influence of classic winner unbridled is pervasive, includes recent graded stakes winner messier

Tags

empire maker, pioneerof the nile, sire lines, unbridled

Twenty years after the death of Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Unbridled (by Fappiano), the influence of the towering bay stallion proliferates through the breed.

In the Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes at Del Mar on Nov. 14, the trifecta all descend from the 1990 Kentucky Derby winner. The winner was the highly touted Messier (Empire Maker), now a winner in two of his three starts. Second was Forbidden Kingdom (American Pharoah, by Pioneerof the Nile, by Empire Maker), and third was Winning Map (Liam’s Map, by Unbridled’s Song).

Through Grade 1 winner Pioneerof the Nile, the sire of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and champion juvenile Classic Empire, Empire Maker would hold a moderate advantage as the most vibrant branch of the Mr. Prospector line through Fappiano. The other challenger from the Unbridled clan is the one from Unbridled’s Song, who has two useful sons at stud in champion juvenile Midshipman and in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Liam’s Map, sire of Grade 1 winners Juju’s Map (Alcibiades and second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies) and Colonel Liam (Pegasus Turf and Turf Classic) this year.

A tremendous talent on the racetrack, Empire Maker sired Kentucky Derby seconds Pioneerof the Nile and Bodemeister while standing at Juddmonte Farm, was sold to Japan, then was repatriated to stand in Kentucky again, this time at Gainesway Farm, where he sired recent graded stakes winner Messier. (Gainesway photo)

Empire Maker’s branch of Unbridled is much more classic and more consistent in aptitude with the great classic sire Unbridled than the branch from Unbridled’s Song, which flirted with levels of speed hard to believe and sometimes hard to keep sound as a result.

Breeders and buyers love both types, though.

The commercial market almost decided that Empire Maker was too classic for American racing, and then, just when the stallion was sold to Japan, Empire Maker enjoyed a resurgence in American racing and breeding with the classic aptitude of Pioneerof the Nile and his famous sons.

That brought Empire Maker back to Kentucky for the final years of his term at stud, and he has had some bright spots, both on the racetrack, as well as at the sales. Yet overall, students of bloodlines tended to love Empire Maker more than the intuitive match makers of big, beautiful yearlings.

In Messier, there is a pleasing match of pedigree elements which produced a good sales yearling. Bred in Ontario by Sam-Son Farm, Messier was sold as a yearling at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton select yearling auction for $470,000. That was a strong price for an Empire Maker yearling in 2020, and Messier has a profile in keeping with the best colts from this line: developing good stakes form late at two, before accelerating their improvement the next year to challenge for the classics.

This is the pattern of development that Empire Maker himself showed under the patient training of Bobby Frankel. After being third in the Remsen Stakes at the end of his juvenile season, Empire Maker progressed to win the G1 Florida Derby and Wood Memorial, and he was favored for the Kentucky Derby. In the classic itself, however, Empire Maker finished second behind Funny Cide, then came back in the Belmont to win at the classic 12-furlong distance.

Never out of the money in eight starts with winnings of nearly $2 million, Empire Maker possessed the racing class and physical quality and depth of pedigree to make breeders believe they could breed classic winners, and the only real knock against Empire Maker and his stock is that they are probably too classic for the American racing program, with its tedious over-emphasis on racing at distances from six to eight furlongs.

Even so, Empire Maker has sired 67 stakes winners, including 37 graded winners, and all those positive qualities attracted some splendid mares to Empire Maker, including stakes winner Checkered Past (Smart Strike), the dam of Messier.

Messier is the fifth generation of this family bred by Sam-Son Farm, including his third dam Catch the Ring (Seeking the Gold), who was champion 3-year-old filly in Canada and then the dam of Canada’s champion juvenile filly Catch the Thrill, a full sister to Messier’s second dam, Catch the Flag (both by A.P. Indy).

Sam-Son bred Catch the Ring, her two stakes-winning full siblings, and three stakes-placed racers from stakes winner Radiant Ring (Halo), winner of 11 races and $775,478. Radiant Ring was the best stakes winner that Sam-Son bred from the stakes-placed Gleaming mare Gleaming Stone, who was bred in Kentucky by Nuckols Bros. in 1976.

In addition to the stamp of the Sam-Son Farm breeding program, the other great influence on Messier is Mr. Prospector himself. Not only does the colt trace to the great stallion son of Raise a Native in the male line, but the colt’s broodmare sire is Smart Strike, a son of Mr. Prospector who led the national sires rankings twice. And the third dam is a daughter of the fine broodmare sire Seeking the Gold, whose daughters are more dominant in America but whose male line through Dubai Millennium and his classic son Dubawi is one of the most important in Europe.

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american pharoah shows classic potential in powerful performance at oaklawn in the rebel

Tags

american pharoah, classic lines, pioneerof the nile, unbridled

Last year’s champion 2-year-old colt, American Pharoah, returned to racing this season with an easy victory in Oaklawn Park’s Rebel Stakes on March 14. Skipping over the muddy surface with power and ease, American Pharoah proved that he was as much at home on an off track as he had proven when racing on a fast one.

The bay son of Pioneerof the Nile is the most precocious of his sire’s offspring to date. Unbeaten in three starts since finishing fifth in his début in 2014, American Pharoah won the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity and Frontrunner in his juvenile season.

With his enthusiasm and good health evident in the Rebel, American Pharoah is one of the easy choices for this season’s classics. The colt is the latest example of the classic inclinations of this branch of Mr. Prospector and further evidence of Fappiano’s importance to the breed.

Fappiano’s best son on the track and at stud was Kentucky Derby winner Unbridled, who also ran second in the Preakness and sired winners of all three Triple Crown races.

Of his classic-winning sons, Belmont Stakes winner Empire Maker was the most successful at stud and sired a pair of classic-placed colts in Pioneerof the Nile and Bodemeister.

A good 2-year-old, Pioneerof the Nile improved immensely at 3, as he was growing into his big frame, and on Derby Day, he was a respectable second to Mine That Bird, who rocketed up the rail to win on an off track. Mine That Bird is a gelded son of Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone, who is by Unbridled’s Kentucky Derby winner Grindstone.

That proved the end of Pioneerof the Nile’s successful racing, but victories in the Robert Lewis, San Felipe, and Santa Anita Derby earned him a spot at stud. The big colt retired to stand at Vinery, then transferred to WinStar at the end of 2012 as Vinery shut down its operations and sold.

Pioneerof the Nile had his first racers in 2013, and they included graded stakes winner Cairo Prince, who became a well-regarded classic prospect last year. Another colt from the sire’s first crop named Social Inclusion became a second talking horse for the classics last spring, eventually placing third in the Preakness.

Then along came American Pharoah.

As exciting as his initial stakes winners had proved, getting a top juvenile was another dimension to Pioneerof the Nile, and breeders responded.

Darren Fox at WinStar said, “The horse has been booked full since November, and he’ll have a book in the 120s.”

Fox said, “Breeders’ response is what you’d expect, even at the increased fee,” which is $60,000 on stand and nurse terms for 2015.

Those fees are a hefty income stream for the farm and other equity holders in the stallion. That makes Pioneerof the Nile popular with everyone, and Fox said that “standing 16.3 and having scope and quality, Pioneer is a nearly ideal stallion from a stallion manager’s point of view. He’s a horse who is easy to match on pedigree and physique, and Unbridled is such a distinct branch of Mr. Prospector that you can even use more of that line.”

The stallion’s only inbreeding within five generations is Northern Dancer 5×5, although Raise a Native is also present 6×5. In the most basic pedigree terms, American Pharoah is Mr. Prospector crossed onto Northern Dancer through a mare descending from that great sire’s grandson Storm Cat.

Fox noted that “Pioneer, being by an Unbridled-line stallion out of a mare by the Argentine-bred Lord at War, he has a pretty open pedigree for the main sire lines, and that opens up more mares for his book and makes him easier to mate. We get good representation from Storm Cat-line mares, A.P. Indy mares, and others looking for a good classic cross.”

American Pharoah is out of the nonwinner Littleprincessemma, by the Storm Cat stallion Yankee Gentleman. The dam sold for $135,000 as a weanling at Keeneland November in 2006, with Ben McElroy signing as agent. The following year, she sold for $250,000 at Keeneland September to Zayat Stables. After breeding a G1 winner from the mare, Zayat sold her last November for $2.1 million at Fasig-Tipton. Summer Wind Farm was the buyer, and the mare produced a full brother to the champion this year.

The prospects for the mare and all her offspring appear bright as American Pharoah battles toward the classics.

*This post was first published last week at Paulick Report.

when is big too big? size in the racehorse

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hyperion, northern dancer, size in the racehorse, unbridled, Unbridled's Song

After more than a week of fun at the September yearling sales, there are numerous observations to make. One of them that set me and a colleague to thinking was the question of size in the Thoroughbred.

Surely, there is nobody who goes to a sale or visits a stud farm and finds a growthy and substantial yearling and fails to note, “big and impressive,” etc.

Yet “big,” in itself, isn’t the answer to the great question of who is the better horse, and it is most certainly not the answer to which is the faster horse.

Northern Dancer and Hyperion are often mentioned as stellar examples of small horses who did great things and became landmark sires. They might have stood 15.1 or so on a tall day, but can you name a horse of equivalent ability or stallion success who stood 17 hands?

And that is an interesting question for those of us who seriously study the physique of racehorses, trying to judge the best prospects for racing success from the evidence of untrained yearlings and unraced 2-year-olds.

The closest king-sized opposites to the pair above would surely be leading sire Unbridled and his best stallion son Unbridled’s Song. The former won the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic, and the latter won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Florida Derby.

Unbridled’s Song was also a massive media favorite for the Kentucky Derby, but the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune were all against the big gray. After having an interrupted preparation and wearing an odd shoe to protect a sore foot, he finished up the track as Unbridled’s “other” son, Grindstone, won the Run for the Roses.

Both sire and son were racers of amazing talent. Unbridled, in addition to his classic performances, defeated champion sprinter Housebuster in the Deputy Minister Handicap at Gulfstream Park, going seven furlongs in an exhibition of tremendous class. Trainer Carl Nafzger told me that he could have trained Unbridled to be a champion sprinter. The horse had that kind of speed, and he passed on speed of the highest order to many of his offspring.

Both Unbridled and his famous son, like Northern Dancer and his famous great-grandsire, are outliers. They are exceptions to the norm of the breed, and yet they succeeded at the highest level of competition and represented athletic ability of the highest order.

At the yearling sales, however, only one sort of outlier is acceptable. The big one. Show a prospective buyer a small yearling, especially a genuine peanut like Northern Dancer as a yearling, and they will pass in record time. Nobody would buy the tiny bay when he went up for sale at Taylor’s annual yearling presentation. That’s why E.P. Taylor ended up racing and standing the classic winner and classic sire.

If this dislike of small horses were an equal prejudice, it would at least be just. Both types of outliers are challenged. Most small horses cannot compete with their bigger competitors because a small horse will have shorter legs, will not cover as much ground, and must be superior athletically to outrun a taller horse.

So, if that is the case, why is there a problem with bigger horses?

This is the logical issue that yearling buyers and evaluators confront. They almost always fail by grasping the big horse, just as quickly as they shy away from the small ones.

The reasons that the big horse fails to deliver the expected success are largely twofold, and both directly relate to the great lump of a body a horse has to wheel around a racecourse. First, to show speed and the athletic agility to produce a change of pace, the bigger a horse is, the more perfectly geared and proportioned it must be.

Just like any other mechanical effort, pushing a bigger weight requires a bigger gear if we are to accomplish the task in the same time, and if we want to go faster than the competition, then the gearing must be that extra bit bigger.

The second problem for the larger horse, and the larger it gets the more this is a problem, is the strength of materials. Bone and ligament can only remain stable under so much force, and as the bigger horse has to push itself harder to generate the speed of a mid-size racer, the forces on the bigger horse’s bones and tendons are increased.

The answer is already made to the questions posed by the temptations of outliers. The breed has told us simply and repeatedly that the mid-size racer, neither too big nor too small, is the best bet.

Mr. Prospector, A.P. Indy, Gone West, and Storm Cat have all provided solutions to the question of the “best horse” by contributing speed and power in different relationships, but they all fall within the general norms for the breed. They help the breed by producing a racier athlete and one that will mix well with other types to produce the next generation of stars.

*The story above was first published earlier this week at Paulick Report.

orb shines brightly on historic kentucky derby traditions

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breeding classic winners, Kentucky Derby, lady liberty, malibu moon, ogden mills phipps, orb, shug mcgaughey, stuart janney iii, unbridled

The following post first appeared in Paulick Report last week.

On Kentucky Derby day, no sun shined brightly. Instead, it was a dark and rainy day, but there was an Orb who shined nonetheless. That was a dark bay colt gleaming with water and streaked with mud from the sloppy Churchill Downs surface.

The fire within that lit the Derby winner’s eyes, that powered the remarkable stroke of his stride, is part of a legacy from his famed forebears, which include classic winners A.P. Indy (Belmont Stakes) and Unbridled (Kentucky Derby).

The Derby winner’s pedigree is part of a long history of dedication to Thoroughbred breeding and racing that can be read in the Paulick Report’s owner-breeder story. It is part of the breeders’ continuing search to find the best bloodstock and breed the best racehorses.

Part of that tradition is Claiborne Farm, which has raised Thoroughbreds for the Phippses and Janneys for decades. Claiborne also stood Bold Reasoning, a grandson of the Phipps family’s great stallion Bold Ruler. In the first year of his brief career at stud, Bold Reasoning became the sire of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, the sire of Horse of the Year A.P. Indy, who was bred by Will Farish in partnership and stood his entire stud career at Farish’s Lane’s End Farm, where the grand old stallion still resides.

Now pensioned, A.P. Indy has proven a landmark stallion, both because of his individual accomplishments as a sire and because he has been a major force in reviving Claiborne’s greatest male line of Nasrullah and Bold Ruler and putting it again on the pinnacle of American breeding.

With Princess of Sylmar winning the Kentucky Oaks on Friday and Orb succeeding in the Derby, the A.P. Indy male line won both classics. This is the glittering hallmark of quality that has made the A.P. Indy male line the preeminent source of classic ability in North America.

The sire of Princess of Sylmar is Coolmore’s Majestic Warrior, a son of A.P. Indy whose first foals are 3 and who stands at the operation’s Ashford Stud outside Versailles, Ky. The Kentucky Derby winner is by Malibu Moon, a thoroughly proven son of A.P. Indy who stands at Wayne Hughes’ Spendthrift Farm north of Lexington.

Bred and raced by Hughes, Malibu Moon showed exceptional speed and precocity, winning a 5-furlong maiden special before injury sent him into retirement. He had shown such speed that he found a spot at stud in Maryland at the Pons family’s Country Life Farm. After the success of his first two crops to race, including champion juvenile Declan’s Moon, Malibu Moon moved to Kentucky, and his star has risen year after year.

Ned Toffey, general manager of Spendthrift, noted that the high class and natural ability of the stock by Malibu Moon have continued to elevate the stallion’s status, crop after crop, and the stallion’s stud fee has risen in similar fashion. From 11 crops of racing age, Malibu Moon has 67 stakes winners to date.

This season, Malibu Moon has a book of about 150 mares, and one of them is Lady Liberty, the dam of Orb, and a daughter of Unbridled.

Toffey said, “I like the mating that produced Orb because it incorporates some of the suggestions that I’ve made to breeders, that they look to add scope and try to lighten up the resulting foal. That’s what I see in Orb. He’s a good-sized, strong horse, but he’s not what I’d call heavy.”

In physical type, Orb clearly takes a good deal from his dam and her celebrated sire Unbridled, a truly big horse with tremendous scope and bone. He was a stakes winner at 2, then improved out of sight at 3 under the handling of trainer Carl Nafzger, winning the Kentucky Derby, finishing second to Summer Squall in the Preakness, and winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic in the fall.

As a stallion, Unbridled exceeded even what he proved on the racetrack.

At stud, Unbridled sired the winners of all three Triple Crown races: Grindstone (Kentucky Derby), Red Bullet (Preakness), and Empire Maker (Belmont Stakes). The stallion also sired winners of many other G1 races, including multiple Breeders’ Cup victors, and now, as the broodmare sire of Orb, Unbridled has added a second classic to add to Preakness victory by Shackleford (by Forestry out of the Unbridled mare Oatsee).

Unbridled, representing a strain of Mr. Prospector that is essentially classic, is out of a mare by the important French-bred stallion Le Fabuleux. After early success at stud in France, Le Fabuleux was imported to Kentucky to stand at Claiborne in the 1960s by A.B. “Bull” Hancock Jr., and one of the shareholders in that syndicate and consistent supporters of the stallion was Ogden Phipps, the father of Orb’s co-breeder and -owner, Dinny Phipps.

Among the most successful breeders to use Le Fabuleux was Tartan Farms, which bred Unbridled and sold him at the Tartan Farms dispersal to Frances Genter, who raced the colt, then retired him to stud at Gainesway Farm.

When Unbridled hit the brass ring with a first crop that included Kentucky Derby winner Grindstone and major winner and sire Unbridled’s Song, overseas interests came calling with the intent to purchase and potentially export Unbridled.

A group led by Rich Santulli thwarted that effort, buying a controlling interest in the horse and sending him to spend the rest of his career at Claiborne, where he sired Lady Liberty, the dam of Orb.

With his performance last Saturday, Orb glittered with a hard, gem-like flame that reflected the time, tradition, and generations of commitment that produced him.

oatsee has been a stellar broodmare for every owner

Tags

afleeting lady, bentley smith, broodmare success, oatsee, shackleford, unbridled

The following post first appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

The Grade 1 Clark Handicap and the Grade 2 Falls City Handicap, both run at Churchill Downs over the extended holiday weekend, were captured by siblings, the 4-year-old Shackleford (by Forestry) and 5-year-old Afleeting Lady (Afleet Alex). Both are out of the splendid broodmare Oatsee (Unbridled).
 
As a daughter of the 1990 champion 3-year-old colt and a race filly herself who managed to earn black-type and win $106,945, Oatsee began her career as a broodmare with a lot of potential. Oatsee was able to transmit qualities of soundness and class that exceeded the merits of her own racing record and that threaten to place her in the pantheon of breed-shaping broodmares.

That she is one of the mares that everyone would like to have in their broodmare band is obvious after a cursory glance at her produce record. From her first eight foals, the mare has five stakes winners, including Grade 1 winners Shackleford and Lady Joanne (Orientate).
 
Shackleford closed his career on the Friday after Thanksgiving with a game and determined victory in the G1 Clark Handicap. The flashy chestnut won the G1 Metropolitan Handicap earlier this season to go with his victory has year in the G1 Preakness over Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom.
 
Following his victory in the Clark, Shackleford was retired, and he arrived in Lexington on Monday afternoon, where he will stand at Darby Dan Farm for a stud fee of $20,000 live foal next year.

Shackleford is only one star of several set alongside the name of his now-illustrious dam. Her other produce include Alabama Stakes winner Lady Joanne (also second in the Spinster and Mother Goose); Afleeting Lady, winner of the G2 Falls City Handicap; Baghdaria (Royal Academy), winner of the G3 Indiana Oaks; and listed winner Stephanoatsee (A.P. Indy), who also ran third in the G3 Discovery Handicap.
 
A big, strong, roomy mare with scope, Oatsee was bred in Kentucky by Bentley Smith, who also raced her. The son-in-law of Unbridled’s owner, Frances Genter, Smith had purchased Oatsee’s dam, the Lear Fan mare With Every Wish, for $140,000 at the 1995 Keeneland November sale, when the mare was 4, and Oatsee was her first foal.
 
The 1995 November sale featured the Genter dispersal, led by Unbridled’s dam, the Le Fabuleux mare Gana Facil, at $1,350,000 in foal to Seeking the Gold. Genter had bred and raced With Every Wish, who descends from the famous family of Taminette (dam of Spinaway winner Tappiano) and her dam Tamerett (dam of Known Fact and Tentam), back to the important English mares of the Aloe family, and the line’s true daughter Oatsee has returned the family to its high level of distinction.
 
But before that happened, Smith sold Oatsee to Mike Lauffer and Bill Cubbedge at the 2006 Keeneland January sale in foal to Langfuhr for $135,000, before the mare’s first two stakes winners had gained black type. The next-to-last foal Smith bred out of Oatsee was Lady Joanne, who became a graded winner later in 2006 as a 2-year-old, and she further elevated her dam’s profile with a G1 victory the following year.
 
As a result of the mare’s production success, Lauffer and Cubbedge sold Oatsee at the Keeneland November sale in 2008 to My Meadowview Farm for $1,550,000. Among the three foals that Cubbedge and Lauffer bred from Oatsee are Shackleford and his year-older half-sister Afleeting Lady, whom they still own, and the mare’s fifth stakes winner was bred by My Meadowview Farm.
 
So the big chestnut has given joy and rewards to each of her owners, and at her moderate age of 15, she may have several good foals left to produce.
 
Oatsee has a 2-year-old by Johannesburg named Dare Me, did not have a yearling, and her weanling is a bay filly by Indian Charlie named Play Pretty. Oatsee is in foal to Bernardini on an April 9 cover, and the plan is to send her to England to be bred to Frankel.

bodemeister has a pedigree filled with classic performers

Tags

arkansas derby, bodemeister, breeding the classic racehorse, empire maker, unbridled

The following article appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

Bodemeister’s victory in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby on Saturday was the most eye-catching of the Kentucky Derby preps as the handsome bay son of Empire Maker strode away from his victims down the stretch at Oaklawn Park to win by nine and a half lengths.

The performance holds further interest for students of pedigree and bloodlines because the first and second (Secret Circle) home in the race are by sons of Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Unbridled. While the winner is a son of classic winner Empire Maker, Secret Circle is by Eddington, a G1 winner who also ran third in the Preakness Stakes.

Such racing class was the reason that Unbridled excelled as a sire of top-class athletes and is the reason that Unbridled rose to become one of the premier stallions in the world before his early death.

A rangy bay son of Fappiano out of the Le Fabuleux mare Gana Facil, Unbridled was an outstanding racehorse and sire, and he proved to possess the highest class among the several sons of Fappiano who became known more for their classic aptitudes than for the miler speed typically associated with the Mr. Prospector line.

Unbridled, in fact, sired a winner of each Triple Crown race. Grindstone won the Derby, Red Bullet the Preakness, and Empire Maker the Belmont. The big, mettlesome colt was widely expected to win the Derby also after his earlier successes in the Florida Derby and Wood Memorial, but he battled a bruised foot in the weeks between the Wood and the first Saturday in May.  Funny Cide won the first round, beating Empire Maker in the Derby, then lost the Triple Crown to his rival in the final leg of the classic series. Empire Maker did not contest the Preakness.

In addition to his high racing class, Empire Maker was one of four G1 winners out of the marvelous broodmare Toussaud. The mare’s other foals to win at the premium level were Chester House (Mr. Prospector; Arlington Million), Honest Lady (Seattle Slew; Santa Monica and second in the BC Sprint and Metropolitan Handicap against colts), and Chiselling (Woodman; Secretariat Stakes).

Chester House became a good stallion, siring Metropolitan Handicap winner Divine Park and Ventura, winner of the G1 Woodbine Mile and the BC Filly Sprint, as well as three additional G1 events. As these suggest, Chester House sired horses more in the fast miler mold of his sire, while Empire Maker was distinctly classic in outlook.

Empire Maker also went to stud with exceptionally high expectations. Standing at owner-breeder Juddmonte Farms in Lexington for $100,000 live foal, Empire Maker was consistently popular with breeders and with the sales market, when his best offspring could be found in the marketplace.

Homebreeders tended to get the best of them, with the late Saud bin Khaled’s Palides Investments racing champion Royal Delta, along with Stonerside (Country Star), Zayat Stable (Pioneerof the Nile), and Helen Alexander and Helen Groves (Acoma). The stallion has sired 29 stakes winners from six crops and has been among the leading sires.

Despite his successes, Empire Maker was sold toward the end of 2010 to the Japan Bloodstock Breeders’ Association, and he now stands at Shizunai Stallion Station on the island of Hokkaido.

Bodemeister is from the fifth crop by Empire Maker, who still has 2-year-olds and yearlings among his North American-sired stock.

Bred in Virginia by Audley Farm and racing for Zayat Stables, Bodemeister is the second colt by the stallion to win at the top level, following Pioneerof the Nile, who also raced for Zayat and won the Futurity at Hollywood and ran second in the Kentucky Derby.

Bodemeister is out of the Storm Cat mare Untouched Talent, an uncommonly attractive and quite talented mare. She found favor also in the sales ring, selling for $310,000 at Keeneland September in 2005, for $500,000 as a Barretts 2-year-old in training, for $850,000 as a stakes-winning 2-year-old at Fasig-Tipton November, and for $1.2 million as a broodmare carrying her first foal (by Unbridled’s Song) at Keeneland November in 2007.

That colt died without racing, and Bodemeister is his dam’s second foal. The mare did not have a foal of 2010, but she has a yearling filly by Smart Strike and a filly at her side by Tiznow.

Bodemeister’s classic ties do not cease in his female family, as his second dam is the G3 stakes winner Parade Queen, a daughter of Belmont Stakes winner A.P. Indy, and third dam is stakes winner Spanish Parade, by English Derby winner Roberto.

If ever a colt was bred for the classics, surely this is one.

shackleford continues the classic legacy of unbridled

Tags

belvedere farm, bentley smith, bill cubbedge, birdstone, breeding for the classics, classic bloodlines, empire maker, fappiano, forestry, gana facil, grindstone, horse of the year, intuitive horsemanship, Kentucky Derby, lady joanne, leonard reggio, lincoln collins, marty takacs, michael hernon, mike lauffer, my meadowview farm, oatsee, preakness stakes, red bullet, shackleford, tartan dispersal, unbridled

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

Shackleford’s victory in the Preakness Stakes affirmed that Storm Cat’s son Forestry could sire a classic horse, and once more showed us the important classic influence of Kentucky Derby winner and Horse of the Year Unbridled.

The latter sired winners of each Triple Crown race. His son Grindstone won the Kentucky Derby; Red Bullet won the Preakness; and Empire Maker won the Belmont Stakes. More recently, Grindstone’s son Birdstone won the Belmont Stakes and has sired Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird and Belmont winner Summer Bird.

The massive bay son of Fappiano, however, was lost to complications of colic surgery far too young, but his sons and daughters are continuing to produce successful racehorses. Unbridled’s daughter Oatsee is the dam of Shackleford and two other important stakes winners, Lady Joanne and Baghdaria.

And to a great degree, the story of Shackleford is also the story of Bentley Smith’s involvement in breeding and racing Thoroughbreds. Gainesway Farm’s Michael Hernon said, “Bentley Smith made a great move years ago to buy Unbridled as a foal out of the Tartan dispersal.”

Smith purchased Unbridled for the stable of his mother-in-law Frances Genter, who raced the classic winner and champion. He purchased both the weanling and his dam, the Le Fabuleux mare Gana Facil, at the dispersal for the Genter Stable.

Those actions had monumental importance for the stable, as well as for Smith himself. Unbridled became a classic winner and champion, his dam produced Wood Memorial winner Cahill Road the following year, and Smith became ever more deeply involved in breeding.

Hernon recalled that Smith “was a great intuitive breeder and worked hard on his matings. He was a real good horseman who was very low key about it but bred and developed successful families. He wasn’t led by the market but rather by his knowledge of the horses and the gene pools. He bred to stallions who weren’t always the most commercial, and they realized considerable rewards over the years. He gravitated toward soundness in his selections and racing class.

“As he was developing families, he took great pleasure at looking at his foals and was always willing to give a horse a chance, and I did feel he wasn’t too perturbed if a horse wasn’t an ideal specimen early in life. He would often say, ‘Oh, he’ll come right in time,’ and in many cases he was right.’

He was a breeder who put himself in the way of good luck by having good, athletic racehorses. And when Smith sold off his bloodstock, the buyers put themselves in the same position, especially those who purchased Smith’s Unbridled mare Oatsee.

In the early phase of dispersing his Thoroughbred holdings, Smith sold Shackleford’s dam Oatsee at the 2006 Keeneland January sale for $135,000 to Belvedere Farm, agent for Mike Lauffer and Bill Cubbedge. The big, rangy stakes-placed mare was well-bought at that price, and when her then-2-year-old daughter Lady Joanne (by Orientate) became a Grade 1 winner, Oatsee became a precious commodity indeed.

Marty Takacs, owner of Belvedere Farm, said that he and the purchasing partners “got real lucky, bought her on Tuesday, and on Saturday Baghdaria (the mare’s stakes winner by Royal Academy) won the Silverbulletday. When Lady Joanne came along, it got serious. She’s really a good mare, but she’s not a mare who throws what they want at the sales. Shackleford was the best foal we had out of her,” and he RNAed for $275,000 at the 2009 Keeneland September yearling sale.

Shackleford was born in 2008, and after Lady Joanne proved her G1 mettle at the races, Lauffer and Cubbedge resold Oatsee at the Keeneland November sale in 2008 for $1,550,000 in foal to A.P. Indy to Leonard Reggio’s My Meadowview Farm.

Lincoln Collins oversees Reggio’s bloodstock and said that the practical decision at the November sales had been whether to purchase Lady Joanne or her dam. He said, “Our choice was between buying the product (Lady Joanne) or the factory (Oatsee); so we bought the factory.”

They were immediately rewarded with a good A.P. Indy colt in 2009 and another colt by Johannesburg in 2010. Oatsee is one of 15 premium mares that Reggio has spread over different Bluegrass boarding farms. Collins said, “Oatsee is at Darby Dan.

Unfortunately, she was barren to Dixie Union for this year but is in foal on an early April cover to Indian Charlie,” best known as the sire of last year’s champion juvenile colt Uncle Mo.

oatsee: dam of preakness winner shackleford

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breeding thoroughbred racehorses, important broodmares, lady joanne, leonard reggio, oatsee, preakness stakes, production success, shackleford, top sires as top broodmare sires, unbridled

The Unbridled mare Oatsee has proven herself an outstanding broodmare, potentially a truly great producer. The 14yo chestnut produced three cracking racers from her first three foals, including G1 winner Lady Joanne (Orientate) and G3 winner Baghdaria (Royal Academy). The mare’s first foal was a good athlete and a very attractive young mare who did not earn black type but who is now a very salty-looking young broodmare.

Oatsee was a good racehorse, winning twice and earning $106,945 in three seasons of competition. She was stakes-placed in a minor event but has left that far behind with the performances of her offspring, who are now headlined by classic winner Shackleford.

The appreciation in value caused by her producing success is obvious in the differing sales prices from her sale in January 2006 for $135,000 and in November 2008 for $1.55 million.

Current owner Leonard Reggio (My Meadowview Farm) has to feel elated at the continuing success of the broodmare, as well as the prospects for the young racing stock that he has out of her: a 2yo colt by AP Indy and a yearling colt by Johannesburg.

1st Dam: Oatsee, ch, 1997. Bred by Frances A. Genter Stable, Inc. (KY). Raced 3 yrs in NA, 21 sts, 2 wins, $106,945 (ssi = 1.97). 3rd Supertrack Racing Series S. F&M (R). ($135,000, 2006, keejan, brdmr; $1,550,000, 2008, keenov, brdmr)

2002:	Grand Portege, ch f, by Grand Slam. Raced 3 yrs in NA, 9 sts, 3 wins, $101,171 (ssi = 4.16). ($105,000, 2009, keenov, brdmr)
2003:	BAGHDARIA, b f, by Royal Academy. Raced 3 yrs in NA, 17 sts, 6 wins, $725,433 (ssi = 14.58). Won Indiana Breeders’ Cup Oaks (gr. 3), Iowa Oaks (gr. 3), Silverbulletday S. (gr. 3), Sweetheart S.; 3rd Black-Eyed Susan S. (gr. 2), Louisville Breeders’ Cup S. (gr. 2). ($52,000, 2004, keesep, yrlg)
2004:	LADY JOANNE, b f, by Orientate. Raced 2 yrs in NA, 11 sts, 6 wins, $987,094 (ssi = 28.72). Won Alabama S. (gr. 1), Golden Rod S. (gr. 2), Dogwood Breeders’ Cup S. (gr. 3), Banshee Breeze S. (R); 2nd Juddmonte Spinster S. (gr. 1), Mother Goose S. (gr. 1); 3rd Pocahontas S. (gr. 3). ($1,250,000, 2008, keenov, brdmr; $1,600,000, 2009, ftknov, brdmr)
2005:	Haysee, f, by Orientate. Unraced in NA, Eng, and Fr. ($85,000, 2010, keenov, brdmr)
2006:	Miss Sea Oats, b f, by Langfuhr. Raced 1 yr in NA, 4 sts, 0 wins, $1,385 (ssi = 0.12).
2007:	Afleeting Lady, b f, by Afleet Alex. Raced 2 yrs in NA, 6 sts, 0 wins, $13,259 (ssi = 0.78).
2008:	SHACKLEFORD.
	At 3: Won Preakness S. (gr. 1); 2nd Florida Derby (gr. 1).
2009:	Unnamed foal, dk b/ c, by A.P. Indy.
2010:	Unnamed foal, b c, by Johannesburg.

Broodmare sire: UNBRIDLED, b, 1987-2001. Sire of 264 dams of 1104 foals, 768 rnrs (70%), 518 wnrs (47%), 155 2yo wnrs (14%), 48 sw (4%).

2nd Dam: With Every Wish, b, 1991. Bred by Frances A. Genter Stable, Inc. (KY). Raced 4 yrs in NA, 35 sts, 4 wins, $110,144 (ssi = 2.16). 2nd Valnor Handicap; 3rd Indian Maid Handicap. ($45,000, 1993, keeapr, 2yo; $140,000, 1995, keenov, rac age; $30,000, 2005, keenov, brdmr)

nafzger on unbridled

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carl nafzger, champion racehorses, go for wand, psychology of racing, soundness in racehorses, training philosophy, unbridled, unsoundness and racing injuries

The following is a Q & A with trainer Carl Nafzger from 1993 originally published in DRF.

Q: How did you get Unbridled to beat Housebuster in the Deputy Minister at seven furlongs?

Nafzger: Had the best horse. That’s true. I had the best horse at seven furlongs. There was no way anybody knew the power of Unbridled. There were two horses that year: Unbridled and Summer Squall. That was the best crop* of 3-year-olds and, for the most part, the best crop of older horses we’ve had in I don’t know how long. When those two ran, they beat the field handily.

[The 3yos of 1990 included Housebuster (champion sprinter), Go and Go (Belmont Stakes), Wood Memorial winner Thirty Six Red, Super Derby winner Home at Last (by three and a half lengths over Unbridled), and Santa Anita Derby winner Mister Frisky, who won 16 races in a row. Another 3yo of that crop was third, a neck behind Unbridled, in the Super Derby. His name was Cee’s Tizzy, the sire of Horse of the Year Tiznow. The older horses included Farma Way, Jolie’s Halo, Twilight Agenda, Best Pal, and 1991 Horse of the Year Black Tie Affair.]

Q: Trained specifically for sprinting races, could Unbridled have been a champion sprinter instead of a Derby winner?

Nafzger: We came very close to sprinting him in the Breeders’ Cup that year. We started to enter both ways because the mile and a quarter was shaping up such a rascal race. And we thought very strongly about the Sprint, but we didn’t know whether we could get through all the traffic. We saw it was going to be a big field, so we just let it go. This horse was just devastating whenever he did his stuff. He was the kind of colt who had all the traits of a great horse. He overcame all sorts of adversity, and he had speed, but he didn’t have what I call tactical speed like Summer Squall did. Summer Squall could always be positioned to crack quicker. I always had to find my way through traffic. And sprinting, when we got that little field down at Gulfstream [in the Deputy Minister], he just ran his race. Once he started his move, he just exploded. I went crazy. He was a hell of a racehorse.

Q:What makes a horse like Unbridled compete so hard and keep on trying when he’s tired?

Nafzger: See, it’s only that much difference between a horse reaching down and giving you a hundred or a hundred and ten, and on an off track, he (Unbridled) would give you a hundred. But he wouldn’t give you that humphf. When they give you that hundred and ten, they’re extending themselves beyond safety, in a way. They’re running on with everything perfect. They feel their feet right under them. They’re giving everything they’ve got.

Then you can see what it takes to really win these races. He would give you a hundred percent on a bad track. That’s why he would light the board. But he wouldn’t give a hundred and ten, and it takes a hundred and ten to be a champion.

When a horse breaks down, everybody says, “that horse must’ve been sore.” Now, I’ve had horses break their legs, but I’ve never had an unsound horse break a leg. They won’t run hard enough. The horses that break legs are these horses who are giving you a hundred and ten and reach down for a hundred and twenty. And they make a misstep, and whop!

In other words, if a horse like Go for Wand is running, and here comes this horse up to her. And she reached down to give that extra push — you watch that tape, you watch it in slow motion — and she reached to give it again, and maybe her hind end slipped just that much, and she reached like that and pow! And then they say, “Oh, she was sore.” Bah! If that racehorse is sore, he wouldn’t even run. And there’s no medication short of morphine that can make an animal run when it’s hurting. This is where we have to educate the public. They don’t understand that these horses, yes, can hurt themselves badly, but you will never break a leg off an unsound horse.

It’s the sound horses who are giving you 110 percent. It’s the champions who give you everything they got that will break down.

trainer retrospective: carl nafzger

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carl nafzger, john nerud, street sense, training philosophy, unbridled

An articulate and humorous man, Carl Nafzger doesn’t seem like the sort of fellow who would spend 10 years trying to break his neck by riding bulls in the rodeo, but he did. When he quit rodeo riding in 1971, he began training racehorses and had his first stakes winner the same year.

The 1970s were a decade of struggle, however, as Carl and his wife Wanda worked to make a success of their training stable.

Nafzger’s third stakes winner was the What a Pleasure colt Fairway Phantom, who won the G1 Arlington Classic in 1981. Fairway Phantom also won Nafzger an introduction to John Nerud. Nerud clearly liked the man and his training because he sent Tartan Farm horses to Nafzger, and in 1982 Nerud also sent some horses from the stable of Mrs. Frances A. Genter.

Nafzger credits Nerud for believing in his training theories, helping him to acquire promising horse, and then helping to pacify owners until Nafzger could win some good races for them. The first youngsters from the Genter Stable included stakes winners Passing Base, Choose a Partner, and My Dear Lady.

Choose a Partner is a good example of the training philosophy that appealed to Nerud. the Chieftain filly won a maiden race and was stakes-placed at 2 in four starts. That put down the foundation for building a good year at 3, and the filly responded by winning four of 10 starts, $111,767 and the G3 Arlington Oaks. At 4, Choose a Partner was even better, winning the G2 Arlington Matron.

Genter Stable horses sometimes moved from Florida trainer Frank Gomez to Nafzger in the Midwest or to Scotty Schulhofer in New Your as the owner and trainers spotted each horse where it could do best. For instance, Nafzger had champion sprinter Smile when he won the Fairmount Derby, but Schulhofer had the colt when he won the BC Sprint. On the other hand, Nafzger had Choose a Partner’s half-brother, the G1 Metropolitan Handicap winner Star Choice, when he ran second to Royal Heroine in the BC Mile in 1984.

The first pinnacle of Nafzger’s career came with Genter Stable’s Unbridled, the winner of the 1990 Kentucky Derby and BC Classic who was voted champion 3-year-old colt.

Unbridled was associated with several more of the high spots in Nafzger’s storied career. Among the best were training champion Banshee Breeze and Travers Stakes winner Unshaded.

Nafzger added a bookend to his classic career with 2006 champion juvenile Street Sense (BC Juvenile), who came back the next season to win the Kentucky Derby and Travers Stakes.