Radcliffe Buys $1-Million Arrogate Filly To Pace Strong Midlantic Sale

TIMONIUM, MD – With a $1-million filly leading the way, the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale concluded its two-day run at the Maryland State Fairgrounds with statistics close to its record-setting 2022 renewal.

“It was a great two days in Maryland,” Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sales Director Paget Bennett said Tuesday evening. “There was plenty of competition for the horses people wanted. The ones they want, they all go to battle on.”

At the end of Tuesday's session, 375 head sold for $34,795,500. The average was $92,788–down just 2.7% from last year's record figure of $95,391. The median was up 6.4% to $50,000.

The difference in figures was almost entirely attributable to last year's sale-record-setting $3.55-million topper, which pushed the auction to its highest-ever gross of $37,297,700.

“We almost matched the [record] gross, but last year, we had a $3.55-million horse,” Bennett said. “That was kind of what we were missing this year. So we are very happy with the results.”

From a catalogue of 603, 437 horses went through the ring. With 62 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 14.2%. It was 18.9% a year ago.

Bloodstock agent Kerri Radcliffe, bidding on behalf of an undisclosed client, landed the auction's top-priced offering, a $1-million daughter of the late champion Arrogate. The sale-topper was consigned by Hartley/de Renzo Thoroughbreds. Clay Shearer was the underbidder.

Radcliffe was at the top of a broad buying bench, with the top 10 lots purchased by eight different buyers at the auction which last year produced GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic).

“The buyers came from all over,” Bennett said. “Every year, we see new buyers and that's very rewarding. People know they can get runners here and we proved that the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs. It's very exciting for this sale to have the success on the track that we are seeing.”

Arrogate Filly Sets Off Midlantic Fireworks

A filly by Arrogate (hip 552), the most hyped horse on the sales grounds all week, delivered in the sales ring Tuesday when selling for $1 million to the bid of bloodstock agent Kerri Radcliffe, acting on behalf of an undisclosed London-based client. Radcliffe, who did her bidding while seated in the pavilion, secured the chestnut from the consignment of Hartley/de Renzo Thoroughbreds.

“She is for my new client,” Radcliffe said of the million-dollar filly. “It's JDL Capital SARL. I am not going to name the guy, but we've got horses now in England and America, mostly in America. I think I've bought eight since March. He is based in London. This is more for investment purposes and to have a bit of fun as well. This is his first foray into racing. So let's hope it's lucky for him.”

Of plans for the filly, Radcliffe said, “I'm not sure where she will go yet. So, any trainers who want to call me, they can.”

Hip 552 is out of Twixy (Mutakddim) and is a half-sister to multiple stakes winner Twixy Roll (Roll Hennessy Roll) and from the family of GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Caleb's Posse (Posse).

“To me, she was the star of the sale,” said Radcliffe. “I saw her in January and I saw her in March and April. And I waited for her. I didn't know I was going to pay that much for her, but it's a strong sale and the good horses are making the money.”

The sale-topper worked a furlong in a co-bullet :10 flat during last week's under-tack show.

“She went in :10 and went out in :23 and change,” Radcliffe said of the work. “It doesn't get much better than that. And obviously, she is the last of the Arrogates, so it's good to get her.”

Bred by Dale Taylor, Sr., she was purchased by Randy Hartley and Dean de Renzo for $255,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

“We bought her in Book 1,” Hartley recalled. “She looked just like she looked today. She's the same filly, just bigger. The reason I think we got her is because Book 1 is a hard book at Keeneland. It's all about the top pedigrees. The mare was a nice mare, but she hadn't produced a Grade I winner or anything yet. And I think the big pedigree people weren't interested. But when we saw her, she was just a filly that we had to have.”

Hartley said he had hoped to focus on buying fillies at last season's yearling sales, but that plan did not work out.

“I said at the beginning of the year, that we were basically going to be buying fillies because we felt like that was a safer market,” Hartley said. “We ended up buying just one filly because they were hard to buy. But she was the right one. From the time we bought her, we were ecstatic.”

Among Hartley and DeRenzo's partners on the filly was Rich Mendez, who owns the Miami-based music label Rich Music.

Represented by Hartley and de Renzo at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring sale, Mendez purchased a colt by Into Mischief for $1.3 million.

Now that he had both bought and sold a seven-figure juvenile, the racing newcomer was asked which was more fun.

“I think selling a million-dollar horse, I'm not going to lie,” Mendez said. “It's just the adrenaline is different. I've known this filly for seven months. I watched her grow and I got close to her. She's an amazing filly.”

Mendez admitted he had given the filly a pep talk before she went into the ring Tuesday.

“I went in her stall and I gave her my pep talk,” he said. “I told her, 'You've done good so far. Now let's go be the sale topper.' And I just sat in there [in the pavilion] and I was talking to her [as she was selling]. So that's kind of why I think selling is a little more adrenaline for me.”

Once it was pointed out that his Into Mischief colt could go on to win a Kentucky Derby in his colors, Mendez said with a smile, “Then that will be different.”

Radcliffe made three purchases for her new client at the two-day Midlantic sale. She went to $350,000 for a colt by Liam's Map (hip 127) and to $170,000 for a colt by Take Charge Indy (hip 80).

King Adds a Pair of Bullets to His Stable

Gus King, bidding alongside trainer Ron Moquett and agent Jeff Mackor, went to $510,000 to acquire a filly by Take Charge Indy (hip 361) from the De Meric Sales consignment early in Tuesday's second session of the Midlantic May sale.

“She had a good pedigree and we liked her physical, so we decided to take a shot at it,” King said after signing the ticket on the filly.

The bay juvenile is out of Perfect Paula (Songandaprayer) and is a full-sister to GIII Forward Gal S. winner Take Charge Paula. Purchased as a weanling for $100,000 at the 2021 Keeneland November sale by Tami Bobo's First Finds, she worked a furlong last week in a co-bullet :10 flat.

King admitted he had gone past his expected budget on the filly Tuesday.

“No,” he said emphatically when asked if he had planned to spend that $510,000 on the filly. “These guys talked me into it,” he said, while gesturing towards Moquett.

Later in the session, King added another colt to his racing stable when going to $325,000 for a son of Catalina Cruiser (hip 568). Consigned by LG, agent, the juvenile worked a quarter-mile last week in a co-bullet :21 2/5.

King, the owner of the Alabama-based packaging company ColorMasters LLC, has been in racing for about 15 years and currently has seven horses in training. He has been upgrading his program and recent purchases include a son of Into Mischief (hip 292) acquired at Keeneland last September for $600,000. Now named Maravich, the 2-year-old recorded a three-furlong work at Churchill Downs last Friday.

“We have some good 2-year-olds,” King said.

Asked why he has made the decision to up his buying at the horse sales, King laughed and said, “I want to win some big races.”

Seemar's World Tour Stops in Maryland

Bhupat Seemar, trainer for the Dubai-based Zabeel Stables, has been hitting the 2-year-old sales across the globe in recent months and landed this week in Maryland for the Midlantic May sale.

“We've bought through agents, but this is the first time I'm here,” said Seemar, who saddled Summer is Tomorrow (Summer Front) in the 2022 GI Kentucky Derby. “We usually go to Europe and I'm basically chasing all of these sales. I have just come from France, from Arqana, and before that I was in Newmarket for the Guineas sale. And then I am going to Ireland for another sale. I don't know what time zone I am in at the minute.”

Of the decision to make the trip to Timonium, Seemar explained, “We've got a lot of dirt racing and last year, we had a horse who qualified for the Kentucky Derby, which was amazing. This year, there is a filly for another trainer who qualified for the GI Kentucky Oaks. There is a lot of demand for 2-year-olds and a lot of demand for good dirt horses, so where else to come than to this sale because it's the only sale for 2-year-olds on the dirt.”

Seemar made his first purchase of the two-day auction when going to $150,000 to acquire a colt by Speightstown (hip 254) from the Top Line Sales consignment Monday.

“We have done exceptionally well with Speightstown,” Seemar said of the colt's appeal. “I trained [2022 G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen S. winner] Switzerland and before that, my Uncle [Satish Seemar] trained [2013 Golden Shaheen winner] Reynoldothewizard–two very, very good horses and they were both by Speightstown. When I was at Taylor Made, Speightstown himself was a yearling there. So I have a lot of affinity with him and we've had a lot of success. He's a good model, a good-looking horse. I think he fits every specification we've got.”

During Tuesday's session of the Midlantic sale, Seemar went to $85,000 for a son of Mendelssohn (hip 397) from Cary Frommer.

“We bought the Mendelssohn colt and he's out of a Curlin mare,” he said. “He's got beautiful action. He's a stamp horse, he's a very good-looking horse.”

Seemar worked as an intern at Taylor Made Farm and served a stint as an assistant to trainer Bob Baffert. He took over training duties at Zabeel Stables from his uncle last summer.

Seemar's stable of international 2-year-olds, includes a group sourced locally in Dubai at the Goffs Breeze-Up Sale in March, where client Dr. Jim Hay acquired the auction's top two lots and four of the top seven. Hay paid €543,210 for a son of Gun Runner (hip 18) and €518,519 for a son of Justify (hip 2).

“Typically we end up getting about 25 2-year-olds,” Seemar said. “I've got some really good owners and they bought a few in the Dubai sale–we bought nine over there. Dr. Jim Hay is a big international owner and he bought a few there. I've got one coming from Japan. It's going to be a big international mix of horses.”

Seemar said he was finding good opportunities at all the sales he has attended.

“To me, a good horse will sell anywhere,” he said. “If you have enough horses–I think they have 600 horses here–so you can always find value and some good diamonds in the rough from them.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said that Donato Lanni was the underbidder on the Arrogate filly. He was not. We regret the error. 

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Will Take Charge To Darley Japan

Champion Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song–Take Charge Lady, by Dehere), whose 13 black-type winners includes this year's GI Hollywood Gold Cup hero There Goes Harvard, will join the stallion roster at Darley Japan in 2023, according to a post on the nursery's website. Will Take Charge has stood his first eight seasons at stud at Three Chimneys Farm.

Campaigned by the late Willis Horton during his first two seasons at the races and trained by D. Wayne Lukas, Will Take Charge won the 2013 GI Travers S. and GII Pennsylvania Derby before dropping a heartbreaking decision in that year's GI Breeders' Cup Classic. A defeat of his elders in the GI Clark H. secured him the Eclipse Award for champion 3-year-old male. With Three Chimneys joining in as part-owner for his 4-year-old season, the blaze-faced chestnut won the GII Oaklawn H. at Horton's home track and was placed in the GI Stephen Foster H. and GI Whitney S. prior to his retirement to stud.

Overall, Will Take Charge is the sire of 224 winners from five crops to race and a dozen stakes winners in addition to There Goes Harvard, including this year's GII Phoenix S. upsetter Manny Wah and Grade III winners Will's Secret and Abaan. His four Japanese winners from five to race includes France Go de Ina, who participated in the 2021 GI Preakness S. and GI Belmont S.

Will Take Charge is out of the gifted MGISW Take Charge Lady, making him a half-brother to WinStar stallion Take Charge Indy (A.P. Indy); GISW As Time Goes By (American Pharoah); and to Charming (Seeking the Gold), the dam of promising young Spendthrift sire Omaha Beach (War Front) and Horton's Eclipse Award winner Take Charge Brandi (Giant's Causeway). This is also the family of GISP 'TDN Rising Star' Charge It (Tapit) and of Japanese MSW Strong Souther (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}), a son of Take Charge Lady's MSW/GSP half-sister Eventail (Lear Fan).

“We are delighted to be able to introduce this horse at a time when he has produced a Grade I winner in the U.S. and has further enhanced his reputation in Japan,” said Darley Japan CEO Harry Sweeney. “We are confident he will be a success in Japan.”

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Elm Tree Stars Again as KEESEP Surpasses 2021 Gross

Jody and Michelle Huckabay's Elm Tree Farm consigned a son of Curlin on behalf of Barbara Banke's Stonestreet Bred & Raised that topped Saturday's fifth session of the Keeneland September Sale in Lexington on a bid of $900,000. Just 48 hours later, the couple sold a colt by leading sire Candy Ride (Arg) for $600,000 to repeat the dose during yet another solid day of trade Monday which saw the sale surpass its turnover from last year with fully five days of selling remaining.

Monday's topper was one of 10 horses sold for better than a quarter-million dollar during a session where 314 youngsters were reported as sold for $27,544,000. The average of $87,720 and median price of $67,500 represented gains of 2.4% and 12.5%, respectively, over the figures from 2021. As the sale began its second week, a total of 1,556 yearlings have changed hands for $355,453,500, shooting past last year's sale gross of $352,823,000. The average of $228,441 was an improvement of just over 11% year-over-year, while the median of $160,000 is up by a healthy 6.7%.

Topper Far Exceeds Expectations…

Jody Huckabay was as surprised as anyone in the Keeneland sales pavilion when hip 2214 proved as popular in the ring as he did. Former Barretts sales executive Kim Lloyd signed the winning ticket at $600,000 on behalf of owner Michael Talla's Talla Racing, a hammer price that far outpaced Huckabay's expectations. Same as the Saturday topper, Elm Tree was offering Monday's colt on behalf of Stonestreet.

“I really thought around $400,000,” he admitted when asked how he had appraised the colt. “That certainly wasn't the reserve, he was here to sell, but we are tickled with what he brought. I think the Stonestreet clan were pleased as well, so it's smiles all around.

“He was a very neat little horse,” Huckabay continued. “We certainly didn't expect him to do that, but we're very pleased that he did. I say we didn't expect it…as time went on, we heard that he was in the top two or three horses selling today, but we weren't expecting that kind of money, to be honest.”

Barbara Banke's high-class operation purchased hip 2214's second dam, Ticket to Houston (Houston) in foal to Storm Cat for an even $2 million at this auction house's November Sale back in 2005. Twelve months prior, the mare's daughter Runway Model (Petionville) carried the colors of owner Naveed Chowhan to victory in the GII Darley Alcibiades S. up at the local racetrack. The half-sister to SW Mambo Train (Kingmambo) would go on to become the dam of 'TDN Rising Star' and current Gainesway stallion McKinzie (Street Sense).

Hip 2214 is the latest produce from Ticket to Houston's daughter Essentially (Maclean's Music), whose now 2-year-old colt Twisted Tightly (Hard Spun) sold to Mike Ryan for $350,000 at last year's September sale.

“He was just a very, very good mover,” Huckabay said of Monday's topper. “He did it all with ease and just a very well-made colt. He moved like an athlete. It worked out that we moved him back a session or two and he ended up being a star.

People were here with enthusiasm bidding today at all different levels. Yes, we got lucky with him, but we sold our whole consignment, everybody sold today, so we are very pleased.”

The Huckabays consider themselves fortunate to be entrusted with horses for Stonestreet.

“Their team came to us several years ago, John Moynihan in particular, for us to sell for them and we were really excited and blown away to even be considered,” Jody Huckabay said. “Now after 10 or 12 years of doing this–every year they send us a nice horse and this year it just so happens we got two very nice horses, session-toppers. The Curlin was an absolutely gorgeous individual and we think he was a very special horse. I can't say enough positives about what Barbara brings to the industry and helping people in the business, big and little. She's just wonderful for the business all the way around.”

Take Charge Indy Back With a Vengeance…

The late Chuck and Maribeth Sandford's Take Charge Indy (A.P. Indy) covered sizable books of mares in his first two years at stud at WinStar Farm in 2014 and 2015, but by the end of the following season, the nursery's Elliott Walden announced that the difficult decision had been made to sell the son of Take Charge Lady (Dehere) to the Korea Racing Authority while retaining the right to return the stallion to the U.S. in the future.

From his first two crops, Take Charge Indy sired the likes of Triple Crown prep winners Noble Indy (GII Louisiana Derby) and Long Range Toddy (GII Rebel S.), as well as GIII Forward Gal S. victress Take Charge Paula. By the middle of 2019, Walden was in discussions to repatriate Take Charge Indy and about this time that year, it was announced that the ridgling would return to WinStar for the 2020 breeding season.

“He has been well received,” Walden said of Take Charge Indy's popularity since coming home. “I think he fits a great mix with being one of the last really good sons of A.P. Indy and at his price point, he's a proven stallion that people want to buy into. He's done well and we're excited about what he's thrown.”

During Monday's session at Keeneland, a member of that first crop–hip 2199–caught the attention of many sales-goers and was ultimately hammered down to WinStar entity Maverick Racing and Siena Farm for $425,000, the third-dearest price of the session.

“He was that best Take Charge Indy that I've ever seen,” Walden said. “He's got a great physique, tremendous strength, full of quality and had a very solid pedigree well. He wasn't cheap, he was pricey, but we just felt like being by a proven stallion that had really good success when he was here before we felt like it was worth taking a shot. We loved this colt today.”

A Mar. 10 foal consigned to the September sale by Taylor Made as agent, the bay is out of the unraced Ghostzapper mare Dynamic Doll, a half-sister to Grade III winners Lawn Ranger (U S Ranger) and Georgie's Angel (Bellamy Road). The latter is the dam of 'TDN Rising Star' Cave Rock (Arrogate), a perfect two-for-two in his young career and recent winner of the GI Runhappy Del Mar Futurity. Take Charge Indy is himself a half-brother to Charming (Seeking the Gold), the dam of Omaha Beach (War Front), whose first-crop yearlings have been hot commodities at the September sale.

According to Walden, Take Charge Indy bred 100 mares this year after covering 117 in 2021.

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Charge It to Granddam’s Account

This whole industry, as I've often remarked, turns on a delicate pivot. We need pedigree to hold up sufficiently for the big investors to stay in the game, and incidentally to keep the rest of us in business; but we also need a sufficient number of unaccountable aberrations for the little guy to feel he always has some kind of chance, as well. If the top lot at Keeneland September Book I won the GI Kentucky Derby every year, then almost the whole pyramid beneath would collapse. But nor can we afford a Rich Strike (Keen Ice) to turn everything on its head too often, either.

This is why, when it comes to blue hens, we need two types of Lady in our lives. We need Leslie's Lady (Tricky Creek), the $8,000 daughter of a mare once claimed for $5,000 and a stallion who ended up in New Mexico. And we also need Take Charge Lady (Dehere), who was sold for $4.2 million after an elite racetrack career and has proved worth every cent.

In hailing yet another stellar talent under Take Charge Lady in her grandson Charge It (Tapit), we must remember that there is no more cherished tool in pedigree analysis than hindsight. Since we tend only to study the backgrounds of horses that excel sufficiently to claim our attention, it's difficult to avoid post-rationalization. Sure enough, I have often enjoyed demonstrating how Leslie's Lady was actually saturated with genetic quality a couple of generations down.

Given the mosaic of influences behind every Thoroughbred, we hardly ever find ourselves looking at the pedigree of an elite animal and discovering absolutely nowhere to hang our hat. Conversely, however, we seldom consider the countless duds to ask just what went wrong, when their pages often offer far more obvious hooks for quality.

There's an implicit assumption that the fulfilment of genetic potential has been thwarted by the fallibility of our own intervention, which can unravel a Thoroughbred's development at so many stages: foaling, raising, feeding, breaking, training.

Personally, however, I suspect that we're better off admitting that much of what we do will always be contingent on mystery. Of course, you're welcome to pay for a software program that claims to reconcile an infinite number of imponderables into some kind of system. It's your money, and we'll see you on the racetrack. But anyone who has met my charming, cultured and handsome brother will confirm what every Thoroughbred breeder knows, that even full siblings won't necessarily have the slightest thing in common.

It is now a couple of decades since William Schettine banked exactly the same sum for consecutive yearling fillies out of an unraced Rubiano mare he had bought for $42,000 at the 1998 Keeneland November Sale. The first had arrived with the mare, in utero, and was sold to Kenny McPeek for $175,000 at Fasig-Tipton's July Sale. Schettine had obviously liked her, because he had sent the mare straight back to Dehere. This time, the resulting daughter went to Keeneland September where, again offered through Bluewater Sales, she realized the same price from G. Watts Humphrey Jr.

Though named Uplifting, she fell rather flat as a runner, failing to break her maiden in a dozen attempts. Nonetheless her owner was able to cash out for a nice profit, for $450,000 to Glen Hill Farm at the 2004 Keeneland November Sale. Her sister with McPeek having meanwhile turned out to be none other than Take Charge Lady, winner of 11 of 22 starts (including three Grade Is) and nearly $2.5 million for Select Stable.

The more illustrious sister had actually been sold just minutes before in the same ring with a Seeking The Gold cover. As we've already noted, she realized nearly 10 times as much.

Now the only rule in this game is that there are no rules. Just because an identical pedigree had functioned so much better in Take Charge Lady, on the racetrack, it remained perfectly feasible that Uplifting could parlay their genes more effectively in their second career. In the event, however, this has proved one of those occasions when the market's assumptions, about the replication of ability, would be thoroughly vindicated.

Uplifting had been in foal to Came Home when she changed hands. The resulting filly was unraced before making little impact as a producer, and likewise the Smarty Jones filly Uplifting delivered next, who was discarded for $3,200. The mare was then given a chance with Medaglia d'Oro and their gelded son, while he did win a couple of times, ultimately descended to mediocre claiming company. By that stage Uplifting had been culled for $50,000, soon after delivering what unfortunately proved to be her final foal, a minor winner by Rock Hard Ten.

For all concerned, then, Uplifting proved a thoroughly deflating experience. In the meantime, her sister has founded one of the great dynasties of our time.

The most obvious point of departure is that Take Charge Lady was routinely given opportunity commensurate with the cost of her acquisition by Eaton Sales. Okay, so her first date after delivering her Seeking The Gold filly was with Fusaichi Pegasus (then still a six-figure cover); but her remaining eight named foals were by Storm Cat, A.P. Indy, Unbridled's Song, Indian Charlie, War Front (three times) and American Pharoah.

Three of these emulated their dam as Grade I winners: Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song) in the Travers and Clark H.; Take Charge Indy (A.P. Indy) in the Florida Derby; and As Time Goes By (American Pharoah) in the Beholder Mile earlier this year. Meanwhile that first foal by Seeking The Gold, Charming, not only instantly recouped $3.2 million as a yearling but then contributed lavishly to her dam's legacy despite curtailed careers both on and off the track. Just five named foals included two elite performers in Omaha Beach (War Front) and Take Charge Brandi (Giant's Causeway), herself since dam of this year's Jerome S. winner Courvoisier (another Tapit).

By the time Take Charge Lady's daughter from the final crop of Indian Charlie arrived at the 2013 September Sale, her page was already decorated by Will Take Charge and Take Charge Indy. With residual value duly guaranteed, the filly was recruited for $2.2 million by Mandy Pope of Whisper Hill Farm, who named her I'll Take Charge. Confined to five starts, she showed fair ability (won a Belmont maiden) before commencing her second career and has wasted little time in coming up with a colt eligible to recover her cost in Charge It, her second foal. (The other is a daughter of Medaglia d'Oro, also retained by her breeder. She has required patience, now four, but has suggested the ability to win a race, again placed at Monmouth only last week).

The imposing gray Charge It could obviously have made good money as a yearling, but he looks like repaying the gamble of his retention for Pope's racing division. Unraced at two, thanks partly to an eye infection, he progressed quickly enough to run second in the GI Curlin Florida Derby, but remained pretty raw on the first Saturday in May. He apparently displaced his soft palate anyway, but was sensibly given an easy time once his chance had gone and, regrouping for the GIII Dwyer S. last Saturday, outclassed a short field by a jaw-dropping 23 lengths. He's clearly going to be a force in what is promising, after a messy Triple Crown series, to prove a dynamic second half of the year among the sophomores. Indeed, his 111 Beyer at Belmont is the top of the crop to date.

In the current context, it requires some effort to take a step back and see what lurks beyond the neon presence of his granddam in Charge It's pedigree. On doing so, however, you notice at once the branding of a second mighty mare. For Tapit's dam Tap Your Heels (Unbridled) is, of course, out of the celebrated Ruby Slippers (Nijinsky)–whose son Rubiano (by Unbridled's sire Fappiano) gave us Take Charge Lady's dam Felicita.

Through a double dose of Rubiano, interestingly, Ruby Slippers also has a top-and-bottom footprint in Omaha Beach, arguably the most brilliant member of this clan: in counterweight to Felicita (third dam, as with Charge It), his sire War Front is out of a Rubiano mare.

Tapit, meanwhile, already has a monster talent out of an Indian Charlie mare in Flightline. (Pope and her team wisely bred I'll Take Charge back to the Gainesway phenomenon after she delivered an Into Mischief colt this spring). Indian Charlie's record as a broodmare sire has also been lately enhanced by siblings Mitole (Eskendereya) and Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow). In terms of distaff influence, however, few modern stallions have been more abundantly qualified than the sire of Take Charge Lady herself. Dehere is by one outstanding broodmare sire in Deputy Minister, out of the daughter of another in Secretariat.

Take Charge Lady's dam Felicita, as noted, was unraced but her siblings included a couple of bright streaks of green, in a Group 1-placed juvenile in Europe plus the dam of GII Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Chamberlain Bridge (War Chant). That figures, their mother being by Blushing Groom (Fr)–himself, of course, another killer broodmare sire.

Besides Take Charge Lady, Felicita gave us a couple of minor graded stakes operators–one of whom (by Lear Fan) became a triple black-type producer, notably with Grade II winner/Grade I runner-up Straight Story (Giant's Causeway), also on turf. But some excellent covers, for instance by A.P. Indy twice and Deputy Minister, proved less productive. And, as we've already elaborated, repeat matings with Dehere could not have yielded more contrasting results.

Take Charge Lady, sadly lost to foaling complications in 2018, has founded a dynasty that only continues to proliferate. Omaha Beach, having received all the support he has been priced to tempt, surely has a massive chance in his new career, having exceptionally spanned his Grade I success across six and nine furlongs in the same season. And Charge It, if he can build from here, will similarly bring one of the best families around into the competition to succeed an ageing sire.

Yet how perplexing, to witness all this, for those who invested in her sister. Even our old standby, hindsight, can't really help them this time.

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