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Bloodlines Presented By Mill Ridge Farm: Florida Derby Winner Known Agenda Carries On The Legacy Of Sir Ivor

In the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 27, Known Agenda lunged to the fore and won the race by 2 3/4 lengths, placing himself in the thick of competition for the Kentucky Derby a scant five weeks later.

Bred in Kentucky by the St. Elias Stables of Vincent and Teresa Viola, Known Agenda was produced by one of the first broodmares acquired by St. Elias more than seven years ago. Her son Known Agenda is the first Grade 1 winner bred by the operation, although it has raced several others, including 2019 champion older horse Vino Rosso (Curlin), 2017 Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming (Bodemeister), 2015 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Liam's Map (Unbridled's Song), and 2018 Carter Handicap winner Army Mule (Friesan Fire).

John Sparkman, bloodstock and matings adviser to St. Elias, recalled the mare's acquisition.

“Very early in building a high-class broodmare band, this mare came our way,” Sparkman said, “and the way to start a top broodmare band is with mares of high racing class.”

Byrama, the dam of Known Fact, won the G1 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park and was second in the G1 Madison at Keeneland for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners in 2013, then was auctioned at the Fasig-Tipton November sale, where she was an RNA for $725,000.

St. Elias made a deal to purchase the mare post sale, and the new owners raced her the next year before retiring the English-bred daughter of Byron to stud in 2015. Known Agenda is the mare's third foal.

In selecting Byrama for racing class, Sparkman said, “Her head, neck, and shoulder reminded me very strongly of Sir Ivor, who is in the third dam, and when something like that comes through, I pay attention. She had speed, class, and is a very elegant mare,” and she clearly makes an excellent match with some of the large, hardy stallions in the Kentucky stallion pool.

The foal by Curlin was so nice that St. Elias sent him to the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale, but retained him as a $135,000 RNA.

Sparkman recalled “when we were going over the inspection statistics with consignor Gerry Dilger, we were pretty surprised that Known Agenda was at the bottom of the list. When we asked about that, Gerry said, 'Nobody even wants to look at him because he's out of a turf mare.'

“Looks pretty good on dirt, to me,” Sparkman concluded.

Indeed, the chestnut colt has progressed notably from his good juvenile form, where he won a maiden and was a respectable third in the G2 Remsen Stakes. This year, he won an allowance at Gulfstream, then was unplaced in the Sam F. Davis. In assessing the difference between the prior race and the Florida Derby, Sparkman gave praise to the work done by trainer Todd Pletcher in getting the colt to focus more effectively in his racing, and it showed at Gulfstream.

“Todd said that Known Agenda reminded him a lot of Vino Rosso,” also campaigned by St. Elias, “in lacking mental maturity,” Sparkman said. But the physical attributes of the colt have always been there, and he is a progressive colt who will profit from added time and distance.

The Kentucky Derby is expected to be the next start for Known Agenda.

If all goes well, the Derby would be the seventh start for Known Agenda; for his sire, Curlin, the Derby was his fourth career start, and Curlin went into the Derby unbeaten after an extraordinary maiden success, then victories in the G3 Rebel and G2 Arkansas Derby. Curlin finished third in the Kentucky Derby, won the Preakness from Derby winner Street Sense, and was a head second in the Belmont Stakes to the lovely filly Rags to Riches. Late-season successes in the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup and Breeders' Cup Classic brought divisional honors and the Horse of the Year award to Curlin.

A repeat as Horse of the Year in 2008 sent Curlin to stud with excellent racing credentials, although he wasn't universally popular as a physical specimen, being a big, robustly made animal of generous proportions. From his first crop, however, Curlin showed he could sire individuals of greater quality allied with his scope and classic ability. St. Elias brought him a first-rate match with Byrama, as a racemare of high ability, allied with quality and refinement.

“Breeding to a horse like Curlin is obvious for a quality mare who matches on pedigree,” Sparkman said, “and he also has a cross of Sir Ivor in the fourth generation that seemed like a positive repetition.”

Although sometimes considered only as a turf horse because of his first-class record in Europe, Sir Ivor was a top 2-year-old who progressed to become a top classic colt, winning the 1968 2,000 Guineas and Derby, then finishing a gallant second to Vaguely Noble in the Arc de Triomphe. In his final start, Sir Ivor returned to the States and won the Washington DC International before retiring to stud at Claiborne Farm.

Considered simplistically, Sir Ivor was a “turf horse” because he showed exceptional form on the surface. “But all horses can run on turf,” Sparkman said. “All horses can run on dirt. Some have a preference one way or another, but it's almost always pretty slight.”

Considering the horse on racing character, physique, and athleticism, Sir Ivor was much more than a turf horse. He'd have been among the favorites for the 1968 Kentucky Derby, had he been on this side of the Atlantic, and he might well have won the race too.

Bred in Kentucky at Mill Ridge Farm by Alice Chandler and sold to Vincent O'Brien on behalf of owner Winston Guest at the Keeneland July sale, Sir Ivor proved a serious international sire after his classic-winning race career. The good-sized plain bay sired some quick juveniles, some classic competitors, and high-quality performers on turf and dirt. His early crops included Arc de Triomphe winner Ivanjica, and among his later foals came Eclipse champion older horse Bates Motel.

There weren't any “turf” performers of great acclaim among the immediate ancestors of Sir Ivor, but O'Brien saw an athlete. Quick, strong, and competitive, Sir Ivor proved the judgment of his mentor to be eminently correct.

With a known agenda for the classics, Sir Ivor's descendant is taking steps of his own for classic recognition.

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Bloodlines Presented By Mill Ridge Farm: A Life-Saving Rescue In Italy That Changed The Fair Grounds Oaks

Forty-five years ago, a specific incident was essential to the existence of Travel Column (by Frosted), winner of the 2021 Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks on March 20. That incident was the recovery of the filly's fourth dam, champion filly Carnauba, from a knacker's yard in Italy, scarcely 24 hours before the filly would have become rather less-valuable chops and such.

In the dead of night in August 1975, Carnauba had been secreted out of the training yard of Luigi Turner. He was the racing trainer in Italy for Nelson Bunker Hunt, the international oil tycoon and financier who owned the filly and had purchased her as a yearling at the 1973 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale for $20,000.

For Hunt, Carnauba had won eight of 14 starts at two and three, and she was ranked as the top filly in Italy both seasons. At three in 1975, Carnauba had won the Group 1 Oaks d'Italia and had ventured afield to win the G3 Fred Darling Stakes at Newmarket. As a big, dark-coated daughter of leading sire Noholme, Carnauba was a valuable racer and a high-quality broodmare prospect, as well.

So, her disappearance was a stunning blow to the filly's immediate connections, and then the thieves demanded a ransom. Variously reported as $250,000 or more, the ransom was never going to be paid by Hunt, who reportedly feared he would be encouraging more mischief of this sort and resolved not to reward the theft.

The great columnist Red Smith expanded on the situation after Carnauba's recovery and wrote that, “Turner kept in contact with the kidnappers, and finally he made a deal to pay $13,000,” to get her back. Turner arranged with the police to pretend to get money from a bank, then actually to place bundles of newsprint in a valise, which was thrown over a hedge to be recovered by the thieves. This worked effectively enough to capture them, and a half-dozen were jailed as a result.

Carnauba, however, had not been found.

The trainer's son, Frank Turner, had made a mission of tracking down the filly, and eventually, he got a tip about a horse that seemed out of place. The thieves had sent the race filly to a riding academy, cropped her mane, and removed her racing plates to make her less obviously a racehorse; she had not prospered there because the young riders couldn't handle a high-energy racehorse, and either out of spite or desperation, the thieves had sent Carnauba to a butcher's yard, where Turner discovered her in January 1976, reportedly just 24 hours before she would have gone up to auction for meat.

Identified and returned to her owner, Carnauba was flown back to the States, and in March 1976, the young mare was covered by Hunt's great Arc de Triomphe winner Vaguely Noble (Vienna). Carnauba got in foal on a single cover.

The result was a filly named Spirited Away, who did not race. The mare's next two foals, Rich and Riotous (Empery) and Lyphard's Holme (Lyphard) were winners, but by the time of the silver market crash that claimed Hunt's fortune, Carnauba had a modest production record. So, at the dispersal of the Bluegrass Farm stock at Keeneland in 1988, Carnauba brought only $35,000 from Harry Mangurian, who knew a bargain when he saw one.

Having slipped twins to Hunt's stallion Dahar (Lyphard), Carnauba was even less attractive as a commercial proposition, but Mangurian bred racing stock, as well as some sales horses, at his Mockingbird Farm in Florida. The mare's first foal for Mockingbird was the stakes winner Valid Carnauba (Valid Appeal), whom Mangurian sold as a yearling for $35,000 at the 1990 OBS August yearling sale, then was resold for $60,000 at the Fasig-Tipton February auction of 2-year-olds in training in 1991. Valid Carnauba became a winner later that year, then progressed to win a stakes at three and place in two more, earning $110,292. She later sold, in foal to champion Unbridled, for $290,000 at the 1996 Keeneland November sale.

Valid Carnauba became one of four daughters of Carnauba to produce stakes winners; the others were Spirited Away, Rich and Riotous, and Lyphard's Holme. One who did not was Pay the Ransom (J.O. Tobin), who did not race and did not produce even a black-type horse. Her best winner was Free Ransom (Our Native), and this mare produced a pair of stakes winners, including Swingit (Victory Gallop), the dam of Travel Column.

Bred in Kentucky by Bayne and Christina Welker, Travel Column was an $850,000 Saratoga select yearling in 2019, and she has earned more than a half-million with three victories in five starts, including the G2 Golden Rod Stakes last year at Churchill Downs. Swingit also produced Neolithic (Harlan's Holiday), who earned $2.2 million and is at stud. She has a 2-year-old colt, Corton Charlemagne (American Pharoah), who sold for $1.25 million last year, and a yearling colt by City of Light (Quality Road). She was bred back to Audible (Into Mischief).

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Bloodlines Presented By Mill Ridge Farm: Concert Tour Flies The Homebred Banner For Wests

There is a tide in the affairs of horses, which taken at the flood, leads on to the Kentucky Derby.

With apologies to Shakespeare, there's more than a grain of truth in that sentence. Breeders begin the quest for the classics with purchases, sometimes quite expensive ones. Then come attempts at the major races and the stages of building a breeding operation to produce young prospects for the classics. If allied with confident planning, nerve, and patience, breeders have the potential to flower a breeding program that produces classic prospects with some regularity.

Such is the case with Gary and Mary West.

In 2019, the West stable had a pair of classic prospects, one on each coast, and both made it to the Kentucky Derby. Unbeaten in four previous starts, their homebred Maximum Security (by New Year's Day) wintered in Florida, won the Grade 1 Florida Derby, and led the field past the wire in the 2019 Kentucky Derby. Although subsequently disqualified, Maximum Security was named champion of his division for the annual Eclipse Award.

In the same classic, the Wests' other Derby performer was the 2018 juvenile champion Game Winner (Candy Ride), based in California with trainer Bob Baffert. Although beaten in the Kentucky Derby, Game Winner had the scope and ability of a classic colt. The dark bay had been bred by Summer Wind Farm in Kentucky and sold to the Wests for $110,000 at the Keeneland September sale in 2017.

This year, the Wests again are closely connected to a pair of colts prepping for the classics. The first is one that they sold; the Into Mischief colt Life is Good, who is unbeaten in three starts, was auctioned to China Horse Club and Maverick Racing for $525,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September sale.

The colt that the Wests kept is Concert Tour (by Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense), who is likewise unbeaten in three starts, including the G2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn on March 13. Bred in Kentucky by Gary and Mary West Stables Inc., Concert Tour is out of the Tapit mare Purse Strings.

The Wests bought Purse Strings through their racing manager and bloodstock representative Ben Glass for $240,000 at the 2012 Keeneland September yearling sale. At the races, Purse Strings raced a dozen times in maiden special company, winning the last of those at Churchill Downs on Nov. 29 as a 4-year-old. Glass recalled that Purse Strings “had all the talent in the world and should have broken her maiden a half-dozen times. But she was never fully sound,” he said.

Instead, “she always had little problems: a shin, a suspensory, and so forth that kept her from being early to the races and from staying in hard training so she could show her best.”

A winner of $105,960, Purse Strings had contested a series of good maiden races, finishing second a half-dozen times and third twice before graduating to the winner's circle. Sent to the paddocks for the 2016 breeding season, Purse Strings produced Concert Tour as her second foal.

The chestnut Purse Strings was notably the best racer from her dam, the Mt. Livermore mare My Red Porsche, who is a half-sister to the stakes winner, My White Corvette (Tarr Road). The latter produced champion Stardom Bound from the first crop by Tapit (Pulpit), and that gray filly's five Grade 1 successes prompted a mating between My Red Porsche and the great sire.

The result was Purse Strings, and even with physical issues, she clearly was a useful filly and has passed on more than that to her progressive son Concert Tour. The mare has a yearling colt by champion Lookin at Lucky and is in foal to American Freedom (Pulpit), who won the G3 Iowa Derby, was second in both the G1 Haskell and Travers, and is now a stallion at Airdrie Stud in Kentucky. Due in mid-April, Purse Strings will be bred back to Street Sense.

To produce horses of this caliber with consistency, the Wests and their advisers are responsible for balancing optimism and pragmatism, for considering both physique and pedigree. The responsibilities for all this are considerable. Pedigree adviser Sid Fernando noted that “Werk Thoroughbred Consultants advises on matings, and we're happy to be part of the team for Gary and Mary West, Ben Glass, and their other elite support staff.”

One of the benefits of managing well the many facets of breeding racehorses is the satisfaction when the results go as planned.

A birth notice of note: Beach Walk, the dam of unbeaten Life is Good, foaled a half-brother by Candy Ride on March 15. The mare will be bred back to Into Mischief, the sire of Life is Good.

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Bloodlines Presented By Mill Ridge Farm: Idol Was A Milestone Winner For Top Sire Curlin

Leading sire Curlin (by Smart Strike) picked up another first-time stakes winner over the weekend, and the victory came in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap. Idol was making his sixth start, and the Santa Anita Handicap came as the bay colt's third success from six starts, with two seconds and a third, for earnings of $416,464.

The 75th stakes winner by Curlin, Idol was bred in Kentucky by My Meadowview LLC and sold as a yearling for $375,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September yearling sale.

Lincoln Collins, the bloodstock adviser for My Meadowview, said that “Idol was always a strong, good-looking young horse who looked like he would mature into a colt who would thrive at 10 furlongs, and we had great hopes for him.”

The big bay did not immediately, however, prove out those high hopes for his success.

Unraced at two, Idol made his debut last year at Churchill Downs on Sept. 5 as a 3-year-old and finished second going six furlongs. The colt moved up to seven furlongs for his second start, on Sept. 26 at Churchill, and with the help of a swift early pace, he mowed down the opposition to win by 2 1/2 lengths in 1:22.04.

An allowance victory on Nov. 8 at 9.5 furlongs brought a new Churchill Downs track record of 1:55.95 as Idol won off by 5 3/4 lengths as the odds-on favorite at .50-to-1. The colt's three subsequent starts have all been in graded stakes at Santa Anita: the G2 San Antonio (second), G2 San Pasqual (third), and the Santa Anita Handicap.

Not only has Curlin made his name as a sire by producing high-quality performers at more than a mile but also having stock that stay sound and succeed as they mature. Idol has clearly followed the memo.

Collins said, “One of the challenges of breeding a horse like this is that one is treading a fine line between a horse that stays and a horse that is slow. And especially here in the States, a horse that stays has to be very high class; otherwise there's no place for him to race.”

By a two-time Horse of the Year, Idol is the third foal out of the listed stakes winner Marion Ravenwood (A.P. Indy), and he is the mare's first stakes winner, although her second foal, the Midnight Lute colt Ark in the Dark, has current earnings of $193,023.

The mare has an unraced 3-year-old colt by Pioneerof the Nile named Dr Jack. He sold for $250,000 at the 2018 Keeneland November sale as a weanling, then resold as a 2-year-old in training at the OBS spring sale last year (April sale in June) for $170,000.

Marion Ravenwood herself sold for $400,000 at the 2017 Keeneland November auction when Idol was a weanling. The mare was in foal to Pioneerof the Nile with Dr Jack at the time. In addition to the colt above, the mare's 2019 filly was a full sister to Idol who sold for $350,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September sale.

Last year, Marion Ravenwood produced a colt by Violence and she was bred to City of Light for 2021.

Although Idol missed out on the classics, he comes from a family with a grand classic tradition. The colt traces in the female line to Boudoir, a daughter of English Derby winner Mahmoud. Her most important foals were Your Host (Alibhai, by English Derby winner Hyperion, by wartime English Triple Crown winner Gainsborough). Your Host became the sire of five-time Horse of the Year Kelso, and Your Host's full sister Your Hostess was stakes-placed and became a famous broodmare.

Your Hostess produced four stakes winners, including T.V. Commercial (T.V. Lark), who won 15 of 55 races, including the Arlington-Washington Futurity and the Breeders' Futurity; Gallatia (Gallant Man), who won the Schuylerville Stakes at Saratoga; and Corragioso (Gallant Man), who won the Alcibiades and five other stakes.

More importantly for our story was the fourth foal of Your Hostess: Gay Hostess (Royal Charger). This striking mare produced Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Majestic Prince (Raise a Native), as well as the English highweight juvenile colt Crowned Prince, also by Raise a Native. Their full sister Meadow Blue was the last foal out of Your Hostess and was not raced.

At stud, Meadow Blue produced a stakes winner and a pair of stakes-placed racers. All five of her daughters produced stakes winners. The most immediately important was the Believe It mare Really Blue, who became the dam of champion Real Quiet (Quiet American), winner of the 1998 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, 1997 Hollywood Futurity, and the 1999 Pimlico Special and Hollywood Gold Cup.

Meadow Blue's stakes-winning daughter Nureyev's Best (Nureyev) is the third dam of Idol. Her best foal was the G2 stakes winner Andujar (Quiet American), who won the Milady, was third in the G1 Vanity at Hollywood Park and in the G1 Go for Wand at Saratoga. Andujar is the second dam of Idol, and her two stakes winners are Marion Ravenwood (A.P. Indy), dam of the Idol, and Abstraction, by A.P. Indy's high-class son Pulpit and a winner of the Federico Tesio Stakes.

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