blind filly posed a challenge that alice chandler answered with heart and horsemanship; begum’s stakes-winning descendants include wood memorial winner lord miles

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alice chandler, begum, curlin, lord miles, mill ridge, vegso racing stable, wood memorial

Lord Miles closed on the outside for victory in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, and as a result, another son of Horse of the Year Curlin (by Smart Strike) has become a “talking horse” for the classics.

From his first crop of racers, which included Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice, Curlin showed that classic performance was his strong suit, and he has been a consistent source of elite, largely classic, performers ever since. His third-crop son Keen Ice won the 2015 Travers (and sired last year’s Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike); his fourth-crop son Exaggerator won the Santa Anita Derby, Preakness, and Haskell; his sixth-crop son Good Magic was champion juvenile, ran second in the Kentucky Derby, and won the Blue Grass and Haskell. Other sons, such as Vino Rosso and Irish War Cry, won the Wood Memorial like Lord Miles, and the chestnut champion sired three Breeders’ Cup winners in 2022: Malathaat (Distaff), Cody’s Wish (Dirt Mile), and Elite Power (Sprint).

In other news of Curlin’s classic colts, Skinner was a contentious third in the G1 Santa Anita Derby, beaten a nose and half-length by Practical Move (Practical Joke) and Mandarin Hero (Shanghai Bobby).

Bred in Kentucky by Vegso Racing Stable and racing for the breeder, Lord Miles is out of the unraced Lady Esme, a half-sister to three Vegso-bred stakes winners, including champion juvenile filly Caledonia Road (Quality Road) and three-time Grade 3 winner Officiating (Blame). Lady Esme is out of the winner Come a Callin (Dixie Union), and both the dam and grandam also were bred by Vegso Racing Stable.

Peter Vegso bought into this distinguished family with the purchase of third dam Twilight Service (Horse Chestnut) at the 2004 OBS March sale of 2-year-olds in training. Twilight Service, bred in Kentucky by Stuart S. Janney III, had sold to Eisaman Equine for $35,000 as a Keeneland September yearling, then resold to Vegso out of the Eisaman consignment at the March sale for $105,000.

Janney had bought the fourth dam, Sunset Service (Deputy Minister), through Seth Hancock at the 1994 Keeneland July select yearling sale for $260,000 and then resold her 10 years later at the Keeneland January sale for $60,000.

In the meantime, however, Sunset Service had contributed a pair of stakes winners to the Janney broodmare band in Vespers and Database (both by Known Fact). In addition to winning stakes, each also produced a G1 winner. Vespers is the dam of Donn Handicap winner Hymn Book (Arch), and Database is the dam of Data Link (War Front).

In fact, every dam in the family, generation after generation, has produced at least one stakes winner, but none of these dams was a stakes winner herself until we reach the fifth dam, Songlines (Diesis). She was one of two stakes winners out of sixth dam Begum (Alydar). A big, stretchy, lovely mare and a half-sister to three stakes winners, Begum was not raced and for a very good reason.

She had no eyes.

Headley Bell recalled the situation: “You occasionally have blind mares, but rarely do you have a foal born like that and kept alive. When she was born, she was normal but had only these little, dark things that looked like pencil erasers for eyes.

“To make this a challenge in every sense, this filly was from the first crop by Alydar, who stood for $50,000 live foal initially, and that was a big sum in 1981 for an operation that made a living from breeding and raising horses. This one could never race, could never go to sale, and we didn’t know if she could breed. Did she have ovaries, would she cycle properly without sight to respond to the changes in light? It was a leap of faith to consider keeping the newborn filly.

“At the time, Melvin Cinnamon was still the manager at Calumet, and Mom (Alice Chandler), John Chandler, and farm manager Duncan MacDonald were inclined to give it a go. Because she was a filly. She was from an old Bwamazon family, and the combination of things were such that Mom couldn’t put this baby down. But still, you didn’t know how this would work.”

To try to give the foal every chance, Alice Chandler and her staff at Mill Ridge set to work to teach this filly how to survive in a world without a horse’s primary sense: sight.

“We plowed inside the perimeter of the paddock so that the ground was rough near the fence,” Bell continued. “We were trying to teach her not to run into the fence by making the ground different, and then we put a bell on the mare.

“She was a foal of 1981, and we didn’t breed her until she was a 4-year-old. Then we bred her to our home stallion, Diesis, and the result was Songlines. Then we were able to train Begum to load on a van and sent her to a nearby stallion, the Juddmonte horse Known Fact, and got Binalong.”

The mare’s first three foals were all stakes horses, and four of her five daughters produced stakes winners.

“All because Mom was a great horsewoman and a great lover of the horse.”

What more could anyone want to be?

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

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

Maybe it’s something in the water.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Could Forte be that colt?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

unbeaten malathaat is proving the dream is real for owner shadwell, as well as breeder stonestreet

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curlin, john moynihan, malathaat, shadwell, stonestreet stable

Superstar stallions have the highest stud fees, not for their good looks, but for the number of their racers who show up on the weekend cards for the premier races. Once again, Curlin, Into Mischief, and Tapit scored heavily over the Easter weekend of racing, with the highly regarded Bernardini and Candy Ride picking up major stakes on opposite coasts, as well.

At Keeneland on Saturday, April 3, the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes went to Malathaat (by Curlin). Bred in Kentucky by Stonestreet and sold to Shadwell for $1.05 million at the 2019 Keeneland September yearling sale, Malathaat remained unbeaten with this victory in her fourth start, and she became the third generation of Grade 1 winners for her female line.

Malathaat is out of the A.P. Indy mare Dreaming of Julia, who won the G1 Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park as a 2-year-old and then ran second in the G1 Mother Goose the following year.

Malathaat became the third generation G1 winner in her female line with victory in the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland on April 4. The bay daughter of Curlin is now unbeaten in four starts at 2 and 3. (Bloodstock in the Bluegrass photo)

After retiring to stud, Dreaming of Julia was sent first to Horse of the Year Ghostzapper (Awesome Again) and produced a colt who was not named. In 2017, the mare produced Golden Julia (Medaglia d’Oro), who also died, and Malathaat is the third foal from Dreaming of Julia.

Of Golden Julia, Stonestreet adviser John Moynihan recalled: “We kept the Medaglia d’Oro filly the year before Malathaat, and Golden Julia was phenomenal. When we sent her to the training center in Florida, Ian [Brennan, trainer at the Stonestreet Training and Rehabilitation Center] said she was light years ahead of the rest in the crop, was phenomenal at every stage. As these things in racing do, however, she ended up getting hurt in a stall, she had a pelvis injury, and we lost her. It was heartbreaking because she was a Grade 1 horse if I ever saw one; I told Barbara that she’d have been one of the best we’d ever raced.”

The mare’s 2-year-old is an unnamed colt by Medaglia d’Oro; she has a yearling full sister to Malathaat, a filly foal of 2021 by Medaglia d’Oro at Stonestreet, and goes back to Curlin.

As a Grade 1 winner, Dreaming of Julia was the most accomplished foal of her dam, Grade 1 winner Dream Rush, and she won half of her eight starts at two and three.

But, there would be some who might argue that the mare’s other graded stakes-winning daughter, two-time Grade 3 winner Dream Pauline (Tapit), was just as good. A winner in four of five starts, Dream Pauline won the G3 Hurricane Bertie and Sugar Swirl Stakes at Gulfstream.

Both are broodmares at Stonestreet, and Dream Pauline had her first foal, a chestnut colt by Curlin, in February.

Their dam, Dream Rush, has produced three stakes winners, the two fillies above and the colt Atreides (Medaglia d’Oro), who likewise won four of his five starts, then went to stud in Kentucky at Hill n’ Dale Farm (now at Xalapa).

On the racetrack, Dream Rush was one of three black-type performers out of the Unbridled mare Turbo Dream, who was unraced. Turbo Dream also is the dam of Adream (Bernardini), dam of the G3 winner Song of Spring (Spring at Last).

There is no question that Dream Rush was much the best of all the foals from Turbo Dream. Dream Rush won both her two starts as a juvenile, then advanced impressively as a 3-year-old to win the Old Hat Stakes at Gulfstream, the G2 Nassau County at Belmont, place second in the G1 Acorn, then win the G1 Prioress and Test Stakes before finishing unplaced in the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Filly Sprint.

That race was Oct. 26 at Monmouth Park, and nine days later she was in the ring at the 2007 Fasig-Tipton November sale.

As agent for Halsey Minor, Debbie Easter bought Dream Rush for $3.3 million after a spirited bidding battle, and the then-3-year-old was sold as a racing or broodmare prospect.

Easter said, “She was a big, long, beautiful mare, and with a pair of Grade 1 victories. This was his first venture into broodmares, and she was what we were looking for as a foundation mare. Dream Rush was one of the most beautiful mares I’ve ever seen, had such a lovely attitude, and was a great athletic individual.”

Unfortunately, Dream Rush didn’t reproduce her earlier form, coming back to race at four and five, but only placing third in the G1 Princess Rooney and second in the G2 Vagrancy.

“The point of the purchase,” Easter said, “was to acquire a foundation broodmare and that has worked out beautifully.”

The plan worked out for Stonestreet, rather than for Minor, who dispersed his stock after getting stuck in the Great Recession.

On acquiring Dream Rush from Minor, Moynihan recalled that “a year or two after the Fasig sale, he called, said that he remembered our bidding for Dream Rush, and asked if we’d be interested in buying the mare privately.

“When we bought her, it was about this time of year, and we were still waiting days to see if she was in foal from a cover to A.P. Indy,” and she was.

Dream Rush produced her first foal for Stonestreet in 2010, and that was Dreaming of Julia.

Since then, Dream Rush has had eight more foals, and after a pair of barren years in 2019 and 2020, the 17-year-old mare had a filly by Bernardini earlier this year. Moynihan noted that “we were trying to get a filly to carry on the line from Dream Rush,” and they got one.

Some dreams never go away, and some even come true.

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

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curlin, exaggerator, preakness stakes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

midpoint of keeneland september sale can be a source of enduring champions

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american pharoah, curlin, keeneland september, kenny mcpeek

After lunch on Monday, Sept. 21, the Keeneland September yearling sale passed its numerical midpoint. The 2,083^rd yearling went through the ring of the 4,164 yearlings consigned to the world’s largest yearling auction, which began on Sept. 14 and concluded on the 26^th.

There are actually 12 days of selling in that 13-day span. After the three days that occupy Book 1, there is a free day, during which consignors try to get their wheels spinning the right way to simultaneously manage a double-handed slam dunk of Book 2 horses, many of whom are just as good as others in Book 1, and to carry the rest of their sales horses and staff through the whirlwind of activity that stops only near the end of the month.

As the first week closed, the early signs of fatigue began to show among those whose daily work is making every young racing prospect look as good as possible and show itself with the authority and presence that marks a nice prospect.

Some of them just don’t want to coöperate.

A few are spooky about the weird sounds and unnatural sights that surround them, and I can’t blame them. It’s a big change from the farm and the pastoral beauty where many were raised. But as one petite handler said, “They have to get their rear ends with the program, and I am the program director.”

She’s right because this is the first step in a series of steps, hurdles, challenges, and perplexing obstacles that young horses have to accept, learn to handle, and overcome as the next generation of wee racehorses.

One of the things each of them has to learn to accept with confidence, without fear or aggression, is having strangers inspect them, touch them, and handle them. I know this because I touch some of the nicest young horses in the world every year as part of my work in measuring and evaluating their promise as racehorses.

And some of these yearlings don’t see the value of my existence at all. A few would right kindly like to kick me into next month. That has not happened in part because of the knowledgeable and intuitive handlers that are part of the sales. A really good handler can keep a rascally yearling from expressing itself too vigorously.

Yet among the nervous and overbearing, there are others who are quiet and sometimes even regally composed. Some are quite strong and sizable yearlings, like American Pharoah at Saratoga two years ago. Big, strong, and well-grown as an August sale yearling, he was nonetheless a self-possessed animal whose character even then was a manifest asset to his prospects as a racehorse.

As recollections of champions or memories of interesting youngsters who never earn a headline, the volume of horses and the number of inspections ought to make the individuals blur into oblivion, but they somehow do not.

The sea of young horses in shades of brown is every teenage horse lover’s dream, and yet I don’t get caught up in that side of it. The perspective of years and horses adds understanding to what these new young athletes are attempting, and there is no question that some of them will pass the post with colors flying.

Perhaps one of them will be the lovely Curlin filly who sold Monday as Hip 2061 for $975,000 to top the session. Curlin, one of the hottest stallions in the nation, sired three of the four highest-priced lots in the midpoint session, with a pair of colts, Hips 2203 and 2093, bringing $430,000 and $380,000.

What a long, strange journey it has been for Curlin, selling out of this portion of the sale, then first becoming a Horse of the Year and now a leading sire.

Just 10 years ago, at the 2005 Keeneland September sale, Kenny McPeek picked out a grand chestnut colt, just loved the colt he told me, and bought him for $57,000 out of the Eaton Sales consignment. McPeek managed to find clients to buy the big colt, and in time, that colt grew up to win his maiden in crushing style.

When Jess Jackson bought into the colt, by then named Curlin, history had begun to unfold.

But it all started when the growthy chestnut colt, Hip 2261, went through the ring at Keeneland in September.

breeders keep circling back to curlin

Tags

curlin, exaggerator, john downes, joseph murphy, saratoga special, stallion success

Curlin is a like a great chestnut shark: basking in the sun, looking good, taking it easy, nothing to worry about here. Then, bang! He gets you.

The two-time Horse of the Year got his latest graded stakes winner Aug. 16 when 2-year-old Exaggerator swept from last to first in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special to win by three-quarters of a length from the favored Saratoga Mischief (by Into Mischief) in 1:16.39 for 6 1/2 furlongs.

Bred in Kentucky by Joseph B. Murphy, Exaggerator is out of the stakes-placed Dawn Raid (Vindication). The Saratoga Special winner’s dam is one of four black-type offspring from Embur Sunshine (Bold Ruckus), and Dawn Raid is a half-sister to Canadian champion Embur’s Song (Unbridled’s Song).

Dawn Raid was third in the restricted Fanfreluche Stakes at Woodbine, and her dam was second in the Candy Éclair and Blue Sparkler Stakes at Monmouth, third in the Polite Lady Handicap at Woodbine. Embur Sunshine’s dam was Vevila, an English-bred daughter of The Minstrel (Northern Dancer) and a half-sister to Canadian champion Eternal Search (Northern Answer) and four other stakes horses.

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

Murphy said that “we thought there was some value in Dawn Raid as a racing and broodmare prospect, and after the losing race at Turfway, we sent her to Rood & Riddle to evaluate her breathing. They reported back that she was the fastest horse they’d ever seen on a treadmill, and we retired her.”

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

Murphy said that “for a few years, including 2013, I sent the pregnant mares to John Downes to foal at the property he’s leasing from Overbrook.”

Downes recalled the mare and foal well. He said, “She was a nice mare who produced a good-looking foal. We’ve raised graded stakes winners (not counting Exaggerator) each of the last seasons from our resident boarding mares, which number 15 to 20.

“While the Stoneleigh mares were here,” Downes said, “I was able to arrange a deal for Dawn Raid to go to Curlin, in part because the elder Mr. Murphy was such a fan of the horse. And I had another client wanting to use the stallion, and that made it an attractive deal to breed to him.”

The resulting foal grew up to be a good-looking yearling, and when consigned to the 2014 Keeneland September sale through Warrendale Sales as agent, Exaggerator sold for $110,000 to Big Chief Racing LLC.

Murphy said “the colt had a lot of his mother about him when we were prepping him for the yearling sale. She’s a good-looking, correct, and gentle-natured horse, and he was like that too.”

Dawn Raid has a yearling full sister to Nile Queen; has no foal of 2015, Murphy noted; but is back in foal to Curlin for 2016 on a March 16 cover.

Murphy said “people started calling yesterday after the colt won the race, trying to buy her, and they are really interested, especially when they find out that she’s back in foal to Curlin. My dad doesn’t want to sell her, he’s really into the racing, but we got into this to make money. So I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

Whether the mare owners decide to keep or sell, Dawn Raid appears to be the kind of mare who fits well with Curlin, possessing speed and also the ability to race at least a mile.

The breeders’ cycling back to Curlin mimics the pattern that others have followed in using the big chestnut son of Smart Strike. They have used the champion, moved on to other sires, then come back as results have led them to desire more Curlin stock.

From his early returns, Curlin was clearly no sire of juvenile stars along the lines of Storm Cat or Tapit. Not many stallions get a high percentage of top 2-year-old performers, but those who do earn regard in the market for those qualities.

Instead, the champion’s best early racer was 2-year-old winner Palace Malice, who trained on at 3 to improve significantly and become a classic winner in the 2013 Belmont Stakes. Likewise, among the stallion’s stars this season are Curalina (G1 Acorn and Coaching Club American Oaks) and Stellar Wind (G1 Santa Anita Oaks and G2 American Oaks). Both improved with maturity and distance.

Now that we have grown accustomed to regarding Curlin as a sire of stock who get better at 3 and who show their form at a mile or more, we have a pair of graded stakes-winning juveniles at Saratoga.

In addition to Exaggerator, on July 24, the Curlin filly Off the Tracks won the G2 Schuylerville Stakes, and she is reportedly training well for the G1 Spinaway.

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

Tags

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.

motor city becomes first stakes winner for kentucky derby winner street sense

Tags

bc juvenile, champion racehorses as sires, churchill downs, curlin, darley at jonabell, expectations of stallion prospects, freshmen sires, Kentucky Derby, lantern hill farm, miss netta, motor city, shawgatny, stallion success, star of gdansk, street cry, street sense, suzi shoemaker

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

When a classic winner who was a champion 2-year-old retires to stud, the expectations are naturally high because few horses excel at the highest levels at 2 and 3. But Street Sense was one of those horses.

Third in the G1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland before sailing up the rail to victory in the BC Juvenile at Churchill Downs, Street Sense echoed that form six months later with a narrow loss in the G1 Blue Grass at Keeneland, followed by a well-earned victory in the Kentucky Derby over the Danzig racer Hard Spun and eventual 3-year-old champion Curlin.

Striking early and winning at the top class were important considerations for Street Sense’s prospects as a stallion, and when he was purchased for stud by Darley, he became the well-regarded understudy for his now-famous sire.

The good-looking son of Street Cry was from his sire’s first crop, and Street Sense is one of the reasons that Street Cry is a major international sire. As a big, rangy horse, Street Cry was a staying juvenile who matured well to win the Dubai World Cup at 4, but something less than the world was expected of him.

However, when the stallion delivered a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and 2-year-old champion in Street Sense, Street Cry became a much different horse in the estimation of breeders. And when Zenyatta rose to the top of the class as a 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old, Street Cry became one of the most sought-after stallions in the world.

One of the peculiarities of breeding is that, even if a stallion does not have an unusual number of stakes winners, having really good stakes winners puts a shine on his reputation that little can dull. And that is the case with Street Cry.

The next challenge for the stallion’s escalating reputation is to get sons who sire good horses, and in Street Sense, Street Cry has a son who shares many of the sire’s best qualities and who appears to be passing them along.

In Street Sense, we have a high-class staying 2-year-old who is much like his sire in racing aptitude, although notably more refined and elegant in physique. The Street Sense stock showed surprising maturity and speed in the premium sales of 2-year-olds in training earlier this year, with a fair number of winners (8) to date.

So it is especially noteworthy that Street Sense had his first stakes winner, Motor City, on Sunday in the G3 Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs. The gelding was already graded stakes-placed after a third in the Arlington-Washington Futurity in September. In that race, Motor City finished a head in front of the Johannesburg colt No Spin, who also won a stakes over the weekend, and the form lines look reliable.

A Street Sense filly, Miss Netta, closed from last to finish third in the G1 Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park on Oct. 8, and she has been entered in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs.

Clearly, the Street Sense stock is improving with maturity and showing better form as the distances increase. Those are qualities that will serve the sire’s reputation and will encourage breeders to continue supporting him.

And that’s important because good stallions need good mares, which is half the story with Motor City.

Motor City was bred and is raced by Lantern Hill Farm, located outside Midway, Ky. Motor City is the 12th foal out of the Danzig Connection mare Shawgatny, who was bred by Lantern Hill, sold as a yearling at the Keeneland summer sale in 1991 for $320,000, then repurchased as a broodmare for $40,000 in the 2002 Keeneland November sale, carrying a filly by Gulch.

Shawgatny’s second foal for Lantern Hill was the stakes-winning filly Satulagi (by Officer), and all the mare’s subsequent foals from Lantern Hill have been winners.

The mare is a full sister to group stakes winner Star of Gdansk, who was also second in the Irish 2,000 Guineas and third in both the Irish Derby and English Derby.

Shawgatny is two years younger than her famous brother, and with his obvious class on the racecourse, she brought the highest price of 29 Danzig Connections sold at auction in 1991. On the racecourse, Shawgatny was in the frame six of her seven starts, with a victory, four seconds, and a third.

dialed in finishes big for florida derby victory

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a.p. indy, alan cohen, allen paulson, arindel farm, breeding in florida, breeding to race, curlin, daring bidder, dialed in, dinard, eliza, florida derby, Gainesway Farm, horse of the year, housebuster, keeneland november breeding stock sale, lane's end farm, madeleine paulson, may foals, mineshaft, miss doolittle, mr. prospector, mt livermore, nick zito, orientate, prospectors delite, purchase of broodmares, sibling to dialed in, speed in racehorses, stamina in racehorses, storm cat, training thoroughbred racehorses, ws farish

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

Now the winner in three of his four starts, including Sunday’s Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park, Dialed In has risen from winner of a maiden special to G1 victor in three quick steps. The colt’s rise has been so precipitous that trainer Nick Zito seemed almost apologetic for raising the colt so quickly in class.

In truth, the conservative-minded Zito has tended to work his stock through conditions and place them in classic competition only after quite a bit of seasoning. But Dialed In has demanded a somewhat different approach.

The nice-looking bay colt has a pedigree that swoons with a delirious mixture of stamina and speed, but Dialed In seemed even as a young horse to have combined all the best elements of those forebears, as attested by his auction price of $475,000 at the 2009 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale.

By a Horse of the Year, Dialed In is out of a highly pedigreed mare from a family with intense speed and precocious development.

The sire of the Florida Derby winner is champion Mineshaft, a son of Horse of the Year A.P. Indy and the outstanding producer Prospectors Delite, by Mr. Prospector. In addition to winning the G1 Acorn and Ashland stakes on the racetrack, Prospectors Delite produced five stakes winners from five foals, including the G1 winners Mineshaft and his full sister Tomisue’s Delight.
Mineshaft was a May 17 foal, unraced at 2, and sent to race in Europe, where he gained experience over turf, which did not appear to his liking. Returned to race in the States at 4, Mineshaft won seven of nine starts, including four G1s (Jockey Club Gold Cup, Woodward, Suburban, and Pimlico Special), and was named champion older horse and Horse of the Year.

In contrast to Mineshaft, Dialed In’s dam, Miss Doolittle showed speed and class at 2, when she ran second in the G2 Schuylerville at Saratoga. Furthermore, both Miss Doolitle’s sire and dam were top-class 2-year-olds. Sire Storm Cat was nearly champion of his age, losing narrowly to champion Tasso (by Fappiano) in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and dam Eliza was champion of her division at 2 when she was victorious in the BC Juvenile Fillies.

As a broodmare, Eliza has been good but nothing like as dominant as she proved on the racetrack. To date, her best racer has been Samuel Morse (Danehill Dancer), winner at G2 level in Europe.

The speedier of two top-class horses produced by the outstanding broodmare Daring Bidder, Eliza is a half-sister to Dinard (Strawberry Road). Allen Paulson bred both Eliza and the Santa Anita Derby winner, and his wife Madeleine bred Miss Doolittle, who sold for $1.3 million at the 1999 Keeneland July select sale and raced for W.S. Farish, Paulson, and Skara Glen Stable.

Eliza is one of three champions by the important stallion Mt. Livermore, a son of Blushing Groom who stood his entire career at Gainesway Farm, like his sire. The other Eclipse Award winners by Mt. Livermore are Housebuster and Orientate.

There is a great deal of obvious speed in Miss Doolittle’s ancestors, and the mare passed along some speed and class with a stakes winner and a stakes-placed racer from her first two foals.

But when sent through the ring at last year’s Keeneland November sale, the good-looking and powerfully made mare brought only $85,000 in foal to Horse of the Year Curlin. At the time, I told an associate, “that man has made his money already.”

And Dialed In wasn’t even the winner of a maiden at the time.

The buyer was Arindel Farm, owned by Alan Cohen, which purchased 11 broodmares at the auction, including such major performers and producers as Solvig, Dat You Miz Blue, and Sara’s Success, as well as Miss Doolittle.

The Ocala breeding and racing operation has more than 30 broodmares at present, with Miss Doolittle being the star of the day. Cohen said the mare “foaled a filly Feb. 7, and it is gorgeous, the nicest foal we have, and she looks like Curlin.”

Cohen noted the farm has several nice foals already this year, called the Curlin half-sister to Dialed In a “standout.” Furthermore, the owner said Miss Doolittle is back in foal to Mineshaft with a full sibling to Dialed In after being checked in foal a week ago.

Cohen said, “We love the horse and love the sport. We’ve been in the business for a while and had decided to buy some more nice ones at Keeneland. And it’s really great we were able to get that kind of horse.”

One reason Cohen believes he was able to collect such quality stock for realistic prices is that “we wanted to race some more, and we take a chance on the 10-, 11-, and 12-year-old mares. Mares with performance on the track and as producers. We figure they will continue to produce nice babies, and because basically we are breeding to race and not to sell, the commercial consideration didn’t matter to us.”

Arindel will produce about 20 racehorses a year for Cohen’s stable, and the operation in Ocala will focus on racing its stock, selling a few and racing most.

Will the Curlin filly out of Miss Doolittle prove a tough decision to race or sell? Somehow, I doubt it.

 

lookin at lucky: pedigree of fortune

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a.p. indy, Belmont Stakes, belong to me, breeders' cup classic, breezefigs, curlin, fasig-tipton november sale, fly down, gulf coast farms, jay kilgore, jerry bailey breeder, keeneland april sale of 2yos in training, lane's end farm, lookin at lucky, mr. prospector, native charger, native dancer, paulick report, preakness stakes, private feeling, raise a native, sam-son farm, sharp belle, smart strike, stephen got even, super saver, temple webber, unbreakable, will farish

This story appeared earlier this week at PaulickReport.com.

A month ago, neither the sponsor of this column nor the Paulick Report could have imagined the run of luck awaiting all of us in the May classics.

In the intervening weeks, the Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver was out of a mare by Lane’s End stallion A.P. Indy, the Preakness winner Lookin at Lucky is by Lane’s End stallion Smart Strike and out of a mare by farm stallion Belong to Me, the Preakness second is by Lane’s End stallion Stephen Got Even, another son of farm stalwart A.P. Indy, and farm owner Will Farish is co-breeder of the dams of both the Preakness winner and the Dwyer winner, Fly Down, a likely prospect for the Belmont Stakes.

We are “lookin at lucky” on more levels than I can count.

With a second Preakness Stakes winner, the Mr. Prospector stallion Smart Strike confirmed himself as one of the most powerful sons of his sire at stud. The stallion’s first classic winner was Horse of the Year Curlin, narrowly beaten in the Belmont Stakes before his championship success in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and Smart Strike is well represented this year with such additional racers as Strike a Deal, who won the Grade 2 Dixie Handicap on the Preakness card at Pimlico.

A beautifully pedigreed son of Mr. Prospector bred by Sam-Son Farm, Smart Strike was a high-class racehorse who nonetheless left some questions about how good he might have been. A winner in six of eight starts, Smart Strike won the Grade 1 Iselin Handicap for his most important success.

As a stallion, Smart Strike has been solid but was not an early commercial home run hitter. Lookin at Lucky’s co-breeder, Jerry Bailey, noted that the stallion’s offspring tend to improve with age, both in looks and buyer appeal.

That is not the formula for commercial success among unproven sires. However, now that Smart Strike is a proven commodity, his offspring are making better returns for breeders.

That wasn’t the case even two years ago for Gulf Coast Farms, the breeders of Lookin at Lucky, at the yearling sales, where they had to take him home for a hammer price of $35,000. But they had the wherewithal and flexibility to bring him back as a 2-year-old in training, when he made $475,000 at the Keeneland April sale of juveniles.

The backbone of that price increase was the progress that Lookin at Lucky had made from a yearling to a 2-year-old. He had grown and strengthened from an acceptable but somewhat average “nice” yearling to being what BreezeFigs guru Jay Kilgore called “the best 2-year-old I saw last year.”

His progress shown in motion analysis video at the breeze shows was manifest in graded stakes competition in the summer and fall last year, and Lookin at Lucky’s successes, added to the graded victory of his half-brother Kensei (by Mr. Greeley), made their dam, the Belong to Me mare Private Feeling, a hot property indeed.

At the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November mixed sale last fall, she sold to Live Oak Stud for $2 million as a young producer of top-level performers.

The mare was then a 10-year-old. She was bred by Farish and Temple Webber Jr., and she earned $18,245 from two victories in seven starts. That was a decent record but nothing to promote her as the dam of multiple graded stakes winners.

Private Feeling is one of those mares who require the progeny test to verify whether they will become producers of merit, and she has passed that test with high distinction.

The mare’s second dam, the Native Charger mare Sharp Belle, was a notably better racemare, winning 10 races, including the Grade 1 Monmouth Oaks.

This is a line of producers from a good-class family. Sharp Belle’s fifth dam is the stakes-winning mare Nectarine, a full sister to the great sire Bull Lea, the cornerstone of Calumet Farm’s success in the 1940s and 1950s.

In addition to these historical connections to high-class performance, there is a pedigree pattern of note in the ancestry of Lookin at Lucky. He has a half-dozen lines of the great racehorse and sire Native Dancer in his pedigree. Five of them come through Private Feeling, who also has an additional line of Native Dancer’s grandsire Unbreakable.

Native Dancer has proven an increasingly important sire over the past 50 years. He was the sire of Raise a Native, whose sons Mr. Prospector and Alydar sired international champions, and other sons and daughters of Native Dancer litter pedigrees around the world with speed and strength.