Tag: Bloodlines

Continuing to make history with his first crop of racers, Gun Runner (by Candy Ride) picked up a sixth Grade 1 winner on Sept. 24, when he had a total of five stakes winners on the day. Among those five were Taiba, who won the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby, and Society, who became a Grade 1 winner with victory in the Cotillion.

Foaled in Kentucky, Society is bred and raced by Peter E. Blum Thoroughbreds LLC. Blum also bred but sold Authentic (Into Mischief), who won the 2020 Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic. Based on those achievements, Authentic was named 2020 Horse of the Year.

A summertime development after her seasonal debut in May, Society propelled herself to a ranking among the elite fillies of 2022 with her Cotillion success, and among those behind her were Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath (Arrogate); stakes winner Green Up (Upstart), unbeaten this year until the Cotillion; Monmouth Oaks winner Shahama (Munnings); Adare Manor (Uncle Mo), winner of the Las Virgenes earlier this year; and Mother Goose Stakes winner Gerrymander (Into Mischief).

With five victories from six starts to date and a Grade 1 success, Society would also rank as the best racer in some time from her branch of this illustrious family tracing back to Missy Baba (My Baby) and Uvira (Umidwar).

Blum bred not only Society but also her dam Etiquette (Tapit). Now 10, Etiquette might have been a slow learner. In her first seven starts, she was four times second or third. In the eighth start, however, the chestnut filly read the script and won off by 10 lengths as the favorite. The filly was twice second in her remaining three starts, earning $89,177.

Sent to stud, Etiquette has done much better.

The mare's first foal was a colt by Quality Road (Elusive Quality) who sold for $500,000 at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale of select yearlings, and Society is the second foal from Etiquette.

Blum bred Etiquette from the Pleasant Tap mare Archduchess, who is a half-sister to three stakes winners, including Rookie Sensation (Unbridled's Song), winner of the G2 Twilight Derby at Santa Anita, and Mark One (Alphabet Soup), winner of the G3 Eclipse Handicap at Woodbine.

Archduchess was a product of the Adena Springs breeding program, where she produced a good horse – Pleasant Prince (Indy King), winner of the G3 Ohio Derby and listed Oklahoma Derby, as well as second in the G1 Florida Derby.

The dam of Archduchess and her stakes-winning siblings was the stakes winner My Marchesa (Stately Don), who was one of two stakes winners out of Sooni (Buckpasser). Michael Phipps, cousin of Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps, bred Sooni and some of her celebrated siblings from Missy Baba, whom Phipps had bred from Uvira.

This is where we find other racers of similar merit to Society. Bred in Ireland by the Aga Khan, Uvira, for instance, won the Irish Oaks, was imported to the States, and changed hands a couple more times before coming to rest at Claiborne among the broodmares of Michael Phipps.

A quality racemare, Uvira was a good producer of five stakes winners. Her daughter Missy Baba was a moderate racer but perhaps an even better producer. In all, Missy Baba produced a half-dozen stakes winners, and a pair of stakes-placed racers, including Sooni, who was third in the G3 Seashore Handicap.

Missy Baba produced the next high-class racer in the family, foaling Gay Missile in 1967, and that daughter of Sir Gaylord went on to win the 1970 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. Gay Missile's branch of this female line is the one that has brought it the greatest acclaim with Horse of the Year A.P. Indy, classic winner Summer Squall (Storm Bird), Belmont Stakes winner Lemon Drop Kid (Kingmambo), all of whom became sires of significance.

In addition to Sooni and Gay Missile, Phipps had bred a pair of Bold Ruler colts from Missy Baba, and both of them became stakes winners. Master Bold won the 1968 Dade Metropolitan and was second in the Fountain of Youth; he proved a fairish sort of sire.

The other Bold Ruler colt was foaled in 1968 and named Raja Baba. The handsome bay won a stakes at two, a pair of them at three, and retired with seven victories from 41 starts. He was more effective as a sprinter and had the build of a very strong, very fast horse.

A son of the most important sire of the time in Bold Ruler and from a distinguished family, Raja Baba found a home in Kentucky at Hermitage Farm. At a time when there was a son of Bold Ruler under every cabbage leaf, however, not a great deal was expected from Raja Baba.

So, the handsome bay made everyone who believed in him look really smart.

With his first crop to the races in 1976 (Seattle Slew's juvenile season), Raja Baba rocketed to the top of the freshman sire list over Bold Reasoning (Slew's sire), and such was his dominance that he led the juvenile sire list, as well, by both gross earnings and races won. Raja Baba's leading earner that season was Royal Ski, winner of the Remsen.

In 1980, Raja Baba led the general sire list and was leading juvenile sire a second time. He sired 62 stakes winners (10.5 percent from foals), including 1987 champion 3-year-old filly Sacahuista, Canadian champion Summer Mood, and 1988 Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Is It True.

From a family of depth and significance, Society has added a new luster to her branch of the old line.

The post Bloodlines Presented By No-No Cribbing Collar: Cotillion Winner Society Traces Through Top Breeding Programs Of The Past And Present appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Juvenile champions are an elite subset of the population, and for many years now, Coolmore has made a project of collecting as many of these as possible to stand at its Ashford Stud outside Versailles, Ky.

This has worked well, most notably with champion Uncle Mo (by Indian Charlie), champion and classic winner Lookin at Lucky (Smart Strike), as well as champion and subsequent Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile).

Coolmore doesn't catch 'em all, however, and a pair of juvenile champions that went to other studs were responsible for the winners of the juvenile stakes at Churchill Downs over the weekend. The 2008 Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner and champion Midshipman (Unbridled's Song) sired Fun and Feisty, who won the Grade 3 Pocahontas Stakes. The dark bay filly is owned by Lucky Seven Stable and was selected out of the Fasig-Tipton July sale last year by trainer Kenny McPeek for $100,000. The filly has now earned more than a quarter-million.

Midshipman, the most successful stallion son of Unbridled's Song to date, stands at Darley's stallion operation at Jonabell. The Godolphin/Darley combine had acquired the colt shortly before the Breeders' Cup as part of a giant package deal for the broodmares, farm, and racing stock of Robert and Janice McNair, which paid immediate and lasting dividends.

Following Midshipman in 2008, Coolmore acquired five of the next six juvenile champions, excepting only the eminently talented Shared Belief (Candy Ride), who was a gelding. Darley picked up the 2015 juvenile champion Nyquist (Uncle Mo), who subsequently won the 2016 Kentucky Derby. Coolmore bought the 2016 juvenile champion Classic Empire (Pioneerof the Nile), and Hill 'n' Dale stepped into the ring by securing the 2017 champion Good Magic (Curlin).

The latter's first foals are juveniles this year, and he sired the winner of the Churchill Downs companion feature to the Pocahontas, the Iroquois Stakes.

That race featured the odds-on favorite Echo Again (Gun Runner), winner of an impressive maiden special at Saratoga, and the unbeaten Damon's Mound (Girvin), winner of the Sanford Stakes at Saratoga. That pair led much of the race but collapsed in the stretch to finish unplaced as Curly Jack (Good Magic) and Honed (Sharp Azteca) pulled away to finish one-two in the 8.5-furlong Iroquois.

Curly Jack is the second stakes winner (both graded) for freshman sire Good Magic, and Honed is the fourth stakes horse for freshman sire Sharp Azteca (Freud; Three Chimneys), who leads all freshmen by number of winners (18).

At the moment on the first-crop sires list, the two freshmen sires above stand in reverse order to the finish of the Iroquois. Sharp Azteca is in fourth place to Good Magic's fifth, with progeny earnings of $1.03 and $1.01 million.

The freshman leader at the moment is Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro; Spendthrift), who is narrowly ahead of Army Mule (Friesan Fire; Hill 'n' Dale) $1.24 million to $1.20. The leading freshman by number of stakes winners is Justify (Scat Daddy; Ashford), who has four and earnings of $1.12 million. He's in third place on the freshman list.

With less than a quarter-million dollars separating the top five freshmen sires, this is a competitive and tightly bunched group, and we're only now into the turn for home.

At this point, Sharp Azteca leads with total number of winners (18) from Bolt d'Oro (16), but they are tied for total starters with 52 from crops of 117 and 141.

Volume matters and not simply the number of starters. Only eight freshmen sires have more than 100 foals in their first crop, and five of those (Bolt d'Oro, Justify, Sharp Azteca, Good Magic, and Mendelssohn) are in the top seven crop leaders at present. Not only are these the most popular young prospects to go to stud for the 2019 breeding season (foals of 2020), but the leaders by number of foals also have more numerical opportunity to hit the long ball that goes over the fence, clears the bases, and makes that lucky stallion the all-star of the game.

The crop leader by number of foals among the 2022 freshmen is the “other” son of Scat Daddy, Mendelssohn, who stands at Ashford, like Justify, and is a half-brother to Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday) and to champion Beholder (Henny Hughes).

The only two young sires to have broken through against the power of numbers are Army Mule (89 foals; 40 starters; 15 winners) and City of Light (79; 17; 8).

The offspring of these well-intended young sires will continue to make competitive racing this fall, and we have miles to go before we sleep, as Mr. Frost might say.

The post Bloodlines Presented By No-No Cribbing Collar: A Mid-September Check-In On The Freshman Sire Race appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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How soon they forget!

Had this year's leading juveniles been switched with last year's, what headlines would the papers be carrying? Over the weekend, a pair of juveniles by champion Arrogate (by Unbridled's Song) won the Grade 1 features at Del Mar. A colt and a filly by the same sire taking Grade 1 honors? Has that happened before?

A year ago, minus a week or so, Gun Runner had Echo Zulu winning the Grade 1 Spinaway and Gunite winning the G1 Hopeful. The world stood agog, and Gun Runner began his ascent into the pantheon of stellar stallions.

Mavens of the horse world, however, are not as fickle as yesterday's headlines. Not quite, anyway.

Gun Runner had first run with top juveniles, followed up with some excellent performers at three, and he is the toast of the Thoroughbred breeding and selling world. Poor Arrogate is gone, but at least he is not quite forgotten.

The winner of the Del Mar Futurity was Cave Rock, a dark brown, nearly black son of Arrogate bred in Kentucky by Anne and Ronnie Sheffer Racing LLC. The colt is out of G3 Schuylerville Stakes winner Georgie's Angel, by Wood Memorial winner Bellamy Road, who also was a dark brown, nearly black racer of immense talent.

And there is no doubt about the talent in Cave Rock. The good-looking colt sold for $550,000 a year ago at the Keeneland September sale, purchased by Three Amigos Racing Stable, and Cave Rock races for Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman. The colt is trained by some neophyte named Baffert.

The latter name is important in the saga of Cave Rock's sire Arrogate. After Juddmonte Farms had purchased Arrogate and sent him to Baffert, the colt was showing hints of the talent typical of an Unbridled's Song, but the trainer sent the colt back to the farm.

“He had some baby things going on and needed to finish growing up and fill out,” Juddmonte's farm manager Garrett O'Rourke recalled, “and after some time playing and galloping on the farm, we sent him back to Bob. A few months later, Arrogate had his first start” in a maiden special at Santa Anita on April 17 of his 3-year-old season.

The rest is history.

In the Del Mar Futurity, Cave Rock indicated the level of form that Arrogate might have been able to show if his growth pattern had been a little different. The juvenile colt was away a step slow, then got into gear, and by the time the field had gone a quarter-mile, Cave Rock was slightly in front of his quick stablemate Havnameltdown (Uncaptured), who is owned by the same trio as the winner.

The pair staged something of an exhibition of speed with a quarter in :21.56, a half in :43.65, three-quarters in 1:08.55, and seven furlongs in 1:20.99. By the finish, Cave Rock had pulled away to win by 5 ¼ lengths, but it was impressive for both colts.

The previous day's Del Mar Debutante was run in opposite fashion. The Arrogate filly And Tell Me Nolies was bumped at the start, was fifth of seven at the half, came wide on the outside at the turn, moved up to second by the stretch call, and won the race at the wire by a head. The winner's time was 1:23.29.

Bred in Kentucky by Lara Run LLC, And Tell Me Nolies is out of the Exchange Rate mare Be Fair. The bay filly was sold for the first time at the 2021 Keeneland January sale for $70,000 to D.J. Stable, then resold at the 2022 OBS April sale for $230,000 to Bryan Anderson, agent. The filly races for Peter Redekop B.C. Ltd. and is trained by Peter Miller.

The dam of And Tell Me Nolies won the G3 Lake George Stakes at Saratoga, was third in the G1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn, and showed improved form at three and four. Be Fair, in fact, was highly tried against the best fillies of her crop, finishing fourth or fifth in G1s such as the Ashland Stakes, Kentucky Oaks, Acorn, and Ruffian.

She clearly had some talent, and on retirement and carrying a first cover to leading sire Indian Charlie, she was sold at the 2011 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall sale for $300,000 to Dell Ridge. The mare sold at Keeneland November in 2018, carrying a foal by Practical Joke, for $50,000 to Lara Run.

Most recently, the then-15-year-old mare sold at the 2021 OBS winter sale, cataloged in foal to Gun Runner, for $35,000 to Jim Ballinger. The resulting foal was a colt who sold as a weanling at Keeneland November last year to McMahon & Hill Bloodstock for $150,000. Be Fair was bred to Mo Town in 2022.

In similar fashion to Be Fair, Georgie's Angel, the dam of Cave Rock, sold before her G1 performer was known. The mare produced Cave Rock on March 12 and sold later that year at the 2020 Keeneland November mixed sale for $75,000 in foal to Arrogate. Georgie's Angel produced a filly by Improbable this year, and she was bred back to Connect. The mare's yearling, a full brother to Cave Rock, brought the top price at the Fasig-Tipton sale of select New York-breds, selling for $700,000 to Tom McCrocklin, agent for Champion Equine.

The post Bloodlines Presented By No-No Cribbing Collar: Dearly Departed Arrogate Keeps His Name In The Papers With Grade 1 Weekend appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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To win a race so impressively that it's fleetingly compared to one of the great events, like Secretariat's Belmont Stakes, is a major accomplishment for a racehorse and its owner and caretakers. To actually run a race that is comparable … boggles the mind.

Yet that is what Flightline did in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic on Saturday, Sept. 3.

In winning the race by 19 ¼ lengths in 1:59.28, the dark bay son of Tapit (by Pulpit) ran his unbeaten career race record to five and added a third G1 to previous top-level victories in the Malibu and Metropolitan Handicap.

A $1 million sale yearling from Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga sale from three years ago, Flightline was bred in Kentucky by Jane Lyon's Summer Wind Farm and is an athletic son of one of the farm's premium producers, Feathered, herself a daughter of leading sire and broodmare sire Indian Charlie (In Excess) and Receipt (Dynaformer).

Summer Wind's farm manager, Bobby Spalding, said that “Flightline was always a nice, level-headed colt who impressed you with his natural athleticism, but when you're watching them grow up, you don't know that one of them is going to win a Grade 1 by nearly 20 lengths. That's just amazing!

“[Trainer] John Sadler has done a marvelous job with this colt, and he's grown up to be a grand individual. I think they said he was 16.2. His mamma's only just 16 hands, maybe, but she's the kind of mare that I like, not too big, not out of proportion anywhere. Just real nice, and this is a wonderful family,” Spalding concluded.

This is a wonderful family, full of high-quality racehorses and producers, that had been in the hands of the Phipps family from the mid-1960s.

The Phipps patriarch Ogden Phipps, breeder and owner of champion Buckpasser, was always open to freshening the broodmare band and took the opportunity to purchase 1966 champion 3-year-old filly Lady Pitt (Sword Dancer). A winner of the Coaching Club American Oaks, Delaware Oaks, and Mother Goose, Lady Pitt was a medium-sized chestnut more notable for toughness than brilliant speed. Bred in Kentucky by John W. Greathouse, Lady Pitt was a stakes winner at two, but she came into a higher level of form at three, finishing first in six races, including the Alabama (disqualified to second for bearing in on second-place Natashka).

The daughter of 1959 Belmont Stakes winner Sword Dancer was elected champion of her division over Natashka (Dedicate) and Phipps's Destro (Ribot), and the great racing commentator Charlie Hatton noted that Phipps thought Lady Pitt deserved the award due to her consistency, being in the money 12 times from 16 starts. She stood 15.3 hands at the end of her 3-year-old season.

The owner-breeder stood behind his assessment and added the mare to his broodmare portfolio at Claiborne Farm when the opportunity came. Bred to Buckpasser, Lady Pitt produced Bank of England in 1970, and she is the ancestress of the four-time Grade 1 winner and 2022 freshman sire Oscar Performance (Kitten's Joy). Six years later, Lady Pitt foaled the notably talented Blitey (Riva Ridge).

A winner of the Test, Ballerina, and Maskette before any of those three were elevated to Grade 1 races, Blitey produced the highly accomplished Dancing Spree (Nijinsky), who won Grade 1s at six furlongs (Breeders' Cup Sprint), seven furlongs (Carter), and 10 furlongs (Suburban). His full sisters were Grade 2 winner Dancing All Night and Oh What a Dance, the dam of champion Heavenly Cause (Seeking the Gold).

A half-sister to this trio was Fantastic Find (Mr. Prospector), who won the G1 Hempstead and was second in the G1 Test and Ballerina after they went to the top-level designation. Fantastic Find is the fourth dam of Flightline through her daughter Finder's Fee (Storm Cat), winner of the G1 Matron at two, the G1 Acorn at three.

A major disappointment as a producer, Finder's Fee did not produce a stakes winner, but the mare's most successful racer, stakes-placed Receipt, is the second dam of Flightline.

Receipt was third in a listed stakes at Saratoga, as well as fourth in a Grade 2 there, but her branch of the family might have appeared to be going stale, because the Phipps Stable chose to sell her, in foal to Indian Charlie, at the 2012 Keeneland January sale. The mare brought $350,000 from St. Elias Stable. Five months later, she produced Feathered.

Bred by Teresa Viola Racing Stable, Feathered was a May foal, like much of this family, but nonetheless was progressive enough to be a featured prospect at the 2014 OBS March sale from the late J.J. Crupi's New Castle Farm, agent, and sold for $300,000 to Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners.

Feathered won her second start, a maiden special at Saratoga, then showed high form in a trio of Grade 1 races, finishing third in the Frizette, fourth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, and second in the Hollywood Starlet.

The following season, Feathered won a couple more races, including the G3 Edgewood Stakes at Churchill Downs, and ran second in the G1 American Oaks. Retired and sent to leading sire War Front (Danzig), Feathered was sold through the 2016 Keeneland November sale, with Hill 'n' Dale Sales as agent, for $2.35 million to Summer Wind.

The mare's first foal was the bay filly Good on Paper, a winner at three who earned $52,940. She was sold privately before racing to Glen Hill Farm.

The second foal out of Feathered was Flightline.

Feathered has a 2-year-old full brother to Flightline named Olivier, who was a $390,000 RNA at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale. The colt most recently worked at Keeneland at Keeneland on Sept. 3 (five furlongs in 1:02.2) and has been retained in a partnership. Feathered has a yearling colt by Curlin (Smart Strike), a filly at side foaled on May 17 by Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday), and was bred to Tapit.

Spalding said that the initial thought “had been to leave Feathered open and breed the next year, but Mrs. Lyon asked about sending her to Tapit. We only had time for a single cover, but she had the right idea. Unfortunately, the mare did not get in foal.”

Flightline is one of 95 Northern Hemisphere-bred graded winners for Tapit and one of 152 black-type winners for the three-time national leading sire, who stands at Gainesway.

The post Bloodlines Presented By No-No Cribbing Collar: Flightline’s Connection To The Vaunted Phipps Breeding Program appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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