wests focus on the long game for their breeding and racing operation – stallions, mares, sales, and racing – with top advisers

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ben glass, gary west, mary west, sid fernando

The breeding and racing operation of Gary and Mary West combines racing and selling in a practical attempt to keep the stable on the profitable side of the ledger.

That is a major undertaking in any business, but breeding Thoroughbreds adds a couple extra degrees of difficulty. Yet, when breeders keep and race a colt like Maximum Security (by New Year’s Day), who won 10 of 14 races, earning $12.4 million, balancing the books seems much simpler.

Horses like Maximum Security, however, do not come along every year. In any operation.

So the results of the Grade 2 Fayette Handicap were a welcome way to end the meet. The Wests’ homebred West Will Power (Bernardini) was one of two winners on the card which clinched a first title as leading owners at Keeneland for the Wests. Earlier this year, they had tied with Juddmonte Farms for second among leading owners at the Churchill Downs spring meeting and had been the leading owners at Ellis Park’s meeting over the summer.

West Will Power had been second in a stakes at Ellis in his return from competition after 11 months on the sidelines, then won an allowance at Churchill. Trained this year by Brad Cox, West Will Power has won two of his three starts in 2022, and the Fayette was his first stakes victory.

A winner of his first two starts, West Will Power has now won five of his 12 starts, earning $525,230. Before the Fayette, the horse’s best effort had been a second in the G2 Iselin Handicap last year.

The 5-year-old bay comes from the crop immediately following the one that produced Maximum Security and was one of the colts the breeders elected to retain for their racing stable.

“Gary and Mary like to go to proven stallions,” noted one of the Wests’ advisers, Sid Fernando, “and going back six years to when we at Werk Thoroughbred Consultants helped plan the mating, Bernardini fit that mare best, according to our criteria, and we expected that he would be best at three and up.” And so he has proved.

To get the results that the Wests are aiming for, classic contenders year after year, requires consideration and long-term planning using the best bloodstock and advisers available.

To balance the challenges of mating and managing a sizable broodmare band and racing stable, the Wests have assembled a team of advisers and associates with decades of experience. Chief among these is their racing manager, Ben Glass, who is instrumental in selecting horses at the sales and then managing them for the Wests’ breeding and racing interests.

In addition, Fernando and Roger Lyons of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants assist the Wests and their racing manager with matings and auction recommendations.

Fernando noted that “in the last few years, Gary West has not been buying yearlings at Keeneland, like he had before. Instead, he has been concentrating on breeding more from his home stallions – Game Winner, West Coast, and Maximum Security – as well as well other top-tier sires.”

Among those horses the Wests have bred is leading 4-year-old Life is Good (Into Mischief), which they sold “because their primary focus is the 3-year-old classics, and the thought was that this colt would be better at eight to nine furlongs. They obviously liked him a lot and put a strong reserve on him, but he was such a good-looking prospect that China Horse Club and Maverick Racing (WinStar) bought him for $525,000,” Fernando recalled.

So, the Wests have bred a trio of high-class colts in successive crops, as well as buying Game Winner (Candy Ride) and racing him to a juvenile championship in 2018. The big dark bay now stands at Lane’s End and is one of the stallions that the Wests’ current approach is geared to supporting.

For earlier stallions, Glass purchased at auction the dams of Maximum Security and British Idiom for reasonable prices to breed to stallions New Year’s Day and Flashback, then sold the mares on at moderate prices. At the 2017 Keeneland January sale, the Wests sold Rose and Shine, in foal to Flashback, for $21,000 to Hargus and Sandra Sexton, and as a result British Idiom was not bred by the Wests. Nonetheless, they felt a strong rooting interest when the filly won the G1 Alcibiades Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, then was named the Eclipse Award winner as champion juvenile filly for 2019.

What might be next, with stallions like Game Winner, West Coast, and Maximum Security to work with?

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doubling down on california chrome

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california chrome, dubai world cup, economics of stallion selection and management, perry martin, sid fernando, taylor made farm

The chestnut son of Lucky Pulpit, better known as classic winner California Chrome, made a lot of people happy when he glided under the wire at Meydan on March 26, winner of the 2016 Dubai World Cup.

The handsome horse with all the chrome had finished second in the race last year, then had gone off the rails in an attempt at taking over the world of international racing. The grand attempt did not go unnoticed, and the Taylor brothers at Taylor Made Farm near Lexington were available to supply investors when the horse’s partnership broke up in the aftermath of his international foray.

To that end, Taylor Made Stallions purchased the equity of California Chrome’s co-breeder, Steve Coburn, and then Taylor Made offered shares in the stallion to some owners who had expressed interest in breeding to the horse. Taylor Made and its investment shareholders have a 30 percent stake in the chestnut champion.

Initially, there was a lot of speculation that California Chrome would never return to the racetrack, and the colt did have an issue or two that sidelined him the remainder of the 2015 season, which became a glorious parade for American Pharoah, star of the 2015 Triple Crown and winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic in his final start.

Meanwhile, the 2014 Kentucky Derby winner had returned to the Bluegrass state to spend some time turned out and enjoying his inner pony. While in Kentucky, California Chrome stayed at Taylor Made, where he will enter stud.

Since he returned to training, California Chrome has made steady progress in 2016, and if the hopes of millions of fans come true, the World Cup victory will be only the first of many highlights added to the horse’s resume during the 2016 racing season.

At the very least, California Chrome’s victory in the desert has proven a stellar bit of horse trading. Sid Fernando, in his blog Sid Fernando + Observations, wrote a piece entitled “Taylor Made gamble pays off big.” In his commentary, Fernando clearly assesses the situation regarding California Chrome as a stallion prospect last year: “if he’d gone to stud in 2016 at Taylor Made off a disappointing and failed 2015 season, he’d probably have stood for $15,000 and would have compared unfavorably to a strong group of young horses that went to stud in 2016 with better pedigrees and current race records.”

In pedigree, California Chrome does not have a glittering female family line till the fifth generation, despite having broodmare sires in that line who are quite good. Furthermore, had he been retired last year, California Chrome would have entered stud with a long empty space between the present and a victory in a race that breeders could look to as an indicator of sire potential.

How long?

It was May 2014 in the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes. Prior to January 2016, the only race he won after the Preakness was the G1 Hollywood Derby, and looking back on it, Taylor Made was showing some serious nerve in purchasing an interest in the horse.

Then the ownership doubled down and put California Chrome back into training when the chief veterinarians gave them the all clear. There were all sorts of ways this strategy could have gone off the rails.

But it didn’t.

Now, California Chrome has three victories in a row: the G2 San Pasqual in January, then the pair of outings at Meydan that concluded on Saturday, March 26, with a victory in the World Cup.

California Chrome at Taylor Made after his return from Dubai

The plan for California Chrome is to fly from Dubai on March 31, with his destination being Chicago. There, the horse will go through quarantine, then ship to Taylor Made to stay for about 30 days before travelling to California and rejoining trainer Art Sherman.

espn interview of “franks” offers a lead-in to the keeneland september sale

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barry abrams, frankie dettori, sid fernando, war front

Radio and internet sports broadcaster Barry Abrams interviewed me a few days ago regarding the Keeneland September yearling sale that begins on Monday, September 8. The podcast is a ‘frank’ assessment of the situation on the racecourse and at the sales, with star jockey Frankie Dettori leading off the program.

Abrams chats with Dettori about his international successes in Europe and the Near East, as well as his venture into riding at Saratoga this summer. Then the interviewer switches horses and asks for my views on the upcoming yearling sales scene.

Readers can access the podcast from ESPN Sports here.

*********

In another piece on notable information from the net, Sid Fernando has a pair of recent updates to the “Who’s Hot, Who’s Not” blog originally penned by Jack Werk. As the current president of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Fernando has his finger on the pulse of the breeding business, and he offers a clarity and insight on bloodstock that is much needed.

Fernando’s most recent piece, which you can read here, is an assessment of War Front’s position in the stallion market, where the Claiborne Farm sire’s NO GUARANTEE seasons are selling for $250,000 to $300,000.

There are a couple of lessons to take from this. One is that top sires can come from nearly anywhere in the upper echelon of racehorses. War Front, for instance, was a good racehorse, but nobody ever mentioned him being in the same élite class as racehorses like Dayjur or Lure, to name two exceptional sons of Danzig.

Yet, War Front is hands down the more successful sire. (In fairness, Lure didn’t have much of a shot after his first season due to his raging subfertility and lack of access to better mares.)

The second lesson from War Front is that the demand for his seasons and the price of those seasons is the result from there not being an endless supply of seasons to the horse. Yes, he is a really good stallion, but if he were covering 200 mares in Kentucky, then shuttling to Australia or somewhere and covering a like number to “maximize” his value, just what would those seasons be selling for?

It is simply supply and demand.

sunday silence proved the importance of japan’s bloodstock development

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brian's time, classic quality, classic racing, ematings llc, hail to reason line stallions, importance of bloodstock types, international bloodstock, japanese st leger, japanese triple crown, kikuka sho, orfevre, racing in france, sid fernando, similarity of racing environments, sons of sunday silence, stamina, stay gold, sunday silence, werk thoroughbred consultants

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

With a powerful victory in the Grade 1 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger) on Sunday at Kyoto racecourse, Orfevre became the seventh winner of the Japanese Triple Crown. The previous winner of the Japanese Triple Crown came in 2005 with Deep Impact, arguably the best racing son of Sunday Silence and his most revered offspring among racing fans in Japan.

Now, there are no more sons and daughters of Sunday Silence coming to the races in Japan. Instead, the great black son of Halo is represented by his grandsons and granddaughters. Orfevre is a chestnut son of the Sunday Silence stallion Stay Gold and ranks as one of the best offspring by a Sunday Silence stallion to date.

The new Triple Crown winner’s sire, Stay Gold, was a major winner for Sunday Silence on the racetrack, went to stud, and has become one of the leading stallions in Japan. From six crops of racing age, Stay Gold has sired 17 stakes winners that would be recognized by international cataloging standards. One of the stallion’s earliest stars was Dream Journey, who was a champion 2-year-old and later a champion older horse.

Dream Journey is a full brother to Orfevre, but the younger brother is notably less precocious. A winner and stakes-placed from three juvenile starts last season, Orfevre has won five of seven races this year, including his last five in a row. And the rangy chestnut has become truly dominant since he stretched out to race over distances of 2,000 meters (approximately 10 furlongs) and farther, which has accounted for four of his five consecutive victories.

Of the races that have shown Orfevre at his best, his victories in the G1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) and G1 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) came at 2,000 and 2,400 meters. After the Japanese Derby on May 29, Orfevre took the summer break that Japanese owners and trainers say is preferable, returning on September 25 in the 2,400-meter Kobe Shimbun Hai, which he won by two and a half lengths from the Heart’s Cry colt Win Variation.

In the 3,000-meter Japanese St. Leger, Win Variation again finished second by two and a half lengths. Orfevre had made a stunning move around the 2,400-meter mark to break the race open and was leading by as much as five lengths. Through the last 200 meters or so, Orfevre seemed to idle in front, and Win Variation closed some ground but did not menace the winner.

In addition to the exacta in this classic being sired by sons of Japanese racing’s beloved Sunday Silence, every one of the first dozen racers home were by sons of Sunday Silence. That pretty much kills betting grandsons of Sunday Silence as an angle for gambling, but it emphasizes how the son of Halo remade pedigrees and breeding in Japan during the course of his lifetime.

Furthermore, of the first dozen in the Japanese St. Leger, these are offspring from six sons: Stay Gold (1st, 7th), Heart’s Cry (2nd, 12th), Deep Impact (3rd, 10th), Manhattan Cafe (4th, 8th, 11th), Fuji Kiseki (5th, 6th), and Neo Universe (9th). Of the 18 starters in the race, 14 descend from Sunday Silence in the male line, and three more are out of his daughters.

In addition to the revolutionary influence of Sunday Silence on racing and breeding in Japan, one wonders if there are other considerations that have contributed to Japanese breeders’ production of Triple Crown winners when racing in England and the States has not had a Triple Crown winner over the past several decades.

Sid Fernando, former bloodstock editor of Daily Racing Form and now the president of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants Inc. and Ematings LLC, said that several factors have helped the Japanese to continue producing world-class stayers and classic performers.

For one thing, the bloodlines were in place. Fernando said that “before Sunday Silence made a huge impact on breeding in Japan, there was Narita Brian, a Japanese Triple Crown winner by the Roberto horse Brian’s Time,” who won the Florida Derby, ran second in the Preakness, third in the Belmont and Travers.

Clearly from the success of Brian’s Time, a Hail to Reason line horse could do well in Japan, with its wealth of Northern Dancer and European bloodlines, and an even better Hail to Reason line horse like Sunday Silence should do better.

Fernando said: “We knew from the beginning that the Sunday Silence stock was special because his first-crop Japanese Oaks winner was classic-placed in France, and the Sunday Silence stock have continued to do well in the French program,” as seen by Dabirsim, who is an unbeaten juvenile star in France by the Sunday Silence stallion Hat Trick, who stands at Walmac International in Kentucky.

“Even before they began racing Sunday Silence offspring in France,” Fernando said, “the Yoshidas had a highly symbiotic relationship with the French racing program, especially since they had raced Northern Taste there before taking him to stud in Japan,” where he became the most important Japanese-based stallion prior to Sunday Silence.

And a final factor for escalating classic success has been breeding and racing for stamina.

Fernando said, “In Germany, as well as in Japan, stamina is a major component of their racing programs. Stamina is valued, and they love to stand stallions who are classic winners. As a result, we are seeing horses like Danedream win the Arc de Triomphe and Animal Kingdom (out of a German-bred mare) win the Kentucky Derby.”

jersey town another gem for fipke

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aqueduct racecourse, banshee breeze, bc dirt mile, bloodstock theories, charles fipke, cigar mile, dosage, female family inbreeding, haynesfield, jersey girl, jersey town, keeneland november sale, keeper hill, nicking, planning a racing program, sid fernando, speightstown, stallion prospect, tale of ekati, tale of the cat, top performers as producers, werk thoroughbred consultants

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

 

Owner-breeder Charles Fipke is the luckiest man in the world. As a professional geologist and entrepreneur, he literally finds mountains of gold and gems. And as a hobby, he breeds Grade 1 racehorses.

Even there, Fipke is lucky. Two years ago, his homebred Tale of Ekati (by Tale of the Cat) won the Cigar Mile in 2008 on a disqualification. This weekend, Fipke’s homebred Jersey Town (Speightstown) won the Cigar Mile as the longest shot on the board at 34-1 over G1 winners Haynesfield, Girolamo, Bribon, Vineyard Haven, and others.

Now, fellow horse breeders, we need to sit down and get some good air in our lungs for this next one. Fipke bought the dams of both his Cigar Mile winners at auction while carrying those G1 winners.

We are in the thin-air territory of good luck and amazing fortune here, right?

Well, there is also a lot of hard work involved at every step in the process of mating and producing a good racing prospect.

Sid Fernando, president of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, is a regular consultant to Fipke, and Fernando said that “Chuck is really a very enthusiastic horse owner. He has a theory about what works, and he enjoys planning matings according to the various theories that he operates with. Chuck gets suggestions from various individuals, but he makes the final decisions on everything.”

In approaching his matings, Fipke said, “The Werk nick is the guide. And a newer approach I have been following is using duplications of the female line of the mare. Also, you want to have a good dosage profile with speed in it, and when Jack Werk was alive, we started classifying the horses that aren’t classified according to the chefs de race.

“We work out the distance aptitude of each horse four different ways, and if you get a result that says this ought to be a 12-furlong horse all four ways, it’s pretty likely that is what you’ll get. Then you have to take into account the female part of the family because that will change it.”

The breeder also takes note of the physical qualities of his horses, and he purchased Jersey Town’s dam, multiple G1 winner Jersey Girl (Belong to Me), for $700,000 at the 2005 Keeneland November sale when the mare was carrying this colt.

While her immense racing talent was important to Fipke, he said Jersey Girl “was an outstanding mare. I usually fall for the horse I think is the best-conformed in the sale, and the year I bought her, she was the best by far.”

A very good-looking and strongly made winner in nine of 11 starts, Jersey Girl was one of the best 3-year-old fillies of 1998, with Banshee Breeze (Unbridled) getting the nod as the Eclipse Award champion, with Acorn and Mother Goose winner Jersey Girl and Kentucky Oaks winner Keeper Hill (Deputy Minister) narrowly behind her.

At the time of her sale, however, Jersey Girl was the dam of four foals and no winners. In commercial terms, buying her was a risk, but Fipke isn’t a commercial breeder.

And the result of the mare’s mating was an outstanding chestnut colt by champion sprinter Speightstown.

Fernando said the “best-looking horse in the paddock for the Cigar Mile was Girolamo, but Jersey Town was next. He isn’t as big as Girolamo, but Jersey Town was strutting around, has a big and powerful hindquarter, and a ton of presence. He stays in training for 2011.”

Jersey Town had been second or third in three successive graded stakes before the Cigar Mile and reversed the form of his second in the Bold Ruler, when the Speightstown colt raced very wide, Fipke said. “We decided to pass the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and instead go for the Cigar Mile,” Fipke said. “We knew going into the Cigar Mile that he was good, and with the determination, he pulled on through. The biggest thing he’s got is great determination, and that comes from his mum.”

With all the retirements recently, having Jersey Town racing next year is good news for racing, and Fipke believes there are better things ahead for his colt, who has five victories and five seconds from 12 starts.

The breeder said, “We will go for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile next year, and we might try sprinting him some because he has so much speed.”

The combination of speed and a G1 victory make Jersey Town a very attractive stallion prospect, and Fernando noted that breeder Fipke “always liked this colt quite a bit, and his goal was to make him a stallion. He has done that.”

In addition to making Jersey Town an interesting stallion prospect, Fipke has made Jersey Girl a G1 producer. The breeder said, “Jersey Girl has a nice 3-year-old by Perfect Soul who is so big and massive that he was sent home to grow a little more. He is now in Florida with J.B. McKathan.” The colt’s name is Soul of Ekati, another namesake of the Ekati mine  in western Canada where Fipke discovered diamonds.

Barren in 2008, Jersey Girl has successive foals by Perfect Soul, Fipke’s Canadian champion by Sadler’s Wells. The horse stands at Darby Dan, like Cigar Mile winner Tale of Ekati.

 

chechen derby latest success for keeneland grad

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chechen derby, genedi dorchenko, giant's causeway, gudermes hippodrome, keeneland september yearling sale, north stream, overseas buying at yearling sales, ramzan kadyrov, raut llc, russian derby, russian racing, sadler's wells, sid fernando, starbourne

One sterling example of Keeneland’s success in bringing overseas buyers to the American sales market is Raut LLC.

The leading buying entity at the Keeneland September yearling sale by volume of purchases with more than 100 head accounted for, Raut LLC is the purchasing operation of Genedi Dorchenko, who basically functions at the agent to buy racing stock for many owners in Russia and other Eastern European countries.

Among the most successful young athletes purchased by Raut is the 2010 Russian Derby winner North Stream (by Giant’s Causeway), who won the Chechen Derby on Sept. 25 for Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov.

In case you don’t follow the Chechen results (at their new Gudermes racetrack), I actually don’t, either.

The internationally known and respected racing writer and bloodstock adviser Sid Fernando does, however. His excellent blog even has a video of yesterday’s Chechen Derby that you can watch here.

In a telephone interview today, Fernando noted that repeated successes have changed how Dorchenko does business. Fernando said, “When Raut bought this colt two years ago, he was buying at a much lower level, typically. Now he appears to have stronger money behind him. He has bought some at the present Keeneland September sale at a level far beyond what he would have done even last year.”

The price for North Stream at the 2008 yearling sale was only $45,000. That was one of the lowest yearling prices of that year for his famous sire, and the colt does not lack pedigree, either, being out of the Sadler’s Wells mare Starbourne.

Starbourne is a listed stakes winner who ran third in the 2002 Irish 1,000 Guineas and fourth in the Oaks at Epsom. So she was highly tried. Now 11, Starbourne produced North Stream as her third foal.

Even with such recommendations, only a half-dozen Giant’s Causeway yearlings sold for lesser sums, and one other sold for the same price as North Stream, who was bred in Kentucky by Commonwealth.

Obviously, price isn’t important to Kadyrov, only performance. The two most important races in Russia are the Russian Derby and Presidents’s Cup, and this year Kadyrov won both.

As his dual Derby winner, North Stream is very important to Kadyrov, and Fernando said that “North Stream will go to stud, and Kadyrov will own the horse when he does.”

So, will the Chechen president stand his prized racer overseas, or will he perhaps bring him to Kentucky to head Chechen Stud West?

budapest bullet fires another one

Tags

international form, international racing, overdose, sid fernando

European sprint hero Overdose returned to competition with a victory this weekend after a lengthy layoff and rehab for chronic hoof issues.

You can see the race replay at Sid Fernando’s blog here.

Although it was great to see O-ver-DOZE make a winning comeback, I doubt that effort was within 10 pounds of his best. I look forward with interest to how Timeform or Globeform will rate the performance.

Overdose is so quick out of the gate that he usually looks like he broke through the gate, but it is an optical illusion because of his amazing pace and lightning reflexes. An impressive horse who sold for peanuts as a youngster.

lady shakespeare another strike for owner-breeder fipke

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

The following story appeared on Paulick Report earlier this week.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

toe the line, mr lyons

Tags

humor in bloostock writing, roger lyons, sid fernando

In his excellent blog on the international pedigree and racing scene, Sid Fernando recently had a post on the work of Roger Lyons, who specifically deals with pedigrees and the makeup of matings. The series of links in this post caused me serious concern, and we must all thank Mr Fernando for pointing us in the direction of these incendiary commentaries.

In perhaps the most shocking display of the breeding season, Lyons, in both his blog titles and within the substance of his writings, has had the effrontery to use humor. I had to take issue with this behavior for the good of pedigree consultants everywhere.

So I wrote:

Dear Sid,

Please inform Mr. Lyons that he is not in compliance with Article 3, subsection ix of the Uniform Code of Practice for Pedigree Consultants (specifically, the use of humor in discussing important theories and implications related to pedigrees and the matings of Thoroughbreds for genetic success in the field of racing).

In the Uniform Code of Practice Handbook, we strongly urge member PCs to word their replies in the most obscure and turgid language possible, taking special care in all instances and situations to use phrases that sound good and mean something less than the vapor encircling the head of Zeus.

And NEVER use humor. This is just not done. The PROPER PC is dour and stern, advising clients while smiling not, keeping a grave tone, and investing his pronouncements with a sense of tremendous importance. To do otherwise might invite an inappropriate familiarity between the PC and client, such as a question about how the PC managed to get his head inside his own shorts.

Also, please refrain from using the word “tights,” lest someone get a twist in his knickers.

Sincerely,
Frank Mitchell

Clearly, this is the sort of thing one has to nip in the bud. Who knows what it might lead to … might jokes be next?

giant’s causeway: one horse away from greatness

Tags

biomechanical analysis, giant's causeway, international stallions, leading sires, physical type, sid fernando, sire analysis, sire line supremacy, storm cat

Leading sire Giant’s Causeway is one horse away from fully becoming “his sire’s successor” as the most powerful international commercial stallion. Since Storm Cat was pensioned, the mantle of leading proven commercial sire has rested on his best son, as well as AP Indy and Distorted Humor. The latter two, however, are far from as  popular abroad as they are here in America.

And it appears that Giant’s Causeway is ready to soldier on as the international star on all surfaces and conditions. Already the sire of multiple classic winners in Europe, Giant’s Causeway is poised to challenge for the classics here in the States with Eskendereya, who has been immensely impressive in winning both the Fountain of Youth and the Wood Memorial.

The potential successes for this colt and his sire have been pointed out by Sid Fernando multiple times here and also by me earlier this spring here and here.

We are watching history being made, and the degree of the stallion’s success will determine both his attractiveness to breeders and some of his opportunity to influence the breed in his own — rather different — direction from that of his famous sire.

In terms of type, the Giant’s Causeway stock are generally lighter than that by Storm Cat. One of the keys to the success of Storm Cat was that he would put a powerhouse body on the foal, but it could also be a problem if the foal had some of the less stable knees from the tribe. The consideration of weight and related soundness does not seem so much a problem with Giant’s Causeway.

And in terms of mechanics, Giant’s Causeway has better finishing speed. It was one of the strengths of his own racing career, combined with bulldog determination to win. This has generally pushed the Giant’s Causeway stock to be turf horses or synthetic horses, as fewer of them really have gate speed … unlike quite a lot of the “standard” Storm Cats. In this regard, Giant’s Causeway is breeding on some of the best traits of broodmare sire Rahy and his sire, Blushing Groom.