Tag: Hill ‘n’ Dale

Curlin Colt Joins Million-Dollar Club at Keeneland

A colt by Curlin out of Grade I winner Carina Mia (Malibu Moon) (hip 169) added to a parade of seven-figure yearlings at Keeneland Monday when selling for $1.7 million. Three Chimneys' Doug Cauthen signed the ticket on the bay, who was consigned by Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency and was bred by Three Chimneys Farm and Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings. Three Chimneys and Hill 'n' Dale dissolved their partnership on Carina Mia when the mare sold for $2.6 million at last year's Fasig-Tipton November sale. Three Chimneys secured her 2-year-old filly by Quality Road for $750,000 at this year's Keeneland January sale.

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Longshot Vegas Magic Stays Perfect In Sorrento

Vegas Magic (Good Magic) made it a perfect three-for-three while providing her freshman sire with his first graded stakes victory in Saturday evening's GII Sorrento S. at Del Mar.

A popular debut winner at Santa Anita June 11, she beat the boys by a nose in the Everett Nevin S. at Pleasanton last time July 9.

Overlooked at 14-1 here, Vegas Magic sat a stalking trip on the inside as heavily favored runaway Los Al debut winner Procrastination (Not This Time) set the pace. Vegas Magic tipped off the rail to set her sights on the pacesetter as they turned for home and kicked on nicely to remain unbeaten.

“This filly is so gutty,” said Leandro Mora, assistant to winning trainer Doug O'Neill. “We were expecting her to give us a good race, she was my choice. Del Mar isn't the perfect place for some horses. It is like Saratoga: you might bring a nice horse to Saratoga and still might not win.”

Pedigree Notes:

Vegas Magic, a $100,000 OBS March breezer (:10 2/5), becomes the first graded winner for her freshman sire Good Magic. Rockport Harbor is now the broodmare sire of four graded winners. Multiple Canadian stakes winner Heidi Maria is also represented by a Kantharos filly of 2021 and a Sharp Azteca filly of this year. She was bred back to Collected. This is the same female family as GSW & GISP Sweet Whiskey (Old Fashioned).

Saturday, Del Mar
SORRENTO S.-GII, $200,500, Del Mar, 8-13, 2yo, f, 6f, 1:11.46, ft.
1–VEGAS MAGIC, 120, f, 2, by Good Magic
                1st Dam: Heidi Maria (MSW, $220,764), by Rockport Harbor
                2nd Dam: Third Street, by Salt Lake
                3rd Dam: Bisque Doll, by Quadrangle
1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($130,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP;
$100,000 2yo '22 OBSMAR). O-Omar Aldabbagh, Todd Cady &
Ty Leatherman; B-Machmer Hall (KY); T-Doug F. O'Neill; J-Abel
Cedillo. $120,000. Lifetime Record: 3-3-0-0, $205,200.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick
Rating: A.
2–Procrastination, 120, f, 2, Not This Time–Sky Saver, by
Super Saver. 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE.
($72,000 Ylg '21 FTKOCT). O-Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners;
B-Ramspring Farm (KY); T-Michael W. McCarthy. $40,000.
3–Dazzlingdominika, 123, f, 2, Ghostzapper–Trappingsofsilver,
by Trappe Shot. 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE.
($33,000 RNA Wlg '20 KEENOV; $30,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP).
O-Eric M. & Sharon Waller; B-Halcyon Farm, Tim Wickes &
Elizabeth Barr (KY); T-Philip D'Amato. $24,000.
Margins: 1 1/4, 3HF, 2 3/4. Odds: 14.70, 0.70, 13.70.
Also Ran: Satin Doll, Classymademoiselle, Absolutely Zero. Scratched: Infinite Diamond.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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This Side Up: The Vital Quest for New Joy

Polite but perfunctory. That was pretty much the tone in which people tended to praise Kitten's Joy while he was with us, and I guess it should be no different now that he's gone. Even so, it strikes me that his loss has been inadequately lamented. Not just in his own right, as an avowed turf stallion who freakishly contrived two general sires' championships in North America; but also, virtually unremarked, as a final straw in what has over the past nine months become an outright catastrophe for the enlightened minority persevering with grass breeding in Kentucky.

Last November, the sustained challenge of English Channel to the primacy in this sphere of Kitten's Joy was unraveled by a sudden illness at 19. In March, Crestwood lost Get Stormy out of the blue at 16. And now we must bid farewell to the elder statesman himself, at 21.

 

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Given the grim commercial odds to be overcome by anyone attempting to launch a turf sire in Kentucky, this trio's departure represents a colossal test of the way many Americans talk a good game about populating an expanding turf program. Because when it comes to walking the walk, they have tended to head straight to the exit the moment a yearling with chlorophyll in its pedigree is led into a sale ring.

One breeder's existential challenge, admittedly, can be another's game-changing opportunity. There are some promising young stallions around with the potential to fill these intimidating vacancies. Karakontie (Jpn) has been getting black-type action at an auspicious percentage, and should kick on again once over a numerical bump in the road with his current sophomores. In fact, he has just had three stakes winners in three days, one becoming his first millionaire. Oscar Performance, meanwhile, has been launched with real panache by a farm making a welcome return to the stallion game, and is already making a mark with his early runners.Even as it was, however, we're already well accustomed to the American turf program being farmed by European imports, whether as horses in training or, increasingly, from the elite yearling sales. Both the Grade I prizes contested on grass over the past two weekends were harvested by Chad Brown with one of each model, Adhamo (Ire) (Intello {Ger}) being acquired as a French Group winner last fall and In Italian (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) as a Book I yearling at Tattersalls.

But this kind of lopsided trade stores up trouble on both sides of the water. While a lucrative export market offers a crucial avenue to viability for European horsemen contesting inadequate prizemoney, it may ultimately contain the seeds of its own demise through the ongoing dilution of standards. And while purse money is plainly superior in the U.S., it surely can't supplant commercial breeding as the driver to sustainable investment. It's great that these imports can earn big on the racetrack, but they won't ever offer that home run in the breeding shed unless or until the Bluegrass changes its commercial perspective on turf blood.

Because right now you wouldn't give even a new Nasrullah (Ire) much of a prayer. We obviously wouldn't have had Bold Ruler or Nashua, and everything they have since entailed, if Kentucky breeders in the 1950s had been as insular in their outlook as their successors today.

The same farm that imported Nasrullah had, of course, already demonstrated the transferability of European turf blood through the likes of Blenheim (GB) and Princequillo (Ire). But if they could now bring even Frankel (GB) over the water, I wonder how low his fee would have to go before commercial breeders thought he would represent a feasible play.

I have regularly cited the same program's Flintshire (GB) as an especially flagrant example of the way things are today. Supplanted as Juddmonte's highest earner only by a member of the same family in Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), he was nonetheless reduced to a final Kentucky book of eight mares before finally returning to Europe in despair. If Kitten's Joy and English Channel couldn't earn the indulgence of the market, with its inflexible prejudices on physique, then what chance did Flintshire ever have—even at a farm as far-sighted as Hill n' Dale?

It was John Sikura, of course, who gave Kitten's Joy a fresh Kentucky platform when his owners had become so incensed by commercial indifference that they very nearly put pen to paper to stand him in Europe instead. In the parallel world where that deal was done, however, it would have been instructive to see what kind of reception Kitten's Joy would have had over there. Even after finding a European champion in Book I of the 2016 September Sale for $160,000—and the tragedy of Roaring Lion only raises the stakes for Oscar Performance and others, in terms of their sire's legacy—David Redvers was still able to return to the same auction two years later and buy a G1 2,000 Guineas winner for barely half that price. European investors, it seemed, had learned little more respect for the horse than the local market.

Little wonder, then, if they remain still more unimaginative when it comes to the kind of dirt blood that has, historically, stimulated cyclical regeneration in the European gene pool. For another constant complaint of mine is that this has to be a two-way street, and this mutual schism will ultimately prove equally damaging to the Europeans.

As things stand, we must simply hope that the plucky few who remain more interested in fast horses than fast bucks—and, on any sustainable model, that must also mean horses competent to run hard and long—can respond to the crisis with exactly the kind of flair that already sets them apart. Those who did keep the faith with Kitten's Joy, English Channel and Get Stormy must now stick to their guns, and seek out their replacements.

They know where to look, after all. The farm that grieved Get Stormy, for instance, perseveres stubbornly with the same brand: teak-tough runners and/or aristocratic pedigrees. Nor must we neglect the potential contribution of stallions that might, in this perverse environment, have their commercial credibility damaged if unduly promoted as equally effective influences on turf, such as American Pharoah, Not This Time, Twirling Candy or Blame.

But on the weekend when Zandon attempts to renew the fleeting impression he made on the home turn in the Derby, in a compelling race for the GII Jim Dandy S., it would be remiss not to finish with a nod to the farm that may have marked its 50th anniversary with the emergence of a new Indian Charlie or Harlan's Holiday in his sire Upstart.

Because Airdrie's fidelity to the kind of genetic resources most urgently required by the modern Thoroughbred gives breeders of sufficient vision a chance to roll the dice on a son of Kitten's Joy receiving precious little oxygen even in this suffocated division. Divisidero won graded stakes across five consecutive seasons, accumulating 13 triple-digit Beyers, and was denied his third Grade I in the Breeders' Cup Mile by barely half a length. Critically, moreover, the four mares in his dam's third generation are (drum roll, please): Miesque, Lassie Dear, Height Of Fashion (Fr) and a daughter of Cosmah. Not too many Thoroughbreds could better that, anywhere in the world.

True, his studmate Preservationist comes extremely close, with Natalma, Weekend Surprise and Too Chic. Down the shedrow, meanwhile, Cairo Prince is proving quite a flexible influence, in terms of surface, while Airdrie is also showcasing a son of War Front—the one patriarch of our time to have maintained elite stature at the sales despite an aptitude for turf.

Obviously War Front now has a luminous new dirt prospect starting out elsewhere, in Omaha Beach, but attractive channels for his versatility include not just Summer Front at Airdrie, but War of Will alongside his sire at Claiborne—who, promisingly, were pushed to their absolute limit in his debut book.

War Front's own traffic is naturally being managed more conservatively than ever, as he enters the evening of his career. He has long been beyond the reach of most breeders anyway, but remember that he only owes his credibility in Europe to opportunity (thanks largely to John Magnier). And that's the one thing—opportunity—breeders need to be brave enough to give some of these young turf stallions now.

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Top Sire Kitten’s Joy Dead at 21

Kitten's Joy (El Prado {Ire}–Kitten's First, by Lear Fan), twice the leading general sire in the United States and a perennial top-five turf sire, passed away from an apparent heart attack July 15 in his paddock at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa, where he'd served mares since 2018. He entered stud in 2006 at his owners' Ken and Sarah Ramsey's Ramsey Farm.

The blaze-faced chestnut was nearly sold, but was ultimately retained by the Ramseys after bidding stalled out at $95,000 at the 2003 OBS April Sale, and it proved a fortuitous decision, as Kitten's Joy–named in honor of the late Sarah Ramsey–won nine times and was never worse than second in 12 starts on the grass for trainer Dale Romans, including victories in the 2004 GI Secretariat S. and GI Turf Classic ahead of a runner-up effort in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf. Named that year's Eclipse-winning turf male, Kitten's Joy also annexed the 2005 GII Firecracker Breeders' Cup H.–his only win over a mile–first off a nine-month hiatus and closed his career with an unlucky runner-up effort behind Powerscourt (GB) (Sadler's Wells) in the GI Arlington Million. He retired with a record of 9-4-0 from 14 trips to the races and earnings of $2,075,791.

An Instant Hit…

Despite his penchant for the grass and a skeptical breeding public despite a live female family, Kitten's Joy was well-supported early days–including a large number of mares Ramsey sourced via the claiming box–and he sired better than 300 foals from his first three North American crops.

“I claimed everything I could lay my hands on,” Ken Ramsey told Andy Beyer in a Washington Post article in 2013.

At the end of his first season covering mares, Dreaming of Anna (Rahy), a daughter of Kitten's Joy's multiple stakes-winning and Grade III-placed half-sister Justenuffheart (Broad Brush), was sewing up an Eclipse of her own in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. Along with Justenuffheart's MGSW sons Lewis Michael (Rahy) and Justenuffhumor (Distorted Humor), Kitten's Joy's half-sister Precious Kitten (Catienus) was in the process of building a multiple Grade I resume of her own and would go on to become the dam of GSW and Classic-placed Divining Rod (Tapit).

Before long, 'Kitten'-named horses carrying the Ramseys' trademark red-and-white colors with the capital R, were getting their pictures taken left and right, to the tune of 78% winners to starters from those first three crops.

Ramsey turned his offspring over to the likes of Chad Brown, Romans and Mike Maker, who trained Kitten's Joy's first winner at the graded level when Dean's Kitten–a son of the former $5,000 claimer Summer Theatre–took out the 2010 GII Lane's End S. over the Turfway Poly. The latter was one of six black-type winners from the first crop of Kitten's Joy, while his next crop yielded 11 SWs and 5 GSW, including GII Del Mar Derby hero Banned.

Stephanie's Kitten, a maternal granddaughter of the Ramseys' outstanding turf distaffer Bail Out Becky (Red Ransom) and out of a mare by $50,000 Ramsey claim Catienus, was another to showcase the budding versatility of Kitten's Joy, as the homebred won the GI Darley Alcibiades S. over the Keeneland all-weather and followed up in the GII Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Stephanie's Kitten was one of 15 Kitten's Joy stakes winners in 2011, five at the graded level, and helped her sire achieve his first top 10 finish on the general sires' list while finishing the year as leading third-crop stallion and leading sire of 2-year-olds.

Making A Stallion, At Home and Abroad…

The first 16 and fully 54 of the first 68 stakes winners sired by Kitten's Joy were each bred by the Ramseys. Overall, Kitten's Joy has been represented by 111 black-type winners, 53 at the graded/group level and 15 top-level scorers. The stallion celebrated a banner day Aug, 17, 2013, when three horses struck in Grade I events–Big Blue Kitten in the GI Sword Dancer Invitational S. at Saratoga and Real Solution (Arlington Million) and Admiral Kitten (Secretariat S.) at Arlington. With champion Big Blue Kitten, one of 25 black-type winners that season, leading the way, Kitten's Joy topped the general sire list for the first time.

The sire's offspring continued to excel at the highest level in the U.S., with Divisidero winning the GI Turf Classic on two occasions, Sadler's Joy scoring in the Sword Dancer and Bobby's Kitten, Oscar Performance and Stephanie's Kitten posting wins in various Breeders' Cup events.

By now, Kitten's Joy's tremendous domestic success–he was the leading turf sire each year from 2013 through 2018–had gotten the attention of the international racing community, and his sons, in particular, began to leave their mark on foreign soil. Hawkbill, a $350,000 purchase by Godolphin out of the 2014 Keeneland September sale, defeated his elders in the G1 Coral-Eclipse S. in 2016 and would go on to add the G1 Longines Dubai Sheema Classic in 2018, exploits which landed Kitten's Joy a second trip to the top of the sires' premiership, no easy feat for a turf horse. Hawkbill now stands at Darley's satellite operation in Japan.

Qatar Racing's late Roaring Lion, a $160,000 KEESEP acquisition, won the G2 Royal Lodge S. and was second in the G1 Racing Post Trophy at two in 2017 before winning the Eclipse, G1 Juddmonte International S., G1 Irish Champion S. and G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. He was also beaten two lengths into third in the 2018 G1 Investec Derby.

Kameko also carried the Qatar Racing colors to win the G1 Vertem Futurity Trophy in 2019 and the 2020 G1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. Kitten's Joy has also been represented by MGSW/G1SP Gendarme and GSW Dashing Blaze in Japan.

While clearly a better sire of turf runners, Kitten's Joy was represented as recently as 2021 by GI TVG Pacific Classic hero Tripoli and is also responsible for treble dirt Grade III winner Csaba.

In October 2017, Ramsey announced that John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa had acquired a 50% stake in Kitten's Joy after intimating that he might sell the stallion to European interests.

“The road to success is always under construction,” Ramsey told TDN's Bill Finley in 2017. “In this case, there were some detours. In the end, I feel like we made the right decision for all concerned. We were offered more money by at least one other farm. But the horse came first and everyone in the Ramsey family agreed that Hill 'n' Dale was the best fit for him.”

Kitten's Joy stood his first year at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa at $60,000 and received a bump to $75,000 for 2019. His first crop of Hill 'n' Dale-conceived foals proved popular at auction in 2020, with a son of Joyful Victory (Tapit) fetching ¥105 million ($982,000) at the JRHA Select Sales in Japan and a daughter of Joya Real (Eddington) bringing $800,000 at KEESEP. He stood the 2022 breeding season at a fee of $50,000.

Kitten's Joy currently sits second among leading turf sires. His current flag-bearer is 'TDN Rising Star' New Year's Eve, winner of the GIII Edgewood S. in May. He is the broodmare sire of 28 stakes winners, 11 at the graded/group level, including Grade I winners Channel Cat (English Channel), Fire At Will (Declaration of War) and the recently sold First Constitution (Chi) (Constitution).

When asked by Beyer what has made Kitten's Joy so reliable a stallion, Brown told Beyer in the previously referenced Post article, “To be a top racehorse, you have to be physically gifted, but it also takes an incredible mental constitution. You have to be focused to train every day. One after another, the Kitten's Joys carry that trait. They're tough-minded horses. They never get sour. They can't wait to train, and they drag their riders to get to the track.”

“It was an honor and a privilege to have been entrusted to advance the career of what I believe to be one of the most important international turf sires of this century,” said Sikura. “This stallion is a tribute to one the modern era's most creative minds, namely Ken Ramsey. This horse was a part of our family but perhaps even more so to the Ramsey family. This is a great loss to the industry and to the Ramseys.”

“It is devastating to lose both my wife and her favorite horse in such a short period of time,” Ken Ramsey said. “My wife said 'this horse will bring us a lot of joy' and he certainly did. John Sikura was as good a partner as anyone could ever hope for. Kitten's Joy was the horse of a lifetime. His name will be in pedigrees for generations to come.”

 

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