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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Karakontie’s Spendarella Makes the Grade

Saturday, Gulfstream Park
HERECOMESTHEBRIDE S.-GIII, $125,000, Gulfstream, 3-5, 3yo, f, 1mT, 1:34.38, fm.
1–SPENDARELLA, 118, f, 3, by Karakontie (Jpn)
                1st Dam: Spanish Bunny, by Unusual Heat
                2nd Dam: Spanish Beam, by El Gran Senor
                3rd Dam: Solar Beam, by Majestic Light
   1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($220,000
Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Gainesway Stable (Antony Beck);
B-Gainesway Thoroughbreds Ltd. (NY); T-H. Graham Motion;
J-Jose L. Ortiz. $72,850. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $104,650.
*Full to Spanish Loveaffair, MSW & MGSP, $284,090; 1/2 to
Spanish Queen (Tribal Rule), GISW, $423,600.
2–Opalina, 122, f, 3, Optimizer–Go Kitten Go, by Kitten's Joy.
O-Teneri Farm & J Stables LLC; B-Teneri Farms Inc. & Bernardo
Alvarez Calderon (FL); T-Roderick R. Rodriguez. $23,500.
3–Mischievous Kiss, 120, f, 3, Into Mischief–Kiss the Devil, by
Kris S. 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($300,000 RNA Ylg '20
KEESEP). O-Carl F. Pollard; B-CFP Thoroughbreds LLC (KY);
T-William I. Mott. $11,750.
Margins: 1HF, 1HF, 5. Odds: 1.70, 4.60, 4.30.
Also Ran: Last Leaf, Lia Marina, Beside Herself, Bali Del Sol, Lemieux, Dia de Sol, Howdyoumakeurmoney, Soul of an Angel. Scratched: Diamond Wow, Dolce Zel (Fr). Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

Spendarella fulfilled the promise of her impressive debut victory over the Hallandale turf course Feb. 2 with a wire-to-wire victory in the GIII Herecomesthebride S. at Gulfstream Park Saturday. Favored while facing 10 foes here, the Gainesway homebred zipped out to the early lead and set a moderate pace as she and Lemieux (Nyquist) distanced themselves from the rest of the field. The bay filly scampered clear into the stretch and maintained her advantage to the wire.

“She's always been a nice filly, and she just keeps growing and getting more intelligent about the job,” said Alice Clapham, assistant to winning trainer Graham Motion. “She seems to know what life's about. The first race really kind of helped her grow up. She's a New York-bred, so she'll most probably head up there, at some point. She'll let us tell us where she wants to run.”

Pedigree Notes:
Spendarella is the fifth graded stakes winner for Gainesway stallion Karakontie, who has also been represented by GII Mrs. Revere S. winner Princess Grace, GII Del Mar Derby winner None Above the Law, GIII Sam F. Davis S. winner Sole Volante and group winner Kenzai Warrior. The filly's full-sister Spanish Loveaffair, a two-time stakes winner and three times graded placed, sold for $775,000 at last year's Keeneland November sale.
Spanish Bunny, who was purchased by Gainesway for $130,000 at the 2015 Keeneland November sale, has a 2-year-old filly by Destin and produced a colt by Uncle Mo this year.

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Value Sires, Part VI: Earning their Stripes

This can be a terrifying business. Here we are, for the first time in this series, assessing stallions that have at least put some sophomores through the starting gate. And already, commercially, the game appears to be up for many. So much so, in fact, that to give adequate competitive depth to our value podium, we're going to combine the consecutive intakes who were in 2021 respectively contesting the second- and third-crop championships.

Here's just one example of how ruthless the market is. I won't name the stallion, because he doesn't deserve the ignominy: I have long thought him exactly the type we should be embracing, amply satisfying the criteria of pedigree, performance and physique. But anyone who can be bothered to do a couple of minutes' research will soon figure it out. All I'll say is that since a brilliant sales debut, amply vindicating his status as one of the most expensive freshmen, he has produced three Grade I winners from three crops: the same as American Pharoah and one more than the acknowledged breakout of their class, Constitution. In 2021, he was down to 29 mares.

Perhaps he can still renew momentum as he merits. In principle, however, his treatment shows how this marketplace can menace a stallion with commercial extinction virtually overnight. Sure, as we've previously acknowledged in this series, it's fair enough to reach some tentative early conclusions about a stallion if he can't make the most of the huge opportunity that breeders, in their dread of exposure on the racetrack itself, will give to new sires. But we should at least allow their first couple of crops time to mature before making any such judgement. As it is, we tend to anoint just one or two immediate achievers in each intake, and dump the rest more or less on the spot. The commercial highwire tapers to a thread very quickly.

And the whole process, of course, becomes self-fulfilling. You might still get lucky, might still come up with a champion from a handful of mares, but this is a numbers game and the odds obviously steepen with the loss of volume. Little wonder so many stallions at this stage tend to disappear into overseas or regional programs.

At the other end of the scale, the chosen few tend to be very few indeed. With one or two marginal exceptions lower down, of this year's leading second-crop sires only Nyquist and Not This Time have managed to move up their opening fees; and among the preceding group, only Constitution, Liam's Map and Daredevil. The latter's history is a cautionary one, of course, the market having exceptionally repented of his banishment abroad.

So how do we identify value? Many stallions we might consider unfairly neglected could only be recommended to end-users, who might like to breed a runner for a cheap fee, as their sales trajectory is pointing to the door. The few who retain commercial credibility, meanwhile, are generally charged at a corresponding rate. Constitution, for instance, has made the grade in utterly convincing fashion, but he's no longer very accessible as a result. With even more than the usual diffidence, then, here are one or two subjective discoveries of residual value across these two groups.

Bubbling under: Okay, so most of us can't even think about paying $55,000 to cover a mare. But value is relative, and those who can afford to play at this level will be grateful for Darley's immediate retraction of Nyquist's fee hike to $75,000 last year (from $40,000). Because even though he had to wait until the other day for his first graded stakes winner since, when Slow Down Andy advertised his Derby credentials in the GII Los Alamitos Futurity, Nyquist has been extremely consistent in producing horses of elite caliber.

While he has so far managed to get no more than 125 of his 197 named foals onto the track, he now has no fewer than 22 stakes performers, 14 placed in graded company and six at Grade I level. He hasn't converted that presence to winners as efficiently as Not This Time–a horse we have esteemed from the start, and likely to do better yet with the improvement in his book quality–but there's no doubt that Nyquist has secured commercial viability, with his third crop of yearlings averaging $158,442; and his 2-year-olds $342,043, third among all sires in 2021.

No young stallion is more obviously equipped to get you a runner–literally–than Upstart, who has put 118 of 149 named foals onto the racetrack already, a dozen of them placed at stakes level. He was multiple Grade I-placed at two, three and four, so expect his stock to keep thriving. And while his third crop of yearlings were processed modestly enough, pinhookers will surely have noticed his fantastic yields at the 2-year-old sales: $113,250 this spring, after clocking $107,791 with his first crop. Stay on board, definitely, at $10,000 with Airdrie.

Firing Line | Crestwood

Bronze: FIRING LINE (Line of David–Sister Girl Blues, by Hold for Gold)
$5,000 Crestwood

Now here's an intriguing animal. You have to go some way down the second-crop table to find him, but that's no less than you would expect of a stallion with just 38 starters to date. But not only have 22 of them won; two members of Firing Line's second crop have placed in significant Grade II races.

The homebred Venti Valentine was runner-up in the Demoiselle S., having won a maiden and then a Listed race on her first two starts, while $25,000 yearling Nakatomi has also won in stakes company since finished third in the Saratoga Special S. Plenty of Firing Line's rivals, launched with industrial books, could do with that kind of footprint–not to mention a $210,000 2-year-old like Oscarette, who recently won her maiden at Churchill.

Firing Line missed a juvenile Grade I by a nose, won the GIII Sunland Park Derby by 14 lengths (track record) and was beaten only by a Triple Crown winner on the first Saturday in May. He derailed in the Preakness, failed to reward perseverance with a single disappointing start at four, and was doubtless further held back by a commercially unfamiliar sire and damsire. But he was actually working with a serious genetic package: out of a Grade I-placed half-sister to the dams of two Grade I-winning milers from a line tracing to matriarchs Kamar and Square Angel.

Firing Line is in exemplary hands, but has obviously only mustered very small books so far. Breeders of sufficient imagination and adventure will surely want to explore the way he has seized such limited opportunities at this budget fee.

Silver: TONALIST (Tapit–Settling Mist, by Pleasant Colony)
$10,000 Lane's End 

It has been uphill nearly all the way for this fellow, whose fee has come down yet again, but I have admired him throughout and he has had another solid year, maintaining black-type action at essentially the same ratio as Liam's Map. Few would dispute that his lauded studmate has earned his fee, which is four times higher, not least with his useful habit of hitting the bull's-eye with his best runners. It was typical of the understated style of Tonalist, in contrast, that after Country Grammer gave him a deserved Grade I breakthrough in the Hollywood Gold Cup, he promptly disappeared and has only just returned to the worktab.

Tonalist's 11 graded stakes performers through three crops represent 4.33% of named foals, almost exactly in step with Liam's Map (a dozen at a 4.17%). There are plenty of others in this intake, charging far more than Tonalist, who can't even nudge two percent.

Tonalist's books have been up and down but he does have one of 122 to keep him in the game with his 2022 yearlings, and their breeders can take heart from a median of $35,000 for the preceding crop. That's not at all bad for a sire standing at this kind of money, at this challenging stage of his career. But no bones about it, the real appeal of Tonalist is that he is shaping up as a sire who can outpunch his fee on the racetrack. Remember he reached his own peak at four and he has still only had one crop reach that stage of maturity, including his first Grade I winner.

Tonalist has always looked a quarry of old-school virtue, extending the same Toll Booth-Missy Baba line as Havre de Grace (Saint Liam) and author of 11 triple-digit Beyers in a $3.6-million career. Here was a horse that never stopped trying and breeders wanting to tap into Tapit, at an affordable fee, should take a similar approach.

Gold: KARAKONTIE (Jpn) (Bernstein–Sun Is Up (Jpn), by Sunday Silence)
$10,000 Gainesway

Have Antony Beck and his Gainesway team pulled off what has lately come to seem nearly impossible, and found a viable niche for a young turf stallion in Kentucky?

Karakontie has only been credited with 143 named foals to date but he has mustered seven black-type winners, four in graded stakes including Princess Grace, winner of two Grade IIs, two Grade IIIs and last month placed in her debut at the elite level. With his cosmopolitan pedigree, moreover, Karakontie has pushed the boundaries in terms of racing surface, too. Another Grade II winner, None Above the Law, has scored on turf, dirt and synthetics, while Sole Volante put himself on the Derby trail in the Florida preps last year.

Their sire has meanwhile maintained a useful sale ring capacity to hit one out of the park. He sold a $310,000 colt at Keeneland September, to follow on from yearlings that raised $500,000 and $220,000 at the same auction the previous year. And he has also consolidated quietly after suffering the customary slide from a three-figure debut book to just 43 mares in his third season. He has since covered 69, 88 and 76 mares, which may not look spectacular but suggests that people noticed his early achievements–like two first-crop yearlings, $6,000 apiece, making the gate for the G1 2,000 Guineas and GI Kentucky Derby–and gives him a legitimate foothold in a notoriously hostile environment even to the most eligible of turf stallions.

And that is just what he is, remember, having made his own stellar contributions to one of the most illustrious families in the breed today–his third dam is Miesque herself, so this is the Kingmambo clan–as a Group 1 winner at two and elite miling sophomore (French Classic/Breeders' Cup winner, 110 Beyer). This is a conduit of pure class, every way you cut it, and he has shown that he will take such chances as he's given.

Having this year started just nine juveniles (four winners so far, one stakes-placed) from that small third book, he has now got over the biggest bump in his road. And I'd be interested in odds about him siring a Grade I winner before the foals he breeds this coming spring go under the hammer. Overall this is a horse that really does offer hope that he can overcome the self-destructive prejudices of commercial breeding in Kentucky.

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Tapit Leads Gainesway’s 2022 Stallion Roster At $185,000

Gainesway's 2022 stallion roster will be led by the world-renowned sire Tapit who will remain at $185,000.

Three-time Champion Sire Tapit is North America's leading sire of Grade 1 winners (27), Grade 1 performers (58), graded stakes winners (92), graded stakes horses (177), and stakes performers (284). Tapit continued to add to his historical resume throughout this past year.

Only months after Essential Quality won the Belmont Stakes to make Tapit the first stallion to sire four Belmont Stakes winners in over 100 years, Tapit took over as the all-time leading North American sire by progeny earnings. As a sire-of-sires, his top sons at stud include Constitution, Frosted and promising young sire Tapwrit. As a broodmare sire Tapit's daughters added another 3 Grade 1 winners in 2021, adding to an expanding list that already numbers 25 graded stakes winners.

The brilliantly fast McKinzie will stand for $30,000 in his second season at stud. Well supported in in his initial season the four-time Grade 1 winner bred 214 mares. Street Sense's best son McKinzie posted 11 triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in a career that saw him win top level races at two, three, and four. Included in those Grade 1 victories was registering an impressive ¼ Ragozin in the G1 Whitney Stakes.

He is joined by Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Spun to Run as Gainesway stallions expecting their first foals in 2022. Hailing from the influential Danzig sire line, Spun to Run showed remarkable speed during his 3-year-old campaign, collecting three consecutive triple digit Beyers and five times ran a “0” on his Thoro-Graph chart. Spun to Run will stand for $10,000 in 2022.

A $1.2 million yearling himself, Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit has proven to be popular in the auction ring with nearly 20 percent of his first crop of yearlings bringing over 10 times his 2021 stud fee. Also having the most six-figure yearlings of any freshman sire at the Fasig-Tipton July Sale, Tapwrit's first crop is set to hit the track in 2022.  A 2-year-old stakes winner out of the juvenile Grade 1 winner Appealing Zophie, Tapwrit will stand for $10,000.

Karakontie, standing for $10,000 in 2022, has continued to prove that he's one of the top third crop sires by percentage of stakes winners and graded stakes winners. A three-time Grade 1-winner, Karakontie's runners this year include dual-surface and multiple graded stakes winner Princess Grace and G2 Del Mar Derby winner None Above The Law, who has won four stakes on three different surfaces this year.

Anchor Down will stand for $5,000 in 2022. From limited books, the son of Tapit boasts 14 percent stakes horses in his first two crops of racing age. His top performers in 2021 include Grade 2-placed Captured Prize and stakes performers Lionessofbrittany, Swot Analysis, and Tesoro.

The Gainesway roster gains multiple Grade 1 winner Raging Bull in 2022 with the talented son of top international sire Dark Angel standing for $10,000 LFSN.

A $1.6-million earner, Raging Bull proved to be a consistently talented racehorse who competed at the top of his division over four racing seasons. He has made 18 consecutive graded stakes starts, winning or placing in nine of 14 Grade 1 events, including victories in the G1 Hollywood Derby, G1 Shoemaker Mile Stakes, and this year's G1 Maker's Mark Mile Stakes. Raging will be making his final career start in the Breeders' Cup Mile next month at Del Mar.

Following is a complete list of Gainesway's 2022 stallion roster, with advertised fees.

Afleet Alex
Northern Afleet – Maggy Hawk, by Hawkster
Fee: Private

Anchor Down
Tapit – Successful Outlook, by Orientate
Fee: $5,000

Karakontie
Bernstein – Sun Is Up, by Sunday Silence
Fee: $10,000

McKinzie
Street Sense – Runway Model, by Petionville
Fee: $30,000

Raging Bull
Dark Angel – Rosa Bonheur, by Mr. Greeley
Fee: $10,000

Spun to Run
Hard Spun – Yawkey Way, by Grand Slam
Fee: $10,000

Tapit
Pulpit – Tap Your Heels, by Unbridled
Fee: $185,000

Tapwrit
Tapit – Appealing Zophie, by Successful Appeal
Fee: $10,000

All stud fees are payable LFSN (live foal stands and nurses).

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