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Background Check: Ashland

In this continuing series, we examine the past winners of significant filly/mare races by the lasting influence they've had on the breed. Up today is Keeneland's GI Central Bank Ashland S., the first Grade I of the year for 3-year-old fillies.

First run in 1936–also Keeneland's first year–for 3-year-olds and up, the Ashland was named for the plantation home of Kentucky statesman Henry Clay. It had a predecessor, the Ashland Oaks, which was inaugurated in 1879 at the old Kentucky Association Racetrack and was a very different race.

Perhaps it's the magic of the Ashland running in front of the home crowd, but it has left a truly extraordinary endowment on the breed. Yes, it is the major Kentucky prep for the GI Kentucky Oaks–now just four weeks away–and it counts no fewer than 14 winners who have also taken the Oaks, but it's much more than that. The Ashland has been so rife with extreme quality that it's harder to find winners who haven't become stakes producers than it is to name those who have.

Counting split divisions and a dead heat, 90 fillies have worn the Ashland crown. If we eliminate the past 10 years of winners as young mares haven't necessarily had a chance to prove themselves as broodmares yet and focus on the first 80 winners, a full 56 (70%) became stakes producers. Some of the foals were obviously higher quality than others: a few of the mares may have had one or two black-type performers instead of stakes winners among their foals, while others had champions.

Even those who don't enjoy statistics should be staggered by these numbers; 70% stakes producers on any list–whether a race's winners, a broodmare band, or a top stallion's book of mares–is simply preposterous. When including what their daughters and granddaughters produced, the number jumps up to 67, or 83.75%, of those 80 winners who threw black-type quality. Of the remaining 16.25%, five (6.25%) died before ever producing a foal and only eight (10%) were not responsible for any black-type among their descendants.

So heavily laden with quality are the Ashland winners as producers that we'll only list the particularly phenomenal here. No fewer than 30 would be included here otherwise.

Following are a fraction of the most important Ashland winners by what impact they've had on the sport through their sons and daughters. Unbelievably, producing a champion or even a Grade I winner or two isn't enough to make this list.

Take Charge Lady (1999, Dehere–Felicita, by Rubiano), bred by William Schettine: Named the 2013 Broodmare of the Year, she produced three Grade I winners and is granddam to a champion. She's also probably not done adding to her legacy, as a number of promising prospects are in the pipeline through her daughters as is MGISW and 2023 first-crop sire Omaha Beach.

Prospectors Delite (1989, Mr. Prospector–Up the Flagpole, by Hoist the Flag), bred by W. S. Farish: Broodmare of the Year in 2003, her first foal was MGISW and Grade I producer Tomisue's Delight, while her last was Horse of the Year Mineshaft. All five of her foals were stakes winners.

New to the sire ranks for 2023, Olympiad descends from the 1987 Ashland winner | Sarah Andrew

Chic Shirine (1984, Mr. Prospector–Too Chic, by Blushing Groom {Fr}), bred by Emory Alexander: No fewer than 20 graded winners already trace to her, including GISWs Keen Ice, Somali Lemonade, Harmonize, Preservationist, Verrazano, and Olympiad in the last decade alone.

Blush With Pride (1979, Blushing Groom {Fr}–Best in Show, by Traffic Judge), bred by Mr. and Mrs. Darrell Brown: Among her best was her Broodmare of the Year daughter Better Than Honour, who hammered for $14 million at Fasig-Tipton's November sale in 2008, and that one's champion daughter Rags to Riches. The family remains extremely active and continues to rack up graded victories.

Gay Missile (1967, Sir Gaylord–Missy Baba, by My Babu {Fr}), bred by Michael G. Phipps: She produced French champion Gay Mecene among her four stakes winners, but it was Gay Missile's daughter Lassie Dear who cemented her legacy with a number of champions tracing straight to her. Among the extensive list of Gay Missile's breed-shaping descendants are Broodmare of the Year Weekend Surprise and her Horse of the Year and leading sire son A.P. Indy, as well as champion and sire Lemon Drop Kid.

Miss Swapsco (1965, Cohoes–Soaring, by Swaps), bred by Mr. and Mrs. John W. Galbreath: Her first foal, Ballade, produced Canadian Horse of the Year and U.S. champion Glorious Song (who in turn produced champion and multiple-continent Grade I/Group 1 winner Singspiel {Ire}, as well as stellar sire Rahy), champion Devil's Bag, and excellent sire Saint Ballado.

Hidden Talent (1956, Dark Star–Dangerous Dame {GB}, by Nasrullah {GB}), bred by Harry F. Guggenheim: Among her descendants are Broodmare of the Year Too Bald, champion Capote, 11-time Grade I/Group 1 winner Exceller, and MGISW Broad Brush.

Real Delight (1949, Bull Lea–Blue Delight, by Blue Larkspur), bred by Calumet Farm: Her Broodmare of the Year granddaughter Sweet Tooth produced champion Our Mims and six-time GISW and leading sire Alydar. Others tracing to Real Delight include champion Christmas Past and Classic winner Codex.

Myrtlewood (1932, Blue Larkspur–Frizeur {Fr}, by Sweeper {Fr}), bred by Brownell Combs: As the first winner of the Ashland, Myrtlewood set a stunning precedent in her second career as a broodmare. Among her foals were a champion as well as a Kentucky Oaks winner, with several more champions and another Oaks winner among her descendants. Her biggest legacy? Tracing to her through her daughters are breed-modeling sires Mr. Prospector and Seattle Slew.

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No Denying Tiz A Gamble On Dirt

There's nothing like giving up on a stallion, and offloading him overseas, to guarantee a sudden transformation in his fortunes. The latest exile to rebuke his vendors is Race Day, who was exported to Korea 18 months ago but last Saturday turned out to have left behind not only GI Florida Derby winner White Abarrio but also GI Arkansas Derby runner-up Barber Road.

But if this industry is too unpredictable for even a team as alert as Spendthrift to win every time, their program will reliably even things out. And just 15 minutes before the success of White Abarrio, who was bred on the farm before being cheaply sold, another Spendthrift graduate had booked a GI Kentucky Derby starting gate of his own.

Tiz The Bomb's success in the GIII Jeff Ruby S. quickly ended talk of an audacious raid on the storied British Classic, the G1 Qipco 2,000 Guineas. However he fares at Churchill, this colt is already a feather in the cap of a stallion still fighting his corner at the same end of the Spendthrift roster that once featured Race Day–and, in the process, serving a key priority of the farm's late owner B. Wayne Hughes, in trying to look after its less affluent clients.

Hit It A Bomb was launched at $7,000 in 2017 before slipping to $5,000 even before he made what proved a fairly low-key debut at the yearling sales. The fact is that the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Juvenile winner, though an unbeaten juvenile by War Front, has never mustered the kind of support enjoyed by so many other young stallions on this farm–presumably because of the usual aversion of Kentucky's commercial breeders to grass pedigrees and performance. His first two books did not quite reach 50 mares, and his third dwindled to just 20.

Obviously there's a limit to what can be sensibly gleaned from his commercial performance, from such a modest footprint, but he showed what he could do with the right opportunity when Spendthrift paired him, in his second season, with a Tiznow mare whose aristocratic family we'll consider shortly. As a yearling the resulting colt sold (through Eaton Sales) to Kenny McPeek for $330,000 at the post-lockdown “Showcase” auction staged by Fasig-Tipton.

Needless to say, that transaction was central to Hit It A Bomb's unusual achievement in advancing the average of his second crop of yearlings ($47,916 from $30,153), but it's worth noting that his median also improved ($23,500 from $13,000).

Anyway this colt was, of course, Tiz The Bomb. He offered little immediate promise in his first venture onto the Churchill dirt, beating only one rival in a sprint maiden a year ago next week, but his tour of the other Kentucky tracks has told us rather more. Stepped up to a mile for an off-the-turf maiden at Ellis Park, he won by over 14 lengths before switching to grass to win a stakes at Kentucky Downs and a Grade II at Keeneland. He then left the state to prove best of the home team in the race won by his sire at the Breeders' Cup despite a messy trip. We have to put a line through his resumption in the GII Holy Bull S., but back in Kentucky he has now regrouped with consecutive wins on the synthetic track at Turfway Park.

Tiz The Bomb will plainly take one or two question marks into the Derby, and the answers lurking in his pedigree do not appear terribly encouraging. Its most consistent element, however, is quality–with Hit It A Bomb's own family tree stacking up pretty respectably against the exceptional maternal line introduced by Tiz The Bomb's dam.

The most blatant genetic note in Hit It A Bomb himself is an extremely proximate combination of the two principal international conduits of the Northern Dancer revolution: with Danzig as grandsire, and Sadler's Wells as damsire. (Additionally his second dam is by Danzig's grandson Danehill Dancer (Ire), while his fourth dam is by another fount of Northern Dancer in Be My Guest.) A more understated duplication meanwhile features Forli (Arg), whose excellence as a distaff influence is attested here by both Special, granddam of Sadler's Wells, and also War Front's second dam.

Overall there's no getting away from the fact that Hit It A Bomb's family carries a ton of chlorophyll. Four of his first five dams are by sires branded principally by their work in Europe: Sadler's Wells, Danehill Dancer, Be My Guest and Vaguely Noble (Ire). His third dam is by Private Account—primarily associated with dirt in the U.S., as we'd expect of a son of Damascus standing in Kentucky, but also sire of a couple of notable turf achievers for the Niarchos family in East Of The Moon and Chimes Of Freedom.

Hit It A Bomb was bred by the venerable Mrs. Evie Stockwell (mother of Coolmore boss John Magnier) from Liscanna (Ire), who had mustered both her wins, one at Group 3 level, over just six furlongs—hardly a common distinction in a daughter of Sadler's Wells. No fewer than five of Liscanna's nine named foals are by War Front, and two of them won elite prizes as juveniles for Mrs. Stockwell: Hit It A Bomb himself, and Brave Anna, who like her mother majored in speed by adding the G1 Cheveley Park S. to her G3 Albany S. success at Royal Ascot. (Winning both those races, incidentally, by a short head!)

Liscanna's mother Lahinch (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) was another brisk performer, as a stakes winner at five and seven furlongs. She did introduce a little more stamina to the family record through two daughters of Galileo (Ire), respectively runners-up in the G1 Epsom Oaks and a nine-furlong Group 2; and while Galileo obviously loaded a ton of staying power into his stock, Lahinch also produced a son by the miler Hawk Wing to win a Listed race at 10 furlongs.

On the whole, however, this family is flavored by quite a bit of speed and War Front was hardly going to dilute that. Admittedly Hit It A Bomb only ran them down on the line at the Breeders' Cup, but that was primarily down to a very wide draw. So you could argue that the obvious caveats about Tiz The Bomb, regarding the dirt, should possibly also extend to the extra furlong awaiting him on the first Saturday in May.

So what help can Tiz The Bomb find, on both fronts, from his maternal family? Well, at first sight, you would take heart from his first two dams–both being by copper-bottomed two-turn dirt influences in Tiznow and A.P. Indy. (And don't forget that Tiznow's remarkable dam Cee's Song is by Seattle Song, like A.P. Indy a son of Seattle Slew.)

But the name that really pegs down Tiz The Bomb's pedigree is that of his fifth dam. For she is none other than Gay Missile, the granddam of A.P. Indy's mother Weekend Surprise. (Weekend Surprise, of course, was by Secretariat–whose half-brother Sir Gaylord sired Gay Missile.)

The daughter of Gay Missile who opened this branch of the dynasty founded by her dam Missy Baba (My Babu {Fr}) is Gallanta (Fr), runner-up in the G1 Prix Morny as a sprinting juvenile. The speed of her sire Nureyev would also come through in Gallanta's best daughter, Gay Gallanta (Woodman), who was rated the fastest young filly of her crop in winning the G1 Cheveley Park S. and the G3 Queen Mary S. at Royal Ascot–and would herself produced a pretty quick horse in Byron (GB) (Green Desert).

Though at one remove, with some sturdy influences arising in between, these are not the kind of names to shore up any holes in the stamina of Tiz The Bomb. Gay Gallanta did have a half-brother who lasted 10 furlongs well, earning a place at stud in South Africa, but he was by an extreme stamina influence in Alleged.

Gallanta produced Tiz The Bomb's third dam Mayville's Magic by that diverse influence Gone West. It's hard to draw any conclusions from the career of Mayville's Magic in Britain, as she regressed after winning a sprint maiden on debut. With her illustrious family she had cost as much as $725,000 as a Keeneland September yearling and, given corresponding covers in her second career, she did eventually produce four black-type performers. One, by Giant's Causeway, ran fourth in the GI American Oaks; while A.P. Indy's daughter Cabbage Key had won three in a row before twice placing in minor stakes company.

That was on grass, however, despite the input of A.P. Indy. In producing Tiz The Bomb's dam Tiz The Key from Cabbage Key, then, Tiznow really needs to have poured his love of dirt into the genetic equation–and by the barrel–if Tiz The Bomb is to vindicate the switch back to that surface.

Tiz The Key certainly restored some ability to this rather slumbrous corner of the Gay Missile legacy. Her physique got a $330,000 vote of confidence from Spendthrift as a September yearling and, sent to Richard Mandella, she did break her maiden on the dirt. But she was then stepped up to 10 furlongs of grass to follow up in an allowance race, and then emulated her “aunt” by running fourth in the GI American Oaks.

It cannot augur well for Tiz The Bomb's Derby challenge that his first two dams, though by avowed dirt influences in Tiznow and A.P. Indy, both ended up on the grass. With very little help available from his sire, in terms of dirt, this pedigree looks a pretty fragile foundation for the “Derby fever” that has, understandably with all those gate points in the bank, now altered his schedule.

On one level, it feels rather a shame that Tiz The Bomb won't be going to Newmarket. He has shown exciting talent on turf/synthetics and would have introduced an exotic factor on the Rowley Mile. But if the renewed dirt gamble does not pay off, he will naturally retain every chance to regroup.

Let's hope he can do so, as his sire deserves credit for stoking up embers of quality in a rather dormant branch of the Gay Missile family. Though facing some pretty steep commercial odds, Hit It A Bomb has also had a Grade I winner on dirt in Argentina; while his debut crop did include GII Best Pal S. winner Weston, albeit that horse has slithered down the grades since.

It must be said that the Guineas looked like Tiz The Bomb's best shot in the British Classics: the severe stamina test at Epsom, certainly, would look a highly speculative next move should the Kentucky Derby not work out. That's because the unusually “green” tinge under the dirt influences along the bottom line is complemented, in his sire's own family, by the kind of speed you wouldn't normally expect around Sadler's Wells.

But there would still be a ton of other exciting turf options, either side of the water, to capture the imagination of Tiz the Bomb's adventurous trainer. So it should be a fun ride ahead, regardless, and he's already a five-for-eight millionaire–as much as anyone could ask, clearly, of a stallion standing for $5,000.

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Idol Has Foundations To Keep Believing

The old school has found a new Idol. The son of Curlin made his breakthrough a couple of weekends ago in a race cherished by traditionalists, and did so with genes of which much the same might be said. Indeed, if the GI Santa Anita H. winner can go on from here–and he has still only made six starts–to lead the older-horse division, then we'll be looking at one of the most eligible stud prospects on the scene.

Even traditionalists, of course, must accept that the world moves on. Or, at least, that the world changes. The two mares who stand opposite each other in the family tree of Marion Ravenwood, the dam of Idol, would possibly no longer be registered with names that have obtained a somewhat different resonance over the couple of generations since. To breeders, however, Gay Hostess and Gay Missile are just two of the timeless brands pegging down a pedigree that preserves pretty seamlessly the kind of quality you used to be able to lock in, simply because books were so small that only eligible mares could reach top-class stallions.

Gay Hostess is Marion Ravenwood's fourth dam; while Gay Missile, of course, is third dam of her sire A.P. Indy. Apart from the random connection of :gaiety,” their real bond is that each consolidated in the American breed a concentration of Classic influences from the Old World, notably by duplicating one apiece of the most important European mares of the interwar era.

In the case of Gay Missile, it was Lavendula (Fr), whose pedigree combined virtually all the foundation mares assembled by the 17th Earl of Derby in creating arguably the most important stud in the breed's history. Two of Lavendula's daughters had produced Turn-To (Ire) and My Babu (Fr) to become grandsire and damsire, respectively, of Gay Missile.

Gay Hostess, for her part, replicated Mumtaz Mahal (GB)–whose daughters had produced dual Classic winner Sun Princess (GB) and the breed-shaper Mahmoud (Fr). The former became the dam of Royal Charger (GB), sire of Gay Hostess; while the latter sired her granddam. Gay Hostess was out of Your Hostess (Alibhai {GB}), a sister to Kelso's sire, Your Host, and half-sister to the dam of Flower Bowl (who was herself by Alibhai, and gave us both Graustark and His Majesty). And Gay Hostess herself became a Classic icon: dam of Hall of Famer Majestic Prince (Raise A Native); second dam of French Derby winner Caracolero (himself by Graustark, and so highly inbred); and third dam of Epsom Derby winner Secreto (Northern Dancer).

I know, I know. So far as Idol himself is concerned, for many people these are just parchments of scroll. But blue-hens like Gay Hostess and Gay Missile don't just fall out of the sky. And, because of his family's exemplary stewardship since its arrival in America, Idol is now extending the legacy of Gay Hostess exactly a century since the foaling of Mumtaz Mahal in 1921.

Marion Ravenwood's third dam Meadow Blue was a full sister to Majestic Prince, i.e. by Raise A Native out of Gay Hostess. Though unraced, like Gay Hostess herself, she produced some significant daughters from just half a dozen named foals. Two were only modest winners on the track but proved a sound conduit of her genetic quality: Mangala (Sharpen Up {GB}) produced G2 Queen Anne S. winner Allied Forces (Miswaki); and Really Blue (Believe It) became the dam of none other than Real Quiet (Quiet American), who matched Majestic Prince as a Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner. (Really Blue is also the second dam of Grade II winner/GI Kentucky Oaks runner-up Real Cozzy (Cozzene).)

Two other daughters of Meadow Blue, meanwhile, were group-placed on the track: one went on to produce a Listed winner at Newmarket (over two miles); the other was Nureyev's Best (Nureyev), who won a listed race and finished third in a Group 3 in France.

Nureyev's Best had not achieved a great deal in her second career, however, by the time Narvick International bought her at Keeneland November as a 12-year-old for $170,000. Unfortunately, the obvious mating, with Real Quiet's sire Quiet American, produced a filly that brought her Tuscany-based breeders no more than €32,000 as a Deauville yearling.

As Andujar, she showed only glimpses of ability for Carlos Laffon-Parias as a 3-year-old but then, astutely imported to California by Paul Reddam and Mark Schlesinger, progressed extremely rapidly for Doug O'Neill: she quickly broke her maiden, followed up in an allowance, and then won the GII Milady H. by seven lengths before finishing off with two Grade I podiums. Offered at Fasig-Tipton the following November, she made no less than $2.5 million from My Meadowview Farm.

Marion Ravenwood is Andujar's first foal. She showed a fair level of ability for Graham Motion, racing as a homebred in the My Meadowview silks, winning four of 10 starts, including a stakes over a mile on dirt at Aqueduct. But while she was given every opportunity, in her coverings, Andujar only really came up with one, fleeting excitement in third foal Abstraction (Pulpit), who won the Federico Tesio S. at Pimlico but disappeared after then running third in the GIII Matt Winn S.

Overall, it seems, the family was not quite doing enough to prevent Marion Ravenwood being culled, with a Pioneerof the Nile cover, to Ashview Farm for $400,000 at Keeneland November in 2017.

She left behind a weanling colt by Curlin, who was sold through Denali in the same ring the following September, for $375,000 to John S. Holmes–and this, of course, has turned out to be Idol. His blossoming since, for Calvin Nguyen and trainer Richard Baltas, duly makes the Lyster family's purchase of the mare look very smart business.

They had already been drawn to the pedigree, buying Marion Ravenwood's half-sister Judy Legend (Medaglia d'Oro) out of the same ring two years previously for $180,000 as a 4-year-old maiden. (She had been unable to break her maiden in seven starts, but we've seen the depth of the family tree.) Gray Lyster of Ashview Farm remembers asking Joe Miller and Lincoln Collins, representing Len Riggio of My Meadowview, about Marion Ravenwood's Curlin weanling.

“I'm good friends with Joe and Lincoln and they were very high in their reports,” Lyster says. “You know, sometimes the market really can slaughter those mares that are getting traded when they've had two or three foals without something obvious on the page. But they were very positive on the Curlin, so we were kind of lucky. We knew already that her half-sister was really nice-looking, and it turned out that this was just a gorgeous A.P. Indy mare.”

Ashview got a first dividend on their investment when selling the Pioneerof the Nile colt, acquired in utero and co-bred with Colts Neck Stables, for $250,000 as a weanling. And they were wise enough, too, to send Marion Ravenwood back to Curlin: last September the resulting filly made $350,000 from Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Repole Stable, just days after Idol had run a promising second on debut.

“I was trying to tell people looking at her about the full-brother that had just run second on debut,” Lyster says. “But I know how people will roll their eyes and say: 'A fall 3-year-old, second? Okay, great, sell your magic beans somewhere else.' To the point that with people you didn't know, you didn't even tell them, because they don't want those B.S. updates! But I had watched the race and thought: 'Oh my gosh, this horse came flying.' That was only six furlongs, remember.”

Marion Ravenwood has a yearling colt by Violence and has been covered by Quality Road this time around. “The Violence is beautiful and will likely be pointing towards Keeneland September,” Lyster says. “The mare was empty on one try to City Of Light, very late last year, so we got her a good early cover this time. Judy Legend, who has a Runhappy yearling on the farm, was the same: took last year off on a very late cover, and is in foal early to Frosted now.”

Turning up a Grade I mare at this farm comes as no surprise, Ashview being widely respected as one of the very best operations of its size. (Graduates include champions Runhappy (Super Saver) and Johannesburg (Hennessy). And you have to like the mates chosen for her, too: Violence brings in three extra strands of Somethingroyal (plus one extra to her sire Princequillo); and Quality Road has two apiece of Somethingroyal and Princequillo.

This drills down into a genetic seam that means Marion Ravenwood doesn't depend solely on that aristocratic bottom line. Her sire A.P. Indy continues posthumously to develop his reputation as a top-class broodmare sire, and that has always seemed, to me, to be rooted in the 2×4 replication of Somethingroyal behind his dam Weekend Surprise: as dam of both Weekend Surprise's sire Secretariat and of Gay Missile's sire Sir Gaylord. (Basically anything to do with Somethingroyal translates into distaff gold.)

And Somethingroyal's sire is also drawn in twice by Marion Westwood's damsire Quiet American. The fact that both Quiet American himself and his sire Fappiano are out of daughters of Dr. Fager is so exotic that it tends to distract from the fact that both these Dr. Fager mares are out of daughters of the matriarch Cequillo–who was, of course, by Princequillo.

Quiet American's grandsire Mr. Prospector also doubles up Raise A Native who, as noted already, sired Marion Ravenwood's third dam. And the mating that produced Idol himself obviously gives us another line of Mr. Prospector, Curlin being by Smart Strike.

Smart Strike has been a significant contributor to the diversification of the Mr. Prospector legacy. Not just through Curlin, but also through Lookin At Lucky and English Channel, his influence has been branded by tough two-turn horses that thrive with maturity. (Tom's d'Etat certainly enhanced that reputation on the track, and will hopefully now do the same at WinStar).

In that context, you would have to think that Idol is only just getting started. For a horse with this kind of pedigree to be winning a Grade I barely five months after breaking his maiden must be auspicious; moreover the Big 'Cap looked much worthier of its heritage than has sometimes been the case since being squeezed by gaudy new prizes elsewhere. Runner-up Express Train (Union Rags) appears to be repaying a typically artful grounding by his trainer, while this was a first defeat for the next home, hot favorite Maxfield (Street Sense).

Exciting times, then, at Ashview. The farm is also co-breeder of the 3-year-old Untreated (Nyquist), who recently broke his maiden by 8 3/4 lengths at Tampa Bay on the local Derby undercard. “He was really impressive,” Lyster said. “We've been hearing good things about him for a while and I believe Todd Pletcher and Team Valor have some pretty high hopes.”

And it does feel as though Idol, though a year older, is himself only just getting going. “After his first couple of races, I began to think that this was going to become a serious older horse,” Lyster says. “I don't know whether it was the rider change [to Joel Rosario in the Big 'Cap] or just learning more about the horse. But he looks like a big horse that takes a little while to get going, and when he hit that eighth pole, he laid his head down like he hasn't done before. He was really motoring. And there are a couple of big races in California this year, at that distance, so we'll see–fingers crossed!”

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