it’s tricky among the last of stonerside-bred stock

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a.p. indy, angel fever, arthur hancock iii, belmont park, bob and janice mcnair, bourbon county, broodmare success, catboat, champion racehorses, coaching club american oaks, darley, fusaichi pegasus, godolphin, it's tricky, knowledge of bloodstock and breeding, midshipman, mineshaft, plum pretty, Pulpit, raising good racehorses, saratoga racecourse, sheikh mohammed, sires of broodmares, sires of sires, stallion success, stonerside, tale of the cat, Tapit, turbulent descent

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

The result of the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga on Saturday proved fine racing drama. Plum Pretty, the winner of the Kentucky Oaks, threw down the gauntlet to her competition while rating in front, and It’s Tricky, winner of the Acorn Stakes over Turbulent Descent, battled with the leader through the stretch to win by three-quarters of a length.

The winner of the historic CCA Oaks, now transplanted to Saratoga from Belmont Park, races for Godolphin and was bred in Kentucky by Stonerside Stable. In fact, It’s Tricky is among the last crop of foals bred by Stonerside, which sold its entire breeding and racing operation – farm, training center, racehorses, and bloodstock – to Sheikh Mohammed in 2008.

This proved an unqualified boon to the racing fortunes of the Godolphin and Darley stables that are supplied from the vast international studs of Sheikh Mohammed.

Among the young stock on the track at the time of the sale was the Unbridled’s Song colt Midshipman, who later that year won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and was voted the Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old colt. The chestnut horse entered stud this year at Darley’s Jonabell stallion farm in Lexington.

And three years ago, when Midshipman was just getting traction as an important young athlete, It’s Tricky was a weanling in the spacious pastures at the Stonerside Farm property in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Years earlier, Bob and Janice McNair had acquired Stonerside and begun their racing and breeding operation quietly, working with established and reputable horsemen.

As a result of time, money, and continuous application, the McNairs’ racing fortunes prospered. Much of their farm land had been purchased from the operation of Arthur Hancock III, and some of Stonerside’s most select mares were owned in partnership with Hancock, including Angel Fever, the dam of 2000 Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus.

Such was their reputation that when the time came that the McNairs chose to turn their attention to other sporting endeavors, they were able to sell their entire operation in one parcel.

While It’s Tricky may be one of the last major stars bred by Stonerside to stand in the winner’s circle, the farm’s bloodstock will continue to prove of value to the breed and to Darley for years to come. Catboat, the dam of the once-beaten It’s Tricky, is a graded stakes-winning daughter of Tale of the Cat. She won six races during her three seasons of racing, and the best of the lot was the G3 Arlington Oaks.

She was a nice mare, but in the larger scheme of the Stonerside package, Catboat was only one of many nice mares. She stands out a bit more now.

It’s Tricky is Catboat’s second foal and her first foal to race. The mare produced a year-older colt by Congaree that has not been named. Since It’s Tricky, Catboat has a 2-year-old filly by Successful Appeal named Jellicle, was empty in 2010, and has a filly of 2011 by Medaglia d’Oro, who is the sire of Plum Pretty, second in the CCA Oaks.

In addition to highlighting the class and ability of It’s Tricky and Plum Pretty, the CCA Oaks also proved a showcase for the massive and widening influence of A.P. Indy in American racing.

Plum Pretty and third-place Royal Delta (by Empire Maker) are both out of A.P. Indy mares, and It’s Tricky is by A.P. Indy’s son Mineshaft, Horse of the Year on the racetrack and one of A.P. Indy’s more successful sons at stud.

To date, A.P. Indy’s most celebrated stallion son has been Pulpit, and his son Tapit was represented by the high-class Joyful Victory in the Oaks and by G1 winner Zazu, who won the Hollywood Oaks, was second in the Santa Anita Oaks, and ran third in the Kentucky Oaks, in other racing for 3-year-old fillies this year.

Although pensioned from breeding earlier this year, AP Indy has a lot of acorns who have become mighty competitors in the Oaks across the country.

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dialed in finishes big for florida derby victory

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a.p. indy, alan cohen, allen paulson, arindel farm, breeding in florida, breeding to race, curlin, daring bidder, dialed in, dinard, eliza, florida derby, Gainesway Farm, horse of the year, housebuster, keeneland november breeding stock sale, lane's end farm, madeleine paulson, may foals, mineshaft, miss doolittle, mr. prospector, mt livermore, nick zito, orientate, prospectors delite, purchase of broodmares, sibling to dialed in, speed in racehorses, stamina in racehorses, storm cat, training thoroughbred racehorses, ws farish

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

Now the winner in three of his four starts, including Sunday’s Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park, Dialed In has risen from winner of a maiden special to G1 victor in three quick steps. The colt’s rise has been so precipitous that trainer Nick Zito seemed almost apologetic for raising the colt so quickly in class.

In truth, the conservative-minded Zito has tended to work his stock through conditions and place them in classic competition only after quite a bit of seasoning. But Dialed In has demanded a somewhat different approach.

The nice-looking bay colt has a pedigree that swoons with a delirious mixture of stamina and speed, but Dialed In seemed even as a young horse to have combined all the best elements of those forebears, as attested by his auction price of $475,000 at the 2009 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale.

By a Horse of the Year, Dialed In is out of a highly pedigreed mare from a family with intense speed and precocious development.

The sire of the Florida Derby winner is champion Mineshaft, a son of Horse of the Year A.P. Indy and the outstanding producer Prospectors Delite, by Mr. Prospector. In addition to winning the G1 Acorn and Ashland stakes on the racetrack, Prospectors Delite produced five stakes winners from five foals, including the G1 winners Mineshaft and his full sister Tomisue’s Delight.
Mineshaft was a May 17 foal, unraced at 2, and sent to race in Europe, where he gained experience over turf, which did not appear to his liking. Returned to race in the States at 4, Mineshaft won seven of nine starts, including four G1s (Jockey Club Gold Cup, Woodward, Suburban, and Pimlico Special), and was named champion older horse and Horse of the Year.

In contrast to Mineshaft, Dialed In’s dam, Miss Doolittle showed speed and class at 2, when she ran second in the G2 Schuylerville at Saratoga. Furthermore, both Miss Doolitle’s sire and dam were top-class 2-year-olds. Sire Storm Cat was nearly champion of his age, losing narrowly to champion Tasso (by Fappiano) in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and dam Eliza was champion of her division at 2 when she was victorious in the BC Juvenile Fillies.

As a broodmare, Eliza has been good but nothing like as dominant as she proved on the racetrack. To date, her best racer has been Samuel Morse (Danehill Dancer), winner at G2 level in Europe.

The speedier of two top-class horses produced by the outstanding broodmare Daring Bidder, Eliza is a half-sister to Dinard (Strawberry Road). Allen Paulson bred both Eliza and the Santa Anita Derby winner, and his wife Madeleine bred Miss Doolittle, who sold for $1.3 million at the 1999 Keeneland July select sale and raced for W.S. Farish, Paulson, and Skara Glen Stable.

Eliza is one of three champions by the important stallion Mt. Livermore, a son of Blushing Groom who stood his entire career at Gainesway Farm, like his sire. The other Eclipse Award winners by Mt. Livermore are Housebuster and Orientate.

There is a great deal of obvious speed in Miss Doolittle’s ancestors, and the mare passed along some speed and class with a stakes winner and a stakes-placed racer from her first two foals.

But when sent through the ring at last year’s Keeneland November sale, the good-looking and powerfully made mare brought only $85,000 in foal to Horse of the Year Curlin. At the time, I told an associate, “that man has made his money already.”

And Dialed In wasn’t even the winner of a maiden at the time.

The buyer was Arindel Farm, owned by Alan Cohen, which purchased 11 broodmares at the auction, including such major performers and producers as Solvig, Dat You Miz Blue, and Sara’s Success, as well as Miss Doolittle.

The Ocala breeding and racing operation has more than 30 broodmares at present, with Miss Doolittle being the star of the day. Cohen said the mare “foaled a filly Feb. 7, and it is gorgeous, the nicest foal we have, and she looks like Curlin.”

Cohen noted the farm has several nice foals already this year, called the Curlin half-sister to Dialed In a “standout.” Furthermore, the owner said Miss Doolittle is back in foal to Mineshaft with a full sibling to Dialed In after being checked in foal a week ago.

Cohen said, “We love the horse and love the sport. We’ve been in the business for a while and had decided to buy some more nice ones at Keeneland. And it’s really great we were able to get that kind of horse.”

One reason Cohen believes he was able to collect such quality stock for realistic prices is that “we wanted to race some more, and we take a chance on the 10-, 11-, and 12-year-old mares. Mares with performance on the track and as producers. We figure they will continue to produce nice babies, and because basically we are breeding to race and not to sell, the commercial consideration didn’t matter to us.”

Arindel will produce about 20 racehorses a year for Cohen’s stable, and the operation in Ocala will focus on racing its stock, selling a few and racing most.

Will the Curlin filly out of Miss Doolittle prove a tough decision to race or sell? Somehow, I doubt it.

 

miss doolittle: dam of fla derby winner dialed in

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champion racehorses, dialed in, eliza, florida derby, mineshaft, miss doolittle, mt livermore, precocity, speed in thoroughbreds, storm cat

A mare could hardly be pedigreed more highly than Miss Doolittle, a daughter of Storm Cat out of champion juvenile filly Eliza, by the important sire Mt Livermore. This is also a pedigree laced with precocity and speed.

Miss Doolittle, dkbbr, 1998. Bred by Madeleine A. Paulson (KY). Raced 2 yrs in NA, 6 sts, 2 wins, $74,378 (ssi = 4.08). 3rd Schuylerville S. (gr. 2). ($1,300,000, 1999, keejul, yrlg; $85,000, 2010, keenov, brdmr)

2002:	BROADWAY GOLD, dkbbr f, by Seeking The Gold. Raced 2 yrs in NA, 11 sts, 3 wins, $166,645 (ssi = 4.82). Won Astoria S.; 3rd Legal Light S. ($600,000, 2003, keesep, yrlg)
2003:	Mambo Master, b g, by Kingmambo. Raced 5 yrs in NA, 32 sts, 2 wins, $79,160 (ssi = 0.82). 3rd Paterson S. ($325,000, 2004, keesep, yrlg)
2004:	Hometown Boy, dk b/ c, by Came Home. Raced 4 yrs in NA, 18 sts, 4 wins, $149,136 (ssi = 3.07). ($250,000, 2005, keesep, yrlg)
2005:	Eliza’s Gold, b f, by Seeking The Gold. Unraced in NA, Eng, and Fr. ($140,000, 2008, keejan, rac age; $47,000, 2008, keenov, brdmr)
2006:	Backstabber, dkbbr c, by Elusive Quality. Raced 2 yrs in NA, 9 sts, 2 wins, $55,651 (ssi = 2.33). ($400,000, 2007, keesep, yrlg)
2007:	No record.
2008:	DIALED IN. ($475,000, 2009, ftsaug, yrlg)
	At 3: Won Florida Derby (gr. 1), Holy Bull S. (gr. 3).
2009:	Unnamed foal, c, by Ghostzapper.
2010:	Barren.
2011:	Unnamed foal, f, by Curlin.

Broodmare sire: STORM CAT, dkbbr, 1983. Sire of 470 dams of 2173 foals, 1580 rnrs (73%), 1101 wnrs (51%), 337 2yo wnrs (16%), 137 sw (6%).

2nd Dam: ELIZA, b, 1990. Bred by Allen E. Paulson (KY). Raced 3 yrs in NA, 12 sts, 5 wins, $1,095,316 (ssi = 61.38). Sent To Ireland, 2006. Champion Two Year Old Filly. Won Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies S. (gr. 1), Santa Anita Oaks (gr. 1), Alcibiades S. (gr. 2), Arlington-Washington Lassie S. (gr. 2); 2nd Kentucky Oaks (gr. 1), Sorrento S. (gr. 3); 3rd Santa Anita Derby (gr. 1), June Darling Handicap (R). ($1,700,000, 1999, keenov, brdmr) Dam of SAMUEL MORSE (IRE) (c, Danehill Dancer (IRE). $126,297, Won Marble Hill S.; 2nd Railway S. (IRE. 2), Anglesey S. (IRE. 3); 3rd Futurity S. (IRE. 2)), Country Song (c, Fusaichi Pegasus. $71,701, 2nd Chesham S.). Granddam of BUTTERS,Attempted Humor, Mr. Champ.

It is interesting to see that Miss Doolittle has done well with horses of various sorts, both those with speed and those with greater stamina, including Mineshaft, the AP Indy horse who is the sire of Florida Derby winner Dialed In.

This should be fun to watch.

 

discreetly mine: new ky stallions for 2011

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big drama, discreetly mine, lane's end, majesticperfection, mineshaft, pedigree and performance, size in racehorses, sprint championship, sprinting capacity

Discreetly Mine (2007 b by Mineshaft x Pretty Discreet, by Private Account)

Lane’s End $15,000

One of the big three sprint championship contenders, along with Majesticperfection and Eclipse Award winner Big Drama, Discreetly Mine is not an obvious “sprinter.”

He is neither a huge horse nor a massively muscled animal. He’s big enough, standing right on 16 hands, and he’s strong enough to win the G1 King’s Bishop. In physique, however, he is the type of horse who should race a mile or somewhat farther with facility, and he showed good class early in his 3yo season when winning the Risen Star at the Fair Grounds.

When a classic campaign reaped no harvest, the handsome bay was retrained to sprinting for much greater successes. Discreetly Mine won the Jersey Shore, Amsterdam, and King’s Bishop to claim a central position among last year’s sprinters.

Yet both Discreetly Mine and Majesticperfection were on the sidelines when Big Drama scored in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and secured his championship, and the difference in their natural abilities was not very wide. All were very good and very fast. They left their competition in the dust.

Of the three, Discreetly Mine is the puzzler on pedigree. His sire is the AP Indy stallion Mineshaft, who showed his best for at 4 going nine and 10 furlongs at such a high level that he was named Horse of the Year. Also, Discreetly Mine is a half-brother to the young stallion Discreet Cat (Tale of the Cat), whose first foals race this year. Discreet Cat was a miler of exceptional class and will be watched with interest this year.

Those breeding to Discreetly Mine will do well to have their goals in mind when sending him a mare. Matched with quick and precocious broodmares, he is likely to get some early-maturing stock.

ap indy center stage as sire of classic sires

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a.p. indy, allen paulson, bernardini, bold ruler, congrats, daring bidder, dialed in, dinard, diversity in breeding, eliza, gulfstream park, holy bull stakes, male lines in thoroughbred breeding, malibu moon, mineshaft, nasrullah, Pulpit, quality and stamina in racing, Seattle Slew, secretariat, storm cat, Tapit, weekend surprise

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

Everywhere you look, it’s coming up Indys. And at Gulfstream Park on Sunday, the first two places in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes were filled by Dialed In (by Mineshaft) and Sweet Ducky (Pulpit). Both are grandsons of classic winner and champion A.P. Indy, the 22-year-old son of Seattle Slew and the Secretariat mare Weekend Surprise.

Nor are Dialed In and Sweet Ducky a rarity. Day after day and week after week, sons and grandsons of 1992 Horse of the Year A.P. Indy are filling the winner’s circles of major races across the country.

And whether we think of this as the Nasrullah/Bold Ruler line or the Bold Reasoning/Seattle Slew line through A.P. Indy, the reestablishment of this male line as a major influence has been one of the important developments in breeding over the past decade and a half.

Part of this importance comes from the fact that about the time A.P. Indy became a fledgling sire of stallions, much comment was being made about how the lines of Raise a Native (especially through Mr. Prospector and Alydar) and Northern Dancer (especially through Storm Cat) were going to swamp all their competition and about how the breed would be poorer for the lack of diversity.

Then along came the tide of success that has propelled A.P. Indy to this pinnacle today.

Part of the manner of that continuing success has come from the outstanding match that A.P. Indy proved with Mr. Prospector, who is the broodmare sire of both Mineshaft and Pulpit.

And A.P. Indy (and his sons, in particular) have proven to be excellent crosses with other important lines. For instance, Dialed In is out of the mare Miss Doolittle, who is by none other than Storm Cat.

And whereas Storm Cat’s sons ruled the waves in volume over the past decade and a half, how many are still viable at the top level? Certainly Giant’s Causeway is the heir to his sire’s legacy on many fronts. And then … there is Tale of the Cat. And without being negative about it, the Storm Cat wave of influence has followed the pattern of all those that have come before it: strengthening, cresting, then flattening out.

That is the pattern already followed by the Bold Ruler branch of the Nasrullah line. First the sire, then the son seemed all powerful. And in the 1970s, the only male line that seemed to figure was Bold Ruler, except for that little matter of Raise a Native (Mr. Prospector, Alydar, Exclusive Native, Affirmed, and so forth) and then Northern Dancer (Nijinsky, Danzig, Nureyev, and, abroad, Sadler’s Wells).

The male-line influences come and go, mostly being integrated into the inner workings of pedigrees and being none the less important for that.

But the full force of A.P. Indy’s rise is expanding. First Pulpit, then Malibu Moon, and recently Pulpit’s son Tapit have put the A.P. Indy stock at the peak of success, and only last year the top freshman sire Congrats and the impressive new sire of classic prospects, Bernardini, are both sons of A.P. Indy.

Just as he did on the racecourse, A.P. Indy has answered every challenge with greater success.

His elegant and scopy son Mineshaft was much the same. Excelling in his Horse of the Year campaign at age 4, Mineshaft has sired racehorses with classic aptitude that come to hand in the spring of their 3-year-old season.

In Mineshaft’s first crop, he had Cool Coal Man, who won the Fountain of Youth, and in his third crop was Fly Down, who won the Peter Pan and ran second in the Belmont and Travers, then was third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. While most of Mineshaft’s stock shows its form at distances from eight to 12 furlongs, the stallion’s son Discreetly Mine won the King’s Bishop at Saratoga and has joined his sire at Lane’s End for the 2011 breeding season.

Dialed In won the Holy Bull at a mile, and the good-looking colt is out of the quick mare Miss Doolittle, a daughter of champion juvenile filly Eliza (by Mt. Livermore). Allen Paulson bred Eliza from the Bold Bidder mare Daring Bidder, who produced five other stakes horses. The mare’s other top-class performer was Santa Anita Derby winner Dinard (by Paulson’s Strawberry Road).

This family has tended toward speed, but when matched with the right balance of stamina, it can produce stock worthy to challenge for the classics.

 

fly down makes his case for the classics

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a.p. indy, Belmont Stakes, dwyer stakes, fly down, history of sport, lane's end, lexington, mineshaft, mr. prospector, nick zito, queen randi, ulrica

The following article was published earlier this week at PaulickReport.com.

With his first stakes victory in the G2 Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park, the Mineshaft colt Fly Down set the stage for a challenge in the classic Belmont Stakes next month.

Although trainer Nick Zito is still evaluating the colts readiness, the classic-winning trainer did say that “if he rebounds from this, if he’s OK, we’ll look at the Belmont.”

And while fitness for 12 furlongs and maturity for competing with classic horses are things for the trainer to judge, the pedigree of this colt suggests that the Belmont Stakes or a race at a similar distance should be well within his range.

Horse of the Year Mineshaft had one of most consistent distance profiles of any son by Horse of the Year AP Indy. Mineshaft was notably immature when young, was given time and racing experience abroad, then really came into his best form at 4 with increasingly impressive performances after a return to the States and dirt racing.

Bred on the highly successful cross of AP Indy over mares by Mr. Prospector, Mineshaft combined speed and staying capacity that are essential to success at the highest level in races at a mile or more.

And his son Fly Down has further additions of speed and stamina. His dam, Queen Randi, is by champion juvenile Fly So Free and traces back umpteen generations to the the first American-bred mare in the family, Ulrica.

A foal of 1863, Ulrica was by nothing less than the greatest 19th century American sire, Lexington. And Ulrica was a pretty useful representative of the great stallion’s offspring. She won the Saratoga Stakes at 2 and, among her other stakes placings, ran second in the 1866 Travers Stakes to Merrill, a son of Lexington.

The offspring of Lexington were competing in the Midsummer Derby at the manly distance of a mile and three-quarters. Furthermore, Lexington sired the first three winners of the Travers, as well as a half-dozen more over the ensuing years.

All this goes to show is that the family of Fly Down has been both a highly accomplished and highly regarded family for a long time.

Yet just a few generations ago, things went sour. Although the sires of the fifth and fourth dams from the 1950s were the good horses Requested (Wood Memorial winner and Preakness second) and Agitator (Nearco horse who won the Sussex and was second in the July Cup), the black-type horses became scarce, and then (horrors!), Fly Down’s second dam was bred in Florida.

That was the point where the family made an abrupt turnaround.

The reason for the change of fortunes is simple. The sire of the second dam was Mr. Prospector, who sired Randi’s Queen in his second crop, and the young mare became one of her sire’s many winners. Randi’s Queen won four races in two seasons, and by the time her racing career was over, Mr. Prospector was on his way to becoming one of the great sires in the world and on the way to Kentucky to stand at Claiborne Farm for the rest of his stud career.

The colt who pushed Mr. Prospector over the commercial edge was Conquistador Cielo, also a Florida-bred out of the Bold Commander mare K D Princess. Winner of the Saratoga Special in 1981, when Randi’s Queen was completing her racing career, Conquistador Cielo set the seal on his own quality and ability with victories the next year in the Metropolitan Handicap, Dwyer, and Belmont Stakes.

That string of victories also convinced breeders that Mr. Prospector was more than just a sire of very talented sprinter-milers.

Classic quality tells, and when put to stud, Randi’s Queen produced three black-type runners, including stakes winner Prince Randi (by Caveat). One of her least successful offspring was Queen Randi, a nonwinner in three starts. But that daughter of Fly So Free has been a revelation as a producer.

The mare has produced three foals who have run very good speed figures, and two are now graded stakes winners. The first of these was the Chief Seattle mare Seafree, whom Eric Reed as agent picked out of the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearling sale for $7,500. Seafree won the La Canada, was second in the Santa Margarita, earned $280,566, and then sold at the Fasig-Tipton November breeding stock sale for $200,000 in 2007.

The following September, Fly Down was an $80,000 yearling for breeders Broadway Thoroughbreds and William S. Farish at the Keeneland yearling sale. Fly Down now has three wins in five starts and earnings of $182,070.