Tag: Bloodlines

As a son of leading sire Scat Daddy (by Johannesburg) band a half-brother to multiple leading sire Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday), great things were expected of Mendelssohn when he retired to stud at Coolmore's Ashford Stud outside of Versailles, Ky., and covered his first book of mares in 2019.

As a half-brother to champion Beholder (Hennessy) and a grand-looking yearling, Coolmore had paid $3 million for Mendelssohn as a yearling when presented at the 2016 September sale by breeder Clarkland Farm.

Then the handsome bay won the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf in 2017, as well as placing second in the G1 Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket. The following season, Mendelssohn won the G2 UAE Derby, then placed second in the G1 Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup.

When Mendelssohn went to stud at four, breeders responded like he'd won the Derby and the Arc. They smothered him with mares.

As a result, the horse has a first crop of 175 foals, per Equineline. Of those, 138 went to yearling sales, 109 sold for an average price of $145,456 and a median of $100,000. From the second crop of 172 foals, 130 were offered for sale as yearlings, 105 sold for an average of $91,968 and a median price of $75,000.

Nearly everyone thought the gold mine was open for business.

Then, the 2-year-olds were a little slower to come to hand than expected in 2022, and the rumbling started. And in truth, Mendelssohn didn't have a black-type horse until Sept. 23, when the filly Miracle was second in the restricted Joseph A. Gemma. A second followed a week later, with the colt Congo River in the Legacy Stakes at Dundalk.

All those holding their breath for the young stallion's success, as well as those holding foals of 2022 and mares in foal for 2023, were waiting for something serious to happen.

And in the last 100 days, it certainly has. Mendelssohn has accrued numerous more winners, three more stakes-placed horses for a total of five, and three stakes winners. The first of those came on Oct. 7 at Keeneland, when Delight won the G2 Jessamine Stakes.

The latter pair came in the last two weeks. Classical Cat won the Eddie Logan Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 30, and Opus Forty Two won the Gasparilla Stakes at Tampa Bay on Jan. 14. By the end of the year, the sire's year-ending flurry of good results had moved him up the list of first-crop sires to seventh place.

Bred in Kentucky by Rose Hill Farm and John Trumbulovic, Opus Forty Two sold at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton July yearling sale for $185,000 to Ben Gowans, agent, and is owned by Mark Grier. This filly is the second foal from the winning Lemon Drop Kid mare Laquesta and was winning for the second time in four starts with her victory in the Gasparilla.

Opus Forty Two had debuted going five furlongs on turf, finished second; came back at 5 ½ furlongs on turf, was second; was sent six furlongs on dirt at Tampa Bay and won; and then made her stakes success going seven furlongs on dirt.

This brings up an interesting point about Mendelssohn. Among the top 12 freshmen sires of 2022, only one, Oscar Performance (Kitten's Joy), has a longer average winning distance among his offspring. This may explain why the racers by Mendelssohn have taken a bit longer to get under way. The longer distance a racer needs to show its proper form, the longer it typically needs to be in training, and the longer the juveniles have to wait for those races to be written and to fill.

The results appear to have been worth the wait, as more of Mendelssohn's racers win and earn black type. This is a joyous sound for breeders and buyers who have supported the horse, and the sounds of beauty are not just in the eyes and ears of the stallion's supporters.

Opus Forty Two is named after Felix Mendelssohn's musical composition that he labeled with that number. In it, the composer set Martin Luther's German translation of Psalm 42 to music and voice. Mendelssohn premiered the work in January 1838 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, of which he was the conductor until his death in 1847.

Mendelssohn's works are generally ranked among the very best classical compositions of the 19th century, and now his equine namesake is making a joyous noise as well.

The post Bloodlines Presented By CTBA Sales: Mendelssohn Is Hitting The Right Note appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The Grade 3 Sham Stakes on Jan. 8 told us several things, most prominently that Bob Baffert's talented cadre of classic prospects includes some of the most expensive purchases in the crop and that they are very well chosen and prepared.

Three of the Baffert brigade filled the first three places in the Sham and cost $775,000 (Reincarnate [Good Magic] at the Keeneland September yearling sale of 2021), $850,000 (Newgate [Into Mischief] at the same sale), and $500,000 (National Treasure [Quality Road] the 2021 Saratoga select yearling sale).

The results of the Sham are also one more brick in the road toward proving that the sires in the 2022 freshman crop are among the best in the breed.

Such an accomplishment is not only difficult to achieve, but it is challenging to quantify, as well.

By one measure, we are seeing the racers by these new sires, such as former juvenile champion Good Magic (Curlin), win important races against the stock by other top-end sires like multiple leading sire Into Mischief and sire of champions Quality Road.

By another measure, the number of stakes winners by more than one or two of these young stallions is mounting up. At this point, Good Magic has the lead by number of stakes winners (seven). Until the Sham, he had been in a three-way tie for first in that regard with the two other sires atop the freshman sires list: first-place Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro) and third-place Justify (Scat Daddy) with six each.

Fourth-place Army Mule (Friesan Fire) and fifth-place Girvin (Tale of Ekati) have five stakes winners each. The top 10 is rounded out with Sharp Azteca (Freud), Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy), Oscar Performance (Kitten's Joy), Mo Town (Uncle Mo), and City of Light (Quality Road). Each of those have two or three stakes winners, and the top 10 freshmen account for 41 stakes winners, so far.

All other freshmen sires account for 18 more stakes winners, but it is becoming clearer by the day that the top 10 this year is a pack of salty dogs.

Among the stakes winner by Good Magic, for instance, are four other graded stakes winners, including the colts Blazing Sevens (G1 Champagne Stakes), Dubyuhnell (G2 Remsen Stakes), and Curly Jack (G3 Iroquois Stakes). Reincarnate makes five graded stakes winners for Good Magic, and he will be standing for a 2023 fee of $50,000 live foal at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa in Bourbon County, northeast of Lexington.

Bred in Kentucky by Woods Edge Farm LLC, Reincarnate is the fourth foal out of the Scat Daddy mare Allanah, who won the Cincinnati Trophy during her racing career. This is a family of good racers and producers and traces back to an interesting fourth dam, Corner Table. Although she was unplaced in six starts, the chestnut mare was remarkable for a couple of other reasons. A foal of 1969, she was one of the earlier horses bred by John Gaines, and she possessed one of the typical Gaines pedigrees. He loved a big, active pedigree that was highly commercial.

Corner Table was by 1959 Horse of the Year Sword Dancer (Sunglow), who had sired 1966 champion 3-year-old filly Lady Pitt in his second crop and 1967 champion 3-year-colt and Horse of the Year Damascus in his third.

A winner in 15 of his 39 starts for owner Brookmeade Stable, Sword Dancer peaked at three and ran a very good second in the Kentucky Derby to winner Tomy Lee (Tudor Minstrel) and was second in the 1959 Preakness to Royal Orbit (Royal Charger). Trainer Elliott Burch then sent the small chestnut to challenge his elders in the Metropolitan Handicap, and Sword Dancer won the race.

Burch wheeled his colt back in the Belmont, and Sword Dancer won the 12-furlong test of the champion, with Royal Orbit third, and continued his 3-year-old season with victories in the Travers, Woodward Stakes, and Jockey Club Gold Cup. High class and a hardy campaign earned Sword Dancer the 1959 Horse of the Year title. At four, Sword Dancer won the Suburban and a second Woodward, as well as the title as champion older horse, but 1960 was the first year of mighty Kelso's reign as Horse of the Year.

Sent to stud in 1961, Sword Dancer stood at Darby Dan Farm and sired Lady Pitt in his second crop, foals of 1963. She and Damascus were leagues better than the 13 other stakes winners sired by Sword Dancer, but their fame and ability was such that Sword Dancer enjoyed a significant, if temporary, vogue in the mid- to late 1960s, and John Gaines sent the dam of 1959 Preakness Stakes winner Royal Orbit to his competitor, Sword Dancer, and the mare's 1969 foal was Corner Table.

Nothing as good as either of those 1959 classic winners has come out of this branch of the family since, but Reincarnate is doing his part to correct that situation.

The post Bloodlines Presented By Virginia Thoroughbred Association: The 1959 Classic Stars Have A Role In 2023, Perhaps appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The winner of the listed Gravesend Handicap at Aqueduct on Dec. 30, Drafted (by Field Commission) has had the best season of his lengthy career that began with a debut victory as a 2-year-old at Keeneland in 2016 and now counts 10 victories from 33 starts for earnings of $1,157,443.

Bred in Florida by John Foster, Barbara Hooker, and the Field Commission Partnership, Drafted sold as a 2-year-old in training at the OBS March sale of 2018, bringing $35,000 from trainer Eoin Harty. The gray won his debut, then sold privately to Godolphin, which exported the quick youngster to England, where Drafted finished 17th in the Windsor Castle Stakes, then returned to the U.S. and was sixth in the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes.

Subsequently, a condylar fracture sidelined Drafted, and after a lengthy recuperation, he was sold to Brian Gleeson at an auction in Dubai for slightly less than $11,000, then returned with a victory at Meydan at the end of 2018. Drafted continued to improve, added a pair of G3 victories in 2019, and then returned toward the end of 2020 to race in the States, where he has campaigned since.

The Gravesend was the fourth stakes victory of 2022 for Drafted, added to the G3 Toboggan and Runhappy, plus the Mr. Prospector at Monmouth Park, and the gelding's speed and lengthy career are typical of his ancestors, many of whom are not the most common of household names.

Drafted's sire Field Commission was the 2009 champion sprinter in Canada, winning eight races from 30 starts and earning slightly more than $1 million. Field Commission was probably the best racer by the Deputy Minister stallion Service Stripe, a stakes winner and sire in Kentucky, Michigan, and elsewhere.

Drafted is the only stakes winner from his dam, the Darn That Alarm mare Keep the Profit, who was unraced but produced seven winners from 10 foals. Broodmare sire Darn That Alarm was another talented, consistent, and durable racer. The gray horse won nine of 42 starts, including the 1984 Fountain of Youth. The horse was also second in the G1 Dwyer at three and the Widener at five, as well as third in the G1 Florida Derby.

The handsome gray hit the high point of his racing career with that victory in the Fountain of Youth, defeating subsequent Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner and champion 3-year-old colt Swale (Seattle Slew) with a very steadily run race that Darn That Alarm dictated from the lead. Later efforts proved that Darn That Alarm wasn't able to handle the best of his generation, but his consistency and good efforts earned him a place at stud with Meadowbrook Farm in Ocala.

At stud, Darn That Alarm struck a note that made him one of the most popular sires in the Sunshine State: he sired two Grade 1 winners in his first crop.

His son Pistols and Roses won the Hialeah spring prep series – Bahamas, Everglades, and Flamingo, then finished second in the Fountain of Youth before winning the G2 Blue Grass. A disastrous 16th in the Kentucky Derby was a prelude to other disappointing efforts, but Pistols and Roses returned to his home state and won the G1 Donn Handicap in 1993 and 1994. A winner in 10 of 44 starts with earnings of more than $1.6 million, Pistols and Roses entered stud in 1995 in Kentucky at Mare Haven Farm, where he met with minimal success.

From the same 1989 crop, Turnback the Alarm became her sire's first graded winner with victory in the G2 Schuylerville at Saratoga and was second in the G1 Spinaway at two in 1991. The next year, she advanced on that form to win both the G1 Mother Goose and Coaching Club American Oaks; at four, Turnback the Alarm won three more G1s (Shuvee, Hempstead, and Go for Wand). The first-class filly was sold, in foal to leading sire Gone West, as a 7-year-old in 2006 for $700,000 to Haruya Yoshida.

With these two stars in his first crop, Darn That Alarm was the leading freshman sire in Florida in 1991 and was a popular sire for a time.

Had that stroke of success come to the sire of Darn That Alarm, the Native Dancer sire Jig Time, the sky would have been the limit. A striking gray, Jig Time had been a well-regarded young horse who was bred in New Jersey by the estate of Frank A. Piarulli and sold as a yearling for $85,000 to the Cragwood Estates Inc. of Charles Engelhard. Trained by Mack Miller, Jig Time did not win at two but progressed notably at three to finish second in the Derby Trial, was fifth in both the 1968 Derby and Preakness, and won the Lamplighter Handicap at midyear.

It was enough to earn the handsome gray a place at stud, and he received some acclaim standing at Big C Farm near Ocala. Of course, it was nothing like the acclaim given his own sire, multiple champion Native Dancer. In contrast to the son who won a single stakes, Native Dancer lost only once.

Such are the differences between the good and the great, but the generational links in pedigrees carry both down to us through the years to our good performers today.

The post Bloodlines Presented By Virginia Thoroughbred Association: The Good, The Great, And The Tough appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The great proliferation of gray coloring in the Thoroughbred came through The Tetrarch, bred in Ireland by Edward Kennedy, who reportedly purchased Roi Herode because of a fascination with the Byerley Turk line through Herod.

Although that color line has remained in racing and breeding at the highest level, the Herod male line is now effectively lost. Yet in the 19th century, Herod was a major force in pedigrees in Europe, and in North America, the line was much more than that. The Herod line ruled in America through the first three-quarters of the 19th century and did so because of a single horse.

The first winner of the Derby Stakes at Epsom, Diomed.

The chestnut son of Florizel (by Herod 1758) won 11 of his 20 starts and was unbeaten as a 3-year-old; so one of the peculiarities is why Diomed was so little esteemed as a sire in his homeland. Essentially, it was fashion. The horse trained off near the end of his 4-year-old season, did not start at five, and won only a single race at four-mile heats as a 6-year-old. With his great victories years before, Diomed did not prove popular among breeders in England, and in 1798, Sir Charles Bunbury, who had raced the horse, sold Diomed for 50 guineas to a pair of horse traders.

Those sharp lads then resold the old boy, at age 21, to the Virginians Col. John Hoomes and John Tayloe for about 20 times what the savvy buyers had paid and exported him to Virginia. This would be the end of the line for an older stallion, right?

Not for Diomed.

He remade the Herod line in America with one successful racehorse and sire after another, and Diomed was the most celebrated horse in the former colonies when he died 10 years later in 1808 at age 31.

Diomed's most famous racers included Ball's Florizel, Stump-the-Dealer, Duroc, Haynie's Maria, and Sir Archy. The latter, a foal of 1805, was beginning his racing career when his famous sire died, and the bay son became the greatest four-mile heat racer of his day. This latter point may be an indication of why Diomed fared better in America than in England.

The old country had switched its racing program very substantially to “dash” racing, a single run down the course rather than the old-style heats, with the winner being determined by the best two out of three heats on the same afternoon. This was not a game for infants, and heat racers were frequently six, eight, or 10. They had to be hardy and game. And mature.

Here in the States, the fashion for dashes was still decades in the future. The great plantation owners and breeders of racehorses were willing to sift through dozens of colts to come up with the one or two who could stand the training and racing required to stand up to this old-fashioned manner of sport.

Waiting for a colt to grow up and harden off to stand the rigors of this racing was much more acceptable to the riotously wealthy planters of cotton and tobacco than to businessmen thinking of investments and potential return. And it would appear that the Diomed stock suited this program to a startling degree; Diomed himself had scored his final victory at four-mile heats. Despite possessing speed and fairly early maturity, he got stock that matured and improved well. Sir Archy, for instance, did not come to his best form until he was four and racing the long heats.

Then, what a surprise that Sir Archy's stock could run to form in heats or dashes.

Still, most of the racing remained focused on heats, especially at three and four miles, and one of Sir Archy's best sons, Timoleon, sired the greatest American heat racer, a bright chestnut horse named Boston.

Inbred to Diomed 3×3 through Sir Archy and broodmare sire Ball's Florizel, Boston was named for a card game, not the city in Massachusetts, and maybe that was a good thing because Boston was a very bad boy. He was so hard to handle and train early on that one famous recommendation that has been handed down was that Boston should “be either castrated or shot, preferably the latter.”

Had either unfortunate suggestion been followed, it would have changed the course of American racing and breeding for the worse.

Cooler heads and quieter hands prevailed, Boston yielded sufficiently to careful handling, and the red colt became a racer. He lost his debut at three due to greenness, but continued unbeaten thereafter until he was six. Typically, Boston raced up and down the East Coast at courses in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, rarely racing at the same course twice in succession.

At age eight in 1841 and again at nine, Boston began covering mares in the late spring and summer months, while racing in the early spring and fall. Returned to racing at 10 in 1843, Boston won his final start and retired with a record of 40 victories (not heats) from 45 races.

If a tougher racehorse ever lived, I wouldn't want to eat him.

Boston sired high-class racers from the start, although we don't see any of his sons and daughters on the lists as winners of America's classics. None of those races existed yet.

By the late 1840s, Boston had gone blind and had declined significantly in health, quite possibly as a result of his blindness. On Jan. 31, 1850, Boston was found dead in his stall, age 17.

The old champion became the leading sire in America in 1851-53, and in his last crop, foals of 1850, were two sons of the highest merit, Lecompte and Lexington. Boston was elected to the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame at its inception in 1955.

Through the accomplishments of Diomed, his immediate successors, and especially his great-grandson Lexington, the Herod line was the dominant force in American breeding for much of the 19th century.

The post Bloodlines: When The Herod Line Was King In America appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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