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Value Sires Part 6: Proven Sires

As breeding sheds prepare to swing open their doors in the coming weeks, we bring you the final installment of our 2021 Value Sires series. Gone are the days of dissecting sales averages and speculating on the comments of the judges; these elder statesmen have proven their mettle on the racecourse, and a few of them are even available at their lowest ever fees.

While value exists in all price brackets and for all budgets, we have chosen to limit the scope of this analysis to stallions standing in Europe for £/€20,000 and below, selecting two sires apiece that stand between 15,000 and 20,000; 10,00 and 12,500 and below 10,000. As we have covered in depth the sire crops up to those which have first-crop 3-year-olds this year, stallions highlighted here will be those with at least two crops of racing age fully behind them.

Selecting the final six was far from an easy exercise. There were many worthy candidates, and in addition to the raw data likes percentages of winners and stakes winners and overall career performances, other factors taken into consideration included price point and the current trajectory of the horse's career.

15,000 to 20,000

This price bracket must be one of the most intriguing of them all: it includes not only the ever-reliable Iffraaj (GB) and Nathaniel (Ire) at a career-low fees, but also the incredibly popular Dandy Man (Ire) and the rising talent Make Believe (GB). But two stallions stand out in this price range on both percent of stakes winners to runners and winners to runners: Oasis Dream (GB) (£20,000) and Mastercraftsman (Ire) (€15,000).

One would be hard-pressed to nominate a sire in this price range that has compiled a body of work over a career that compares with Oasis Dream's. The 21-year-old former G1 July Cup winner was fast out of the gate with his first crop and soon established himself as a world-class sire, with the likes of Midday (GB), Muhaarar (GB) and Power (GB) among his 17 Group 1 winners. The dark bay stood for up to £85,000 at Juddmonte's Banstead Manor Stud, and is this year down to a career-low £20,000. His 9.5% rate of stakes winners to runners puts Oasis Dream in a class with sires that stand for many multiples of his fee, and he likewise gets 66% winners/runners. The dip in his fee goes hand-in-hand with the reality that his numbers of stakes winners have leveled off in recent seasons, but an average of seven per season since 2016 is still nothing to scoff at, and he is still turning out Group 1 winners, with three of his 17 having come since 2016: Muarrab (GB) won the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen as a 7-year-old in 2016 while Pretty Pollyanna (GB) and Polydream (Ire) won the G1 Prix Morny and G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest, respectively, in 2018. Oasis Dream has sired 122 stakes winners and his daughters have produced 58 stakes winners and five Group 1 winners. He had a remarkable year in 2020 alone as a broodmare sire, with G1 Irish 2000 Guineas winner Siskin, G1 Melbourne Cup winner Twilight Payment (Ire), G1 Cox Plate scorer Sir Dragonet (Ire) and G1 Prix Saint-Alary victress Tawkeel (GB) on his honor roll in addition to standout juveniles Miss Amulet (Ire) and Chindit (Ire). A mark of his consistent brilliance is that Oasis Dream is still well-supported in the sales ring, too: his 29 yearlings sold in 2020 averaged €86,669/£76,604. It's hard to imagine a horse in Oasis Dream's price range with a better chance to get a breeder anything from a sales horse to a potential broodmare or a top-class runner.

The six years younger Mastercraftsman (Ire) is following a similar trajectory; in fact, he has an average of 9.6 stakes winners per crop, versus 8.7 for Oasis Dream. From eight crops of racing age, the grey has supplied 77 stakes winners (6.3% of starters) and he gets winners at a rate of 62.3% (of starters). Mastercraftsman has 15 Group 1 winners, just two off Oasis Dream, and he likewise gets them at the highest level: Alpha Centauri (Ire) was champion 3-year-old filly and won the Coronation S., Falmouth S., Irish 1000 Guineas and Prix Jacques le Marois; The Grey Gatsby (Ire) took the G1 Prix du Jockey Club and G1 Irish Champion S., and Amazing Maria (Ire) and A Raving Beauty (Ger) each won a pair of Grade/Group 1s apiece. Mastercraftsman's 2021 fee of €15,000 is his lowest since 2013, and his crop bred off the back of Alpha Centauri's championship season will be 3-year-olds when his 2022 crop are going to the yearling sales.

10,000 to 12,500

There are plenty of horses in this price range across Britain, Ireland and France that offer eye-catching stats-with Coolmore stalwart Footstepsinthesand (GB) and French up-and-comer Galiway (GB) certainly among them-and once again we landed at Coolmore and Juddmonte for our top two choices: Bated Breath (GB) (£12,500) and Holy Roman Emperor (Ire) (€12,500).

A Group 2-winning sprinter for Roger Charlton who was second in four Group 1s, Bated Breath marked himself out early as a prolific source of high-class winners, his first three crops including the likes of G2 Rockfel S. and G3 Albany S. winner Daahyeh (GB), G2 Railway S. winner Beckford (Ire), G2 Dahlia S. and G3 Prix Minerve S. winner Worth Waiting (GB) and G2 Boomerang S. and G3 Jersey S. scorer Space Traveller (Ire). The bay has continued to build on those results, and in 2020 notched his first Group 1 winner in the GI Matriarch S. victress Viadera (GB). Bated Breath's juveniles had another outstanding year, too, in 2020, highlighted by Makaloun (GB) winning the G3 Prix de Conde and Cairn Gorm (GB) taking the G3 Prix de Conde. His winners to runners ratio is 60.2%, and the crop bred after his first successful season with 3-year-olds are three themselves in 2021. His yearlings are providing a return for their breeders and pinhookers, too: 53 sold at auction last year realized an average of €50,018/£44,162 that was 4.4x their £10,000 covering fee.

The 17-year-old Holy Roman Emperor (Ire) has carved out a truly remarkable stud career that has seen him sire Group 1 winners all across the world and across a great variety of trips. His 13 top-level scorers range from Guineas winners Homecoming Queen (Ire) and Romanised (Ire) to G1 Australian and New Zealand Derby scorer Mongolian Khan (NZ) to G1 Oakleigh Plate victress Sheidel (Aus) and GI Santa Anita Sprint Championship winner Rich Tapestry (Ire). They can be fast and precocious-like he was as a G1 Phoenix S. and G1 Jean-Luc Lagardere S. winner-but also have plenty of scope to train on. Holy Roman Emperor sires stakes winners at a rate of 6.1% of his starters (he averages 8 stakes winners per crop), and winners at 66.2%. He is still producing the goods and is this year available for the second-lowest price he has ever commanded.

Below 10,000

At last we deviate away from the Danzig sireline as we land on Raven's Pass. The G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. and GI Breeders' Cup Classic-winning son of Elusive Quality has long had his books restricted at Kildangan Stud-his crops of racing age average 57 foals apiece–but he will certainly have his admirers; he is currently turning out stakes winners at a rate of 8.3% of his runners, and winners at 62.6%. His 2-year-olds of 2021 were bred off the back of his career-best season in 2017 when he provided 12 stakes winners, four of which were group winners including the G3 Prix Imprudence scorer and G1 Prix Rothschild second Via Ravenna (Ire). The chestnut has supplied three Group 1 winners: the G1 Sprinters S. winner Tower Of London, who was also a Group 2-winning 2-year-old on the competitive JRA circuit; G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Royal Marine (Ire) and in 2020 the G1 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 victor Matternhorn (Ire). Raven's Pass is available for four figures for the first time in 2021: he stands at Kildangan Stud for €7,500.

Our second selection in this price bracket also resides in Co. Kildare: Rathasker Stud's elder statesman Clodovil (Ire). The 21-year-old Clodovil is the sire of 25 stakes winners and, remarkably, had one of his finest years yet in 2021 with six black-type winners headed by his third Group 1 winner, the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac and Prix Francois Boutin victress Tiger Tanaka (Ire). In fact, 2020 was a notable year for Clodovil's juveniles, he having also sired the G3 Molecomb S. winner Steel Bull (Ire). Clodovil is siring black-type winners/runners at a rate of 4.6%, and winners at a rate of 65.2%; those are pretty attractive numbers for a €5,000 fee-like Raven's Pass, Clodovil is at his lowest-ever fee. It is worth noting that Clodovil's triple group-winning son Gregorian (Ire) is also available at Rathasker at the same fee, and he has gotten off to a promising start with five stakes winners from his first three crops to race, including last year's G2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte winner Plainchant (Fr) and G3 Summer Fillies' S. victress Queen Jo Jo (GB).

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Juddmonte Farms Announces 2021 Mating Plans For European Broodmare Band

Juddmonte is pleased to announce the 2021 mating plans for some of its high-profile horses.

In 2020, Frankel became the fastest European stallion ever to reach 40 group winners and finished the year on a high with the track record-breaking Group 1 success of 2-year-old Grenadier Guards.

He will receive another exciting book of 24 Juddmonte mares this season, including multiple G1 winner Ventura (already dam of G3 winner Fount by Frankel), G1 winner Emulous, Bird Flown (dam of G1 Irish 2000 Guineas winner Siskin), Nimble Thimble (dam of Frankel's G1 winning 2-year-old Quadrilateral), G2 winners Soffia and Modern Look, G3 winners Big Break, Dandhu and Visit, Flare Of Firelight (dam of G2 winning 2-year-old Threat), Ruscombe (whose first foal by Frankel, Petricor, won her only start as a 2-year-old in 2020, earning 'TDN Rising Star' status), Sleep Walk (a half-sister to Frankel's track record-breaking classic winner Logician), Atone (a sister to Midday), Tendu (sister to Showcasing), Tiadargent (sister to Restiadargent), Very Good News (a daughter of Hasili and dam of Frankel's classic-placed son Weekender as well as promising Frankel 3-year-old Media Stream), and two half-sisters to Kingman in Panzanella and Present Tense.

Kingman sired three G1 winners in 2020, included Timeform's top-rated 3-year-old Palace Pier. The son of Invincible Spirit is set to cover 20 Juddmonte mares, including champion 11-time G1 winner Enable and Frankel's dam Kind, G1 winners Capla Temptress, Passage Of Time, Romantica, Samba Inc and Special Duty, G2 winners Lucky Kristale (a half-sister to Love) and Riposte, G3 winners Hot Snap and Sun Maiden, Helleborine (dam of Kingman's G2 winning 2-year-old Calyx), and Scuffle (dam of G1 winner Logician) and her daughter Battlement.

Expert Eye is the only G1-winning miler by Acclamation, and he retired to stud with a higher Timeform rating than both his sire and his successful stallion sons Dark Angel and Mehmas. Expert Eye covered 50 stakes winners in his first two books of mares, welcoming his first crop of foals in 2020. Among his Juddmonte mares for 2021 are multiple listed winner and G1-placed Principal Role, listed winners Scottish Jig and Swiss Range, Kilo Alpha (dam of G3 winner and G1-placed Juliet Foxtrot), Photographic (dam of G3 winner Shutter Speed, herself out of the legendary Juddmonte mare Prophecy), Palmette (a sister to Showcasing) and Strelka (a Kingman half-sister to Workforce).

Bated Breath enjoyed another great season as the best-value sire of black type performers in Europe in 2020, capped by the G1 win of Juddmonte homebred Viadera in December, who remains in training this year. Bated Breath is also the sire of leading 2021 French Derby hope Makaloun, an Aga Khan homebred who was a Group winning 2-year-old and placed in the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud. Juddmonte mares set to visit the son of Dansili include Viadera's dam Sacred Shield, as well as G1 winner Proportional, G3 winner Tested, listed winners Alocasia and Rostova, and Meridiana (an unraced daughter of Galileo and Midday).

Oasis Dream remains a proven source of G1 speed and reached a landmark 200 stakes performers in 2020. He is also making a significant impact as a broodmare sire, with four G1 winners to his name in the last year alone. In 2021 he will cover the Juddmonte mares Bonne Idee (a winning daughter of Frankel and half-sister to Oasis Dream's G2 winner Imaging), Its A Given (a winning daughter of Bated Breath), Occurrence (an unraced daughter of Frankel out of Hasili's G1 producing sister Arrive) and Shared Account (dam of Oasis Dream's Group performing daughter Sand Share as well as G3-winning 2-year-old Pocket Square).

Juddmonte mares visiting outside stallions include G1 winners African Rose (visiting Dark Angel), Announce (visiting Pinatubo), Midday (visiting No Nay Never), Promising Lead (visiting Calyx), Proviso (visiting Wootton Bassett), Quadrilateral (visiting Dubawi along with Goldika, a daughter of Goldikova, and Listed winner Franconia), Timepiece (visiting Night Of Thunder) and Winsili (visiting Golden Horn).

Enable's dam Concentric will return to Nathaniel and Enable's Group-placed half-sister Entitle will visit Sea The Stars. Frankel's G2-winning daughter Obligate will visit Siyouni, along with Headman's dam Deliberate and Midday's listed-winning daughter Mori.

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Viadera Noses Out Stablemate Blowout To Give Chad Brown Another Grade 1 In Matriarch

Trainer Chad Brown has a reputation as an excellent trainer, a superior grass horse trainer and a very special trainer of fillies and mares.

If you need testimony on that, ask the folks at Del Mar.

The New York-based conditioner competed in five of the seven Graded stakes the seashore track offered during Thanksgiving weekend and he won four of them, running second in the other. On Sunday – closing day of the shore track's seventh Bing Crosby Season — he completed his latest tour de force by capturing the Matriarch Stakes with Juddmonte Farms' homebred filly Viadera, who beat stablemate Blowout, owned by Peter Brant, by a whisker in a four-horse blanket finish.

It was the fourth time Brown had captured the $301,500 Grade 1 headliner for fillies and mares and his charge did it with elan this time. The daughter of the British stallion Bated Breath skipped the mile over the Jimmy Durante Turf Course in a stakes record 1:33.03, which shattered the former mark by more than a second.

Finishing third in the distaff crucible was Juddmonte Farms other entrant, Juliet Foxtrot.

Joel Rosario rode Viadera for his fourth Matriarch score. Blowout, under Flavien Prat, had half a length on Juliet Foxtrot and Mike Smith, who in turn had a neck on fourth-place finisher Sharing, owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Gainesway Stable and ridden by Manny Franco.

“Whew. I had to work for that one,” said Rosario. “She's a good filly, a really good filly. But she makes you work. I had to stay after her. She can run, though, there's no doubt. I'm lucky that Chad Brown gives me an opportunity like this. Grass horses and especially fillies. He's the best.”

The winner paid $12.80, $5.80 and $3.80 across the board. Blowout returned $5.60 and $3.80, while Juliet Foxtrot paid $4.80.

Viadera earned a first prize of $180,000 and moved her earning up to $391,441. She has now won six of 13 lifetime starts, the last three in stakes.

Previously this weekend, Brown had captured the Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap here on Thursday with the filly Orglandes; the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante Stakes with Fluffy Sox and the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby with Domestic Spending, both on Saturday. His second-place finish came Saturday with Flavius, beaten three-quarters of a length by Count Again in the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap.

Brown now has 12 stakes wins at Del Mar, nine of them of the Grade 1 variety.

“This weekend has been amazing,” said Brown's assistant, Jose Hernandez. “I didn't know which filly (of the stablemates) was the winner, but I'm happy it turned out to be Viadera. My boss Chad Brown is an amazing trainer and I just do my best for him. It's an amazing job for me and I love the horses. In the future, I don't know when it would be, if Chad wanted to come out here with a string, I'd like that. We like it out here.”

The Sunday 10-race card drew the curtain on a banner fall meeting for the seaside oval that saw fully safe racing and a remarkable handle rise of over 30% during the 15-day stand.

Racing will resume at Del Mar next July when the track presents its 82nd summer season, followed by its second hosting of the Breeders' Cup Championships next November.

The post Viadera Noses Out Stablemate Blowout To Give Chad Brown Another Grade 1 In Matriarch appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Take A Good Look At The Diomed Draft

It has been quite the year for Bated Breath (GB), the Juddmonte stallion who could be all too easily overlooked against some of his more in-vogue stud mates but who nevertheless continues to provide a decent ratio of stakes winners.

One of his most reliable performers in this regard is Breathtaking Look (GB), who heads to the Tattersalls December Mare Sale (lot 1662) from Diomed Stables. Her combination of speed, class and consistency gives the 5-year-old a profile with a commercial outlook.

Of her six victories for trainer Stuart Williams and his brother-in-law Jonathan Parry, two have been Group 3 contests, at Doncaster last year and in Deauville in August, where she beat Air De Valse (Fr) in the Prix de Meautry. Her form this season has a particularly solid look to it with two runner-up finishes behind subsequent Group 1 winners Oxted (GB) and Dream Of Dreams (Ire).

“I’d be surprised if there are many mares in the catalogue whose first three dams all black-type performers and producers,” says Williams, who selected Breathtaking Look at Tattersalls as a yearling from October Book 3. “We’re excited to take her to the sale and would like to see her do well. I’m selling her as ‘in training’ as she is still here with me in training. I’d like to see her sell as a broodmare but she is sound, she has never taken a lame step, and if someone wanted to race her on they could do.”

Breathtaking Look started her racing career at three with two wins from her three starts that year. Her racing tally now stands at 18 starts, with those six wins backed up a string of placed efforts.

Recalling what he saw in her when he first viewed her in the Mickley Stud draft at Park Paddocks, Williams adds, “I just really liked her presence. She was quite big, and my brother-in-law, who we call Ralph though his name is actually Jonathan, always like to have a filly. He breeds one or two horses himself and we’ve had a few over the years that have done well. We’ve always been of the opinion that you got more of a chance if you buy a filly. The colts that turn out to be stallions are few and far between, so the plan was to buy something that would hopefully do well and then we could either breed from her or sell her. With Breathtaking Look, we knew she would want a bit of time but I just loved her outlook and, even though she was big, she was athletic.”

Parry’s red and pink silks have made numerous appearances on the racecourse aboard Williams-trained fillies, including the stakes-placed Oakley Girl (GB) (Sir Percy {GB}), who sold for 925,000gns in 2017. He has retained the listed-placed Holley Shiftwell (GB) (Bahamian Bounty {GB}) and another four-time winner Stellar Surprise (GB) (Notnowcato {GB}), who is out of a half-sister to Crystal Ocean (GB) and Crystal Capella (GB).

“He is retiring this year from his job so he is going to cut down on the horses a bit,” says Williams of his brother-in-law, who boards mares with James Thom of Galloway Stud, which is based at Woburn. “He’s a great guy and he has supported me well, buying two or three every year.”

While Breathtaking Look has been the star of Diomed Stables this year, some of the yard’s former residents have also been making names for themselves from the paddocks in 2020, including the dams of two Classic winners Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Dream And Do (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}).

Venetias Dream (Ire) (Librettist) produced the latter, who won the G1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches in June before being sold to Katsumi Yoshida of Northern Farm.

Williams recalls, “Barry Root bought an old mare and had her at Old Mill Stud with my stepfather David. She was carrying an Oasis Dream (GB) foal at the time and we trained her [Dreamacha (GB)] for Barry. She won quite a few races, was rated 90, and we took her to Germany and just missed out on some black type with her. Then he sent the mare to Librettist and she produced Venetias Dream. I couldn’t keep her sound but I managed to get her to the track about four or five times and she ended up being rated about 52. She was sold for minimum bid at one of the sales to go to Libya, but her dam had quite a good back page and her sister then produced [treble Group 1-winning miler] Charm Spirit (Ire), so one of the agents went and bought Venetias Dream back from Libya, put her in foal to Siyouni, and sold her on. And her first foal is now a Classic winner.”

In the case of Pikaboo (GB) (Pivotal {GB}), the dam of Love, she was bought by David Redvers for 20,000gns after making two starts for John Gosden.

“David and I have been friends for years and he would always have a leg of something with me, me. and I’d have something with him. When he bought Pikaboo, he handed me the ticket and said ‘have a leg and win a race with her and we’ll breed from her’. I completely failed to win a race with her. Third at Southwell was the best I could do. So we retired her and covered her with Ishiguru. That filly made 40,000gns at the breeze-ups and won a couple of races. Then the mare went to Sleeping Indian (GB). The next one was by Lucky Story, all David’s stallions obviously, and she was quite a nice filly, turned out a touch in front but a good-bodied filly. George Margarson bought her as a yearling and that was Lucky Kristale (GB).”

Following his introduction to Sheikh Fahad, Redvers sold a number of mares he owned in partnership to focus on the burgeoning Qatar Bloodstock empire. Thus, before Lucky Kristale had taken to the track and won two Group 2 races as a juvenile, her dam had gone to the sales the previous December, where Pikaboo sold for 50,000gns to Paul Venner. Her subsequent private sale to Coolmore would have been for many multiples of that.

And Willliams also has first-hand knowledge of another of the mares in the sale this year, Shena’s Dream (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}) (lot 1602). She has her own tale of sales high and lows and is now better known as the dam of another Lowther S. winner, Miss Amulet (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}).

“Gordon Thom picked her out at the December Sale. She had won four races for William Haggas and we decided to buy her to try to get some black type,” Williams says. She was a really strong, good-looking filly and we ran her in the good fillies’ handicap during the Victoria Cup meeting at Ascot. Unfortunately she reared up in the stalls and hit her head and just had a bad experience. We had already covered her with Sepoy (Aus) by then so she was retired to stud.”

He adds with a laugh, “I’m not sure it’s a good selling point-send me your filly and if she doesn’t win a race at least she will breed a Group winner!’

It may well persuade breeders to make close inspection of the five-strong draft heading to Tattersalls from Diomed Stables, but as Breathtaking Look and so many before her have shown, Williams is more than capable of training winners.

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