An ‘Ultra’ Compliment to Twirling Candy

Curious how we can always explain what makes a pedigree work once a horse has shown he can actually run. They call it “ex post rationalization” or sometimes “hindsight bias”. Working backward from a high-functioning racehorse, you isolate whatever elements of the page flatter your prejudices and methodology, and triumphantly announce that you have found the key to the genetic engine. You could, of course, perform pretty much the same exercise with countless slow horses whose antecedents contain equally plausible elements. Funnily enough, however, we don't bother doing that quite so often.

It feels very wholesome, then, when horses come along “to keep us honest”. And certainly that tendency to self-validation has been challenged by the first two legs of the Triple Crown, respectively won by a $1,000 yearling by Protonico and now a colt whose first four dams are by Cowboy Cal, Afleet, Vigors and Knightly Manner.

We are familiar, of course, with Classic winners whose families have arcane seeding–try American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile), whose equivalent parade comprises Yankee Gentlemen, Ecliptical, Tri Jet and Crozier–and I do think we should gratefully embrace the vigour sometimes latent when stagnant reaches of the gene pool are stirred. That principle aside, however, the material otherwise available to Rombauer (Twirling Candy) surely adds fresh luster to two names in his background whose merit has already been established at this kind of level.

One of these is his granddam, Ultrafleet, who must now be saluted as a truly remarkable mare. Her fame has hitherto hinged on two foals by Avenue of Flags: the millionaire sprinter California Flag, and the “Queen of the Hill”, Cambiocorsa, whose branch of the dynasty has since given us the tragic European champion Roaring Lion (Kitten's Joy). But now Ultrafleet's unraced daughter by Cowboy Cal has given us a GI Preakness S. winner, a feat that clearly demands a fresh look at bloodlines so unpromising that John Fradkin had to pay only $10,500 for the future matriarch as a yearling.

First, however, let's congratulate Rombauer's sire Twirling Candy on this vital consolidation of his candidature as principal heir to Candy Ride (Arg), a contest lately heated by the likes of Gun Runner, Mastery and Unified.

Twirling Candy | Lane's End

At 14, Twirling Candy has reached a stage where he is no longer trying to get established but aspiring toward the elite echelons largely populated by older stallions. Since joining his sire at Lane's End, he has barely missed a beat. Yes, he had the standard bump in the road, required to negotiate a couple of smaller books pending the advent of his first runners in 2015. With 25 winners from 45 juvenile starters, however, his freshman success secured him 159 mares when restored the following year to his opening fee of $15,000 (had dipped to $10,000).

That first crop, with GII San Felipe S. winner Danzing Candy as pathfinder, ultimately yielded two Grade I scorers who sketched out what has meanwhile become his calling card: a remarkable versatility. One was the sprinter Finley'sluckycharm; the other, the five-season, two-turn scrapper Gift Box.

Rombauer's breakout means that Twirling Candy–about to launch his seventh wave of juveniles–has consecutively mustered Grade I winners from his 2016, 2017 and 2018 crops, following Concrete Rose (the prolific turf router sold for $1.95 million at Keeneland last November) and Collusion Illusion (who, as a dirt dasher, confirmed their sire's range in the GI Bing Crosby S. a couple of months previously). Even before that pair raised the bar, Twirling Candy had covered 171 mares at $40,000 last spring–which, by the commendably restrained standards of his farm, basically amounts to oversubscription. Sure enough, he was one of few Kentucky stallions to maintain his fee in the pandemic economy.

The diversity seen in his stock, in both surface and discipline, was amply advertised in Twirling Candy's own career. He won the GII Del Mar Derby on grass before breaking the track record in the GI Malibu S.; and later switched to synthetics to win the GII Californian S. before stretching out for narrow defeats at 10 furlongs back in Grade I company.

That was all consistent with his roots: Candy Ride himself funnels plenty of chlorophyll, from both Argentina and France, while Twirling Candy's damsire is Toussaud's GI Arlington Million winner Chester House. His granddam brings into play one who transcended all environments, in Danzig, but then the next dam knots together three undiluted dirt icons: by Seattle Slew out of an Alydar half-sister to Affirmed. As such, the 2021 Triple Crown trail has yielded a touching postscript to the epic 1978 series, through her owners' decision to console Alydar with Won't Tell You, the dam of his nemesis.

The Fradkins (fourth and fifth from left) join Rombauer in the winner's circle |MJC photo

We'll never know whether Rombauer might himself have had a Triple Crown on the line, if only trainer Michael McCarthy had managed to persuade owner-breeder Fradkin and his wife Diane to run in the GI Kentucky Derby. That race didn't really set up in a way that would have played to Rombauer's strengths, but it's poignant to reflect that all these damaging headlines might conceivably have been confined to a Derby runner-up!

Be that as it may, Rombauer is a spectacular new bloom on the Ultrafleet family tree. Fradkin bought her with the spoils of his very first dabble in ownership, a 7-year-old gelding claimed after finishing last, with a swollen ankle, at Hollywood Park in 1993. Freshened up by Ron Ellis, the old boy resurfaced at Del Mar two months later. They didn't see which way he went, and his owner was hooked.

Just days afterward, Fradkin could be found at the Keeneland September Sale. He assumes that his bid was the only one that took a roan filly by Afleet, bred by William A. Purdey, past a $10,000 reserve.

Making no show in a handful of maiden claimers, Ultrafleet looked like becoming a painful lesson to her novice owner. Instead Fradkin decided on a fresh experiment: breeding. Through 25 years since, he has just maintained a couple of mares, one typically at Old English Rancho in California and another at Woodstock Farm in Kentucky. As commercial programs go, it could scarcely be more modest. And, as has by now been well chronicled, only happenstance caused Rombauer to join those few graduates to have been sporadically retained.

Jan Vandebos Naify with Cambiocorsa (left) and Vionnet (right) | Courtesy of Jan Vandebos Naify

One that did sell, early on, was Ultrafleet's 2002 daughter by Avenue of Flags, a $90,000 Barretts juvenile. As Cambiocorsa, she gained rather a cult following at Santa Anita, crowning a six-race streak out of the downhill turf chute with the first of two graded stakes wins. Cambiocorsa, in the loving hands of Jan Vandebos and her late usband Bob Naify, has subsequently done better still in her second career: she has produced two Grade II winners on turf, Moulin de Mougin (Curlin) and Schiaparelli (Ghostzapper), and three other stakes scorers including Grade I-placed Vionnet (Street Sense). Sadly Vandebos lost Vionnet in 2018, even as her first foal was evolving into a champion in Europe; and subsequently, of course, fate would permit Roaring Lion himself only a single season to recycle what had now come to seem royal genes.

Cambiocorsa's brother California Flag (in whom Fradkin retained a stake) was another prolific turf sprinter whose three wins in the GIII Morvich H. incorporated a track record; while Ultrafleet has also produced Shadow Raider, a graded stakes-placed, ten-time winner by Memo (Chi). But her penultimate foal, an unsold, unraced Cowboy Cal filly named Cashmere, appeared to be a dud.

Cowboy Cal! He was exported to South Korea for 2017, having mustered 125 winners from five crops of racing age. He could take with him a millionaire resumé on turf/synthetics, plus kinship to the top-class Behrens (Pleasant Colony), his dam's half-brother. On the whole, however, it surely reflects lavishly on Ultrafleet that a daughter of Cowboy Cal should now have delivered a Preakness winner.

Cashmere's first three foals are all multiple winners and one, Treasure Trove (Tapizar), was actually beaten only a length though last of five in the GIII Ben Ali S. at Keeneland last month. But if their hallmark has hitherto been toughness sooner than class, then the entry into the equation of Twirling Candy has changed all that.

True to the variegation of his genes, Rombauer started out on grass before McCarthy alertly proposed an opportunist crack at the GI American Pharoah S. His big move that day, circling the field to close down an always-handy winner, was made with such style that some of us played Rombauer at giddy odds for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile. He ran creditably, without ever laying a glove on the winner, but reiterated that Twirling Candy adaptability when pouncing for the El Camino Real Derby on synthetics on his resumption. In hindsight, it was too easy for him to track the front pair in the GII Blue Grass S., a race that didn't really draw adequately on the stamina that tends to underpin acceleration off a stronger pace.

The popular California Flag (front), one of several overachieving members of this family | Sarah Andrew

But there we go again, rationalizing “ex post”! In which spirit, let's go back to the package that held so little market appeal, that fateful day when Ultrafleet entered the ring. We've noted the left-field names seeding Rombauer's family. But if the first four dams are by sires lacking clout, at least each one funnels some truly resonant blood: Cowboy Cal is by Giant's Causeway, and Ultrafleet's sire Afleet by Mr. Prospector; while the next two dams are by sons of Grey Dawn (Fr) and Round Table.

Canadian Horse of the Year Afleet established one of the more precarious branches of the Mr. P. empire (via Northern Afleet/Afleet Alex) and left for Japan soon after siring Ultrafleet. Looking at her pedigree as it appeared at the time, can we honestly rebuke the lack of interest? Sure, the family had a light sprinkling of stakes performers. But only when you get back to Ultrafleet's fourth dam, Albany Isle (GB), does something begin to stir.

And even that line has been through a couple of wastelands. Albany Isle did ultimately trace to one of the most potent tap-root mares in the story of the breed, but that was way back in Victorian times and her family had lately done very little (outside steeplechasing) to warrant her export from Ireland in the 1950s. Yet today she pegs down the pedigrees of such high achievers as Country House (Lookin At Lucky) and Rock Your World (Candy Ride {Arg}).

It was the GI Santa Anita Derby winner–himself, of course, a son of Twirling Candy's sire–whose switch from the Californian turf was supposed to have a seismic impact on the Classics this year. In the event, that trick has instead been played by Rombauer.

Perhaps we can see echoes of Ultrafleet's damsire Vigors, whose flamboyant charge won some of California's marquee dirt races, in the turn of foot that might otherwise be credited to Rombauer's grassy influences. It's also worth mentioning that Vigors was by a notable distaff influence in Grey Dawn, whose own sire Herbager moreover resurfaces in the top half of Rombauer's pedigree: Twirling Candy's grandsire Ride the Rails is out of a Herbager mare.

But really it's edifying to admit to ourselves that there was no obvious reason why Ultrafleet should have cost more than she did, and that little she has achieved since can be easily reduced to repeatable formulae.

What we do have is a nice mix of West Coast dash and hardiness, combined with plenty of turf flair out of South America and Europe. We have a stallion whose brushes work on any palette. And don't forget that Rombauer is still only an adolescent, really, after seven starts; that he was raised on the same small farm, Woodstock, as Derby third Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow); and that he has been expertly trained since. To be fair, that all makes some kind of sense–and maybe as much as we should ever hope to find.

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Bloodlines: Rombauer’s Success Blends Speed In Female Family With Classic Branch Of Mr. Prospector Line

Becoming the fifth Grade 1 winner by his sire Twirling Candy, Rombauer rocked the racing world back on its heels with a 3 ½-length victory in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., on Saturday.

Furthermore, if we consider classic success the pinnacle of Thoroughbred achievement, then Rombauer appeared to add another dimension to his pedigree, especially to his quality female family, which has proven itself one of the fastest in the world.

The Preakness winner's dam, the unraced Cowboy Cal mare Cashmere, is a half-sister to the tremendous sprinter California Flag, a winner five times at the G3 level sprinting. The gelded son of Avenue of Flags (by Seattle Slew) earned $1.2 million making an exhibition of speed, won the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint, and set a course record at Santa Anita for 6 ½ furlongs.

California Flag's full sister was the highly talented Cambiocorsa. She won half of her 18 starts, earning more than a half-million, and becoming the victor in a pair of G3 races. Despite those significant accomplishments, she has shown even more at stud.

And one of the most fascinating things about Cambiocorsa is that she has translated her speed into performers who race with distinction at longer distances than she excelled at herself.

Cambiocorsa is the dam of four stakes winners, and two of her stakes-winning daughters, Moulin de Mougin (Curlin) and Schiaparelli (Ghostzapper) won at the G2 level. Also, both of them showed their form at distances beyond sprints. Moulin de Mougin won the G2 John C. Mabee at Del Mar, and Schiaparelli won the G2 Royal Heroine at Hollywood Park.

As daughters of stallions who each won a Breeders' Cup Classic at 10 furlongs, Moulin de Mougin and Schiaparelli had reason to show form over longer distances than their dam, but some families do not move up when bred to classic sires. Instead, some families lose both speed and class, becoming lesser performers at distances short or long.

Rombauer winning the Preakness

In addition to the racetrack successes of these two fillies, their half-sister Vionnet, by Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense, ran third in the G1 Rodeo Drive. A stud, Vionnet has produced the outstanding Roaring Lion (Kitten's Joy), who won a quartet of G1 races in England and Ireland at distances from 8 to 11 furlongs. Roaring Lion was placed at the top of the handicap rankings in Ireland and England for performers from 9 ½ to 11 furlongs.

That is a sharp upgrade in distance and level of achievement from “just” being a good-class sprinter family.

Now Cashmere, a half-sister to Cambiocorsa and California Flag, has done her part by producing a U.S. classic winner in Rombauer. Since she was unraced, we don't know the racing class of Cashmere, but it would appear to have been useful, at least, because she has four winners from four runners, with three of them earning well into six figures, and a pair have black type, with Cono (Lucky Pulpit) being stakes-placed.

It might seem surprising that the classic winner for this family came from Twirling Candy (Candy Ride), whose best victory was the G1 Malibu at seven furlongs. The horse also won a trio of G2 races at nine furlongs, as well as placing a close second in the G1 Pacific Classic at 1 1/4 miles. From the start, moreover, Twirling Candy has shown that his stock are not limited to sprints, and his best go a mile or more.

In addition to siring last year's winner of the Queen's Plate in Canada (One Bad Boy), Twirling Candy has G1 winners Gift Box (Santa Anita Handicap), Concrete Rose (Belmont Oaks), Finley'sluckycharm (Madison Stakes), and now Rombauer.

A good-sized horse with scope and good bone, Twirling Candy has sired 26 stakes winners to date and has progeny earnings of more than $34 million from seven crops of racing age.

The stallion also comes from the most classic branch of the Mr. Prospector male line, through the great stallion's son Fappiano. This is not the omnipresent Fappiano branch through Kentucky Derby winner Unbridled, who sired winners of each of the Triple Crown races, and that has added glories to the sport such as Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.

Instead, this is a branch of Fappiano through Cryptoclearance, one of the toughest of racehorses, through his grandson Candy Ride, an elite sire whose son Rock Your World won the G1 Santa Anita Derby and was one of the favored colts in the Kentucky Derby.

Instead of success there, the male line has prospered through the rapidly progressing Rombauer and his rising tide of a female family.

Frank Mitchell is author of Racehorse Breeding Theories, as well as the book Great Breeders and Their Methods: The Hancocks. In addition to writing the column “Sires and Dams” in Daily Racing Form for nearly 15 years, he has contributed articles to Thoroughbred Daily News, Thoroughbred Times, Thoroughbred Record, International Thoroughbred, and other major publications. In addition, Frank is chief of biomechanics for DataTrack International and is a hands-on caretaker of his own broodmares and foals in Central Kentucky. Check out his Bloodstock in the Bluegrass blog.

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‘Uncomplicated’ Preakness Stakes Winner Rombauer Got His Start At Machmer Hall

Neither Carrie Brogden, nor her Machmer Hall Farm appeared in the track program among the connections for Preakness Stakes winner Rombauer, but her phone messages exploded after the race as if it was.

The Twirling Candy colt was born and raised at Brogden's Paris, Ky. farm for owner/breeders John and Diane Fradkin, who boarded their modest broodmare band at Machmer Hall until the farm privatized in late 2018.

Rombauer caught the betting public somewhat flat-footed as a winner at odds of 11.80-to-one, but the colt's classic performance also took Brogden by surprise.

“We never expected what happened,” she said. “We just couldn't believe it. I am so happy for the Fradkins. They stuck through it all. They had a great mare with a great family, and they believed in her, and that's what owner-breeders need to do.”

Rombauer's dam, the fellow Fradkin homebred Cashmere, was hardly a mare slated for classic success on the surface. Her sire, Cowboy Cal, was exported to Korea with little fanfare as a sire of runners or broodmares, and she never made a start before entering production.

Looking at the bottom of her page, though, revealed why Cashmere was kept to extend her bloodline. She is a half-sister to a pair of Grade 3 winners in California Flag and Cambiocorsa, the latter of which is a multiple graded stakes producer and the second dam of the great Roaring Lion.

The part of Cashmere that kept her in the broodmare band – the strong record of production in the female family – is what ultimately rewarded the Fradkins. Her first two foals were stakes-placed runners, and when it came time to plan the mare's fourth mating, Brogden said John Fradkin paid attention to his surroundings.

“John picked out Twirling Candy himself to breed to Cashmere, and what I think he did was just watch all the 2-year-old sales, and picked what he felt was the best value-for-money sire, and he picked Twirling Candy,” Brogden said. “I don't want to take any credit for this mating. He already knew we were huge fans of Twirling Candy, and have been featured in all the ads for the stallion. We've had unbelievable success with Twirling Candy. We bred (Grade 1 winner) Gift Box, and we had an $825,000 2-year-old by him.”

Rombauer came about on April 17, 2018, and he spent the first eight months of his life at Machmer Hall.

“He was uncomplicated,” Brogden said. “He had no conformational issues, he had no birthing issues, he had no sickness issues. He was just what a lot of people say about top graded stakes winners; they were uncomplicated and they didn't get in their own way.”

A few months after Rombauer was weaned, the Fradkins moved their breeding interests to Ben Berger's Woodstock Farm in Lexington, Ky., after the Brogden family decided to privatize their operation and raise only their own foals.

Though they are no longer directly in business together, Brogden maintains a good relationship with the Fradkins, and followed the career of their colt closely.

As a juvenile, Rombauer picked up his first black type with a runner-up effort in the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes, before running fifth in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile. He clinched an all-expenses-paid trip and more Kentucky Derby qualifying points with a win in the El Camino Real Derby, then ran third in the G2 Blue Grass Stakes.

Brogden, rarely one to mince words, let John know how disappointed she was when he decided to skip the Derby, even though he had enough points to make the field, but she couldn't argue with the reasoning.

“I felt like he belonged in the race,” Brogden said. “John, in all fairness, said he wanted to do the right thing by the horse, and he didn't think he was ready for the Derby, and wanted to target the Preakness.”

As it often proves out, doing right by the horse ended up being the right call.

Cashmere continues to reside at Woodstock Farm, where she followed Rombauer with a Strong Mandate filly named Republique who is an unraced 2-year-old of 2021, and a yearling Cairo Prince colt named Alexander Helios. The mare was bred to Kantharos for the 2021 foaling season.

For a horsewoman with so many banners in the rafters tied to Twirling Candy, Brogden said Rombauer's Preakness win was just the start of something big with the resident of Lane's End, who was also represented on this year's Triple Crown trail by G1 Santa Anita Derby third-place finisher Dream Shake.

“Twirling Candy – watch out,” she said. “He is going to blow the doors off. When these next few crops hit, watch out. They may be 'plain Janes,' but all of them are super walkers, and they are going to blow the doors off as they get older.”

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