Turf breeding in Kentucky stands at critical crossroads, being lately bereft of both its most accomplished stallions in Kitten's Joy and English Channel. The small, quixotic community that remains willing to persevere with grass influences, against a vicious commercial tide, is also grieving another recent loss in Get Stormy. That's why a breakout for Karakontie (Jpn), entering his prime at 11 and standing at no more than $10,000, feels so very timely.
After recently fielding three stakes winners in 48 hours, either side of the Atlantic, his first millionaire Princess Grace came close to adding a Grade I success when narrowly denied the Beverly D. on Aug, 13. But Antony Beck and his team at Gainesway only had to wait until the following weekend to redeem that frustration, with the homebred Spendarella winning the GI Del Mar Oaks in emphatic style.
Spendarella was actually put through the 2020 Keeneland September Sale as a $220,000 yearling, but fortunately for Beck ended up being restored to his racetrack division. If that sounds a fine price for Book 5, then it's worth remembering that this was the same session that Karakontie topped with a colt that made no less than $500,000. He also sold one at the same auction last year for $310,000. This is a stallion, then, that has shone in all departments from limited opportunity.
Among fourth-crop sires, indeed, only Constitution (a freakish 7.8 percent) can beat his strike-rate of stakes winners. From just 122 career starters to date, Karakontie already has nine (five at graded/group level) at bang on five percent of named foals. That's the same as American Pharoah, and clear of Liam's Map (3.8 percent) and Daredevil (3.6 percent): comparisons, in each case, intended only to elevate Karakontie, rather than demean their right to stand at much higher fees.
But you could tell something was brewing right from the outset, with two members of his debut crop making the gate respectively in the GI Kentucky Derby and G1 2,000 Guineas–despite each having changed hands for as little as $6,000.
“Yes, we allowed ourselves some delusions of grandeur that weekend!” jokes Beck. “That was phenomenal, absolutely. And he has continued to do really, really well from the chances he has had. He gets a very high percentage of high-class runners, unfortunately without ever being given sufficient chance. So many of his matings have either been Niarchos family or Gainesway mares. Of course, we've both been very well rewarded. But what a fantastic opportunity he does present, with those good [grass] sires no longer around–especially as he can get very good runners on dirt as well.”
It was specifically with the imminent launch of Karakontie in mind that Beck went to look at an Unusual Heat mare named Spanish Bunny at the 2015 Keeneland November Sale. She had needed 14 starts to break her maiden, finally doing so over a mile of turf at Del Mar, but her first foal by Tribal Rule had proved highly talented out at Santa Anita earlier that year: Spanish Queen won three of her first four, including the GII Honeymoon S. and GI American Oaks, before unfortunately derailing on her next start.
Spanish Bunny arrived in Lexington after a couple of coverings by Sundarban, a son of A.P. Indy standing in California. It is safe to record that this boon was not what had spiked Beck's interest. What did resonate was the fourth dam.
“I believe the mare was literally discovered in someone's backyard, somewhere in Los Angeles,” Beck says. “They tracked her down after the American Oaks and brought her to the sale as the dam of a Grade I winner. She did have several blank dams but did then trace to Sunday Purchase (T.V. Lark), the dam of Bates Motel (Sir Ivor)–who had been a stallion at Gainesway, a horse I knew very well. And I also liked that she was inbred 3 x 3 to Northern Dancer, which I felt sure had contributed to her success with that first foal.”
Indeed, her sire Unusual Heat was by one son of Northern Dancer, Nureyev; and her dam was by another, El Gran Senor, highly esteemed by Beck not least as a broodmare sire. In terms of his sire-line, of course, Karakontie would reinforce that Northern Dancer branding.
Spanish Bunny has since been given serial trysts with the son of Bernstein. The first could not be counted a success, but the second produced Spanish Loveaffair, picked up for $35,000 by Delray Investments at the 2019 September Sale before achieving a spectacular yield when sold to Lael Stable in the same ring last November for $775,000. In between she had won a couple of stakes and placed in multiple graded stakes.
And in the meantime here was Spendarella–remembered by Beck as “an absolutely beautiful yearling, with the most beautiful hind leg and an incredible action.” After a debut success at Gulfstream, Graham Motion saddled her to win the GIII Herecomesthebride S. and GII Appalachian S. before rolling the dice at Royal Ascot. There she beat all bar Inspiral (GB) (Frankel {GB}), who has since beaten the colts at Deauville, in the G1 Coronation S. That was Beck's first visit to the royal meeting since he was a teenager, and he was rightly proud of her effort.
“She has this phenomenal fight,” Beck observes. “She was only beaten by a marvel of a filly that day, and had three Guineas winners behind her plus another Group 1 winner who came third. And Graham's being quite smart, not squeezing the lemon dry but really thinking about the future and all the Grade 1s she might be able to go for next year.
“She was right there while they went a half in :47 flat at Del Mar, but was still accelerating right away from them at the end. She ran the last furlong in 12 seconds: pretty impressive, for any horse, let alone in a Grade I. So she's super-talented, with a lot of smarts to her, and mentally strong.”
That's a valid claim about a filly that didn't even run before February but has already shipped to Europe and California to finish second and first at the highest level. It would be intriguing to see her also try dirt at some stage–one of Karakontie's other graded stakes winners has scored on turf, dirt and synthetics–though Beck stresses he would never interfere with whatever his trainer might have in mind.
Certainly the genes are in place for Karakontie to prove the kind of crossover influence that has historically been so crucial to the mutual regeneration of the transatlantic gene pools. With the legend Miesque (Nureyev) as third dam, in his second generation Karakontie places a Woodman three-parts sister to one profound international influence, Kingmambo, right against another in grandsire Storm Cat. Karakontie's dam is by Japan's game-changer Sunday Silence, while his sire Bernstein results from the Busanda (dam of Buckpasser etc.) branch of the La Troienne (Fr) dynasty.
“Though an extremely well-bred horse, I always thought of Bernstein as a horse who had come up the hard way,” Beck reasons of Tepin's sire. “He had great talent but could never really demonstrate it on the track. But from humble beginnings [stood at Buck Pond for just $7,500] he showed himself to be a very good stallion before his untimely demise.
“So to have his own, excellent blood coupled with that outstanding Niarchos family, with Miesque as the gift that just keeps on giving, makes for just an extraordinary global pedigree. And of course, Karakontie showed his talent against global competition. For me, I've always liked a 3-year-old that performs at the Breeders' Cup–and he had the highest rating of any turf race run that year in the U.S. He ran the mile in 1:32, and you see that very seldom. Don't forget he was a Group 1 winner at two, and then a Classic winner as well.”
Spendarella's rise is particularly helpful to Karakontie in that she belongs to much his smallest book, following the customary slide from a three-figure debut to one of just 43 mares in his third season. He has since consolidated in heartening fashion, however, with his latest yearlings graduating from a book of 88.
Beck first wagered on Gainesway's champion Tapit because he seeks prospects from families that have already produced stallions. And while Miesque's family has been notably prolific in top-class fillies, it could offer no better model than Kingmambo as an international influence, capable of transcending different environments.
“He was probably the last really great one like that,” Beck says. “Every surface, every country. Even in Japan, where he had King Kamehameha. And it's fascinating that some of Karakontie's best runners have been inbred to Miesque, being out of mares by Kingmambo or [his son] Lemon Drop Kid.”
That's true of both the Classic protagonists in his first crop, for instance, and also of recent Irish stakes winner Cigamia. Incidentally Beck also notes a close duplication in Karakontie's leading earner Princess Grace, who carries Sunday Silence 3 x 3.
At the helm of a farm like Gainesway, an equally powerful force in different dimensions of the industry, Beck is never short of action and right now the whole team is abuzz, ahead of the September Sale and an exciting fall on the track. The sales division has already consigned the $2.3 million sale-topper at Saratoga and, while sensational Spa maiden winner Prank (Into Mischief) has required a minor surgery, she is confidently expected to add fresh distinction to her page (half-sister to Mo Donegal {Uncle Mo}) on her return.
“She got a 91 Beyer for her debut so we're really excited,” Beck says. “As we are about the September Sale. We've got some really lovely stock going there so we're hoping things will go pretty well.”
He also hopes that the extra furlong in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic will play to the strengths of Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow), who ran his usual no-quit race when just missing second in the GI Whitney S. Such an animal can hardly fail to transmit his pluck at stud, and will hopefully contribute to Gainesway's next chapter as a long-term heir is sought for Tapit–whose books are being managed with due consideration as he enters the evening of his career.
In the meantime, with Spendarella's dam having delivered a colt by Uncle Mo this spring and now carrying her latest foal by Karakontie, Beck feels fully invested in the reinvigoration of grass blood in Kentucky. He has been prepared, for instance, to go to market with Raging Bull (Fr), a son of one of Europe's most remarkable success stories of recent years in Dark Angel (Ire). But that's just one measure of a heartfelt optimism that American grass racing is embarking on fresh growth.
“We've been very lucky with Spanish Bunny,” Beck admits. “When I bought her, I thought she might breed a nice foal but little did I know that Spendarella would end up the way she has. But just look at how many graded races in the U.S. are getting upgraded on turf, and downgraded on dirt. Look at how these grass races are filling. There were 13 runners in the Del Mar Oaks, and it's seldom that you see a field like that in California these days. I think turf racing is going to catch on here, more and more. It has definite legs.”
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