Nov. 18 Insights: Well-bred Fillies Take the Stage in Kentucky, New York

8th-AQU, $85k, Msw, 2yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 3:15p.m. ET
Jumping from the middle of the field and carrying an expensive $650,000 KEESEP tag in addition to Irad Ortiz Jr. is CHP Racing's SPENDALOT (More Than Ready). The full-sister to MGSW & GISP Consumer Spending comes into this race with a consistent work tab for conditioner Chad Brown. Beneath her second dam Shaconage (El Prado {Ire}) is the dam of several Chilean Group and stakes runners including GSW & G1SP Jacare (Chi) (Lookin At Lucky) as well as GSP La Jardinera (Chi) (Verrazano).

To her far outside is the pair of homebreds Scandalous (Mastery) and Spinning Class (Twirling Candy). The former is a Pletcher trainee who will carry the colors of co-breeder and co-owners Bass Stables. Cheyenne Stables bought into the filly out of a half-sister to MSW Pickapocket (Mecke); GSW & GISP Wild At Heart (Indian Charlie) and that one's full-sister GSP Visavis. Spinning Class hails from the venerable Janney operation, owned by Stuart S. Janney III, and is the first to the races for GSW My Impression (Sky Mesa), herself a half-sister to the dam of GSW Scarlett Sky (Sky Mesa). This is the female line of Claiborne stalwart First Samurai. TJCIS PPs

7th-CD, $120k, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 4:01p.m. ET
Making her career-first start for owner Godolphin is HOPE MISSION (Medaglia d'Oro), the flagbearer to the races for GSW & GISP Arabian Hope (Distorted Humor), who is herself a half-sister to $3.65m FTFMAR grad MGSW Cezanne (Curlin) and MSP Counterforce (Smart Strike). This is the female family of GISW Streaming (Smart Strike); champion 3-year-old filly MGISW Rags to Riches (A.P. Indy); MGSW & GISP Tyson (Tapit); and MGISW Arcangelo (Arrogate). TJCIS PPs

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Tyson Keeps Punching In Seagram Win

Never off the board in his four prior career starts, Tyson (Tapit) avenged his sole defeat–a third behind Treason (Constitution) in the GII Eclipse S. June 4–with a win last time out over that rival in the GIII Dominion Day S. July 1.

Heavily bet down to 2-5 going for his second straight graded-stakes win, the 4-year-old wasted no time going right for the lead and assumed command a path off the rail ahead of Carrothers (Mshawish). Always under a wrap by jockey Rafael Hernandez, Tyson was briefly headed as he faced pressure up front from that same rival as the opening half went in :49.88. The top pair raced in tandem around the far turn but the grey had another gear left to find and, when roused at the furlong marker, easily dispatched Carrothers and quickly put open lengths on him to hit the wire much the best.

“He's a really nice horse,” said Hernandez. “[trainer] Josie [Carroll] told me, 'Raffi, just play it by ear. It's a small field, just see what happens and try to give a good race to the horse.' He'll do anything you want him to do. He showed up today.”

“It's one of our best pedigrees, one that we've cultivated for more than 30 years,” added owner/breeder John Sikura. “I have great admiration for Mike Tyson, and I thought this is a special horse, so I wanted to name him Tyson. Wonderful horse, beautifully bred and I want to thank everyone at the farm for the great job they've done, and Josie, for being a magnificent trainer and holding this horse together and getting him on the right track. It looks like he's going to be a champion.”

Pedigree Note:

Out of a winning full-sister to both GI Hollywood Starlet S. winner Streaming and SW Treasuring, Tyson counts MGSW Cezanne (Curlin), GSW/G1SP Arabian Hope (Distorted Humor), and recent GI Belmont S. hero Arcangelo (Arrogate) as members of his extended family under just his second dam. Third dam Better Than Honour is responsible for a pair of Belmont S. winners in champion 3-year-old filly Rags to Riches (A.P. Indy) and Jazil (Seeking the Gold) along with GSW/G1SP Casino Drive (Mineshaft) and GSW/GISP Greatest Honour (Tapit). Honouring has not produced a live foal since reporting a full-sister to Tyson in 2021 but did visit leading general sire Into Mischief for the 2024 season.

https://twitter.com/TVG/status/1685394111720001536?s=20

Saturday, Woodbine
SEAGRAM CUP S.-GII, C$178,850, Woodbine, 7-29, 3yo/up,
1 1/16m (AWT), 1:43.26, ft.
1–TYSON, 124, c, 4, by Tapit
      1st Dam: Honouring, by Smart Strike
      2nd Dam: Teeming, by Storm Cat
      3rd Dam: Better Than Honour, by Deputy Minister
($250,000 RNA Ylg '20 KEESEP). O/B-Hill 'n' Dale Equine
Holdings Inc (J G Sikura) & Stretch Run Ventures LLC (KY);
T-Josie Carroll; J-Rafael Manuel Hernandez. C$105,000.
Lifetime Record: 5-4-0-1, $225,205. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click
for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free
Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Carrothers, 122, g, 5, Mshawish–Queenofperfection, by Arch.
($125,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Mad Dog Racing Stable; B-Siena
Farms LLC (KY); T-Martin Drexler. C$35,000.
3–Artie's Storm, 122, g, 5, We Miss Artie–Tiz Stormy Now, by
Tiznow. O-Buttigieg Training Centre; B-Sunrise Farm (ON);
T-Paul M Buttigieg. C$23,100.
Margins: 3, HF, 4HF. Odds: 0.45, 4.00, 14.25.
Also Ran: Clear Destination, Kingmax (Ire), Seventyseven Stone.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs.
VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

 

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Canada’s Leading Second-Crop Sire Counterforce To Relocate

Counterforce (Smart Strike), currently Canada's leading second-crop sire and 2022 champion freshman sire, will relocate from Road's End Farm in British Columbia to Stride Away Thoroughbreds in the Okanagan region for the 2024 season. The stakes winner is a half-brother to GII winner Cezanne (Curlin) and out of a half-sister to the dam of Saturday's GI Belmont S. winner Arcangelo (Arrogate).

“He's a lovely horse, with a magnificent pedigree,” said Stride Away co-owner Cathy Reggelsen. “He came out firing as a freshman last year and that's certainly continued this season already. He's producing athletic-looking horses with good temperaments and we can't wait to show him off to potential breeders. We're very excited to have him here and hope to continue the great work started with him by Jack Bennett [Road's End].”

A fee for Counterforce's 2024 season will be set at a later date.

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This Side Up: Striking Gold Never a Formality

In this business, simply “doing the math” would stop us right in our tracks. Luckily, we have algebra on our side. A daunting equation can always be rescued by that helpfully vague variable, 'x', the unquantifiable ardor of wealthy people: their competitive instinct, their sportsmanship, or simply their outsized egos. At the top of the market, after all, the dollars they spend are not the same as the dollars used by the rest of us to buy coffee or gas. It's not like “real” money at all. But that doesn't mean it can't be subject to a scale of values.

So, to give one example, I shouldn't be at all surprised if the most expensive yearling transaction of 2022 has yet to take place, despite that booming market at Keeneland over the past few days. American investment at the Tattersalls October Sale has been soaring in recent years, and the environment this time round could not be more congenial. Even the biggest domestic investors will be bringing a penknife to a gunfight. Sterling has hit a 37-year low against the dollar and, with the fiscal helm in Britain seized by navigators unorthodox to the point of eccentricity, you couldn't rule out outright parity between the two currencies by the time Tattersalls raises a hammer over several yearlings from the penultimate crop of Galileo (Ire).

And here's another calculation for the rich; specifically, for those prosperous partners privileged to share Flightline (Tapit). If all goes well at the Breeders' Cup, somebody in their decision-making huddle will surely point out that nowadays he has the option of banking the equivalent of around 50 covers, even at his likely fee, with a 110-second gallop in Saudi Arabia. (Conceivably it might even be muttered that the race is scheduled just 11 days into the breeding season.)

From the sidelines, we're all fondly anticipating mass public engagement for our sport if Flightline is permitted to extend his career beyond a sixth start. Even if his owners were to give us what we want, however, there's a scenario in which we might seem impossible to satisfy. What if they ask us to settle for a couple of breakfast broadcasts from the desert, before he rests up and takes in maybe a single prep before the Breeders' Cup? I think our gratitude might soon obtain a rather peevish note.

On some level, those imploring his owners to keep him in training are suggesting some implicit duty to the sport. That feels a little unfair. At the same time, if we are asked to believe that their strategy really won't be governed simply by dollars and cents, then it does at least become a question of the kind of legacy they wish to create from a generational opportunity.

Flightline's stud career is emphatically part of that, too, though let's not forget that even an authentic racetrack phenomenon must start over and prove himself in his second career. For now, it's not as though Flightline could be sensibly proposed as an equivalent wager, in terms of what a breeder should be expected to pay, to Into Mischief.

At 126, Flightline has authored one of just eight Beyers ever recorded at 125 or more. The only horse to hit a higher mark, Ghostzapper (128), is also the only one with any pretension to having maintained his elite status at stud. More typical are the fortunes of the horse with the unique distinction of clocking two of those eight Himalayan Beyers.

In his three final starts, Formal Gold ran 126, 124 (smashing a 40-year Monmouth track record) and 125; he was going into the Breeders' Cup on an irresistible roll when derailed by injury. Yet he would prove a thoroughly anonymous stallion, best redeemed by Semaphore Man, who annually contested the GIII Count Fleet H., aged four through seven, for finishes of 3-2-1-1. After failing to get any of three Saskatchewan mares in foal in 2017, Formal Gold was retired into the best of care but nobody noticed when he quietly slipped away two or three years back.

Now obviously Flightline is a radically different proposition. And not just because Formal Gold, expertly handled by the unsung Bill Perry and thriving on the attentions of Skip Away and Will's Way, stood up to 16 starts in 15 months. Formal Gold cost $62,000 as Hip 1657 at the September Sale; Flightline made seven figures at Saratoga. Alongside his freakish performances, then, he evidently has the genetic and physical wherewithal to make a better fist of his next career.

But even Secretariat notoriously failed to find a male heir. All Thoroughbreds tend to keep us guessing, in some respect or other, and that's never going to change. Certainly I can't buy into the notion that Flightline has fueled the market boom by showing that even really big numbers can be made to make sense. The year he was sold was no different from any other, in terms of the spectrum of outcomes.

It was that September, for instance, that the daughter of Leslie's Lady and American Pharoah made $8.2 million, and there's no need to remind anyone of the tragedy that ensued. That kind of thing can happen to any horse, but it's pretty sobering to scroll down the other top prices paid at that auction. They were obviously well assessed, physically, because most have made the racetrack. But while Malathaat (Curlin) has proved a million bucks very well spent, and there have been moments of excitement for the likes of Spielberg (Union Rags) and Overtook (Curlin), suffice to say that there are some pretty expensive geldings pottering around out there.

The late Cezanne in March | Horsephotos

Another of the headline scores of the 2019 bloodstock market was the $3.65-million Curlin colt that topped Fasig-Tipton's 2-year-old sale at Gulfstream. I was extremely sorry, this week, to read that Cezanne's various travails since had reached a fatal nadir in a fungal infection. He will duly remain an unfinished masterpiece, albeit even he managed two more starts than Flightline to this point. Cezanne's whole story has proved a very poignant one: most obviously, as the parting bow of Jimmy Crupi, but also given the premature loss (through colic) of a dam from one of the most brilliantly curated families in the book.

Cezanne had shown sufficient flashes of brilliance to merit a chance at stud and, this business being what it is, he would have started with the same blank slate as will Flightline. So we can never know, from one day to the next, quite when a Thoroughbred has achieved its definitive value.

As such, in enjoying a loaded GI Pennsylvania Derby on Saturday, perhaps we should cast our minds back to the 1996 running when Formal Gold was turned over at short odds. In the event, it proved that he had barely started. Maybe that can still prove true of Zandon (Upstart), in which hope I'm clinging stubbornly to the wreckage after his championship credentials took a battering in the GI Travers.

To me, he looked like a horse in some kind of discomfort that day, the way he carried his head turning in, and I refuse to forget the way he glided into contention on the first Saturday in May. For such a baffling Derby, it is turning out to be a pretty good one, and yet there was a moment when Zandon looked in a class of his own.

His equation still has that 'x' element, and maybe his new jockey will discover its true value. You know, I might even stake a dollar or two out of my grocery budget.

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