Tag: Bloodlines

With each passing season, the death of the grand gray champion Arrogate (by Unbridled's Song) at age seven looks an ever-greater loss to the breed. Having to be euthanized on June 2, 2020, near the end of his third season at stud, due to a freak spinal cord injury, Arrogate is proving himself a true classic sire whose stock show increasingly good form as they mature.

Another graded stakes winner was added to the stallion's list when Liberal Arts won the Grade 3 Street Sense Stakes at Churchill Downs on Oct. 28. The iron gray colt trailed early, then galloped on bravely through the muddy stretch at Churchill to win the mile and a sixteenth event by 2 ¾ lengths.

Now a winner in two of his five starts and placed in all, Liberal Arts had run third to West Saratoga (Exaggerator) and Risk It (Gun Runner) in the G3 Iroquois Stakes on Sept. 16 in his previous start. After finishing third in his debut at Churchill Downs in May, Liberal Arts had come back to run second in a maiden special at Ellis in July, then won his maiden at Ellis on Aug. 13, victorious by a length going seven furlongs from Otto the Conqueror (Street Sense), who has won his two subsequent starts for trainer Steve Asmussen and owner Three Chimneys Farm.

Bred in Kentucky by the father-son team of Stephen and Evan Ferraro, Liberal Arts is a March 24 foal out of Ismene, a stakes-winning daughter of the Storm Cat stallion Tribal Rule. This pedigree is fully invested in family, and Evan Ferraro noted that “my mother Richmond used to do all the stallion advertising for River Edge,” the California farm where Tribal Rule was bred and stood at stud for Marty and Pam Wygod.

After conditioning such stars as Carry the Banner (Advocator; G2 Argonaut Handicap) and Painted Wagon (Gummo; Bay Meadows Handicap, Lakes and Flowers Handicap; 2nd in the G1 San Antonio, 3rd in the G1 Santa Anita Handicap), the elder Ferraro had retired from training in 1990 but continued to attend the races, and he purchased the second dam of Liberal Arts from breeder John Harris in a private transaction about 20 years ago. Never to Excess was a winning daughter of leading California stallion In Excess, who was by Caro's high-class son Siberian Express.

“John Harris was kind enough to let me buy into this family,” Ferraro said, “and Never to Excess turned out to be a good producer for us.” The dam of Never to Excess was Margaret Booth (Well Decorated), winner of the Torrey Pines Stakes at Del Mar and a half-sister to G1 winners Cacoethes (Alydar) and Fabulous Notion (Somethingfabulous). And this was a truly enviable family to breed from.

From Never to Excess, Ferraro bred three winners, including the stakes-placed Oonga Boonga, and all were by Tribal Rule. The best of these was Ismene, the dam of Liberal Arts. At two, Ismene won the Anoakia Stakes and the California Breeders' Champion Stakes, and she was named the California-bred champion juvenile filly in 2011.

Unbeaten at two, Ismene missed her entire 3-year-old season “due to a chip in the upper capsule of her knee,” Stephen Ferraro said. “But she did come back to race well at four.” That season, the dark brown filly was second in the B. Thoughtful Stakes, the Irish O'Brien Handicap, and the California Distaff Handicap, and she raced in the 2013 Breeders' Cup Filly Sprint, although unplaced behind Groupie Doll and Judy the Beauty.

Sent to stud, Ismene promptly produced stakes winner Ismelucky (Lucky Pulpit) and stakes-placed Nardini (Acclamation). With those good black-type successes, the breeders then decided “to try a stallion in Kentucky,” Evan recalled, “and I guess we got lucky” with Liberal Arts.

Stephen Ferraro said that the dam “was good sized, and Evan was able to get us a season to Arrogate, and not only was Arrogate a fabulous racehorse, but one of the reasons we wanted to breed to him was that we got another cross to Caro through Unbridled's Song. I thought that was the key to this mating.”

It certainly has turned out fortuitously for the Ferraros.

In the meantime, though, they decided to sell the mare, and she went to the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky February mixed sale in foal to Liam's Map, also a son of Unbridled's Song. With Liberal Arts a short yearling at the time, Ismene sold for $65,000 to Mike Abraham.

And they almost sold the colt. “My dad thought about selling this colt but kept him and decided to see what he could do with a racehorse here at 80 years of age,” Evan Ferraro said.

Now the gray son of a gray champion with a number of important gray ancestors is shaping up like a colt who can keep owners and fans dreaming through the winter. Dreaming of what might be.

The seasoned owner Stephen Ferraro takes a pragmatic line: “We hope that the colt will prove to be a worthy successor in the family line. He certainly is a lot of fun.”

The post Bloodlines Presented By Walmac Farm: Liberal Arts A Capstone Horse For Ferraro Family Racing, Breeding Programs appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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One of the last two commercial sons of the great sire Danzig (by Northern Dancer) still at stud, along with War Front, Hard Spun had a cracking weekend at Woodbine in Ontario.

On Oct. 14, two daughters of the Darley stallion won graded stakes at Woodbine. The 6-year-old Spun Glass won the Grade 3 Ontario Fashion Stakes, with another daughter of Hard Spun, the stakes-winning 4-year-old Loyalty, in third place. On the same card, the 5-year-old Millie Girl won the G3 Ontario Matron.

Each of those three is bred on the most popular mating pattern of the past few decades: Northern Dancer crossed with Mr. Prospector.

Hard Spun provides the Northern Dancer, and his successful daughters are out of mares by Elusive Quality (Loyalty), Songandaprayer (Spun Glass), and Smart Strike (Millie Girl). In addition, Elysian Field (Hard Spun), winner of the Woodbine Oaks in July, also was produced by a daughter of Smart Strike.

Of course, Hard Spun himself is bred on the related cross of Northern Dancer with Mr. Prospector's sire Raise a Native through that stallion's great son Alydar and his champion son Turkoman. The latter is the broodmare sire of Hard Spun, and Turkoman is responsible for much of the physical type of Hard Spun.

The stallion is not the most typical son of Danzig, whose most common good performers were strongly made, lengthy and well-muscled horses, and frequently not especially tall. Although quick and quite talented, Hard Spun took the height and scope and bone of Turkoman; as might be expected, this son of Danzig frequently presents a mix of physical types among his foals.

But they have a common trait: many of them are quite effective athletes.

From 13 crops of foals of racing age, Hard Spun has 1,948 foals in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and 1,046 winners who have earned nearly $150 million. Among them are 100 stakes winners at present, and these include such as champion Questing (G1 Alabama Stakes, Coaching Club American Oaks); Silver State (G1 Metropolitan Handicap), Aloha West (G1 Breeders' Cup Sprint), Spun to Run (G1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile), and the current-year stakes winner Two Phil's. The latter won a trio of G3 stakes, including the Ohio Derby, but is best-known for his effort in the 2023 Kentucky Derby, staying within striking distance of the leaders, taking the lead off the turn, and then battling through the stretch and holding second against winner Mage (Good Magic).

The latter quartet above are all young horses at stud. Two Phil's enters stud for 2024 at WinStar at a fee of $12,500. Top sprinter Aloha West entered stud at Mill Ridge for the 2023 season and covered a full book at a fee of $10,000. Silver State entered stud at Claiborne in 2022. His first foals will be yearlings in 2024, and he will have a stud fee of $15,000. Spun to Run entered stud at Gainesway in 2021, and his first crop of foals will be 2-year-olds of 2024. He will stand for a fee of $10,000 next year.

So Hard Spun will have a likeable group of sons competing for success at stud in the coming years, just as his daughters are acquiring a reputation as broodmares.

And Hard Spun himself comes from a fine producing family. His stakes-winning dam Turkish Tryst also produced the stakes winner Our Rite of Spring (Stravinsky), who is the granddam of champion Improbable (City Zip). Hard Spun's second dam is Darbyvail, a Roberto half-sister to champion and classic winner Little Current (Sea-Bird), and the third dam is Luiana (Our Babu).

Although unraced, Luiana had a champion pedigree; two of her earlier siblings had been champions. Her half-sister Primonetta, from the first crop by Horse of the Year Swaps, was unbeaten and highly regarded at two, then was one of the top fillies of 1961, and she was named champion older filly in 1962.

The following season, Primonetta's full brother, the two-years younger Chateaugay, won both the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes and was named champion 3-year-old colt of 1963.

Both of these champions were bred and raced by Darby Dan Farm, which had acquired their dam, Banquet Bell (Polynesian), for $9,000 as a yearling at the 1952 Keeneland summer sale. Primonetta was the mare's second foal, Chateaugay her third, and Luiana was the fifth.

A source of distinguished achievement, Banquet Bell produced champions for Darby Dan and continues as a fount of athleticism for breeders in America and abroad.

The post Bloodlines Presented By Walmac Farm: Hard Spun Spins On appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Multiple champion Lure (by Danzig) was one of the grandest and popular racehorses of the 1990s.

The high-spirited bay son of a leading sire and out of a stakes-winning daughter of another leading sire, Alydar, was a source of amazing talent. He set a track record at Belmont Park in his debut at two and ran a dead-heat with Devil His Due (Devil's Bag) in the Gotham Stakes at three, but trainer Shug McGaughey knew something wasn't quite right with the talented colt because he threw in some clunkers in between efforts of excellence.

Putting the colt on the turf changed his outlook and his future. Lure won his turf debut by 10 ¼ lengths at Saratoga as a 3-year-old. The colt never ran on anything else again, and in 18 starts on that surface, Lure won 11 and was second in six. Earning more than $2.5 million, his victories included two runnings of the Breeders' Cup Mile, and Lure was elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2013.

A horse with the speed that Lure clearly possessed and with an exceptional pedigree created immense interest in Lure as a stallion when he was retired to stand at Claiborne Farm, where he was born and raised. Alas, his fertility was so bad that the farm had to file a claim for their fertility insurance on the horse. Purchased from the insurance company by Coolmore, Lure proved a consistent disappointment in his fertility, no matter where he stood or how he was managed.

Returned to live out his years at Claiborne Farm after he was pensioned from stud duty in 2003, Lure died from the infirmities of old age in 2017. He was 28.

Few would have expected Lure to found an enduring male-line branch for his illustrious sire Danzig, due to Lure's marginal fertility that produced 133 named foals, but nobody told Orpen, who was a member of Lure's first crop.

In fact, Orpen was the star of the crop for Lure because he won the G1 Prix Morny at Deauville in France as a 2-year-old and ran third in the G1 Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh at three. Sent to stud, Orpen flitted around the globe like a swallow, standing at stud in Ireland, France, Argentina, and Australia, and he sired champions in Argentina, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, and Turkey.

Argentina, in particular, proved a fertile field for the stallion's plow, and that is the homeland of Didia, winner of the G2 Rodeo Drive Stakes at Santa Anita. John Stuart, bloodstock agent and raconteur, said that “Didia was bred by a longtime friend and associate, of 20 years or more, down in Argentina, Dr. Ignacio Pavlovsky.

“This filly was really talented, had been a champion there, had a strong dam behind her, and as a result, she was expensive,” Stuart concluded. The mare had won her last three races in Argentina, including the G1 Enrique Acebal and G1 Copa de Plata-Roberto Vasquez Mansilla-Internacional, before her purchase by Merriebelle Stable.

From six starts in the U.S. for Merriebelle since her importation last year, Didia has won five and finished second in the G1 New York Stakes to Marketsegmentation (American Pharoah). Didia is being pointed for the Breeders' Cup and then a potential appearance at the Fasig-Tipton November sale.

Didia is one of 15 champions credited to Orpen by Equineline statistics, and the stallion is listed with 120 stakes winners. These are not the only fascinating statistics associated with Orpen, however. From 21 crops of racing age, he has 3,134 foals, which is the second-largest number of foals that I can find among flat-racing stallions.

Among other noted sires with great longevity, Galileo leads all and has 3,234 foals, exactly 100 more than Orpen, and has 371 stakes winners. Among active sires, there are Medaglia d'Oro (2,348; 164); Uncle Mo (1,753; 92); Into Mischief (1,620; 138); and Curlin (1,253; 96).

Orpen died from complications of colic surgery in Argentina in early 2021, and his last foals are of racing age. So his overall foal numbers should be fairly set, and he will no doubt have additional stakes and perhaps champions.

One such is Davide, a full brother to Didia who was sold as a yearling to race in Singapore and is a champion there. With racers of championship quality from both hemispheres and across multiple countries, Orpen has spread the influence of Lure far and wide.

The post Bloodlines Presented By Walmac Farm: The Unlikely Legacy Of Lure appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The 2023 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe turned into a triumphal procession for leading sire Frankel (by Galileo), and the unbeaten champion's grandson Ace Impact (Cracksman, by Frankel) led Westover and Onesto, both sons of Frankel.

In addition to the Arc trifecta for the house of Frankel, the sire's daughter Kelina won the G1 Prix de la Foret over seven furlongs at Longchamp later on the Arc card. Back in June, this 3-year-old filly had won the G2 Prix de Sandringham at Chantilly.

Also at Chantilly earlier in the summer, Ace Impact had scored his most important prior victory, storming through the stretch to win the G1 Prix du Jockey-Club raced over 2,000 meters. Although favored for the Arc, Ace Impact had to produce a startling turn of speed through the stretch to overtake Westover, who had maintained a good position near the leaders from the start, while Ace Impact and Onesto were much farther back.

Now unbeaten in a career of six starts that began on Jan. 26 at Cagnes-sur-Mer, Ace Impact was bred in Ireland by Mrs. Waltraut Spanner from the Anaaba Blue mare Absolutly Me, and Ace Impact was purchased at the Arqana August yearling sale in 2021 by trainer Jean-Claude Rouget as agent.

Yet Ace Impact overcame more than the odds against a good field of competitors on Oct. 1. For, among all the odds-against that a racehorse must exceed to become a champion, one of the certainties is that he must have a ninth dam, and the ninth dam of Ace Impact was simply lucky to live.

This was La Grelee, a 1918 daughter of the French-based stallion Helicon (Cyllene) and the Kilglass mare Grignouse foaled in France at Jean Couturier's Le Mesnil. A good-sized chestnut, La Grelee was born with a most unfortunate set of forelegs, and the circumstance was enough of a problem that breeder William A. Chanler was going to have the filly euthanized.

Couturier, however, asked to purchase the filly, and Chanler agreed to transfer the filly to Couturier but refused to accept any payment.

La Grelee became the dam of 10 winners in Couturier's stud and became the breeder's foundation mare with such performers as Rialto (Rabelais), who won the Prix Dollar, Prix d'Ispahan, and the Grand International d'Ostende. At stud, Rialto sired Wild Risk, a foal of 1940 who raced during the Second World War in German-occupied France and was far from being considered a top racer or sire prospect.

At stud, however, Wild Risk sired Worden, winner of the 1953 Washington D.C. International and other important races; Vimy, winner of the 1955 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and second in the Prix du Jockey-Club; Balto, winner of the 1961 Grand Prix de Paris at three and the Ascot Gold Cup at four; and even more importantly, Le Fabuleux, winner of the 1964 Prix du Jockey-Club and seven other races from 11 starts. After an excellent beginning at stud in France, Le Fabuleux was imported to stand in Kentucky at Claiborne, and the immense chestnut had a major impact in the States. He is notably the broodmare sire of Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic winner Unbridled (Fappiano).

Rialto's full sister, the chestnut Roahouga, was born when Rabelais was 25. This did not stop Roahouga from becoming a high-class performer and winning the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches in 1928. Her half-sister Phebe (Pharis) was third in the 1933 running of the same event, which gives some indication of the importance of La Grelee to French breeding and racing. Phebe's branch of the family produced the Arc winner, as well as Teleprompter (Welsh Pageant), winner of the 1985 Arlington Million, and Ouija Board (Cape Cross), who won the 2004 Oaks at Epsom and at the Currah, as well as the Breeders' Cup Filly Turf in 2004 and 2006.

Despite the French connections of her parents and descendants, La Grelee came from an American female line. It was, in fact, one of the greatest and most famous of American lines, and this is the family of the greatest American sire of the 19^th century: Lexington.

This line goes back to the Jack of Diamonds mare (born 1760) in the U.S. and goes forward past Lexington (1850) to Kentucky Derby winners Baden-Baden (1877) and Leonatus (1883), Preakness winners The Bard (1886), Damrosch (1916), and Dauber (1938); and to 1960 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Puissant Chef.

The branch of the family that gave us the 2023 Arc winner went overseas in 1908 when Chanler exported La Grelee's second dam Simper (Sempronius) in foal to Olympian (Domino). Chanler and other breeders and racing men were exporting American stock to Europe at this time because New York and other states had outlawed gambling, which had the effect of shutting down racing in most states in the country.

The American owners and breeders found a less-restrictive sporting life in Europe, and breeders there found good horses that helped to improve the racing fortunes of Marcel Boussac and Federico Tesio, among others.

The post Bloodlines: Arc Winner Ace Impact And The Crooked Foal appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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