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

Tags

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

leading sires are shining as their classic prospects win major preps

Tags

big brown, carpe diem, dortmund, frosted, giant's causeway, Tapit

This weekend’s classic preps brought a set of Kentucky Derby contenders into the foreground. At least they are contenders if anything can challenge the great bounding stag named American Pharoah in the 10-furlong classic on the first Saturday in May.

The biggest and most perfect is unbeaten Dortmund (by Big Brown), winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on Saturday. Both he and American Pharoah are trained by Bob Baffert, who has kept Dortmund at home and sent American Pharoah travelling for spring preps.

The sire of each colt showed classic form. Dortmund’s sire, Big Brown, won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness during his championship season, and American Pharoah’s sire, Pioneerof the Nile, was second in the Derby and got last season’s champion 2-year-old from his second crop.

While both the sires above have only a handful of crops, the sires of the winners of the Bluegrass Stakes and Wood Memorial are two of the best-known and most successful stallions in the world, Giant’s Causeway and Tapit.

A chestnut son of Storm Cat, Giant’s Causeway was a top-class performer with an outstanding constitution and unrivalled competitiveness. Now 17, Giant’s Causeway has sired an average of more than 140 foals with 12 crops of racing age.

A G1 winner at 2 and classic-placed in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket and in the Irish 2,000 Guineas at The Curragh, Giant’s Causeway won five G1 races at 3 and showed his form at up to 10.5 furlongs, although he was never tried over farther, and one of his most memorable races was a gallant second to Horse of the Year Tiznow in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.

Generally considered the best racing son of his famous sire Storm Cat, Giant’s Causeway has proven both an immodestly successful stallion and one who is distinctly different from his sire. The Storm Cats tend to breed toward power, speed, and precocity, but the stock by Giant’s Causeway tend to be leggier and lighter, with a noted tendency toward improvement with age and sturdiness in training.

In fact, among the graded winners this year by Giant’s Causeway, there is 7-year-old Imagining, as well as the 6-year-olds Irish Mission and Coltrane and the 5-year-old Top Juliette.

The sire’s 3-year-olds include the top juvenile filly from 2014, Take Charge Brandi, and the highly regarded Carpe Diem, who won the G1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland last fall and returned to win the Blue Grass impressively.

Although Take Charge Brandi is on the sidelines, Carpe Diem has seized the day and will be one of the favored contenders for the upcoming classics. Once-beaten, in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Carpe Diem has earned the regard of handicappers, much as he impressed yearling and 2-year-old buyers.

The attractive chestnut brought $550,000 at the Keeneland September sale, and buyer Northwest Stud pinhooked Carpe Diem to the 2014 Ocala Breeders Sales March auction, where Stonestreet Stables signed the ticket at $1.6 million.

The colt races for the partnership of Stonestreet and WinStar Farm, and Carpe Diem was one of the stars at the OBS March sale last year. He scooted a furlong in :10 1/5, with the impressive rhythm and stretch that suggested he would improve greatly, and he ran with a stride length of 25 feet, which placed Carpe Diem in an excellent league and brought out the big guns when he went through the ring.

Not every good horse goes through to sale, though.

A Darley homebred, Wood Memorial winner Frosted (Tapit) never went through the sales, and he is clearly not as precocious as Carpe Diem. A maiden winner on Oct. 30 last fall, Frosted stepped up to finish second in the G2 Remsen a month later. So he had some class early on and then ran second in the Holy Bull earlier this year.

Victory in the Wood, however, was a major step forward for Frosted, who appears to be learning his lessons and progressing well toward the classics. He lurked near the rear of the field in the Wood, then made a determined run through the stretch that could be an important factor for negotiating the Derby trip.

Out of the Deputy Minister mare Fast Cookie, Frosted is part of an extended legacy because his dam was one of the mares that Darley purchased several years ago when acquiring the Stonerside operation in a deal that included its land, bloodstock, and racehorses. One of the latter was Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Midshipman, now a stallion for Darley at Jonabell.

A G2 stakes winner, Fast Cookie won the Cotillion at 3 and placed in other graded events, earning more than a half-million. Her dam, the Avenue of Flags (Seattle Slew) mare Fleet Lady, won the G2 El Encino and La Canada early in her 4-year-old season, and this is clearly a family with its fair share of speed and class.

Nor is the legacy of speed uncommon among the stock being prepped for the classics. All these classic prospects come from fast families, and it is guaranteed that some will find the distance of the Derby more of a challenge that they are prepared for at this point.

But one will rise to the occasion, and only he will wear the roses.

fed biz struck right note for his stallion family

Tags

fed biz, giant's causeway, johannesburg, stallion family, tale of the cat

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

If you bet the first three home in Saturday’s Grade 2 San Fernando Stakes at Santa Anita according to their sales prices, then you had the trifecta. The winner, Fed Biz (by Giant’s Causeway), was the most expensive of the trio, selling for $950,000 at the 2010 Keeneland September yearling sale. A head behind him came the Tapit colt Tritap, who brought $450,000 at the same sale, and third was Guilt Trip (Pulpit), who was a half-length back of Tritap and sold for $200,000 to Gary and Mary West at the 2010 Saratoga select yearling sale conducted by Fasig-Tipton.

The narrow difference between Kaleem Shah’s winner and Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC’s second-place finisher amounted to more than the $60,000 difference in prize money between first and second. The winner is now a G2 stakes winner at a major track and is a viable stallion prospect, even if he never wins another race.

That is not likely, as Fed Biz has been making a case for himself as an important athlete, and he deserves consideration as perhaps the fastest son of leading sire Giant’s Causeway. The latter is the most significant stallion son of mighty old Storm Cat, and there is gathering evidence that sons of Giant’s Causeway are going to be successful at stud, whether they excelled on turf or on dirt. Perhaps even on rubber.

That is good news for Coolmore, which owns the chestnut stallion and stands him in Kentucky at Ashford Stud, but it is also good news for breeders, who are always on the lookout for avenues for breeding their mares successfully and who want to find proven paths to take, rather than striking out through the wilderness of unproven territory.

And in the case of Fed Biz, both his sire line and female family could hardly be more well-proven. Bred in Kentucky by Colts Neck Stables, Fed Biz is the seventh foal and second stakes winner out of his dam, the Wild Again mare Spunoutacontrol.

Spunoutacontrol was a stakes winner who won four of her five races. Bred in Kentucky by Indian Creek, Spunoutacontrol was a fine-looking sales yearling, who was declared out of the 1997 Keeneland July select auction, but she was purchased privately by Jayeff B Stables. She then trained and raced like a seriously good horse.

None of this was unexpected because her siblings included a pair of sparkling racehorses: Tale of the Cat and Minardi. On the racecourse, Minardi (Boundary) was actually a bit more accomplished, winning a pair of G1 races, the Middle Park in England and the Phoenix Stakes in Ireland, and then running third the following year in the Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh. Tale of the Cat, on the other hand, won the G2 King’s Bishop, was second in the G1 Whitney, and ran third in the G1 Vosburgh twice.

At stud, Tale of the Cat showed his heels to his more accomplished half-brother and is a consistent sire of fast and competitive racers. Like Giant’s Causeway, Tale of the Cat is also a son of Storm Cat and is based at Ashford.

Spunoutacontrol has had some ill fortune with her produce, two dying unnamed, and a third, the $1.2 million yearling Rally Cat (Storm Cat) dying unraced from her first half-dozen foals. The mare’s winners include her first foal and first stakes winner, Spun Silk (A.P. Indy), who won the restricted Ride Sally Stakes, as well as Whichwaydidshego (Storm Cat) and Weave It to Me (Bernardini).

The San Fernando was the second stakes victory for Fed Biz, and every dam in his female line has produced at least one major stakes winner in the U.S. since Bull Hancock imported the classy racemare Knights Daughter (Sir Cosmo) and bred from her Horse of the Year Round Table and his full sister Monarchy (Princequillo).

Knights Daughter is the sixth dam of Fed Biz. Monarchy, winner of the Arlington Lassie, is the fifth dam. Fourth dam State (Nijinsky) produced five stakes winners, including third dam Narrate (Honest Pleasure). Narrate’s claims to fame include producing Frizette Stakes winner Preach, the dam of the important sire Pulpit, and her full sister Yarn (Mr. Prospector), who is the second dam of Fed Biz.

In addition to Tale of the Cat, Minardi, and Spunoutacontrol, Yarn produced the Ogygian mare Myth, who is the dam of Johannesburg, the unbeaten and top-rated juvenile in France, England, Ireland, and the U.S. in 2001.

Sometimes referred to as the Aloe family, this is one of the most distinguished in the Thoroughbred breeding and is well-regarded as a stallion family. These factors, combined with his dynamic looks and solid muscling, made Fed Biz one of the most attractive yearlings in 2010 and now fit just as nicely with his race record to make him a most interesting stallion prospect.

giant’s causeway has proven himself the classic link for the storm cat line

Tags

giant's causeway, sire lines, storm cat

Under the best of circumstances, sire lines are nebulous things. They come and go. They seem almost as thin and vaporous as clouds. Just think how the Bold Ruler line, or his sire Nasrullah’s line, has risen in visibility and important, then departed from sight and reappeared again like a friendly ghost.

So let’s not make too much of the “line” part. In a rational sense, it all comes down to the individual, and certainly one of the individuals who has made the Storm Cat line is Giant’s Causeway.

When we think of sons of Storm Cat, Giant’s Causeway is the one. Both as racehorse and sire, Giant’s Causeway is a massive presence in the résumé of his famous sire – a bit ironic because the chestnut champion is distinct from Storm Cat in many ways.

Certainly as a sire of international import, Giant’s Causeway is the most recognizable and most successful of the many sons of Storm Cat at stud, but the lead sire for Coolmore’s Ashford Stud is atypical from many other sons of Storm Cat by siring a large percentage of horses who prefer a distance and show their best form with maturity.

Those are admirable traits, even if they diverge somewhat from the “typical” Storm Cat tendencies of speed and early maturity. The salient quality about Giant’s Causeway stock is class, and from nine crops now age 3 or older, he has 129 stakes winners. What puts him at the top of the list of leading American sires in 2012 is stakes performance and especially graded stakes winners. To date, he has 62 graded or group stakes winners around the world.

And just like his sire, Giant’s Causeway was a success from his first crop. That group included classic winners Shamardal and Footstepsinthesand, and both have sired high-class performers in their own right.

They are also important for the perception of Giant’s Causeway as a sire of sires, the test that separates very good sires from the great ones. Both were from the year Giant’s Causeway stood in Ireland, and from his American crops, he has several young stallions, including Claiborne sire First Samurai, who last year had G1 winner Executiveprivilege, a finalist in Eclipse Award voting as leading juvenile filly of 2012.

As expected, then, Giant’s Causeway is also greatly preferred at the sales, and at Keeneland January, he is covering sire of five mares (Hips 141, 333, 605, 749, and 753), has a half-dozen daughters entered (Hips 90, 224, 302, 317, 373, and 568), and is the sire of a single short yearling (Hip 213).

storm cat line faces challenges in the classics

Tags

creative cause, giant's causeway, storm cat, teuflesberg, trinniberg

The following article was first posted earlier this week at Paulick Report.

For the better part of two decades, Storm Cat and his offspring have been among the most commercial horses in the world. With racehorses like 1994 Preakness and Belmont winner Tabasco Cat, 1993 Hollywood Starlet and 1994 Kentucky Oaks winner Sardula, 1995 Hopeful winner Hennessy, and magnificent Sharp Cat, a Grade 1 winner at 2, 3, and 4, Storm Cat broke away as the premium commercial sire of top-class racehorses.

And before long, Storm Cat’s sons became the hottest prospects for stud in America. They began to show indications of ability as sires just as Giant’s Causeway won a G1 at 2 in 1999, then added five more victories at the top level the following year.

The early demand for sons of Storm Cat, added to the fine looks and high class of Giant’s Causeway, made him as attractive a stallion prospect as any who went to stud in Europe, and he was quickly whisked away to stand in Kentucky for 2002 after a single season in Ireland, where Giant’s Causeway sired three classic winners from his first crop.

Looking at the record with several years’ hindsight, however, the Storm Cat branch of Northern Dancer has had a rough time with the U.S. classics, and there had not been a Storm Cat classic winner here since Tabasco Cat’s twin successes in 1994 till last year’s Preakness, when Shackleford (by Forestry) held on gamely to win from Kentucky Derby victor Animal Kingdom.

Part of the reason for the line’s scarcity of success is purely the difficulty of winning a classic. But in addition to that, there is a serious dichotomy in the Storm Cat stock. Many of them want no part of 10 furlongs. Strong, fast, and game though they are, a sizable majority of the Storm Cats are truly milers, and the classics find them out.

And the most classic of the Storm Cats is clearly Giant’s Causeway, who has produced high-class winners on both sides of the Atlantic, on turf and dirt, and at distances up to 12 furlongs. As a result, Giant’s Causeway’s son Creative Cause now appears the best prospect to give the Storm Cat line a classic victory this year. Owner Heinz Steinmann’s impressive gray colt won the G2 San Felipe at Santa Anita over the weekend, and he is the likely favorite for the G1 Santa Anita Derby.

Steinmann bought Creative Cause for $135,000 at the 2010 Keeneland September yearling sale and has won $719,000 with the improving colt. A G1 winner in the Norfolk Stakes last year, Creative Cause was also second and third at that level in the Del Mar Futurity and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

The latter race put him third behind divisional leaders Hansen and Union Rags. Now all three have shown good form this season and should help to make this a most competitive classic season.

One of the talented 3-year-olds who seems likely to focus his racing on distances up to a mile is another colt from the Storm Cat line. Trinniberg won the G3 Swale Stakes at Gulfstream on Saturday. The quick-moving bay set early fractions of :22 3/5 and :45 and motored home by six lengths in 1:21 3/5.

Trinniberg would be a danger to become the first $1,000 yearling from the recent bloodstock depression to win a G1, except that he sold for $1,500 at the Fasig-Tipton October yearling sale in 2010. The brawny colt also resold at last year’s OBS April sale of 2-year-olds in training for $21,000.

Trinniberg is from the first crop of the Johannesburg stallion Teuflesberg, who now stands in Florida at Journeyman Stud. Second in the G1 Hopeful and the G2 Nashua last season, Trinniberg is the first graded stakes winner for his sire.

Teuflesberg and leading freshman sire Scat Daddy are both sires of graded winners, and both are sons of Johannesburg, who was an international champion at 2. Johannesburg was the best son of Hennessy, one of the best-looking and most precocious sons of Storm Cat. All showed their best form at distances up to a mile or a shadow beyond and are typically horses of great substance and power.

Their kinsman Giant’s Causeway differs by tending to sire horses with more stretch and sometimes a bit less body mass, and a fortuitous combination of those and other traits allow some of the better Giant’s Causeway racers to succeed at the classic distances.

new stallions for 2011: sons of giant’s causeway

Tags

eskendereya, giant's causeway, hold me back, mating for complementary traits, mating for line or body type, neko bay, physical type, racing ability, sire of sires

There were three sons of Giant’s Causeway who entered stud in 2011 at three different establishments. This trio is:

Eskendereya (2007 ch by Giant’s Causeway x Aldebaran Light, by Seattle Slew)  Taylor Made $30,000

Hold Me Back (2006 dk b by Giant’s Causeway x Restraint, by Unbridled’s Song) WinStar $6,000

Neko Bay (2003 dk br by Giant’s Causeway x Brulay, by Rubiano) Wintergreen Stallion Station $7,500

Of the three, Eskendereya was the most acclaimed on the racetrack, as he was co-favorite for the Kentucky Derby until declared out of the race. The strongly made chestnut did not race again but entered stud at Taylor Made Farm, where he stood for $30,000 live foal in 2011.

Eskendereya, like all these horses, shows a noteworthy influence from his broodmare sire. In Eskendereya’s case, that is Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, who proved himself both a very good sire and a very good broodmare sire. Seattle Slew tended to produce offspring with some natural speed, as well as the ability to carry it, and that quality was a notable facet of the talent that made Eskendereya a premium contender for the classics.

A scopy horse with good bone, Eskendereya has the look and race record of a horse who was supposed to race over middle distances, and he should prove an interesting sire if mated with stock that should complement that quality, as well as to insure that the necessary speed and ruggedness for competition are not lost.

Hold Me Back is a really big horse made along the lines of his broodmare sire Unbridled’s Song (and his sire Kentucky Derby and BC Classic winner Unbridled). Hold Me Back showed good racing ability to win at the G2 level, as well as classic potential with second-place finishes in the 2009 Travers and Blue Grass.

In racing style and physique, Hold Me Back has a great deal of Unbridled’s Song about him, and that is one of the peculiarities of Giant’s Causeway, who is a sire of undenied international importance. Yet Giant’s Causeway does not produce them like cookies cut all in one mold; there are a wide variety of types and styles among his progeny, although the better of them tend to have good racing speed, stamina, and the class to compete in graded or group company.

This does, however, leave breeders with something of a puzzle. What do you send to a son of Giant’s Causeway?

In these cases, I believe it is more about racing class and aptitude of the mares than about a particular line or pedigree nick. And with the differing physical types that Giant’s Causeway is siring, the sons should be mated as individuals for their own type first of all. Then, there are some common threads that seem to repay attention when breeding to Giant’s Causeway.

One of those is the importance of speed. The other is the importance of toughness.

By speed, I would distinguish between mares who are genuinely limited to six furlongs or shorter and are simply little bullets and those who have natural speed, whether displayed at short distances or longer. The latter type is much preferred for breeding to the Giant’s Causeway sons, in general. In specific, always consider the physical type of the stallion you’re sending the mare to.

The matter of toughness is much simpler.

The third horse in this group is Neko Bay, and the question of toughness is central to anyone’s perception of him as a stallion prospect. On the one hand, Neko Bay is a lovely animal: beautiful balance and scope, good muscle with medium bone, and the mental balance to suggest he should have been a truly top-class animal.

And he quite nearly proved it, with a victory in the G2 San Pasqual and four seconds in stakes, including the G1 Santa Anita Handicap to the immensely talented Misremembered (by Candy Ride).

A hard-nosed assessment of his race record suggests that the only thing he lacked was the toughness to keep on keeping on when he was in peak form. He didn’t break down, at least not by the usual standards. But each year, the horse came out; made 2, 3, or 4 starts; and accomplished a good deal in these brief forays.

What might he have done with just a touch more durability?

Neko Bay does, at least, have a good body to begin with as a sire prospect and does have the necessary athletic talent and does have the family to suggest there is much to build on. In short, whether you are trying to breed yearlings or racehorses, Neko Bay is what you want. He is a fine specimen.

I believe breeders will find the mares to fire the magic within.

creative cause stirs classic prospects with victory in the norfolk stakes

Tags

classic prospects, creative cause, dream of summer, drill, eskendereya, first samurai, giant's causeway, norfolk stakes, Santa Anita

The article below first appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

No colt among this year’s juveniles has so far provoked as much speculation about the future as Creative Cause, winner of the Grade 1 Norfolk Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita.

The gray son of the Storm Cat stallion Giant’s Causeway and G1 winner Dream of Summer ran the 8.5 furlongs in 1:42.66 on Santa Anita’s new dirt course to defeat Drill by three and a quarter lengths. The victory was the third in four starts for Creative Cause, who had lost to Drill in the Del Mar Futurity after an eventful trip.

Creative Cause will advance to the Breeders’ Cup and to consideration for next season’s classics with good prospects. He is a progressive colt with speed and size, with a good finish and the impression that he will continue to improve.Part of the reason he should improve is that his sire, Giant’s Causeway, has had considerable success in the European classics, but the chestnut son of Storm Cat has not yet cracked the code to gain a classic winner here in the States.

A couple of years ago, it appeared that Giant’s Causeway had the right horse with the right running style and pedigree, along with the required talent. That was Eskendereya, who showed high form but came unglued physically in the demanding preparation for the Kentucky Derby and subsequent classics.

Before that, Giant’s Causeway had First Samurai, perhaps the stallion’s fastest 2-year-old who won the Hopeful and Champagne in 2005. But he too fell victim to physical issues before reaching the classics the following year.

There is some ruggedness in both the dam and the overall family of Creative Cause that may prove invaluable for the gray colt. The colt’s dam is the G1 winner Dream of Summer, who won 10 of her 20 starts and earned nearly $1.2 million. Dream of Summer is one of the best offspring of her sire, the G1 winner Siberian Summer, who raced 32 times and earned more than a half-million dollars.

Unfortunately, Siberian Summer was a poor stallion, getting 13 stakes winners from 366 foals, which is right on the breed norms for production of stakes winners.

Dream of Summer, however, inherited many of the best qualities from her talented sire and from grandsires Siberian Express and Skywalker, both G1 winners during their careers on the racetrack.Dream of Summer is also one of three stakes winners among the first four dams of Creative Cause, but she is rather significantly the best of them. Third dam Proper Mary (by Properantes) won the Twilight Tear at Turf Paradise and two other stakes, and fourth dam My Mary won a division of the Bustles and Bows.

My Mary produced three stakes winners, including the best racer from this immediate family prior to Dream of Summer and Creative Cause in Somethingmerry (Somethingfabulous). Somethingmerry won a division of the G2 Palomar Handicap and the G3 Golden Poppy, as well as nearly a half-million dollars.

Creative Cause is the third foal and second winner from his dam, and Dream of Summer has a bay yearling filly by Distorted Humor who went through the sales ring at Keeneland September for $75,000, and the mare has a gray filly of 2011 by Tiznow.

King’s Equine was the lucky bidder for the Distorted Humor filly, who is now a half-sister to a G1 winner, and that filly will surely be featured in one of the premium auctions for 2-year-olds in training next year.

And if Creative Cause trains on as he promises, she will be of interest to everyone with a spare dollar.

*     *     *

Another colt of considerable promise, Dabirsim, ended his juvenile season this weekend with an emphatic victory at Longchamp in the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere-Grand Criterium.

The black colt produced an excellent turn of foot to sweep past his rivals and prove to the world that he is the best French juvenile colt of the season. The son of the Sunday Silence stallion Hat Trick will be put aside until next year, when he will be pointed for the mile classics.

Hat Trick, a major winner during his racing career in Japan, stands at Walmac International in Lexington, and Dabirsim is from the stallion’s first crop of racers.

is coolmore setting the stage for the next euro invasion?

Tags

belmont park, breeding in kentucky, cape blanco, coolmore, european bloodstock, galileo, giant's causeway, john magnier, man o' war stakes, montjeu, nasrullah, nijinsky, prejudice against turf horses, ribot, sadler's wells, stallions in kentucky, tale of the cat, woodman

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

Seems to me that there is more to Cape Blanco’s trip to New York for the Grade 1 Man o’ War Stakes than “just” winning another good purse and giving the 4-year-old son of Galileo a tour of the place.

First of all, I believe Coolmore’s farsighted chief, John Magnier, is trying to decide which of Galileo’s sons would do best standing here in the States. Coolmore and its associates have, at last count, approximately 87 sons of Galileo that are worth standing at stud, and surely some of them are worth giving a shot at Ashford Stud, Coolmore’s breeding operation in the U.S.

Coolmore has never been shy about sending a promising horse to stand in Kentucky. At one time, this branch of the operation seemed more hospitable territory than Ireland or Australia, with greater demand and profits in the Bluegrass as the international center of breeding.

That has waned somewhat, and Coolmore, despite its successes with Giant’s Causeway, Woodman, Tale of the Cat, and others, has not had any corresponding success with sons of their cornerstone sire Sadler’s Wells in Kentucky.

It was not for wont of trying.

Ashford stood some of the quickest sons of Sadler’s Wells, and they flopped horribly. Even allowing that the horses were somewhat unfamiliar to Kentucky breeders and that there is a vicious antipathy against turf horses here, the sons of Sadler’s Wells just stunk up the place.

It happens.

At the same time, however, the two best sons of Sadler’s Wells, Montjeu and Galileo, were gaining accolades on the racecourse and then building on that to become the most important stallions in Europe.

Montjeu and Galileo are both classic winners; both have sired classic winners, including victors in the English Derby. Almost overnight, they have turned that “long-distance classic” back into the most important racing test for bloodstock in the world.

And as a result of these mighty achievements, the pair might well be the two best stallions in the world.

Of the two sons of Sadler’s Wells, the Galileos have notable amounts of speed, and their pace generally allows them to be placed effectively throughout a race, to make a move when it is to their advantage, and to win if they are good enough.

That is what Cape Blanco did in the Man o’ War. And those are the qualities of great European-bred or -raced sires who have excelled in America, such as Nasrullah, Nijinsky, and Ribot.

And it stands to reason that an operation such as Coolmore, abounding with the blood of these two stallions, should look afar for opportunities to place the right horse with the right qualities in a spot to earn greater success.

That brings up the second reason for Cape Blanco to be in New York in the middle of the year, rather than the tail-end of the season. For a European-bred horse to earn a following among Kentucky breeders, the animal needs to develop a name, essentially to brand himself as a star of the American turf.

Part of that is to win the important stakes in front of many of the breeders who would use a high-end stallion and who would want to breed to a son of Galileo. Cape Blanco’s sire Galileo has not been a stranger to racing here in the States. He has sired important winners, such as Red Rocks, who won a pair of G1s in the Breeders’ Cup Turf and the Man o’ War.

With the known adaptability of the Galileo stock, it is possible that Coolmore is simply emulating the success of Red Rocks, with a warm-up in the summer race before a strike for the G1 Arlington Million or similar event, then the Breeders’ Cup.

But with the natural speed of the Galileo stock and with the sound enthusiasm that they take to their racing, I believe there is more afoot. The Galileos would make good racers here in the U.S. Cape Blanco, for instance, was unbeaten as a 2-year-old, won a G1 at 10 and at 12 furlongs at 3, and has now added his third at the premium level.

Cape Blanco may be on a solo mission, or he may be the forerunner of a Galileo invasion. Either way, racing and breeding are sure to be the better for the change.

chechen derby latest success for keeneland grad

Tags

chechen derby, genedi dorchenko, giant's causeway, gudermes hippodrome, keeneland september yearling sale, north stream, overseas buying at yearling sales, ramzan kadyrov, raut llc, russian derby, russian racing, sadler's wells, sid fernando, starbourne

One sterling example of Keeneland’s success in bringing overseas buyers to the American sales market is Raut LLC.

The leading buying entity at the Keeneland September yearling sale by volume of purchases with more than 100 head accounted for, Raut LLC is the purchasing operation of Genedi Dorchenko, who basically functions at the agent to buy racing stock for many owners in Russia and other Eastern European countries.

Among the most successful young athletes purchased by Raut is the 2010 Russian Derby winner North Stream (by Giant’s Causeway), who won the Chechen Derby on Sept. 25 for Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov.

In case you don’t follow the Chechen results (at their new Gudermes racetrack), I actually don’t, either.

The internationally known and respected racing writer and bloodstock adviser Sid Fernando does, however. His excellent blog even has a video of yesterday’s Chechen Derby that you can watch here.

In a telephone interview today, Fernando noted that repeated successes have changed how Dorchenko does business. Fernando said, “When Raut bought this colt two years ago, he was buying at a much lower level, typically. Now he appears to have stronger money behind him. He has bought some at the present Keeneland September sale at a level far beyond what he would have done even last year.”

The price for North Stream at the 2008 yearling sale was only $45,000. That was one of the lowest yearling prices of that year for his famous sire, and the colt does not lack pedigree, either, being out of the Sadler’s Wells mare Starbourne.

Starbourne is a listed stakes winner who ran third in the 2002 Irish 1,000 Guineas and fourth in the Oaks at Epsom. So she was highly tried. Now 11, Starbourne produced North Stream as her third foal.

Even with such recommendations, only a half-dozen Giant’s Causeway yearlings sold for lesser sums, and one other sold for the same price as North Stream, who was bred in Kentucky by Commonwealth.

Obviously, price isn’t important to Kadyrov, only performance. The two most important races in Russia are the Russian Derby and Presidents’s Cup, and this year Kadyrov won both.

As his dual Derby winner, North Stream is very important to Kadyrov, and Fernando said that “North Stream will go to stud, and Kadyrov will own the horse when he does.”

So, will the Chechen president stand his prized racer overseas, or will he perhaps bring him to Kentucky to head Chechen Stud West?

the strength of being ‘giant’

Tags

boojum's bonanza, giant's causeway, lemon drop kid, sire of stallions, sire statistics, stallion analysis

The statistical curmudgeon at Boojum’s Bonanza has created a minor tidal wave in the blogosphere with his contentious comparison of the noted international sire Giant’s Causeway, who stands in Kentucky at Coolmore/Ashford Stud, and the US champion racer Lemon Drop Kid, who stands a few miles away at Lane’s End Farm.

They are exact contemporaries in their stud careers, and both have had noted success. Generally, Giant’s Causeway is considered a much better (or more fashionable) sire, whereas Lemon Drop Kid is one of the most underappreciated stallions in Kentucky.

Boojum undertook to illustrate this dichotomy of perception through the use of stallion statistics, with sufficient effect to unleash a storm of commentary across the net.

That is good because breeders (and writers and advisers, etc.) need to churn different ideas through their heads. Clears the cobwebs, I’m told.

One who responded to the contrary was commentator Tinky in this note.

He asserted that statistics represent a defined set of results but do not present a complete picture of complex systems, and horse racing and breeding is nothing if not a highly complex and sophisticated system.

I agree. In addition, I believe that Boojum and nearly all other savvy users of statistics would likewise.

And there is one portion of results from the stud career of Giant’s Causeway that has put all his contemporaries in the shade: getting sons who carry on as stallions. From the earliest results of his first sons at stud (who had their first European crops race last year), Giant’s Causeway had the leading freshman sire in Europe, Shamardal, and a second in the top 10, Footstepsinthesand.

Both were classic winners from the first crop of foals by Giant’s Causeway, were conceived and raced in Europe, and stand there at stud, as well as in the Southern Hemisphere.

There will be several more sons of Giant’s Causeway coming along soon, and some of them will fail miserably. That is inevitable because most stallions are not successful. But, having sired one son who is showing every sign of being a very useful or better stallion and having a second who is within hailing distance indicates that Giant’s Causeway has every chance to be as good as or better than Storm Cat as a sire of stallions.