Frank Mitchell | Horse Racing Free Tips

Bloodlines: Top Breeders’ Cup Distaff Contenders Have More In Common Than Meets The Eye

The Breeders' Cup Classic annually draws the most attention from various media and the most betting interest from fans. But the Breeders' Cup Distaff is a race of premium, if sometimes unrecognized, merit, and this year's event should be one of the great ones with 2018 champion 3-year-old filly Monomoy Girl (by Tapizar) and 2020 pro-tem champion filly Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) as the headline racers against a fleet of Grade 1 performers.

Both these outstanding horses share common characteristics. On the most superficial level, they are both chestnuts; both have speed and can carry it at least nine furlongs.

More emphatically, they possess the character and assertive attitudes so common among dominant racers. We have only to watch how each of these elite performers asserts herself through the stretch drive of their races to see that attitude in action.

In terms of pedigree similarities, Swiss Skydiver and Monomoy Girl descend in the male line from Eclipse through Bend Or, thence through Phalaris and his grandson Nearco, and then each is linebred multiple times through the deeper generations of their pedigrees to Phalaris in his various branches.

A foal of 1913, Phalaris was bred and raced by Lord Derby, who then put the dark brown racer to stud and reaped rewards and glories that even the avid admirers of Phalaris could not have predicted.

As a racer, Phalaris was quite a good horse. Strong and athletic, he won 16 of 24 starts, with three more efforts in the money, and he showed both high speed and the brawny determination to carry high weights successfully.

The best-known victories of Phalaris came with a pair of successes in the Challenge Stakes at Newmarket. The horse raced during the great social and economic upheaval of the Great War, during which many of the race meetings around England were suspended, but the English managed to uphold some traditions in the wake of the devastation from across the channel.

In 1916, when Phalaris was three, Lord Derby won the 1,000 Guineas with Canyon, by the Stanley House stallion Chaucer (St. Simon), and Phalaris began his 3-year-old season with a third place in the Craven Stakes, then was unplaced in the 2,000 Guineas. The colt won three races later in the season, then progressed notably in his next two seasons.

When assessing Phalaris's performances at four, which included carrying heavy weights and giving away chunks to the competition, the Bloodstock Breeders' Review made the following statement: “Phalaris inspires one with the belief that he is destined to make a great name for himself when he goes to the stud….”

That season, Phalaris won seven races in a row, after finishing second in his seasonal debut, and then lost his final start when unplaced in the Cambridgeshire Handicap.

At five, Phalaris won four of his five starts, at five, six, seven, and eight furlongs, but racing fans wouldn't recognize the names of those races because of the restrictions on sport. Begun when Phalaris was a yearling, World War I bracketed the horse's racing career and ended in 1918 after the retirement of Phalaris. Despite the limitations of a racing career during wartime, Lord Derby sent the good-looking horse to his Stanley House stud, where Phalaris stood alongside classic winner and classic sire Swynford (John o' Gaunt) and his half-brother Chaucer (St. Simon).

Phalaris was an immediate success and led the English sire list in 1925 and 1928. He sired classic winners Manna (Derby and 2,000 Guineas), Colorado (2,000 Guineas), Fairway (St. Leger), and Fair Isle (1,000 Guineas). Lord Derby also bred the classic-placed Pharos, who became a leading sire, getting Nearco among many others. In addition, Lord Derby bred the high-class juvenile Sickle, whom he sold to Joseph Widener to stand at Elmendorf Stud in Kentucky, and his full brother Pharamond, whom Lord Derby sold to Hal Price Headley and who stood at Beaumont Stud.

Sickle is the branch of Phalaris that produced Native Dancer, Raise a Native, Mr. Prospector, and Alydar. Pharamond founded the branch of Phalaris known today mostly through Tom Fool and his great son Buckpasser.

Sickle is the only branch today that holds up as a serious competitor to the dominion of the Nearco branch, which comes to us through Hail to Reason, Halo, More Than Ready; through Nasrullah, Bold Ruler, Secretariat, Seattle Slew, A.P. Indy, and Pulpit; through Northern Dancer, Danzig, Galileo, and many others. Swiss Skydiver is the Hail to Reason branch through More Than Ready's son Daredevil; Monomoy Girl is Nasrullah's branch through Tapit's son Tapizar.

Each of these exceptional racers, like much of their competition, have multiple lines of Phalaris in their extended pedigrees, and like the great founder of this great Thoroughbred family, they have speed, strength, and the determination to win.

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Bloodlines Presented By ThoroughbredAuctions.Com: American Pharoah, Contrail Put Global Triple Crowns In Spotlight

It was a big weekend for Triple Crown winners.

Just weeks after getting his first Grade 1 stakes winner with Harvey's Lil Goil in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland, America's Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah (by Pioneerof the Nile), picked up a second Group 1 winner, this time with the juvenile colt Van Gogh, who won the Criterium International at Saint-Cloud racecourse in France.

Van Gogh was winning for the second time in seven starts, after finishing second in the G2 Juvenile Stakes and G3 Tyros Stakes, both at Leopardstown, as well as another second in the G3 Autumn Stakes at Newmarket. All along, the bay son of American Pharoah has given the impression of wanting to race farther, and he was moved up to a mile in the Autumn Stakes and the Criterium International.

The latter race, however, was raced over heavy going that placed a further premium on strength and stamina. In a display that earned the colt his highest rating yet, he won by six lengths, and the race commentary indicated that the colt extended his lead well in the last furlong and won comfortably.

In winning the race at Saint-Cloud, Van Gogh became the 11th stakes winner for his sire. Nine have shown their form by winning stakes this year at three, and seven have won stakes on turf.

Coolmore's Adrian Wallace said that “I think it's only a matter of time before American Pharoah's record on dirt matches or excels his record on turf. But, that said, Bob Baffert did tell us that he thought the horse would have thrived on turf and would have loved to have tried him on it.”

Both last year, when the sire's first crop were two, as well as in their racing of 2020, the progeny of American Pharoah have excelled on turf.

“Winning on grass does make him more internationally appealing,” Wallace said, “and the word is pretty good on his young horses in Australia, where his first crop are 2-year-olds.”

And the sire just had his third winner of a barrier trial, an important proving ground for young racehorses in Australia and New Zealand.

The “Pharoahs” have excelled on turf, except in Japan. There, American Pharoah has the two top colts racing on dirt in Café Pharoah and Danon Pharoah.

Café Pharoah has won four of his five starts, including the G3 Sirius Stakes and Unicorn Stakes, and his only loss was the Japan Dirt Derby, which was won by Danon Pharoah.

Worldwide, the American Pharoah racers have shown their form on a variety of surfaces, from conventional dirt to the varieties of turf, mud, and heavy ground. They have shown speed, as well as stamina, as we saw with both Pista and this weekend with Van Gogh.

An emphasis on stamina came into play in the highlight of the Triple Crown in Japan as Contrail (Deep Impact) won the Kikuka Sho (St. Leger equivalent) by a long head (officially a neck) to become the third unbeaten winner of the Japan Triple Crown. The colt's sire, Deep Impact (Sunday Silence), was the second, and the first racer in Japan to have this distinction was Symboli Rudolf.

Contrail had been an impressive, even cozy-looking, winner of the Tokyo Yushun (Derby) over 2,400 meters, and the chief question about the dark brown colt was not his high class but whether he would be suited by the distance, as the Kikuka Sho is raced over 3,000 meters (about 1 mile and 7 furlongs).

Away well, Contrail raced in the first third of the field of 18 until midway of the bend leading into the stretch. At the 400-meter mark at the top of the stretch, Contrail drifted a bit wide for the run to the wire, and he was shadowed by the 23-to-1 Aristoteles (Epiphaneia) all the way to the wire. Contrail held onto the advantage over Aristoteles, with Satono Flag (Deep Impact) another 3 1/2 lengths back in third.

From the results of this race, Contrail is better suited to races at 1,800 to 2,400 meters, where his turn of foot is more decisive, and that may be where his connections choose to campaign him in the future.

Those are important decisions to make in placing horses where they can perform most effectively, and such decisions apply also to the offspring of American Pharoah.

Typically, they are big-framed horses, and several of them appear to have grown into substantial individuals, especially the colts. This is a blessing that cuts both ways. They improve at two, then continue to add muscle and potential strength at three. Mass is important to an athlete because it is an expression of muscle strength, but the extra muscle can be a challenge for trainers to manage because it adds more weight.

And that may be one important reason that the American Pharoah stock have shown their form on turf, which is a more forgiving surface for strongly made horses.

Another consideration is that many sound judges, when evaluating the American Pharoah stock, have seen them as animals that should prosper with time and be better as they got old, as we have seen with the G1 winner at Keeneland and also with Pista, the winner of the G2 Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster on Sept. 10.

If the colts' improvement matches those fillies, then we sporting enthusiasts should really have something to anticipate, with American Theorem, who was second in the G1 American Pharoah of 2019, and Monarch of Egypt, second to subsequent classic winner Siskin in the G1 Phoenix Stakes in Ireland last fall, set to continue racing next season at four.

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Bloodlines Presented By ThoroughbredAuctions.Com: Souper Sensational Extends John Nerud’s Legacy

Becoming the 70th stakes winner for sire Curlin (by Smart Strike), Souper Sensational won the Glorious Song Stakes at Woodbine on Oct. 17 by four lengths. Now unbeaten in two starts, Souper Sensational became the ninth winner of the race for trainer Mark Casse and the seventh winner of the race for jockey Patrick Husbands.

Bred in Kentucky by Newtown Anner Stud, Souper Sensational was sent through Fasig-Tipton's select yearling sale at Saratoga in 2019, and for $725,000 the good-looking chestnut filly sold to Charlotte Weber's Live Oak Plantation.

The filly is out of the unraced Indian Charlie mare Kateri, who was purchased by Sallusto and Albina, agent, on behalf of Newtown Anner Stud for $167,000 at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton February mixed sale in Kentucky. The mare was in foal for the first time on a cover to Paynter, sold on Feb. 8, and foaled the next day. Consigned to the Fasig-Tipton November sale, the Paynter foal was an RNA at $155,000, then repeated that experience the next year at the Keeneland September yearling sale for an RNA price of $85,000. That youngster became the gelding Karamojo, who has not won in two starts but is still in training.

The mare's second foal, Hedonistic (Tiznow), experienced a similar situation at the sales, going through the ring at the 2018 Keeneland September and Fasig-Tipton October sales for $275,000 and $175,000, respectively, as an RNA. Then in 2019, Hedonistic sold at the OBS April sale for $420,000 to Red Oak Stable and Newtown Anner. In his only start, the colt ran fourth in a maiden special later that year.

Both in the sales ring and again on the racetrack, Souper Sensational experienced a much different result than her elder siblings. Now a stakes winner and unbeaten racer at two, she will be encouraging buyers and equine evaluators to look kindly upon her subsequent siblings.

In addition to the horses above, Kateri is the dam of a 2020 yearling colt by Maclean's Music and a weanling full sister to Souper Sensational. Most recently, the mare was bred to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.

Kateri is out of Grade 3 stakes winner Sue's Good News (Woodman) and is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Tiz Miz Sue (Tiznow) and multiple stakes winner Bulletin (City Zip). They trace back to Souper Sensational's fourth dam Mochila (In Reality), a stakes winner who was second in the Grade 1 Ruffian and third in the G1 Beldame.

Mochila was a half-sister to champion Cozzene (Caro), and both were bred by the legendary trainer John Nerud. A winner of the Breeders' Cup Mile as a 5-year-old, Cozzene retired to stud in Kentucky at Gainesway Farm and became an important sire, getting 92 stakes winners.

In addition to Cozzene and Mochila, Nerud bred both Grade 2 winner Movin' Money (Dr. Fager) and her stakes-winning full sister Ivy Road from the Prince John mare Ride the Trails. Nerud acquired Ride the Trails from breeder Joseph Roebling, who bred her from the Sir Gaylord mare Wildwook.

The unraced Ride the Trails was Wildwook's second foal. Her third was Laramie Trail (Swaps), who won the 1975 Gotham and Bay Shore Stakes, then became a useful sire in South America. Wildwook's fifth foal was Western Wind (Gallant Man), who ran third in the 1976 Futurity and in the 1977 Blue Grass Stakes, both Grade 1 races.

When I spoke to John Nerud several years ago about his breeding experiences, he mentioned the acquisition of Ride the Trails.

“Training and racing in New York, you got to know Joe Roebling and his racehorses pretty well,” Nerud declared. “He was a man who was very much a tremendous individual and an unusually perceptive breeder.

“Roebling loved his racehorses, and none of his families was stronger than that one from Portage (War Admiral),” he continued. “She was a full-sister to Blue Peter, who was the top 2-year-old colt [in 1948], and she wasn't a top racehorse herself. But she was a producer.”

Indeed, Portage was the dam of four stakes winners: Rainy Lake (Royal Charger), Pack Trip (My Babu), Black Mountain (Tudor Minstrel), and Wyoming Wildcat (Gallant Man). The mare's daughters, however, have earned Portage even more lasting fame with successive generations of quality that include such as Broodmare of the Year Fall Aspen, Preakness winner Timber Country, Dixie Union, and Dubai Millennium.

“There was a lot of ability in this family,” Nerud continued, “and yet the greatest thing about them, from a trainer's point of view, was that you could train weight on them. Most horses, if you train them and really start getting into them, they lighten up. They lose weight, lose strength, and lose speed. But this group of horses love their training and racing. They get stronger with more racing, and they are tough and sound. I love them.”

If Souper Sensational continues this family history, she should have a fascinating career ahead, both on the track and, sometime in the future, at stud.

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Bloodlines Presented By Gary Contessa’s Integrity Bloodstock: Galileo’s Grandkids Now Make Their Mark

This is not another article exclaiming that racers by the legendary Galileo (by Sadler's Wells) won all the Group 1 stakes over the weekend. Indeed, from 10 G1s on Saturday and Sunday, they won “only” four of those: marvelous Magical (Irish Champion), Search for a Song (Irish St. Leger), Mogul (Grand Prix de Paris), and Shale (Moyglare Stud Stakes).

Instead, this is an article about how the Galileo daughters and a particular son of the old boy are doing.

The son is English Derby winner Australia (out of Oaks winner Ouija Board), who sired his first Group 1 winner in Galileo Chrome, the winner of the Group 1 St. Leger at Doncaster. The oddly-named Galileo Chrome – who's a plain bay – galloped comfortably to the outside of the well-regarded Pyledriver for most of the mile and three-quarters and 115 yards, then maneuvered through traffic, and finished fastest to win the longest classic.

A winner in his three prior starts, including the Yeats Stakes at Navan on his last outing, Galileo Chrome is a progressive colt who appears to have a lot of scope and can only improve for greater maturity and strength.

In addition to the winner of the St. Leger, Australia sired Cayenne Pepper, who won the G2 Blandford Stakes at the Curragh from Galileo's daughter Amma Grace. Also this weekend, Australia had the third-place racer behind Shale in the Group 1 race mentioned above.

Shale and other daughters of Galileo are broodmare prospects of a high order, and they tend to go to some of the better sires around the world. Over the past weekend, one daughter of Galileo was the dam of the winner of the G1 Grosser Preis von Baden, Barney Roy, and another daughter produced Ghaiyyath, who was second to Magical in the Irish Champion.

Barney Roy's dam, Alina, was unplaced in a pair of starts, whereas the dam of Ghaiyyath is Nightime, winner of the 2006 Irish 1,000 Guineas. The simple statistics of racing success, with about 3 percent stakes winners to foals, mean that far more of any stallion's racers will fail than will succeed at a high level. Therefore, some nice prospects and subsequent producers will show little on the racetrack.

Another of the great sire's non-winning daughters produced Pista, this year's winner of the Park Hill Stakes, which is the filly equivalent to the St. Leger.

In her third victory from four starts, Pista has risen rapidly since winning a maiden at Galway in early August to become a listed stakes winner and now a group winner.

Bred in Kentucky by Lynch Bages Ltd. and a $675,000 yearling at the 2018 Keeneland September sale, Pista is out of Mohini, a daughter of the Storm Cat mare Denebola, who was the highweight 2-year-old filly in France in 2003 after victory in the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac.

That proved the high point of Denebola's racing, but she has three stakes-producing daughters, including Beta Leo (A.P. Indy), who is the dam of Senga (Blame), winner of the G1 Prix de Diane.

And the sire of Pista?

American Pharoah.

Four Star Sales's Tony Lacy acted as agent for the Heider family in the purchase and recalled the process that led to the acquisition of Pista. He said, “We'd been looking at the first-crop yearlings by American Pharoah and had been very impressed. They were largely big, athletic prospects with scope and great minds. With their bone and toughness, I thought they might be very effective on turf.

“And this prolific family, that had been developed in the Niarchos family stud for generations, had a lot of turf excellence that I'd seen first-hand during my time working in France. This is the family of the highweight filly Coup de Folie, her full brother Machiavellian” (both by Mr. Prospector), who was a highweight on the European handicaps and then a leading sire, “and it goes right on back to a half-sister to Northern Dancer.”

Yeah, nice family.

As an individual, Lacy noted, “This filly was a big yearling who turned into a growthy 2-year-old, and we decided not to race her at 2 because she wasn't ready. Even early at three, she didn't show much promise until the late spring and early summer, and then she began to come on so strongly that Joseph O'Brien (who trains the filly) became optimistic about her debut. Pista, however, walked out of the gate and raced greenly.

“Joseph said the penny dropped after the first race, and in her second start, Pista jumped off nicely, laid up with the pace, and powered away to win her maiden” by 6 1/2 lengths at Galway. “Then we stepped her up to a listed race against colts,” Lacy continued, “in the Vinnie Roe Stakes at Leopardstown.”

The elegant filly won again, this time while competing at a mile and three-quarters and winning from Sunchart (Teofilo) and Dawn Patrol (Galileo), who ran eighth and sixth respectively in the St. Leger. So that is positive form suggesting that Pista could have beaten at least half the field in the classic.

Another reason that the connections, including the trainer, were quite pleased with the effort at Leopardstown is that Pista “is so laid back on the gallops that she doesn't show what she's capable of till she's put in a race,” Lacy said. “So we said, 'let's try the Park Hill,' and that result was a resounding 'yes.' The plan now is to go for the Group 1 Prix de Royallieu on the Arc weekend.”

That will be a further step up in a race that typically draws a set of experienced Group 1 fillies, three and up, but with the mental and physical toughness of the American Pharoah and Galileo stock, don't discount her chances.

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