champion forte leads a pair of classic prospects from famous female families

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forte, hill 'n' dale farm, la troienne, raise cain, violence

You could say it was a Hill ‘n’ Dale Weekend. Not only did the farm’s stallion Violence (by Medaglia d’Oro) have two graded stakes winners in classic preps, but John Sikura’s operation also is co-breeder of Slip Mahoney (Arrogate), who was a good-looking second in the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct behind the Violence colt Raise Cain.

The Gotham winner was unexpected, starting at 23-1 odds, but the star turn on a very positive set of results for Violence was last season’s champion juvenile colt Forte, who was odds-on at 1-2 for his seasonal debut in the G2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream.

The handsome dark bay or brown looked full value for those odds as he sat handily behind the pace, swooped four wide on the turn, and left his rivals with no recourse as he ran on through the stretch to win by 4 ½ lengths from Holy Bull Stakes winner Rocket Can and Cyclone Mischief (both by Into Mischief).

Bred in Kentucky by South Gate Farm, Forte was sold as a weanling for $80,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November sale and then resold as a yearling at Keeneland’s 2021 September sale for $110,000 to Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable.

The striking colt is the first foal of his dam, the multiple stakes winner Queen Caroline (Blame), and this is a family that was developed over generations while in the Frances Genter family stable. This is the immediate female family of champions Essential Quality (Tapit) and Folklore (Tiznow).

A colt of considerable elegance, Forte comes from one of the most distinguished female families in the Stud Book, that of La Troienne (Teddy), who was bred in France by Marcel Boussac and imported as a broodmare carrying her first foal by Col. E. R. Bradley. The mare proved a success beyond the scope of that word in ordinary usage.

La Troienne produced five stakes winners, including the exceptional filly Black Helen and the champion and classic winner Bimelech (both by Black Toney). The distribution of Bradley’s bloodstock came with the purchase of all of the Bradley broodmares and foals by Robert J. Kleberg (King Ranch), John Hay Whitney (Greentree Stud), and Ogden Phipps.

Phipps got La Troienne’s daughter Baby League, the dam of Horse of the Year Busher, and for Phipps, Baby League produced Striking (War Admiral), winner of the 1949 Schuylerville and Broodmare of the Year in 1961. Her branch of this family produced Forte.

La Troienne herself went to Greentree, and she is buried in their equine graveyard, which is now part of Gainesway Farm. Bimelech likewise went to stand at Greentree, and other parts of the mare’s legacy were distributed among the purchasers and went on to play significant roles in racing’s continuing story.

Although La Troienne did not win, she was highly tested against high-class fillies. A winner of the Oaks in 1904, however, is the ancestress of this year’s Gotham Stakes winner. A racer of exceptional character who found lasting admiration among the racing public, Pretty Polly (Gallinule) won 22 of her 24 starts and is generally regarded as one of the greatest racers ever.

This chestnut paragon is the female-line ancestor of Raise Cain. The Gotham winner is out of the Lemon Drop Kid mare Lemon Belle, who is a half-sister to Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Unrivaled Belle (Unbridled’s Song), the dam of champion Unique Bella (Tapit).

Raise Cain is the first stakes winner of his dam, and she has a 2-year-old colt by Frosted (Tapit) and a colt at side by Constitution (Tapit) who was foaled last month.

Bred in Kentucky by Rock Ridge Thoroughbreds LLC, Raise Cain sold for $180,000 by Andrew Warren at Keeneland’s September yearling sale two years ago; returned to auction at the OBS June sale last year, Raise Cain was bought back at $65,000 and races for Andrew Warren and Rania Warren.

Should both of these colts make the rest of the journey to Louisville for the Run for the Roses, they will not lack for classic connections in their ancestral lines.

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awesome of course heading back to florida

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awesome again, awesome feather, awesome of course, bc juvenile fillies, brent fernung, champion mare, consolidator, fasig-tipton sale, florida breeding, frank stronach, fred and jane brei, jacks or better farm, journeyman stud, la troienne, lyphard, mais oui, straight deal

Sire of this year’s probable champion juvenile filly Awesome Feather, the young stallion Awesome of Course is on his way back to Florida following a single season at stud in Oklahoma. Awesome of Course stood at Legend Farm near Coleman.

The stakes-winning son of Awesome Again began his stud career in Florida, standing as the property of Fred and Jane Brei, who own the stallion and bred his daughter Awesome Feather, who is unbeaten in six starts, including the Florida Stallion Stakes series for fillies and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. The Breis sold Awesome Feather at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November select sale two days after the filly won the BC Juvenile Fillies for $2.3 million to Frank Stronach.

Precious Feather, the dam of Awesome Feather, produced a full brother to the top filly at the Breis’ Jacks or Better Farm on Jan. 28. The mare is back in foal to the Storm Cat stallion Consolidator, who stands at Journeyman Stud.

Awesome of Course will stand at Journeyman Stud outside Ocala, and farm owner Brent Fernung said, “Fred offered to send the horse to me last spring, but I didn’t have room in the stallion barn.”

The stallion will be shipping to Florida in the next few days and will be available for inspection at Journeyman in early December.

Awesome of Course is a 10-year-old by Awesome Again out of the Lyphard mare Mais Oui. On the racecourse, Awesome of Course won five of 13 starts, earning $152,440. Racing 2 and 3, he won three stakes. Out of stakes winner Mais Oui, Awesome of Course is one of three stakes winners from the mare.

The best sibling is G2 winner Imperfect World (by Carson City). She won the Genuine Risk in the States and the G3 Prix du Bois in France, ran third in the G2 Prix Robert Papin and G3 Vagrancy.

The third dam of Awesome of Course is champion mare Straight Deal (by Hail to Reason). Straight Deal produced stakes winners Reminiscing (dam of stakes winners and sires Premiership and Commemorate), Belonging (dam of stakes winner and sire Belong to Me), and G1 winner Desiree (dam of G1 winner Adored). This is the family of La Troienne.

The sire of 29 named foals of racing age, Awesome of Course is famous for one of them: Awesome Feather. At least so far.

lady shakespeare another strike for owner-breeder fipke

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chuck fipke, jack werk, joe estes, la troienne, lady shakespeare, lady shirl, new york stakes, owner-breeders, plebeian pedigrees, quality in female lines, quality producers, sid fernando, successful broodmares, theatrical

The following story appeared on Paulick Report earlier this week.

The victory of Lady Shakespeare in the Grade 2 New York Stakes on Saturday reminds attentive breeders that the genes that create a successful racehorse – wherever it comes from – are the best indicators that the colt or filly is likely to be able to transmit similar traits to its offspring. In other words, good horses breed more good horses, and the best Thoroughbred statisticians, Joe Estes and David Dink, have proven this in study after study.

Lady Shirl, the dam of Lady Shakespeare, could run. She had a sturdy record of 19 victories from 41 starts and a bit more than $1 million in earnings. It’s important in evaluating her produce record to note where she won and where she earned. She was a good racehorse, but on turf Lady Shirl was a really good racehorse.

On her preferred surface, Lady Shirl won 15 of 29 starts and earned more than 90 percent of her earnings.

So, it’s no surprise that Grade 1 winner Lady Shirl has been a very good producer. From eight foals to race, Lady Shirl has seven winners, with three stakes winners and a stakes-placed winner among them.

Lady Shirl, however, did not start out start out as a producer with great expectations. She had too plebeian a pedigree to inspire much confidence in most breeders.

The daughter of the Hey Good Lookin stallion That’s a Nice was the best offspring of her sire by a country mile and was the best offspring of her dam, the Native Heritage mare Canonization, by a similar margin. Nothing in her first two generations of pedigree could hold a light for Lady Shirl. She was vastly superior.

So, how did a top-flight racemare come from such ancestors? The simple answer is “a fortuitous recombination of genes.”

And when mated to the right stallions, especially the outstanding Nureyev horse Theatrical, Lady Shirl became a really good producer. Both her offspring by Theatrical are graded winners, and both showed their form on turf, which went perfectly with their mechanics and racing aptitudes.

And when Lady Shirl went to auction in 2005, the combination of a proven producer in foal to the right stallion and tracing to a fabulous family proved too tempting for breeder-owner Chuck Fipke, who bought Lady Shirl carrying Lady Shakespeare.

When he looked at the pedigree of Lady Shirl, Fipke didn’t worry about the intervening horses of middling ability. Instead, he saw Lady Shirl’s fourth dam, Glamour. A foal of 1953, Glamour is by Nasrullah out of Striking, by War Admiral out of Baby League, by Bubbling Over out of La Troienne.

Yes, it’s that family again. And Glamour is one of the reasons for its fame. She produced four stakes winners, including Poker (who actually beat Buckpasser on turf and is the broodmare sire of Seattle Slew) and Boucher (who won the St Leger).

Carrying a full sibling to Shakespeare, twice a Grade 1 winner, Lady Shirl was a pricey item at the sales. She brought $485,000 at the Keeneland November sale in 2005, with Jack Werk signing the ticket for Fipke, the luckiest man in the world when it comes to finding diamonds and good horses.

Sid Fernando is president of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, and owner-breeder Fipke is a longtime client of the company.

Fernando said, “Lady Shirl was purchased specifically to breed to Chuck’s own stallion Perfect Soul, and like several other mares Fipke purchased, the foals they were carrying at the time have proven highly successful racehorses.”

Among the other top horses bred by Fipke are Not Bourbon, a Queen’s Plate winner by Perfect Soul’s full brother Not Impossible; Internallyflawless, by Giant’s Causeway out of Tapatina; and Perfect Shower (Perfect Soul), winner of the Breeders Stakes, the final leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.

In evaluating his rapport with Fipke, Fernando said that “Chuck is a throwback to an older style owner-breeder like Marcel Boussac or Lord Derby, breeding his own mares to his own stallions according to his own theories with no commercial consideration at all. Chuck makes the final decisions for all matings.

“I will only intervene with mating arrangements if something is totally off the wall, because Chuck pays me to offer my candid opinions. It’s a terrific relationship because Chuck finds such endless enjoyment in the game, beginning with breeding a horse, then racing, and finally hoping to breed and race others from his own successful stock. That’s what made the history of the sport so great, as we’ve seen with great owner-breeder operations like the Phippses, Greentree, Paul Mellon, Elmendorf, Allaire duPont, the Wideners, and Alfred Vanderbilt.”