progress.”

Now a winner in two of his three starts, Artorius is clearly progressive and drew off to win the listed Curlin Stakes at Saratoga by 4 ¾ lengths in 1:50.34. The dark bay colt was the second choice in the field of eight.

Artorius had been second in his debut on April 16 at Keeneland, then came back on June 10 to win a maiden special at Belmont, racing a mile in 1:35.07. The colt seemed notably professional in racing inside, then between horses, before going on to win his race. Furthermore, the form seems solid, with Preakness third Creative Minister (Creative Cause) finishing 6 ¼ lengths back of the winner.

The Curlin was the third start for Artorius, and the race was both a step up in class and forward in distance. And it is tempting to say that the Arrogate stock want distance, but Fun to Dream showed plenty of speed in California, racing the six furlongs in 1:09.53 before finishing the seven furlongs in quick time.

Juddmonte supplied a substantial portion of Arrogate’s book each year the gray champion was at stud, and O’Rourke has seen as many of the horse’s offspring as anyone. He said that, in addition to the farm’s 3-year-olds, “we have plenty of 2-year-olds and plenty of yearlings. I always felt our 2-year-old crop was deeper than the 3-year-olds. Some of the 2-year-olds have already gone into training.

“The pattern that I think is emerging is giving them time, and when you get a good one, it’s worth the wait. That was what we found with Arrogate himself. Shins were the problem with Arrogate at two that prompted Bob to send him back to the farm. Then when he went back to training in California, he was ready.”

After winning a maiden and a pair of allowances as a 3-year-old, Arrogate went to Saratoga for the 2016 Travers, where he scorched the earth in a memorable performance. From then through the Breeders’ Cup Classic and Pegasus to his victory in the Dubai World Cup, Arrogate was the best horse in the world.

And Juddmonte was planning for the day when he went to stud.

The farm acquired Paulassilverlining (Ghostzapper) privately from breeder Vincent Scuderi after the G2 winner had finished a good third in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Filly Sprint, then won the Garland of Roses in December 2016. The filly promptly continued to compile a four-race winning streak, earning victories for Juddmonte in the G1 Madison at Keeneland, the G1 Distaff at Churchill Downs, and the G2 Honorable Miss at Saratoga.

Paulassilverlining ran below her best form in her final two starts, the G1 Ballerina and G1 BC Filly Sprint. Then both she and Arrogate were retired to stud in Kentucky, and Artorius was the result of the mare’s first mating. The multiple G1 winner has a 2-year-old filly named Parameter (Into Mischief) with Chad Brown, like the half-brother.

The second-crop sires all toil far in arrears of record-setting Gun Runner ($7.5 million), but Arrogate is a highly respectable third behind Keen Ice (Curlin) ($3.9 million) with $3.5 million in his sire account so far this year. Those are the only second-crop sires with more than $3 million in progeny earnings for 2022.

Arrogate has the smallest number of starters among the top 10 sires on the list; so to be ranked that highly, and with only four stakes winners, the colts and fillies winning maidens are clearly doing so in good company and for good purses. The likelihood is that we will be able to assess the stallion’s overall contribution to greater advantage in 18 to 24 months.

gerrymander and the importance of class in the dam

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into mischief, joe estes, stallion success

Let us then praise good broodmares. Theirs is the more dangerous and less celebrated part of the breeding equation. Yet without them, even the best stallions do not shine as brightly or accomplish so much.

Take, for example, leading sire Into Mischief (by Harlan’s Holiday), who had his 50th graded stakes winner when Gerrymander won the Grade 2 Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont Park on June 25.

A very good sire from the beginning of his career at stud, the bay titan from Spendthrift Farm really excelled when breeders recognized that here was a significant sire and began filling his book with mares of greater quality and potential.

From the stallion’s first four books of mares, he had crops of 41, 26, 37, and 37 foals that resulted in a strong showing from his first crop with seven stakes winners (17 percent). Only three, one, and two stakes winners came from the next three crops, but when that first crop of runners, which included three stakes winners at 2 in 2012, showed their stuff, both in early training and on the racetrack, breeders sent the horse a massive book of mares in 2013 for the foals of 2014, which resulted in 162 foals and 17 stakes winners.

Into Mischief has never since had fewer than 15 stakes winners per crop, and his genetics haven’t changed. Nothing changed except the volume and class of mares coming to him.

The result of those changes is the swelling tide of stakes winners and top performers from Spendthrift’s super sire. The leading sire in the country by gross earnings for three seasons, Into Mischief has become the best American sire in the male line descending from his great-grandsire Storm Cat (Storm Bird).

Twenty years ago, Storm Cat stood astride the world of breeding like colossus, the world his subject. Yet today, that line of Northern Dancer has gone quiet, significantly because several of the best sons of Storm Cat have not had a top stallion son here in the States. Storm Cat’s son Harlan, however, got a top sire son in Harlan’s Holiday, who was a step away from greater acclaim when he died while shuttling to Argentina.

Into Mischief has more than filled that gaping loss, getting sounder and somewhat more versatile stock than Harlan’s Holiday, and no stallion in the country is more acclaimed or more expensive to use than this successor to Harlan’s Holiday.

One of the stallion’s 174 foals of 2019, Gerrymander was bred in Kentucky by Town & Country Horse Farms and Pollock Farms. She is the second G2 winner out of the Hard Spun mare Ruby Lips, who ran third in the G3 Tempted Stakes at 2. Ruby Lips also produced Lone Rock (Majestic Warrior), who won the G2 Brooklyn.

Ruby Lips is a half-sister to a pair of stakes winners, including Like a Gem (Tactical Cat), who has produced a pair of stakes winners herself, including Hard Not to Like (Hard Spun), a three-time G1 winner (Diana, Gamely, and Jenny Wiley). The Mother Goose winner’s third dam, Likeashot (Gunshot), produced three stakes winners, including G1 winner Firery Ensign (Blue Ensign), winner of the Young America Stakes. This is the family of G2 Saratoga Special winner Run Away and Hide (City Zip) and Davide Umbro (In the Wings), winner of the G2 Premio Parioli (Italian 2,000 Guineas).

From four starts as a juvenile, Gerrymander won the Tempted Stakes, now a listed race, and was second in the G1 Frizette. The Mother Goose is her first victory of 2022, from a pair of starts.

As the newest graded winner for her sire, this filly helps to point out the significance of the research into stakes production and opportunity among sires and dams that was done by Joe Estes over his decades as the editor of The Blood-Horse from the early 1930s.

From the racing test, as Estes termed it, the chief researcher and his associates proved that fillies succeeded as broodmares in a direct line of rank according to their racing class: groups of stakes winners doing better than the groups of stakes-placed mares, which were better than plain winners, etc.

The primary detraction from this important application of research and statistics is that the better race fillies tend to go to the better stallions.

By applying the data from the other direction, how a stallion fares with lesser or better racing mates, the consensus is clear. Racing class does improve breeding success, and we can see the results clearly from the improvement in volume and class of stakes winners when better and better books became available to Into Mischief.

in belmont stakes victory, mo donegal leads exacta for classic breeders

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ashview farm, Belmont Stakes, colts neck stables, donegal racing, mo donegal, uncle mo

The results of the 2022 Belmont Stakes produced a double of different kinds for both the sire of the winner Mo Donegal (by Uncle Mo) and for the breeders, the Lyster family’s Ashview Farm and Richard Santulli’s Colts Neck Stables, which bred and sold the winner, as well as the runner-up, Nest (Curlin).

With a winner of the Belmont, champion juvenile Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie) has his second classic winner. The bay stallion’s first came from his first crop in 2015 champion juvenile Nyquist, who won the 2016 Kentucky Derby.

One of 25 stakes winners (16 percent of foals) from Uncle Mo’s first crop, Nyquist was unbeaten at two, winning all five of his starts, including victories in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity, Frontrunner, and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. The next season, the well-conformed bay progressed enough to win his first three starts, including the G1 Florida Derby and the Kentucky Derby. Nyquist was third in the Preakness, then fourth in the Haskell and sixth in the Pennsylvania Derby before retiring to stud at Darley‘s Jonabell Farm in Lexington.

Mo Donegal comes from the seventh crop by Uncle Mo, who stands at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud outside Versailles, Ky., where Uncle Mo has sired 1,054 foals aged three and up. From those, the stallion has 768 starters (63 percent), 521 winners (43 percent), and 77 stakes winners (7.3 percent). Had the percentage of stakes winners for subsequent crops been able to match the extraordinary results of the first, Uncle Mo would have the highest stud fee of any sire in the country, and as it is, he stands for $160,000 live foal on a stand and nurse contract.

The 11th G1 winner for Uncle Mo, Mo Donegal was bred in Kentucky by Ashview and Colts Neck, and they sold the bay to Jerry Crawford, agent for Donegal Racing, for $250,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September sale.

The Belmont Stakes winner is out of Callingmissbrown, a Pulpit mare that the Lysters acquired privately for their breeding partnership, and she “is a beautiful mare who has a beautiful foal,” said Gray Lyster. The quality and balance of the dam no doubt helped when Ashview brought the Uncle Mo colt to the 2020 Keeneland September yearling sale and sold him for a quarter-million, then brought the mare’s 2021 yearling, a filly by leading sire Into Mischief, to the Keeneland sales last year.

By the hot sire but out of a mare who hadn’t at that time produced a black-type winner, Callingmissbrown’s 2021 September yearling brought $500,000 from Frankie Brothers, agent, and Litt/Solis. To bring twice what Crawford paid for the mare’s Uncle Mo colt a year before, this filly was quite nice.

Clearly, being by Into Mischief put a bull’s eye on the filly among discerning horsemen, she looked the part, and she brought a premium for it. Now named Prank, the Into Mischief filly has had a pair of official breezes at Saratoga.

The family that produced Mo Donegal also accounted for Canadian classic winner Niigon (Unbridled), winner of the 2004 Queen’s Plate. He was out of Savethelastdance (Nureyev), who also produced Sue’s Last Dance (Forty Niner), the third dam of the classic winner and dam of Pozo de Luna (Famous Again), champion juvenile colt in Mexico, and Island Sand (Tabasco Cat). The latter earned $1.1 million with victories such as the G1 Acorn Stakes, as well as a second in the G1 Kentucky Oaks.

Island Sand has produced a pair of stakes-placed winners, including Grade 1-placed Maya Malibu (Malibu Moon), second in the G1 Spinaway, and a daughter of leading sire Pulpit (A.P. Indy), Callingmissbrown, who won two of her four starts and is the dam of Mo Donegal.

The second foal of his dam, Mo Donegal has won four of his seven starts, including the Belmont, Wood Memorial, and Remsen, with a pair of thirds. The colt has been out of the money only in the Kentucky Derby, when fifth after a difficult trip.

Callingmissbrown “is a dark bay mare with no white on her legs but has a small star on her forehead like Mo Donegal,” Lyster said, “and she’s by Pulpit, whom we love as a broodmare sire.” Unfortunately, the mare lost a “beautiful Curlin colt four days after the Wood,” he noted, “but is now pregnant at 20 days gestation to Uncle Mo.”

Could there be “Mo” classic prospects in the future for this partnership?

a gun runner in every winner’s circle; racing’s version of a chicken in every pot

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arkansas derby, cyberknife, gun runner

The rich get richer, and the Gun Runners get more victories. Or something to that effect.

Gun Runner (by Candy Ride) had his third Grade 1 winner on April 2 when Cyberknife won the Arkansas Derby. It was the winner’s first stakes, his third victory from six starts.

Cyberknife has been maturing steadily since his debut on Sept. 25 last year. He finished first in that race, but was disqualified to second for interference in that maiden special, then finished second in another on Nov. 5. The colt won his maiden on the day after Christmas and kept it.

Starting as the third choice on Jan. 22 at the Fair Grounds, Cyberknife finished sixth in the G3 Lecompte Stakes that Call Me Midnight (Midnight Lute) won by a head from Epicenter (Not This Time). Then on Feb. 19, the son of Gun Runner won a Fair Grounds allowance by three lengths in 1:42.53 for 8 1/2 furlongs.

The Arkansas Derby was the colt’s next race.

Bred in Kentucky by Kenneth L. Ramsey and Sarah K. Ramsey and sold for $400,000 at the Fasig-Tipton select yearling sale of 2020, Cyberknife is out of the Flower Alley mare Awesome Flower. The dam won 11 races out of 33 starts from three to six, including a half-dozen stakes, and was placed second in the G3 Sixty Sails and third in the G2 Chilukki Stakes. She earned $556,593.

Sold to Arnold Heft for $45,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Eastern September yearling sale, Awesome Flower was a $30,000 claim for the Ramseys on Dec. 28, 2012 at the end of her 3-year-old season. Off until April 5, 2013, when she was once again risked for $30,000 claiming, Awesome Flower improved and won four of her next six starts, including the Lady Canterbury Stakes on July 13.

Ten of the mare’s victories and nearly all her half-million in earnings came for the Ramseys and trainer Mike Maker.

That racing record made the chestnut mare one of the top dozen performers by her sire, the Distorted Humor horse Flower Alley.

A good-sized, strongly made son of leading sire Distorted Humor (Forty Niner), Flower Alley sold twice. He had been bred in Kentucky by George Brunacini and Bona Terra Farms, and Flower Alley went through the Paramount Sales consignment for $50,000 as a weanling at the 2002 Keeneland November sale, then returned to Keeneland the following year and sold for $165,000 to Eugene Melnyk. The colt went on to become one of the most successful racers for Melnyk’s stable, winning five races and earning more than $2.5 million.

As a 3-year-old, Flower Alley was at the top of his crop. He ran second in the 2005 Arkansas Derby, then was ninth in the Kentucky Derby, but later in the year Flower Alley won both the G2 Jim Dandy and the G1 Travers, then finished his year with a second in the 2005 Breeders’ Cup Classic, beaten a length by Saint Liam (Saint Ballado).

Flower Alley came back at four, made four starts and was unplaced in three, winning only the G3 Salvator Handicap at Monmouth.

Even so, the classically inclined son of leading sire Distorted Humor went to stud in 2007 at Three Chimneys Farm near Midway, Ky., and sired a quartet of Grade 1 winners. Bullards Alley (Canadian International), Lukes Alley (Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap), and Lilacs and Lace (Ashland) were very good representatives for their sire, but the colt who put Flower Alley’s name in lights on the Las Vegas strip was I’ll Have Another.

Three times a winner at the Grade 1 level, I’ll Have Another was bred in Kentucky by Harvey Clarke, and the good-looking chestnut won the Santa Anita Derby, Kentucky Derby, and Preakness. A winner in five of his seven starts, I’ll Have Another earned more than $2.6 million and was named champion 3-year-old colt of 2012. After being declared out of the Belmont Stakes and the potential for a Triple Crown, I’ll Have Another was sold to stand at stud in Japan; he was sold and was returned to the States for the 2019 breeding season and stands at Ocean Breeze Ranch in California.

Just a few years earlier, Flower Alley had gone the other way. The stallion was sold to stand in South Africa at Wilgerbosdrift Stud for the 2015 breeding season, and he stands there for 80,000 rand (approximately $6,000) live foal.

None of those scenic locales are the destination of Gun Runner, the leading freshman sire of 2021 by a walloping $2 million over his nearest competitor and currently the sire of 10 stakes winners. He remains a homebody at Three Chimneys Farm, with a first crop now age three, and his son Cyberknife will be among the well-regarded starters for the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May.

father and son have proven themselves a tag team for ‘quality’

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bleecker street, ce ce, elusive quality, quality road

The father-son team of Elusive Quality (by Gone West) and Quality Road sired the winners of a pair of Grade 2 stakes over the weekend of March 12-13. At Oaklawn Park, Elusive Quality’s Breeders’ Cup winner Ce Ce won the Azeri Stakes in her prep for the upcoming Grade 1 Apple Blossom. At Tampa Bay, Quality Road’s daughter Bleecker Street made a point of her continuing improvement with victory in the Hillsborough Handicap.

Prior to his death on March 14, 2018, Elusive Quality had been one of the rocks of consistency and quality in Kentucky breeding. Retired to stud after winning nine of his 20 starts, Elusive Quality had shown speed of an exceptional degree, setting a track record for seven furlongs at Gulfstream with a time of 1:20.17 for owner Darley and trainer Bill Mott.

Amazingly, however, Elusive Quality wasn’t guaranteed a spot at stud, despite his obvious talent, because the massive colt had not won a stakes race until he was successful in the Jaipur Stakes and Poker Handicap, setting a new course record of 1:31.63 for a mile in the latter at Belmont.

Elusive Quality was a 6-year-old when he won those stakes; he couldn’t have been more impressive, and the manner of his victories was as decisive a factor in sending the grand-looking dark bay to stud as his exceptional race times.

Even so, Elusive Quality (not to mention the sport’s fans and owners) was lucky the big rascal managed to find his spot at stud because the horse never won a Grade 1 race and both of his stakes victories were on “t – u – r – f,” a substance toward which many breeders act as if it should be eaten but not raced on by aspiring stallion prospects.

All was well with Elusive Quality, however, when his first crop began to race. They were fast, they were early, and they had class. He was off to the races and was nosed out of the freshman sire championship by fellow non-Grade 1 winner Distorted Humor (Forty Niner).

Both promptly sired classic winners. Distorted Humor got Funny Cide, winner of the 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, and Elusive Quality sired Smarty Jones, winner of the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

Overall, Elusive Quality’s champions or highweights included elite racers in the U.S., as well as Europe and Australia, and he proved himself one of the most valued and valuable sires of the last 20 years.

A primary reason for his continuing influence is the immense success of his son Quality Road as a stallion. A horse of exceptional speed like his sire, Quality Road was declared out of the classics due to a quarter crack, but he won the G1 Florida Derby at three, then returned at four to win a trio of additional G1s, including the Metropolitan Handicap and Woodward Stakes.

Standing at Lane’s End Farm outside Versailles, Ky., Quality Road has become a staple of top-tier breeding operations, and his best offspring include champions Abel Tasman (Kentucky Oaks), Caledonia Road (Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies), and Corniche (Breeders’ Cup Juvenile).

At stud, Quality Road has 2022 freshman sire City of Light, winner of the Pegasus World Cup Invitational, and last month, Quality Road was represented by Emblem Road, winner of the Saudi Cup.

Unbeaten in five starts, Bleecker Street won her second graded stakes in the Hillsborough, and she is highly regarded among the older turf fillies.

Ce Ce won the Eclipse Award as the best sprint mare in the country for 2021, when she won the Breeders’ Cup Filly Sprint, and her plan of attack for this year appears to be focused on slightly longer races, with the immediate target being the Apple Blossom, a race the mare won two years ago at four.

In addition, Ce Ce comes from a family of mares that have made winning Grade 1s a regular accomplishment. The chestnut daughter of Elusive Quality is the third generation in a row to win a Grade 1. Her dam is Miss Houdini (Belong to Me), winner of the G1 Del Mar Debutante, and the second dam is Magical Maiden (Lord Avie), who won the G1 Hollywood Starlet and Las Virgenes.

Magical Maiden was one of three stakes winners from her dam, Gils Magic (Magesterial), who also produced the extraordinary broodmare Magical Flash (Miswaki), the dam of six stakes winners. Gils Magic was such a dominant broodmare that she managed to produce Magical Mile, a graded stakes winner by J.O. Tobin, one of the most beautiful and talented racehorses but a pure pillock as a stallion.

catch lightning: morello wins the gotham and lights up hopes and dreams for small breeders

Tags

chet blackey, classic empire, morello, robert tillyer

The weekend proved a time of positive results for second-crop sire Classic Empire (by Pioneerof the Nile). In addition to having Classy Edition finish second in the Grade 2 Davona Dale Stakes at Gulfstream, the stallion’s son Morello went a step better and won the G3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct by 4 1/2 lengths.

After finishing his freshman sire season in fourth place behind the jet-setting Gun Runner (Candy Ride) last year, Classic Empire has now jumped into second place for 2022, about $160,000 behind Gun Runner and about $45,000 ahead of current third-place Arrogate (Unbridled’s Song).

A champion juvenile like fellow “Pioneer” stallion American Pharoah, Classic Empire just missed becoming a classic winner at three, when he lost the G1 Preakness by a head to Cloud Computing, from the first crop by Maclean’s Music (Distorted Humor).

Sent to stud the following spring at Ashford Stud, along with Practical Joke (Into Mischief) and Cupid (Tapit), Classic Empire and his fellow Ashford freshmen have proven popular with breeders and have repaid that confidence with very good performances at the sales and on the racetrack.

That trio, along with Caravaggio (Scat Daddy) – who joined them at Ashford for the 2021 season after entering stud in Ireland – would nearly have swamped the freshman sire list last season, except for a chestnut son of Candy Ride, who swept through the season with one good racer after another and led the freshman list by $2 million. The Ashford sires took four of next five spots behind Gun Runner, with only Lane’s End sire Connect (Curlin) getting in the fray and finishing third at year’s end.

Morello — shown as a 2-year-old at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale in May 2021, ran a furlong in :10 1/5 and sold for $250,000. He was one of 39 juveniles in training by Classic Empire that sold last year. (ThoroStride / Matt Goins photo)

The indications were positive for Classic Empire after last year’s sales of juveniles in training, when 39 sold for an average of $135,154 and a median of $77,000. From those elite juveniles come both Classy Edition ($550,000 at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic in May) and Morello ($250,000 at the same sale). Both juveniles sold out of the Sequel Bloodstock consignment of Becky Thomas.

Bred in Kentucky by Robert Tillyer and Dr. Chet Blackey, Morello had gone through the sales ring profitably as a weanling ($140,000 at Keeneland November) and yearling ($200,000 at Fasig-Tipton select), and he brought one of the top 10 prices among the two-year-olds by his sire last year.

At the Midlantic sale, Morello worked a furlong in :10 1/5, showing a stride length of slightly more than 25 feet and doing it so well that he earned a very good BreezeFig of 71.

Now unbeaten in three starts, Morello is the first stakes winner for his dam, Stop the Wedding (Congrats), and the first graded stakes winner for Classic Empire, as well.

How Morello came to be bred is a tale of a “Pioneer,” Kentucky Derby second Pioneerof the Nile, who sired a first-crop colt named Social Inclusion who reignited this family in the commercial marketplace.

Farm manager for Dixiana and partner in a couple of broodmares, co-breeder Tillyer recalled that “Social Inclusion’s dam, Saint Bernadette, got to a point where she wasn’t commercial, because buyers are prejudiced against older mares. Then we sold Social Inclusion for $60,000, which was profitable but not maybe what I thought he was worth, and we sold Saint Bernadette. Then, he started working bullets in California, and I knew I’d made a mistake.”

Breeders spend their time staring into crystal balls, trying to foresee the future of trends and horses, and the partners in Saint Bernadette went to work trying to buy her back. Tillyer recalled that “the mare hadn’t gotten in foal to the stallion they bought her for, and I was able to buy her back for Chet and myself, bred her to Pioneer, and sold the colt for $475,000 to China Horse Club and Maverick Racing at the 2016 Keeneland September sale.”

Yes, that was the season after a bay son of Pioneerof the Nile became the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. Nice timing.

Later named Road to Damascus, he was stakes-placed and is now a paddock companion at Trackside Farm outside Versailles, Ky. That placement was engineered by co-breeder Blackey, who is a well-known vet and includes Trackside among his clients.

Blackey continued, “When Social Inclusion was heating up in Florida, broke a track record, and was the subject of a multi-million dollar offer from a major racing enterprise, we had managed to buy back his mother and went looking for one of her half-sisters, a mare named Stop the Wedding.

“She was very attractive but on the racetrack had one win from 25 starts. We managed to buy her anyway.”

Blackey’s bloodstock partner said, “I found Stop the Wedding located down in Florida, called up the owner and asked if he would consider selling, and purchased the mare. She foaled Two To One (Yesbyjimminy) in Florida, was shipped to Kentucky, and was bred to Bodemeister,” another son of Empire Maker, the sire of Pioneerof the Nile.

“By the time that Morello came along, Stop the Wedding was nearly in the same position as her half-sister some years ago when she produced Social Inclusion. She was nearly non-commercial because she hadn’t had the big stakes horse. She’d had some really nice horses, but for one reason or another, they hadn’t fulfilled their potential on the racetrack.

“Since Stop the Wedding was becoming non-commercial,” Tillyer said, “we ran her through the Keeneland January sale in 2020, bought her back for $11,000 in foal to Cairo Prince (Pioneerof the Nile), and gave Nicky Drion a third for boarding interest.”

The mare’s foal of 2019 had sold the previous fall. He was a tidy chestnut colt now named Morello.

Tillyer said: “As a weanling, Morello was a really cool horse, really good mind, beautiful body; he had a lot of personal attention and was very smart, very good to be around. Social Inclusion was pretty feisty; Morello is more of a laid-back horse.”

When the partners sent him through the ring at the Keeneland November sale, he was from the first crop by champion Classic Empire, from the Pioneerof the Nile group of sires that has been so successful with this family. The marketplace liked everything it saw and paid $140,000 for the colt.

Blackey said: “This foal Morello was gorgeous, and that was why we went back to Classic Empire with the mare in 2021. A lot of breeding is doing the best you can and trying to get lucky. Breeding back to the same horse is risky because you never know how they’ll turn out, no matter how good the weanling or yearling looked.”

With a full sibling to Morello coming soon, the partners are set to get lucky.

Blackey eloquently summarized the situation: “To play on the level we play, it is catching lightning in a jar. We’ve bred a lot and raced several through the years, and win, lose, or draw it’s fun, but it’s a lot more fun to win.”

not this time is a lot of fun for albaugh family stables, both racing and breeding

Tags

albaugh family stable, epicenter, giant's causeway, jason loutsch, not this time

Although primarily considered a “turf horse” by breeders for most of his career at stud, the tremendous sire Giant’s Causeway is having an exceptional run of success on this side of the Atlantic wet spot.

In 2019, the son of Storm Cat had champion Bricks and Mortar, who was the country’s best turf horse and yet, despite winning 11 of 13 starts, was “only a turf horse” and was allowed to be exported to Japan, where they sometimes race on turf, unlike the U.S. Oh, do we have turf races here?

Last year, the Giant’s Causeway stallion Protonico sired Medina Spirit in the sire’s first crop, and that Grade 1 winner also finished first in the Kentucky Derby, although he was disqualified from that victory on Feb. 21.

Also entering stud in 2017, like the dark brown Protonico, was another son of Giant’s Causeway, the dark brown Not This Time. A half-brother to Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Liam’s Map, Not This Time is out of the noted broodmare Miss Macy Sue (by Trippi).

Both young sires were bred in Kentucky by the Albaugh Family Stables LLC, and that entity faced the predictable dilemma of any breeder who races and sells: which to keep and which to sell. They chose well in selling Liam’s Map, who brought $800,000 as a yearling to St. Elias, then raced for Teresa Viola Stables and West Point Thoroughbreds.

The decision to sell the gray colt looked like a smart one from a business perspective until he was a 4-year-old and won three of his four starts, earning the majority of his $1.3 million in racetrack earnings and a spot at stud. There he retired to a positive reception as a stallion at Lane’s End Farm, where Liam’s Map sired champion Colonel Liam and numerous other stakes winners.

The sale of Liam’s Map prompted Dennis Albaugh to say “not this time” to the idea of selling Miss Macy Sue’s good-looking son of Giant’s Causeway and instead retained him for the family stable.

And that’s how the colt got his name.

Racing for Albaugh Family Stables, Not This Time won two of his four starts, earning $454,183. That doesn’t appear to be an unequivocal success, but one of the starts that the dark brown colt lost was the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, when he was two lengths behind Classic Empire at the stretch call and lost by a neck after Classic Empire “dug in gamely to fend off Not This Time,” according to the official race chart.

Not This Time came out of the Juvenile with a soft-tissue injury to his right foreleg and never raced again. He retired to Taylor Made Farm, which bought a 50 percent stake in the colt, for the 2017 breeding season at an initial stud fee of $15,000 live foal.

Jason Loutsch, family member and racing manager for Albaugh Stables, said “I’m a huge fan of Giant’s Causeway, and we really wanted to stay in on Not This Time [as a stallion]. We kept half the horse in the deal with Taylor Made. We thought it would be a great partnership for us and for the horse, and they’ve done a great job of promoting him.”

From his first crop, foals of 2018, Not This Time sired Grade 1 winner Princess Noor and ranked third among freshman sires of 2020 behind the leading Uncle Mo sons Nyquist ($2,424,083) and Laoban ($1,559,748) with $1,557,138. A third son of Uncle Mo, Outwork, was fourth on the list.

As part of the plan to support Not This Time, Loutsch said, “Dennis and I went to the January sale and bought 10 mares that we thought would match well with him. We bought the mare who produced Princess Noor and then bred three other good racers from those mares, one of which is now the dam of Simplification.”

[Albaugh Stables sold both mares, the dams of Princess Noor and Simplification, in foal to Not This Time. Not This Time/AFS bought the stakes-placed Simply Confection (Candy Ride) at the 2017 January sale as a broodmare prospect for $90,000, did not get a foal from her in 2018, then sold her in the 2019 Keeneland November sale, in foal to Not This Time, for $80,000 to France Weiner, agent. That foal is Simplification, bred by France and Irwin Weiner.]

In the meantime, Princess Noor was impressing anyone paying attention to freshmen sires and high-performing juveniles. She won her first three starts like a champion, then as favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, finished fifth. Princess Noor came back in the Starlet and was pulled up after three-quarters and vanned off. She never raced again but sold in foal to Into Mischief to Katsumi Yoshida for $2.9 million.

Of course, one swallow does not a summer make, but Not This Time catapulted himself to the top of his division among second-crop sires with 13 stakes winners in 2021 and gross progeny earnings of $5.4 million, first among second-crop sires and first as the overall leading sire by percentage of stakes winners to runners (10.3).

Loutsch said that, as the result of racing Not This Time and retiring him to stud, “We’re having a lot of fun right now, and it’s only going to get better.

“As a result of his initial success, his mare quality has stepped up, and this year’s book has stepped up another level too.”

The stallion’s volume of stakes winners from his first two crops have pushed the horse’s stud fee to $45,000 for 2022, and this year, Not This Time is ranked 11th nationally among all sires, with three stakes winners and $1.2 million in earnings after 50 days.

The sire’s chief earner for 2022 is Epicenter, who won the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at the Fair Grounds on Feb. 19. The bay colt had been one of his sire’s 13 stakes winners last year, picking up the Gun Runner Stakes at the Fair Grounds on Dec. 26, and in his 3-year-old debut, Epicenter led nearly the entire race for the Lecomte Stakes, losing to Call Me Midnight (Midnight Lute) at the wire.

Bred in Kentucky by Westwind Farm, Epicenter is out of the Candy Ride mare Silent Candy. Winchell Thoroughbreds purchased the colt for $260,000 at the Keeneland September yearling auction of 2021 from the consignment of Bettersworth Westwind Farms.

Now a winner in three of his five starts, Epicenter has earned $410,639. He is one of the sire’s three stakes winners this season, with Just One Time winning the G2 Inside Information winning on Jan. 29 and Simplification winning the Mucho Macho Man on New Year’s Day. The latter came back on Feb. 5 and was second in the G3 Holy Bull Stakes.

With horses like Epicenter, Simplification, stakes winner Howling Time (bullet work at Gulfstream on Feb. 19), recent Oaklawn allowance winner Chasing Time, recent Gulfstream allowance winner In Due Time, and others, Not This Time and those closely associated with him are going to have a very exciting spring.

giant’s causeway has a classic agenda with his last small crop of racers

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bimelech, classic causeway, e.r. bradley, giant's causeway, idle hour farm

It’s been done before, getting a top racer in a stallion’s miniscule last crop. So don’t say it can’t happen. But it is always a trick to sire a classic winner, at any point in a stud career.

In America, only the legendary Black Toney (by Peter Pan) has managed to sire a classic winner in a tiny final crop of foals, so far. In 1937, from his final crop of three foals, the 26-year-old Black Toney got a colt from an 11-year-old mare by the name of La Troienne (Teddy).

The dark brown colt was no average foal, nor from average parents. Instead, he was a grand specimen by one of the most consistent sires of racers out of a mare who ranks even today as one of the greatest in the history of the breed.

A bit was expected of this muscular colt whom E.R. Bradley named Bimelech, and the colt delivered. Unbeaten at two, his superiority over his contemporaries in 1939 was so exceptional that Bimelech was placed atop the Experimental Free Handicap at 130 pounds.

One of the great juveniles of the 20th century, Bimelech was unbeaten at that age, was weighted at 130 on the Experimental Free Handicap. He won two classics the next year and became a good sire.

The following season, Bimelech won the 1940 Preakness and Belmont Stakes, the Blue Grass and the Derby Trial. In the Kentucky Derby itself, however, he finished second to Gallahadion (Sir Gallahad III). Even the best hands sometimes fail to catch every trick.

This year, we have a story that’s just as good, or very nearly.

From the last crop of European champion and top international sire Giant’s Causeway came three colts. The chestnut champion had died at Ashford Stud on April 16, 2018, and his overall health had limited his final book.

One couldn’t expect a lot from just three foals, but the intensity and determination that marked the great chestnut’s racing career was passed to some of his offspring, and from that small final crop has come a colt who is now a classic contender.

A chestnut reminiscent of his sire, Classic Causeway won the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay on Feb. 12, leading all the way and pulling away in the stretch to win by 3 3/4 lengths in 1:42.80.

With Classic Causeway, grand old Giant’s Causeway (Storm Cat) is in the hunt for the classics with a colt whose speed and stamina have made him a prospect of exceptional appeal since his debut at Saratoga last year.

Bred in Kentucky by Kentucky West Racing LLC & Clarke M. Cooper Family Living Trust, Classic Causeway went into training with Brian Lynch, who prepared the progressive colt to make his debut on Sept. 4, and as the second-longest price on the odds board, Classic Causeway led at every pole to win by 6 1/2 lengths in 1:22.67 for seven furlongs on dirt.

The colt’s maiden victory was impressive enough that he was sent off the favorite for his next start, the G1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland. Again leading the way, Classic Causeway was caught in the stretch by the Connect colt Rattle N Roll and finished third. The son of Giant’s Causeway made his final start at two in the G2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes in late November. Again sent off the favorite, Classic Causeway finished second to Smile Happy (Runhappy), the shortest price among individual horses in the early Kentucky Derby wagering, and ahead of White Abarrio (Race Day), who won the G3 Holy Bull Stakes last weekend.

The Sam Davis was the seasonal debut for Classic Causeway, and as the favorite, he battled head and head for more than half the race as he led early, was headed at the half-mile, and pulled away in the stretch. This colt is now the early points leader (16) for the Kentucky Derby.

A homebred who races for Kentucky West (Patrick O’Keefe) and Clarke Cooper, Classic Causeway is out of the multiple stakes winner Private World, by Thunder Gulch. The colt’s dam won a pair of stakes as a juvenile for breeder Kentucky West and trainer Bob Hess Jr., the Anoakia and Moccasin Stakes, then was second in the California Breeders’ Cup Oaks early at three from two starts in her second season.

The dam appeared to stay at least a mile, and there’s no doubt that her sire stayed much farther. A winner of the Remsen Stakes at two, Thunder Gulch developed into a mighty classic prospect the next year, winning the Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby before crushing the odds to win the Kentucky Derby at more than 24-to-1. Later, the medium-sized chestnut won the Belmont Stakes and Travers, then was named champion of his division.

A winner of two classics and champion at three like Bimelech, Thunder Gulch stood his entire stud career at Ashford and sired Horse of the Year Point Given and 2000 Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Spain, unlike Bimelech, who never had a racer equal to himself.

Retired to stud at Bradley’s Idle Hour Farm, now Darby Dan, Bimelech moved to Greentree when that operation, along with King Ranch and Ogden Phipps, purchased the majority of Bradley’s stock. Bimelech proved a good sire, siring 30 stakes winners, including Guillotine (Futurity at two, Carter at three, Fall Highweight at four) for Greentree, and getting broodmares who produced 50 stakes winners, including No Robbery (Swaps), winner of the 1963 Wood Memorial for Greentree.

bonanza weekend for breeding partners ashview farm and colts neck stables

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ashview farm, bryan lyster, colts neck stables, mo donegal, nest, rich santulli

Results from the graded stakes for juveniles at Aqueduct on Saturday, Dec. 4, proved a double success for the breeding partnership of the Lyster family’s Ashview Farm and the Colts Neck Stables of Rich Santulli.

In the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes, Mo Donegal, a son of champion juvenile and leading sire Uncle Mo (by Indian Charlie), was the victor by a nose from Zandon (Upstart), and in the G2 Demoiselle, Nest (Curlin) won by a neck from the Firing Line filly Venti Valentine.

Both of the Kentucky-bred juveniles were foaled and raised at Ashview, which markets is yearlings as organically grown athletes. The marketplace gave a warm reception to those farm-fresh yearlings: Mo Donegal sold to Jerry Crawford of Donegal Racing Stables for $250,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September sale; Nest brought $300,000 at the same sale and races for Repole Stable, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, and Michael House.

As financially and professionally rewarding as those young horses have proven for the farm, Bryan Lyster said that “having bred these two with Mr. Santulli is one of the best things imaginable. He’s been right by our side from the mid-1980s, and it’s very satisfying that we had a day like that together.

“He’s been a longtime client and my dad’s best friend. In the last seven to eight years, we have bought a number of mares together.”

The partners own 12 to 15 mares, and breeding a pair of graded stakes winners from a small group of mares is an exceptional accomplishment. Then again, the mares who produced these young athletes are rather special too.

Nest is the fifth foal out of her dam, the A.P. Indy stakes winner Marion Ravenwood, and the Demoiselle winner is a full sister to Idol, who won the G1 Santa Anita Handicap earlier this year, as well as a half-sister to Dr Jack, who also earned black type this season.

In the space of nine months, Marion Ravenwood has become the dam of a pair of graded winners, both by the 2007 and 2008 Horse of the Year, and a multiple stakes-placed racer by Pioneerof the Nile. The three siblings have made their dam a very valuable producer, and the 4-year-old Idol also played a role in Ashview’s acquisition of Marion Ravenwood.

Bryan Lyster said, “We bought Marion Ravenwood carrying the Pioneerof the Nile, and we were impressed with her Curlin foal, which is now Idol. At the time we planned the mating that produced Nest, we were hoping for a yearling who had the look of Idol.”

The partners bought Marion Ravenwood for $400,000 from My Meadowview Farm LLC. The following spring, the mare produced a colt by Pioneerof the Nile, and Ashview sold the resulting foal for $250,000 as a November weanling. Named Dr Jack, the colt has placed third in the Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth and the Bourbon Trail Stakes at Churchill, earning $125,857 from seven races in the last eight months.

Lyster noted that neither Marion Ravenwood nor Callingmissbrown, the dam of Mo Donegal, will have a yearling for next year. That’s rotten luck, but the breeders have been on the receiving end of the good luck, especially this year, and Marion Ravenwood “will be going back to Curlin. We’re hoping to get her in foal early and have been big supporters of Curlin, going back to his first year.”

In fact, Callingmissbrown, the dam of Mo Donegal, is in foal to Curlin for next year, and Lyster said, “Since Mo Donegal is only the mare’s second foal, I’d say the win on Saturday would tilt the scales toward a certain sire” for her mating next year.

A Pulpit mare that the Lysters acquired privately for their breeding partnership, Callingmissbrown “is built like a tank. I wouldn’t call her big in height, 16 hands or so, but she has a tremendous hip.”

Those qualities no doubt helped when Ashview brought the mare’s 2021 yearling, a filly by leading sire Into Mischief, to the Keeneland sales a couple months ago.

By the hot sire but out of a mare who hadn’t produced a black-type winner till last Saturday, Callingmissbrown’s September yearling brought $500,000 from Frankie Brothers, agent, and Litt/Solis. To bring twice what Crawford paid for the mare’s Uncle Mo colt a year before, this filly was quite nice.

Bryan said, “The half to Mo Donegal was so smooth and so athletic in every other way that buyers really wanted her.” Being by Into Mischief put a bull’s eye on the filly among discerning horsemen, and she brought a premium for it.

The good work and careful planning that produced a bonus success for Ashview and Colts Neck on the weekend is set to pay off with long-term dividends over the coming seasons from the siblings to these major winners.

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.