miner’s blessing: dam of delta jackpot winner

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bill punk, successful racehorse producers, suzi shoemaker

As a daughter of Forty Niner out of a stakes-placed Halo mare, Miner’s Blessing had serious prospects, but she never raced. Sold as a 4-year-old out of the Stuart Janney III broodmare band when carrying her first foal (cover by Salt Lake), she brought $180,000. As a half-sister to stakes winner Conquistadoress, Miner’s Blessing seemed quite a serious member of an up and coming family.

Then the plan faltered a bit. The mare went to her fifth live foal before producing a stakes horse, Busher Stakes winner Olivine (by Royal Academy). The mare’s ninth offspring and eighth named foal is the Bluegrass Cat colt Sabercat, who won the $1 million Delta Jackpot at Delta Downs on Saturday.

Once the musty lost slipper of horse racing, Delta Downs has been reborn through the cash infusion from the riverboat casinos and slots that Louisiana horsemen brokered for the benefit of their racing and breeding programs. It has been such a success that stables from both coasts sent serious prospects to contend for the massive purses in the premium events.

So Sabercat had some good competition, and the rangy bay proved his courage for owners Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC. They purchased Sabercat at the Keeneland September yearling sale for $120,000 from co-breeders Lantern Hill Farm (Suzi Shoemaker) and Bill Punk.

The latter had initially purchased Miner’s Blessing as a mate for his Champagne Stakes winner Ordway when that horse was standing at Claiborne Farm. The mare produced a winner by Ordway and has done better with subsequent sires.

The produce record is below:

Sire: BLUEGRASS CAT, b, 2003. Raced 2 yrs in NA, 11 sts, 5 wins, $1,761,280. Won Haskell Invitational S. (gr. 1), Remsen S. (gr. 2), Nashua S. (gr. 3), Sam F. Davis S.; 2nd Kentucky Derby (gr. 1), Belmont S. (gr. 1), Travers S. (gr. 1), Tampa Bay Derby (gr. 3).
	Lifetime: 2 crops, 198 foals, 131 Rnrs (66%), 68 Wnrs (34%), 34 2yo wnrs (17%), 5 sw (3%).
	1st Dam: Miner’s Blessing, dkbbr, 1994. Bred by Stuart S. Janney, III (KY). Unraced in NA, Eng and Fr.
	1999: Salt Lake King, dk b/ c, by Salt Lake. Raced 1 yr in NA, 2 sts, 1 wins, $35,445. 2000: Blue Ginger, b f, by Ordway. Raced 1 yr in NA, 2 sts, 1 wins, $5,596. 2001: Slipped. 2002: Unnamed foal, ch c, by Forestry. 2003: Fabled, dk b/ g, by Tale Of The Cat. Raced 3 yrs in NA, 20 sts, 3 wins, $135,720. 2004: OLIVINE, b f, by Royal Academy. Raced 3 yrs in NA, 13 sts, 2 wins, $95,534. Won Busher S.; 3rd Sugar Plum Time S. 2005: Tsavorite, dk b/ g, by Johannesburg. Raced 2 yrs in NA, 11 sts, 4 wins, $41,636. 2006: Barren. 2007: Donegal County, dk b/ g, by Tale Of The Cat. Raced 2 yrs in NA, 7 sts, 1 wins, $21,598. 2008: Mr. Producer, dk b/ c, by Dehere.  Unraced in NA, Eng and Fr. 2009: SABERCAT. At 2: Won Garden State S., Delta Downs Jackpot S. (gr. 3). 2010: Unnamed foal, dk b/ f, by Purge.
	Broodmare sire: FORTY NINER, ch, 1985. Sire of 273 dams of 1312 foals, 1036 rnrs (79%), 626 wnrs (48%), 159 2yo wnrs (12%), 81 sw (6%).
	2nd Dam: Bless You, dkbbr, 1985. Bred by Mr. & Mrs. Stuart S. Janney, Jr., (MD). Raced 3 yrs in NA, 22 sts, 5 wins, $115,640 (ssi = 5.23). 3rd Geisha Handicap (R). Dam of CONQUISTADORESS (f, Seeking The Gold, $275,660. Won Opa Locka S.; 2nd Ashland S. (gr. 1), Black-Eyed Susan S. (gr. 2), Reeve Schley Jr. S. (gr. 2); 3rd Beaumont S. (gr. 2). Dam of Tamamo Create (JPN).

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motor city becomes first stakes winner for kentucky derby winner street sense

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bc juvenile, champion racehorses as sires, churchill downs, curlin, darley at jonabell, expectations of stallion prospects, freshmen sires, Kentucky Derby, lantern hill farm, miss netta, motor city, shawgatny, stallion success, star of gdansk, street cry, street sense, suzi shoemaker

The following post appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

When a classic winner who was a champion 2-year-old retires to stud, the expectations are naturally high because few horses excel at the highest levels at 2 and 3. But Street Sense was one of those horses.

Third in the G1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland before sailing up the rail to victory in the BC Juvenile at Churchill Downs, Street Sense echoed that form six months later with a narrow loss in the G1 Blue Grass at Keeneland, followed by a well-earned victory in the Kentucky Derby over the Danzig racer Hard Spun and eventual 3-year-old champion Curlin.

Striking early and winning at the top class were important considerations for Street Sense’s prospects as a stallion, and when he was purchased for stud by Darley, he became the well-regarded understudy for his now-famous sire.

The good-looking son of Street Cry was from his sire’s first crop, and Street Sense is one of the reasons that Street Cry is a major international sire. As a big, rangy horse, Street Cry was a staying juvenile who matured well to win the Dubai World Cup at 4, but something less than the world was expected of him.

However, when the stallion delivered a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and 2-year-old champion in Street Sense, Street Cry became a much different horse in the estimation of breeders. And when Zenyatta rose to the top of the class as a 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old, Street Cry became one of the most sought-after stallions in the world.

One of the peculiarities of breeding is that, even if a stallion does not have an unusual number of stakes winners, having really good stakes winners puts a shine on his reputation that little can dull. And that is the case with Street Cry.

The next challenge for the stallion’s escalating reputation is to get sons who sire good horses, and in Street Sense, Street Cry has a son who shares many of the sire’s best qualities and who appears to be passing them along.

In Street Sense, we have a high-class staying 2-year-old who is much like his sire in racing aptitude, although notably more refined and elegant in physique. The Street Sense stock showed surprising maturity and speed in the premium sales of 2-year-olds in training earlier this year, with a fair number of winners (8) to date.

So it is especially noteworthy that Street Sense had his first stakes winner, Motor City, on Sunday in the G3 Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs. The gelding was already graded stakes-placed after a third in the Arlington-Washington Futurity in September. In that race, Motor City finished a head in front of the Johannesburg colt No Spin, who also won a stakes over the weekend, and the form lines look reliable.

A Street Sense filly, Miss Netta, closed from last to finish third in the G1 Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park on Oct. 8, and she has been entered in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs.

Clearly, the Street Sense stock is improving with maturity and showing better form as the distances increase. Those are qualities that will serve the sire’s reputation and will encourage breeders to continue supporting him.

And that’s important because good stallions need good mares, which is half the story with Motor City.

Motor City was bred and is raced by Lantern Hill Farm, located outside Midway, Ky. Motor City is the 12th foal out of the Danzig Connection mare Shawgatny, who was bred by Lantern Hill, sold as a yearling at the Keeneland summer sale in 1991 for $320,000, then repurchased as a broodmare for $40,000 in the 2002 Keeneland November sale, carrying a filly by Gulch.

Shawgatny’s second foal for Lantern Hill was the stakes-winning filly Satulagi (by Officer), and all the mare’s subsequent foals from Lantern Hill have been winners.

The mare is a full sister to group stakes winner Star of Gdansk, who was also second in the Irish 2,000 Guineas and third in both the Irish Derby and English Derby.

Shawgatny is two years younger than her famous brother, and with his obvious class on the racecourse, she brought the highest price of 29 Danzig Connections sold at auction in 1991. On the racecourse, Shawgatny was in the frame six of her seven starts, with a victory, four seconds, and a third.