PR Back Ring Keeneland September Preview: Tony Lacy’s Jump Into The Deep End

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The latest issue of the PR Back Ring is now online, ahead of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

The PR Back Ring is the Paulick Report's bloodstock newsletter, released ahead of, and during, every major North American Thoroughbred auction. Seeking to expand beyond the usual pdf presentation, the Back Ring offers a dynamic experience for bloodstock content, heavy on visual elements and statistics to appeal to readers on all platforms, especially mobile devices.

Here is what's inside this issue…

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  • Lead Feature Presented By Gainesway: An in-depth conversation with Tony Lacy, Keeneland's new vice president of sales, about his duties in the position, his vision for the future of the auction company in the short-term and long-term, and his expectations for the upcoming Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
  • Stallion Spotlight: Claiborne Farm's Walker Hancock discusses Catholic Boy, a dual-surface Grade 1 winner whose first foals are weanlings of 2021.
  • Lesson Horses Presented By John Deere Equine Discount Program: Arapahoe Park announcer Jonathan Horowitz and Ashley Horowitz of Super G Sporthorses each explain the unique ways that the ever-patient Churchita has taught them about life.
  • Honor Roll Presented By Keeneland: It didn't take long for Sheikh Hamdan Al-Maktoum of Shadwell Farm to decide he wanted the $1.05-million Malathaat at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, and the filly has lived up to her late owner's confidence in spades on the racetrack.
  • Ask Your Veterinarian Presented By Kentucky Performance Products: Dr. Scott Fleming of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital explains the causes and issues of flat soles on the Thoroughbred foot, and the different methods of managing them.
  • First-Crop Sire Watch: Stallions whose first crops of yearlings are represented in the Keeneland September catalog, including the number of horses cataloged and the farm where the stallion is currently advertised.

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Tampa Bay Downs: Sam F. Davis Has Served As Major Launch Pad To Grade 1 Glory

Since the Sam F. Davis became a Grade 3 stakes in 2009, it has had a significant impact on the Triple Crown scene on numerous occasions. Whether that will be the case this year is difficult to predict, but there is no doubt the eyes of the Thoroughbred racing world will be on Tampa Bay Downs next Saturday for the 41st running of the “Road to the Kentucky Derby” points race for 3-year-olds.

The $250,000 Sam F. Davis, contested at a distance of 1 1/16 miles on the main track, is one of three G3 stakes on the Feb. 6 card, along with the $175,000 Tampa Bay Stakes for older males on the turf and the $175,000 Lambholm South Endeavour for older fillies and mares on the turf. The fourth stakes on the card is the $150,000 Suncoast Stakes on the dirt for 3-year-old fillies, a “Road to the Kentucky Oaks” points race.

While the 2009 Sam F. Davis winner, General Quarters, later won G1 stakes on dirt and turf (Keeneland actually employed an all-weather synthetic surface when General Quarters won the 2009 Toyota Blue Grass), the third-place Sam F. Davis finisher, Musket Man, was equally as successful later – perhaps more so. The Derek Ryan-trainee returned to win the G3 Tampa Bay Derby and the G2 Illinois Derby and finished third in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. As a 4-year-old, Musket Man was second in two G1 stakes: the Carter Handicap and the Metropolitan Handicap.

Rule won the Sam F. Davis the following year, and although he never reached the top rung of his class, he did amass more than $1-million in earnings. His trainer, Todd Pletcher, won his first Kentucky Derby that spring with Super Saver, who did not run in the Sam F. Davis but finished third in the Tampa Bay Derby.

The Sam F. Davis really started heating up as a Triple Crown prep race in 2016. Destin, under John Velazquez, rewarded Pletcher with his sixth Davis victory, then set a track record in winning the G2 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby four weeks later. He finished second by a nose to Creator in one of the most exciting Belmont Stakes in recent history.

Pletcher would not be denied a Belmont victory the following year. After running second to McCracken in the Sam F. Davis, Tapwrit established his bona fides with a stakes-record performance in the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby. The Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets was the crowning jewel in Tapwrit's career (he failed to win in five subsequent starts).

If you weren't here for the 2019 Sam F. Davis Stakes, well, you don't know what you missed. Trainer Mark Casse's Flameaway won in stakes-record time of 1:42.44 and returned to finish second in the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby; he won the Challenger Stakes here as a 4-year-old. But it was the Sam F. Davis second and third-place finishers, Catholic Boy and Vino Rosso, who went on to make their connections rich(er).

Under the tutelage of trainer Jonathan Thomas, Catholic Boy won the G1 Belmont Derby Invitational on turf, then switched back to dirt to capture the G1 Runhappy Travers at Saratoga. He earned more than $2.1-million in his career. Vino Rosso, under the masterful Pletcher, won more than $4.8-million, thanks mainly to victories as a 4-year-old in the G1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita Stakes and the Longines' Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita.

Information about this year's Sam F. Davis, and the other Festival Preview Day 41 Presented by Lambholm South stakes races, will be forthcoming over the next several days, so stay tuned.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Tampa Bay Downs is limiting general-admission attendance for the Feb. 6 card to 2,500 spectators. Tickets, which are $10 each plus a service fee, are being sold online through Eventbrite.com and at the program stands.

Horsemen, box-seat holders and season-ticket holders do not need to purchase tickets, but must present their passes at the gate to gain admittance.

Seating will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis unless patrons have prior arrangements in the Skye Terrace Dining Room, Sports Gallery, Clubhouse Carrels or Legends Bar, but the purchase of a general-admission ticket is still required to gain admittance.

The track is also selling a limited number of tables in the Backyard Picnic Area for $50 each plus a service fee; that price includes admission for six people.

Here is the link for Festival Preview Day 41 tickets and picnic-area seating:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/festival-preview-day-41-presented-by-lambholm-south-tickets-135338604409

Everyone will be required to wear masks or face coverings and maintain appropriate social distancing.

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KY Value Sires For 2021: First Foals Due: Part I

What an interesting crossroads we reach with the next group of young stallions in our survey. On the one hand, you have this new dynamic in the marketplace, with Spendthrift increasingly welcoming blue-chip prospects to build on its blue-collar successes. Yes, these may be looking to build more conventional, fee-based careers, as opposed to relying on the type of innovative promotions that helped Into Mischief evolve from a source of cheap commercial speed into the champion sire of a Kentucky Derby winner (who has himself now joined the roster, of course, so maintaining the general direction of travel). But other aspects of the model, notably books on an industrial scale, apply even to the stallions who this time last year charged the top three fees of the new intake. (Strictly the top, second and joint-third; though we should note that Spendthrift also looked after less affluent clientele with two of the cheapest rookies.)

At the same time, however, we have meanwhile had the dead weight of the pandemic reining in fees nearly across the board. And here again, as so often, it was B. Wayne Hughes and his team who took the lead. So while the farms have largely priced the latest group of rookies with confidence in an unswerving addiction among commercial breeders, some of the fees charged for the preceding group have been trimmed in purposeful fashion.

One way or another, then, the seas are high. But breeders can certainly hope to catch a following wind.
The Spendthrift factory was certainly functioning with its customary efficiency when these horses were launched in the spring. In fact, its big three newcomers corralled 683 mares between them.

Anyone who considers that a grotesque number (not least when two of them have meanwhile done a shift in Australia) will look forward to a time, down the road, when stallions will be confined to 140 partners apiece. The game-changing element here, of course, is that the gene pool is no longer being inundated just by slick commercial blood, but by wholesome two-turn influences as well.

What remains unchanged is that breeders participate in this kind of exercise–not just at Spendthrift, of course, but at all the big commercial farms–with their eyes wide open. Yes, sheer numbers behind a stallion increase the odds of a headline runner, capable of effacing much statistical embarrassment; but the trade-off will always be a potential glut of his stock funnelled into the same sales cycle.

To me, that’s a risk well worth running with OMAHA BEACH (War Front–Charming by Seeking the Gold) after he mustered 215 mares for his debut book. Even at the highest tag of the intake, we dared to put him on the “value podium” last year because $45,000 looked such a fair valuation of its standout package. Now that you can get to him for $35,000, then, the shifting market sands are amply secured by the fact that the package itself remains precisely as attractive as before.

True, the farm has not been able to resist trumpeting him as “No. 1 freshman covering sire.” I can’t blame them for that, everyone else does it, but I do wish people would stop pretending that covering sire “stats” have the slightest meaning. It’s insulting to the mare, against whose primary value the paternity of a foal in utero always remains but an incidental benefit; and, in turn, it’s insulting to the intelligence of breeders.
Be that as it may, this is a stallion who doesn’t need any such flimsy Christmas baubles. So far as these things are ever predictable, Omaha Beach appears cast-iron.

Though sadly scratched as favorite for both the GI Kentucky Derby and an intended swansong in the GI Pegasus Gold Cup, he demonstrated his class with an accomplishment nearly as rare and auspicious as a Triple Crown as the first in 30 years to win Grade Is at nine and six furlongs in the same campaign. In both cases, moreover, he achieved bona fide elite form: the GI Arkansas Derby runner-up Improbable (City Zip) has himself just retired at $40,000, while Shancelot (Shanghai Bobby) is so fearsome a specialist in the sprint sphere that he returned to course and distance next time to burn off all bar champion Mitole (Eskendereya) at the Breeders’ Cup.

We’ll happily indulge Omaha Beach his own defeat at that meeting, a creditable enough effort in a race that played out all wrong; while the flair of his third elite success, in the Malibu, only heightened regret that his trainer was not asked to explore the full range of his potential at four. Even as it was, however, he is the most accomplished dirt runner by a sire who is beyond the reach of most. Omaha Beach trademarked his speed, and his ability to carry it, in consecutive wins at 1:49.91 and 1:08.79.

And all this is underwritten by one of the most vigorous contemporary pedigrees around: he’s a half-brother to champion juvenile filly Take Charge Brandi (Giant’s Causeway) out of a half-sister to two other Grade I winners in Will Take Charge (Unbridled’s Song) and Take Charge Indy (A.P. Indy), their dam Take Charge Lady (Dehere) herself a multiple elite scorer. The pairing with War Front, meanwhile, doubles the vibrant influence of Rubiano–responsible for Omaha Beach’s third dam, besides being damsire of War Front. Rubiano, of course, was a half-brother to the dam of Tapit and duly represents the kind of knot in a pedigree you know to be woven from strong material.

With scopey looks and personality to match, Omaha Beach has all bases covered. If he ends up following the usual commercial cycles, taking cuts until his first runners restore momentum, then he looks one to stick with throughout.

You can only wonder what Omaha Beach might have achieved at four, when you consider the example of his neighbor VINO ROSSO (Curlin–Mythical Bride by Street Cry {Ire})–whose strong career finish was rewarded by a staggering 238 mares, exceeded nationally only by Uncle Mo and Mendelssohn, at Ashford, and his own farm’s flagship Into Mischief. Nonetheless he gets a clip from $30,000 to $25,000 to keep that door revolving.

The theory with this horse is that if it looks like a Curlin, swims like a Curlin, and quacks like a Curlin, chances are that it will be a Curlin. He certainly made the resemblance stronger in his third season, transforming himself from likeable slugger into the brilliant author of a 111 Beyer when taking his bow in the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic.

And I must say it’s a lot easier to tolerate such huge books for unproven stallions when they match such sturdy, worthy track performance with a pedigree that is so well balanced. Like Omaha Beach, Vino Rosso is out of a dam who combines the Mr. Prospector sire-line with that of broodmare sire legend Deputy Minister. But he goes a step farther: both sire and damsire are by sons of Mr. Prospector; and sire and dam are out of mares respectively by Deputy Minister and his son Touch Gold.

This is somewhat reminiscent of the way inbreeding to Mr. P. is counterweighted by an influence for toughness and class (namely Nijinsky) in Justify (Scat Daddy), who was born the previous day on the same farm. Glennwood had been typically astute in acquiring Vino Rosso’s dam before her weanling half-brother blossomed into GI Belmont S. runner-up Commissioner (A.P. Indy) and another sibling, Laugh Track (Distorted Humor), was foiled by a similarly narrow margin in GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Another striking physical, Vino Rosso is a fascinating test case for the commercial proliferation of a really edifying, old-school template. Can you get too much of a good thing? What a pleasant change to find out!

Pure commercial speed, however, was still available from the other big gun rolled into the Spendthrift arsenal last year. MITOLE (Eskendereya–Indian Miss by Indian Charlie) was correspondingly busy, entertaining 230 guests, yet gets an eye-opening slash in fee to $15,000 from $25,000.

Mitole bestrode the sprint division in a fashion that would have made him a perfectly legitimate Horse of the Year, spreading his four Grade I wins between six and eight furlongs, with a stakes record in no less storied a race than the Forego at the intermediate trip. Any horse that can sandwich a performance like that between success in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (112 Beyer) and the stallion-making Met Mile has the kind of deep-grained speed that holds. Witness times in those races of 1:09 flat, 1:20.8 and 1:32.75.

The new fee offers a helpful nudge to those seeking a little more breadth to his pedigree, albeit his dam is a half-sister to a Grade II winner; but they should comfort themselves that Mitole’s sire, though hastily exported, represents a truly aristocratic family and this was his second Met Mile winner in three crops.

Having started on the same peg, AUDIBLE (Into Mischief–Blue Devil Bel by Gilded Time) gets a mild trim to $22,500 after receiving 219 mares–apparently the biggest herd that WinStar has ever rounded up for a rookie. Obviously plenty of breeders out there agree that what counts most about Audible is the visible, his farm lauding this fine mover as “the best-looking son of Into Mischief.”

He evidently made a lasting impression in the GI Florida Derby, despite subsequently taking six months out after a storming third to Justify (Scat Daddy) in the GI Kentucky Derby and then disappearing for good after a fine effort in the G1 Dubai World Cup. In hindsight the relaxed, long-striding Audible was a real pathfinder for Authentic (Into Mischief) in showing how their sire, with the upgrading of his mares, would stretch his speed round a second turn to become a legitimate player at Classic level.

But fear not, Audible had all the trademark speed and precocity, too, as a $500,000 2-year-old who was really rolling by the time he romped in the GII Holy Bull S. in 1:41.92. And if the page is somewhat patchy in between, his fourth dam is multiple Grade I winner Classy Cathy (Private Account).

It’s perfectly understandable for Claiborne to hold CATHOLIC BOY (More Than Ready–Song Of Bernadette by Bernardini) at $25,000. His genes, physical and track record are just the same, after all, albeit the world around us may be a rather different place. Needless to say, this is a very different kind of farm from Spendthrift anyway, typically favoring conservative books (Catholic Boy began with 131 mares) to avoid flooding the market. Besides, as one breeder recently complained to me, it can be demoralizing when the value of your foal’s paternity is diminished when still in utero.

Claiborne has a long history of standing stallions of international reach and Catholic Boy absolutely fits as a Grade I winner on both dirt and turf at three. And it’s worth remembering that he had laid down a very similar marker as a juvenile, impressing in the GII Remsen S. after closing to within two lengths in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

He was also a graded stakes winner at Saratoga in that first campaign, so would seem perfectly entitled to get his stock up and running. The immediate family is solid without being regal, but the first three dams are by highly edifying broodmare influences in Bernardini, Seeking the Gold and Nijinsky, while beyond that you get to the same Argentinian family that gave us La Lorgnette (Val de l’Orne {Fr}), the Canadian champion who produced an extraordinary European talent in Hawk Wing (Woodman).

While entitled to breed a two-turn dirt horse, Catholic Boy can plainly cater to proliferating turf/synthetic opportunities and would merit the kind of enterprise we don’t see enough from European shoppers. Maybe it’s just a case of whether the future arrives in time, but he’s “More Than Ready” for it.

Much the same is true of YOSHIDA (Heart’s Cry {Jpn}–Hilda’s Passion by Canadian Frontier), who gets a clip to $15,000 from $20,000 after entertaining 148 clients at WinStar. His principal service might be to repatriate the line of Sunday Silence, whose breed-shaping impact on turf in Japan duly extends the versatility we associate with the overall Halo brand (not least through WinStar’s own international flagship, the sire of Catholic Boy).

Sure enough, Yoshida crowned a tough and consistent career over three seasons with elite success on both grass and dirt, and was additionally beaten under two lengths both over a straight mile at Royal Ascot and behind Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky) in the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic.

His page offers a corresponding blend, tracing to a half-sister to Damascus via a granddam by El Prado (Ire). There is rather more quantity than quality in between, and the damsire won’t help in that regard, but something is certainly working: Yoshida’s dam won the GI Ballerina S. by nine lengths and clocked a 1:20.45 track record in the GII Inside Information S. Certainly his own sire is a Thoroughbred of the very highest class, while you can judge his physical allure by a yearling tag of $750,000.

Read part two of Chris McGrath’s Value Sires-First Kentucky Weanlings in Friday’s TDN, with coverage of World of Trouble, Catalina Cruiser, Preservationist, Divisidero, Enticed, Flameaway, Maximus Mischief, Coal Front, Demarchelier, Heart to Heart, Lost Treasure and Qurbaan, plus Chris’s top three on the value podium.

The post KY Value Sires For 2021: First Foals Due: Part I appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Claiborne Announces 2021 Stud Fees; War Front Dropped to $150K

Claiborne Farm has released stud fees for the majority of its stallions who will stand at the Paris, Ky.-based farm during the upcoming 2021 breeding season, which included a significant reduction in price for its international super-sire War Front.

Among Claiborne’s 13 stallions, War Front leads the charge with a stud fee of $150,000. The internationally acclaimed son of Danzig and emerging sire of sires is North America’s top sire by percentage of lifetime stakes winners, graded stakes winners, and Grade I winners. In 2020, War Front has added three new Grade I winners to his record, bringing his lifetime total to 23, second in North America behind only Tapit’s 27.

War Front’s most recent Grade I winners include Flower Bowl S. heroine Civil Union and GI Fourstardave H. victor Halladay, as well as classic winner War of Will, who will stand alongside his sire at Claiborne Farm for the upcoming breeding season. In the sales ring, he had a yearling filly sell to Mike Ryan at Keeneland September for $1.05 million and on the racetrack, no other sire in North America has more Grade I winners than War Front in 2020.

War Front previously stood for $250,000, which was the highest advertised fee in North America.

“In these unprecedented times, we felt it would be irresponsible to raise or keep some stud fees the same as last year, despite our stallions having outstanding success in the sales ring and on the racetrack,” said Claiborne President Walker Hancock. “It is now more important than ever that we do what is best for the sustainability of our industry.”

Eclipse champion and three-time Grade I winner Blame (Arch) will stand for $30,000. One of the leading sires of his crop with 63 stakes horses and 30 stakes winners lifetime, his 16 graded stakes winners include Nadal, winner of this year’s GI Arkansas Derby. Yearlings sired by Blame have sold for up to $400,000 this year.

Flatter, the prolific son of A.P. Indy, will stand for $35,000. He has sired more than 100 stakes horses and 50 stakes winners lifetime, including recent champions West Coast and Avie’s Flatter. This year, his 2-year-olds sold for up to $600,000, while his yearlings brought up to $330,000 in the sales ring.

Mastery, the undefeated Grade I-winning son of Candy Ride (Arg), will remain at $25,000. The much-anticipated first yearlings by Mastery sold for $510,000, $450,000 and $400,000 this year, with an average of $142,425.

Catholic Boy (More Than Ready) and Demarchelier (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), who both stood their first seasons at Claiborne in 2020, will remain unchanged at $25,000 and $5,000, respectively. First Samurai (Giant’s Causeway), the sire of undefeated 2-year-old filly Plum Ali, a Breeders’ Cup hopeful and winner of the recent GII Miss Grillo S., will stand for $15,000. Stud fees for Eclipse Champion Runhappy (Super Saver) and War of Will will be announced following the Breeders’ Cup. GI Preakness S. hero War of Will added a score in the GI Maker’s Mark Mile S. at Keeneland this summer and is being pointed for the Breeders’ Cup.

The post Claiborne Announces 2021 Stud Fees; War Front Dropped to $150K appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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