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.
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If you appreciate our work, you can support us by subscribing to our Patreon stream. Learn more.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.
