breeder blum believes in mining the maternal line of mono, famous for major winners, including triple crown champ assault

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assault, bold venture, king ranch, mono, national treasure, peter blum

The family that produced the 2023 Preakness Stakes winner National Treasure has been owned by breeder Peter Blum since Moses was wearing diapers.

Over the past seven generations of this family, from sixth dam Mono (by Better Self) to breeding and selling the Preakness winner through the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale consignment of Bridie Harrison, whose family farm operation foaled and raised the colt, Blum has concentrated on quality. Quality and classic athleticism.

But the mare that began this saga and that Peter Blum acquired a while back was the Better Self mare Mono, out of Sin Igual. Mono was a good-looking mare, and this is a family with good looks and attractive physicality. Broad and thick-bodied, Mono wasn’t the very best racing type, not being especially tall and scopey, but she was much better than average as a producer, and her family continues on to the present with such as this year’s Preakness winner.

Bred in Kentucky by King Ranch, Mono proved a winner and was six times second or third from 14 starts, earning $3,752. Judged surplus to requirements for King Ranch, Mono went on to produce three stakes winners, including Rare Performer (by Mr. Prospector) for Blum, and the bay son of Mr. Prospector went to stud in Kentucky at Murty Farm, then moved to Prestonwood Farm (now WinStar) in the late 1980s.

Rare Performer was a fast son of Mr. Prospector who sired a powerful, chunky type in the mold of this family. And Blum bred a full sister to Rare Performer whose physique followed the family type (just a bit chubby) but whose racing success was limited.

Like her dam, Mine Only proved a winner on the racetrack but a dazzling success as a broodmare. That has been the common thread among the broodmares of this line that Blum has retained. Only one has done more than win a maiden, National Treasure’s second dam Proposal (Mt. Livermore), who won at two and four and placed in a stakes.

Retired to stud, Proposal produced four stakes winners. Each of the dams tracing backward, even beyond the ownership of Blum, show a perplexing laxity on the point of racing performance, but they are dynamite broodmares.

Each has produced at least one stakes winner; most went for multiples. For instance, third dam Lady of Choice (Storm Bird) only placed on the track but foaled Proposal and her full brother G3 stakes winner Multiple Choice. Fourth dam Chosen Lady (Secretariat) also only placed on the track but produced G1 winner Well Chosen (Deputy Minister), winner of the Ashland Stakes, and G3 winner In Contention (Devil’s Bag). A full sister to G2 Manhattan Handicap winner Academy Award, Chosen Lady was a half-sister to G3 winners Good Mood (Devil’s Bag) and Statuette (Pancho Villa); these are all out of Mono’s daughter Mine Only, a full sister to Rare Performer.

Another facet to the breeding story of National Treasure is the repeated addition of classic quality to these rugged, fast, strong mares. In particular, the sire and broodmare sire of National Treasure, Quality Road and Medaglia d’Oro, are dominant for adding scope and classic stamina to pedigrees; their addition to this fast, sturdy family resulted in National Treasure. Last season, the bay colt could fairly have been called the third-best juvenile after a second-place finish to Cave Rock (Arrogate) in the American Pharoah and then a third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile behind Forte (Violence) and Cave Rock again.

Thus, the step forward to compete in the classics was not a long one from National Treasure’s standing at two, although his level of success was a major elevation for his dam, the Medaglia d’Oro mare Treasure. She placed six times from seven starts, earning $63,180, and the Preakness winner is her fourth foal.

In addition to the current Preakness winner, this is the family line of the 1946 Preakness (and Triple Crown) winner Assault (Bold Venture), and National Treasure’s seventh dam is Sin Igual (Bold Venture), a full sister to Assault foaled in 1952. They are both out of the unraced Equipoise mare Igual.

As a mate for Bold Venture, Igual delivered for King Ranch, getting a Triple Crown winner and other talented racers. Bold Venture, whom King Ranch had acquired after his racing career was finished, proved a mixed blessing for the breeding operation. The 1936 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner sired a Triple Crown winner for them, plus Middleground, who won the 1950 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.

In the loss column, however, Bold Venture wasn’t the most fertile stallion, and his sons were somewhat worse. Assault was effectively sterile, and Middleground was noted as a “patchy foal-getter.”

That doesn’t seem to have been a problem with the fillies in the family, however, and the line continued on.

Nor are Assault and his sire the only other Preakness winners related to this distinguished family. Igual’s dam is the Chicle mare Incandescent, bred in Kentucky by C.V. Whitney and a minor stakes winner out of the Fair Play mare Masda. The latter is the elder full sister to 1920 Preakness winner Man o’ War.

If you breed to real quality, it keeps coming back.

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verrazano is a bridge to a great chapter in racing’s history

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breeding and history, emory hamilton, king ranch, more than ready, robert kleberg, verrazano

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

Sometimes the breeders of Thoroughbreds have pedigrees with as much history in the sport as the horses themselves, and that is surely the case with Emory Hamilton, breeder of Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby winner Verrazano. Hamilton’s grandfather, Robert J. Kleberg Jr., was head of the immense King Ranch operation that spread around the globe.

In racing history, Kleberg is most noted for breeding and racing 1946 Triple Crown winner Assault (by Bold Venture), and King Ranch had purchased the champion’s sire after Bold Venture’s victories in the 1936 Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

Bold Venture, a son of English Derby second St. Germans, proved a huge success for King Ranch, siring Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner Middleground, as well as Gazelle Stakes winner On Your Own, a full sister to Assault. Unfortunately, Bold Venture also passed along “St. Germans’s problem” of erratic fertility.

The sterility of classic winners Twenty Grand and Assault, combined with the faint fertility of other top members of the line, condemned this branch of the great Blandford line to a lingering death that impoverished breeding of one source of stamina and high-class toughness. The members, such as Bold Venture, who had acceptable fertility, were really good stock, however, and gave breeders such as King Ranch classic ammunition for their home-breeding programs.

In addition to his breeding successes, Kleberg was known for acquiring premium bloodstock when available, and he was one of the three breeders in the late 1940s who bought all the broodmares and stallions from Col. E.R. Bradley’s Idle Hour Stock Farm, along with Ogden Phipps and John Hay Whitney of Greentree Stable.

About 50 years ago, Kleberg purchased French highweight Monade, who had shown her athletic ability as the winner of the 1962 English Oaks and Prix Vermeille, as well as with a cracking second-place finish in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

An elegant mare by the top French stallion Klairon, Monade was a tip-top racemare. Her purchase was a mixed blessing for King Ranch, however, as she was not equally successful as a broodmare. But Kleberg believed in breeding to horses with speed and racing class, and among Monade’s mates was the great Horse of the Year Dr. Fager (Rough’n Tumble).

The resulting foal was Remedia, a bay born in 1971 who proved above average in racing class, although she did not become a stakes winner.

Retired to the King Ranch broodmare band, Remedia was a much better (or luckier) producer than her dam and has helped to spread this family through top-class racing with multiple generations of stakes winners and producers. Her lovely Blushing Groom daughter Too Chic was an important producer too, and the latter’s daughter, G1 winner Chic Shirine (Ashland Stakes), is the second dam of the Tampa Bay Derby winner.

In the allotment of the King Ranch stock among Kleberg’s heirs, this branch of Monade went to Emory Hamilton, who bred Chic Shirine. The latter was one of the best 3-year-old fillies of 1987, when Chic Shirine won the Ashland and finished third in the Mother Goose.

Her full sister Queena (both by Mr. Prospector) proved a bit more on the racetrack and was elected champion older mare. Both have been stellar producers. Chic Shirine produced a pair of G2 winners: Waldoboro (True North) and Tara Roma (Ladies Handicap), both by the Northern Dancer stallion Lyphard.

Chic Shirine produced Verrazano’s dam, the Giant’s Causeway mare Enchanted Rock, at the age of 20. Enchanted Rock made only a single start and retired unplaced.

The breeder must have seen something in the filly’s training, however, because she was sent to the proven sire Pulpit, and her first foal was G2 winner El Padrino. Verrazano, by the internationally prominent sire More Than Ready, is the mare’s second foal and second graded winner.

Enchanted Rock has a 2-year-old filly by Pulpit’s top son Tapit that is named La Madrina and has a yearling filly by Pulpit.

More Than Ready, the sire of Verrazano, was a top juvenile in 1999 and a classic prospect the following year.

Earlier this year, More Than Ready and other Vinery stallions moved to WinStar Farm, where his stud fee is $60,000 live foal.

big prices for old horses

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american racing manual, august belmont, bold venture, equine sales, flying fox, king ranch, nearco, ormonde, rock sand, stallion values, tracery

In his response to a comment in yesterday’s post about the price that August Belmont II paid for English Triple Crown winner Rock Sand, Observer asked about record prices for horses a century ago and thereabouts.

Although it’s a bit sticky to evaluate prices from that far back because of the changes we’ve seen from inflation and changes in currency valuation, prices from around 1900 through the 1930s were fairly comparable.

At the time that Belmont bought Rock Sand, the sum he paid was equal to the second-highest price for a stallion that I could find. Both Triple Crown winners Ormonde and Rock Sand are recorded as trading for that sum. They sat in second place behind the great European racer Flying Fox, who was bought for $189,000. (None of these transactions was in dollars, but for many years, the static valuation of the British pound sterling at $5 to the single pound formed a standard conversion factor.)

The top prices began to inflate somewhat through the 1920s and 1930s. According to the American Racing Manual of 1940, the top half-dozen prices stood at $300,000 for Nearco and Call Boy (Derby winner), $265,000 for Rock Sand’s son Tracery, $250,000 for Mieuxce, Blenheim, and Windsor Lad.

Prices for American stock had plummeted by this time, however, and the sale price in 1939 for the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Bold Venture was $40,000. Robert Kleberg of King Ranch purchased him, and for that far-sighted sportsman, Bold Venture subsequently sired Triple Crown winner Assault, Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner Middleground, and Gazelle Stakes winner On Your Own.