Freshman Sire Seabhac Off The Mark At Lyon-Parilly

Seabhac (Scat Daddy) became the latest European freshman sire off the mark when Anton Doerner's homebred Everwin (Fr) (Seabhac–Quatuor {Ire}, by Kodiac {GB}) notched a first winner for the Haras de Saint Arnoult resident in Monday's Prix des Iris, a maiden race for 2-year-olds, at Lyon Parilly.

2nd-Lyon-Parilly, €18,000, Mdn, 6-27, 2yo, 6 3/4fT, 1:26.49, sf.
EVERWIN (FR) (c, 2, Seabhac–Quatuor {Ire}, by Kodiac {GB}) settled off the pace in a midfield eighth for most of this debut. Making smooth headway along the far-side rail once into the straight, the 47-10 chance quickened to the front approaching the final furlong and was pushed clear in the closing stages to easily account for Spirit Grey (Fr) (Charm Spirit {Ire}), by an impressive 3 1/2 lengths, becoming the first winner for his freshman sire (by Scat Daddy). Everwin is the latest of five foals and third scorer produced by a multiple-winning granddaughter of G3 Prix de Saint-Georges victrix Maybe Forever (GB) (Zafonic), herself a half-sister to MG1SW sire Court Masterpiece (GB) (Polish Precedent). Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, €9,000. Video, sponsored by TVG.
1ST-TIME STARTER. O/B-Anton Doerner (FR); T-Ludovic Gadbin.

The post Freshman Sire Seabhac Off The Mark At Lyon-Parilly appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Former Claimer Tell Your Daddy Brings Solid Form Into Saturday’s Artie Schiller

Flying P Stable's Tell Your Daddy brings a solid run of form into Saturday's $150,000 Artie Schiller, a one-mile inner turf test for 3-year-olds and upward at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Trained by Tom Morley, Tell Your Daddy posted triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in each of his last three starts, including a runner-up effort in the Lure [100BSF] in August at Saratoga Race Couse; a gate-to-wire win in the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch [101] in September at the Spa; and a troubled second last out in the Grade 1 Keeneland Turf Mile [101].

The 5-year-old Scat Daddy gelding, who was claimed for $40,000 in January at the Fair Grounds, has made a steady progression with a record of 6-1-2-1 for his new connections.

Jay Provenzano [Flying P Stable] said a better trip in the Keeneland Turf Mile, a “Win and You're In” event could have sent the upwardly-mobile gelding to the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Mile.

With Julien Leparoux up in the Keeneland Turf Mile, Tell Your Daddy tracked from fourth position but was impeded at the eighth pole and settled for second, 1 1/2-lengths back of In Love. The third-place finisher – Somelikeithotbrown – exited that event to win last Saturday's Mohawk at Belmont Park while Ivar, the fourth-place finisher, ran a credible third in the Breeders' Cup Mile at Del Mar on Nov. 6.

“I think we could have won the race if we had got a clean trip like the winner did down the lane. We got a little bumped here and there,” Provenzano said. “We thought we stood a chance to get into the Breeders' Cup but we ended up third on the list.

“Tom and I have always stuck to our plan with this horse and it's usually paid off,” Provenzano added. “We decided if we were first or second on the AE list we'd ship and if not we would stay for this spot and that's the plan.”

Provenzano said Tell Your Daddy's rallying sixth – defeated less than two lengths – in the 2020 Grade 2 Shakertown at 5 1/2-furlongs at Keeneland, caught his eye and prompted the eventual claim.

“We didn't think he was running the right distance,” Provenzano said. “He had just come up short in the Shakertown and when we started watching more replays he was always just coming up short but with a good run. We felt if we could get him to stretch to seven-eighths it would be very good for him.”

Tell Your Daddy ran a game fourth at odds of 60-1 at first asking for new connections in the Elusive Quality in April, missing by a half-length to the victorious Casa Creed when stretched out to seven furlongs over the Belmont turf off a three-month layoff.

Casa Creed exited the Elusive Quality to win the Grade 1 Jackpocket Jaipur at Belmont while third-place finisher Value Proposition has since won 3-of-5 starts including a pair of stakes scores.

Tell Your Daddy made his next two starts at one mile over the Belmont turf, finishing third in the Seek Again and seventh in the Grade 3 Poker. He then teamed up with Hall of Fame rider John Velazquez for a pair of starts at 1 1/16-miles at Saratoga, finishing second in the restricted Lure ahead of his Bernard Baruch coup.

Provenzano said the Poker effort was an anomaly.

“We just dismissed that race. We didn't like how the race unfolded for us in the Poker,” Provenzano said. “After his next race [in the Lure], Johnny came back and said the horse might like to go a little farther and get on the lead. We took a chance in the Bernard Baruch and Johnny put him on the engine and he ran spectacular that day.”

Provenzano said that while he is disappointed to have missed out on this year's Breeders' Cup with Tell Your Daddy, he'll look forward to blazing a trail to next year's event.

“I think we made the right choice staying here,” Provenzano said. “It's a good distance and next year we know that we have to campaign him a little differently and treat him like a real good horse now.”

Velazquez returns to the irons from post 6.

Multiple graded-stakes placed Bodecream will also look to go from claim to fame. The 4-year-old son of Bodemeister, trained by Jeffrey Englehart for Darryl Abramowitz, was claimed for $80,000 out of a winning effort in a 1 1/16-mile optional-claiming tilt last out on October 21 at Belmont Park, registering a career-best 94 Beyer.

“I thought he was in for the right price and that he'd be a good horse for us to have for next season,” Englehart said. “He ran a nice number last time so we nominated him to this race. He's been training good since, so we're going to take a shot. This spot makes sense for him.”

Bodecream launched a productive sophomore season with a rallying win in the Texas Turf Mile last January at Sam Houston. Purchased for $50,000 at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton July Horses of Racing Age Sale, Bodecream was transferred to trainer Mike Maker for a summer campaign and finished a close third in the one-mile Grade 3 Saranac over soft turf last August at Saratoga Race Course.

After completing the trifecta in the one-mile Grade 2 Hill Prince over yielding Belmont turf last October, Bodecream ran a close second in his Big A debut when missing by a nose to City Man in the 1 1/16-mile Gio Ponti last November which was contested over good going.

The consistent Bodecream boasts a record of 7-2-2-0 this season, including a prominent score last out as the mutuel favorite.

“It looked like he liked to be in the open, on the lead and in the clear early,” Englehart said. “We learned that about him and it's something to keep in the back of our mind going forward.”

Jose Lezcano will have the call from post 5.

Three Diamonds Farm's multiple graded-stakes winner Field Pass, a 4-year-old Lemon Drop Kid colt, enters from a close second in the nine-furlong Grade 3 Knickerbocker where he finished a head in arrears of Sacred Life.

The versatile Maryland-bred won 5-of-10 starts last season for trainer Mike Maker, including graded wins in the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks over the Turfway Park synthetic; the Grade 3 Transylvania over the Keeneland turf; and the Grade 3 Ontario Derby on Tapeta at Woodbine Racetrack.

Field Pass notched his lone win in six starts this season with a neck score in the one-mile Grade 3 Baltimore/Washington International Turf Cup in July at Pimlico Race Course.

Hall of Famer Javier Castellano will ride from post 11.

Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse will send out a pair of contenders who could benefit from the significant pace signed on for Saturday's test with multiple graded-stakes winner March to the Arch and Olympic Runner, who made the grade in the Grade 2 King Edward in August at Woodbine.

Live Oak Plantation homebred March to the Arch, a 6-year-old Arch gelding, closed to finish fourth last out after being steadied in the stretch run of the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile on September 18.

March to the Arch, a multiple graded-stakes winner, has made all four starts this season at Woodbine led by a dominant win in the nine-furlong Niagara in July ahead of a rallying third in the one-mile King Edward – both contested on the E. P. Taylor Turf Course.

March to the Arch will exit post 4 under Dylan Davis.

Gary Barber's Olympic Runner, a 5-year-old Gio Ponti gelding, finished a distant eighth in the Woodbine Mile but followed with a closing third in the six-furlong Grade 2 Nearctic on September 18 over yielding Woodbine turf.

Kendrick Carmouche will pilot Olympic Runner from post 2.

Bond Racing Stable's Rinaldi, bred in New York by Barry Ostrager, captured the one-mile Grade 3 Forbidden Apple in gate-to-wire fashion in July over firm Saratoga turf but faded to fifth in his follow-up effort last out in the restricted West Point on August 27.

The H. James Bond trainee, who boasts a record of 12-5-2-1, was scratched by his conditioner from last Saturday's 1 1/16-mile Mohawk against fellow state-breds at Belmont Park. He will look to get back to his winning ways from post 3 under Luis Saez.

Juddmonte Farms' homebred Flavius, a graded-stakes placed son of War Front, registered a 103 Beyer two starts back in winning the restricted 1 1/16-mile Lure gate-to-wire on August 7 at the Spa.

Trained by four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown, the 6-year-old ridgling finished fifth last out in the one-mile Grade 3 Mint Million on September 6 at Kentucky Downs.

The consistent Flavius, who sports a ledger of 13-4-3-1 with purse earnings of $719,651, earned a career-best 105 Beyer last September with a rallying win in the Tourist Mile at Kentucky Downs.

Jose Ortiz has the call from the inside post.

Rounding out the field are En Wye Cee [post 7, Irad Ortiz, Jr.], Mandate [post 12, Andrew Wolfsont], and Breaking the Rules [post 8, Manny Franco]. Bal Harbour and Our Last Buck were entered for the main-track only.

The Artie Schiller is slated as Race 9 on Saturday's 10-race card. First post is 11:50 a.m. Eastern.

America's Day at the Races will present daily coverage and analysis of the fall meet at Aqueduct Racetrack on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/racing/tv-schedule.

The post Former Claimer Tell Your Daddy Brings Solid Form Into Saturday’s Artie Schiller appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Taking Stock: City of Light Stars at Keeneland

There are folks who sound like broken records when it comes to first-crop sires, complaining that breeders who use them and buyers purchasing those yearlings at auction are about as foolish as dunk-tank clowns. However, when one of those sires succeeds with his first 2-year-olds, those same people are usually the first to wax eloquent with platitudes, forgetting what they'd said earlier. That's human nature, I suppose.

What they forget is that all sires start out with first crops, and there are people on the other end that wildcat for next big sire–the next Into Mischief, Tapit, Curlin, Uncle Mo, Quality Road, etc. It's a given that most horses that enter stud will fail, but every year a few stars will appear to justify the process. This year, for example, Three Chimneys's Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) is on a tear with his first juveniles, with five black-type winners to date, including two at the highest level. In Europe over the weekend, Coolmore America's Caravaggio (Scat Daddy) and Overbury Stud's Ardad (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) were represented by the winners of the G1 Cheveley Park S. and the G1 Middle Park S., respectively, from their first crops. There are too many current and historical examples of first-season success to list here, but it shouldn't surprise anyone that it happens, because these horses tend to get their best books of mares in their first years at stud, their own intrinsic abilities aside.

Sometimes, yearling sales will tip off future success. Gun Runner, a Horse of the Year who entered stud in 2018 for a $70,000 stud fee, led all first-season sires at Keeneland September in 2020 with an average price of $253,750 for 32 sold, and that was during the height of COVID, which depressed prices across the board. Because of his exceptional early success on the track, Gun Runner's second crop of yearlings benefitted, averaging $325,925 for 40 sold at Keeneland this year.

With COVID now somewhat under control, yearling prices soared across the board at Keeneland, which concluded last Friday, and the unequivocal star of first-crop sires was Lane's End's City of Light (Quality Road), with an average price of $372,872 for 47 sold–almost an average of $50,000 more than the Gun Runners. More germane, City of Light entered stud for $35,000 in the same year that Coolmore America's powerful Scat Daddy duo of Justify, a Triple Crown winner; and Mendelssohn, a half-brother to Into Mischief and champion Beholder, started out for fees of $150,000 and $35,000, respectively.

Justify had 61 sell for an average price of $367,721, which placed him second behind City of Light. Mendelssohn, with an identical initial fee to City of Light, had 64 yearlings sell for an average of $160,078. City of Light, Justify, and Mendelssohn led all first-crop sires at Keeneland by average price, and the sales results for all of them were excellent returns on investment for breeders and consignors who'd supported them. But it's obvious that City of Light's numbers stand out.

Moreover, a $1.7-million colt by City of Light topped the sale, and for good measure, he had another colt bring $1.05 million.

City of Light

A $710,000 Keeneland September yearling bred by Ann Marie Farm, City of Light is an exceptionally attractive physical specimen, tall, athletic, and rangy, built very much like his sire, who also stands at Lane's End. When it was announced in late 2018 that City of Light would enter stud at Lane's End, the farm contacted me to write a piece about him for its website. I said this about his sire:

“The scope of Quality Road's success at stud has been astonishing, though not entirely surprising given his looks, race record, and pedigree. Bred and raced by the late Edward P. Evans, Quality Road is by Elusive Quality and is therefore a member of the Gone West branch of Mr. Prospector. On the bottom, he traces in tail-female to the highly influential mare Myrtlewood (seventh dam), from which Mr. Prospector (fourth dam) and Seattle Slew (fifth dam) also descended. Speed was the salient characteristic of these horses, and Quality Road expressed that trait by setting three track records, one at 6 1/2 furlongs and two at nine furlongs. He stayed 10 furlongs well enough when second in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, beaten a length. He is physically attractive, with height, length, and balance, and he was nimble, athletic, and notably fast for a 16.3-hand specimen. He reliably passes along his physical and aptitudinal traits to his offspring, who are effective from sprints to classic distances on dirt and turf at the highest levels, and as a sire, he has ascended to elite status in a short time.”

Todd Pletcher, who has had his hands on more top-class stallions than anyone else, guided the career of Quality Road after taking over from Jimmy Jerkens midway through the colt's 3-year-old season, and perhaps it's fitting that Pletcher's longtime assistant Michael McCarthy trained City of Light for owners Mr. and Mrs. William K. Warren, Jr.

City of Light was a top-class racehorse, winning six of 11 starts, and he was never off the board in his other five races, earning $5.7 million. Most notably, the colt won two Grade I sprints at Santa Anita over seven furlongs, the Malibu S. and the Triple Bend S.; the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill; and the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. at Gulfstream over nine furlongs. In between, he'd also placed third in the GI Gold Cup at Santa Anita over 10 furlongs. By racing aptitude, he was also very much his father's son, and he was unlucky to never have won an Eclipse Award.

City of Light is from the Dehere mare Paris Notion and comes from a family developed by Ray Stark and Fares Farm that also includes Grade l winners Fabulous Notion (his second dam), Cacoethes, Subordination, and Careless Jewel.

With the physique, sire, race record, and female family behind him, it's no surprise he was a hit with breeders from the beginning. WTC bloodstock editor Frances J. Karon tweeted a photo of him at Lane's End in February of 2019 and wrote: “If you like Quality Road–and who doesn't?!–you will *love* his son City of Light, a real 'wow' horse.” And in another tweet on the same thread, she wrote: “City of Light won the GI Pegasus barely more than 30 days ago. Horses aren't supposed to look this phenomenal a month out of training, so that tells you a lot about this guy.”

Usually, a stallion's stud fee will decrease after his first few years at stud, but that wasn't the case with City of Light. In 2020, he went up $5,000 to $40,000–the same fee he was at this year. That's a testament to his popularity.

His first weanlings to sell confirmed this, with 20 selling in 2020 for an average price of $190,875. That was the clue that he was going to be a hit at the yearling sales this season.

So far, there haven't been too many Quality Road sons at stud, but one who is doing well this year with his first crop is Darby Dan's Klimt, a Grade l winner at two. Klimt is in a different price range–he's been at $10,000 all four years at stud–but he's sixth on TDN's first-crop list with progeny earnings of $620,916. Klimt has 12 winners, which makes him co-tied for fourth place in that category, and has three black-type-placed horses.

These are good signs for City of Light, and all eyes will be on him next year when his first runners hit the track.

Sid Fernando is president and CEO of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., originator of the Werk Nick Rating and eNicks.

The post Taking Stock: City of Light Stars at Keeneland appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Caravaggio’s Homecoming Offers Wider Renaissance

No doubt about it, bringing Caravaggio to the Bluegrass when he had barely started in Europe was quite a gamble.

Presumably, after all, much of the good work since done by his first crop, conceived and largely racing over the water, will be passing the notice of many Kentucky breeders. But I have a hunch that they may end up using him in a rather more sophisticated way than European commercial breeders, and that he may ultimately achieve a good deal more as a result.

Not that anyone would have any complaints if the gray were simply to carry on the way he has started in Europe. Caravaggio was repatriated late last year to Ashford, the farm where he was foaled and raised, after three seasons at Coolmore's headquarters in Ireland. In the meantime, he has already assembled seven black-type performers–and now his first Group 1 laurels, through Tenebrism in the Juddmonte Cheveley Park S. at Newmarket last Saturday.

If he is worried about losing any of that momentum, perhaps one evening Tale of the Cat should ask him round for a neighborly bourbon or two. The Ashford veteran could assure him he has seen it all before. True, a stallion of real merit in Declaration of War couldn't quite meet the challenge, exported to Japan four years after his arrival on the farm. But things didn't work out too badly for Giant's Causeway, another who had started with stints in Ireland and Australia.

Of course, there remains one glaring difference between that pair and Caravaggio. Each had put up an unmissable performance right under the nose of American breeders, ending his career with a spectacular near-miss when making his one and only dirt start in no less a race than the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

The case for Caravaggio, in contrast, has had to be entrusted to the instincts of the marketplace. His pedigree, for a start, could not have been more resonant: by Scat Daddy out of a Holy Bull mare. And success in the two premier Royal Ascot sprints for his generation, as juveniles and sophomores respectively, is nowadays a pretty universal distinction. But let's go beyond that veneer, encouraging as it is, and assess the substance of what Caravaggio has imported back to his roots.

Now here's something to consider right away. Caravaggio's Kentucky relaunch, in the spring, was assisted with a fee cut from €40,000 for his final season in Ireland to $25,000. And with Kentucky breeders yet to see his first indigenous foals, a delicate call will have to be made on Caravaggio's fee for 2022.    When another son of Scat Daddy, No Nay Never, made a comparable impression (virtually identical record, to this point, at Group level) with his first crop in 2018, the Coolmore team in Ireland were able to catapult his fee from €25,000 right up to €100,000. That kind of thing would hardly be expedient, for Caravaggio, while still needing traction from his new base. So the chances are that he could remain available, next spring, on terms that represent a real bargain relative to his growing prestige in Europe.

Significantly, that final European fee of €40,000 actually represented a marginal increase on €35,000 in his two previous seasons, bucking a trend bleakly familiar in commercial breeding on both sides of the ocean–and an eloquent tribute, as such, to the impression made by his first stock into the ring.

His weanlings had averaged the equivalent of $125,595, the best of his intake in Europe and with a stellar clearance rate (31 sold of 33 offered). Then, as yearlings, they again topped the European freshman averages, 64 of 81 finding a new home at the equivalent of $132,258. Given that he had covered 217 mares in his first season, this was a pretty persuasive yield.     Some of us will never be comfortable with the “industrial” system, either here or in Europe, but at least Caravaggio had shown himself capable of meeting the quantity challenge by producing quality with adequate consistency.

So, yes, it was quite a roll of the dice to reboot a project that was going so well. On the other hand, Scat Daddy's legacy was about to be further contested (or congested) at Coolmore, with his son Sioux Nation and grandson Ten Sovereigns entering the fray as affordable alternatives to the soaring No Nay Never. In contrast, the Ashford duo Justify and Mendelssohn, while operating at different levels of the market, shared a similar profile as potential Classic influences without necessarily offering the other Scat Daddy trademark of precocity and speed.

You can certainly perceive that in the powerful build of Caravaggio, in chest, forearm and gaskin. But this also brings us to the most fascinating dimension of Caravaggio's transfer. For to conflate his freshman performance with those of his new American peers is to highlight an extreme and widening difference in the European and American markets.

In TDN's sire database, the filter for stallions standing in North America currently brings Caravaggio into the domestic freshman table in third place by prize money. That's pretty outstanding, given the notoriously uncompetitive purses typically contested by his stock so far, certainly in Britain.

But while he has fielded more elite operators than barnmate Practical Joke, and nearly as many as the freakish Gun Runner, American breeders will notice straightaway that he has mustered them from as many as 67 starters already from 122 named foals. Even the precocious Practical Joke has so far launched no more than 41 of 118, while Gun Runner–who put together his Horse of the Year campaign at four–has put just 34 of 109 through the gate.

Unfortunately this kind of thing has become routine in Europe, where commercial farms in Britain and especially Ireland have targeted a huge juvenile program about as pertinent to Classic racing as sprint maidens at the Keeneland spring meet. Among those in Caravaggio's intake, Ardad (Ire), whose son Perfect Power (Ire) won his second Group 1 prize on the same card as Tenebrism last Saturday, has unleashed 50 of 73 named foals. Cotai Glory (GB) has fired 70 of 101 bullets, and Profitable (Ire) 74 of 106.

Now I won't labor unduly a point I've made so often before, about the trouble Europeans are storing up for the breed with this infatuation with sharp and early types; or the way their commercial contempt for stallions more competent to sire Epsom horses will eventually create a vacuum ideal for dirt stallions that could carry their speed two turns. But I do suspect that Caravaggio could actually benefit from a less frantic approach among American breeders, whose mares may draw from his pedigree something of the versatility, as an influence, we saw in Scat Daddy himself.

Judging from Caravaggio's first crop, European breeders have been using a pretty coarse formula. His speed has been sought to pep up staying mares. Sure enough, he has already managed to get 14 youngsters out of Galileo (Ire) mares onto the track.     True, none of these has yet won–but dual Group winner Agartha (Ire) is out of a 14-furlong winner by the sturdy force Dylan Thomas (Ire).

That's all fair enough, so far as it goes. Caravaggio was so vividly blessed with speed that no attempt was ever made even to test the water for a Classic mile. Having won his first two starts in the spring, he started hot favorite for the G2 Coventry S. at Royal Ascot, and duly dished out a thrashing to the most forward animals in the crop–headed by Mehmas (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}), himself meanwhile a poster boy for the syndrome we have just discussed, having been retired at two (a quite disgraceful commercial trend in Europe) before mustering a record 56 winners from no fewer than 101 juvenile starters in his first crop.

Though restricted to just one more juvenile start, an easy Group 1 success at microscopic odds, Caravaggio returned to Ascot at three to beat a very strong field for the G1 Commonwealth Cup. Possibly he hadn't quite absorbed that effort when losing his unbeaten record next time, and muddy ground hampered him thereafter; but there was no doubt that this was a brilliant, dashing talent.

Tenebrism herself vindicates what was much his most glamorous opportunity: a date with Immortal Verse (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}), a dual Group 1 winner at a mile, who realized a European record 4,700,000gns at the Tattersalls December Sale in 2013. Their daughter got Caravaggio off the mark at the first attempt, with a 'TDN Rising Star' debut at Naas in March, but then disappeared until last weekend. Still green out of the gate, as a result, Tenebrism accelerated stylishly from the rear and her pedigree gives her every chance of seeing out a mile, too: Immortal Verse is out of Sadler's Wells half-sister to that versatile creature Last Tycoon (Ire) (Try My Best), with the rest of the maternal line sown by a series of copper-bottomed stamina influences.

What we need to see now is whether a more refined equilibrium can be achieved by the mates Caravaggio is receiving in Kentucky.

In producing a series of Royal Ascot sprinters as well as a Triple Crown winner on dirt, Scat Daddy clearly draw on the diversity of his genetic background. We honor his sire Johannesburg as a rebuke to Europe's dismal timidity, since, regarding the main track at the Breeders' Cup; while Scat Daddy's second dam was by Nijinsky (who also, incidentally, gave us Johannesburg's celebrated fourth dam State).

As for Caravaggio's maternal line, besides being pegged down by a fourth dam by the essential Princequillo, it ties together some of the most dynamic strands of the modern dirt Thoroughbred.

His stakes-winning dam, who has also produced My Jen (Fusaichi Pegasus) to win a Grade II sprint on dirt, is by Holy Bull out of a Relaunch mare. That means she duplicates top and bottom a trade-off between Nerud/Tartan Farms speed and the turf stamina and robustness of The Axe II. Relaunch is by Intentionally's son In Reality, out of a mare by The Axe II. As for Holy Bull, his sire Great Above was out of Ta Wee, the champion daughter of Intentionally and Aspidistra; while his dam was by The Axe II's son Al Hattab.

Relaunch, of course, was a brother to the third dam of Tapit–whose damsire, Unbridled, famously entwines several Nerud-Tartan brands in his turn, most notably by replicating his fourth dam Aspidistra as the mother of Dr. Fager, one of whose daughters gave us Unbridled's sire Fappiano.

So while Caravaggio appears to be briskly meeting his brief in Europe, his return to Kentucky creates the opportunity for some really intriguing genetic consolidation.

Mares by Tapit or his sons, most obviously, would match up Relaunch against his sister; while those representing the Unbridled line would offer equally tempting symmetries. How about a daughter of Liam's Map, for instance? He's a grandson of Unbridled, with a granddam closely inbred to Ta Wee. (With a dam by Holy Bull, moreover, Caravaggio can double down on Aspidistra through Quiet American, for instance, not least as damsire of all those lovely Bernardini mares.)

Note that one of the few members of Caravaggio's first crop to have gone through the U.S. system is Her World, out of an Unbridled's Song mare. She made $400,0000 at Keeneland last September, and last month won a stakes sprint at Monmouth by six lengths on debut for Wesley Ward.

Okay, so that happened to be on turf. But the bottom line is that here's a young stallion with the potential to contribute to one of the vital challenges facing the breed today: namely, the reintegration of the transatlantic gene pool after a catastrophic schism between dirt and turf. This needs to become a two-way street, with dirt stallions again siring Epsom horses as well. But if a dual Royal Ascot winner can meanwhile parlay his brilliance through dirt mares, then he will illuminate the encroaching gloom in precisely the fashion developed by his namesake with a paintbrush–in a technique, accentuating the light among the dark, that just happens to be known as Tenebrism.

For as Caravaggio's once-dark coat becomes ever lighter, ever more charmingly dappled, perhaps he will also bring a deeper change of complexion to the breed. He has made an immediate impression in Europe, from fairly broad brushstrokes. Now, perhaps, American breeders can bring some subtler shades into the genetic palette.

The post Caravaggio’s Homecoming Offers Wider Renaissance appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights