Frank Mitchell | Horse Racing Free Tips

Bloodlines Presented by Caracaro: Into Mischief Works His Magic With Sugar Swirl 1-2 Finish

The Grade 3 Sugar Swirl Stakes at Gulfstream Park provided another example for leading sire Into Mischief (by Harlan's Holiday) to show the speed upgrade he offers, as he was sire of the first two finishers. The winner was first-time stakes winner Center Aisle, and the second-place finisher was multiple G2 winner Frank's Rockette, who also was second in the G1 Spinaway and Frizette in 2019 as a 2-year-old. Into Mischief's ability to sire quality speed in his offspring has made him the most expensive stallion in North America and one of its most popular.

The broad-bodied bay lends speed to nearly any mating, whether it's a distinguished family or not, but Into Mischief's contribution seems particularly effective with good lines that have just gotten stale, or faintly lacking in speed for the finish.

Bred in Kentucky by Breffni Farm, Center Aisle is out of a mare of distinguished pedigree that had produced modest results until this filly came along. The marketplace knew it immediately, paying $165,000 for her as a weanling at the Keeneland November sale in 2017. The emerging excellence of Center Aisle brought a bigger price of $450,000 at the September yearling sale, and her final presentation at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Florida March auction realized another major adjustment upward to $1.5 million from OXO Equine, which races the new G3 stakes winner.

The filly's first two dams were bred and raced by Juddmonte Farms; the third and fourth dams were bred and raced for Christiana Stables.

Both operations were known for an insistence upon quality of pedigree and performance, and it is no surprise that the fifth dam, Enchanted Eve (Lovely Night), was a high-class racemare who finished second in the 1952 Alabama Stakes and became the dam of Tempted (Half Crown), the champion older mare of 1959.

A winner of the Alabama Stakes, Tempted won the Beldame and Maskette (twice), plus a half-dozen other stakes in a distinguished career for earnings of $330,760 when that was real money.

Tempted's younger sibling Instant Sin (Restless Native) was born a decade after the older filly's championship season and had only a maiden victory from three starts, earning $3,024.

Retained by Christiana and bred to the famed breeder's Futurity Stakes winner Cyane (Turn-to), Instant Sin produced the unraced Nimble Folly, who was unable to have a racing career but proved to be the jackpot at stud.

Sold to Derry Meeting Farm at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November sale for $285,000, Nimble Folly promptly produced G1 winner Contredance (Danzig). Sold to Henryk de Kwiatkowski at the 1983 Saratoga select sale for $175,000, Contredance won the Arlington-Washington Lassie and Adirondack, finished third in the Spinaway, and later won the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland before it became a G1.

Acquired subsequently by Juddmonte, Nimble Folly then produced three more stakes winners, including G2 winner Skimble (Lyphard), a lovely chestnut who won the G2 Dahlia and Wilshire handicaps. Retired to the elite broodmare band at Juddmonte, Skimble produced the notably inbred Skimming (Nureyev), thus 2×3 to Northern Dancer. Racing for Juddmonte, Skimming twice won the G1 Pacific Classic at his beloved Del Mar, where he was unbeaten, and earned more than $2.2 million.

Intriguingly, Skimming was Skimble's first foal, and she was thereafter sent almost exclusively to stallions from the Mr. Prospector line. Toward the end of that sequence of minor performers was Specification (Empire Maker), who was unplaced in a pair of starts in Ireland.

With a list of duds from Skimble and that piddling race record, Specification was surplus to requirements for Juddmonte's splendid broodmare band, and the bay daughter of Belmont Stakes winner Empire Maker was sent to the 2011 December mares sale at Tattersalls, where she sold to Mick Shannon for 48,000 guineas (about $78,000). The price suggests that she was a respectable specimen, and there wasn't much to quibble about in the racing class of the dam and sibling.

Brought to Kentucky, Specification proved a dam of winners. Sent through the Keeneland November sale in 2017 in foal to the quick sire Kantharos, she brought $37,000 from Todd and Shawn Hansen. The foal that followed her into the ring was a bay filly by Into Mischief.

Now we know her as Center Aisle.

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 Frank's lively Bloodstock in the Bluegrass blog.

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Bloodlines Presented By Iowa Thoroughbred Breeders And Owners Association: Saratoga Sprint Stars Trace Back To Seattle Slew

In addition to exceptional speed, Gamine (by Into Mischief) and Yaupon (Uncle Mo) share some other factors. In pedigree most notably, both are male-line representatives of Lord Derby's famed stallion Phalaris through his grandson Nearco, thence through Nearco's sons Nasrullah (Yaupon) and Nearctic (Gamine).

The winners of the Grade 1 Ballerina Handicap and Forego Stakes at Saratoga descend from the epochal 20th century sire Phalaris not only in the male line but also through numerous collateral lines in their pedigrees.

And in the bottom halves of their pedigrees, their dam's half of the pedigree tree, is the name of a Phalaris-line horse who became one of the hottest “secrets” of the 1976 racing season with his morning works at Saratoga. The dark brown, nearly black, son of the first-season sire Bold Reasoning had an unfamiliar name and was trained by a relatively unknown conditioner named Bill Turner.

Seattle Slew, his trainer, and the members of the Slew Crew did not stay unfamiliar.

The burly, dark-coated colt was delighting clockers at Saratoga with works that allegedly included at least one three-furlong move in :33 and change that was reported as a time more expected from an unraced 2-year-old.

Clockers, who are paid something less than brain surgeons, were as reluctant as anyone to let a good thing go by without making the most of it, but Seattle Slew was one of the worst-kept secrets of the Saratoga backside that summer of 1976.

A knock in a stall kept the colt from starting at the Spa, but when he was unveiled at Belmont Park on Sept. 20, Seattle Slew was the favorite at 5-to-2. He won by five lengths.

The colt's next race was a solid allowance victory on Oct. 5, but Seattle Slew's third start came only 11 days later in the Champagne Stakes at a mile. Favored at slightly more than even money, Seattle Slew was quickly away from the gate, made every pole a winning one, and cruised home the victor by 9 3/4 lengths.

That race elevated 'Slew' to a sports celebrity, and even among fans relatively removed from the racetrack, the colt became a focus of great interest to professionals and novices alike.

A champion at two after those three dominating performances, Seattle Slew returned at three to win his prep races and the Triple Crown without defeat, then lost the Swaps Stakes to J.O. Tobin (Never Bend) and did not race again until four.

Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old in 1977, Seattle Slew returned to racing from a 10-month layoff in May 1978 with a new trainer, Doug Peterson. The dashing colt had lost none of his ability but managed to lose the Paterson Handicap to Dr. Patches (Dr. Fager), who was in receipt of 14 pounds, and as a result, Seattle Slew was not favored in his next start, the Marlboro Cup, where he met 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed (Exclusive Native) for the first time.

Although not favorite for the only time in his career, Seattle Slew raced to victory in the Marlboro Cup over nine furlongs in patented style, going to the front and setting quick, steady fractions and maintaining them throughout. The half-mile was :47, the six furlongs in 1:10 1/5, the mile in 1:33 3/5, and the finish at nine furlongs in 1:45 4/5. Affirmed was second by three lengths and simply could not gain on his competitor.

So Harbor View Farm sat out the Woodward Stakes, where Seattle Slew performed the same sort of summary execution, racing in front the whole way and winning by four lengths in 2:00 for the 10 furlongs. The very high-class multi-surface performer Exceller (Vaguely Noble) was second, 6 3/4 lengths ahead of the third horse.

When the champions reconvened in two weeks for the Jockey Club Gold Cup at 12 furlongs, Seattle Slew set off to do the same thing again, but Affirmed's saddle slipped, and Harbor View Farm's chestnut champion raced to the fore (along with stablemate Life's Hope) and challenged Seattle Slew head to head through the first three-quarters of the Gold Cup with fractions of :22 3/5, :45 1/5, and 1:09 2/5.

Those fractions finished both Affirmed and Life's Hope, but Seattle Slew kept on as Exceller closed the gap between, then raced ahead by at least a half-length at one point in the stretch. Seattle Slew, under Angel Cordero, came back and missed winning the race by a nose.

A winner in 14 of 17 starts, Seattle Slew had proved his speed and gameness to fans, historians, and notably to breeders, many of whom supported him well when he went to stud the following spring at Spendthrift Farm.

From the champion's first crop came champions Landaluce and Slew o' Gold, from his second crop came champion and classic winner Swale. A success from the start, Seattle Slew has become an important factor for strong bodies, solid bone, and high speed in the racehorse.

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Bloodlines: Freshman Sire Race Beginning To Pick Up The Pace

The freshmen sires of 2021 are pipping like chicks ready to break out of their shells. They've incubated long enough, and breeders, owners, and stallion managers are ready to see the results, as well as the racing public. After a year for gestation and a further two and half years of growth and preparation, the first-crop racers by these new sires are coming to the races, and some are getting their pictures taken.

Nine freshmen sires have had a black-type winner so far. Ashford's formerly Irish-based Caravaggio (by Scat Daddy) leads the group with three stakes winners, and Horse of the Year Gun Runner (Candy Ride) leads by earnings with a pair of stakes winners from his base at Three Chimneys. Unified (Candy Ride) stands at Lane's End and is in the mix with a pair of stakes winners also.

Practical Joke (Into Mischief; Ashford), Mohaymen (Tapit; Shadwell), Shaman Ghost (Ghostzapper; Adena Springs North), Bal a Bali (Put it Back; Calumet), and Eagle (Candy Ride; Valor Farm) each have one black-type winner, and Gormley (Malibu Moon; Spendthrift) is the latest to join the group of stakes sires after his High Oak won the Grade 2 Saratoga Special by 4 1/4 lengths over Gunite (Gun Runner) on Aug. 14.

Bred in Kentucky by Catherine Parke, High Oak is the fifth named foal and first stakes winner for his dam, the Elusive Quality mare Champagne Sue. Parke said, “When you get a super good-looking colt, and it goes to a trainer like Bill Mott, the sky's the limit,” and High Oak came along just when his dam needed the boost from a high-class stakes winner.

“This is such a good-looking, strong mare. She's a full 16.1 with a big, strong hindquarter, and she reproduces those looks. She's had several nice-looking foals,” Parke said, “including her first,” a Mineshaft colt who sold for six figures as a yearling and a 2-year-old, then won four races in Japan and earned $428,185.

Aside from that, Champagne Sue might be thought a hard-luck mare. “She had a barren year, then lost a foal,” Parke recalled. “We had a couple of years when I'd have given up on her, but for that pedigree.”

Champagne Sue is a half-sister to G3 Affirmed winner Golden Itiz (Tiznow) and G2 Prioress winner Sapphire n' Silk (Pleasant Tap).

The latter is the dam of two stakes winners, and all told, the second dam, Golden Tiy (Dixieland Band), has five daughters who have produced stakes winners. Most importantly, one of the winning half-sisters is Silk n' Sapphire (Smart Strike), whom Parke bought in 2008. The mare produced Grade 1 winner Shared Account (Breeders' Cup Filly Turf) and Grade 3 winner Colonial Flag (Pleasant Tap).

Parke bought Champagne Sue in 2010 and sold High Oak as a foal in 2019 for $37,000, the fifth-highest price for a weanling by Gormley. The colt resold as a yearling at Keeneland September for $70,000, the ninth-highest of 75 Gormley yearlings. Champagne Sue is back in foal to first-season sire Instagrand (Into Mischief).

Winner of the G1 FrontRunner in 2016 and the G1 Santa Anita Derby in 2017, Gormley covered his first book of mares in 2018 at Spendthrift and was immensely popular with breeders, many of whom scooped up seasons that gave them a lifetime breeding right in the horse. To secure a breeding right, mare owners had to sign up to breed a mare to the horse at a stud fee of $12,500 for the first two seasons. Of those, 57 completed the program and now own a lifetime right in an upwardly mobile freshman sire. Typical of the A.P. Indy sire line, Gormley is a sizable, lengthy horse who performed best at a mile and up, and a large part of his foals seem to be cast in this type with good size and scope.

High Oak won the Special going 6 1/2 furlongs and looked stronger at the end than at the midpoint of the Saratoga Special, which suggests he could improve when racing at longer distances.

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In addition to Gunite's second in the Saratoga Special, champion Gun Runner is one of three freshmen sons of leading sire Candy Ride with a stakes winner. Both Unified and Gun Runner have a pair of stakes winners. Eagle is the third son of Candy Ride, and he stands in Texas at Valor Farm. His daughter Eagle Express won the Pan Zareta division of the Texas Stallion Stakes at Lone Star. Eagle has eight foals in his first crop, whereas Gun Runner has 103 and Unified has 88.

Unified's daughter Behave Virginia won the Debutante Stakes at Churchill Downs on June 26, with Gun Runner's daughter Wicked Halo third. Unified added his second stakes winner on Aug. 15 when Roger McQueen won the Ellis Park Juvenile, and Gun Runner's son Costa Terra was third.

Last weekend, Gun Runner had his first two stakes winners when both Wicked Halo and Pappacap won. At Saratoga on Aug. 8, Wicked Halo won the G2 Adirondack Stakes by 3 ½ lengths, and the previous day, Pappacap won the G2 Best Pal at Del Mar by 4 3/4 lengths. Thanks to this positive stakes activity, Gun Runner sits atop the freshman sire standings with $802.863.

While Candy Ride is riding high with three well-regarded freshmen, both Tapit (Mohaymen and Divining Rod) and Malibu Moon (Gormley and Stanford) have two sons each in the top 15 at this point.

The lengthening distances and increasing competition will continue to illuminate the merits of the sires and their offspring, while providing fascinating racing in the coming months.

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Bloodlines: Bella Sofia Adds To History Of Spa Success For Grey Flight And Her Descendants

There once was a mare named Grey Flight.

A foal of 1945, the gray daughter of English Derby winner Mahmoud (by Derby winner Blenheim) sold at the 1946 Saratoga select yearling sale. The filly was so fine that she brought $45,000, the highest price for a filly at the Saratoga sale 75 years ago.

The buyer was the Wheatley Stable of Gladys Mills Phipps, and Grey Flight went on to become a stakes winner at 2 and 3, earning $68,990. Better at two, when she was ranked fourth among the fillies on the Experimental Free Handicap, Grey Flight won the Autumn Days Stakes at Empire City racecourse and was second or third in a half-dozen more stakes that year, including the Frizette and the Spinaway.

Grey Flight's connections to Saratoga do not end with her sale there and good effort in the Spinaway. Most notably, the mare's daughter Bold Princess won the 1962 Schuylerville Stakes at Saratoga, and Grey Flight's son What a Pleasure won the 1967 Hopeful there.

Quite a few of Grey Flight's further descendants have won major events at the Spa over the decades, and on Aug. 7, Bella Sofia won the Grade 1 Test at Saratoga, and her fourth dam is a mare named Clear Ceiling.

Like Bold Princess and What a Pleasure, Clear Ceiling is out of Grey Flight, and all three are by the Horse of the Year and great sire Bold Ruler. When Wheatley Stable retired Bold Ruler to stud at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky, the decision was made to keep the horse, arguably the fastest son of the great sire Nasrullah, as a privately owned stallion by the breeder.

Although the common practice of the time was to syndicate prominent sire prospects, Mrs. Phipps was a woman of independent mind and fortune, and she certainly loved her horses. By keeping Bold Ruler privately owned, Wheatley took a risk by losing the profits from a syndication; the benefit of keeping him private was that Wheatley was able to arrange foal-shares for its increasingly popular sire with some of the best broodmares in the country.

As luck would have it, however, Wheatley had two of the best broodmares in the breed already in their band at Claiborne: Grey Flight and her champion daughter Misty Morn (Princequillo).

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In all, Grey Flight produced nine stakes winners, including three by Bold Ruler, and Misty Morn produced five stakes winners, including four by Bold Ruler. Two of those were the champions Bold Lad (champion juvenile colt of 1964) and his full brother Successor (champion juvenile colt of 1966). Misty Morn had been one of the mares in Bold Ruler's first book, and she produced the filly Bold Consort, who won the 1963 Test Stakes.

One of Grey Flight's foals by Bold Ruler who didn't win a stakes was Clear Ceiling, a filly born in 1968. From 17 starts, Clear Ceiling won five races, and she became an important producer when sent to stud.

Her best racer was 1,000 Guineas winner Quick as Lightning, who proved the only winner of a top-class race bred on the cross of Horse of the Year Buckpasser to a daughter of Horse of the Year Bold Ruler.

Clear Ceiling's second and third stakes winners were Stratospheric and Infinite, by the Phipps stallion Majestic Light (Majestic Prince). Tragically, both Quick as Lightning and Stratospheric died before producing foals, but Infinite, winner of the Garden City Stakes and third in the Diana and the Yellow Ribbon, did manage to produce the minor stakes winner Polish Treaty (Danzig), as well as the three-time winner Option Contract (Forty Niner).

Option Contract is the second dam of Bella Sofia and produced the solid stakes winner Shake the Dice, who earned $523,851, and the stakes-placed Love Contract (Consolidator), who is the dam of this year's winner of the Test.

Bella Sofia is the third foal of her dam, following winners by Bullet Train and Overanalyze. Now a winner in three of her four starts, Bella Sofia has immediately brought a degree of attention to her sire, Awesome Patriot, that was missing before.

Retired to stud in Kentucky at Spendthrift Farm, Awesome Patriot (Awesome Again) is a full brother to 2013 Preakness winner Oxbow, who has his best racer to date in 2021: Hot Rod Charlie, who was home first in the G1 Haskell (then disqualified), second in the G1 Belmont Stakes, and winner of the G2 Louisiana Derby earlier in the year.

Bella Sofia is undoubtedly the best racer to represent Awesome Patriot and is the sire's fifth lifetime stakes winner from five crops of racing age. Now standing at stud in Ohio, Awesome Patriot is notable for his part in reviving the G1 quality in this branch of the historic female line of Grey Flight.

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