classic sire with a profound ‘impact’

Tags

dee majesty, racing in japan, sunday silence

You might expect that the greatest certainty in the classics for 2016 is that a son of Uncle Mo will win the Kentucky Derby or that a son of Galileo will win the English Derby. But no, the greatest certainty in classic racing is that Shadai’s great son of Sunday Silence, Deep Impact, will have more runners in the Japan Derby than any other sire and that one of them is likely to win the race.

More than any other son of Kentucky Derby winner Sunday Silence (by Halo), classic winner Deep Impact has captured the imagination of the racing public in Japan, both during his excellent racing career and during his near-legendary time at stud.

Dee Majesty led the trifecta of sons by Deep Impact (by Sunday Silence) in the Satsuki Sho

 

Deep Impact was a star on the racetrack, winning 12 of his 14 starts. The winner of his only start at 2, Deep Impact was the best horse in Japan as a 3-year-old and 4-year-old. He won the Japanese Triple Crown, consisting of the Satsuki Sho (2,000 Guineas), Tokyo Yushun (Derby), and Kikuka Sho (St. Leger) in 2005, winning at distances from 2,000 meters to 3,000 meters (approximately 10 to 15 furlongs). Then this outstanding racehorse won four more G1 races as a 4-year-old and retired to stud at Shadai’s prestigious breeding complex on the Northern Island of Hokkaido.

A grand-looking horse by Japan’s favorite stallion, Deep Impact had exceptional opportunities, and he has made the most of them. The stallion ran true to his pedigree, being by classic winner and Horse of the Year Sunday Silence out of a high-class G1 filly in Europe, and Deep Impact stayed as well as that pedigree suggested or a little better. At stud, he has been a force for high class and for stamina, although some of his best offspring have shown top form at distances as short as a mile.

In previous seasons, the now 14-year-old Deep Impact has sired winners of the Japan Cup, the classic events for 3-year-olds, and the primary G1 races for all-ages. With 79 stakes winners so far, the classic winners by Deep Impact include Gentildonna (Japanese Oaks), Kizuna (Japanese Derby), Mikki Queen (Japanese Oaks), and Harp Star (Japanese 1,000 Guineas).

The most recent classic winner by Deep Impact came on April 17, when Dee Majesty won the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2,000 Guineas) by 1 ¼ lengths from a pair of previously unbeaten Deep Impact colts: Makahiki and Satono Diamond. Dee Majesty has won three of five starts and is now unbeaten in two starts in 2016.

Bred in Japan by Masaru Shimada, who also races the colt, Dee Majesty is the first stakes winner out of the unraced Hermes Tiara, a daughter of Florida Derby winner and Preakness Stakes second Brian’s Time (Roberto).

Hermes Tiara is a half-sister to two stakes winners, and their dam Shinko Hermes (Sadler’s Wells) is a full sister to English Oaks winner Imagine and a half-sister to Generous (Caerleon), winner of the English Derby, Irish Derby, and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

This family has been producing top performers around the world, and its classic qualities match well with those of Deep Impact.

Deep Impact is out of the major European winner Wind in Her Hair (Alzao), winner of the G1 Aral-Pokal in Germany and second in the Oaks at Epsom. The mare has produced four stakes winners, including Deep Impact’s full brother Black Tide, who was a G2 stakes winner and is now a sire.

The second dam is the fairish racer Burghclere (Busted), although she is better known as half-sister to Height of Fashion (Bustino), who was highweight 2-year-old filly in England in 1981 and won the 1982 Princess of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket. At stud for Sheikh Hamdan, Height of Fashion produced five stakes winners, most notably Nashwan (Blushing Groom), winner of the 2,000 Guineas, Derby, Eclipse, and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

This is a high-quality classic family, and Deep Impact’s third dam is Highclere, one of two classic winners by Queens Hussar (the other being Brigadier Gerard). Highclere won the 1974 1,000 Guineas and Prix de Diane for Queen Elizabeth II. The stallion’s fifth dam is Hypericum, who won the 1945 Dewhurst and 1946 1,000 Guineas for owner-breeder King George VI.

Hypericum was a daughter of English Derby winner Hyperion, bred and raced by Lord Derby, and the breeding lines of his stud, especially Hyperion, Swynford, his half-brother Chaucer, Phalaris, and the latter’s sons Fairway and Pharos cast an influence that is both broad and deep across the pedigree of Deep Impact.

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love’s abounding for cupid and super sire tapit

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cupid, gladiateur, Oaklawn Park, rebel stakes, swynford, Tapit

Love’s abounding for Cupid (by Tapit) after his sharp-looking victory in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 19. The good-looking gray won his second race and first stakes from four starts and now has earned $587,500.

This effort will be enough to propel Cupid into the talk about the Kentucky Derby, but even coming out of the Bob Baffert training barn, Cupid is clearly less experienced and less tested than many of his competitors, including class leaders Nyquist (Uncle Mo) and Mohaymen (also by Tapit).

In addition, Cupid is yet another May foal in the leading tier of this crop, along with Mohaymen, who was foaled May 2. Cupid was born on May 19 and was bred in Kentucky by JKG Thoroughbreds LLC. Consigned to the Keeneland September sale in 2014 through Van Meter Sales, agent, the colt sold for $900,000 to M.V. Magnier and races for Michael Tabor, Susan Magnier, and Derrick Smith.

In addition to the colt’s good looks and marquee sire, he was a legitimate candidate to return a major sale because he is a half-brother to three other stakes winners: G3 stakes winners Ashley’s Kitty and Heart Ashley (by Tale of the Cat and his son Lion Heart), plus stakes winner Indianapolis (Medaglia d’Oro).

Their dam is the Beau Genius mare Pretty ‘n Smart, who ran third in the G2 Railbird Stakes in 2001. As a racer, Pretty ‘n Smart was considerably better than an empty stall, but as a broodmare, she has been much more. From eight foals to race, all are winners, and half are stakes winners, three at graded level.

That’s what breeders hope for when they bring home a new mare.

Pretty ‘n Smart is a half-sister to multiple G3 winner Hostess (Chester House), whose most impressive race was probably the G3 Glens Falls Handicap, in which she set a new course record for 11 furlongs at Saratoga. Till Pretty ‘n Smart and Hostess showed up, this family had gone quiet for a generation when the third dam, the Secretariat mare Office Affair, had not produced a black-type horse among her seven winners in two hemispheres.

Office Affair’s dam, however, was a much different proposition. She is Mlle. Liebe, a daughter of Buckpasser’s half-brother Bupers (Double Jay), who produced two stakes winners and two daughters who produced stakes winners.

Gladiateur, winner of the English Triple Crown, is one of numerous classic winners in the extended pedigree of 2016 Rebel Stakes winner Cupid.

 

So, Cupid has an interesting family with some good relations. Looking at the big picture of his ancestors, Cupid counts 10 winners of the English Triple Crown in his pedigree and six winners of the American. The English Triple Crown winners in Cupid’s pedigree are West Australian (won in 1853), Gladiateur (1865), Lord Lyon (1866), Ormonde (1886), Isinglass (1893), Flying Fox (1899), Rock Sand (1903), Gay Crusader (1917), Gainsborough (1918), and Nijinsky (1970). The American Triple Crown winners in Cupid’s ancestry are Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Count Fleet (1943), Secretariat (1973), and Seattle Slew (1977).

In working up these snippets of information, I also discovered that there have been at least 18 previous Cupids, and almost certainly others that I didn’t find.

The earliest recorded Cupid was one by the Darley Arabian back in the early 18^th century when the breeders of Thoroughbreds were largely gentlemen looking for sport, and the breed was not a canonized emblem of pedigree and certified lineage.

The Rebel Stakes winner is the youngest Cupid, although there was another one (bay filly by Fastnet Rock) foaled in 2012 in Australia.

Swynford, a superior racehorse in England and a world-class sire for Lord Derby, is the male-line ancestor of Cupid (1961), who was a very good handicapper from 6 to 10 furlongs in the early 1960s.

 

Prior to the current Cupid, one of the most accomplished was a colt by Generous out of the Foolish Pleasure mare Idyllic who won the Ballysax Stakes in 1999 as a 3-year-old and had been third in the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud the previous year. In addition to France and Ireland, Cupid (1996) also raced in Australia and Hong Kong and made 98 starts.

The other highly accomplished Cupid was a Vertex gelding out of Nymph (Sun Again), who was foaled in 1961. A chestnut gelding, Cupid (1961) improved greatly with age and won the Paumonok Handicap at 4, then the San Carlos Handicap at 5, when he also finished second in the Santa Anita Handicap.

As these and other Cupids will teach us, amid the slings and arrows of outrageous racing fortune, love of the horse is the one glorious certainty.

hands off my tapizar: freshman sire is proving quite popular with buyers and consignors at the in-training sales of 2yos

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2yo sales, freshmen sires, Gainesway Farm, obs march sale, tapizar

OBS has turned itself into the national and international sales facility for sales of 2-year-olds in training

 

Anyone who thought he might “steal” a few Tapizars at the sales of 2-year-olds in training was surely disabused of that idea after one of the stallion’s first-crop daughters brought $800,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s auction of juveniles at Gulfstream Park on March .

Even allowing for the fact that the high-priced filly was a lovely individual who worked very well, the offspring of Tapizar appear to be following in the hoofprints of first-crop sires like Uncle Mo and Super Saver the past couple of years. The Tapizars are showing speed, good maturity, good balance, and good minds.

Those are the basics for getting young stock to the sales of 2-year-olds in training. Tapizar, like some of the better freshmen sires before, is getting the basics in a sizable proportion of his young athletes, and the professionals in the selling and buying of racing prospects have noticed.

To do that, Tapizar fills the bill for a variety of reasons. He is a bit bigger than an average Tapit, and one of the knocks on the early Tapits was that they weren’t “big enough” till the lads and lasses by the nation’s leading sire started filling up the winner’s circles around the country.

Nothing succeeds like success.

And Tapizar is one of many young sons of Tapit who are held in high esteem and who are promising good things for the future. In Tapizar, the size requirement that some buyers find irresistible is present, and that is probably due to the young stallion’s broodmare sire Deputy Minister, a champion 2-year-old of great size and class who passed on his scope and athleticism to a large number of his offspring, including champion Dehere and leading sire Silver Deputy.

The key to the Tapizars, however, is that they all seem to have ability. They are showing speed without having to be asked hard, according to consignors, and they appear to be taking their training well. We can surmise that the prospects are bright for these young horses and for their connections.

Racing cannot have too many good ones.

From the sales of horses in training at Fasig-Tipton and at OBS in March, the results for Tapizar look like this:

30 10.0 C Tapizar x Introvert Wavertree Stables, Inc. (Ciaran Dunne), Agent XXVI 185,000 Not Sold
67 10.0 C Tapizar x Lady Malkin Eddie Woods, Agent XLVII Patricia’s Hope LLC 180,000
107 10.1 C Tapizar x Midwife Paul Sharp, Agent V 70,000 Not Sold
188 10.1 C Tapizar x Princess Turandot SAB Sales (Scott A. Bergsrud), Agent II Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners 175,000
290 9.4 C Tapizar x Starlight Lady Halcyon Hammock Farm, Agent I 145,000 Not Sold
401 Out C Tapizar x Ammalu Sequel Bloodstock, Agent Withdrawn Out
435 20.3 C Tapizar x Black Chocolate Thoroughbred Champions Training Center LLC, Agent K.R.A. 150,000
508 Out F Tapizar x Diamondsareforesta Top Line Sales LLC, Agent XI Withdrawn Out
547 Out C Tapizar x Ever Appealing McKathan Bros., Agent V Withdrawn Out
574 10.0 F Tapizar x Foxy Friend Cary Frommer, Agent IV Narvick International 295,000

With seven going through the ring at OBS March, four sold for an average of $200,000, with a median price of $177,500.

Of those who sold at OBS March, the last one through the ring, Hip 574, brought the high price of the Tapizar 2-year-olds. She is a half-sister to Tap for Luck (Tapit), who was second in the G3 Tempted Stakes and third in the G2 Demoiselle. They are out of a half-sister to G3 winner Freefourracing (French Deputy), who was produced by stakes winner Gerri n Jo Go (Top Command), a full sister to major winner Five Star Flight (Haskell, Jersey Derby) and a half-sister to Whatsyourpleasure (What a Pleasure) and Larla (Singh).

We will certainly be seeing more stock by Tapizar at the upcoming sales of 2-year-olds. Barretts has a trio by Tapizar. At the OBS April sale, there are nine juveniles by Tapizar listed in the catalog, as well as an undetermined number at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic and at Barretts May because their catalogs are not yet out.

 

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.

storm cat’s sons are still producing stars in both hemispheres

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giant's causeway, hi happy, pure prize, storm cat, stormy atlantic, tale of the cat

Not so many years ago, the hottest stallion prospects in the world were the sons of leading sire Storm Cat, the blocky dark bay son of Storm Bird (by Northern Dancer) out of Terlingua (Secretariat). Beaten for the 1985 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in the last jump by Tasso, Storm Cat nonetheless became the dominant sire of his generation, and after sons such as Harlan sired major competitors like Menifee and Harlan’s Holiday, the demand for sons of Storm Cat went into the stratosphere.

Today, there are still more than two dozen sons of Storm Cat at stud, and of those, at least six have sired Grade 1 or Group 1 winners this year. Of course, Giant’s Causeway was “the” son of Storm Cat after a terrific racing career, and he has proven the most successful stallion son of his fabled sire.

This year, Giant’s Causeway has G1 winners Brody’s Cause (Breeders’ Futurity) and Carpe Diem (Blue Grass Stakes). The other sons of Storm Cat with 2015 G1 winners are Bluegrass Cat, with Chilean-raced Linda Linda (Alberto Solari Magnasco); the deceased Bernstein, with Tepin (Breeders’ Cup Mile, First Lady Stakes, Just a Game Stakes), certain finalist for the Eclipse as top turf filly; Tale of the Cat, with Stopchargingmaria (Breeders’ Cup Distaff), one of the likely finalists for the Eclipse Award as Older Female; Stormy Atlantic, with the evergreen Stormy Lucy (Matriarch Stakes); and Pure Prize, with unbeaten Hi Happy in Argentina.

Of those, Tale of the Cat and Stormy Atlantic come from the same crop, foaled in 1994, and they are two of the most reliable representatives of Storm Cat for their own individual types. Tale of the Cat was arguably the fastest son of his sire, and Tale of the Cat has sired a high percentage of quick and frequently precocious performers. They tend to be medium-sized and strongly made. Few want to race much farther than a mile, but the stallion’s most famous performer is champion turf horse Gio Ponti, who was best at 10 to 12 furlongs.

Stormy Atlantic, however, is a taller version of the Storm Cat model, significantly influenced by broodmare sire Seattle Slew, and the stallion has found particular success with turf performers, many of whom show great longevity. His best racers include Canadian champion Up With the Birds (G1 Jamaica Handicap) and multiple G1 winner Get Stormy (Woodford Reserve Turf Classic, Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap, Maker’s Mark Mile).

But one interesting facet of Stormy Atlantic’s record as a sire is his versatility. In addition to those top performers able to succeed going two turns, the stallion sires others who have high speed and precocity and who show top-level form on dirt. Among these, the best was surely Stormello, winner of the Hollywood Futurity and the Norfolk Stakes. Other good juveniles include She Says It Best (Alcibiades Stakes) and Wired Bryan (Sanford Stakes).

The sire of 97 stakes winners, Stormy Atlantic comes from one of the most distinguished American female families, that of Rough Shod (Gold Bridge). The distinguished producer is the fourth dam of Stormy Atlantic, coming through the mare’s champion daughter Moccasin (Nantallah). Moccasin produced seven stakes winners from nine foals in her time at stud, and one of those was Flippers, who is the second dam of Stormy Atlantic.

A daughter of Belmont Stakes winner Coastal (Majestic Prince), Flippers was a good racer but lankier than her dam. Possessing less speed than champion juvenile Moccasin, Flippers was bred to champion juvenile (and Triple Crown winner) Seattle Slew. That mating produced the mare’s best performer, stakes winner Hail Atlantis, who is the dam of Stormy Atlantic.

The stallion has certainly held up the best traditions of his heritage, and he will cross the threshold of 100 stakes winners in the near future.

Another son of Storm Cat from an exceptional female family, Pure Prize is out of champion Heavenly Prize (Seeking the Gold) and won the G2 Kentucky Cup Classic. Sent to stud, the big chestnut became a racing man’s star stallion, getting solid performers at a variety of distances and surfaces. G1 winner Pure Clan was probably the stallion’s best-known performer in the States.

In South America, Pure Prize has found even greater acceptance and success. This year, he has the unbeaten Hi Happy, top 3-year-old colt in Argentina and pro-tem Horse of the Year after a powerful victory in the G1 Carlos Pellegini at San Isidro on Dec. 12.

The winner of four G1 races from six starts to date, Hi Happy won the Pellegrini by a length and a half from the 3-year-old Include colt Don Inc, with the nearest of their older competition six lengths farther back.

Bred and raced by Haras La Providencia, Hi Happy is a full brother to Hinz, a G1 winner in Chile. They are out of the French Deputy mare Historia, and their third dam is the Forli mare Islands, who is out of stakes winner Grand Luxe, by Sir Ivor out of Alabama Stakes winner Fanfreluche (Northern Dancer).

Pure Prize stands solely in Argentina, where he is based at Haras Carampangue, near San Antonio de Areco.

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.

 

a.p. indy’s tapestry of stakes winners creates a lasting pattern

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a.p. indy, lane's end farm, Seattle Slew, stallion success

While doing some work in a stall at Lane’s End Farm, the new groom thought he heard a deep rumble coming from a nearby stall. After the third occurrence, he stuck his head out, looked up and down the broad aisle.

A fellow stallion groom was sweeping an errant piece of straw back into a stall, and the new guy asked, “Did you hear anything?”

“Like what?”

“Like that,” as another rumble came down their way.

“Oh, he’s just reading the race results from the weekend,” said the experienced groom.

“Who’s reading, and what’s so funny?”

“The big horse is having a good time with his reading material this morning…”

“What you mean reading. Horses don’t read.”

The experienced groom sighed, “That’s A.P. Indy down there, and if he takes a notion to fly, you better start wearing a muck bucket on your head.”

What’s more, A.P. Indy had plenty to chuckle about after this weekend’s racing.

On Nov. 28 at Aqueduct, A.P. Indy’s grandson Tapit solidified his lead as the top sire in the country with the victories of Tonalist (Belmont Stakes, Jockey Club Gold Cup) in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile and of the unbeaten Mohaymen (Nashua Stakes) in the G2 Remsen. Then in Florida, Tapit’s juvenile son Rafting won the Smooth Air Stakes at Gulfstream West (nee Calder).

A.P. Indy grandson Sky Mesa sired a first-time stakes winner, the 2-year-old Family Meeting, in the G3 Jimmy Durante Stakes at Del Mar.

Sons Malibu Moon, Bernardini, and Mineshaft also had graded stakes winners. At Churchill Downs on the 28^th, Malibu Moon’s daughter Carina Mia was a four and a quarter length winner of the G2 Golden Rod. The same afternoon at Aqueduct, Bernardini’s daughter Lewis Bay came home a winner in the G2 Demoiselle Stakes. Those victories were the initial stakes and graded stakes successes for those promising young athletes.

Not so with Mineshaft’s contribution to the roll of success for the A.P. Indy crowd. Established performer Effinex won the G1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and he defeated last year’s winner of the Clark, Hoppertunity, by three-quarters of a length.

And finally (small drum roll here, please), A.P. Indy himself sired the winner of the G2 Hawthorne Gold Cup on Nov. 28.

That 4-year-old colt is named Commissioner, and he is perhaps best remembered for a heroic front-running effort in the 2014 Belmont Stakes, going down in the shadow of the wire to Tonalist. A notably good prospect as he progressed toward the classics last season, Commissioner went out a good winner and will enter stud next season at WinStar Farm for $7,500 live foal.

Commissioner is one of two colts from A.P. Indy’s last crop who will enter stud in 2016. The more heralded of the pair is Honor Code, a striking near-black animal who won the Metropolitan Handicap and Whitney Stakes this season. A colt who has drawn plenty of attention since the start of his racing career, Honor Code will enter stud alongside his greatly honored and pensioned sire at Lane’s End. That farm also stands Horse of the Year Mineshaft.

Spendthrift has Malibu Moon; Darley has Bernardini; Three Chimneys has Sky Mesa; and Gainesway has Tapit. So these and other important sons and grandsons are well-dispersed among the leading stallion farms in the Bluegrass.

Commissioner makes three sons of A.P. Indy for WinStar, which also stands leading freshman sire Congrats and G1 Florida Derby winner Take Charge Indy. The latter will have his first yearlings in 2016 and has bred 296 mares in his first two seasons at stud.

The popularity of Congrats and Take Charge Indy with breeders should have a positive effect on Commissioner, who comes from a female family known for quickness and good looks.

The colt’s first three dams are all stakes winners, and Commissioner’s dam, the Touch Gold mare Flaming Heart, has produced two stakes winners. Commissioner earned nearly $1 million, and his stakes-winning half-brother Laugh Track (by Distorted Humor), earned $598,014 and finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

This family contributes its share of quality and strong physical appeal, and Commissioner shows their influence, plus the trademark A.P. Indy look: great length of rein, deep shoulder, width and length through the body, plus a good hip. The A.P. Indys tend to look like classic horses, with plenty of leg, and the best of them have plenty of speed to go with their stamina.

A.P. Indy and his sire, Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, pulled the Bold Ruler – Nasrullah line back to the peak of importance as a source of classic prospects, and the classic influence of these horses is a tale with stories just waiting to unfold.

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

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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.

the ‘pharoah effect’ takes a hold on the public and breeders

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american pharoah, cairo prince, empire maker, pioneerof the nile, the pharoah effect

As the 2015 Triple Crown winner, Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, and sports legend, American Pharoah is a mortal lock for Horse of the Year, etc. Now transferred to his home at Ashford Stud outside Versailles, Ky., the big bay is spending a lot of his time standing in two or three feet of fresh oat straw.

In addition, American Pharoah is available for shows to horse people and breeders twice a day at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., when he entertains his public with 15 minutes of posing and looking majestic. During the ongoing Keeneland November sale, a steady stream of fans and avid breeders have been keeping the staff at Ashford busy.

I cannot tell you how many photos of the champion have been taken in the last year, but the volume has to be well into the hundreds of thousands.

The popularity and star power of American Pharoah have had an illuminating effect on the sport, putting it into venues that cover racing only infrequently, when the public’s excitement reminds those publications and media outlets that the easiest way to make money is to give readers and viewers what they want.

In addition to giving our favorite sport a memorable bump in popularity, American Pharoah has been raising the profile of his entire male line. The Triple Crown winner’s sire, Pioneerof the Nile, will stand for $125,000 in 2016, more than double the stallion’s stud fee of 2015, and that would not have happened without American Pharoah.

It would not, however, be fair to say that Pioneerof the Nile is just riding the coattails of his famous son. The striking son of Empire Maker was a top racehorse, winning twice at the top level, and had already elevated his stud fee with the performance of his first crop of racers, which include graded stakes winners Midnight Warrior (Del Mar Derby), Jojo Warrior (Summertime Oaks), Vinceremos (Sam Davis Stakes), and Cairo Prince (Holy Bull Stakes and Nashua Stakes).

The latter, in particular, who entered stud in 2015 at Airdrie Stud, is set to prosper from some of the reflected glory attending to the Triple Crown winner. A striking horse and a high-class prospect for the 2014 classics, Cairo Prince has several things in common with American Pharoah. Chiefly, Cairo Prince was richly talented, with great speed that allowed him to roll a half-mile in :45.76 in the process of winning his début at six furlongs.

Like the other members of this male line, Cairo Prince also stayed two turns well, winning the two stakes above and racing a smashing second to Honor Code (by A.P. Indy) in the Remsen. With the increasingly high profile enjoyed by his sire and American Pharoah, Cairo Prince will get greater attention from breeders, especially since he is now the “value horse” among his near male relatives.

Perhaps the most exciting change related to the “Pharoah Effect” was the repatriation of grandsire Empire Maker (Unbridled). The Belmont Stakes winner was the best racing son of his famous dam Toussaud (dam of four G1 winners) and was one of the trio of classic winners by his Kentucky Derby-winning sire Unbridled.

There was some surprise when the stallion was sold to the Japan Bloodstock Breeders Association, but there may have been even more when Empire Maker was purchased for return to the States by Haras Don Alberto and Gainesway Farm.

A grand-looking stallion with proven ability to get big-race winners and now to sire important stallions, Empire Maker will again be available to American breeders for the 2016 season, when his stud fee will be $100,000 at Gainesway.

Sure to be one of the most popular stallions of 2016, Empire Maker has sired 11 G1 winners, all in the U.S., among his 52 stakes winners to date. The best known of them is undoubtedly champion racemare Royal Delta, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff twice and earner of $4.8 million.

Ironically, Empire Maker has only two colts among his winners at the top level: Pioneerof the Nile and Bodemeister. The latter had not been playing second fiddle to “Pioneer” before American Pharoah came on the scene because Bodemeister’s seasons and young stock have been highly sought. Bodemeister’s first crop will race in 2016 and will be watched with anticipation to see if they show aptitude similar to the early racers by Pioneerof the Nile.

The latter, however, is the star today. As famous as American Pharoah is, the stallion responsible for him is even more revered by breeders, especially because he is a clear classic influence in a time when that is sorely needed.