union rags continues a family tradition with belmont success

Tags

Belmont Stakes, classic breeding, dixie union, lane's end, nijinsky, phyllis wyeth, Seattle Slew, secretariat, Triple Crown, union rags

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

The game victory by Union Rags in Saturday’s Grade 1 Belmont Stakes was also a triumph for the classic approach: to breeding, to pedigree, to training, and to character. In the end, Union Rags wanted the victory more, and he earned it.

And as some very knowledgeable breeders have told me, when looking down that long, long stretch at Belmont Park (or Churchill Downs, for that matter), it’s always a good thing for a racehorse to have some serious classic ancestors to help get him home.

Not surprisingly, then, the pedigree of Union Rags is littered with classic winners, including Northern Dancer, Native Dancer, Nashua, Bold Ruler, and Hyperion, as well as several Triple Crown winners. Two of the three last American Triple Crown winners, Secretariat and Seattle Slew, are in the colt’s fourth generation.

They descend through Secretariat’s stakes-winning daughter Secrettame, dam of Gone West, who is the broodmare sire of Union Rags, and through Seattle Slew’s champion son Capote, who is the broodmare sire of Dixie Union, the sire of the Belmont Stakes winner.

Now a G1 winner at 2 (Champagne) and a classic winner at 3, Union Rags is the most acclaimed son of Dixie Union, who spent nearly all of his stud career at Lane’s End Farm (he entered stud at the Diamond A Farm of his owner, Gerald Ford). The stallion’s classic success this year has a bittersweet quality because Dixie Union was euthanized on July 14, 2010, due to a “deteriorating neurologic problem.”

Winner of the G1 Haskell and Malibu at 3, Dixie Union was arguably the most talented son of his sire, the Northern Dancer horse Dixieland Band, who was central to the transformation of Lane’s End into a powerhouse operation for developing and standing stallions. Logically, then, the farm would have been highly motivated to stand a very good son of Dixieland Band, and Dixie Union had the further recommendations of being uncommonly good-looking, strong, correct, and fast.

Dixie Union had shown the level of his speed by maturing early enough at 2 to win the Hollywood Juvenile Championship and then carried his speed to win the Norfolk Stakes later that season.

The sire passed on his early maturity and high class to Union Rags, who won his début going five furlongs last July, then followed up with a victory in the Saratoga Special and the Champagne Stakes. Union Rags also resembles his sire in being very strong and very robustly made.

The physical stoutness derives from both sides of the Belmont winner’s pedigree. Although his broodmare sire Gone West was more medium-sized, he sometimes sired quite large foals, and the second dam of Union Rags is the rugged distance-racing mare Terpsichorist, who is a daughter of English Triple Crown winner Nijinsky.

The latter was a magnificently muscled beast who was able to defeat the fastest juveniles in sprints, then developed into a classic winner able to crush his competition from a mile to more than a mile and three-quarters.

That versatility seems part of the reason that Union Rags has found success in five of his eight races, along with his courage and athleticism.

A homebred for Phyllis Wyeth’s Chadds Ford Stable who was sold, then repurchased, Union Rags has proven a landmark in a family that has rewarded Wyeth’s family over the generations.

At the Hickory Tree Farm of Wyeth’s parents, James and Alice Mills, they raised some fine Thoroughbreds, including Terpsichorist and her highly regarded full brother, Gorytus. Both were out of the 1,000 Guineas winner Glad Rags, whom Mrs. Mills had purchased and then raced with great success.

In fact, Glad Rags became one of the foundation mares of the Hickory Tree program, and the stable also raced such outstanding horses as Gone West and champion juvenile Devil’s Bag.

Mrs. Mills bred both Terpsichorist and her daughter Tempo, who is the dam of Union Rags. As the last mare out of her mother’s grand chestnut daughter of Nijinsky, Tempo held a special significance for Wyeth, who had hoped that Union Rags would be a filly when he was foaled in Kentucky more than three years ago at the Royal Oak Farm of Braxton and Damian Lynch.

Although Union Rags was not the hoped-for filly, he has proven a splendid colt in physique and racing class.

In generosity of spirit and in his willingness to keep on trying, Union Rags has emulated the qualities of his owner-breeder. She pensioned the colt’s dam after his birth because the mare had had a difficult foaling in a previous year, and she did not wish to further risk the mare’s health and well-being.

Blessed by that concern for her animal’s welfare, Wyeth has been richly rewarded as her pride and joy rallied down the stretch at Belmont to add another classic to a rich family tradition.

royal academy proved a work of art in flesh and blood

Tags

english triple crown, nijinsky, royal academy, tony morris, vincent o'brien

The death of Royal Academy (1987 b h by Nijinsky x Crimson Saint, by Crimson Satan) due to the infirmities of old age brought back a flood of memories. Even more to the old horse’s credit, they are all good ones.

As a Keeneland July yearling, Royal Academy was purely one of the best and most beautiful young athletes I’ve ever seen. Although he wasn’t a half-brother to Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew like record sales yearling Seattle Dancer (Nijinsky x My Charmer), who sold for $13.1 million, Royal Academy was even better looking.

Typical of the Nijinsky stock, and much like his older male-line kinsman Seattle Dancer, Royal Academy possessed great scope, but he also had finesse, presence, and flair. Yet he brought only $3.5 million. That is actually an awful lot of money; the price difference compared to the wildly expensive Seattle Dancer is due to psychological and economic factors.

One reason Royal Academy didn’t sell for more money, if reason there need be, is that the economy had already had a hiccup and was to experience a major depression due to tax-law changes that unduly affected racing and breeding, among other sectors.

Another knock on Royal Academy was that his glorious dam Crimson Saint was 18 when the colt was born, and some buyers refuse to purchase yearlings out of older mares, no matter how good the youngsters look.

Such considerations, of course, did not concern Vincent O’Brien, who had purchased Nijinsky as a yearling and trained him to win the English Triple Crown. O’Brien purchased the grand colt later named Royal Academy for $3.5 million on behalf of the Irish-based ownership group called Classic Thoroughbreds Plc.

As a racehorse, Royal Academy proved quite good. He trained up light and appeared elegant but immature at 2, when he won a maiden commandingly, then finished in the ruck for the G1 Dewhurst. That proved his only finish out of the money.

At Ballydoyle over the winter, Royal Academy filled out his generous frame and justified the high hopes held for the handsome colt. As a 3-year-old, he won three of five starts, including the G1 July Cup and G3 Tetrarch Stakes. He was also second in the Irish 2,000 Guineas and perhaps more importantly in the G1 Sprint Cup to his contemporary Dayjur (b h by Danzig x Gold Beauty, by Mr. Prospector).

Both Dayjur and Royal Academy crossed the Atlantic to participate in the 1990 Breeders’ Cup at Belmont Park, and they provided two of the most dramatic races on the card.

Dayjur, beautifully conformed and freakishly fast, was set to win the BC Sprint when he jumped a shadow near the wire and lost the race to the dead-game Safely Kept.

In the BC Mile, Royal Academy used his own finesse and his jockey Lester Piggott’s uncanny ability to read races to win the Mile by a head. Breaking from the rail, Royal Academy either broke slowly or Piggott walked him out of the gate, then the jockey deftly maneuvered the light-footed bay colt through traffic to a contending position on the outside of the field as they went down the backstretch of the turf course at Belmont.

Giving ground around the turn but not breaking his momentum, Royal Academy rallied from six lengths back at the stretch call to win and guarantee himself a premium place at stud. The significance of the colt’s speed shown against Dayjur and subsequent success at a mile in deep international company cannot be overestimated for his stallion career.

In 1990, 20 years after Nijinsky had won the Triple Crown, the great racehorse and stallion had only one son at stud who had produced first-rate results, and that was Coolmore’s Caerleon, who had sired 1990’s star English juvenile colt Generous (who was to win the Derby, Irish Derby, and King George the next season).

In a contemporary column, the highly perceptive bloodstock writer Tony Morris wrote: “There is a prejudice against Nijinsky horses, which is inevitably working against his long-term influence, but there is still time for perceptions to change. A move in his favour may well occur before long.”

The move was closer than anyone could have predicted, with Caerleon’s best season coming in 1991 and with the success of Royal Academy to follow.

[I will follow up with a separate post on the stud career of Royal Academy.]

alpha nearly the omega for nijinsky mares

Tags

breeding success, darley and gainsborough bloodstock, nijinsky

As the last winner of the English Triple Crown, and I hope that someday we can emend that tribute, Nijinsky was a most celebrated racehorse in an era of extraordinary talents (Mill Reef, Brigadier Gerard, Allez France, and Dahlia in the opening years of the 1970s). At stud, he was just as marvelous, getting superior juveniles, outstanding classic horses, and older stars around the world.

Only a couple of his sons came close to emulating his success at stud, notably Caerleon, but the daughters of Nijinsky were another matter. They were great producers, and nearly all of them are gone. That is not surprising since Nijinsky died 20 years ago in 1992.

But there are a few still kicking the can down the road, and the Bernardini colt Alpha, winner of the G3 Count Fleet Stakes at Aqueduct on Saturday, is out of Munnaya, a 21-year-old daughter of the great racer and sire. She was bred by Gainsborough, is owned by Darley, and also has a yearling full brother to Alpha, who has to be one of the last prospective top horses out of a Nijinsky mare.

As a racehorse and as a broodmare, Munnaya has been one of her sire’s better representatives, and the tale may not quite be told. It will be great fun to watch Alpha’s progress over the coming months.

Munnaya’s racing and produce record are below:

1st Dam: MUNNAYA, ch, 1991. Bred by Gainsborough Farm (KY). Sent to England, 1993; Sent to USA, 1996. $24,882. Won Oaks Trial; 3rd Pretty Polly S.
	1996: Tethkar (GB), b f, by Machiavellian. Nonwinner in Engl. 1997: Beseiged, ch c, by Cadeaux Genereux (GB).  Unraced in NA, Eng and Fr. 1998: Yaya, ch f, by Rahy.  2nd Pr Madame Jean Couturie. 1999: Two Marks, ch f, by Woodman. Winner of 2 races in Engl. 2000: MYSTIC MELODY, b f, by Seattle Slew. At 2 2nd Pr Saraca, 3rd Pr des Reservoirs (G3); at 3 Won Pr Coronation, 2nd Pr Vanteaux (G3). 2001: Moments I Treasure, ch f, by Mt. Livermore. Nonwinner in Engl. 2002: Slipped. 2003: Samarinda, ch c, by Rahy. Winner of 5 races in Engl. 2004: Lavender Sky, ch f, by Mt. Livermore. Raced 5 yrs in NA, 19 sts, 2 wins, $195,852. 2nd San Gorgonio Handicap (gr. 2), Audrey Skirball-Kenis S.; 3rd Dahlia Handicap (gr. 2), Santa Ana Handicap (gr. 2). 2005: Numaany, ch c, by A.P. Indy. Raced 5 yrs in NA, 31 sts, 9 wins, $198,952. 2006: Dreamalong, ch f, by Rahy. Raced 3 yrs in NA, 15 sts, 2 wins, $110,754. 2007: No record. 2008: Taxonomist, ch c, by Seeking The Gold. 2009: ALPHA. At 2: 2nd Champagne S. (gr. 1). At 3: Won Count Fleet S. 2010: Unnamed foal, b c, by Bernardini. 2011: Barren.
	Broodmare sire: NIJINSKY II, b, 1967-1992. Sire of 378 dams of 3089 foals, 2443 rnrs (79%), 1578 wnrs (51%), 400 2yo wnrs (13%), 261 sw (8%).
	2nd Dam: HIAAM, ch, 1984. Bred by Albert Clay, Robert Clay & Warner L. Jones, Jr. (KY). Sent to USA, 1988. $51,060. Won Bet With the Tote Trophy, Princess Margaret S. (G3), Wallis Fillies S. Dam of MALL QUEEN (f, Sheikh Albadou (GB). $29,234. Won Pr Yacowlef; 3rd Pr d’Arenberg (G3)), SHEER REASON (f, Danzig. $105,237. Won Criterium d’Evry; 2nd Criterium des Deux Ans (G2); 3rd Pr de la Calonne, Pr Robert Papin (G2)).

is coolmore setting the stage for the next euro invasion?

Tags

belmont park, breeding in kentucky, cape blanco, coolmore, european bloodstock, galileo, giant's causeway, john magnier, man o' war stakes, montjeu, nasrullah, nijinsky, prejudice against turf horses, ribot, sadler's wells, stallions in kentucky, tale of the cat, woodman

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

Seems to me that there is more to Cape Blanco’s trip to New York for the Grade 1 Man o’ War Stakes than “just” winning another good purse and giving the 4-year-old son of Galileo a tour of the place.

First of all, I believe Coolmore’s farsighted chief, John Magnier, is trying to decide which of Galileo’s sons would do best standing here in the States. Coolmore and its associates have, at last count, approximately 87 sons of Galileo that are worth standing at stud, and surely some of them are worth giving a shot at Ashford Stud, Coolmore’s breeding operation in the U.S.

Coolmore has never been shy about sending a promising horse to stand in Kentucky. At one time, this branch of the operation seemed more hospitable territory than Ireland or Australia, with greater demand and profits in the Bluegrass as the international center of breeding.

That has waned somewhat, and Coolmore, despite its successes with Giant’s Causeway, Woodman, Tale of the Cat, and others, has not had any corresponding success with sons of their cornerstone sire Sadler’s Wells in Kentucky.

It was not for wont of trying.

Ashford stood some of the quickest sons of Sadler’s Wells, and they flopped horribly. Even allowing that the horses were somewhat unfamiliar to Kentucky breeders and that there is a vicious antipathy against turf horses here, the sons of Sadler’s Wells just stunk up the place.

It happens.

At the same time, however, the two best sons of Sadler’s Wells, Montjeu and Galileo, were gaining accolades on the racecourse and then building on that to become the most important stallions in Europe.

Montjeu and Galileo are both classic winners; both have sired classic winners, including victors in the English Derby. Almost overnight, they have turned that “long-distance classic” back into the most important racing test for bloodstock in the world.

And as a result of these mighty achievements, the pair might well be the two best stallions in the world.

Of the two sons of Sadler’s Wells, the Galileos have notable amounts of speed, and their pace generally allows them to be placed effectively throughout a race, to make a move when it is to their advantage, and to win if they are good enough.

That is what Cape Blanco did in the Man o’ War. And those are the qualities of great European-bred or -raced sires who have excelled in America, such as Nasrullah, Nijinsky, and Ribot.

And it stands to reason that an operation such as Coolmore, abounding with the blood of these two stallions, should look afar for opportunities to place the right horse with the right qualities in a spot to earn greater success.

That brings up the second reason for Cape Blanco to be in New York in the middle of the year, rather than the tail-end of the season. For a European-bred horse to earn a following among Kentucky breeders, the animal needs to develop a name, essentially to brand himself as a star of the American turf.

Part of that is to win the important stakes in front of many of the breeders who would use a high-end stallion and who would want to breed to a son of Galileo. Cape Blanco’s sire Galileo has not been a stranger to racing here in the States. He has sired important winners, such as Red Rocks, who won a pair of G1s in the Breeders’ Cup Turf and the Man o’ War.

With the known adaptability of the Galileo stock, it is possible that Coolmore is simply emulating the success of Red Rocks, with a warm-up in the summer race before a strike for the G1 Arlington Million or similar event, then the Breeders’ Cup.

But with the natural speed of the Galileo stock and with the sound enthusiasm that they take to their racing, I believe there is more afoot. The Galileos would make good racers here in the U.S. Cape Blanco, for instance, was unbeaten as a 2-year-old, won a G1 at 10 and at 12 furlongs at 3, and has now added his third at the premium level.

Cape Blanco may be on a solo mission, or he may be the forerunner of a Galileo invasion. Either way, racing and breeding are sure to be the better for the change.

northern dancer’s classic influence continuing impressively

Tags

bosra sham, classic bloodlines, classic success, conquistador cielo, coolmore sires, darshaan, difficulty of winning derby, english derby, female-line descent, galileo, high chaparral, lammtarra, male-line descent, montjeu, nijinsky, northern dancer, pour moi, records of contemporary sires, royal statute, sadler's wells

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

Confirming last week’s headline story from Ray’s Paddock (a feature section at http://www.paulickreport.com), Northern Dancer loomed very large over Saturday’s English Derby at Epsom. The winner, Montjeu’s son Pour Moi, is a great-grandson of Northern Dancer descending in male line from the great stallion’s most successful son to spend his entire stud career outside of Kentucky: Sadler’s Wells.

Moreover, Pour Moi also comes in the female line from Northern Dancer’s very high-class daughter Royal Statute, who has become one of the most important producers in the breed for classic quality. In terms of classic bloodlines, Pour Moi’s first three dams are Gwynn (by French Derby winner Darshaan), Victoress (by Belmont Stakes winner Conquistador Cielo), and Royal Statute (by Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Northern Dancer).

Those are serious classic credentials, and in addition to important classic winners and sires in the female line, this is the family of such classic stars as Bosra Sham, Hector Protector, and Lammtarra.
Statistics about the male line of the English Derby winner grab headlines, and well they might. Northern Dancer sired three Derby winners at Epsom (Nijinsky, The Minstrel, and Secreto). That is the contemporary record for winners of the English Derby, which Northern Dancer shares with his son Nijinsky (Golden Fleece, Shahrastani, and Lammtarra) and now Montjeu (Authorized and Motivator, added now to Pour Moi).

That statistic is very interesting for a couple of reasons. For one thing, Montjeu’s all-conquering sire Sadler’s Wells is not on the list with three winners or more. Although a handy horse with speed, Sadler’s Wells got a lot of rangy and rather lanky types who, year after year, found one horse or two just a bit too good for them at Epsom.

In fact, for many years, it appeared that Sadler’s Wells might never break the apparent jinx that Epsom’s turns and gradients exercised over his offspring, and the great stallion left it late in his career before getting his first English Derby winner. That longed-for winner was nothing less than Galileo in 2001, when Sadler’s Wells was 20. Then High Chaparral came along the next year to make siring back-to-back Derby winners seem rather easy.

It had not been, and getting the winner at Epsom is never easy.

Prior to Galileo, numerous sons of Sadler’s Wells had gone into the big event with very good credentials and form, yet had finished no better than second or third. It was widely being said that Sadler’s Wells “gets a lot of really good horses but doesn’t get the real killer who can win at Epsom.”

And it is noteworthy that Montjeu, two years before Galileo, was sent to race for the Derbys at Chantilly and the Curragh (winning both) but not to Epsom.

The late 1990s also were the period when many breeders in Europe were criticizing Sadler’s Wells as a sire of stallions, and that is the second point of interest about the list of contemporary sires of English Derby winners. The great sire’s sons to that time had not become anything like as successful as their sire at stud.

And when breeders begin to get cold feet about a sire’s capacity for siring the supreme champions and about getting the next generation’s breeding stock, it is bad news. Because those breeders will also take their premium mares elsewhere.

But then Montjeu, Galileo, and High Chaparral began to erase those niggling doubts. And now Montjeu and his fellow star at Coolmore, Galileo, are firmly entrenched as the two best classic stallions in Europe. This year, the first two home in the English Derby were Pour Moi and Treasure Beach (by Galileo).

For these and numerous other successes, Sadler’s Wells is lauded as one of the pre-eminent sires of stallions on both sides of the Atlantic, with El Prado and his sons Medaglia d’Oro and Kitten’s Joy doing good work here in the States.

How things can change in the span of a decade.

alternation flies high in peter pan

Tags

alternate, alternation, belmont park, Belmont Stakes, breeding to race, classic breeding, clifford barry, distorted humor, josephine abercrombie, Kentucky Derby, maria's mon, monarchos, nijinsky, peaks and valleys, peter pan stakes, pin oak stud, Seattle Slew, sky classic, strike a balance, super saver

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

The Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont has traditionally been an important prep for the Belmont Stakes, and this year’s winner, the highly regarded colt Alternation, may take a role in the classic. If so, the colt would present an opportunity for his owner-breeder, Josephine Abercrombie’s Pin Oak Stud, to win its first classic.

Pin Oak’s general manager Clifford Barry sounded conservative about that option. He said, “Ms. Abercrombie is very patient, doesn’t push them, and the classic races are early enough that the horses have to jump through a lot of hoops to get to those races. She likes them to have long careers if they can.

“She will tell you, ‘I’m in this game to race them.’ She loves breeding her horses and taking them to the races. That makes it all the more gratifying to have one like Alternation turn up with the potential to be a nice runner.”

Whether in the classics or not, the prospects for the first two home in Saturday’s renewal of the Grade 2 Peter Pan are bright. They are lightly raced and improving colts, and Alternation won by a head from favored Adios Charlie (by Indian Charlie).

Alternation is a powerfully made dark bay son of Distorted Humor (also the sire of last year’s Belmont Stakes winner Drosselmeyer) out of the Seattle Slew mare Alternate. The latter is one of the last stakes winners by her sire, produced when he was 25, and is one of two stakes winners out of the important producer Strike a Balance (by Green Dancer).

This is one of Pin Oak’s most famous and important families, and Alternate is now the fourth daughter of Strike a Balance who has produced a graded stakes winner.

Strike a Balance’s most famous offspring is Canadian Horse of the Year Peaks and Valleys, who was bred and raced by Pin Oak Stud, like Alternate and Alternation. Peaks and Valleys (Mt. Livermore) won twice at the Grade 1 level and earned more than $1.5 million. It took a racehorse the caliber of this champion son of Mt. Livermore to make Alternate the “other” stakes winner out of their dam.

Alternate was a listed stakes winner at 3, 4, and 5, while she was second or third in five graded stakes and earned $550,695. She was a heck of a listed stakes winner.

Retired to the paddocks at Pin Oak, Alternate has not disappointed. Her first foal is the Elusive Quality filly Elision, who has earned $203,651 without picking up black type. Barry said, “Elision was a very nice filly who went through her conditions and might have been a stakes horse but for injuring an ankle. She is in foal to Sky Mesa.”

The mare’s second foal is the winner Take Turns (Seeking the Gold), and Alternation is her third.

Barry said Alternate is a “great big Seattle Slew type of mare. Alternation is a big strong physical, with a lovely hindleg, and is a nice prospect in the making. Obviously, the first thing is to enjoy the victory on Saturday, then make sure the horse comes out of it all right. Then, we’ll watch the Preakness and see where it all unfolds. We wouldn’t rule out the Belmont, but we hope to see him in the nice races later in the year, the Jim Dandy, Travers, and so forth.”

This is the balanced and conscientious attitude of an owner-breeder operation that wants its stock to show their best when the time is right. Among the considerations for any horse being evaluated as a possible runner for the Belmont Stakes is its distance capabilities, but Barry noted that the “mare could run long, and I don’t think distance will be an impediment.”

If Alternation does challenge for the Belmont Stakes, he could become the first classic winner campaigned by Pin Oak. The farm bred 1976 Preakness winner Elocutionist and the 1982 Doncaster St. Leger winner Touching Wood, but neither raced for the farm.

In addition to those, Pin Oak bred and raced Laugh and Be Merry, the 1990 Eclipse Award winner as best grass mare, and the 1992 champion turf horse Sky Classic in partnership with breeder Sam-Son Farm.

Pin Oak stands Sky Classic (one of the last important sons of Nijinsky still at stud), as well as their homebred G2 winner Broken Vow, and the farm also stood Maria’s Mon, the sire of 2001 Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos and 2010 Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver, till the stallion’s death at age 14 in September 2007.

kentucky derby pedigree: devil may care

Tags

a.p. indy, aladancer, bold ruler, claiborne farm, devil may care, diamond a racing, international thoroughbred, Kentucky Derby, keswick stables, longchamp racecourse, malibu moon, nashua, nasrullah, nijinsky, northern dancer, Seattle Slew, trade in thoroughbreds

Originally published at www.paulickreport.com earlier this week.

Following the game decision to enter the high-class filly Devil May Care in the Kentucky Derby, she became the object of considerable media attention attention this week, as the bay attempts to become only the fourth filly to win the Run for the Roses. (She would also be the first bay. Both Regret and Genuine Risk were chestnuts; Winning Colors was a gray.)

Far more than her color, the filly’s pedigree deserves attention for its classic quality and international appeal.

Bred in Kentucky by Diamond A Racing, the powerful bay filly is by Malibu Moon out of Kelli’s Ransom, by Red Ransom, and the branches of her pedigree reach across oceans and national boundaries.

The diversity within Devil May Care’s pedigree is typical of what came to be called the “international Thoroughbred” during the 1980s. This was an important concept in discussing the pedigrees of racehorses as the bloodstock of many countries began to mix, especially on the racecourses of Europe.

In reality, of course, the trade in Thoroughbreds has always been international, but for generations, the traffic was almost exclusively one-way: from England to Europe, the Americas, and the Southern Hemisphere.

Following World War II, however, the quality of the bloodstock in the “destination” breeding centers reached such a quality that those countries’ homebred horses began to be exported and raced successfully back in England, as well as in the premium events in Europe.

One of the stallion importations that made American bloodlines the equal to or superior of those abroad was Nasrullah, who was imported in 1950 to stand at Claiborne Farm for the 1951 breeding season. The stallion sired Preakness and Belmont winner Nashua in his first American crop and Preakness winner Bold Ruler in his third.

Both Nashua and Bold Ruler are present in the pedigree of Devil May Care. Bold Ruler is especially prominent as the filly’s male-line ancestor through Boldnesian, Bold Reasoning, Seattle Slew, and A.P. Indy.

Malibu Moon, the sire of Devil May Care, is a son of America’s leading classic sire, A.P. Indy, out of French-raced Group 1 winner Macoumba, winner of the Prix Marcel Boussac at Longchamp racecourse near Paris. Macoumba is by the leading American sire Mr. Prospector (whose broodmare sire is Nashua) and is out of French-bred highweight Maximova.

A foal of 1980, Maximova is one of the international Thoroughbreds from that peak of bloodline mixing three decades ago. She won the Group 1 Prix de la Salamandre at 2, was second in the Irish 1,000 Guineas, third in the French counterpart.

Maximova was a top-class daughter of Green Dancer (winner of the French 2,000 Guineas and bred in Kentucky) out of Baracala, by Kentucky Derby winner Swaps (a son of the English-bred stallion Khaled).

If the gentle reader’s head is spinning a bit from all the countries and classics, here’s the gist. Thoroughbred pedigrees from the 1970s onward have become similar to an omelet: everything can be in there, and it might come from anywhere, but the more class a breeder can pack in, the better.

For instance, with regard to the pedigree of Maximova, her sire, classic winner Green Dancer, was from the first crop by the Canadian-bred Nijinsky, the only English Triple Crown winner in the last 75 years and the racehorse who made Northern Dancer (also Canadian-bred) the most sought-after stallion in the international market.

And Northern Dancer earned his ticket to stud by winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. So in the first three generations of Maximova’s pedigree are seven horses who won a classic race in the US, England, France, or Canada.

Northern Dancer’s trump in matings was that he brought both speed and stamina. Furthermore, his offspring were very well-suited to the training methods in Europe and their principal racing surface of turf.

Northern Dancer also managed to sire some good racehorses on dirt in the States, including Aladancer, the fourth dam of Devil May Care. Aladancer was bred in Virginia by Keswick Stables, won the California Oaks and Firenze Handicap, then produced two stakes winners, as well as Ballerina Princess (by Mr. Prospector), the third dam of Devil May Care.

Aladancer’s stakes winners were Viscosity (by English 2,000 Guineas and Derby winner Sir Ivor) and Vigliotto (by French-bred classic winner Blushing Groom). Maintaining the international theme, Vigliotto won a Group 1 in South Africa.

Musical Minister (by Deputy Minister) was the first foal of Ballerina Princess and has produced Minister Eric (winner of the San Fernando and second in the BC Juvenile), as well as Devil May Care’s dam, Kelli’s Ransom. Devil May Care is the mare’s fourth foal.

champion manila shows challenge of breeding

Tags

bien bien, horse of the year, lane's end farm, le fabuleux, lyphard, manila, nasrullah, nijinsky, northern dancer, turkey

The news that champion turf horse Manila had died in Turkey on Feb. 28 was a reminder of the bay horse’s outstanding racing ability. A winner in 12 of his 18 starts, the bay son of the grand little Northern Dancer stallion Lyphard earned almost $2.7 million and won five Grade 1 races.

Retired to stud at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky after his 4-year-old season in 1987, Manila proved a disappointing stallion for the breeders who bought shares in him.

Too many are prone to say, “He was a turf horse,” as if that were an explanation for Manila failing to live up to expectations at stud. If so, then how do we revere such critters as Nasrullah, Royal Charger, Mahmoud, and Nijinsky? They never raced on dirt.

There were, however, physical indicators about Manila that pointed to the challenges which were facing breeders who wanted to use him successfully. First of all, he wasn’t a Lyphard. In type, the rangy, 16.1 hand tall Manila was a world away from the 15.1 hand Lyphard, who was a bundle of energy and one of the most beautifully formed and conformed horses imaginable.

Manila was a good-looking horse in his own right but took much more of his physical type from his broodmare sire, the high-class French-bred Le Fabuleux. Imported to stand at Claiborne Farm after beginning his career at stud in France with distinction, Le Fabuleux had extraordinary opportunities early in his stud career at Claiborne but mostly sired horses who needed a considerable amount of distance to show high class and who frequently showed better form on turf, where those longer distances were more frequently run.

In training, Manila was a horse of great quality, carrying enough weight to perform at a high level but certainly without carrying any extra condition. He was somewhat narrow through the body, although he had good length, and did not have a heavily muscled hindquarter. His bone was acceptable, but for a biggish horse, he showed plenty of refinement from his high-class sire grafted onto a notably bigger frame inherited from Le Fabuleux.

The result of this mixture of traits was a tip-top racehorse over classic distances who raced almost exclusively on turf, and as a mark of his distinction, Manila was elected to racing’s Hall of Fame in Saratoga last year.

But Manila was a much more specialized and finely tuned athlete than either his sire or his famous grandsire, Northern Dancer. Both of those stallions had traits that could translate in several different directions and still create a highly serviceable racer. And the problem with Manila is that he didn’t.

As a sire, Manila largely needed to replicate himself to produce a reasonable portion of successful offspring, and the chances of his finding exactly what he needed from his mates were correspondingly slim. When the needed qualities were there, Manila was able to produce some outstanding racers, such as Bien Bien (four G1s), Montjoy (G2 winner and five times G1 placed), and Time Star (Derby Italiano).

Manila did not sire enough of these good horses, and in 1996, he was sold to the Turkish Jockey Club to stand in Turkey.