In the Forego Stakes at Saratoga, Win Win Win became the seventh Grade 1 or Group 1 winner for his sire in the same way that sire Hat Trick (by Sunday Silence) became a success at stud in America: doing it his way.
Hat Trick became a success in America in the broadest sense; he was only a lukewarm success in North America, where Win Win Win became the sire's second Grade 1 winner. In contrast, Hat Trick was a triunfo caliente in South America, where he has four Group 1 winners and more strong crops to come.
On Aug. 3, however, the 19-year-old Hat Trick died in his stall of a presumed heart attack after covering his first mare of the 2020 Southern Hemisphere breeding season at Haras Springfield in Brazil, and the stallion's final full crop will be born in the next few months during the South American spring.
Foaled in Japan in 2001, Hat Trick won the G1 Mile Championship in Japan and the G1 Hong Kong Mile in Hong Kong and was champion miler in Japan in 2005. Imported to stand at Walmac Farm in Kentucky for the 2008 season, Hat Trick was the first high-class racing son of Sunday Silence brought to stand in Kentucky, and Walmac owner Johnny Jones (the younger) recalled acquiring the horse.
He said, “We'd been looking for a son of Sunday Silence to stand in America, and the Yoshidas, who controlled access to this deal, had a bunch of sons of Sunday Silence at their farms. So, there must have been some feeling that they didn't have to keep this horse, who was already six and would go to stud at age seven.
“Barry Irwin already had been in contact with the Japanese ownership, had arranged an option to buy him, and brought me the deal. He told me this, and we funded his option and bought the horse. It was a complex deal financially, and one point of concern was the horse's age. On the positive side, we were thinking of Speightstown's commercial success after going to stud rather late, and that made it seem a possibility.”
The financial side of the Walmac syndication was made possible by a set of anchor partners, as Andrew Rosen, Robert McNair, and a partnership controlled by John Stuart, joined Walmac in closing the deal.
Given a substantial group of mares, Hat Trick did his part, and from his first crop, he sired an unbeaten 2-year-old champion in France named Dabirsim.
The only Group 1 winner by Hat Trick in Europe, Dabirsim won all five of his juvenile starts, including the Prix Morny and Grand Criterium, both Group 1 races, but the striking near-black racer made only two starts at three, second on his seasonal debut in the G3 Prix de Fontainebleau, then was a close sixth in the French 2,000 Guineas. A sore foot and other physical issues kept the horse off the track the rest of 2012, and he was retired in April 2013, entered stud in 2014.
At Walmac in Kentucky, Dabirsim's successes in 2011 brought an offer to capitalize on Hat Trick's potential, and the owners sold a substantial interest in Hat Trick to Gainesway and moved the horse there for the 2012 breeding season.
Michael Hernon recalled the situation: “Antony and I both drove over and looked at the horse, who was just across Paris Pike at the stallion barn on Walmac. I had seen Sunday Silence late in his career at stud in Japan, and I thought that there was a good deal of resemblance between the sire and Hat Trick. Overall, Hat Trick was more elegant, wouldn't have weighed as much, was always a proud horse when he came out to show, and was a kind horse, good in the breeding shed. He was a top racehorse, and he was able to get a few top runners.”
Had the near-black son of Sunday Silence gotten racer after racer in a class with Dabirsim, he'd still be eating bluegrass.
However, as Hernon explained, “Hat Trick's appeal waned just as the market changed dramatically. He came to Gainesway in 2012, and yet by 2014 or 2015, with the aftereffects of the Great Recession and the resulting contraction in breeding, the stallion market had changed so radically that it favored the new stallion on the block too much and sent too many mares to those stallions, and those stallions alone. The number of mares being bred has continued to decline, while fewer stallions are widely used. The outside dynamic had changed, and since he was no longer a new item, that polarization of the market was so extreme that Hat Trick was sold” to stand in Brazil at Haras Springfield.
Early on in the stallion's term at stud, Hat Trick had shuttled to Argentina for the Southern Hemisphere breeding seasons in 2009, 2010, and 2012. From those covering seasons came four Group 1 winners: Hat Puntano, Hat Mario, Zapata, and Giant Killing. The first and third of those won the Gran Premio 2,000 Guineas, and they helped create a reputation for Hat Trick in South America. They and other top-level winners by Hat Trick showed their form at or near the sire's preferred distance of a mile.
Win Win Win, for instance, won his Grade 1 at seven furlongs in the Forego on Aug. 30, but the conditions of racing at Saratoga made the race as strenuous a seven furlongs as possible. The son of Hat Trick trailed early through quick fractions, was last turning into the stretch, and passed them all through the stretch while eight or nine paths wide to win narrowly in the slop and driving rain.
Bred and raced by Charlotte Weber's Live Oak Stud, Win Win Win is very similar to his sire in color and general type, being a horse with a lot of quality and one who likes to finish his races powerfully.
Although there are a moderate number of Northern Hemisphere racers yet to come from Hat Trick, Win Win Win's dramatic victory in the Forego was a symbolic climax for the stud career of Sunday Silence's son in North America.
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