Ashford Stud | Horse Racing Free Tips

Adrian Wallace on First-Crop Yearling Sires Classic Empire and Cupid

Three of Ashford Stud’s Grade I-winning stallions will be in the limelight in the coming weeks as they are represented by their first crop of yearlings in the sales ring.

Three-time GIW Practical Joke (Into Mischief), the regally-bred Cupid (Tapit) and juvenile champion Classic Empire (Pioneerof the Nile) all ranked amongst the top of their class with the sale of their weanlings, and now look to continue the streak with their yearlings.

We sat down with Coolmore’s Adrian Wallace and discussed two of the young sires.

Classic Empire (Pioneerof the Nile):

Classic Empire headlined Ashford’s trio of freshman sires in 2018 with a $35,000 stud fee. He covered a book of 185 mares in his first year and averaged $108,925 with his weanlings and short yearlings with 27 of 36 sold. Now in the coming weeks, 22 of his yearlings are cataloged at the Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearling Showcase, and an additional 61 are slated for the Keeneland September Sale.

KR: What were some of the big moments in Classic Empire’s juvenile season that led to his Eclipse Award for Champion 2-year-old?

AW: While Practical Joke may have done his best racing in New York, it’s safe to say that Classic Empire did his best racing in Kentucky. He broke his maiden in May at Churchill Downs, followed by the GIII Bashford Manor S. and the GI Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland. To win in front of the breeders at Keeneland is very important for any stallion prospect, but then to go on and win at Santa Anita in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile really cemented his future as a stallion.

Classic Empire colt out of Victory Party | Thorostride

KR: What qualities do you believe defined his racing career?

AW: His longevity and determination as a 2-year-old, and the fact that he then came back as a 3-year-old and won the GI Arkansas Derby and finished second in the GI Preakness S, really showed what a tough horse he was not only to stay on the track for so long, but to be as brilliant as he was in all of those races.

KR: What have you seen in Classic Empire’s first crop? Are there any yearlings you’re excited to watch sell?

AW: The thing that struck me most about the Classic Empires is that they sold very well as weanlings. As a group, they were a very nice bunch. I think breeders were happy with what they saw.

The highest-priced Classic Empire colt to go through the sale at Keeneland was bought by Empire Bloodstock for $285,000 last November. He now sells at Keeneland as Hip 8. He’s out of Victory Party (Yankee Victor) and is from the same family as Into Mischief, Mendelssohn, and Beholder. He’s a wonderfully-moving horse with lots of quality and a great walk to him. He’s a horse that looks the complete package.

Hip 667 at Keeneland, a colt out of GSW Le Mi Geaux (First Samurai), is another one that I think is going to be very popular. He brought $250,000 as a weanling. He oozes quality and is very athletic.

Cupid (Tapit):

With a $12,500 initial stud fee, Cupid covered 223 mares in his first book before averaging $44,987 with 39 of 45 weanlings and short yearlings sold. This year, he will be represented by 13 yearlings cataloged at the Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearling Showcase and 50 more at the Keeneland September Sale.

KR: Could you tell us about Cupid’s racing career that was campaigned by Coolmore?

AW: He’s from a family that we’ve had a long association with and Cupid was the one that really stood out for us. We paid $900,000 for him at the Keeneland September Sale.

Early on, he showed us that he was a horse that was going to win a lot of races. He famously won the GII Rebel S. early on in his career. Unfortunately, he didn’t make the Kentucky Derby, but he did come back later in the year to win the GII Indiana Derby and the GII West Virginia Derby, and then he got his Grade I in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita S. as a 4-year-old.

KR: What have been Cupid’s biggest selling points as a sire?

I think everyone wants a Tapit. We see it happening now with Constitution. Tapit is well on his way to becoming a sires of sires, and Cupid is our Tapit. He was a tough horse. I think what we remember most about his racing style was his ability to get into a rhythm quickly and maintain that high cruising speed.

He covered a lot of mares in his first book and he was very popular with the breeders. His stock ooze quality. They sold very well, with top prices last year including two selling for $130,000 and a third for $127,000.

KR: How have the yearlings reflected their sire? Are there any that come to mind as strong representations of Cupid himself?

AW: The thing about the Cupids is that they all have a lot of quality. You look at him- he’s a very attractive horse and stands over a lot of ground. With his progeny, I think they’re horses that are going to get better as they go farther. They’re very good looking, very correct and good movers.

One I really like is a colt out of Lisdoonvarna (Bodemeister), selling as Hip 209 at the Fasig-Tipton sale. He’s very well conformed, very strong and has lovely quality to him. He’s got a lovely head. He was one of the highest-priced Cupids that sold last year when selling for $127,000, and I think he will be very popular in the sales ring.

Another one I’m really looking forward to seeing is Hip 296 at Fasig-Tipton, a colt out of the mare Perdy (Tale of the Cat). I think the mating looks really good on paper. He is a lovely horse, picked up by Renne Dailey for $95,000 in January. I think he’ll do very well also.

The post Adrian Wallace on First-Crop Yearling Sires Classic Empire and Cupid appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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A Tale of Ashford Stud’s Elder Statesman

It will be exactly 23 years ago on Sunday- August 23, 1997. Julie Krone vividly, and affectionately, recalls the day that she and Tale of the Cat took the GII King’s Bishop S.

“We had an inside post that day, and there were some great sprinters,” Krone recounted. “It was a really tough field, but Tale of the Cat literally had wings. He just came out of there and it was like the faster we went, the more his ears came up and his stride got longer and more relaxed. To feel him grab the ground and be as fast as he was with the wind blowing by you, and then to be able to put your hands on his neck and push and have him go even faster yet, it was an amazing feeling.”

Krone rode the nimble son of Storm Cat to a five and-a-half length victory that day at Saratoga, as was she aboard in his eight other career starts. Together, they ran in the money in all but one of those races, including three Grade I’s.

“Tale of the Cat was one of the most beautiful, put-together sprinters I’ve ever ridden in my life,” Krone said. “He was such a great horse and was so capable of that high cruising speed.”

She uses the term ‘mentally-strong’ to describe his personality.

“Everything he did had to do with how his brain worked a little faster,” the Hall of Famer said. “He was aggressive and so you just had to plan ahead and know what you were going to do.”

She remembers working the colt through his first relaxed breezes before his winning debut, insisting to trainer John Forbes that the youngster was going to be something special.

“From the very first time he breezed to when he matured as an older horse, he was always together,” she recalled. “He always got his lead changes and was quick to learn how to break out of the starting gate. All the things that make a sprinter a great sprinter, he just came with those things.”

Now over two decades later as the elder statesman of Ashford Stud, Tale of the Cat has greatly contributed to building the fortress that is the American arm of Coolmore. With 19 crops on the ground, he’s produced 1,146 winners to date, a figure surpassed only slightly by fellow Coolmore sire Galileo (Ire), and ranks him as the leading active sire in North American by cumulative winners.

“Tale of the Cat was one of the most impressive early stallions that we ever had here,” said Coolmore America’s Adrian Wallace. “He’s stood the test of time and has been a wonderful servant to Ashford Stud. Horses like Tale of the Cat, he’s responsible for this farm. He has built countless barns. He’s furnished and bought countless mares. He’s a small enterprise in himself.”

Tale of the Cat’s pedigree is infused with Coolmore-affiliated blood, both old and new, with his grandsire Storm Bird the founding stallion at Ashford Stud.

His dam Yarn (Mr. Prospector), part of a prominent breed-shaping broodmare duo with her full sister Preach, also produced Minardi (Boundary), who was bred like Tale of the Cat at Indian Creek and was named a European juvenile champion for Coolmore in 2000. Additionally, through her daughter Myth (Ogygian), Yarn is the granddam of Johannesburg (Hennessy), a juvenile champion in Europe and the U.S. for Coolmore before he retired to Ashford and sired the late leading stallion Scat Daddy, whose sons Justify and Mendelssohn now stand alongside Tale of the Cat at Ashford.

“He has a very illustrious family behind him,” Wallace said of his damside.”It’s a really current pedigree and it’s one of the best, most iconic American pedigrees.”

Tale of the Cat’s best son Gio Ponti takes the GI Woodford Reserve Manhattan H. | Sarah Andrew

Of the sire line, he added, “The Storm Cat sire line is responsible for a lot of our success over here, and it’s one that we will keep looking to go back to. Tale of the Cat is very emblematic of that.”

Since entering stud in 1999, he has sired seven Grade I winners, headlined by Gio Ponti, who collected seven Grade I’s in his own right, plus three Eclipse Awards, and is now a Grade I-producing sire. Tale of the Cat’s leading daughter, Stopcharingmaria, made waves on the New York circuit, taking the GI Coaching Club American Oaks- GI Alabama S. double at Saratoga before winning the 2015 GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

Two of his sons, Lion Heart and Tale of Ekati, were dual Grade I winners and are now showing their hand as sires.

Both progeny come from mares from the Hail to Reason line, with Lion Heart out of a Mr. Leader mare and Tale of Ekati out of a mare by Halo’s best son Sunday Silence. Stopchargingmaria also has a second dam by Kris S (Roberto) who hails from the same line.

Despite the achievements with this family, Wallace said that Tale of the Cat has found success with a wide variety of mares.

“One of the great things about him was that he was very versatile,” he said. “Being by Storm Cat and out of a Mr. Prospector mare meant he suited a wide range of American families. He had a huge amount of success when inbred to Mr. Prospector. He worked very well with Unbridled’s Song, as well as the Seattle Slew line.”

Tale of the Cat produced six stakes winners with mares by Unbridled’s Song, including three Grade II winners in A Shin Top, Appealing Tale and Alpha Kitten, as well as the Grade I-placed Luminance. His Grade I winner Cat Moves is out of a mare by Capote (Seattle Slew) and he sired two additional graded/group winners out of Seattle Slew mares with Tale of a Champion and Ilusora.

“He got very good 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds and older horses,” Wallace said. “He got runners on dirt, turf and synthetic surfaces. So he’s a horse that really suited a wide range of breeders.”

The 26-year-old stallion is still active at stud, although in his twilight years of his career having bred 32 mares last year, and a combined 138 in the three years prior.

“We’re delighted to be talking about Tale of the Cat because he’s one of the unsung heroes at this farm,” Wallace said. “He’s a horse that’s been here longer than I’ve been here, having arrived in 1999. He’s our elder statesman and we’re very proud of him. His contribution to the Thoroughbred breed and to Ashford Stud is immeasurable.”

The post A Tale of Ashford Stud’s Elder Statesman appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Ashford Stud To Offer Southern Hemisphere-Season Breedings For Resident Stallions

Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., will offer the services of its stallions remaining in the U.S. for the summer and fall for matings on the Southern Hemisphere season's schedule.

Top commercial sire Uncle Mo leads the way with a Southern Hemisphere season fee of $30,000. The 12-year-old son of Indian Charlie has seen his greatest Southern Hemisphere success in Australia, where his runners are led by Man From Uncle, winner of the Group 2 Hobartville Stakes and G3 Eskimo Prince Stakes.

Munnings, a 14-year-old Speightstown horse, will stand for $15,000. His top runner south of the Equator was Argentine-born Rock and Fellers, who was a group stakes-level competitor in his native country before being moved to race in the U.S.

Veteran sire Lookin at Lucky is advertised at $10,000. The 13-year-old son of Smart Strike has shuttled in the past to Australia and Chile, and he's proven especially effective in the latter country, finishing 2017 as the country's leading sire. His top Chilean-sired runners include Chilean Filly Triple Crown winner and U.S. Grade 1 winner Wow Cat, and Chilean Derby winner Full of Luck.

Following is a complete list of Ashford Stud's stallions available for Southern Hemisphere-time breeding, along with their advertised fees for the season.

Air Force Blue – $8,000
Competitive Edge – $5,000
Cupid – $5,000
Fusaichi Pegasus – $3,000
Lookin at Lucky – $10,000
Mo Town – $5,000
Munnings – $15,000
Practical Joke – $10,000
Tale of the Cat – $5,000
Uncle Mo – $30,000

The post Ashford Stud To Offer Southern Hemisphere-Season Breedings For Resident Stallions appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Breeders’ Cup Turf Winner Magician Relocated To Italy

Magician, the winner of the 2013 Breeders' Cup Turf and Irish 2,000 Guineas, has been relocated once again, this time to stand in Italy, according to the French racing publication Jour de Galop.

A farm and fee will be determined later for the 10-year-old son of Galileo, whose career will be managed by the partnership of Mattia Cadrobbi, Marco Bozzi and Guido Berardelli.

Magician began his stallion career in 2015 at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., and he was relocated to Coolmore's Castlehyde Stud in Ireland prior to the completion of the 2018 breeding season. He was then moved to Haras de Corlay in France in 2019, where he stood for two seasons.

The stallion's oldest foals are 4-year-olds of 2020, led by Chilean Group 1-placed Calmate, English Group 2-placed Cardini, and stakes winner Miss My Rose.

Magician won four of 15 starts during his racing career for earnings of $2,580,402. His strongest campaign came at age three, in which he won the English G3 Dee Stakes as a prep for a score in the Irish 2,000 Guineas. He finished his sophomore campaign with a half-length triumph in the Breeders' Cup Turf at Santa Anita Park.

At four, Magician picked up a win in the Irish G3 Mooresbridge Stakes, and finished second in the G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup, Prince of Wales's Stakes, and Arlington Million.

Magician is out of the Group 3-placed stakes-winning Mozart mare Absolutelyfabulous, making him a full-brother to Grade 3 winner Apple Betty and Grade 1-placed stakes winner Outstanding.

Multiple European classic winner Henrythenavigator is in his extended family, along with Irish champion Listen, Group 1 winner Sequoyah, and Group 3 winner Queen Cleopatra.

The post Breeders’ Cup Turf Winner Magician Relocated To Italy appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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