Tag: Bloodlines

Although primarily considered a “turf horse” by breeders for most of his career at stud, the tremendous sire Giant's Causeway is having an exceptional run of success on this side of the Atlantic wet spot.

In 2019, the son of Storm Cat had champion Bricks and Mortar, who was the country's best turf horse and yet, despite winning 11 of 13 starts, was “only a turf horse” and was allowed to be exported to Japan, where they sometimes race on turf, unlike the U.S. Oh, do we have turf races here?

Last year, the Giant's Causeway stallion Protonico sired Medina Spirit in the sire's first crop, and that Grade 1 winner also finished first in the Kentucky Derby, although he was disqualified from that victory on Feb. 21.

Also entering stud in 2017, like the dark brown Protonico, was another son of Giant's Causeway, the dark brown Not This Time. A half-brother to Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Liam's Map, Not This Time is out of the noted broodmare Miss Macy Sue (by Trippi).

Both young sires were bred in Kentucky by the Albaugh Family Stables LLC, and that entity faced the predictable dilemma of any breeder who races and sells: which to keep and which to sell. They chose well in selling Liam's Map, who brought $800,000 as a yearling to St. Elias, then raced for Teresa Viola Stables and West Point Thoroughbreds.

The decision to sell the gray colt looked like a smart one from a business perspective until he was a 4-year-old and won three of his four starts, earning the majority of his $1.3 million in racetrack earnings and a spot at stud. There he retired to a positive reception as a stallion at Lane's End Farm, where Liam's Map sired champion Colonel Liam and numerous other stakes winners.

The sale of Liam's Map prompted Dennis Albaugh to say “not this time” to the idea of selling Miss Macy Sue's good-looking son of Giant's Causeway and instead retained him for the family stable.

And that's how the colt got his name.

Racing for Albaugh Family Stables, Not This Time won two of his four starts, earning $454,183. That doesn't appear to be an unequivocal success, but one of the starts that the dark brown colt lost was the 2016 Breeders' Cup Juvenile, when he was two lengths behind Classic Empire at the stretch call and lost by a neck after Classic Empire “dug in gamely to fend off Not This Time,” according to the official race chart.

Not This Time came out of the Juvenile with a soft-tissue injury to his right foreleg and never raced again. He retired to Taylor Made Farm, which bought a 50 percent stake in the colt, for the 2017 breeding season at an initial stud fee of $15,000 live foal.

Jason Loutsch, family member and racing manager for Albaugh Stables, said “I'm a huge fan of Giant's Causeway, and we really wanted to stay in on Not This Time [as a stallion]. We kept half the horse in the deal with Taylor Made. We thought it would be a great partnership for us and for the horse, and they've done a great job of promoting him.”

From his first crop, foals of 2018, Not This Time sired Grade 1 winner Princess Noor and ranked third among freshman sires of 2020 behind the leading Uncle Mo sons Nyquist ($2,424,083) and Laoban ($1,559,748) with $1,557,138. A third son of Uncle Mo, Outwork, was fourth on the list.

As part of the plan to support Not This Time, Loutsch said, “Dennis and I went to the January sale and bought 10 mares that we thought would match well with him. We bought the mare who produced Princess Noor and then bred three other good racers from those mares, one of which is now the dam of Simplification.”

[Albaugh Stables sold both mares, the dams of Princess Noor and Simplification, in foal to Not This Time. Not This Time/AFS bought the stakes-placed Simply Confection (Candy Ride) at the 2017 January sale as a broodmare prospect for $90,000, did not get a foal from her in 2018, then sold her in the 2019 Keeneland November sale, in foal to Not This Time, for $80,000 to France Weiner, agent. That foal is Simplification, bred by France and Irwin Weiner.]

In the meantime, Princess Noor was impressing anyone paying attention to freshmen sires and high-performing juveniles. She won her first three starts like a champion, then as favorite for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, finished fifth. Princess Noor came back in the Starlet and was pulled up after three-quarters and vanned off. She never raced again but sold in foal to Into Mischief to Katsumi Yoshida for $2.9 million.

Of course, one swallow does not a summer make, but Not This Time catapulted himself to the top of his division among second-crop sires with 13 stakes winners in 2021 and gross progeny earnings of $5.4 million, first among second-crop sires and first as the overall leading sire by percentage of stakes winners to runners (10.3).

Loutsch said that, as the result of racing Not This Time and retiring him to stud, “We're having a lot of fun right now, and it's only going to get better.

“As a result of his initial success, his mare quality has stepped up, and this year's book has stepped up another level too.”

The stallion's volume of stakes winners from his first two crops have pushed the horse's stud fee to $45,000 for 2022, and this year, Not This Time is ranked 11th nationally among all sires, with three stakes winners and $1.2 million in earnings after 50 days.

The sire's chief earner for 2022 is Epicenter, who won the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at the Fair Grounds on Feb. 19. The bay colt had been one of his sire's 13 stakes winners last year, picking up the Gun Runner Stakes at the Fair Grounds on Dec. 26, and in his 3-year-old debut, Epicenter led nearly the entire race for the Lecomte Stakes, losing to Call Me Midnight (Midnight Lute) at the wire.

Bred in Kentucky by Westwind Farm, Epicenter is out of the Candy Ride mare Silent Candy. Winchell Thoroughbreds purchased the colt for $260,000 at the Keeneland September yearling auction of 2021 from the consignment of Bettersworth Westwind Farms.

Now a winner in three of his five starts, Epicenter has earned $410,639. He is one of the sire's three stakes winners this season, with Just One Time winning the G2 Inside Information winning on Jan. 29 and Simplification winning the Mucho Macho Man on New Year's Day. The latter came back on Feb. 5 and was second in the G3 Holy Bull Stakes.

With horses like Epicenter, Simplification, stakes winner Howling Time (bullet work at Gulfstream on Feb. 19), recent Oaklawn allowance winner Chasing Time, recent Gulfstream allowance winner In Due Time, and others, Not This Time and those closely associated with him are going to have a very exciting spring.

The post Bloodlines Presented By Mill Ridge Farm: Decision To Keep Not This Time Paying Off For Albaugh Family Stables appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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It's been done before, getting a top racer in a stallion's miniscule last crop. So don't say it can't happen. But it is always a trick to sire a classic winner, at any point in a stud career.

In America, only the legendary Black Toney (by Peter Pan) has managed to sire a classic winner in a tiny final crop of foals, so far. In 1937, from his final crop of three foals, the 26-year-old Black Toney got a colt from an 11-year-old mare by the name of La Troienne (Teddy).

The dark brown colt was no average foal, nor from average parents. Instead, he was a grand specimen by one of the most consistent sires of racers out of a mare who ranks even today as one of the greatest in the history of the breed.

A bit was expected of this muscular colt whom E.R. Bradley named Bimelech, and the colt delivered. Unbeaten at two, his superiority over his contemporaries in 1939 was so exceptional that Bimelech was placed atop the Experimental Free Handicap at 130 pounds.

The following season, Bimelech won the 1940 Preakness and Belmont Stakes, the Blue Grass and the Derby Trial. In the Kentucky Derby itself, however, he finished second to Gallahadion (Sir Gallahad III). Even the best hands sometimes fail to catch every trick.

This year, we have a story that's just as good, or very nearly.

From the last crop of European champion and top international sire Giant's Causeway came three colts. The chestnut champion had died at Ashford Stud on April 16, 2018, and his overall health had limited his final book.

One couldn't expect a lot from just three foals, but the intensity and determination that marked the great chestnut's racing career was passed to some of his offspring, and from that small final crop has come a colt who is now a classic contender.

A chestnut reminiscent of his sire, Classic Causeway won the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay on Feb. 12, leading all the way and pulling away in the stretch to win by 3 3/4 lengths in 1:42.80.

With Classic Causeway, grand old Giant's Causeway (Storm Cat) is in the hunt for the classics with a colt whose speed and stamina have made him a prospect of exceptional appeal since his debut at Saratoga last year.

Bred in Kentucky by Kentucky West Racing LLC & Clarke M. Cooper Family Living Trust, Classic Causeway went into training with Brian Lynch, who prepared the progressive colt to make his debut on Sept. 4, and as the second-longest price on the odds board, Classic Causeway led at every pole to win by 6 1/2 lengths in 1:22.67 for seven furlongs on dirt.

The colt's maiden victory was impressive enough that he was sent off the favorite for his next start, the G1 Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland. Again leading the way, Classic Causeway was caught in the stretch by the Connect colt Rattle N Roll and finished third. The son of Giant's Causeway made his final start at two in the G2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes in late November. Again sent off the favorite, Classic Causeway finished second to Smile Happy (Runhappy), the shortest price among individual horses in the early Kentucky Derby wagering, and ahead of White Abarrio (Race Day), who won the G3 Holy Bull Stakes last weekend.

The Sam Davis was the seasonal debut for Classic Causeway, and as the favorite, he battled head and head for more than half the race as he led early, was headed at the half-mile, and pulled away in the stretch. This colt is now the early points leader (16) for the Kentucky Derby.

A homebred who races for Kentucky West (Patrick O'Keefe) and Clarke Cooper, Classic Causeway is out of the multiple stakes winner Private World, by Thunder Gulch. The colt's dam won a pair of stakes as a juvenile for breeder Kentucky West and trainer Bob Hess Jr., the Anoakia and Moccasin Stakes, then was second in the California Breeders' Cup Oaks early at three from two starts in her second season.

The dam appeared to stay at least a mile, and there's no doubt that her sire stayed much farther. A winner of the Remsen Stakes at two, Thunder Gulch developed into a mighty classic prospect the next year, winning the Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby before crushing the odds to win the Kentucky Derby at more than 24-to-1. Later, the medium-sized chestnut won the Belmont Stakes and Travers, then was named champion of his division.

A winner of two classics and champion at three like Bimelech, Thunder Gulch stood his entire stud career at Ashford and sired Horse of the Year Point Given and 2000 Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Spain, unlike Bimelech, who never had a racer equal to himself.

Retired to stud at Bradley's Idle Hour Farm, now Darby Dan, Bimelech moved to Greentree when that operation, along with King Ranch and Ogden Phipps, purchased the majority of Bradley's stock. Bimelech proved a good sire, siring 30 stakes winners, including Guillotine (Futurity at two, Carter at three, Fall Highweight at four) for Greentree, and getting broodmares who produced 50 stakes winners, including No Robbery (Swaps), winner of the 1963 Wood Memorial for Greentree.

The post Bloodlines Presented By Mill Ridge Farm: Giant’s Causeway’s Three-Horse Swan Song Could Be History Repeating appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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