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?

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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.

tapit adds a classic-winning colt to his accomplishments after his improving son tonalist wins the belmont stakes

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Belmont Stakes, robert 'shel' evans, Tapit, tonalist

In this most memorable of years for leading sire Tapit, the gray son of Pulpit gained further accolades on Saturday when his lightly raced son Tonalist won the classic Belmont Stakes at a mile and a half. Getting the lead in the shadow of the wire, Tonalist pipped his kinsman Commissioner (by A.P. Indy) in the Grade 1 stakes.

Both this Belmont Stakes and this Triple Crown series have served to emphasize that A.P. Indy continues to exert the utmost influence on the classic Thoroughbred in North America. The Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner California Chrome is by the Pulpit stallion Lucky Pulpit, and Tapit is Pulpit’s best son at stud. In the Kentucky Derby, Commanding Curve (by A.P. Indy’s son Master Command) was second, and Commissioner was second in the Belmont.

Given the consistency of his produce and continuing rise in reputation, Tapit is well-nigh staring his glorious grandsire in the eye as a sire of the absolute first rank. The 13-year-old stands at Gainesway Farm outside Lexington for a fee of $150,000, which is 10 times the fee the Wood Memorial winner commanded when he went to stud in the balmy days of bloodstock breeding in 2005.

Tapit, like his sire and grandsire, got winners from the start, and Tapit’s first crop included champion juvenile filly Stardom Bound.

Few stallions, even very good stallions, become sires of consequence who will last and spread their influence through the years and generations. But A.P. Indy rose to that level. His first crop included Blue Grass Stakes winner Pulpit, who ran fourth in the Kentucky Derby, and subsequent crops included Horse of the Year Mineshaft and Preakness winner Bernardini, and Belmont Stakes winner Rags to Riches.

With these and other important sons and daughters, A.P. Indy became the most important American classic sire, and his sons and grandsons continue to prove the point.

That was not a given when he went to stud. Yes, A.P. Indy was a marvelously pedigreed horse. A son of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, A.P. Indy was the highest-priced yearling of his crop and was out of the wonderful Secretariat mare Weekend Surprise. A.P. Indy won the Belmont Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Classic, then was elected Horse of the Year. But lots of very nice racehorses do not consistently transmit their own excellence.

A.P. Indy did, and one of those who has taken the step up and more is his grandson Tapit. A really good racehorse who probably did not show the limits of his potential, Tapit is a leading sire who has shown the dimensions of his importance at stud. His stock run on all surfaces, make good 2-year-olds who mature to become good classic stock, and they have the scope and potential to become top older horses too. Typically, the Tapits prefer a mile or more, with a few, like Tonalist, showing the scope to rise in class as the races get longer.

A big colt who possesses a great length of stride, Tonalist ran second in his début behind another son of Tapit, Matterhorn, who was eighth in the Belmont Stakes. Tonalist won his second start, and then in his 3-year-old début, he was second again to another son of Tapit. This time is was Constitution, who went on to win the G1 Florida Derby before going to the sidelines.

Clearly, Tonalist is not as precocious as his sire, who was unbeaten at 2, and is more like his broodmare sire, Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Pleasant Colony, in size and in his pattern of maturation.

Tonalist was bred in Kentucky by Woodslane Farm. The farm is located in Virginia and is owned by Rene and Lauren Woolcott, who purchased the colt’s dam Settling Mist for $800,000 in foal to Seeking the Gold at the 2007 Keeneland November sale. Patrick Lawley-Wakelin was their representative at the auction and signed for the mare, who was carrying her third foal at the time.

Tonalist is the mare’s fifth foal and first stakes winner. The 17-hand colt became a stakes winner in his first attempt, the Peter Pan Stakes in May, which was his prep for the Belmont, and my column on that race offers further information about Tonalist’s illustrious female family.

The Woolcotts sent Tonalist through the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale, where he was bought back at $195,000. Owner Robert “Shel” Evans acquired the colt privately shortly afterward.

*The preceding post was first published earlier this week at Paulick Report.

curlin gets classic winner in first crop with belmont stakes winner palace malice

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2yo pinhooking, Belmont Stakes, classic winners, curlin, lane's end farm, mike ryan, niall brennan, palace malice, stallion success, will farish

The following post first appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

The first two classics of the Triple Crown were won by sons of established stallions whose success at this level was actually a garnish to their credentials as sires of great significance in the breed today.

In contrast, the victory of Palace Malice in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes means all the world to the first-crop sire Curlin. A son of the Mr. Prospector stallion Smart Strike, Curlin is a big horse who tends to get stock with size and mass. They also seem to be horses that want time and some distance to show their best form, which is typical of both the progeny of Smart Strike and that stallion’s other champion son, English Channel, who got a winner of the Queen’s Plate in Canada last year from his first crop to race.

Curlin, Smart Strike, and English Channel all stand at Lane’s End Farm outside Versailles, Ky.

Bred in Kentucky by Will Farish, Palace Malice is out of the stakes-winning Royal Anthem mare Palace Rumor. The bay son of Curlin is the seventh winner of the Belmont Stakes sold through Farish’s Lane’s End Farm sales consignments. The others are Bet Twice, A.P. Indy, Lemon Drop Kid, Thunder Gulch, Jazil, and Rags to Riches. Of those, the first three went to stud at Lane’s End, where A.P. Indy has proven to be a sire of great and lasting importance to the breed.

The Belmont Stakes winner is the first graded stakes winner for his sire and only the third stakes winner from the stallion’s runners to date. That the colt has improved consistently over the past 10 months of racing bodes well for his sire’s prospects for the future, however, and suggests that Curlin, a force of importance in racing around two turns, may supply more performers with distance capacity.

That is an important subset of ability in American racing, where speed rules even more than in most environments of the sport.

And there is no doubt that Palace Malice has speed. The colt came enticingly close to winning the G1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, and he was the unbridled terror who led the Kentucky Derby through the withering fractions that doomed himself and his near competitors as they attempted 10 furlongs for the first time.

Oxbow was one of those cooked in the Derby cauldron, but he bounced back well and won the Preakness over Derby winner Orb and others. Then Palace Malice, with a five-week layoff after the Derby, outfinished both the earlier classic winners through the stretch of the Belmont.

The capacity to stretch out in distance, to carry speed around two turns, and to continue maturing at a rate that maintains a horse at a high rank among his peers are qualities that help to define the premium athletes in each crop, and the first three finishers in the Belmont all hold promise of greater things to come through the rest of the year.

From the first crop of two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, Palace Malice is maturing in a pattern similar to that of his famous sire. Curlin was a horse of obvious talent, gifted with speed and impressive strength. In addition to his innate ability, the big chestnut progressed dramatically through the spring of his 3-year-old season, going from maiden winner to classic winner in five months.

A good third in the 2007 Kentucky Derby, Curlin came on after that challenging effort to edge Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense in the Preakness. That set the stage for the Belmont, where Curlin progressed again, only to find the newcomer, a filly named Rags to Riches, the narrow victor in the longest classic.

Rags to Riches was the first filly to win the Belmont in 102 years, and she was trained by Todd Pletcher, who also saddled Saturday’s classic winner for Dogwood Stable.

In addition to his Preakness success, Curlin continued to progress throughout that year and the next, winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic at 3 to become Horse of the Year and divisional champion, honors that he earned again the following season.

After winning the Preakness, Dubai World Cup, Woodward, Stephen Foster, and two runnings of the Jockey Club Gold Cup, the robust, rangy chestnut went to stud as a thoroughly proven racehorse who had won 11 of 16 races in two seasons, including seven G1s, and had earned $10,501,800. In type, Curlin resembles his broodmare sire, Deputy Minister, more than his sire Smart Strike or male-line grandsire Mr. Prospector.

As a top stallion prospect of the crop entering stud in 2009, Curlin stood for $65,000 live foal as the breeding and commercial sales world crumbled around breeders and stallion owners internationally.

As a result, yearlings at the sales frequently sold for less than the stud fee they were bred on. That was the case with last year’s champion 3-year-old colt, I’ll Have Another. The son of the Three Chimneys stallion Flower Alley sold for $11,000 as a yearling after his breeder Harvey Clark had paid $25,000 to breed the mare to the stallion and bring up the young animal to the September sale.

At the same sale a year later, Palace Malice brought only $25,000. That was a massive loss on stud fee and the other costs associated with breeding and raising a young Thoroughbred. But that is fairly typical for the results that Thoroughbred breeders have found in the marketplace through the last several years.

The buyer at the September sale was 2-year-old pinhooker Niall Brennan, who consigned Palace Malice at the 2012 Keeneland April auction of juveniles in training. Brennan said, “Mike Ryan and I picked Palace Malice out for our pinhooking partnership. We both look at all the yearlings and make short lists, and he was one both of us liked because he looked like a really good Smart Strike, smooth and well-grown for a May foal.”

Brennan explained part of the reason behind the low price for such a good-looking prospect. He said, “He had a chip in a hind ankle, and that probably turned some people away, but we never took it out.”

Another knock on the Belmont winner as a yearling was that he was a May foal. Many buyers will not buy a young horse born in May, although the evidence is strong that the birth date doesn’t matter.

Neither the birth date nor the old vet issue was a bother to veteran horseman Cot Campbell, who bought the colt for his Dogwood Stable partnership for $200,000 and now has a classic winner on his hands with earnings of $871,135.

Once again, it appears Campbell has caught lightning in a bottle.

union rags continues a family tradition with belmont success

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Belmont Stakes, classic breeding, dixie union, lane's end, nijinsky, phyllis wyeth, Seattle Slew, secretariat, Triple Crown, union rags

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

The game victory by Union Rags in Saturday’s Grade 1 Belmont Stakes was also a triumph for the classic approach: to breeding, to pedigree, to training, and to character. In the end, Union Rags wanted the victory more, and he earned it.

And as some very knowledgeable breeders have told me, when looking down that long, long stretch at Belmont Park (or Churchill Downs, for that matter), it’s always a good thing for a racehorse to have some serious classic ancestors to help get him home.

Not surprisingly, then, the pedigree of Union Rags is littered with classic winners, including Northern Dancer, Native Dancer, Nashua, Bold Ruler, and Hyperion, as well as several Triple Crown winners. Two of the three last American Triple Crown winners, Secretariat and Seattle Slew, are in the colt’s fourth generation.

They descend through Secretariat’s stakes-winning daughter Secrettame, dam of Gone West, who is the broodmare sire of Union Rags, and through Seattle Slew’s champion son Capote, who is the broodmare sire of Dixie Union, the sire of the Belmont Stakes winner.

Now a G1 winner at 2 (Champagne) and a classic winner at 3, Union Rags is the most acclaimed son of Dixie Union, who spent nearly all of his stud career at Lane’s End Farm (he entered stud at the Diamond A Farm of his owner, Gerald Ford). The stallion’s classic success this year has a bittersweet quality because Dixie Union was euthanized on July 14, 2010, due to a “deteriorating neurologic problem.”

Winner of the G1 Haskell and Malibu at 3, Dixie Union was arguably the most talented son of his sire, the Northern Dancer horse Dixieland Band, who was central to the transformation of Lane’s End into a powerhouse operation for developing and standing stallions. Logically, then, the farm would have been highly motivated to stand a very good son of Dixieland Band, and Dixie Union had the further recommendations of being uncommonly good-looking, strong, correct, and fast.

Dixie Union had shown the level of his speed by maturing early enough at 2 to win the Hollywood Juvenile Championship and then carried his speed to win the Norfolk Stakes later that season.

The sire passed on his early maturity and high class to Union Rags, who won his début going five furlongs last July, then followed up with a victory in the Saratoga Special and the Champagne Stakes. Union Rags also resembles his sire in being very strong and very robustly made.

The physical stoutness derives from both sides of the Belmont winner’s pedigree. Although his broodmare sire Gone West was more medium-sized, he sometimes sired quite large foals, and the second dam of Union Rags is the rugged distance-racing mare Terpsichorist, who is a daughter of English Triple Crown winner Nijinsky.

The latter was a magnificently muscled beast who was able to defeat the fastest juveniles in sprints, then developed into a classic winner able to crush his competition from a mile to more than a mile and three-quarters.

That versatility seems part of the reason that Union Rags has found success in five of his eight races, along with his courage and athleticism.

A homebred for Phyllis Wyeth’s Chadds Ford Stable who was sold, then repurchased, Union Rags has proven a landmark in a family that has rewarded Wyeth’s family over the generations.

At the Hickory Tree Farm of Wyeth’s parents, James and Alice Mills, they raised some fine Thoroughbreds, including Terpsichorist and her highly regarded full brother, Gorytus. Both were out of the 1,000 Guineas winner Glad Rags, whom Mrs. Mills had purchased and then raced with great success.

In fact, Glad Rags became one of the foundation mares of the Hickory Tree program, and the stable also raced such outstanding horses as Gone West and champion juvenile Devil’s Bag.

Mrs. Mills bred both Terpsichorist and her daughter Tempo, who is the dam of Union Rags. As the last mare out of her mother’s grand chestnut daughter of Nijinsky, Tempo held a special significance for Wyeth, who had hoped that Union Rags would be a filly when he was foaled in Kentucky more than three years ago at the Royal Oak Farm of Braxton and Damian Lynch.

Although Union Rags was not the hoped-for filly, he has proven a splendid colt in physique and racing class.

In generosity of spirit and in his willingness to keep on trying, Union Rags has emulated the qualities of his owner-breeder. She pensioned the colt’s dam after his birth because the mare had had a difficult foaling in a previous year, and she did not wish to further risk the mare’s health and well-being.

Blessed by that concern for her animal’s welfare, Wyeth has been richly rewarded as her pride and joy rallied down the stretch at Belmont to add another classic to a rich family tradition.

i’ll have another: what might have been

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arch's gal edith, Belmont Stakes, Brookdale Farm, flower alley, freddie seitz, harvey clarke, i'll have another, steve shahinian, Triple Crown

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report. Today, trainer Doug O’Neill announced that I’ll Have Another will not race in the Belmont Stakes due to a tendon problem.

The odds are long against breeding a horse who wins the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, then gets to race for the Triple Crown. But Harvey Clarke has bucked the odds. He bred the talented chestnut colt I’ll Have Another, who will take the Test of the Champion on Saturday in an attempt to become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978.

As the flags in the Belmont Park infield pop in the wind, as the O’Neill brothers’ hearts bang in their chests with excitement, and as jockey Mario Gutierrez listens to his horse among the thundering multitudes when I’ll Have Another heads down the stretch of the Belmont Stakes, their chance of a lifetime might never have existed if Clarke and others had made different decisions at any point along the process in producing the classic winner.

Like many other Thoroughbred breeders, Clarke is a successful businessman, and he uses seasoned advisers to help direct his horse breeding and racing stable. Clarke has Steve Shahinian to select racing stock for him and to help decide which of those Clarke breeds should be sold as surplus to the stable.

So Shahinian recommended that the breeder sell the immature-looking I’ll Have Another as a yearling. The other side of that coin is that Shahinian also had urged Clarke to buy the colt’s dam, the Arch mare Arch’s Gal Edith, for $80,000 at the OBS March sale of 2-year-olds in training in 2004.

The filly had ability and was unbeaten in a single start.

Shahinian said, “The fillies out of the racing stable are the ones that become broodmares if we think there’s anything there to work with. We retired Arch’s Gal Edith to stud because she was a really promising racehorse who fit our program. From mischance, she did not get to express what we thought she had the ability to do, but there was some genuine talent that the trainer, Kiaran McLaughlin, felt sure went untapped.

“Arch’s Gal Edith was always robust but more of a linebacker than an offensive lineman. She was strong in the same way that her son Those Wer the Days (by Thunder Gulch) is strong. But she also had enough leg and bone under her to do what she needed to do.

“One of the negatives with her is that she put a lot into her training. You never asked her to do anything and she wasn’t ready to do it. She was very forward physically and mentally in her attitude toward training and racing. She was also an impressive mover for a filly who wasn’t really big.”

[When I saw the mare at Brookdale Farm near Versailles, Ky., two weeks ago, I put her at 15.3 hands or just a touch more.]

She is big enough, strong enough, and appeared to have talent enough to be quite a good horse. It’s all the more disappointing that she didn’t get to show it.

Had Clarke let his disappointment get the better of him and sold Arch’s Gal Edith, she might have bred a classic winner from somebody else. Or not at all.

Clarke has plenty of experience in racing, however, and he plays the game for the long term. As a result, he held onto the mare and bred her to good horses. Her third mate was Travers winner Flower Alley (Distorted Humor), who was suggested to Clarke by Freddie Seitz of Brookdale Farm, where Clarke keeps Arch’s Gal Edith and her foals.

Freddie Seitz wears different hats at different times of the year at Brookdale, but in advising Clarke about his mares, Seitz suggested Flower Alley because “of really liking him as a racehorse. He had speed and carried it in his Travers victory and in the Breeders’ Cup to be second. He seemed like a typical Distorted Humor, who puts speed into his offspring but also gets a lot who can carry it. That’s why I liked Flower Alley as a stallion prospect, and we tried to get him as a stallion for Brookdale. That did not happen, but we liked him, used him, and bred his stakes winner Bouquet Booth.”

Clarke agreed, and the mating produced I’ll Have Another, by far the best offspring of his sire and the leading colt of 2012.

But nobody knew what destiny awaited the chestnut son of Arch’s Gal Edith when he was a young colt frolicking in the fields of Brookdale.

As Brookdale’s yearling manager, Seitz was very familiar with the colt and said that I’ll Have Another was the “most middle-of-the-road type yearling you could have. He was medium-sized, no real issues, very mellow personality. He was a good mover and walker, but we have a lot of nice movers who don’t go on to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. Compared to how immature he had been, he looked like a different horse by sales time, had improved from what he had been earlier in prep, but still he wasn’t the type who really wowed buyers in September.”

Bought for a song ($11,000) in September, I’ll Have Another was much stronger when presented for resale at the OBS April last year. But even there, the quick chestnut found few friends in the buying public aside from Dennis O’Neill, who picked him up at $35,000 for the account of Paul Reddam.

The karmic connections of so many people who made so many independent decisions will converge on the racetrack at Belmont Park this Saturday afternoon. As tempting as it might be for us to wonder “what if?” there is every reason to believe that changing the steps along this stairway to stardom would mean that Bodemeister would be racing for the Triple Crown instead.

belmont stakes a toast to classic breeders

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age of dams, Belmont Stakes, bill casner, brandywine farm, breeding for type, champagne d'oro, champagne glow, chris elia, el corredor, foxfield, jim robinson, liberation farm, medaglia d'oro, older mares as producers, oratis thoroughbreds, pam robinson, physique in the evaluation of athletes, raising classic racehorses, Rob Whiteley, roman ruler, ruler on ice, saratoga six, silvery swan, sociable duck, susan casner

The following post first appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

As the chestnut gelding Ruler On Ice splashed to victory in the Belmont Stakes, he showcased the accomplishments of Liberation Farm and Brandywine Farm, who bred, raised, and sold the son of Roman Ruler and Champagne Glow to owners George and Lori Hall.

Rob Whiteley breeds horses in the name of Liberation Farm, and Jim and Pam Robinson breed in the name of their Brandywine Farm. In addition to being the co-breeder of this year’s Belmont Stakes winner, Whiteley also is co-breeder of the sire of Ruler On Ice and planned the mating that produced Silvery Swan, the dam of Roman Ruler and his G1-winning half-brother El Corredor.

Whiteley bought the dam of Silvery Swan, the Quack mare Sociable Duck, for Carl Icahn’s Foxfield at the beginning of Whiteley’s tenure as director of operations for that successful commercial breeding program. Whiteley recalled: “Some of Carl’s friends at the time gave me flack for buying a short-legged mare by Quack for Foxfield. But it goes to show the quality of her gene pool, and this business shouldn’t always be about show horses but about racehorses.”

Racehorses are what Whiteley has specialized in during his time with Foxfield and then under his own banner after Icahn wrapped up his profitable involvement in the business.

In addition to Sociable Duck, who produced two stakes winners, and her daughter Silvery Swan, who has produced three, including the Grade 1-winning half-brothers El Corredor and Roman Ruler, Whiteley selected a deep pool of quality in the Saratoga Six mare Champagne Glow. Along with the Belmont Stakes winner, Champagne Glow is also the dam of last year’s G1 Acorn and Test winner Champagne d’Oro (by Medaglia d’Oro) and stakes-placed Lost on Champagne (Orientate).

Whiteley said, “I used to love watching Champagne Glow race [a stakes winner who also ran second in the G1 Frizette], and I’ve always been partial to Saratoga Six mares. I knew that Wayne Lukas said [her G1-winning half-brother] Grand Canyon had immense talent, as did any of us who saw the colt run. And when she became available at the sale, my heart surgeon Chris Elia of Oratis Thoroughbreds and I were looking to get a couple of mares together, and we were able to buy her for our final bid of $70,000 in foal to Favorite Trick.”

That foal and the mare’s next two were no better than useful at the track, but the mare’s last three of racing age are the three stakes horses mentioned above. Whiteley said, “Champagne Glow is finally able to express herself and her potential as a broodmare because it took me a while to find the right physical mating for her. So I blame myself that some of her earlier foals did not go as well as the last few. It’s very satisfying that I haven’t been getting in her way lately.

“Champagne Glow herself is a very well-made and athletic individual, but in a stallion she needs a little more size and scope than what I was initially giving her. Medaglia d’Oro and Roman Ruler meet my physical specifications and gave her foals that added dimension.”

The 23-year-old broodmare’s current yearling is a filly by AP Warrior that Liberation and Brandywine sold last year at the Keeneland November sale for $130,000, the highest price for a weanling or yearling by the sire last year.

An endorsement of the now yearling’s qualities is that horseman Bill Casner bought the filly for his wife Susan. Whiteley said, “Bill told me he went to Keeneland to find the loveliest filly in the sale to buy for his wife, and he just sent me a photo of the filly being kissed and fed peppermints by Susan.”

The breeders haven’t forgotten about Champagne Glow either. Whiteley explained that “Brandywine became the co-owner with me because I always strive to do right by my older mares, and I thought they might benefit from an ownership interest in return for retiring her at their farm after her reproductive years are over. Now I would guess they are even more thrilled to do so.”

Pam Robinson of Brandywine Farm said, “Champagne Glow is a grand mare who doesn’t look her age, and her son was always an athletic colt. From a very young age, he was always ready to do something, very full of himself. Our staff didn’t have any trouble with him, but he was good-sized, strong, and active. And all the way through his early growth and later preparation for the sales, he looked the part of a very well-balanced, athletic colt who would have a future as a racehorse.”

Because Whiteley and the Robinsons were so taken with Ruler On Ice as a foal, they decided to breed Champagne Glow back to Roman Ruler this year, hoping to get lucky again. Following her most recent cover to the stallion, the owners are counting days to see whether their mare is back in foal for 2012.

They obviously hope so, and Whiteley, in particular, likes this mating. He said, “Breeding Mr. P on top of Silvery Swan is the magic in this pedigree. The females are wonderful racehorses and producers, and the pedigree is balanced with superior colts. Champagne Glow’s latter foals are testimony to her quality and genetic strength showing through near the end of her reproductive career. If Ruler On Ice isn’t the last nail in the coffin of the long-standing and silly myth that older mares can’t produce top racehorses, I give up.”

Among other things, the classic winner is the 15th Grade 1 stakes winner that Whiteley has bred under Liberation Farm or planned for Foxfield over the past two decades, along with more than 150 stakes horses. Now that is a ruler on the turf.

the excellence of the triple crown

Tags

animal kingdom, athletes as heroes, Belmont Stakes, difficulty of winning the triple crown, equine superstars, Kentucky Derby, popular culture and sports, preakness stakes, shackleford, Triple Crown

Some lament the infrequency of Triple Crown winners; others suggest the historic series should be changed so that it is easier to win.

But I praise the difficulty of the Triple Crown.

Winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes requires a horse of immense talent, versatility, courage, and toughness. The races come too early for some (Kelso), too late for others (Uncle Mo?), and at distances incompatible with the temper of the times. That doesn’t matter.

If the Triple Crown was easy, it wouldn’t be worth winning.

The infrequency of Triple Crown winners makes them more astonishing, more admirable, and more cherished. When they come, the Triple Crown winners sweep the general public into the spectacle of racing. Their daring and dominance bridge the gap between fans who follow the sport every week of every year and those who tune in for a few hours annually with the curiosity of those who watch the Olympics for superstar gold medal winners.

For truly, Triple Crown winners are the equine equivalent of the transcendent human athletes like Mark Spitz or Muhammad Ali.

They become more than sports stars. They become icons of popular culture, in part because there is something innocent and inspiring in their excellence. It isn’t of their doing; it is of their essence.

And one of the important things the Triple Crown also does is to mark a line of division between the few supremely talented and the relatively numerous very good horses who compete for the highest accolade in sports.

Today at Pimlico, we found out some important things about both Shackleford, who is as good and game as he is handsome, and about Animal Kingdom, who is without any doubt a very good colt. I’d love to have a barn full of them, or even one, wouldn’t you? They are talented racers, and through their efforts, the Preakness proved an exciting race, fairly run and gamely fought.

But the line demarcation was there too.

alternation flies high in peter pan

Tags

alternate, alternation, belmont park, Belmont Stakes, breeding to race, classic breeding, clifford barry, distorted humor, josephine abercrombie, Kentucky Derby, maria's mon, monarchos, nijinsky, peaks and valleys, peter pan stakes, pin oak stud, Seattle Slew, sky classic, strike a balance, super saver

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

The Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont has traditionally been an important prep for the Belmont Stakes, and this year’s winner, the highly regarded colt Alternation, may take a role in the classic. If so, the colt would present an opportunity for his owner-breeder, Josephine Abercrombie’s Pin Oak Stud, to win its first classic.

Pin Oak’s general manager Clifford Barry sounded conservative about that option. He said, “Ms. Abercrombie is very patient, doesn’t push them, and the classic races are early enough that the horses have to jump through a lot of hoops to get to those races. She likes them to have long careers if they can.

“She will tell you, ‘I’m in this game to race them.’ She loves breeding her horses and taking them to the races. That makes it all the more gratifying to have one like Alternation turn up with the potential to be a nice runner.”

Whether in the classics or not, the prospects for the first two home in Saturday’s renewal of the Grade 2 Peter Pan are bright. They are lightly raced and improving colts, and Alternation won by a head from favored Adios Charlie (by Indian Charlie).

Alternation is a powerfully made dark bay son of Distorted Humor (also the sire of last year’s Belmont Stakes winner Drosselmeyer) out of the Seattle Slew mare Alternate. The latter is one of the last stakes winners by her sire, produced when he was 25, and is one of two stakes winners out of the important producer Strike a Balance (by Green Dancer).

This is one of Pin Oak’s most famous and important families, and Alternate is now the fourth daughter of Strike a Balance who has produced a graded stakes winner.

Strike a Balance’s most famous offspring is Canadian Horse of the Year Peaks and Valleys, who was bred and raced by Pin Oak Stud, like Alternate and Alternation. Peaks and Valleys (Mt. Livermore) won twice at the Grade 1 level and earned more than $1.5 million. It took a racehorse the caliber of this champion son of Mt. Livermore to make Alternate the “other” stakes winner out of their dam.

Alternate was a listed stakes winner at 3, 4, and 5, while she was second or third in five graded stakes and earned $550,695. She was a heck of a listed stakes winner.

Retired to the paddocks at Pin Oak, Alternate has not disappointed. Her first foal is the Elusive Quality filly Elision, who has earned $203,651 without picking up black type. Barry said, “Elision was a very nice filly who went through her conditions and might have been a stakes horse but for injuring an ankle. She is in foal to Sky Mesa.”

The mare’s second foal is the winner Take Turns (Seeking the Gold), and Alternation is her third.

Barry said Alternate is a “great big Seattle Slew type of mare. Alternation is a big strong physical, with a lovely hindleg, and is a nice prospect in the making. Obviously, the first thing is to enjoy the victory on Saturday, then make sure the horse comes out of it all right. Then, we’ll watch the Preakness and see where it all unfolds. We wouldn’t rule out the Belmont, but we hope to see him in the nice races later in the year, the Jim Dandy, Travers, and so forth.”

This is the balanced and conscientious attitude of an owner-breeder operation that wants its stock to show their best when the time is right. Among the considerations for any horse being evaluated as a possible runner for the Belmont Stakes is its distance capabilities, but Barry noted that the “mare could run long, and I don’t think distance will be an impediment.”

If Alternation does challenge for the Belmont Stakes, he could become the first classic winner campaigned by Pin Oak. The farm bred 1976 Preakness winner Elocutionist and the 1982 Doncaster St. Leger winner Touching Wood, but neither raced for the farm.

In addition to those, Pin Oak bred and raced Laugh and Be Merry, the 1990 Eclipse Award winner as best grass mare, and the 1992 champion turf horse Sky Classic in partnership with breeder Sam-Son Farm.

Pin Oak stands Sky Classic (one of the last important sons of Nijinsky still at stud), as well as their homebred G2 winner Broken Vow, and the farm also stood Maria’s Mon, the sire of 2001 Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos and 2010 Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver, till the stallion’s death at age 14 in September 2007.

jaycito overcame the odds

Tags

Belmont Stakes, class in the racehorse, jaycito, jockey club of turkey, night edition, overseas buyers, real quiet, runnymede farm, stallion sales, tough racehorses, victory gallop, zenyatta

The following piece appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

Good horses overcome amazing odds and circumstances to win. We have only to look at the efforts that Zenyatta has produced time and again to remain unbeaten in 19 consecutive races.

Other times, horses seem to overcome those kinds of hurdles just to become competitors. In the case of Jaycito, the 2-year-old colt who won the Norfolk Stakes at Oak Tree on the same card as Zenyatta’s victory in the Lady’s Secret, the bay colt became a Grade 1 winner with his first victory from three starts (and two seconds).

Furthermore, the colt is by champion Victory Gallop, now exiled to stand in Turkey, and is the only living foal of his dam, the 12-year-old Ascot Knight mare Night Edition.

The best racing son of the Fappiano horse Cryptoclearance, Victory Gallop was a champion at 4, earned $3 million on the racetrack, and won the Belmont Stakes by slightly more than a nose hair from Real Quiet.

The combination of high class and good looks sent Victory Gallop to stud in Kentucky at Prestonwood Farm (now WinStar), and the bay horse remained there until he was sold to the Turkish Jockey Club and was exported to stand at one of their national studs.

The sale was a mild surprise because Victory Gallop was not a poor stallion. He has sired 7% stakes winners from foals, and some of them, like Jaycito, have had quite a lot of class.

Victory Gallop, however, did tend to sire stock rather like the Cryptoclearances in general look and build: good-sized, racy athletes but generally without the body mass and early muscular development so prized among buyers who pay big money for yearlings at the sales.

So when representatives for the Jockey Club of Turkey came calling, their offer found favor, and on Feb. 11, 2008, Victory Gallop shipped out of Kentucky to his new home half-way around the world.

The stallion now stands at Karacabey Pension Stud near Izmit, Turkey, for a private fee.

The foals born in 2008 are Victory Gallop’s last U.S. crop, and Jaycito is the leader of the pack. In all, breeders sent 87 mares to the stallion in 2007, and 52 live foals were recorded for Jaycito’s crop.

Bred in Kentucky by Runnymede Farm and Catesby Clay, Jaycito just barely made it under the wire before his sire was sent abroad, but the colt really bucked the odds in being born.

His dam, the tough gray mare Night Edition, raced 32 times in four seasons, winning $274,013, but Night Edition has not had any good luck as a broodmare. From six years’ breeding, the mare has produced only two live foals, Jaycito and a daughter of Mutakddim who raced once, won, and died.

The good-looking mare’s ill fortune as a producer is all the more sad because she had some ability at the racetrack, winning three times and finishing third in the Algoma, Classy ‘n Smart, and Victoriana stakes as a 4-year-old.

As a part of the piercing irony of the breeding business, Night Edition also obviously possesses many of the right qualities that any breeder looks for in a broodmare. Both her foals are winners, and the mare’s surviving racer, Jaycito, graduated to become a G1 winner over the weekend.

That result was not a longshot, as Jaycito had shown his class with a good second in the Del Mar Futurity behind J P’s Gusto, and Jaycito’s improving form allowed him to defeat his favored opponent on Saturday.

Despite their difficulties with Night Edition, breeder Runnymede Farm chose the mare for the right reasons when they paid $62,000 for her when barren to the Canadian-based stallion Tethra at the 2004 Keeneland November sale.

The mare is good looking and gets athletic and attractive foals.

Night Edition’s Mutakddim filly, Meli, brought $50,000 as a yearling, the second-highest price for her sire, and Jaycito sold for $110,000 last year at the September sale as one of the last-crop offerings by Victory Gallop.