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Pontiff, Half-Brother To Pulpit, Moves To Daehling Ranch In California

Pontiff, a winning son of multiple leading sire Giant's Causeway and half-brother to major sire Pulpit, has relocated from Washington to stand at Daehling Ranch in Northern California for the 2022 breeding season. His fee is $2,500, live foal guarantee.

Bred in Kentucky by Claiborne Farm and sold for $310,000 as a Keeneland yearling in 2011, Pontiff was rated highly enough by original trainer Dale Romans and former owner Donegal Racing to contest Gulfstream Park's $1-million Grade 1 Florida Derby in his third lifetime start as a 3-year-old maiden in 2013, in a race that was won by subsequent Kentucky Derby winner Orb. Following an unplaced finish in that early test, he went on to record victories on dirt in Oklahoma and on turf in Minnesota and Texas, excelling at two-turn distances as an older horse.

Pontiff retired from racing in 2017 with three wins and 17 placings from 35 career starts, and total earnings of $126,481.

He initiated his stallion career in Washington in 2018, and recently stood at Warlock Stables in Spokane. He has 24 registered foals: 14 juveniles and 10 yearlings, with one placed runner.

Produced by the breed-shaping matriarch Preach, a Grade 1-winning daughter of Mr. Prospector, Pontiff is a half-brother to the successful, late sire Pulpit, whose sons at stud include multiple leading sire Tapit. Among the other notable stallions in his family, which features more than 30 black-type horses under his first two dams, are Fed Biz, Johannesburg and Tale of the Cat.

“We are excited to move Pontiff to California, in order to take advantage of the state's lucrative breeding and racing program,” said Warlock Stables owner Tim Floyd, who manages the 11-year-old stallion for a partnership that now includes Daehling Ranch owners Justin and Julia (Daehling) Oldfield and California Chrome's former co-owner Perry Martin. “The Washington breeding industry has shrunk significantly over the past 20 years, so his opportunities here as a young, well-bred stallion are extremely limited.”

“With his extraordinary pedigree, we believe Pontiff deserves a chance to court a better and more abundant broodmare colony in California,” Floyd added. “He is a handsome, charismatic stallion whose early foals really look the part, and whose best-bred foals are in his upcoming crops.”

Pontiff arrived at Daehling Ranch on August 16. He will be featured in a Northern California Stallion Tour on October 2.

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Central Banker Cementing His Place Among New York’s Elite Sires

Central Banker has been on a steady ascent among New York's stallion ranks since entering stud in 2015, and he's halfway toward his goal of making it all the way to the top this season.

With 7 1/2 months of 2021 in the books, the 11-year-old son of Speightstown is currently New York's leading sire by earnings by a comfortable margin, with 79 runners making a combined $2,653,913. The next closest is Big Brown with $1,659,689.

If he should finish the season at the top of the New York sire standings, it would complete a climb up the charts that saw him finish second to Big Brown last year, third to Big Brown and Freud in 2019, and 10th in 2018 with just his freshman crop.

John McMahon, farm manager for McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds, said the key to Central Banker's success was being the right horse at the right time for the New York program, in terms of the profile of his foals and the types of races available where they excel.

This is evident in the stakes runners that Central Banker has put on the track. He is currently New York's leading sire by 2021 stakes winners, with three. Much like the earnings race, he was second among Empire State sires by stakes winners in 2020 and third in 2019.

“He's a very consistent stallion,” McMahon said. “They run well at six furlongs on the dirt, and they tend to run early. There's a lot of races written that they tend to be very competitive in.”

Whether Central Banker tops the sire list this year or not, he is in a prime position to continue being at or near the top of the standings for years to come.

His first crop came out blazing, easily claiming New York's freshman sire title, and finishing fourth nationally in the 2018 freshman race, behind just Cross Traffic, Goldencents, and Cairo Prince.

That group was led by Bankit, who made $329,625 in his juvenile season. Bankit's form has remained consistent into his 5-year-old season in 2021, which includes stakes wins at Belmont Park and Laurel Park, and most recently, a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup Stakes.

Breeders responded to Central Banker's leading freshman year by packing his book with 130 mares for the 2019 breeding season. He was then New York's second-most active stallion in 2020, with 114 mares visiting him.

The cycle of popularity for a young stallion tends to reach its apex in the first couple years, then drop off in the next two as breeders wait to see if his first foals will be competitive runners. It was a boon to have the breeders come back after his strong freshman season, but many never left. Central Banker has yet to cover less than 76 mares in a season.

“I think McMahon of Saratoga is good at putting a foundation of mares underneath a stallion,” McMahon said. “The important thing is you have a good foundation of mares behind you, and (farm owner) Joe McMahon has a really keen eye for getting good mares and creating a good infrastructure of breeders to help move a stallion along. It's not a one-man show. It's people in our region who own mares, it's people out of our region who own mares. We're all reaping the rewards of a program which is geared toward helping a young stallion get a foothold. We're in the right state at the right time with the right horse.”

Having so many foals on the ground and at the track is a critical part of Central Banker's success, but McMahon said what makes it all work is the stallion making use of those numbers with an assembly line-like uniformity.

“They're very consistent physically, so you know what you're getting into as a breeder when you breed to a horse like Central Banker,” McMahon said. “He tends to put size on a smaller mare and tends to take a bigger mare and put a little more body into her.

“I've never had a bad hind leg on a horse, never had a club foot,” he continued. “There are some things that are just automatic throw-outs when you're looking at horses, and he never has them.”

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Preakness Stakes Winner Bernardini Dies Of Laminitis At Age 18

Preakness winner and Eclipse champion Bernardini has been euthanized at Jonabell Farm due to complications from laminitis.

Homebred by Sheikh Mohammed in the early days of Darley's ownership of Jonabell Farm, Bernardini won six races in a row during a dazzling 2006 sophomore campaign, earning Eclipse champion 3-year-old honors and being rated world champion 3-year-old.

Trained by Tom Albertrani, the son of A.P. Indy broke his maiden in his second start at Gulfstream Park in March by almost eight lengths before capturing the Grade 3 Withers at Aqueduct in April. He then won in the Preakness, giving Sheikh Mohammed his first victory in an American Triple Crown race.

Later that summer, he easily won the G2 Jim Dandy and G1 Travers Stakes by nine and seven lengths at Saratoga, before a dominant six-and-three-quarter length victory in the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup against older horses at Belmont Park, earning a career-best 117 Beyer. He finished his career with a runner-up finish to Invasor in the G1 Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. Bernardini was piloted in all of his stakes wins by jockey Javier Castellano.

Bernardini retired to stud at Jonabell Farm for the 2007 breeding season as one of the most highly anticipated stallion prospects in recent memory. He did not disappoint. He sired no fewer than four G1 winners in his first crop: Travers and Cigar Mile winner Stay Thirsty, Woodward and Cigar Mile winner To Honor and Serve, Frizette winner A Z Warrior, plus Italian Gran Criterium winner Biondetti.

In his ensuing northern hemisphere crops, his top performers included Godolphin's homebred G1 Travers and G1 Woodward winner Alpha, Bobby Flay's G1 Humana Distaff winner Dame Dorothy, Shadwell's homebred G1 Vosburgh winner Takaful, and Stonestreet's G1 winners Cavorting and Rachel's Valentina, the latter a homebred daughter of Medaglia d'Oro's great daughter Rachel Alexandra.

Bernardini also shuttled to Australia for eight seasons between 2008 and 2015, siring G1 winners Boban, Ruud Awakening, and Go Indy Go. In total, he has sired 80 Black Type winners, 48 Graded Stakes winners, and 15 G1 winners worldwide.

In recent years, Bernardini has been making a name for himself as one of the best broodmare sires in the history of the breed. In May 2021, he became the youngest stallion ever to reach 50 Black Type winners as a broodmare sire. Bernardini currently has 54 black type winners, 32 graded stakes winners, and 11 G1 winners as a maternal grandsire, including Maxfield, Catholic Boy, Serengeti Empress, Dunbar Road, Colonel Liam and Paris Lights.

Bernardini was cared for during his 15-year tenure at Jonabell by his longtime groom, Philip Hampton.

Michael Banahan, director of farm operations for Godolphin USA, said, “Bernardini was one of a kind. From the day he was born, he exuded class. He was that crop's best foal, best yearling and best racehorse. His brilliance was only surpassed by his wonderful character. He will be sorely missed by all on the farm but especially by his handler for the past 15 years, Philip Hampton. It was an honor to be a custodian of this classic winning stallion whose legacy will live long as a broodmare sire.”

Tom Albertrani, Bernardini's trainer, said, “Bernardini was such a majestic animal. He was very talented, one of the best horses I've ever been around. I just feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to train him. He was a star.”

Jimmy Bell, President of Godolphin USA, said, “Bernardini was Sheikh Mohammed's first winner of a Triple Crown race – and a homebred one, too – and then a leading sire. We have been blessed to have him. A beautiful horse, and a lovely character, we are lucky to have so many of his daughters on the farm to continue his legacy.”

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Bloodlines: A Mudslide Of Uniformity In The Stallion Market

What would happen to Mr. Prospector if he were a stallion prospect for 2022? Really, where would a very fast racehorse who didn't win a graded stakes go to stud?

And don't even think about Danzig.

Among the sires and stallion prospects at the commercial stallion farms today, there is a startling uniformity of pedigree and accomplishment. As one stallion manager told me, “If a horse doesn't have a G1 on his race record, and preferably a G1 at nine furlongs or less, we know there's not much reason to stand him.”

One might be surprised that the stallion operations such as Coolmore, Darley, Claiborne, Gainesway, Hill 'n' Dale, Lane's End, Spendthrift, and WinStar don't set the bar on who goes to stud and who doesn't. They do, in a round-about way, of course, but the real test of selection is what will sell.

Stallion farms don't want to stand stallions whose seasons they can't sell, and commercial breeders don't want to use stallions whose stock they won't make a profit on. Therefore, the projections of stallion managers and individual breeders are the yardstick to measure the horses they want at stud and that end up going to stud and making a good early impression.

In the absence of very strong demand from private breeders who race their own stock, the marketplace for stallions is dictated by the majority of buyers, and those are resellers, primarily at the sales of racehorse prospects in training as 2-year-olds.

To change that dynamic, I would estimate that owner-breeder operations would need to account for at least 40-50 percent of the Kentucky stud fees sold, but today, I'd estimate those men and women who primarily race their own homebreds represent 20 percent or less of the pool of breeders who use Kentucky stallions.

As a result, the great majority of the stallion pool is predicated on what will sell to the great majority of buyers. The obvious emphasis is upon the young, very high-achieving racehorses with speed. Champions and near-champions only need apply.

In one sense, that might be a good thing because it places an intense emphasis upon the expression of racetrack excellence.

We do, however, have a long and well-documented history of breeding the Thoroughbred, and despite the importance of breeding to animals with superior athletic ability, the greatest sires are not always the greatest racehorses.

For every St. Simon or Nearco, there is a Phalaris or a Bull Lea. Not to mention such relative castoffs as the unraced Alibhai or the non-stakes winner Danzig.

The obvious reason for this is that racing and breeding are different things and require different characteristics, to a degree.

In racing, the emphasis, perhaps nearly the only emphasis, is on the phenotype, the physical animal in front of us. In breeding, however, the emphasis is the genotype of the horses involved.

Genotype is trickier because we don't know exactly what makes a great sire so successful and what makes another “just a horse.”

Consider a couple of champions from the mid-1960s: Northern Dancer and Buckpasser. The best 3-year-old colts of 1964 and 1966, respectively, each had an outstanding racing record, went to stud with high acclaim, and achieved immediate success. Would anyone question, though, which was the more influential sire?

Hands down, it was Northern Dancer, and from the inferential evidence of his progeny, I'd say that Northern Dancer essentially got all the positive, high-class alleles from both of his paternal grandsire Nearco and great-grandsire Hyperion (sire of Nearctic's dam), as well as from his maternal grandsire Native Dancer. That inheritance resulted in Northern Dancer passing on so much positive genetic code that his offspring were able to express racing ability of a very high order from an unusually high percentage of those offspring.

The horse who receives a higher proportion of genes that help the next generation isn't always a champion, and we have seen others, including such contemporary stallion stars as Malibu Moon, Into Mischief, and Tapit, who began a life at stud with the season sales professionals beating down doors in search of mares to fill their books.

The evidence of the past and the great successes of the present clearly indicate that breeders and their advisers should advocate to have more stallions – not fewer – go to stud annually to allow those “lucky genes” to have expression, rather than smothering the breed with a mudslide of uniformity.

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