leroidesanimaux and medaglia d’oro sire classic winners

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animal kingdom, balanced linebreeding, barry irwin, bert welker, breeders of classic winners, clark shepherd, dalicia, gender-balanced breeding, german bloodstock, inbreeding and linebreeding, Kentucky Derby, kentucky oaks, leroidesanimaux, lyphard, medaglia d'oro, optimal mating, plum pretty, richard and audrey haisfield, sires of classic winners, stonewall farm, team valor

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

It is one of the particular ironies of this year’s classics that the sires of both Kentucky Oaks winner Plum Pretty (Medaglia d’Oro) and Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom (Leroidesanimaux) were standing at Stonewall Farm in Kentucky at the time the Oaks and Derby winners were conceived.

In the meantime, Darley bought Medaglia d’Oro, now standing at Jonabell, and Leroidesanimaux changed ownership and moved to Florida after the operation went into receivership last year.

Furthermore, both stallions were bought for Stonewall through the efforts of Barry Irwin, co-breeder of Animal Kingdom with the NeverTell Racing of Richard and Audrey Haisfield and a Team Valor syndicate.

Irwin said, “I bought the stallion prospects for Richard because I was the only guy he could find who would work for breeding rights rather than money.”

But Irwin’s dealings with the Haisfields weren’t limited to making stallion deals. They also participated in some of the racing stock purchased by Team Valor, including Dalicia, the German-bred Group 3 winner who produced the Kentucky Derby winner as her first foal.

Irwin said, “She was already a G3 winner, and I paid 400,000 Euros for her, which was the highest price ever for a filly out of training at that sale. Haisfield owned 25 percent of her, with the syndicate and I owning the remaining 75 percent.”

The talented young mare was a good racing prospect who became a good broodmare prospect, but fate intervened to send the mare to the turf champion Leroidesanimaux. Irwin recalled, “I wanted to breed her to Kingmambo, but that was the year that he got hurt, and we had to make other plans. They came up with Leroi, which was OK with me.

“Any way you look at it, we were under-breeding the mare commercially, but Haisfield owned the 25 percent, and I liked the horse, and it worked out.”

The mating that produced Animal Kingdom wasn’t the only one from the Stonewall stallions that worked, and Plum Pretty made Medaglia d’Oro one of five stallions to sire two Kentucky Oaks winners in the last 50 years, along with heavy hitters AP Indy, Seattle Slew, Deputy Minister, and Sir Ivor.

Bert Welker, who was general manager of Stonewall during its heyday with the retirements of Medaglia d’Oro and champions Leroidesanimaux and Lawyer Ron,said Clark Shepherd was the individual at Stonewall in charge of evaluating the potential of particular matings.

Shepherd candidly noted the mating that produced Plum Pretty was a good match but it happened “because the owners wanted to breed to the horse, and we said, ‘Yes.’ The mating that produced Animal Kingdom was the designed mating.”

The match of Leroidesanimaux and Dalicia was “what I call an optimal mating,” Shepherd said, “giving you the greatest opportunity to produce a good racehorse. This is gender-balanced line breeding and there is a mirror image of the line breedings top and bottom.”

For instance, Lyphard appears twice in the fourth generation of Animal Kingdom. The first is as the sire of the mare Bubble Company, dam of Candy Stripes, an important stallion and the sire of Leroidesanimaux. In the bottom half of the pedigree, Lyphard comes through his European champion son Dancing Brave, sire of the producer Dynamis, the dam of Dalicia.

In addition to the pedigree patterns considered in the mating, Shepherd also looked at the physiques of the parents. He said, “Dalicia was a mare with some stature, and Leroi was 16 hands at best. We thought we needed to put a mare to him with some leg. We would always lend our advice along the lines of what would produce the best racehorse, commercial considerations aside, and we strived to put the mating together that could produce the one horse who could make your stallion.”

In that, they were successful. No matter what Leroidesanimaux accomplishes the rest of his life, he is the sire of the 2011 Kentucky Derby winner.

As Shepherd and Welker looked back on the bittersweet experiences of working at the Kentucky division of Stonewall that ended before its failure, both affirmed their enduring respect for the horses who made the current racing successes possible. And Welker wondered, “What’s the chance that our next Triple Crown winner would be by a turf sire?”

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princess crowned in el encino

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acorn stakes, always a princess, argentine breeding, blind luck, blushing groom, candy stripes, champagne d'oro, eclipse awards, el encino, fasig-tipton november sale, gabby's golden gal, gabriellina giof, hennessy, housebuster, international thoroughbred, lemon drop kid, leroidesanimaux, liberation farm, medaglia d'oro, mt livermore, nasrullah male line, orientate, rainbow quest, red god, Rob Whiteley, santa anita racetrack, stonewall stallions

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

On Sunday, Always a Princess won the Grade 2 El Encino from newly minted Eclipse Award champion 3-year-old filly Blind Luck in a scorching effort over the fast track at Santa Anita. Always a Princess pressed the cracking pace of Champagne d’Oro (by Medaglia d’Oro) and held off the divisional champ’s stretch run.

Rob Whiteley of Liberation Farm said that “It was rather ironic for me to watch a beautiful daughter of Leroidesanimaux that I did not breed crush Champagne d’Oro, whom I bred, in the El Encino, preventing Champagne d’Oro from being able to relax on the lead, which she needed to do to win the race,” eventually finishing fourth.

Already a winner at G2 level and second in the G1 Hollywood Starlet behind Blind Luck in 2009, Always a Princess is an outstanding specimen by champion turf horse Leroidesanimaux and is out of the Ashkalani mare Gabriellina Giof.

A talented racer who won stakes in Europe and in the States, Gabriellina Giof has become a major star with her produce since going to stud. The mare’s first foal, the Hennessy filly Gabby’s Hen, was a winner, but her second and third foals have proven to be much more.

Second foal Gabby’s Golden Gal (by Medaglia d’Oro) won the G1 Acorn Stakes at Belmont and the G1 Santa Monica at Santa Anita. As a multiple G1 winner and a very attractive daughter of a posh stallion, Gabby’s Golden Gal ticked all the boxes for buyers when she went through the ring at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November sale. She sold as a racing or breeding prospect, and buyers were not caught flat-footed by her credentials, driving the sales price to $1.25million, as Shadai Farm made her one of their many high-end purchases this sales season.

In January 2008, when Gabby’s Golden Gal and her year-younger sibling Always a Princess were an unraced 2-year-old and yearling, their dam went through the Keeneland January sales ring for $75,000 in foal to Lemon Drop Kid.

The resulting foal was sold at the 2008 Keeneland November sale for $22,000 as a weanling and then resold in 2009 as a Tattersalls October yearling for the equivalent of $259,504.

In contrast to the upwardly mobile female side of the family of Always a Princess, her sire has been in a maelström caused by the bankruptcy of Stonewall Farm in Kentucky, which bought Leroidesanimaux and stood him at stud.

Following a move to Florida last summer, however, the stallion’s future now seems clear.

A representative of Stonewall Stallions Florida confirmed that Leroidesanimaux is no longer subject to litigation and is owned outright by Family Broodmares III. The stallion is standing at the Stonewall property in Florida for a fee of $7,500 live foal and has nearly 50 mares on his book at present.

An outstanding specimen of a swift miler, Leroidesanimaux represents one of the variant lines descending from the great stallion Nasrullah. While almost all the male-line descent of Nasrullah in the U.S. comes through Bold Ruler (and most of that through Seattle Slew these days), Nasrullah’s son Red God, another colt born in the 1954 crop like Bold Ruler, sired European highweight Blushing Groom.

Imported to the U.S. as a stallion by John Gaines, Blushing Groom spent his entire career at Gainesway Farm, where he became one of the most important influences for speed and class in international breeding through the 1980s to the present.

Blushing Groom’s Arc de Triomphe winner Rainbow Quest set a much more classic standard for this male-line branch in Europe, but in America, Mt. Livermore proved the most influential with champion sprinters Orientate and Housebuster, as well as champion juvenile filly Eliza.

Blushing Groom’s high-class son Candy Stripes went to stud in Argentina, where he became a very important factor in South American breeding. Among his best-known stock above the equator are Spinster Stakes winner Different, Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Invasor, and the dam of leading sire Candy Ride, as well as Leroidesanimaux, who was foaled in Brazil.

Second in a G1 in his only start in his homeland, Leroidesanimaux made his 10 subsequent races in the US, with eight victories and earnings of $1,650,900. Winner in three G1 races, Leroidesanimaux was named Eclipse Award winner as best turf horse in 2005.

Whiteley described the effect that Leroidesanimaux’s racing ability had on his judgment as a breeder. He noted, “I was a fan of Leroidesanimaux on the racetrack, and I liked him very much as a stallion prospect and bred two dozen mares to him [in the past four seasons]. He not only was a solid and accomplished racehorse, but he looks like one.”

A massively constructed stallion standing 16 hands, Leroidesanimaux is well balanced and as athletic as a champion should be. He has great reach at the walk and showed both speed and a finishing kick during his racing career.

Whiteley said, “Leroidesanimaux has been quite successful at reproducing himself and has stamped his foals effectively. I’ve yet to see one that I didn’t like, and some of them, I have liked very, very much.”

With support from the rugged and speedy broodmare population in Florida, the stallion’s opportunities should not diminish. Always a Princess, her sire’s best performer to date, is from the stallion’s first crop of foals, now 4.

leroi on the lam from creditors

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leroidesanimaux, move to florida, stonewall farm

Turf champion Leroidesanimaux has taken to the open road in an effort to evade the credit critters of embattled owner Stonewall Farm.

A farm spokesman confirmed that Leroidesanimaux, Value Plus, AP Warrior, and all the other Stonewall stallions, except Doneraile Court, have shipped to their Florida farm, where the stallions will await the outcome of hostilities between the multiple Stonewall-related ownership entities and the various banks that have liens against the horses.

Depending on what the runners by these stallions do in the next several months, one or more might “return to Kentucky and stand at a farm that is yet to be decided.”

Leroidesanimaux — a massive and powerful chestnut horse by Candy Stripes out of Dissemble, by Ahonoora — was G1-placed in his native Brazil before arriving here in the States. Trained by Bobbie Frankel, Leroidesanimaux won eight of his 10 North American starts. Three victories came in G1 events (Citation Handicap, Atto Mile, and Kilroe Mile), along with a close second in the G1 BC Mile to Artie Schiller.

Leroidesanimaux has stood in Kentucky since his retirement in 2006, and his oldest foals are now 3. They include recent Will Rogers Stakes winner Leroy’s Dynameaux and Fortunia, who was second in the G3 Ouija Board Distaff Handicap. From the stallion’s second crop, Glor Na Mara recently ran second in the G1 Phoenix Stakes.

equal stripes jets to the top

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argentina, argentine bloodstock, blushing groom line, candy stripes, equal stripes, invasor, las estrellas, leroidesanimaux

The Candy Stripes horse Equal Stripes had a landmark day at last Saturday’s Carreras de las Estrellas in Buenos Aires. It was so impressive that he is the subject of negotiations over Northern Hemisphere rights.

That may not happen, however, because the difficulties of moving a horse between hemispheres are not on one side, and the massive bay stallion has risen like a rocket on the stud charts for Haras Abolengo, which also stood the horse’s sire Candy Stripes and broodmare sire Equalize.

Narrowly pipped for leading freshman sire last season by the Southern Halo horse Sebi Halo, Equal Stripes has continued his fierce competition with that other homegrown star through this season’s racing. But the evidence of the Estrellas has tipped the balance in favor of the big bay son of Candy Stripes.

Best known in the States as the sire of champions Invasor and Leroidesanimaux, Candy Stripes was a very classy racehorse whose best effort was probably his second in the French classic Poule d’Essai des Poulains.

Leroidesanimaux has begun his stud career with promise from his first foals that are now 3. And Horse of the Year Invasor has his first yearlings coming to the sales.

Of the two, Leroidesanimaux is physically more similar to Equal Stripes, who is a very handsome and strongly made animal with bone in proportion to his hefty top. Invasor is more lightly made — like a natural distance horse — and showed his best form at 10 furlongs.

Equal Stripes and Leroidesanimaux, on the other hand, were top-class milers. Equal Stripes ran second in the Estrellas Juvenile in 2001 and twice won at G2 level the next year when the colt was undefeated. In all, Equal Stripes for four of his seven starts from 2 to 4, which indicates a great deal of talent but also some underlying issue that kept him from racing as much as a horse of his natural ability should have done.

Since there is no obvious conformational problem with Equal Stripes, one possibility is that he simply became too heavy and that his great muscle power kept jarring him just enough under racing conditions to keep him on the sidelines.

That is not ideal in a stallion, and when he went to stud, there was little fanfare for the handsome bay. But with his first runners, breeders began taking notice of him last year. He covered a good book of mares in the 2009 breeding season, and after the display at the Estrellas, he will get even better mares in 2010.

The stallion’s offspring swept five races on the card, including both of the G1 juvenile events. The stallion’s son Paulinho was immensely impressive, and the sign of a truly important stallion is taking goodish mares and moving them up with premium offspring. Equal Stripes is doing that and is adding a further rich dimension of the Blushing Groom male to Argentine breeding.

freshman forecast

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belva, buzz chace, english channel, ghostzapper, juvenile sale, keeneland, kris s., leroidesanimaux, offlee wild, Pulpit, purge, ramona bass, rock hard ten, suni, west point thoroughbreds, wild again, wildcat heir

Although there was little enough sunshine from the results of this year’s Keeneland April sale of 2-year-olds in training, one of the highlights was the solid reception of some freshmen sires.

In particular, the grand Kris S. stallion Rock Hard Ten won another resounding endorsement of his first-crop prospects from the juvenile sales market with a colt (Hip 168) bringing $440,000 and a pair of fillies (Hips 3 and 135) bringing $260,000 and $300,000.

In this bone dry market, that sort of response from buyers is akin to singing and dancing in the streets.

The reason those youngsters sold so well was that they looked the part and worked well. They have size and scope, good bone and quality. They looked like nice racehorses.

But don’t expect to see them butting heads with the Wildcat Heirs for the super-sharp, early juvenile competition. They look like young athletes who are likely to continue growing, begin racing in August at Saratoga or Del Mar, and continue from there.

A trio of freshmen sires also each had a lot sell for $200,000 or more at the Keeneland auction. Leroidesanimaux, who is a handsome animal himself, had a very good lot come through the ring, as Hip 181 brought $210,000 and went to Mamoru Kato for the Japanese market.

A pair of fillies by the Pulpit stallion Purge brought $240,000 and $105,000 (Hip 15). The more expensive of the two, Hip 164, is a half-sister to the once-beaten Japanese star Suni (by Soto).

And the Wild Again stallion Offlee Wild received a major thumbs up from the marketplace when Hip 18 went for $300,000 to Buzz Chace for West Point Thoroughbreds.

Rubbing shoulders with the $200,000 level was a daughter of Horse of the Year Ghostzapper. Out of the Theatrical mare Belva, the half-sister to champion English Channel brought $190,000 from Ramona Bass. The filly was Hip 143 in the sale and had been a Keeneland September RNA for $470,000.