Archive for February, 2009
Friday, February 27th, 2009
One of the more interesting stakes results from last weekend came at Aqueduct in New York on February 22 in the Busher Stakes, in an ungraded race that didn’t even carry Listed race status because the added money in it totaled about $70,000 (Listed races need at least $75,000). Still, it was open black type for the winner, who is now 4 for 4 and pointing for the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. That’s seems like a pretty big step up, but not if you saw the race and also remember that last year’s winner of this race, the A.P. Indy filly Little Belle, won the Ashland, too.
This year’s Busher winner is What a Pear a New York-bred daughter of E Dubai out of the Pine Bluff mare Perfect Pear. (Click here for here for her pedigree). The filly absolutely demolished the competition, winning the 1 1/6-mile race by 10+ lengths, EASILY! I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t some big offers being made on her right now. (For a great story on her and her connections, read the February 23 entry for the blog “Brooklyn Backstretch” by clicking here). Apparently the filly was bred by a racetrack vet but races on NO medication!).
You will note that her 3rd dam is blue hen Best in Show, the dam of 4 SWs, including G1 winner Blush With Pride. One of Best in Show’s daughters was Sex Appeal, the dam of the outstanding racehorse and sire El Gran Senor, who won the Irish Derby and just missed in the Epsom Derby, and this is a tremendous female family that includes Belmont Stakes winners Jazil and Rags to Riches.
Obviously, this is an excellent family going back, but What a Pear’s 2nd and 1st dams haven’t been as good, though, and that’s being kind. (Click here to see catalogue-style pedigree). This is another example of a strong family skipping a generation.
You have to give her sire a lot of the credit here. E Dubai only stands for $15,000 at Darley in Kentucky, but he’s become an owner-breeder’s dream stallion, which means that his runners get to the races, win, make money, and can be of pretty high class, like What a Pear appears to be.
Remember last year at Santa Anita, E Dubai’s Desert Code won the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (L). Desert Code is multiple G3 winner and has earned more than $1 million.
E Dubai now has 9 unrestricted SWs with his oldest crop 5 in 2009, and they seem to run short, long, on turf, dirt, and synthetics, and at 2, 3, 4 and 5, to date. Desert Code was a turf sprinter, but Accredit was a dirt sprinter at 6F at Aqueduct, Spark of Dubai won at 1 1/16 miles on dirt at 2, Buy the Barrel won a G2 at Pimlico at 1 1/16 miles on dirt, Dubai Distinction won a 6F sprint on dirt at Calder, High Heels won the G2 Fantasy S. at Oaklawn over 1 1/16 miles on dirt, Once More Dubai won over 10F on turf in Europe, and Barilko won three stakes at age 2 in 2006 at Woodbine – the first year the track went “synthetic.”
E Dubai has never really received top-class mares. The 9 broodmare sires of his SWs are: Montbrook, Greinton, Drouilly, Lost Code, Dayjur, Gilded Time, Broad Brush, Timeless Moment, and Pine Bluff, the broodmare sire of What a Pear. So, basically, he’s done a lot to help himself, and for that he has his own great sire, female family, and race record to thank. He’s by sire of sires Mr. Prospector, he’s out of a SW of $683,000 whose full sister, G3 winner Ascutney, produced 2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Raven’s Pass, his broodmare sire is Lord at War, and he was a multiple G2 winner at up to 10F who also won at 2 in the time of :57.78 for 5F.
But there also has been a pattern to E Dubai’s success within many of his leading runners’ pedigrees: inbreeding to the Native Dancer line, including Raise a Native, and Mr. Prospector.
Take a look!
What a Pear 3×5 Raise a Native
Buy the Barrel 3×4 Raise a Native
Once More Dubai 3×4 Raise a Native
Spark of Dubai 4×4 Native Dancer
Dubai Distinction (restricted SW) 2×4 Mr. Prospector, 3×3 Raise a Native
Desert Key (G1-placed) 2×4 Mr. Prospector
Treadmill (restricted SW) 3×5 Raise a Native
Candy’s Bro (SP) 2×5 Mr. Prospector
Dubit (SP) 3×4 Raise a Native
(Click here to see all 9 pedigrees)
With only 3 crops to run so far, E Dubai’s progeny are showing class (11% stakes winners from his first crop alone!) and durability He is one of the few Mr. P’s that could handle a mile and a quarter (G2 Suburban Hcp) and it would certainly be no surprise to me to see him with a serious contender in the classics in the not too distant future.
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Monday, February 23rd, 2009
The legendary filly Miesque was one of the best European milers of all time. A daughter of the outstanding stallion Nureyev, Miesque was a Group 1 winner at 2, 3 and 4, and won 12 of 16 starts lifetime, including the Breeders’ Cup Mile twice. She was also a classic winner in two countries over a flat mile, accounting for the English 1,000 Guineas and its French equivalent, and won 10 Group 1 races in total!
Her accomplishments in the breeding shed are equally impressive with FIVE stakes winners, four of them graded, including the incomparable Kingmambo.
Miesque’s last foal was the unraced A.P. Indy colt Judpot (click here to see pedigree). It was recently announced that Judpot would be entering stud in 2009 at Varsfontein Stud in the Western Cape of South Africa in a partnership arrangement, and Alan Cooper, racing manager for the Niarchos family, Judpot’s breeder and owner, was quoted recently saying:
“We always liked Judpot, the last foal of the great Miesque. Henry Cecil had high hopes for him until a knee injury forced his retirement. We are excited that Judpot is standing at Varsfontein and look forward to seeing his progeny. We bred and raced Caesour [a leading sire in South Africa] and are delighted that Judpot joins Varsfontein’s stallion roster, bringing our best bloodlines to South Africa.”
Judpot represents the first stallion venture into South Africa for Flaxman Holdings, and his entry into South Africa is a result of Kitalpha’s success in neighboring Zimbabwe, where he is the current leading sire. Kingmambo’s full brother Kitalpha, who now stands in Kentucky, also had the second-place finisher in the Group 1 Investec Cape Derby at Kenilworth Jan. 31, and on Saturday he had a fresh Group 3 winner at Turffontein when Royal Exit took the SAf-G3 Tommy Hospur Hcp.
South Africa has already had – and lost – a valuable son of A.P. Indy in Camden Park, the sire of champions Jay Peg (also G1 winner in Dubai) and Consensual.
Jay Peg (click here to see pedigree) is out of a daughter of Al Mufti, a Roberto stallion whose dam is Lassie Dear – the dam of Weekend Surprise, A. P. Indy’s dam. Jay Peg, then, is inbred 4×3 to Lassie Dear and 5×4 to Buckpasser – a mating that my old friend Leon Rasmussen would have given two thumbs up!
Varsfontein could not have picked a better horse than Judpot to stand in South Africa.
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Friday, February 20th, 2009
In a recent blog, I wrote about Canadian breeder and diamond man Chuck Fipke’s desire to win the Melbourne Cup (click here to see the blog). Years ago Chuck wanted to win his country’s biggest race, the Queen’s Plate, so he sent his Secretariat mare Ball Chairman to Coolmore Stud in Ireland and kept her there to be bred year after year to Sadler’s Wells – the stallion he felt was the best in the world to accomplish his goal.
Well, Chuck got one heck of a racehorse from one of those Sadler’s Wells foals – the G1 winner, millionaire and Champion Perfect Soul, now at stud at Darby Dan. Perfect Soul won a lot of races, but he didn’t win the Queen’s Plate. But guess what? Perfect Soul’s unraced full brother Not Impossible, whom Chuck stood at stud in Canada, got the job done for him. Last year, Chuck’s homebred Not Bourbon (by Not Impossible; click here for the pedigree) won the Queen’s Plate!
While winning the Melbourne Cup is Chuck’s latest goal, his second goal was to win the Kentucky Derby, and to accomplish that he’s purchased millions of dollars worth of quality mares to breed to Perfect Soul, and he’s got a pipeline of young Perfect Souls getting ready for that.
- Fipke with Friends at Claiborne Farm
Now, back to the Melbourne Cup, I mentioned in my January 10th blog that Chuck wanted to send his mare Perfect Secretary to New Zealand’s Cambridge Stud to be bred year after year to Zabeel, the premier sire over there and the sire of three Melbourne Cup winners. Well, that is happening! On behalf of Chuck, I have made the arrangements to board the mare there and breed her to Zabeel.
Click here to see the prospective foal from this mating and why Chuck decided on it. Zabeel is by Sir Tristram, a Sir Gaylord-line sire. Now, Sir Gaylord was Secretariat’s half brother, and Perfect Secretary is out of a Secretariat mare, so the foal will have the two half-brothers’ dam, Somethingroyal, 5×4 in the pedigree. But there’s more: Zabeel is out of a Nureyev mare, and Nureyev, as pedigree aficionados know, is closely related to Sadler’s Wells. Both are by Northern Dancer, and Nureyev is out of Special, while Sadler’s Wells is out of a daughter of Special. What this means, then, is that the foal will have 4×3 inbreeding to Northern Dancer and 4×4 inbreeding to Special!
It is Chuck’s desire that his “Special” colt will be Zabeel’s fourth Melbourne Cup winner! Remember, this is the man who discovered the largest diamond mine ever on the North American continent and discovered the lost gold mines of the Queen of Sheba. How hard can a Melbourne Cup winner be?
Another of the full sisters
Let me assure you that Chuck is extremely knowledgeable about pedigrees and makes his own decisions when it comes to matings and purchases. He spends a tremendous amount of time studying pedigrees and analyzing stats. He loved Owner-Breeder during the years I published it and he now reads my blog with equal enthusiasm. He recently read my blog on Kingmambo’s full brother Kitalpha and was intrigued. Click here to read the original blog on Kitalpha, and click here to read my follow up.
Last year Chuck bred Perfect Soul’s full sister Sadler’s Secretary to Lemon Drop Kid, a son of Kingmambo, in part because of Kingmambo’s success with Sadler’s Wells mares — FIVE G1 winners including Henrythenavigator. She foaled a very attractive Lemon Drop Kid filly on January 21. He originally thought he’d breed her back to Lemon Drop Kid, but the more he thought about it the more he became fascinated by Kitalpha’s big heart and his success at stud from small Zimbabwe-bred crops. Now he has decided to breed the mare to Kitalpha instead of Lemon Drop Kid and had me arrange the booking. Click here to see the pedigree of the prospective foal. You will notice this is another “Special” mating. Tomorrow morning Sadler’s Secretary will board a van to visit the breeding shed at War Horse Place, where Kitalpha stands!
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Monday, February 16th, 2009
Every year around the start of the breeding season, I make a mental note to remind breeders who call in that the Werk nick rating — as important a tool as it is — is just one piece of information in breeding decisions. Now, with this blog going at full steam, I can actually get it off my chest in one shot. Here’s my annual advice about using nicks: Use common sense, folks!
One of my favorite examples to demonstrate this is the Storm Cat/Rahy nick, which is an A+ Werk nick rating. There have been 12 unrestricted SWs on this cross, including 7 Graded SWs. Storm Cat’s best son, the G1-winning Coolmore stallion Giant’s Causeway, is bred on this nick, as are G1 winners Sophisticat and After Market.
The success of this nick meant that a lot of Rahy mares started going to sons of Storm Cat, too. Now, here’s where the common sense comes into play. Everyone knows that Rahy is a small stallion and tends to get smallish horses, too.
Now, let’s take the Storm Cat stallion Storm Boot (now deceased), who was also a small horse, as an example. The Storm Boot/Rahy cross is an A Werk nick rating, but the physical match between the stallion and the mare would have to be a major consideration, certainly for the commercial market that demands big yearlings. I would not advocate breeding a small mare by Rahy to a smallish stallion like Storm Boot, even though our rating, based on the performances described above, is sound. A larger mare, sure!
The bottom line here is that we stand behind our nicks – we’ve been doing this for 20 years – but YOU stand next to your mare, and as a breeder you need to use our tools with your good sense. That’s the only way we can help you increase your probability of producing a better racehorse!
One more thing!
I’ve received several calls and emails from some of you asking me to explain discrepancies between the Werk nick rating and the Blood-Horse Publication’s new system. Folks, I can’t explain their system – don’t understand it! Please call them!
However, I did get a chuckle from someone who was comparing nick ratings from both systems and, using the Blood-Horse Publications’ system, mistakenly put in Distorted Humor with the mare Hystericalady, who’s by Distorted Humor. He got–I swear!–an A rating!
Let me explain this again: the mating would be 1×2 to Distorted Humor and would measure Distorted Humor SWs out of mares by Distorted Humor. Now, they didn’t find any, so they went back and checked Distorted Humor with other Mr. Prospector-line mares, and of course they found enough SWs to rate this an A. Where is the common sense here? We give this a rating of “0 SW,” which seems more than fair.
Unless you are the second coming of Marcel Boussac (whose Arc winner Coronation was inbred 2×2 to Tourbillon), I don’t believe anyone in his right mind would breed a daughter of Distorted Humor to Distorted Humor, who stands at WinStar for $150,000. And if you did, you’d deserve an A for humor, even if it’s distorted!
For more on nick ratings and the Blood-Horse Publication’s system, click here to read Roger Lyons latest articles on the subject.
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Friday, February 13th, 2009
I’m going to stay on topic of A.P. Indy sons for another blog because there’s one particular son of his that I think – as the English would say – is the business!
While at the Keeneland November sale, bloodstock agent Steve Silver and I inspected some of the new stallions in Kentucky. At Ashford we saw A.P. Indy’s son Majestic Warrior. Wow, does he have the goods!
Majestic Warrior enters stud in 2009 for a $20,000 fee, and, in my opinion, that’s a bargain, even in this economic climate. Here are a few of the reasons why:
I’ve already given the one – he’s a physical standout. And, we all know about his sire. A.P. Indy, who stands for $250,000 and so far has 114 SWs in the books, including Preakness winner Bernardini (another top young prospect) and Belmont Stakes winner Rags to Riches. He’s had a 2nd-place horse in the Kentucky Derby – Aptitude – and maybe this is the year he completes the classic triple. Friesan Fire maybe?
Now take a look at Majestic Warrior’s dam, Dream Supreme. She’s by the brilliant broodmare sire Seeking the Gold, and she was a multiple G1 winner who earned $1,007,680, with 9 wins coming from 16 lifetime starts from age 2 to 4! One of Dream Supreme’s G1 races was the Test Stakes at Saratoga at 3. This is the premier sprint for 3-year-old fillies at 7 furlongs.
Like mother like son: Majestic Warrior also won a 7-furlong G1 race at Saratoga. And he did it at 2!
Granted, Majestic Warrior didn’t do anything as a 3-year-old at the racetrack, but he’s done everything to earn a place at stud. He also goes to stud with one credential that all breeders ought to pay attention to: Majestic Warrior is the only G1 winner by A.P. Indy at less than a mile! This set him apart from the other A.P. Indys.
If you’ve been reading my last few blogs, you’ll note that one reason I think Pulpit has done so well is because he was one of A.P. Indy’s speedier sons, when compared to many of the A.P. Indys that are great classic-type runners. Speed is the name of the game here, but in the Southern Hemisphere, as I noted, a few sons of A.P. Indy have really racked it up because the distances are a little longer and the pace isn’t quite as severe, to generalize.
Majestic Warrior probably has one of the best chances of any recent son of A.P. Indy to make it here, when you consider his speed, precocity at 2, pedigree, sire, dam, and looks.
He’s also got a few elements in his pedigree that should actually suit the broodmare population that’s heavy on Northern Dancer and Mr. Prospector. A.P. Indy has sired 21 unrestricted SW’s with Buckpasser inbreeding within four generations, something which I’ve found makes top racehorses but not necessarily good sires. There have been at least 149 unrestricted SWs with inbreeding to Buckpasser within four generations, but you can practically count the number of good stallions on one hand.
Two A.P. Indy stallions that Majestic Warrior shares characteristics with are Indygo Shiner and Jump Start – both of them obviously successful young stallions standing for $10,000 or less.
All three horses are inbred 4×4 to Buckpasser – don’t worry! read on! — and all three horses have Northern Dancer in their pedigrees. What I’ve found Is that stallions who are inbred to Buckpasser AND also have Northern Dancer in their pedigrees benefit from an additional strain of Northern Dancer from their mate, so that the resulting foal is inbred to Northern Dancer. You can see the success of this in Indygo Shiner’s foals. Six of his 9 SWs are inbred 4×4 to Northern Dancer. And Jump Start has 2 SWs inbred to Northern Dancer, including one of his best runners.
Majestic Warrior and Jump Start share another similarity: Both also have 3×4 inbreeding to Secretariat, in addition to their Buckpasser inbreeding. [Pulpit’s Sky Mesa (4x4) and Tapit (3x4) are also inbred to Secretariat] . Both Majestic Warrior and Jump Start also have Mr. Prospector in their pedigrees, so you can see that mares with Mr. Prospector will allow for inbreeding to Mr. Prospector, and this also has been successful for A.P. Indy stallions. Jump Start has several runners bred this way, and you’ll note that Tapit himself is inbred 3×4 to Mr. Prospector.
Also working for Majestic Warrior is the fact that Mr. Prospector-line mares are an excellent nick for him based on the A.P. Indy/Mr. Prospector cross.
With all this going for him, how can Majestic Warrior miss?
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Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
What a weekend it was for the A.P. Indys! I blogged about his son Indygo Shiner’s two Dubai SWs on Thursday and Friday, then the weekend became “All Indy” with A.P.’s 3-year-old son Friesan Fire taking the G3 Risen Star, Aptitude (by A.P.) getting a stakes winner in New York, and last and most importantly Tapit (by Pulpit, by A.P.) having TWO Graded SW’s!
Frank Mitchell has a great blog piece on the Tapit SWs that you can read by visiting his blog, bloodstock in the bluegrass (http://fmitchell07.wordpress.com/).
Click Werk to view the nick ratings and pedigrees of the two Tapit SWs, champion and G1 winner Stardom Bound and G3 War Echo.
Pulpit is one of many A.P. Indy stallions at stud in North America, and so far it’s been tough going for many of them, Pulpit being the notable exception (We actually named him a WTC Quality chef-de-race last month). The reason is pretty obvious: Up to now, the stamina that they pass on has been in conflict with the speedy racing programs offered here. That’s why some lesser-raced sons of A.P. Indy have been surprisingly more successful in places like South America and South Africa, where the racing climate is friendlier for showing off classic-type stamina. For example, sons of A.P. Indy like Indygo Shiner (G3 winner, started at stud in Argentina) and Camden Park (winner, started at stud in South Africa, now dead) have been absolute phenoms in the Southern Hemisphere, and now horses like Aptitude (Argentina) and Judpot (South Africa) figure to add to A.P. Indy’s Southern Hemisphere record.
But let’s not give up on his sire-making ability up North just yet as Malibu Moon is doing extremely well and stallions like Bernardini and Majestic Warrior are waiting in the wings.
And then there’s Pulpit, a very serious stallion who is showing signs of becoming an even more serious sire of sires. Pulpit was speedier than most of the A.P.’s, and he’s become an emerging sire of sires with not just Tapit (TWO G1 winners and a champion from his first crop), but also Stroll (now in Italy and doing great!) and Sky Mesa (FIVE graded SWs from his first two crops including a G1 winner). Click Werk to view the pedigrees of Tapit, Stroll, and Sky Mesa.
Pulpit could turn out to be a stallion factory. To date 22 of his 36 unrestricted SWs are colts and SIX of his seven G1 winners are colts!
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Sunday, February 8th, 2009
You’ve got to be impressed! Over a period of two days in Dubai, Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms’ A.P. Indy horse Indygo Shiner has been the name of the game.
On Thursday, his son My Indy (Arg) won the G3 Maktoum Challenge, and on Friday his daughter So Shiny (Arg) won the Listed UAE 1000 Guineas! My Indy (Arg) had also won an earlier version of the Maktoum Challenge, too, which was G3, too.
As you can see, both horses were bred in Argentina, which is where Indygo Shiner began his career at stud. From his first crop of 3-year-olds in Argentina in 2008, he was represented by the winners of three of Argentina’s classic races! His son Tecla Shiner (Arg) won the G1 Argentinean Derby, his son Mi Amiguito (Arg) won the G1 2000 Guineas, and his daughter Miss Match (Arg) won the G1 Oaks. He also sired the G1 winner Garatero (Arg).
Mi Amiguito winning the G1 Polla de Potrillos
What’s interesting is that in Argentina My Indy (Arg) was not even as good as some of these horses and he still beat an international field in Dubai, and you can say the same thing for So Shiny (Arg), who was G1-placed in Argentina but not a SW.
Seriously, folks, Indygo Shiner’s start at stud has been nothing short of sensational, but because he’s considered a stallion from Argentina (he was bred in America), he only stands for $7,500 at Hill ‘n’ Dale! With these two SWs in Dubai added to the mixture, he was some kind of bargain. I say was because I imagine 2009 seasons to him are now harder to find than a 10% down mortgage!
Here’s the $64,000 question. What do these horses, except for Tecla Shiner (Arg), have in common? That’s right! Look at the amazing nick with Indygo Shiner and Southern Halo!!! (Click Werk to see the nick ratings and pedigrees). Haras La Quebrada, which stood both Indygo Shiner and Southern Halo, obviously found a magic formula in this emerging mega-nick, but there’s more!
What I have found is that there are many good racehorses (especially A.P. Indys) inbred to Buckpasser, but very few good stallions with Buckpasser inbreeding.
However, when A.P. Indy stallions produce foals with both Buckpasser AND Northern Dancer inbreeding, the results are phenomenal. Let’s take a closer look at some unrestricted SWs by A.P. Indy stallions who have inbreeding to Buckpasser AND who have Northern Dancer somewhere in their pedigrees:
Big Booster (by Accelerator; 4×3 Northern Dancer)
Funny Joke (by Indygo Shiner; 4×4 Northern Dancer)
Garatero (by Indygo Shiner; 4×4 Northern Dancer)
Jump On In (by Jump Start; 5×4 Northern Dancer)
Mi Amiguito (by Indygo Shiner; 4×4 Northern Dancer)
Miss Match (by Indygo Shiner; 4×4 Northern Dancer)
My Indy (by Indygo Shiner; 4×4 Northern Dancer)
Sir Whimsey (by Jump Start; 5×5 Northern Dancer)
Great Hunter (by Aptitude; 3×4 Northern Dancer)
(Click Werk to view pedigrees and nick ratings)
For more on Indygo Shiner, go to Sid Fernando’s must-read blog by clicking this link
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Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
You may remember my post on on January 4th, titled, Kitalpha: A Big Heart in Kentucky! Well, Kitalpha, a full brother to Kingmambo who began his stud career in Zimbabwe, is back in the news in a big way. On January 31, his 3-year-old son Bluemambo ran 2nd in the the Investec Cape Derby (SAf-G1) at Kenilworth — one of South Africa’s premier 3yo races. Bluemambo (Kitalpha-Blue Cross, by Badgerland) was beaten only a length in the classic and had many foreign-bred runners behind him.
Considering the great international profile of South African breds lately, this is a major feather in Kitalpha’s cap. Now based in Kentucky at War Horse Place, Kitalpha’s first North American crop arrives this year. According to his owner Gerry Aschinger, Kitalpha is booked to 105 mares for 2009, an amazing accomplishment considering the current economic crisis!
Bluemambo’s performance also confirms the black-typ form of Kitalpha’s Zimbabwe-bred runners.
Investec Cape Derby (SAf-G1) (1/31)
Kenilworth, South Africa, January 31, R600.000, 2000m, turf, good, 2.05.29.
1) BIG CITY LINE (SAF), 5.0, br c 3, Casey Tibbs (IRE)-Dollar Crisis (SAF), by Goldmark (SAF). Owner R W Deacon, G S Kotzen, G A Hauptfleisch & G W Mitchell; breeder Mrs J a Wintle (SAf); trainer G S Kotzen; jockey B Fayd’herbe (R375.000)
2) Bluemambo (SAF), 57.0, b c 3, Kitalpha-Blue Acres (SAF), by Badger Land
3) Drakkar (AUS), 57.0, gr c 3, Anabaa-My Mo Rally (NZ) by Mi Preferido
Margins: 1, 1/3/4, 1
Big City Line Defeating Bluemambo in Cape Derby!
- (From www.sahorseracing.com)
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Jack Werk (1944-2010)
