Tag: Bloodlines

Racers from the four most recent crops of racing age by the legendary sire Tapit (by Pulpit) lit up the winner's circles across North America over the weekend.

In Kentucky, the 5-year-old Pauline's Pearl won the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis Stakes at Ellis Park, racing the nine furlongs in 1:49.59 and bringing her earnings to $2.1 million. In Canada, the 4-year-old Tyson won the G3 Dominion Day Stakes at Woodbine, running the nine furlongs in 1:48.32 and bringing his earnings to US$145,972. In New York, the 3-year-old Fort Bragg won the G3 Dwyer Stakes at Belmont, running the mile in 1:35.37 and bringing his earnings to $321,300.

The Dwyer was the first stakes victory for Fort Bragg, who cost $700,000 at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearling Sale and who finished second in the G2 Pat Day Stakes in his last previous start and had placed third in the G2 Los Alamitos Futurity last season.

The Dominion Day was the first stakes victory for Tyson, who races for the breeders – Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings and Stretch Run Ventures – and who has won three of his four starts. His only loss to date was a third in the G2 Eclipse Stakes a month ago.

In contrast to the more lightly raced Fort Bragg and Tyson, Pauline's Pearl is a long-time stakes performer for owner-breeder Stonestreet. The gray mare has been a graded stakes winner at 3, 4, and 5, including the G1 La Troienne Stakes last year. She has won four G3 stakes, in addition to her G2 success this weekend.

Back in Kentucky, the 2-year-old Edified represented his crop by Tapit with distinction and won his debut at Ellis Park with authority, paying $21.70. A $650,0o0 yearling last year at Keeneland September, Edified is a half-brother to G1 winner Constellation (Bellamy Road), stakes winner Truth Seeker (Into Mischief) and to a trio of stakes-placed runners (Upper Room, Queen Mum, and Back Flip).

All of these are out of the stakes winner For Royalty (Not for Love). The producer herself is out of stakes winner Taft Little Queen (Irish Open), who is a full sister to stakes winner Irish Cherry, the dam of G1 winners Spun Sugar and Daaher, both by Awesome Again. Although she didn't produce a G1 winner, Taft Little Queen is the dam of four stakes winners, including G2 winner Kiss to Remember (Big Brown) and the listed winners For Royalty, Pete's Play Call (Munnings), and El Viento (El Corredor).

So far, Edified has only won his debut in good company, but it would be no surprise if he progressed into a black-type performer. This family gets stakes horses, and Tapit is no stranger to quality juveniles.

Considered in the light of his well-established reputation for siring classic performers, Tapit first made his mark of high distinction with a champion 2-year-old. A filly from the now 21-year-old gray's first crop put her sire on the map as a stallion to reckon with, and that race filly was Stardom Bound.

Bred in Kentucky by Fletcher Gray, Carolyn Gray, and John Youngblood, Stardom Bound was out of the stakes winner My White Corvette, a robust daughter of Tarr Road (Grey Dawn). My White Corvette won a stakes in her second start and subsequently placed third in the G2 Golden Rod at 2, as well as the G3 Honeybee the following season.
Stardom Bound was the fourth foal of her dam and was notably the best. A $50,000 Keeneland September yearling, Stardom Bound returned to the sales at 2 and made $375,000, selling to Christopher Paasch at the OBS March auction of juveniles in training.
At 2, Stardom Bound began her career with seconds in a maiden in July and in the G3 Sorrento Stakes in August at Del Mar. A staying 2-year-old, Stardom Bound hit her proper form with successive Grade 1 victories in the Del Mar Debutante, Oak Leaf Stakes, and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Shortly after the Breeders' Cup, Stardom Bound went through the ring at the Fasig-Tipton November sale and sold for $5.7 million to IEAH Stables.

Named champion of her division after those performances, Stardom Bound ran her streak of G1 successes to five with her first two starts at 3: the Las Virgenes and Santa Anita Oaks. She finished third in her next start, the G1 Ashland, and was then off for seven months. She never regained her best form, did not win from a campaign of three starts at 4, and was sold privately to Shadai Farm in 2010, in foal to Big Brown.

As a result, all of Stardom Bound's foals have been bred in Japan and are relatively unknown here in the States. Bred to some of the best stallions in Japan, Stardom Bound has five foals of racing age, with four winners. Her second foal, Lord Kanunu (King Kamehameha) and third foal, April Mist (Deep Impact), were both stakes-placed during their careers on the turf.

Perhaps the most striking thing about the produce record of Stardom Bound is that she has been very unlucky. She was twice barren to super sire Deep Impact, and for five of the last six years, the mare has not produced a live foal. The 17-year-old does have a yearling filly by Orfevre, and Stardom Bound's two older daughters are both producers, with both of their first foals being 2-year-olds of 2023; so there remains a ray of hope that Stardom Bound, or one of her daughters, may yet produce a racer of quality similar to the champion herself.

The post Bloodlines: Red-Hot Tapit Was ‘Stardom Bound’ From The Start appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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After a brave and exciting effort to finish second in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby, Two Phil's (by Hard Spun) made his first appearance since the classic in the G3 Ohio Derby on June 24. After the strong chestnut colt won the race by 5 3/4 lengths in 1:49.60 for the nine furlongs, great things were predicted for the rest of his season.

Unfortunately, the colt came out of the race with an ankle problem, and his season appears to be over, perhaps his racing career. With the prospect of retirement to stud, here's a peek under the hood at the colt's pedigree.

Bred in Kentucky by Phillip Sagan, Two Phil's is by the classic-placed Hard Spun, one of the best stallion sons of the great sire Danzig. Second in the 2007 Kentucky Derby to Street Sense, Hard Spun later won the G1 King's Bishop Stakes at Saratoga and then finished second to Horse of the Year Curlin in the G1 Breeders' Cup Classic.

Retired to stud at Darley's Jonabell Farm outside Lexington, Hard Spun has been a sire success from the start, and he has sired 77 Northern Hemisphere stakes winners from 13 NH crops of racing age (including 2-year-olds of 2023). The big bay has 15 G1 winners around the world; his best in America include champion Questing (Coaching Club American Oaks and Alabama), Silver State (Metropolitan Handicap), Spun to Run (Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile), Wicked Strong (Wood Memorial), and Aloha West (Breeders' Cup Sprint). The latter four all were sent to stud in Kentucky at leading farms.

The first foals by Spun to Run (standing at Gainesway) are yearlings; the first crop by Silver State (Claiborne Farm) are foals of 2023; and Aloha West (Mill Ridge Farm) covered his first book this year.

Two Phil's is out of the multiple stakes winner Mia Torri, a daughter of the Sky Mesa stallion General Quarters. Mia Torri was in the money for nine of her 10 starts, winning the Sunshine Millions Distaff and Sugar Maple Stakes, as well as finishing second in the G3 Bed o' Roses and Charles Town Oaks.

The first foal of his dam, Two Phil's is a three-time winner at the G3 level and placed in G1, G2, and G3 stakes. This makes him the peak of racing quality in the immediate generations of this family, but that's not the whole story.

This is a family that has reached uncommon peaks of excellence in the past, and it is an interesting example of the “wave pattern” of breeding that Abram S. Hewitt wrote about in his columns and then in his book on the great breeders of the late 19th century and mid-20th century.

The great English brewer and breeder Hall Walker and the famed Italian horseman Federico Tesio both “believed in a wave theory of breeding,” Hewitt wrote, that showed both upward and downward momentum. Their policy was to find and breed to families “during the upward momentum phase.”

Both Two Phil's and Mia Torri are part of the upward momentum in this family, which includes the fact that the Ohio Derby winner's third dam is a restricted stakes winner. Earlier in the 20th century, this family had soared in prominence before sinking to disregard.

At the 1925 Saratoga select yearling sale, owner-breeder-trainer-adviser Howard Oots bought a Man o' War filly for James Cox Brady Sr. for $50,500, a record price for a yearling in America at the time. Tracing in the female line to Ornament, a full sister to the unbeaten English Triple Crown winner Ormonde, the daughter of Man o' War came to the sale when the superb racehorse was being recognized as a sire sensation. His first crop, 3-year-olds of 1925, included Belmont Stakes winner American Flag and others. Named War Feathers, the beautiful chestnut filly proved talented in her morning work but nearly useless in the afternoon.

Seemingly overwhelmed by the noise and crowds of the afternoon, the filly had not managed to win a race at 2 or 3 in 1927, when the elder Brady died of pneumonia and his stock was dispersed. Oots bought War Feathers for $20,000 and raced her at four, winning a minor race at Latonia.

Oots retired the lovely young mare and bred a pair of winners from her, then a trio of stakes winners. Man o' War mares were just about the best producers of the era, and War Feathers was one of the very best among them. Her fifth foal was a handsome brown daughter of Man o' War's contemporary On Watch (Colin), and Oots sold her privately to James Cox Brady the younger. He named his filly War Plumage.

At two, War Plumage imitated her dam by failing to win, but she didn't lack ability. She was second and third in stakes from four starts. The striking dark filly with three white socks debuted at three in the Coaching Club American Oaks. She was the fifth choice in a field of nine and won by a length against a strong field. War Plumage then was second in the Delaware Oaks and bounced back to win the Alabama Stakes at Saratoga. With successes in the two best staying events for fillies, War Plumage was named the co-champion 3-year-old filly of 1939 with Unerring.

The following season, War Plumage won only once, defeating colts in the Washington Park Handicap. This was also one of the richer and most competitive events of the season with a purse of $25,000, and she was named champion of her division again.

This family had peaked in late 19th century and early 20th with Ormonde and with his sister Ornament's best racer, multiple classic winner Sceptre, peaked again with War Feathers and her immediate descendants, and has another classic performer of 2023 with Two Phil's.

The post Bloodlines: Wave Theory And The Story Of Two Phil’s appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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After a shock defeat in the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff on May 6, last year's champion sprint filly Goodnight Olive (by Ghostzapper) won her eighth race from 10 starts in the G2 Bed o' Roses Stakes at Belmont Park on June 17.

The odds-on favorite at 1-to-4, Goodnight Olive followed her usual pattern of lagging a bit, then powering to victory in the stretch, and ran down Wicked Halo (Gun Runner) to win by a neck.

Bred in Kentucky by Stonestreet Farm, Goodnight Olive was sold by the breeder as a yearling and has proven the kind of an advertisement for their program that money cannot buy. She's a champion.

Consigned to the Fasig-Tipton October sale in 2019, Goodnight Olive brought “only” $170,000 on a bid from Liz Crow on behalf of the owners. The champion races for First Row Partners and Team Hanley. Steve Laymon, the founding member of the First Row Partners, said, “that's how our process works at the yearling sales. Liz and her team work the sale very hard, and then she calls me with a list of horses that should suit our program.”

And First Row does have a distinctive approach to buying, managing, and racing horses.

“First off,” Laymon said, “we buy fillies that get a thumbs up from Liz's team, then send them to some of the best horsemen in the country to bring them along each step. When the partners and I were at Saratoga a few years ago, we saw Jack Christopher win his maiden (by 8 3/4 lengths for another partnership), and I told the partners 'That's why Liz Crow picks out our horses, Paul Sharp breaks them, and Chad Brown trains them.'”

From their first five years of operation to date, First Row Partners “have bought 19 horses, a mix of yearlings and 2-year-olds, with 13 going to Chad,” Laymon said. “All fillies, and he's had four graded winners,” including Royal Charlotte (Cairo Prince), winner of the G2 Prioress Stakes; Nay Lady Nay (No Nay Never), winner of the G2 Mrs. Revere Stakes; Prerequisite (Upstart), winner of the G2 Wonder Again Stakes; and Goodnight Olive, champion and multiple G1 winner.

The latter pair are still racing and improving their earnings and subsequent resale value. The latter consideration is a practical component of the First Row Partners' approach to the sport. It's also a business. The first two graded winners were sold at the end of their racing careers. Royal Charlotte sold to WinStar at the 2021 Keeneland January sale for $400,000 as a broodmare prospect. Ten months later, Nay Lady Nay sold at the Fasig-Tipton November auction for $1.7 million to Juddmonte, also as a broodmare prospect.

The First Row Partners have fun at the races, but they didn't check their financial sense at the door.

Based on the reports Laymon had been receiving from Brown about Goodnight Olive, the co-owner was very hopeful of a good result. Before the filly had won a stakes, Laymon was leafing through a sales catalog for the Keeneland November auction and found a half-sister to Goodnight Olive.

“In foal to Tiz the Law,” Laymon said, “I bought Katie's Keepsake for $65,000. I bought her, then thought I should offer her to the partners, and they all wanted in. From what we were hearing from Chad about Goodnight Olive, we thought that Katie's Keepsake was a good play.

“She wasn't the most correct mare, but she was a Medaglia [d'Oro], and we really believed in Goodnight Olive.” Laymon continued, “We got a nice Tiz the Law colt out of her and bred her back to Ghostzapper.”

In the meantime, Goodnight Olive had developed first into a graded stakes winner and then a champion with victories a pair of G1s, including the 2022 Breeders' Cup Filly Sprint.

Presented at the 2023 Keeneland January sale in foal to Ghostzapper, Katie's Keepsake was thus a half-sister to a champion and in foal to that champ's sire. She brought $250,000 from Dash Goff.

And with characteristic understatement, Laymon said, “I'd rank Goodnight Olive right there with Dayatthespa” (City Zip), whom Laymon had a piece of when that filly won the Breeders' Cup Filly Turf, was named champion turf filly, and sold at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton November for $2.1 million.

“Based on pedigree, though, when we go to sell her, Goodnight Olive is going to be more valuable.”

Yep.

Not only is Goodnight Olive a top race filly. She is out of a two-time G3 winner, the Smart Strike mare Salty Strike, whom Stonestreet bought for $800,000 as a broodmare prospect at the end of her racing career. Salty Strike died in 2019 as an 11-year-old, and Goodnight Olive is her best offspring at the track.

But in addition to the graded stakes-winning dam and her daughter, this family has great depth. Salty Strike's dam produced two stakes winners and three stakes-placed horses and traces to the legendary Cosmah (Cosmic Bomb) and her dam Almahmoud (Mahmoud).

Cosmah's gifts to the breed include leading sire Halo (Hail to Reason), the sire of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Sunday Silence (the greatest sire in the history of breeding and racing in Japan) and of champion racer Tosmah (Tim Tam). Dozens of major stakes winners trace to Cosmah.

And you could make an argument that Cosmah wasn't quite the most influential daughter of Almahmoud. The chestnut daughter of English Derby winner Mahmoud also produced a small bay filly by Native Dancer named Natalma. She became the dam of champion Northern Dancer (one of the greatest sires in the history of the breed), the second dam of champion La Prevoyante (Buckpasser), and the third dam of highweighted sprinter Danehill (Danzig), who became a figure of legend in Australia, as well as a leading sire in Europe, where he sired classic winners, as well as high-class performers across all distances and conditions.

Nice little family, you might say.

The post Bloodlines: The Various Dividends Of Champion Goodnight Olive appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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From his first two crops, and only two full crops of foals, champion Arrogate (by Unbridled's Song) has sired a winner of the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks in Secret Oath and now a winner of the G1 Belmont Stakes in Arcangelo.

These and other good racers are some compensation for the fact that, sadly, Arrogate died part-way through his third season at stud, the victim of a spinal-cord torsion. The galloping gray was always a feel-good horse, both in training and on the farm, and his exuberance apparently caused a kink in the spinal cord.

In addition to his memorable victories in the 2017 Travers and Breeders' Cup Classic and then a dramatic pair of successes in the following year's Pegasus Invitational and Dubai World Cup, Arrogate has left us a legacy of athleticism and talent with the best of his relatively few offspring.

Now a winner in three of his five starts, Arcangelo was bred in Kentucky by Don Alberto Corporation and sold at the 2021 Keeneland September yearling sale for $35,000 to Jon Ebbert, who races under the name of Blue Rose Farm.

The Belmont winner is the fifth foal of the Tapit mare Modeling, whom Don Alberto purchased at the 2014 Keeneland November sale for $2.85 million. At that time, Modeling was in foal to Distorted Humor (Forty Niner), and her foal from that mating is the maiden special winner Montmartre.

Although Modeling has not had a foal since Arcangelo, the mare has been bred to leading sire Munnings (Speightstown) but has not yet been confirmed in foal.

In addition to our newest winner of the Belmont, there are numerous ties to other Belmont winners close up in this family. Modeling is a daughter of Tapit, the sire of four winners of the race, as well as this year's third, Tapit Trice, and is out of Teeming (Storm Cat), a half-sister to a pair of Belmont Stakes winners: Jazil (Seeking the Gold), winner of the classic in 2006, and Rags to Riches (A.P. Indy), the Belmont winner in 2007 over subsequent Horse of the Year Curlin.

On the same day as the Belmont Stakes, multiple leading sire Tapit was represented as the broodmare sire of three Grade 1 winners: Arcangelo, Cody's Wish (Metropolitan Handicap), and Pretty Mischievous (Acorn Stakes). The gray son of Pulpit stands at Gainesway Farm and is the leading broodmare sire in the country. He is the damsire of 80 stakes winners lifetime, 15 this year.

And finally, the second dams of each of Arcangelo's parents, both sire Arrogate and dam Modeling, were bred by the same entity, Foxfield, and are by the same stallion, Deputy Minister (Vice Regent). The operation's director of operations, Rob Whiteley, said that, “With both mares, I thought that Deputy Minister could add a little size and contribute outstanding balance to the foals. I was more than satisfied with the results; Better Than Honour might have been the best-looking yearling filly I ever produced.”

With regard to Modeling, Foxfield acquired the classic producer's third dam, Kentucky Oaks winner Blush With Pride (Blushing Groom), for $200,000 at the 1992 Keeneland November sale. Aged 13 when brought to auction, Blush With Pride was judged a disappointing broodmare by the commercial market.

The mare was in foal to 2,000 Guineas winner Lomond (Northern Dancer) at the time of sale, and her first foal for Foxfield was the chestnut Blushing Boy, who placed second once in five starts. The mare's last foal for prior owner Morven Stud, however, was a Danzig filly named Smolensk. She won on debut, then subsequently won the G2 Prix d'Astarte at Deauville and G3 Prix de Sandringham at Chantilly, as well as finishing second in the G1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot.

That moved up Blush With Pride in the esteem of the commercial market, and Foxfield bred the mare to Deputy Minister, a juvenile champion in whom the operation owned a significant stake. Blush With Pride produced the stakes winner Better Than Honour (G2 Demoiselle; second, G1 Acorn); then, Whitley dispersed the 18-year-old broodmare for owner Carl Icahn, selling in foal to Deputy Minister for $635,000 to BBA Ireland for the account of John Magnier.

The resulting foal was G3 winner Turnberry Isle, bred by Orpendale, and then the mare produced several foals by Coolmore's great sire Sadler's Wells, including G1-placed Maryinsky, the dam of four-time G1 winner Peeping Fawn (Danehill) and G1-winning 2-year-old Thewayyouare (Kingmambo).

As with Blush With Pride, the third dam of Arrogate, Foxfield's champion Meadow Star (Meadowlake), was bred to Deputy Minister; in this case, the result was Grechelle, a winner of two races from seven starts and third in the G3 Golden Rod Stakes.

Whiteley said, “Meadow Star was not a big mare but was beautifully balanced, and I wanted a little more size without compromising the balance. Deputy Minister was a wonderful match physically, and with regard to pedigree.

“When working with Foxfield or breeding my own classic prospects, my breeding approach has always been to assess the physical conformation of the mare and stallion and then try to merge the two for a balanced result. In both these cases, it worked out in fabulous fashion.”

In addition to both fillies showing graded stakes form on the racetrack, both are responsible for first-class racers in subsequent generations.

Better Than Honour remains the most expensive broodmare sold at auction when she was consigned to the 2008 Fasig-Tipton November sale, and the 12-year-old mare, already the dam of Belmont Stakes winners Rags to Riches and Jazil, sold for $14 million to Southern Equine.

Not in foal.

Now once again, this family stands in the circle of glory reserved for classic winners.

Whiteley summarized: “The female family is more important than the sire. Never underestimate the power of quality pedigree. Like truth, it will out.”

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