Tag: Bloodlines

The victory of Mage (by Good Magic) in the 149th Kentucky Derby was the culmination of visions and hopes, of plans and dreams. And as befits the success of a colt going off at 15-1, the triumph had something unexpected, almost magical, to it.

Bred in Kentucky by Robert Clay and partners' Grandview Equine, Mage settled some issues (and raised others) when he crossed the wire as the winner of the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby. In winning his first stakes, Mage put his sire Good Magic into a $1.6-million lead as the top second-crop sire.

Through last year and this, Hill 'n' Dale Farm's Good Magic (Curlin) and Spendthrift's Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro) have been tussling head and head for sire leadership of this cadre of young stallions, and at present, they stand well separated from the rest of the field, with the Spendthrift Farm stallion approximately $700,000 ahead of Army Mule (Friesan Fire), also standing at Hill 'n' Dale and in third by a little more than $130,000. Ashford Stud's two sons of Scat Daddy, Justify and Mendelssohn, stand fourth and fifth, separated by $50-odd thousand.

A second point of significance in a windfall weekend for Hill 'n' Dale is that Curlin (Smart Strike) had a second consecutive Kentucky Derby victor by one of his sons. Last year's winner, Rich Strike, is a son of Travers winner Keen Ice, who stands at Calumet Farm; Good Magic was not only the champion juvenile colt of 2017, when he won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, but also finished second in the 2018 Kentucky Derby behind Justify.

Winner of the Preakness and second in the Belmont, third in the Kentucky Derby, Curlin has become an eminent classic influence, siring Preakness winner Exaggerator and Belmont winner Palace Malice. Good Magic's second in the Kentucky Derby is the closest that Curlin has come to that victory but is not the only classic performance close up in Mage's pedigree.

The winner's dam is by Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown (Boundary). The champion 3-year-old colt of 2008, Big Brown entered stud in 2009 at Three Chimneys Farm, and both he and Curlin had first foals of 2010. Bred in Kentucky by Jerry Crawford and Paul Pompa, Puca was from the third crop by Big Brown, who now stands in New York at Irish Hill & Dutchess Views Stallions LLC.

Sent to the 2013 Keeneland September yearling sale, Puca sold for $90,000 to Crawford's Donegal Racing, which also acquired the Curlin colt later named Keen Ice at the same sale. Puca proved a 16-length winner in maiden special company at Belmont Park in October of her juvenile year and then finished in mid-pack (sixth of 12) of the G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies after an eventful trip.

Puca came back in 2014 to finish fourth in the G2 Davona Dale and second in the G2 Gazelle before a disappointing 12th in the G1 Kentucky Oaks, as she was “hung wide throughout,” according to the chart, from her start in post 14.

Later in her racing career, as a 5-year-old, Puca won a minor stakes to polish her graded placing, and Donegal sold her as a broodmare prospect. Ray Smith, a longtime Donegal shareholder and partner in the group that included Puca, noted that “the rationale was to close the partnership. She had some value as a broodmare, and making a decision like that's the hardest part of Jerry's business, especially on behalf of first-time owners. But he takes his fiduciary responsibility very seriously, and we made quite a bit of money with her” as a broodmare prospect, selling for $275,000 at the 2017 Keeneland November sale.

As part of its investment strategy of breeding nice young mares to top young sires, Grandview Equine had acquired the Kentucky Derby winner's dam, Puca, for $475,000 in foal to Horse of the Year Gun Runner (Candy Ride) at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton November sale. Retaining that Gun Runner filly, named Gunning and now stakes-placed, Clay and partners next sent their mare to champion Good Magic, and Mage is the second foal from Puca.

Puca has now produced a Grade 1 winner, and her dam, the stakes-placed Silver Ghost mare Boat's Ghost, did likewise. Puca is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Finnegan's Wake (Powerscourt). Racing for a Donegal partnership, Finnegan's Wake won the 2015 Turf Classic at Churchill on the same day that American Pharoah won the Derby in his march to the Triple Crown.

Jerry Crawford not only co-bred Puca but also was the sole breeder for Finnegan's Wake. In fact, Crawford either owned or bred the first four dams of the Kentucky Derby winner. He bred second dam Boat's Ghost and co-bred with Fred Kammeier the third dam, Rock the Boat (Summer Squall), who produced a stakes winner and a pair of stakes-placed runners.

Crawford and Kammeier owned and raced the fourth dam, the Native Royalty mare Native Boat. A stakes winner and multiple stakes-placed runner, Native Boat started this progression, at least for Crawford and partners.

Racing the filly against modest company, she performed well enough to try a claiming race at Churchill Downs, and Crawford drove down from Iowa to see it with a couple of friends, including Smith. The latter recounted the scene: “On a hot June day in the early 1990s, Native Boat was running in a mid-week $10,000 claimer, and yet when Native Boat came rolling down the stretch, you'd have thought we were the winners of the Derby.

“When the race was over, Jerry turned around and said, 'Can you imagine being here on Derby Day with your own horse?' That was the inspiration for Donegal Racing, the partnership he would put together a decade or so later.”

Native Boat continued to improve, taking her owners to the winner's circle after an allowance victory at three, then more allowances and a pair of stakes victories at four. She set the hook in Crawford and others for what would become a succession of racing partnerships. Then, retired to become a broodmare, Native Boat started the progression of quality that led to the winner's circle at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.

Racing and breeding can be that way: It's a kind of good magic.

The post Bloodlines Presented By No-No Cribbing Collar: Kentucky Derby Winner Mage’s Pedigree Traces To Roots Of Donegal Racing appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Among the 20 colts entered for the 2023 Kentucky Derby on May 6, there is one who is unique among his peers for a tie to a Kentucky Derby winner of decades past. Hit Show has this special heritage and was bred in Kentucky by Gary and Mary West Stables Inc. and races for the Wests, like many other of their homebreds.

Hit Show's dam, also bred by the Wests, is the Tapit mare Actress, who won her maiden in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico in 2017. And the dam of Actress is Canadian champion Milwaukee Appeal (Milwaukee Brew), winner of the Woodbine Oaks and second in both the G1 Alabama and Spinster during her championship season.

After these two high-class racers, the family thins out for a couple of generations until we come to Hit Show's fifth dam, the stakes winner Here's Inez (Venetian Court). She is the connection to one of the least-known Kentucky Derby winners, at least in pedigrees.

That horse is the 1960 Derby winner Venetian Way.

Bred in Kentucky by John W. Greathouse, whose family still owns and operates Glencrest Farm near Midway, Ky., Venetian Way came from the first crop of the Eight Thirty stallion Royal Coinage, who won the 1954 Saratoga Special and Sapling and finished third behind divisional champion Nashua (Nasrullah) in the Futurity Stakes.

Injured in the Futurity and subsequently sent to stud at the Stallion Station outside Lexington, Royal Coinage sired some good-looking foals, but Venetian Way was a star among them from the first. Brought to the 1958 Keeneland summer yearling sale by his breeder, the striking chestnut colt with a blaze down his face sold for $10,500 to Isaac Blumberg's Sunny Blue Farm.

The following year, Venetian Way proved both precocious and talented. Among other races, he won the Washington Park Futurity, one of the richest events for juveniles at the time, and continued to progress into his second season of racing.

However, while unquestionably talented and ranked second behind only divisional champion Warfare (Determine) on the Experimental Free Handicap ratings of juveniles for their 3-year-old season, Venetian Way had more than his share of challenges. He was reported to have bucked shins multiple times, to have sore stifles, and eventually was found to have a splint which made him unwilling even to leave his stall.

These nagging physical woes kept Venetian Way from prospering in accord to his natural ability. He would race well, then poorly. Owner Blumberg and trainer Vic Sovinski persevered, however, and in the spring of 1960, Venetian Way ran a superb race to finish a nose second to Bally Ache (Ballydam) in the Florida Derby. That effort mattered enough that, although Venetian Way did not win a Derby prep, he still started a well-regarded third choice among 13 runners at Churchill Downs.

In the 1960 Kentucky Derby itself, the race second-choice Bally Ache led the way until Venetian Way rallied past him in the stretch to win by 3 ½ lengths. E.P. Taylor's Victoria Park (Chop Chop) was 7 ½ lengths farther back in third, and favorite Tompion (Tom Fool) was fourth.

Venetian Way was then unplaced behind front-running Bally Ache in the Preakness before returning to finish second in the Belmont Stakes behind Celtic Ash (Sicambre). The flashy chestnut Venetian Way did not win another top race, subsequently was injured in the Arlington Classic when third, and was retired to stud.

As a sire, however, Venetian Way was woefully infertile and sired only 31 foals, then fractured a hind leg and was euthanized in 1964 at age seven. None of the stallion's foals won a stakes, but one of them, a colt by the name of Venetian Court, is the hero of his sire's star-crossed stallion career.

Racing from age two through seven, Venetian Court won only two of 17 starts, earning $5,283. That doesn't seem like a racing record to build a story on, nor a record likely to earn the horse a spot at stud. Somehow, it did.

Sent to stud in Ohio, Venetian Court sired only about half as many foals as Venetian Way, but one of those was a stakes winner. That was Here's Inez, and she is the fifth dam of Hit Show.

From the data I can summon, the family of Here's Inez is the only connection between contemporary graded stakes winners and the 1960 Kentucky Derby winner Venetian Way, a handsome colt of great talent and a powerful mix of good and ill fortune.

The romance of finding a nearly forgotten former hero of the Kentucky classic among the ancestors of a current classic entrant is an entertaining story, but the keys to the talent and potential of Hit Show lie in Candy Ride, his outstanding sire, and Actress, his graded stakes-winning dam, and her sire, Tapit, a source of classic ability without question in contemporary racing.

The post Bloodlines Presented By No-No Cribbing Collar: Hit Show’s Little-Known Kentucky Derby Connection appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Fifty years ago, the hottest topic in racing, as well as the subject of numerous comments and rumors from Las Vegas odds-maker Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder, was Secretariat, the son of 1957 Horse of the Year Bold Ruler who had been named the 1972 Horse of the Year following his sterling juvenile campaign.

Coming into his 3-year-old season, Secretariat had been syndicated by Seth Hancock to stand at Claiborne Farm for a record sum of $6.08 million. The syndication was for breeding purposes only, and the reason for the timing in between seasons was to help satisfy the massive inheritance taxes that had become due after the death of Meadow Stud founder Christopher Chenery.

The chestnut champion opened his 3-year-old season with a smooth success in the Bay Shore Stakes, then followed with a track-record victory in the Gotham Stakes. In the latter, Secretariat had shown a different dimension, taking command of the race much earlier than in the past and cruising to a powerful win.

Then, Secretariat ran a stinker in the Wood Memorial, finishing third behind his stablemate Angle Light (Quadrangle) and archrival Sham (Pretense). It was the first time that Secretariat had finished behind an opponent since his debut, and it was the first time the champion had raced nine furlongs.

All the cliches about “Bold Rulers can't go that far” came into heavy use as soon as Secretariat passed the finish, and with three weeks to ponder the situation before the Derby, Secretariat's doubters came out in full force. In fairness, only eight years prior, another champion chestnut by Bold Ruler, the American-bred Bold Lad, had finished third in the Wood before going to Churchill Downs and winning the Derby Trial at a mile. Then he finished unplaced in the main event.

The gut-churning possibilities for those most closely connected to Secretariat were obvious, but those handling the colt, rider Ron Turcotte and trainer Lucien Laurin, remained stoic against the winds of rumor. The colt trained beautifully, even exceptionally, at the Downs in preparation for the Kentucky classic.

On the day, the sun shone brightly on the Kentucky Derby, and Secretariat shone even brighter. The doubts and skepticism were thrown aside and reams of praise were spun on the colt's behalf. The result seemed even more impressive as the newly minted “superhorse” came from off the pace to win in stakes and track record time over Sham and Our Native, with future multiple Horse of the Year Forego in fourth place.

As we approach the 50th anniversary of that record performance, it is worth noting that two sires born in 1970 feature in the pedigrees of every American-bred Kentucky Derby contender. Mr. Prospector (Raise a Native) will not be a surprise, but Secretariat is the other.

Despite the rumor that Secretariat was not a successful sire, his presence is essential in modern pedigrees, and typically, the 1973 Triple Crown winner is found not once in pedigrees but twice or three times, just like his exact contemporary. They are the two youngest sires found in all these pedigrees, although a younger pair (Deputy Minister 1979 and Unbridled 1987) are bidding to join them.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Secretariat's Triple Crown, there is a new book available that focuses solely on the champion and his offspring, and particularly on their continuing contribution to the breed. Patricia McQueen (SECRETARIAT'S LEGACY BOOK | Patricia McQueen) has produced a gorgeously photographed volume of coffee-table dimensions that documents the sons and daughters of Secretariat and their descendants.

A journalist whose work in prose and pictures has been widely featured around the world, McQueen has traveled across the country and around the globe to report on and photograph the sons and daughters of Secretariat, in particular. Her book records not only the champions and memorable stakes winners by Secretariat but also the stallion's most noteworthy producers. Will statistics and lists of stakes winners and producers, this volume adds a significant chapter to the library of serious literature about racing and Secretariat, in particular.

McQueen's commentary takes us from Secretariat's first Group 1 winner in England, Dactylographer, through Horse of the Year Lady's Secret and on to classic winner Risen Star. There are lovely color photo reproductions of these and other noteworthy racers, as well as horses who did not find themselves in the headlines.

Secretariat, in particular, remains vibrant in pedigrees through the excellence of his producing daughters Terlingua (Storm Cat), Secrettame (Gone West), and Weekend Surprise (A.P. Indy and Summer Squall), but there are a surprising number of other branches of transmission for Secretariat's athleticism and beauty.

As we enter the intense excitement of the Triple Crown, it is a pleasure to look back on these great memories and the horses who carry on a genetic legacy through the deeds of our current classic performers.

The post Bloodlines Presented By No-No Cribbing Collar: Fifty Years Later, Secretariat Looms Large In Kentucky Derby Pedigrees appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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If there were an award for “inbred of the week,” it should go to Clairiere, who carries a plethora of inbreeding. In particular, she is inbred to a couple of sires that some commentators have declared as negative influences for inbreeding. The closest of these is Mr. Prospector (by Raise a Native), who's in the pedigree of the Grade 1 Apple Blossom winner 3x6x4, in descending order from her male line.

Mr. Prospector comes through a trio of sons: Smart Strike, Fappiano, and Carson City. All three are significant contributors of speed and toughness. Despite the popular opinion that Mr. Prospector was brittle or fragile because his own career was interrupted by physical issues, the stallion is, in practice, an unequivocal source of athletic ability and quality performance.

A higher proportion of the offspring of Mr. Prospector got to the races than the norms of the breed. Likewise, more of them won, and they won more often, and they won at a higher level than their contemporaries or the breed averages. As a result, Mr. Prospector was a leading stallion around the world.

In short, Mr. Prospector sired racing stock that was sounder than himself, and these were not occasional departures from the norm among his sons and daughters. They were consistently sturdier and yet retaining much of the freakish speed that Mr. Prospector possessed.

A handsome, not over-large or over-heavy son of the very substantial Raise a Native, Mr. Prospector had brought the top price of $220,000 at the 1971 Keeneland July select yearling sale, and trainer Jimmy Croll had purchased the colt for owner A.I. “Butch” Savin. Unraced as a 2-year-old, the colt developed into the winter racetrack sensation of later 1972 and 1973. Mr. Prospector's local fame came as a result of the colt's impressive works.

The dark bay son of Raise a Native and the Nashua mare Gold Digger flamed through his works in south Florida during the winter of 1973. Trained by Croll, Mr. Prospector did not see the point in conserving his speed, and in the cooler months before Secretariat came out of his winter hibernation, the talking horse in Florida was the “freak” in Croll's barn.

Most horsemen wished he had been in theirs.

As a result, Mr. Prospector's workouts became as well-attended by the insiders and knowledgeable horsemen as major racing events. Just to see that horse perform.

In addition to blazing fast workouts, Mr. Prospector translated his morning talent into afternoon performances that made him unbeaten in his first three starts, including a track-record performance at six furlongs in 1:07 4/5 at Gulfstream Park. He appeared to race with such ease and elan that, naturally, clamor arose to send Mr. Prospector against the leading racer of his crop: Secretariat.

To attempt that, Mr. Prospector was entered for his first stakes race in the 1973 Derby Trial at Churchill Downs. It was his prep for destiny and a shot at Secretariat, but Mr. Prospector finished second. His first defeat and his first serious injury, as he was found to have chipped an ankle.

Mr. Prospector returned from his enforced layoff and won a pair of stakes the following year at four, as well as finishing second to 1974 Horse of the Year Forego in the Carter Handicap.

In all, Mr. Prospector won seven of 14 starts, with six more in the money. The payoff was going to stud, which Mr. P did in Florida at Aisco Stud, where he sired first-crop champion It's in the Air (1978 juvenile filly) and Belmont Stakes winner Conquistador Cielo (1982 Horse of the Year).

Both of those champions were bred on crosses with Nearco lines, especially to Nasrullah, and Clairiere herself carries multiple repetitions of Nearco, notably through Nasrullah, Royal Charger, and Nearctic, with multiple repetitions of the latter's son Northern Dancer.

The essence of Clairiere's pedigree, however, is greater than the particular mingling of these iconic names. She is one of the best examples of deep linebreeding to Phalaris, with at least 32 individual lines of ancestry going back to Lord Derby's son of Polymelus. Most of these descend through the great sire's sons Sickle, a half-brother to classic winner Hyperion and the male-line ancestor of Mr. Prospector, and Pharos, a full brother to classic winners Fairway and Fair Isle and the sire of unbeaten Nearco.

Does this mean that Clairiere is a multiple Grade 1 winner because she has a particular number of occurrences of Phalaris in her pedigree? No, it's not as simple as that.

Clairiere is a top-class racehorse and beneficiary of some of the best genetics in the breed because she is by one of the best sires in the world and out of a top-quality broodmare. Curlin was a classic winner, multiple Grade 1 winner, and Horse of the Year at three and four before retiring to become one of the best sires in the breed, and Clairiere's dam, Cavorting, won three times at the Grade 1 level during her racing career.

Cavorting's first two foals to race are Clairiere and her 3-year-old half-sister La Crete (Medaglia d'Oro), who won the Silverbulletday Stakes at the Fair Grounds earlier this year. A pedigree doesn't get a lot better than this.

The post Bloodlines Presented By Mill Ridge Farm: Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Phalaris In A Pedigree? appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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