Frank Mitchell | Horse Racing Free Tips

Body & Soul: Home Is Where The Heart Is

by Bob Fierro

With apologies to Pliny the Elder, who more than two centuries ago penned those words in the headline, and also to Elvis, who expanded their meaning in a modest ballad of the same name in 1962, we are about to examine what has evolved after at least 40 years as a science-based axiom of racing efficiency and success: How much of a factor does the cardio system of a Thoroughbred influence its ability?

Let us state up front that the answer to that question may depend on which scientific tools or evaluation programs are used to gather the data required. That’s because there are a number of providers which offer services that purport to determine whether a horse’s cardio system (not just the heart, which is part of the system) is capable of generating enough fuel to provide the energy needed to achieve success at either a distance or class level. Your correspondent has been using one such system for more than 30 years.

However, we are here to report a deeply researched study of a particular group of racing prospects and how they fared on the racetrack after their hearts were scanned by ultrasound and their body sizes calculated to determine whether the cardio system “passes or fails” various criteria, described further on in this essay.

The study in question is based on data gathered by DataTrack’s BreezeFigs system and published daily since 2005 by Daily Racing Form online (www.drf.com). Simply stated, BreezeFigs is a speed-and-stride-length based “fig” which was earned by every horse that breezed at every major 2-year-old sale held from 2012 through 2017.

Those which pass conformation inspection at the barns are selected for cardio ultrasound scans. Thus, this study concentrated on a focus group of 865 fillies and 1,253 colts whose performance at the sales prompted our analysts to obtain those scans.

The data gathered from each scan is run through an algorithm that takes into consideration the size of the heart, its pumping efficiency and the horse’s body size. This gives us a Cardio Score which is based on a numerical system that is akin to a “report card” of six grades of equal decimal distance: A, B+, B, C+, C, D–the higher the numerical score the higher the “report card Cardio Grade,” ergo the more efficient the system for that horse.

What the system does not do, however, is disqualify a racing prospect based on the size of the heart alone because body size and cardio pumping efficiency play a big role in the score. A simple analogy might be to compare the size and structure of the horse to an automobile model and the efficiency of the cardio system to horsepower of the engine, to wit:

A horse which is a Maserati in structure with what appears to be an average size heart may generate a B+ Cardio Grade because that heart (engine) can rev up quickly to deliver the right amount of fuel for that chasis. However, if the heart is more like the engine of a Chevy Suburban, it will most likely take a longer time to pump up to overall efficiency and the race could be over, and thus wind up with a C+ Cardio Grade.

The first conclusion reached was that, in general, the higher the Cardio Grade the more starts and average earnings. For example, fillies that won only one race but had a B or B+ Cardio Grade averaged more starts and twice the earnings of those with a Cardio Grade C that won one race. Similarly, colts with a Cardio Grade B that won three or more races earned 50% more on average than colts with a Grade C average that won three or more races. There are plenty of other examples, but one should get the drift.

The dividing line was even stronger when it came to stakes winners which, after all, is what everyone wants to buy. Below are the distributions per Cardio Grade of black-type winners in North America and countries to which 2-year-old graduates were exported. As the charts indicate, more than 80% of the fillies and colts that won stakes races had Cardio Grades of B or better.

With data such as this, one can appreciate the irony of lyrics of a tune from Damn Yankees…

“You’ve gotta have heart,

All you really need is heart

When the odds are sayin’ you’ll never win,

That’s when the grin should start.”*

… which these days can apply with equal meaning to humans and those who breed, own, train, ride and bet on Thoroughbreds.

*Composed by Richard Adler & Jerry Ross

Bob Fierro is a partner with Jay Kilgore and Frank Mitchell in DataTrack International, biomechanical consultants and developers of BreezeFigs. He can be reached at bbfq@earthlink.net

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Bloodlines: Art Collector Preserves Greentree Stud Lineage

With a stylish 3 1/2-length victory over leading 3-year-old filly Swiss Skydiver in the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on July 11, Art Collector has moved into a position as one of the leading classic prospects of 2020 and is unbeaten in three consecutive races.

Actually, the handsome bay has finished in front in each of his last four races, stretching back to a blowout victory in a Nov. 30 allowance at Churchill Downs. After winning by 7 1/2 lengths, however, Art Collector was subsequently disqualified for the presence of a prohibited substance.

Transferred to trainer Tom Drury after that, Art Collector has continued his march to excellence with allowance victories this season on May 17 and June 13 at Churchill Downs, then skipped down I-64 to test those very positive-looking results against graded stakes company at Keeneland.

Never farther back than third in the 13-horse field, Art Collector had the lead at the stretch call and widened away from his competition to win in 1:48.11. Swiss Skydiver held second by 4 3/4 lengths from Rushie, and the form rather emphatically places Art Collector in the hunt for Kentucky Derby in September.

Bred in Kentucky by Bruce Lunsford, Art Collector races for his breeder. In taking his fourth official victory from eight starts, Art Collector became the first stakes winner for his dam, the Distorted Humor mare Distorted Legacy. She won three races at three and four, including the Sky Beauty Stakes at Belmont, and more importantly, Distorted Legacy was also second in the G1 Flower Bowl.

Distorted Legacy is one of two stakes winners out of the Private Account mare Bunting, who was second in the G1 Alcibiades Stakes. This is a family that performed nobly for decades at Greentree Stud and that got its start in the States with the importation of the Prince Bio mare Bebop, a half-sister to Oaks winner Sun Cap (Sunny Boy). Bebop herself had been third in the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood.

Bred to Greentree's Horse of the Year Tom Fool, Bebop's first foal was Bebopper, the first of eight consecutive fillies out of the dam, including stakes-placed Stepping High (No Robbery), the dam of multiple stakes winner and leading sire Buckaroo (Buckpasser). Bebopper did the most good for Greentree, however, with the major winners Stop the Music (Hail to Reason) and Hatchet Man (The Axe).

Stop the Music won the Dwyer and the Saratoga Special, then inherited the 1972 Champagne after Secretariat sort of intimidated him during the stretch run. Hatchet Man was later maturing than his half-brother but won the Dwyer at three, then also the G1 Widener and Haskell at five.

These were Bebopper's third and fourth foals; the mare's 11th foal was Flag Waver (Hoist the Flag), who won the 1983 Rampart Handicap at four and is the third dam of Art Collector. Flag Waver's first foal was stakes winner Abidjan (Sir Ivor) and her sixth was stakes-placed Bunting, the second dam of the Blue Grass winner.

Lunsford bought into this family with the acquisition of Bunting as a 3-year-old filly in training at the 1994 Keeneland November sale for $500,000. Bunting's first foal for Lunsford was the Storm Cat horse Vision and Verse. A rangy bay, Vision and Verse didn't win a lot of races but had a lot of class, winning the G2 Illinois Derby and finishing second in the G1 Belmont Stakes and Travers, third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. The horse earned more than $1 million and went to stud in Kentucky at Hill 'n' Dale Farm.

Bunting had a trio of black-type daughters, and the best of these was Distorted Legacy. Her sire, Distorted Humor, threw some speed into this very classic family, and even so, the best distance for Distorted Legacy was 10 to 12 furlongs. In addition to a good second to Stacelita in the Flower Bowl at 10 furlongs, Distorted Legacy was fourth, beaten a length for the victory, in the Breeders' Cup Filly Turf.

So there should be little concern about Art Collector's ability to handle the 10 furlongs of the Derby, and this colt is following the well-worn path of improvement laid down by Horse of the Year A.P. Indy and so many of his descendants, with good to reasonable form late at two, then radically accelerating improvement at three.

This is a classic colt winning a classic prep in the proper style, and he appears to be a potential masterpiece for the owner, trainer, and family.

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Bloodlines: Serpentine Tightens Galileo’s Grip On European Classics

After the classic results over the weekend in Europe, could any living sire be more emphatically the ruler of his domain than Galileo is in the classics and middle-distance races of Europe?

There is only one answer for that question, and to stamp his footprint firmly into the sands of time, Galileo had his fifth winner of the Derby at Epsom on July 4, as Serpentine tow-roped his field over the gradients and turns of Epsom and met the rising ground of the final furlongs like an old friend.

A splendid winner of a 10-furlong maiden race a week earlier, Serpentine raced through the finish of that race at the Curragh emphatically, nine lengths ahead of his nearest pursuer, and wasn't stopping after 12 furlongs in the Derby, either. Among his connections, particularly trainer Aiden O'Brien, the chestnut colt's stamina was never in doubt, and that was a point of primary difference between Serpentine and his better-known opponents in the Derby.

That, and the enterprising ride the colt received from jockey Emmet McNamara, who took O'Brien's assessment of the situation to heart and repeated the trainer's comments in a post-race interview: “Emmet, this colt could win the Derby. He's an even galloper, he'll probably stay a mile and six; so your best way of trying to win this race for yourself is to pop out and go an even gallop, but be clever about it, try to fill him up at the right points in the race, and get to the winning post and try to time it right.”

McNamara was able to follow those words of wisdom to the letter, and the jockey said that Serpentine “was after doing things in such a nice rhythm, and from the four- to the five-furlong pole, I was able to let him fill himself up, and he did it just beautiful. I let him keep rolling and build a little each furlong. The way he was lengthening, you know, I knew it was going to take a really good horse to get by him. If a horse is weakening, you can sometimes feel it a furlong or furlong and a half out.

“Aiden instilled that confidence in me” to ride the colt so positively for stamina and put the opposition to the test, McNamara said. “Aidan told me when he called to offer me the ride here, 'Emmet, this horse could win the Derby, and he was a hundred percent right.'”

In winning the English classic, Serpentine became the fifth winner of the race for his sire Galileo, who is the all-time leading sire of English Derby winners, and there will be at least four further crops by the great son of Sadler's Wells, even if the 22-year-old Galileo never covered another mare.

In addition to placing their sire alone at the top of sires of English Derby winners, Serpentine and Love made Aiden O'Brien the leading trainer by number of Derby winners and by total English classic victories.

O'Brien has trained eight winners of the Derby, beginning with Galileo in 2001, then High Chaparral (Sadler's Wells) in 2002, Camelot (Montjeu) in 2012, Ruler of the World (Galileo) in 2013, Australia (Galileo) in 2014, Wings of Eagles (Pour Moi) in 2017, and Anthony Van Dyck (Galileo) last year.

Serpentine races for Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith, and the Derby winner was bred by Coolmore in Ireland. He is one of the four English Derby winners by Galileo that various Coolmore partnerships have bred or raced. New Approach is Galileo's only Derby winner not bred and raced by Coolmore and partners; that horse was bred by Lodge Park Stud and won the Derby for Princess Haya of Jordan.

It is also a fact that four of the five Derby winners by Galileo are chestnut: New Approach, Ruler of the World, Australia, and Serpentine. Only Anthony Van Dyck is a bay like his sire. Love is another noble chestnut from Coolmore's classic sire. Galileo inherited a chestnut gene from his dam, Arc de Triomphe winner Urban Sea (Miswaki), and passes that color trait on to half of his progeny, although a smaller percentage show it because chestnut is recessive.

The other chestnut gene that allows Serpentine to display the copper coat comes from his dam Remember When (Danehill Dancer). The chestnut mare did not win a race from six starts, but she finished second in the 2010 English Oaks behind Snow Fairy and was third in the McCalmont Memorial, fourth in the Irish 1,000 Guineas.

So, Remember When was considerably better than an empty stall. When sent to stud, Remember When has proven notably better still. Serpentine is the mare's sixth foal, and five of the six are stakes winners: Group 2 winner Wedding Vow, Group 3 winner Beacon Rock, listed winner Bound, and Group 3 winner Bye Bye Baby, who was also third in the English Oaks behind champion Enable. All of Remember When's foals are by Galileo.

Remember When was, furthermore, a half-sister to Dylan Thomas (Danehill), who won the Irish Derby, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and Arc de Triomphe; to Cheveley Park Stakes winner Queen's Logic (Grand Lodge); and to 1,000 Guineas winner Homecoming Queen (Holy Roman Emperor).

Their dam was the Diesis mare Lagrion, who failed to win from 14 starts.

This is a family of considerable attainment that tends to improve with maturity and distance. Serpentine adds another mark of distinction, and with two victories from only four starts, he should be able to continue to improve.

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