The marquee events of the weekend at Parx produced the first Grade 1 winners for sires Always Dreaming (by Bodemeister) and Mr. Big (Dynaformer) in the Pennsylvania Derby and Cotillion, respectively.
In the Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 23, the strongly favored Saudi Crown (Always Dreaming) broke alertly, held the lead at every call, and won by a half-length from Dreamlike (Gun Runner), who was six lengths ahead of the third-place Il Miracolo (Gun Runner).
With this success, Saudi Crown became the first graded winner and first Grade 1 winner for Always Dreaming, whose first crop are now three. Sold first as a short yearling at the 2021 Keeneland January sale for $45,000, Saudi Crown returned to the sales ring as a 2-year-old in training last spring at the OBS April sale.
At that venue, Saudi Crown flitted a furlong in :10 flat, and then the grand-looking gray was sold to Faisal Mohammed Alqatani, Pedro Lanz agent, for $240,000. Presented by Top Line Sales, the handsome colt brought the third-highest price for a juvenile by Always Dreaming in 2022. Racing for Alqatani's FMQ Stable, Saudi Crown has now won three of his five starts, with a second in the G3 Dwyer to Fort Bragg (Tapit) and in the G2 Jim Dandy to odds-on Forte (Violence) after an eventful stretch run.
Now having earned $817,085, Saudi Crown is his sire's leading earner and the standard-bearer for the stallion's offspring. Always Dreaming himself won four of his 11 starts, including the G1 Kentucky Derby and Florida Derby in a string of successes in the spring of the 3-year-old season. The handsome dark bay won the Kentucky classic in splashing fashion on a sloppy track. Subsequently, the best results for Always Dreaming were a second in the G2 Gulfstream Park Mile and a third in the G2 Jim Dandy.
Retired to stud at WinStar, Always Dreaming has covered large books of quality mares, with 213 foals of racing age from his first two crops. The stallion's other stakes winner is Grand Isle, winner of the Best of Ohio Juvenile.
Bred in Kentucky by China Horse Club (CHC Inc.), Saudi Crown is out of the Tapit mare New Narration. China Horse Club purchased the dam for $500,000 at the 2016 Saratoga select yearling sale. The gray daughter of leading sire Tapit did not get to the starting gate but produced Saudi Crown as her second foal.
At the 2021 Keeneland November sale, China Horse Club sold New Narration, then in foal to WinStar sire Yoshida, for $17,000 to Harry Landry. From two foals to race, New Narration is the dam of two winners.
It is faintly ironic that Mr. Big, the sire of the Cotillion Stakes winner Ceiling Crusher, has exactly the same number of foals of racing age (213) as Always Dreaming … but from 10 crops of racing age.
From nine starts, the son of Dynaformer won two, neither black type, and earned $70,920. Those are not “stallion credentials,” and the now 20-year-old Mr. Big has the travel miles to prove it. He entered stud at owner George Krikorian's Starrwood Farm in Kentucky in 2010, then a half-dozen years later shipped to California, where he has made a circuit of California stallion operations. Currently, he is lodged at Legacy Ranch, with a stud fee of $7,500.
The odds against any horse being a successful stallion are large; much larger than most people recognize. The odds against Mr. Big – who didn't have an exceptional race record – making a success as a stallion were so large, that the numbers won't fit on a page.
But Mr. Big did have something going for him: owner Krikorian sent him a nice mare or two every year. Even so, the horse didn't have more than seven foals in any of his first six crops.
But a colt born in 2014, from the stallion's fourth season at stud that resulted in a crop of three, made a lot of noise.
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This was Big Score, who won a pair of stakes, including the G3 Transylvania Stakes at Keeneland, and placed in a half-dozen more graded races. He earned $702,792, almost exactly 10 times what his sire had earned.
That put Mr. Big on the breeding map, and the stallion now has a dozen stakes winners. Ceiling Crusher has done her part by becoming her sire's second graded stakes winner and first G1 winner.
With six victories from seven starts, Ceiling Crusher is one of five current year stakes winners for Mr. Big, who also has four racers that are stakes-placed in 2023.
Bred in California by Harris Farms, Ceiling Crusher is one of three winners from her dam, the Indian Charlie mare Palisadesprincess. Krikorian had purchased Palisadesprincess at the 2017 Keeneland November sale for $52,000 in foal to Constitution (Tapit), then resold her in the California Thoroughbred Breeders' Association January sale in 2020 for $4,500. The mare was in foal to Mr. Big, and the buyer was Harris Farms, which bred the resulting foal, Ceiling Crusher.
Whether they come from famous parents or not, whether they cost large amounts of money or smaller ones, the best horses have one thing in common: they show up on the big days and produce their best efforts. They are the big winners.
The post Bloodlines Presented By ThoroughbredAuctions.Com: Different Roads To The Same Destination For Sires Always Dreaming, Mr. Big appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
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