Frank Mitchell | Horse Racing Free Tips

Bloodlines Presented By Mill Ridge Farm: ‘Stock’ Is Rising For Breeders’ Futurity Grads

Last year's Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland is looking more and more like a key race for the classics this year. The winner was last year's champion juvenile colt, Essential Quality (by Tapit), who is still unbeaten and is the solid favorite for the Kentucky Derby next month.

The second-place finisher in the Breeders' Futurity was Keepmeinmind (Laoban), who won the G2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs in his next start, although he has not found his best form so far this season.

Farther back in the Futurity were a pair of well regarded colts who have taken a step forward, however, and they specifically did so over the weekend. Of those, Super Stock was third in the Breeders' Futurity, and the bay son of Dialed In dimmed some classic dreams with a victory by 2 1/2 lengths in the G1 Arkansas Derby over the previously unbeaten Concert Tour (Street Sense) and the well-regarded Caddo River (Hard Spun).

The Arkansas Derby was the first graded stakes victory for Super Stock, who was bred in Kentucky by Pedro Gonzalez and P.J. Gonzalez and then sold at the 2019 Keeneland September yearling sale to Erv Woolsey and Keith Asmussen for $70,000.

That was a solid price for a yearling by the good young sire Dialed In (Mineshaft), who also sired classic prospect Gunnevera in his first crop. Likewise, Dialed In was a classic contender during his own 3-year-old season with victories in the G3 Holy Bull Stakes and the G1 Florida Derby.

Super Stock comes from his sire's fifth crop and is one of 15 stakes winners by the stallion, who stands at Darby Dan Farm for $15,000 live foal. Dialed In's other 3-year-olds include Papetu, who ran third in the G2 Fountain of Youth; Get Her Number, who was fourth in the Arkansas Derby; and Exogen, who was second in the Cicada at Aqueduct.

Super Stock is the fifth foal and fourth winner from his dam, the Closing Argument mare Super Girlie. She is also the dam of Boujie Girl (Flashback), who was third in the G1 Del Mar Debutante. Super Girlie was barren in 2019 and has a bay yearling colt by Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy).

Super Stock's broodmare sire, Closing Argument, was second in the 2005 Kentucky Derby, beaten a half-length by Giacomo. So there are classic elements in the pedigree, although the dominant classic contributor would appear to be the male line from Seattle Slew, A.P. Indy, and Mineshaft.

Coming to the Arkansas Derby, Super Stock was already G1-placed from his finish in the Breeders' Futurity, giving him significant form against the best of his crop, and if he maintained that level, he should have been a major force in the race, which proved to be the case.

That was not the status of another racer from the Breeders' Futurity who returned to competition in the G3 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on Saturday. King Fury (Curlin) had been beaten into eighth place in the Breeders' Futurity after going wide on both turns, but the chestnut son of the 2007-2008 Horse of the Year had come back 22 days later and won the listed Street Sense Stakes at Churchill Downs over Super Stock.

Attempts in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes had suggested that King Fury wasn't yet at his best, but the Lexington was the colt's seasonal debut and delivered results that have inclined trainer Kenny McPeek to favor a possible attempt at the Preakness Stakes in mid-May, which the colt's sire won in 2007.

Bred in Kentucky by the Heider Family Stables LLC, King Fury is the only foal out of G1 winner Taris (Flatter). Consigned to the Saratoga select yearling sale in 2019 through Hill 'n' Dale, King Fury brought $950,000 and races for Fern Circle Stables and Three Chimneys Farm.

Taris was bred in Kentucky by Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider and then was sold for $90,000 at the 2012 Keeneland September yearling sale to Commonwealth New Era Racing. After winning the G2 Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland, Taris sold to Coolmore for $2.35 million at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton November sale. The next year, Taris won another graded stakes and was third in the G1 Breeders' Cup Filly Sprint. At five, she won the 2016 G1 Humana Distaff and later was sold privately to the Heider Family Stables. Taris was retired for breeding in 2017 and died after foaling King Fury in 2018.

With his victory in the Lexington, King Fury made a significant step toward fulfilling the high hopes held for a racer of his pedigree and excellent physical character.

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Bloodlines Presented By Mill Ridge Farm: Malathaat And The Dream Family

Superstar stallions have the highest stud fees, not for their good looks, but for the number of their racers who show up on the weekend cards for the premier races. Once again, Curlin, Into Mischief, and Tapit scored heavily over the Easter weekend of racing, with the highly regarded Bernardini and Candy Ride picking up major stakes on opposite coasts, as well.

At Keeneland on Saturday, the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes went to Malathaat (by Curlin). Bred in Kentucky by Stonestreet and sold to Shadwell for $1.05 million at the 2019 Keeneland September yearling sale, Malathaat remained unbeaten with this victory in her fourth start, and she became the third generation of Grade 1 winners for her female line.

Malathaat is out of the A.P. Indy mare Dreaming of Julia, who won the G1 Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park as a 2-year-old and then ran second in the G1 Mother Goose the following year.

After retiring to stud, Dreaming of Julia was sent first to Horse of the Year Ghostzapper (Awesome Again) and produced a colt who was not named. In 2017, the mare produced Golden Julia (Medaglia d'Oro), who also died, and Malathaat is the third foal from Dreaming of Julia.

Of Golden Julia, Stonestreet adviser John Moynihan recalled: “We kept the Medaglia d'Oro filly the year before Malathaat, and Golden Julia was phenomenal. When we sent her to the training center in Florida, Ian [Brennan, trainer at the Stonestreet Training and Rehabilitation Center] said she was light years ahead of the rest in the crop, was phenomenal at every stage. As these things in racing do, however, she ended up getting hurt in a stall, she had a pelvis injury, and we lost her. It was heartbreaking because she was a Grade 1 horse if I ever saw one; I told Barbara that she'd have been one of the best we'd ever raced.”

The mare's 2-year-old is an unnamed colt by Medaglia d'Oro; she has a yearling full sister to Malathaat, a filly foal of 2021 by Medaglia d'Oro at Stonestreet, and goes back to Curlin.

As a Grade 1 winner, Dreaming of Julia was the most accomplished foal of her dam, Grade 1 winner Dream Rush, and she won half of her eight starts at two and three.

But, there would be some who might argue that the mare's other graded stakes-winning daughter, two-time Grade 3 winner Dream Pauline (Tapit), was just as good. A winner in four of five starts, Dream Pauline won the G3 Hurricane Bertie and Sugar Swirl Stakes at Gulfstream.

Both are broodmares at Stonestreet, and Dream Pauline had her first foal, a chestnut colt by Curlin, in February.

Their dam, Dream Rush, has produced three stakes winners, the two fillies above and the colt Atreides (Medaglia d'Oro), who likewise won four of his five starts, then went to stud in Kentucky at Hill n' Dale Farm (now at Xalapa).

On the racetrack, Dream Rush was one of three black-type performers out of the Unbridled mare Turbo Dream, who was unraced. Turbo Dream also is the dam of Adream (Bernardini), dam of the G3 winner Song of Spring (Spring at Last).

There is no question that Dream Rush was much the best of all the foals from Turbo Dream. Dream Rush won both her two starts as a juvenile, then advanced impressively as a 3-year-old to win the Old Hat Stakes at Gulfstream, the G2 Nassau County at Belmont, place second in the G1 Acorn, then win the G1 Prioress and Test Stakes before finishing unplaced in the 2007 Breeders' Cup Filly Sprint.

That race was Oct. 26 at Monmouth Park, and nine days later she was in the ring at the 2007 Fasig-Tipton November sale.

As agent for Halsey Minor, Debbie Easter bought Dream Rush for $3.3 million after a spirited bidding battle, and the then-3-year-old was sold as a racing or broodmare prospect.

Easter said, “She was a big, long, beautiful mare, and with a pair of Grade 1 victories. This was his first venture into broodmares, and she was what we were looking for as a foundation mare. Dream Rush was one of the most beautiful mares I've ever seen, had such a lovely attitude, and was a great athletic individual.”

Unfortunately, Dream Rush didn't reproduce her earlier form, coming back to race at four and five, but only placing third in the G1 Princess Rooney and second in the G2 Vagrancy.

“The point of the purchase,” Easter said, “was to acquire a foundation broodmare and that has worked out beautifully.”

The plan worked out for Stonestreet, rather than for Minor, who dispersed his stock after getting stuck in the Great Recession.

On acquiring Dream Rush from Minor, Moynihan recalled that “a year or two after the Fasig sale, he called, said that he remembered our bidding for Dream Rush, and asked if we'd be interested in buying the mare privately.

“When we bought her, it was about this time of year, and we were still waiting days to see if she was in foal from a cover to A.P. Indy,” and she was.

Dream Rush produced her first foal for Stonestreet in 2010, and that was Dreaming of Julia.

Since then, Dream Rush has had eight more foals, and after a pair of barren years in 2019 and 2020, the 17-year-old mare had a filly by Bernardini earlier this year. Moynihan noted that “we were trying to get a filly to carry on the line from Dream Rush,” and they got one.

Some dreams never go away, and some even come true.

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Bloodlines Presented By Mill Ridge Farm: Idol Was A Milestone Winner For Top Sire Curlin

Leading sire Curlin (by Smart Strike) picked up another first-time stakes winner over the weekend, and the victory came in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap. Idol was making his sixth start, and the Santa Anita Handicap came as the bay colt's third success from six starts, with two seconds and a third, for earnings of $416,464.

The 75th stakes winner by Curlin, Idol was bred in Kentucky by My Meadowview LLC and sold as a yearling for $375,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September yearling sale.

Lincoln Collins, the bloodstock adviser for My Meadowview, said that “Idol was always a strong, good-looking young horse who looked like he would mature into a colt who would thrive at 10 furlongs, and we had great hopes for him.”

The big bay did not immediately, however, prove out those high hopes for his success.

Unraced at two, Idol made his debut last year at Churchill Downs on Sept. 5 as a 3-year-old and finished second going six furlongs. The colt moved up to seven furlongs for his second start, on Sept. 26 at Churchill, and with the help of a swift early pace, he mowed down the opposition to win by 2 1/2 lengths in 1:22.04.

An allowance victory on Nov. 8 at 9.5 furlongs brought a new Churchill Downs track record of 1:55.95 as Idol won off by 5 3/4 lengths as the odds-on favorite at .50-to-1. The colt's three subsequent starts have all been in graded stakes at Santa Anita: the G2 San Antonio (second), G2 San Pasqual (third), and the Santa Anita Handicap.

Not only has Curlin made his name as a sire by producing high-quality performers at more than a mile but also having stock that stay sound and succeed as they mature. Idol has clearly followed the memo.

Collins said, “One of the challenges of breeding a horse like this is that one is treading a fine line between a horse that stays and a horse that is slow. And especially here in the States, a horse that stays has to be very high class; otherwise there's no place for him to race.”

By a two-time Horse of the Year, Idol is the third foal out of the listed stakes winner Marion Ravenwood (A.P. Indy), and he is the mare's first stakes winner, although her second foal, the Midnight Lute colt Ark in the Dark, has current earnings of $193,023.

The mare has an unraced 3-year-old colt by Pioneerof the Nile named Dr Jack. He sold for $250,000 at the 2018 Keeneland November sale as a weanling, then resold as a 2-year-old in training at the OBS spring sale last year (April sale in June) for $170,000.

Marion Ravenwood herself sold for $400,000 at the 2017 Keeneland November auction when Idol was a weanling. The mare was in foal to Pioneerof the Nile with Dr Jack at the time. In addition to the colt above, the mare's 2019 filly was a full sister to Idol who sold for $350,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September sale.

Last year, Marion Ravenwood produced a colt by Violence and she was bred to City of Light for 2021.

Although Idol missed out on the classics, he comes from a family with a grand classic tradition. The colt traces in the female line to Boudoir, a daughter of English Derby winner Mahmoud. Her most important foals were Your Host (Alibhai, by English Derby winner Hyperion, by wartime English Triple Crown winner Gainsborough). Your Host became the sire of five-time Horse of the Year Kelso, and Your Host's full sister Your Hostess was stakes-placed and became a famous broodmare.

Your Hostess produced four stakes winners, including T.V. Commercial (T.V. Lark), who won 15 of 55 races, including the Arlington-Washington Futurity and the Breeders' Futurity; Gallatia (Gallant Man), who won the Schuylerville Stakes at Saratoga; and Corragioso (Gallant Man), who won the Alcibiades and five other stakes.

More importantly for our story was the fourth foal of Your Hostess: Gay Hostess (Royal Charger). This striking mare produced Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Majestic Prince (Raise a Native), as well as the English highweight juvenile colt Crowned Prince, also by Raise a Native. Their full sister Meadow Blue was the last foal out of Your Hostess and was not raced.

At stud, Meadow Blue produced a stakes winner and a pair of stakes-placed racers. All five of her daughters produced stakes winners. The most immediately important was the Believe It mare Really Blue, who became the dam of champion Real Quiet (Quiet American), winner of the 1998 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, 1997 Hollywood Futurity, and the 1999 Pimlico Special and Hollywood Gold Cup.

Meadow Blue's stakes-winning daughter Nureyev's Best (Nureyev) is the third dam of Idol. Her best foal was the G2 stakes winner Andujar (Quiet American), who won the Milady, was third in the G1 Vanity at Hollywood Park and in the G1 Go for Wand at Saratoga. Andujar is the second dam of Idol, and her two stakes winners are Marion Ravenwood (A.P. Indy), dam of the Idol, and Abstraction, by A.P. Indy's high-class son Pulpit and a winner of the Federico Tesio Stakes.

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Bloodlines Presented By Mill Ridge Farm: Saudi Cup Winner Mishriff Extends Middle East’s Racing Legacy

The victory of last year's Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) winner Mishriff (by Make Believe) in the 2021 Saudi Cup on Feb. 20 was a fascinating piece of international sporting competition, and the result highlighted a couple of interesting points.

One is that international racing has resoundingly shifted the basis and emphasis of winter racing to the warmer climates, especially those of the Middle East. The second is that one of the architects of that shift in emphasis, Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum of the UAE, has almost single-handedly also managed the continuation of one of the handsomest and most talented branches of the Mr. Prospector line.

Although neither owned nor bred by one of the Maktoum entities, Mishriff is an extension of the line descending from Mr. Prospector's elegant and highly talented son Seeking the Gold, bred and owned by Ogden Phipps and a stallion at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky for his entire career. Sheikh Mohammed bred the best son of Seeking the Gold, the once-beaten Dubai Millennium, whose nine victories included four Group 1 races: Dubai World Cup, Prince of Wales's Stakes, Prix Jacques le Marois, and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.

A remarkably handsome horse who stayed 10 furlongs well, Dubai Millennium went to stud with great expectations. This exceptional animal, however, fell victim to grass sickness and died part-way through his first season at stud in 2001. He left behind only 56 foals born the next year, and yet from that small group comes the continuation of this line of Mr. Prospector.

Although the sire of several good horses from his first crop, the star was Dubawi, a winner of three Group 1 races: National Stakes at two; the Irish 2,000 Guineas and Jacques le Marois at three. Second in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II and third in the G1 Derby Stakes at Epsom, Dubawi stayed quite well, although he was a touch off his amazing sire for absolute ability.

Sent to stud at four in 2006, Dubawi has been a revelation as a stallion, siring 52 G1 winners to date and standing now for 250,000 euros (US$303,638) for a live foal. Among the stallion's G1 winners are the highweighted Ghaiyyath (Coronation Cup and Eclipse Stakes) and Too Darn Hot (Dewhurst), as well as the classic winners Night of Thunder (2,000 Guineas), New Bay (Prix du Jockey Club), and Makfi (2,000 Guineas).

The latter was rated the top 3-year-old miler in Europe in 2010 and entered stud in 2011. From Makfi's first crop came Make Believe, a smooth bay colt who won a pair of G1 races: the 2015 Poule d'Essai des Poulains (French 2,000 Guineas) and Prix de la Foret. Those efforts were enough to give Make Believe the top ranking among the French 3-year-old colts in 2015.

The next year, however, his sire Makfi was sold to Japan. In the fall of 2016, the Japanese Bloodstock Breeders' Association announced that they had purchased Makfi to stand in Japan at the JBBA Stallion Station.

Typically, the exit abroad of a stallion when his first crop are only four is a decidedly negative sign. Makfi's top son, Make Believe, however, went to stud in 2016 and has proceeded to go from strength to greater strength.

With his first crop now four, Make Believe has sired French classic winner Mishriff, and that colt is a key to the enduring fortunes of this line because Mishriff's owner-breeder, Prince A.A. Faisal, also owned and raced Make Believe.

As a weanling, Make Believe sold to Hugo Merry for 180,000 guineas at the 2012 Tattersalls mixed sale and went into training with Andre Fabre for Prince Faisal. After winning a pair of G1s at three, Make Believe went to stud in Ireland at Ballylinch Stud, where he stands today.

Mishriff is from his sire's first crop and is the third stakes horse from three racers out of the mare Contradict, a daughter of Breeders' Cup Classic winner Raven's Pass (Elusive Quality). The mare's earlier produce are the listed stakes winner Orbaan (Invincible Spirit) and multiple G3-placed Momkin (Bated Breath).

Prince Faisal's Nawara Stud bred the colt in Ireland, and he is the fourth generation of the family owned by Prince Faisal. Nawara Stud bred Mishriff's third dam Rafha (Kris) from the Artaius mare Eljaazi, and the elegant chestnut won the 1990 Prix de Diane at Chantilly.

Sent to stud, Rafha produced four stakes winners, three stakes-placed performers, and a pair of high-quality stallions. First among those was the mare's fifth foal, G1 winner Invincible Spirit (Green Desert), who included Haydock's Sprint Cup among his six victories and who has become an overachieving sire in Europe as an influence for speed and durability. The less-expected sire from Rafha is Kodiac (Danehill), whose best racecourse achievement was a second in a G3 stakes but who has been a marvel at producing speed and precocity. He is the leading sire of 2-year-old winners for a single season with 61.

Two years younger than Kodiac is the now 18-year-old Acts of Grace (Bahri), a G3 stakes-winning daughter of Rafha and the dam of Contradict.

Mishriff is the last reported foal of his dam, but Contradict is in foal to the great Frankel (Galileo) for 2021.

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