speightstown showing dominance as a sire because his runners have consistency and quality

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gone west, speightstown, stallion success

It takes little imagination to envision a champion sprinter as a leading sire. Racers of that ilk have speed; that’s a champion sprinter’s calling card and one of the most desirable traits in a sire prospect.

As a champ on the track, Speightstown has the speed and has proven vastly popular with breeders. A top sales yearling and a great-looking horse, Speightstown won 10 of 16 starts and earned more than $1.2million.

The only surprise in a salty race record is that Speightstown won his first stakes at 6, when most top stallion prospects are already at stud. In that championship season, Speightstown won five stakes, including the Churchill Downs, True North, Vanderbilt, and Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Sometimes a nagging afterthought like not winning a stakes till 6 will have a chilling effect on breeders and taint a horse’s opportunities. But not so with Speightstown, who has stood his entire career at WinStar and has been strongly and pragmatically promoted by WinStar and Taylor Made.

Today, Speightstown is a well-established stallion and leading sire who stands for $80,000 live foal in 2015.

Further proof of Speightstown’s standing with breeders and buyers is seen in his offspring at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s March auction of 2-year-olds in training.

The stallion had a dozen youngsters breeze at the March sale previews, and even more impressively, four went in :10 flat, and four more ran a furlong in :10 1/5. Of the remaining four, one ran a furlong in :10 2/5, and three worked quarter-miles. One in :20 4/5 and two in :21 1/5.

That’s the consistency breeders dream of.

Part of the reason for Speightstown’s success is physique and part is genetic. The 17-year-old son of top sire Gone West is out of the Storm Cat mare Silken Cat, and he combines the most prolific male lines of Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer with the unerring broodmare contribution of Secretariat.

As a result, Speightstown is frequently seen with recombinations of these famous lines. In the case of the stallion’s Hip 62, which was one of Speightstown’s four workers who sped the furlong in :10, the dam is Dance Swiftly, a stakes-producing daughter of the Northern Dancer stallion Danzig.

An unraced mare, Dance Swiftly is a full sister to the splendid champion mare Dance Smartly, winner of the Canadian Triple Crown and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Dance Swiftly has produced two stakes winners, Paiota Falls and West Coast Swing, the latter by Speightstown’s sire Gone West.

Dance Swiftly is out of champion Classy ‘N Smart, dam of four stakes winners, also including leading sire Smart Strike (Mr. Prospector), who has several hot prospects in this sale. And this is the sort of family that regularly fill the book of leading sires like Speightstown, which guarantees them the best chances of reproducing success.

Following are the results for the Speightstown 2-year-olds at OBS March earlier this week:

62		10.0	C	Speightstown	Dance Swiftly	Hartley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds LLC, Agent	Live Oak Plantation	500,000
95		out	C	Speightstown	Dream	Niall Brennan Stables, Agent XXXII	Withdrawn	Out
125		out	C	Speightstown	Flawless	Eddie Woods, Agent LIX	Withdrawn	Out
270		21.1	C	Speightstown	Mazucambera	de Meric Sales, Agent II	120,000	Not Sold
417		10.1	F	Speightstown	Sheraton Park	Niall Brennan Stables, Agent IV	320,000	Not Sold
426		21.1	C	Speightstown	Silver Sands	Eddie Woods, Agent LIV	Eddie Kenneally, Agent	140,000	PS
443		10.1	F	Speightstown	Soul Search	Thomas and Casse, Agent for Global Thoroughbreds	Little Red Feather Racing	75,000
466		out	C	Speightstown	Summer Wind Dancer	Niall Brennan Stables, Agent I	Withdrawn	Out
469		out	C	Speightstown	Supposedly	Wavertree Stables, Inc. (Ciaran Dunne), Agent VI	Withdrawn	Out
516		20.4	F	Speightstown	Valarchos Destiny	Woodside Ranch, Agent III	Clark O. Brewster	62,000
518		10.0	F	Speightstown	Vauxhall	Don R. Graham, Agent	Antonio Sano	150,000	PS
520		10.0	C	Speightstown	Via Veneto	Top Line Sales LLC, Agent	240,000	Not Sold

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mr greeley adding glory to his record as an important sire

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aruna, bc sprint, crusade, desert stormer, gone west, jamaica stakes, middle park stakes, Mr. Greeley, Rob Whiteley, sire lines, sire success, sires of multiple g1 winners, spinster stakes, stallion evaluation, suzie picou-oldham, versatility among stallions, western aristocrat

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

The late sire Mr. Greeley earned his ranking as one of the best sires in the world the old-fashioned way: he earned it.

Retired to stud for 1996 with good looks, a good pedigree, and speed as his primary credentials, the son of Gone West made his mark as a sire of international importance by getting sound and athletic individuals who were highly competitive in many different racing environments and on all surfaces.

That was nowhere more evident than in the results of racing over this weekend, as offspring of Mr. Greeley won a trio of G1s, on synthetic at Keeneland and on turf at Belmont in the Jamaica and at Newmarket in the Middle Park.

The juvenile Crusade won the Middle Park well enough while staying on over the rising ground at Newmarket to suggest he will get a mile. His year-older kinsman Western Aristocrat won the Jamaica, and the 3yo has followed a pattern of racing and development similar to Spinster Stakes winner Aruna. Both began their racing abroad, found success, then were repatriated for G1 victory. In the case of Western Aristocrat, he was a winner in his début last season in England, then group-placed before reaching the States.

The 4-year-old Aruna returned to her homeland last year and has finished first or second in every start since. The dark bay scored a G1 for the first time in the Spinster, but she was already a winner at G2 and G3 level, as well as second in the G1 Diana at Saratoga .

Stakes winners of this quality have populated the stallion career of Mr. Greeley, who went to stud as “only” a G3 winner, although he was also a head second to Desert Stormer in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in his final start.

Suzie Picou-Oldham, now with Darby Dan Farm but with Dixiana when Mr. Greeley retired to stud, recalled the stallion.  She said, “When he first came off the track, he had a beautiful shoulder and a nice frame, but he was not the broad, heavy-bodied horse he came to be when he was a stallion. He had a very good disposition and was a very cooperative horse to work with.”

Mr. Greeley made stallion promotion seem easy with first the physical appearance and then racing success of his early stock. Picou-Oldham recalled that, “as a stallion, it was obvious he was going to stamp his foals because a lot of them came out looking more like Mr. Greeley the stallion than Mr. Greeley the young racehorse.

“They would have a lovely top line, a toned shoulder, and a big and muscular hip.

“We started him out at $10,000 in 1996. He was an easy sell because of his looks, his sire was being sought after, and he was a very handsome horse. He had a look and a presence that you want in a horse.”

One of the breeders who was attracted to Mr. Greeley as a young stallion with great promise was Rob Whiteley, owner of Liberation Farm.

Whiteley described Mr. Greeley as a “prototype of what I’ve always tried to produce: a well-balanced athletic miler with speed who had versatility on different surfaces and whose offspring can carry their speed beyond an optimal distance.

“I was lucky enough to be able to breed quite a few mares to him when he was still affordable for me, and I discovered that in addition to what he passed on to the offspring, he could help out the mares with a little extra leg and a little help with the knees.”

Although Whiteley summarized Mr. Greeley as a “great loss for commercial breeders,” the stallion had priced himself out of the market for most breeders before his death. The stallion’s fee reached $125,000, then the international financial markets collapsed in 2007, forcing stud fees down precipitously.

In contrast, the quality of mares bred to Mr. Greeley remained high, and the stallion’s impact on breeding is continuing through his sons and daughters. In addition to his sons El Corredor and Whywhywhy, the daughters of Mr. Greeley have been especially successful. Last weekend, Zazu (by Tapit) won the Lady’s Secret Stakes at Santa Anita, and she is out of the Mr. Greeley mare Rhumb Line, whose first foal is the group stakes-placed Art Princess and whose third is multiple G1 winner Zazu.

So far, Mr. Greeley has sired 57 stakes winners to date from 1,424 foals, including his 2-year-olds, yearlings, and weanlings. There will be no further offspring from the powerful chestnut stallion, but as this weekend’s racing shows, there will be more glory.

new stars for smart strike and grand slam

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2yo racing, adirondack stakes, ashford stud, cajun beat, gone west, grand slam, lane's end farm, limehouse, measures of stallion success, millionreasonswhy, mr. prospector, my miss aurelia, saratoga racecourse, smart strike, spinaway stakes, stallion success, strong hope

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

My Miss Aurelia and Millionreasonswhy staged one of the most exciting races at Saratoga this season when they raced head and head through the stretch of the historic racetrack. My Miss Aurelia won the Adirondack Stakes by a neck from Millionreasonswhy, and their nearest opponent was 14 ¾ lengths behind. My Miss Aurelia completed the 6½ furlongs in 1:17.01, and the two closely matched fillies are likely to race against each other in the Grade 1 Spinaway on Sept. 4.

As close as the two fillies finished is about how close their sires, Smart Strike (My Miss Aurelia) and Grand Slam (Millionreasonswhy), started in the great sires stakes that determines who becomes increasingly popular and who gets shunted to the side.

In the beginning, they were closely matched on pedigree, as well as being G1 winners on the race track.

Smart Strike is a son of grand old Mr. Prospector, one of the great names in breeding history and the sire of more good stallions than any sire since Northern Dancer. Grand Slam is by Mr. Prospector’s son Gone West, who for a time hinted that he was going to found one of the more dominant branches of the Mr. Prospector tree of success.

And overall, the sons of Gone West have fared well. Zafonic and his full brother Zamindar have had success in Europe; Speightstown is one of the best here in the States; and Grand Slam once ranked as the son of Gone West with the most in his favor for long-term success.

When his first two crops age 3 and up included 14 graded stakes wins and such important performers as Cajun Beat (Breeders’ Cup Sprint), Limehouse (Brooklyn), and Strong Hope (Jim Dandy), Grand Slam became one of the hottest sires in Kentucky, but after his six subsequent crops only managed to double that number of graded victories, his rapidly ascending balloon of fame had flattened out. Although far from friendless among discerning breeders or yearling buyers, Grand Slam has some limitations in the minds of many. And it takes a truly special yearling, like Millionreasonswhy, who sold for $115,000, to bring six figures. This year, Grand Slam stood for only $15,000 live foal at Ashford Stud.

In contrast to the rapid rise of the ruggedly handsome Grand Slam, Smart Strike was just a bit sluggish with his earliest racers, and his first two crops age 3 and up managed only seven graded stakes victories, exactly half as many as the offspring of Grand Slam. Now, in the larger scheme of things, most stallions would be just fine to get seven graded wins in their careers, but Smart Strike was supposed to be “one of the ones,” and that start was disappointing. But there the competition between the near-contemporaries ended. With his next crop-year, Smart Strike added 11 graded stakes wins, and his stock just kept piling more fuel on the fire. The bonfire is only blazing higher.

Now, Smart Strike has more than 90 graded victories for his runners, has total progeny earnings of more than $86 million, has 79 stakes winners, and his most famous offspring include Horse of the Year Curlin, as well as champions Lookin at Lucky and English Channel. And to add cream to the eclair, Smart Strike has two dozen racers who have earned more than $500,000.

The rangy bay son of Mr. Prospector stands at Lane’s End Farm for $75,000, which is a certain indicator of his position in the intensely competitive stallion market. With the success that Smart Strike has enjoyed the past several years with Curlin, English Channel, Lookin at Lucky, and so many others, the stream of good mares is not going to stop.

Major winners like My Miss Aurelia may even cause the tide to rise higher.

was secretariat the most important sire of the last 40 years?

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20 top sires in the fourth generation, a.p. indy, bloodstock statistics, bold ruler, boojum's bonanza, gone west, influence of stallions, performance of stallions, secretariat, stallion statistics, statistics as a tool in evaluating stallions, storm cat, success and influence

By one way of looking at the impact of horses, particularly stallions, the answer is “yes.” The tremendous number-crunching machine over at “Boojum’s Bonanza” has evaluated the 20 most successful stallions in the fourth generation of pedigrees in terms of their sales value and racetrack success, and Secretariat (known more humbly as “His Chestnut Perfection”) was top of the tree. Read more here.

The Boojum wrote: “Secretariat had the highest prices of all 20 sires in the fourth generation, was expected to have the best results, and did have the best results overall. And his results (1.36) were even higher than his prices (1.21). His daughters were better than his sons (no surprise at all there), but his sons were not bad.”

Does that mean that Secretariat was actually as great a sire as he was a racehorse?

Well, purely in terms of his offspring’s results on the racetrack, the answer is “no.” But in terms of lasting success and continuing impact on the breed, the answer is much more in the positive category.

The difference between the great horse’s performance on the racetrack and his results as a sire of racehorses is a puzzle that has fascinated legions of Secretariat fans (and I am one of them and not the least of that number).

That Secretariat’s sons and his daughters both fared well in this study is very interesting. Most of us have become accustomed to thinking of the great chestnut son of Bold Ruler as a massively important broodmare sire, but his other avenues of influence should be considered as well.

And as the broodmare sire of Storm Cat, Gone West, and AP Indy, Secretariat’s contributions to the breed will linger yet a while.

munnings: new ky stallions for 2011

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gone west, juvenile sales, mass and speed, munnings, physical description, size in the thoroughbred, speightstown, sprinting horses

Munnings (2006 ch by Speightstown x La Comete, by Holy Bull)

Ashford $12,500

An athlete whose physical attractions made him a standout sales horse, Munnings turned into a prominent sprinter at 3 and 4. Bred in Kentucky by Dan Tayloe and Glencrest Farm, Munnings was a striking young horse, which he combined with an impressive work at Calder to sell for $1.7 million at Fasig-Tipton’s February sale of 2yos in training in 2008.

Later that year, he made waves in the juvenile division with a second in the Champagne, a third in the Hopeful. The following season, Munnings elevated himself to a lead role among the sprinters of his age and remained there to the midpoint of his 4yo season. In addition to his sprint form, the colt actually showed ability at a mile earlier in his career, before his massive frame had filled in.

In that regard, Munnings is different than his noted sire, the Gone West stallion Speightstown, whose rise to prominence was the work of years following his sale for $2 million as a yearling. Speightstown did not win a stakes until he was 6, when he won five of them and was named champion sprinter.

Raced by Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Susan Magnier, Munnings was considered a contender for such a championship at times during his career.

Thrice a winner at the G2 level (Tom Fool, Woody Stephens, and Gulfstream Park Sprint Championship), Munnings was second in a G1 (Champagne) and third in five more. So he had class. He had speed. He is visually appealing.

 

Possessing the body type of a Hereford bull, Munnings is all muscle and masculinity. He is quite thick around the girth and neck, very broad across the loins, and widely forked behind. He stands 16 hands and a half-inch or thereabouts and tips the scales at 1,400 pounds.

It is virtually certain he will sire some offspring much like himself, and they will doubtless be in great demand as prospects for early maturity and speed.

 

leading sire mr greeley lost to laminitis

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classic winners, finsceal beo, Gainesway Farm, gone west, international appeal, jim bolger, kentucky stallions, laminitis, Mr. Greeley, saiorse abu

One of Kentucky’s most versatile sires, Mr Greeley, was euthanized due to laminitis on Tuesday. The stallion stood at Gainesway and will be buried on the farm alongside Broad Brush, Cozzene, and In Reality.

A stallion who got G1 juveniles, 3yos, and older horses, Mr Greeley proved himself a major talent on the racetrack, then doubled down with international successes at the highest level during his career at stud.

The 18-year-old son of Gone West and the Reviewer mare Long Legend entered stud in the quiet days of the early 1990s, when it took a lot of jazz to make any horse successful. Mr. Greeley had the necessary qualities, however, and was a hit from the time his first yearlings entered the sales ring.

He proved a sire of consistently athletic and good-looking stock that first excited domestic buyers. Then, after the stallion’s daughter Finsceal Beo won the 2006 Cartier Award as the champion 2yo filly in Europe and then a pair of classics the following seasons, Mr Greeley was an international star.

Gainesway’s Michael Hernon recalled that “Finsceal Beo was an outstanding winner of the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket, which I was privileged to witness, and she was very similar to her sire in color and type. She had great speed and ability to quicken. She set a new stakes record when winning the 1,000 Guineas and looked a great deal like her sire.”

Hernon continued: “As an individual, Mr Greeley was a big, bold, masculine-looking horse with great eye appeal and was a Keeneland July graduate at $185,000. Nick Zito trained Mr Greeley for Bill Condren and Joe Cornacchia, who named the horse Mr Greeley after the popular Horace Greeley saying, ‘go west, young man.'”

With both Finsceal Beo and daughter Saiorse Abu winning European G1 races under the training of Jim Bolger, demand for Mr Greeley pushed his stud fee to $125,000 in 2008 before the international financial crises put everything in recession.

From a dozen crops of racing age, Mr Greeley has sired 53 stakes winners, and his offspring have earned more than $50 million.

Among Mr Greeley’s other outstanding runners are El Corredor (Cigar Mile), Whywhywhy (Futurity), Nonsuch Bay (Mother Goose), and Reel Buddy (Sussex Stakes).

During his own racing career, Mr Greeley won three times at the G3 level but showed his best form in his last start, when second by a neck to Desert Stormer in the 1995 Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Mr. Greeley began his stud career at Dixiana in 1996, standing for $10,000, then moved to Spendthrift for five seasons before coming to Gainesway in 2006. This year, Mr Greeley covered 128 mares, with 110 in foal. Hernon noted that the stallion’s “yearlings sold for up to $675,000 and in-foal mares sold for up to $350,000 this year.”

As a horse with size, strength, and speed, Mr Greeley was a natural broodmare sire, and his daughters are going to become increasingly valuable broodmares.

value defined by racing class

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aislng duignan, alabama stakes, ashford stud, awesome feather, bc juvenile fillies, careless jewel, coolmore stud, coronado's quest, derrick smith, eric guillot, fasig-tipton november sale, frank stronach, fred and jane brei, golden ballet, gone west, jacks or better farm, john magnier, marge and irving cowan, michael tabor, mike moreno, precious feather, saratoga, society selection, southern equine

The following post was published earlier this week at Paulick Report.

 

If there was a question in anyone’s mind, recent transactions have once again proven that the ultimate arbiter of value is racing performance. Both the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November sale and the opening session of the Keeneland November sale were topped by racehorses and producers with sterling on-course ability.

On Sunday at Fasig-Tipton, owner-breeder Frank Stronach, who handles his breeding and racing stock under the Adena Springs banner in the U.S. and Canada, bought Awesome Feather for $2.3 million. Two days previously, the unbeaten 2-year-old filly had won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. That victory made the daughter of Awesome of Course, a relatively unknown stakes-winning son of Adena Springs stallion Awesome Again, the likely selection as Eclipse Award winner for top 2-year-old filly of 2010.

The Breeders’ Cup was the first venture by Awesome Feather in top-level competition, but she passed the test with élan. After the filly had shown so much apparent potential for further top-flight competition, Stronach bought Awesome Feather as a racing prospect and will race her at 3 in 2011.

Fred and Jane Brei’s Jacks or Better Farm bred Awesome Feather in Florida from the Gone West mare Precious Feather. To date, Awesome Feather has won all six of her starts and earned $1,495,746.

The second-highest price at Fasig-Tipton’s one-day sale was $1.95 million for last year’s Alabama Stakes winner Careless Jewel (by Tapit). Trainer Eric Guillot signed the ticket for Careless Jewel as agent for Mike Moreno’s Southern Equine Stables.

On Monday at Keeneland’s opening session, the theme of high-priced Alabama Stakes winners continued. The day’s leading lot at $1.85 million was Alabama Stakes winner Society Selection (by Coronado’s Quest). Also the winner of the G1 Test Stakes at Saratoga, the 9-year-old Society Selection is the best racehorse sired by Travers winner Coronado’s Quest.

Aisling Duignan, director of sales for Coolmore’s Ashford Stud, signed the ticket on Society Selection for the Coolmore Stud partnership of John Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith. The mare’s first foal was the winning Giant’s Causeway filly Superior Selection, and the new owners are likely to breed the mare back to that Ashford stallion.

Society Selection, winner at the G1 level at 2 and 3, also ran second in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and four other G1 events during a racing career when she earned more than $1.9 million for owner-breeders Marge and Irving Cowan.

Society Selection has a 2-year-old filly named American Angel by Ghostzapper, a yearling colt by A.P. Indy, and is in foal to leading sire Medaglia d’Oro on a March 5 cover.

The Coolmore group also paid the second-highest price for a mare at the first session of the November sale, as Duignan picked up the multiple G1 winner Golden Ballet for $1.4 million. The 12-year-old chestnut mare is in foal to Unbridled’s Song on a May 7 cover.

In the walking ring behind the sales pavilion, Golden Ballet proved the most striking mare on display. The massively muscled chestnut strutted around the walking area, showing off her outstanding balance and quality, as well as her strength and agility.

Winner of the Las Virgenes and Santa Anita Oaks at the top level, as well as the Railbird and Santa Ynez stakes, during a 3-year-old season when she lost only the Ashland Stakes from five starts, Golden Ballet is the best racer by her sire, the Nijinsky stallion Moscow Ballet.

Not only was Golden Ballet an extraordinary looking mare, but she is also the dam of this year’s Belmont Stakes winner Drosselmeyer (by Distorted Humor). Golden Ballet was in foal to Unbridled’s Song, also the sire of the mare’s other stakes winner Stage Luck.

The stakes winners are two of the mare’s five named foals, and Golden Ballet is expected to be shipped to Ireland for the 2011 breeding season for mating with leading Coolmore stallion Galileo.

 

new stallions for 2009 ix

Tags

chile chatte, claiborne farm, del mar futurity, gone west, horse greeley, Mr. Greeley, raise a native, secretariat, storm cat

This is the ninth in a series of notes and impressions about the new stallions in Kentucky for 2009. The horses will be reviewed alphabetically.

Horse Greeley (2004 chestnut by Mr. Greeley out of Chile Chatte, by Storm Cat)

Stands at Claiborne Farm for $7,500 live foal

One of the five handsomest new stallions in Kentucky, Horse Greeley has the potential to be one of the sleepers in this group of new stallions. He was a high-class juvenile and is by one of the most successful sons of Gone West at stud: Mr. Greeley.

The latter has made a promising start as a sire of stallions with his first sons at stud, including El Corredor, who got G1 winner Adieu in his first crop, and Whywhywhy. Also a graded winner at 2, Whywhywhy started with a bang, siring Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Nownownow. This year, Nownownow has won again at graded level, and Ikigai also won the G3 Mr. Prospector Stakes in 2009.

So the sons of Mr. Greeley with high speed have considerable potential as stallions, which is no doubt the reason Horse Greeley was snapped up to stand at Claiborne. Horse Greeley won a maiden at Del Mar, then stepped up his game for a victory in the G2 Del Mar Futurity over Great Hunter and Stormello.

This bright chestnut son of Mr. Greeley has a massive top, girthing 79 inches, and with a corresponding depth of shoulder and length of hip. He is a very powerful animal. He also has great length of body and stands a strong 16.3 hands tall.

In the body mass sweepstakes, Horse Greeley is a real beast. He gets this physical type naturally, as his dam is by Storm Cat, who is quite a husky animal. And there are more remote influences in the pedigree such as Raise a Native, Secretariat, and Nijinsky who tended to be influences for quite robust body types.

Horse Greeley’s size and power are accented by a very good head and eye, and the horse has the bone and hard-looking feet that ought to allow his offspring to be active athletes. With all these physical traits, Horse Greeley should match a number of mares, including those with more refinement that need added strength and bone.