best non-winner of the triple crown

Tags

afleet alex, buckpasser, classic sires, damascus, dr. fager, keiblog, kelso, native dancer, non-triple crown winners, point given, risen star, sire dominance, sire influence, spectacular bid, sunday silence, thoroughbred breeding in japan, tim tam, Triple Crown, zenya yoshida

There’s been a bit of chat on the interwebs and hinterblogs about who was the best colt not to win the Triple Crown. Most of the consideration has been on Spectacular Bid, Point Given, Afleet Alex, and to a lesser extent (if you can believe it) Sunday Silence.

All were smacking good racehorses, as were Risen Star, Tim Tam, Damascus, Native Dancer, and a few others who never made the Triple like Buckpasser, Dr Fager, and Kelso. Yet we can argue till we faint dead away, and nobody can prove which was the absolute best. But I can, however, tell you which was the best at stud (although Afleet Alex has many chapters left to write): Sunday Silence.

The winner of two-thirds of the Triple Crown, the BC Classic, and Horse of the Year, Sunday Silence was much better than that when put to stud in Japan as the supreme legacy of the great breeder Zenya Yoshida.

Simply put, Sunday Silence was the best stallion in the history of Thoroughbred breeding in Japan, and he became known as one of the best in the world, although few of his offspring left the most lucrative racing and breeding program in the world.

Although lost relatively young, Sunday Silence still rules the breeding world in Japan. As evidence of the stallion’s absolute dominance, Keiblog notes: “every single horse in [tomorrow’s Japan Derby] field is related to Sunday Silence. 16 are by stallions whose sire is Sunday Silence. Cresco Grand and Belshazzar have Sunday Silence as their broodmare sire.”

Amazing.

There are several reasons for Sunday Silence’s success in Japan, not least being that his physique and character suited their racing program so well. But don’t let anyone tell you it was because he was playing in a sandlot. The Japanese have world-class racing, and their stock races impressively when taken into other environments.

The old black pest* was simply the best.

*(I was a fan of Easy Goer)

Advertisement

quality road a star for breeder’s program

Tags

ajina, allen paulson, alydar, blame, chris baker, elusive qualiity, horse breeding, keeneland september sale, kobla, metropolitan handicap, mr. prospector, native dancer, ned evans, paulson estate, quality road, racehorse management, raise a native, santa anita racetrack, size in the thoroughbred, spring hill farm, strawberry road, thoroughbred conformation, thoroughbred pedigrees, todd pletcher, whitney stakes, winglet, woodward stakes

The following article appeared earlier this week in Paulick Report.

The long and winding road leads to “quality” for Ned Evans of Spring Hill Farm in Virginia.

One of the premier owner-breeders in America, Evans bred and races Woodward Stakes and Metropolitan Handicap winner Quality Road, who will be one of the favorites for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Unbeaten this year, except for a narrow defeat to Blame in the Whitney Stakes last month, Quality Road is a big, grand-looking colt. He has always been a nice animal, and Chris Baker, who manages Spring Hill Farm for Evans, said that “Quality Road was remarkable in that everything he did was unremarkable. That’s a good thing. He never had illness or issues or any trouble to make you take note.”

A big colt with a very good family (five-cross pedigree), Quality Road would seem a natural prospect for the top end of the commercial market, but Baker said that didn’t work out. At the time of the Keeneland September sale, the colt was growing, rather than maturing, and he went unsold at $110,000.

Baker said, “As a yearling going into the sale, he wasn’t at his best, being a sort of old-fashioned type of horse, long and leggy, and we didn’t send him to Aiken [to be put into training] till December because he was a leggy, immature colt. Inasmuch as he was an impressive colt, he wasn’t one who had the most commercial appeal as a yearling.”

Neither Evans nor Baker thought any less of Quality Road for not being spot on when the sale came round. They knew the back story.

The colt had always been big. As a foal, Baker said, “Quality Road was born March 23, 2006, weighed 143 pounds, and stood 42.6 inches tall at the withers. When we weighed him the last time at the farm on November 29, 2007, before shipping him to Aiken, he was 1,240 pounds and stood 66.9 inches at the withers.”

That is a thumping big colt.

And he takes no prisoners. Quality Road is uncommonly big and strong, with a competitive spirit to match. Those excellent qualities led him into a much-publicized scrap with the gate crew at Santa Anita before last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic that resulted in Quality Road being scratched.

That televised image is the most common memory of the colt for many people. Yet Baker said that Quality Road “was never tough, just a playful colt. He was never difficult because everything was so easy for him.”

In the aftermath of that showdown at Santa Anita, trainer Todd Pletcher and the team around Quality Road went into action to restore the colt’s peace of mind and composure at the gate. It has worked brilliantly. Baker said the remarkable thing is “how traumatic that was and how much Quality Road has done to come back and load efficiently and quietly and stand well, even when Haynesfield was having a panic attack in the gate before the Whitney. I don’t think many horses would have overcome that event as well as this horse has, and I believe it speaks volumes for the horse’s mind and natural athleticism.”

Quality Road has not put a foot wrong this year and, with every start, has elevated both his standing as a premier member of the colts in the 4-year-old and up division and as a stallion prospect of a very high order.

His size, good conformation, and speed are major recommendations to breeders. And Quality Road is one of the very best racers by his sire Elusive Quality, a freakishly fast son of Gone West. This is the excellent male line of Native Dancer through Raise a Native and Mr. Prospector, and if anything, Quality Road’s female family is even better.

His dam is the Strawberry Road mare Kobla. She is a full sister to Ajina, champion 3-year-old filly of 1997 and winner of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, CCA Oaks, and Mother Goose.

Their dam is graded stakes winner Winglet (by Alydar). She is a Grade 2 stakes winner bred and raced by Allen Paulson, who also bred and raced both Ajina and Kobla.

Kobla was among the fine stock that the Paulson estate sold at the 1999 Keeneland November sale, where Evans purchased the mare, in foal to Mt. Livermore, for $1,050,000.

Although Kobla has been a “hard-luck mare,” among the Spring Hill broodmares, she caught the brass ring by producing Quality Road. The mare also has a 2-year-old half-sister to Quality Road by Tale of the Cat named Kobla Cat and has a weanling full brother “who is a striking physical,” Baker said.

Kobla was bred to Elusive Quality this year but is not in foal. Despite that disappointment, I believe that Spring Hill will send the mare to Elusive Quality again because it is a road worth taking.

shift toward power led to fancier sales horses

Tags

commercial appeal, native dancer, nexus of sport and society, power type, shift toward power, stride type

In his response to a recent post on the changing nature of the breed, Tinky wrote:

The “shift towards power,” in my view, had less to do with producing better racehorses than it did producing young horses that caught and filled the eye at sales. Moreover, the more muscular types are far more likely to breeze fast in the two-year-old sales.

In the context of the evolution of the contemporary Thoroughbred, several factors have played a role, including the commercial appeal of the power type, which tends toward greater muscularity and considerable speed.

Power horses have been with us as long as we have bred blooded stock. But most of them were limited. They really could not go a distance; many others could not handle top-class animals because they needed to dominate the beginning of the race, then coast home.

Regardless of the reasons, most power horses couldn’t succeed against good-class stride horses and were shunted aside, but that changed remarkably with Native Dancer. Even more than his sire, Polynesian, Native Dancer was able to translate his power into racing performances that were not limited.

Reading Charlie Hatton’s comments about Native Dancer reminded me of one comment attributed to Wayne Lukas: that the animal he was seeking at the sales was a tall Quarter Horse. And to a very significant degree, that is the power horse in a phrase.

The great majority of such horses, however, are limited (like The Green Monkey, for instance).

But the single fact that made breeders use the increasingly powerful lines associated with Native Dancer is that they kept winning major races.

Then, their good looks with bulging muscles and sharp speed made these stallions and their offspring natural recruits for the commercial vendors, and as yearlings or 2-year-olds in training, they played a major role in the development of the modern commercial market.

One other trait of value to all breeders is that the power horse is predictable (within reason, I mean). If you breed one or buy one that “ticks all the boxes” or otherwise meets the criteria, that horse is likely to have ability. It may not stay sound, it may not be able to race past three furlongs, it may have a speed-crazy mind, or several other faults. But it is very likely to have speed.

In the state of racing for the past 50 years, that is all that’s required to get a lot of winners.

In contrast, the stride horse who flits over the track, uses himself well, is sound for 50 starts, and is sometimes about as wide as my hand may also be unable to win a six-furlong race above maiden $10k or $20k. And where’s a trainer to find a 12-furlong maiden special or 14-furlong allowances and handicaps for horses that really need them?

So the breed has been caught in a conundrum of changing physical types, increasing economic pressures, and altered social inclinations.

breeding pendulum a-swingin’

Tags

a.p. indy, birdstone, bob fierro, changes in breeding aptitudes, native dancer, power type, shift toward power, shift toward stride

Part of the reason for my discourse on Dark Star and Native Dancer has been that my thinking has turned to the direction that the tides of breeding are taking. As John Sparkman remarked and I elaborated on somewhat, Dark Star represented the classic nobility of the past, and Native Dancer represented the powerful classic weightlifter that has come to dominate much of racing.

In the words of bloodstock writer and commentator Bob Fierro, Native Dancer is the “type of the biomechanical shift toward power: horses with greater height, greater mass, longer hind cannons,” and so forth. The increasing shift toward power has grown in volume since the 1950s and has dominated racing and breeding from the 1980s to the present.

My thinking has been that something significant is changing within the breed, however. Part of my inclination to believe this is so lies in the ongoing collapse of some of the dominant power lines, but it also includes the type of young stallions who are beginning to succeed.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and when one develops, something will come along to fill the space.

In terms of breeding, consider, for instance, the success of the dandy young stallion Birdstone, who is an example of a “power horse line” (Native Dancer, Raise a Native, Mr. Prospector, Fappiano, Unbridled, Grindstone) who has shape-shifted into a racer and sire whose primary assets are excellent stride characteristics.

And the primary line poised to take advantage of the changing needs of the breed is Nasrullah – Bold Ruler, especially through AP Indy, Pulpit, and his sons.

native dancer was the way of the future

Tags

bloodstock history, charlie hatton, dark star, description of native dancer, john sparkman, native dancer, power horses, size and muscle in racehorses, stride horses

In a response to yesterday’s post about Dark Star, John Sparkman tipped my hand a bit by saying that the physical type of Dark Star — elegant, somewhat lightly made horses with excellent stride quality — was a type on the way out.

Indeed, the Teddy and Swynford lines that had dominated classic racing since the 1920s were finished. Only nobody knew it at the time.

In their place, a powerful animal has come to be the American classic type whose model is Native Dancer, big and heavy-topped and fast. Winner of the 1953 Preakness and Belmont Stakes, Native Dancer was a top-level classic horse. In that he wasn’t unparalleled. There have been at least a half-dozen in the decades before and after the 1950s who were approximately as good, even if not almost unbeaten. For instance, Citation had at least as good a record at 2 and 3, although he lost twice in that time.

But Native Dancer is the most excellent form of the new Thoroughbred that has come to dominate much of racing around the world.

To describe him, I will offer some notes from the Daily Racing Form columnist Charlie Hatton, who wrote: “Usually Native Dancer was the largest horse in any post parade in which he took part.” That is not solely about height, although the gray son of Polynesian stood 16.1 hands at 3, grew another inch or so.

Hatton further noted that Native Dancer “was possibly the widest horse in training across the loin and hips.” We can see the horse’s mass in some of the films of him racing more than half a century ago, and one of the wonders of technology is that we can access this historical information and view the horse, rather than rely solely on the written comments (which in this case are really helpful, Mr. Hatton).

At 2, Native Dancer’s muscular development through his shoulders and forearms was so great that Hatton recouted that “it is rather singular to find one horse having the development of a sprinter before the saddle and that of a router behind.” At 3, Native Dancer filled in his rangier hindquarters with more muscle.

His feet gave out on him, and Native Dancer ended his 3yo season in August 1953 and made only three starts as a 4yo the next year. It is possible that his mass had outgrown his frame, although the horse was essentially sound. He just kept having “little problems.”

The question of soundness would be one of the most serious breeders would have about the horse’s offspring in coming years. They had size, they had speed, and some of them were tough as nails. Doc Thomas, breeder of Our Native, once told me that the Native Dancer stock had the highest pain threshold of any animals he had ever encountered.

They need the pain tolerance because the Native Dancer physical type (great mass and great power) produces exceptional speed, but the faster anything goes, the more strain it puts on all the working parts.

The more classic version of Native Dancer morphed into Sea-Bird (a grandson by French Derby second Dan Cupid), the miniature version ruled the world through Northern Dancer (out of Native Dancer’s daughter Natalma), and the American dirt version of Native Dancer descends primarily through Raise a Native, whose best sons were Exclusive Native, Mr. Prospector, and Alydar.

why some do and some don’t

Tags

dark star, elements of the thoroughbred, Kentucky Derby, native dancer, pedigree in matings, racing class

Aside from the question of racing class, which is obvious and self-explanatory, why does one stallion have greater success than another?

Like most of those who have approached this question from the side of pedigree, I long ago saw that there are some lines that breed on and others that don’t. Most explanations for this are couched in terms of one theory or another, and there is enough truth in these approaches to keep people researching and working to find the “key” to bloodlines and breeding.

But after 20 years of treading that path with considerable industry, in the early 1990s, I came to a conclusion that seemed inescapable to me (and that has seemed so to other diligent researchers, as well). Partly, the limitation is that most pedigree theory is historical, taking its shape from things that have already occurred, but even more it is that pedigree — even at its most subtle and prescient — only represents a part of the magical sum that is the Thoroughbred.

It is similar to the relationship of the theory of diamond cutting to the radiant beauty of the diamond itself.

While an essential part of the whole process, pedigree is only one of many elements that contribute to a horse’s success. Others include the animal’s conformation, character, constitution, and response to training.

As an exercise in thinking through this great puzzle we call breeding the Thoroughbred, I have taken the time to study the race records and stud results of the first two finishers in the 1953 Kentucky Derby, one of the better results in terms of racing class and stallion success.

In the 1953 Derby, Dark Star led the entire race, won by a head, then was injured in the Preakness. He was at the peak of his racing class with the Derby victory, and Dark Star had to be a very good colt to defeat the champion of his crop, even under perfect circumstances.

Dark Star’s Derby was the only career loss for Native Dancer, who was a great racehorse capable of immense efforts to gain a victory.

The comparison of racing class between these two holds up well in an examination of their stud careers. Native Dancer was a great sire (304 foals, 44 stakes winners, 14 percent with an AEI of 3.15), and Dark Star was a pretty darned good one (301 foals, 25 stakes winners, 8 percent with an AEI of 1.65).

I believe that we can learn quite a bit by looking at this high-class pair, and I will be elaborating on that in tomorrow’s post.

lookin at lucky: pedigree of fortune

Tags

a.p. indy, Belmont Stakes, belong to me, breeders' cup classic, breezefigs, curlin, fasig-tipton november sale, fly down, gulf coast farms, jay kilgore, jerry bailey breeder, keeneland april sale of 2yos in training, lane's end farm, lookin at lucky, mr. prospector, native charger, native dancer, paulick report, preakness stakes, private feeling, raise a native, sam-son farm, sharp belle, smart strike, stephen got even, super saver, temple webber, unbreakable, will farish

This story appeared earlier this week at PaulickReport.com.

A month ago, neither the sponsor of this column nor the Paulick Report could have imagined the run of luck awaiting all of us in the May classics.

In the intervening weeks, the Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver was out of a mare by Lane’s End stallion A.P. Indy, the Preakness winner Lookin at Lucky is by Lane’s End stallion Smart Strike and out of a mare by farm stallion Belong to Me, the Preakness second is by Lane’s End stallion Stephen Got Even, another son of farm stalwart A.P. Indy, and farm owner Will Farish is co-breeder of the dams of both the Preakness winner and the Dwyer winner, Fly Down, a likely prospect for the Belmont Stakes.

We are “lookin at lucky” on more levels than I can count.

With a second Preakness Stakes winner, the Mr. Prospector stallion Smart Strike confirmed himself as one of the most powerful sons of his sire at stud. The stallion’s first classic winner was Horse of the Year Curlin, narrowly beaten in the Belmont Stakes before his championship success in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and Smart Strike is well represented this year with such additional racers as Strike a Deal, who won the Grade 2 Dixie Handicap on the Preakness card at Pimlico.

A beautifully pedigreed son of Mr. Prospector bred by Sam-Son Farm, Smart Strike was a high-class racehorse who nonetheless left some questions about how good he might have been. A winner in six of eight starts, Smart Strike won the Grade 1 Iselin Handicap for his most important success.

As a stallion, Smart Strike has been solid but was not an early commercial home run hitter. Lookin at Lucky’s co-breeder, Jerry Bailey, noted that the stallion’s offspring tend to improve with age, both in looks and buyer appeal.

That is not the formula for commercial success among unproven sires. However, now that Smart Strike is a proven commodity, his offspring are making better returns for breeders.

That wasn’t the case even two years ago for Gulf Coast Farms, the breeders of Lookin at Lucky, at the yearling sales, where they had to take him home for a hammer price of $35,000. But they had the wherewithal and flexibility to bring him back as a 2-year-old in training, when he made $475,000 at the Keeneland April sale of juveniles.

The backbone of that price increase was the progress that Lookin at Lucky had made from a yearling to a 2-year-old. He had grown and strengthened from an acceptable but somewhat average “nice” yearling to being what BreezeFigs guru Jay Kilgore called “the best 2-year-old I saw last year.”

His progress shown in motion analysis video at the breeze shows was manifest in graded stakes competition in the summer and fall last year, and Lookin at Lucky’s successes, added to the graded victory of his half-brother Kensei (by Mr. Greeley), made their dam, the Belong to Me mare Private Feeling, a hot property indeed.

At the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November mixed sale last fall, she sold to Live Oak Stud for $2 million as a young producer of top-level performers.

The mare was then a 10-year-old. She was bred by Farish and Temple Webber Jr., and she earned $18,245 from two victories in seven starts. That was a decent record but nothing to promote her as the dam of multiple graded stakes winners.

Private Feeling is one of those mares who require the progeny test to verify whether they will become producers of merit, and she has passed that test with high distinction.

The mare’s second dam, the Native Charger mare Sharp Belle, was a notably better racemare, winning 10 races, including the Grade 1 Monmouth Oaks.

This is a line of producers from a good-class family. Sharp Belle’s fifth dam is the stakes-winning mare Nectarine, a full sister to the great sire Bull Lea, the cornerstone of Calumet Farm’s success in the 1940s and 1950s.

In addition to these historical connections to high-class performance, there is a pedigree pattern of note in the ancestry of Lookin at Lucky. He has a half-dozen lines of the great racehorse and sire Native Dancer in his pedigree. Five of them come through Private Feeling, who also has an additional line of Native Dancer’s grandsire Unbreakable.

Native Dancer has proven an increasingly important sire over the past 50 years. He was the sire of Raise a Native, whose sons Mr. Prospector and Alydar sired international champions, and other sons and daughters of Native Dancer litter pedigrees around the world with speed and strength.

native dancer and the international pedigree

Tags

arc de triomphe, atan, dan cupid, dancer's image, english derby, french derby, hocks, john sparkman, Kentucky Derby, mixed marriage, native dancer, pedigree, power conformation, racing aptitude, raise a native, sea-bird, sharpen up, tudor minstrel

John Sparkman has written another excellent piece on Native Dancer (read it here) that comments on the great gray’s conformation and on his influence over contemporary pedigrees.

The sire of two colts who finished first in the Kentucky Derby (1968 winner Dancer’s Image was disqualified for the presence of bute in his system), Native Dancer sent important sons around the globe. Among them were Dan Cupid (out of Vixenette, by Sickle), who ran second in the French Derby and sired English Derby and Arc de Triomphe winner Sea-Bird, and Atan (out of Mixed Marriage, by Tudor Minstrel), who won his only start and sired the important international sire Sharpen Up.

The Sharpen Up hocks that were considered something of a blemish on that stallion’s progeny were also typical of many from this line. Raise a Native, who was a grand-looking horse, had hocks far behind him as a young horse.

Although having hocks parked out behind a horse is frequently considered a fault, it doesn’t prevent horses from racing effectively, and it is one of the traits most commonly associated with horses that have exceptional power. To use their extra leverage to full potential, such horses must have great strength through their backs and hindquarters, and those that are properly fitted for this can often do their best work on turf, which provides a better grip for pushing, than on dirt, which slips away more easily … except when it’s wet.

new kentucky stallions for 2010: visionaire

Tags

bold ruler, crestwood farm, french deputy, grand slam, mr. prospector, native dancer, northern dancer, reiley mcdonald, saratoga, scarlet tango, visionaire

Visionaire (ch h 2005 Grand Slam x Scarlet Tango, by French Deputy)

Crestwood Farm, Ky; $7,500

A very robust horse with a pretty head, Visionaire made $300,000 as a Saratoga select yearling in the capable hands of Reiley McDonald at Eaton Sales. That sum was two and a half times the yearling average for Grand Slam in 2006. So you know the horse was big, pretty, and well-grown.

He still is. In fact, I’d be surprised if Visionaire ever missed an oat in his life. He is a big-topped animal who is typical of his grandsire French Deputy and of the more substantial stock that Grand Slam can sire also.

Nicely let down from racing, Visionaire now girths 77.5 inches and stands over a lot of ground. He has a big eye and a very masculine head and topline. The chestnut horse is a good example of the muscular animals that can come from this pedigree. He has good forelegs, a strong hip, and plenty of length.

During his racing career, Visionaire showed the power necessary to come from behind in top company, and he looks like a horse who should have handled distances somewhat longer than a mile.

In terms of pedigree, he is another example of Mr. Prospector crossed on Northern Dancer, and for breeders he also represents the typical quandary: where to go now?  And before anyone suggests Bold Ruler or inbreeding to Northern Dancer or Native Dancer, the big chestnut already carries duplications of all three.

So put on your thinking caps and find him some mares.

curmudgeon on native dancer

Tags

john sparkman, Kentucky Derby, native dancer, polynesian

John Sparkman discusses the origins of Native Dancer in this fascinating post. A foal of 1950, Native Dancer won 21 of 22 starts, losing only the Kentucky Derby (narrowly), and the gray son of Polynesian has become increasingly important as an influence in pedigrees. You can read more about that in my post from last week.