Taking Stock | Horse Racing Free Tips

Taking Stock: Is SGF-1000 a PED?

[Editor's note: Gary and Mary West are clients of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, of which Sid Fernando is president and CEO. WTC recommended the 2014 purchase of Maximum Security's dam, Lil Indy, for $80,000 at Keeneland January for the purpose of breeding her to New Year's Day, a stallion owned by the Wests at that time and the sire of Maximum Security.]

“Just the facts, ma'am.”

The iconic line “just the facts, ma'am” is associated with the character of Sgt. Joe Friday from the 1950s cop show “Dragnet” starring actor Jack Webb in the title role of an LAPD detective. You may be too young to remember the series, but it's likely you're aware of the phrase, because it's become a part of the lexicon. That's what happens when things get repeated over and over again.

Three years ago, when the government indicted and arrested 27 individuals (it went up to 31) in what it called a wide-ranging “doping” scheme, most of us heard about the “drug” SGF-1000 for the first time. Since then, we've heard of it over and over again. This substance was specifically associated with two high-profile trainers, Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis, who'd been under investigation and were caught on tape admitting to each other that they'd used it on most of their stock.

Servis trained Maximum Security (New Year's Day), a Gary and Mary West homebred who finished first in the $20 million Saudi Cup three years ago with Coolmore as a partner. Maximum Security has yet to be declared the winner, because the following month the government issued the indictments that named the colt as the most famous recipient of SGF-1000. After this, the Saudi regulator paused purse distribution from the race, pending the outcome of its own investigation of the government's case.

In the indictment and subsequent filings, the government referred to SGF-1000 as a “customized PED,” and that label as a performance-enhancing drug has stuck. Press coverage has repeatedly referred to it as a PED and “dope.” At this stage, “dope” and “SGF-1000” are as synonymous as “dope” and Epogen, or “dope” and customized analgesics, or “dope” and “red acid,” some of the other PEDs mentioned in the indictment.

Three months ago, in early December, Servis pled guilty to two charges: a felony count of misbranding and adulterating a generic version of unprescribed clenbuterol, and a misdemeanor count of misbranding and adulterating related to SGF-1000 use. Servis admitted to judge Mary Kay Vyskocil that Maximum Security, while under his care, had been administered SGF-1000 by a veterinarian. Because SGF-1000 is the only substance that the government has said was administered to Maximum Security, its use and chemical makeup are of importance to the Saudis as they close in on a decision.

Widespread Use

It's important to understand that the government's case wasn't about “dope” per se; there are no federal laws about the doping of racehorses. Instead, the government relied on felony counts related to the misbranding and adulteration of substances used in interstate commerce under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to indict and convict these individuals.

In almost all of these cases, however, the misbranded and adulterated substances were bona-fide PEDs, and the government could rightfully say that it had stopped several doping schemes. However, in the specific matter of SGF-1000, it appears the government was aware the substance wasn't a PED since at least September of 2019.

During the course of the last three years, I've read more than a thousand pages of court filings and spoken to several trainers who've admitted off the record to using SGF-1000 on some of their horses. None of them thought he was “doping” horses or doing anything illegal. Some are big names in the business, others smaller trainers.

One told me he had three horses shipped to him in Florida from a facility in New York with three bottles of SGF-1000 for his vet to administer. “Their vet prescribed it. I don't know if it helped,” this trainer said. “It was hard to tell, but the show horse people in Wellington seemed to feel it helped horses recover from work. I was told it was popular with them.”

I asked him if he'd speak on the record. “No, I'd get crucified in this environment we're in now with the Feds and drugs and HISA,” he said. “But SGF-1000 has been around for a while.”

As far back as 2014, Medivet, the company that sold SGF-1000, was openly advertising the product in print trades, radio racing shows, and online, and a rep for the company posted this on Facebook on Nov. 24, 2014: “To all my Facebook friends who are involved with horses: I want to share with you two great products that are drug free and chemical free that will maximize the health and wellness of your performance horse.” This was an overture to the dressage and eventing crowd in Wellington. One of the products he described was SGF-1000, of which he said, “USEF [US Equestrian Federation] approved for competition.” I don't know if this was true or not about USEF, but Medivet and its reps were openly hawking the substance in broad daylight, not peddling it conspiratorially under the cover of darkness.

“There was nothing nefarious about it,” said another, bigger New York-based trainer, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity and admitted that a multiple Grade l winner of his now at stud in Kentucky was once on it. “Dr. [Kristian] Rhein–he had a big practice in New York–dispensed it as something that was great for recovery and wellbeing. He was a good vet, especially on soundness. He'd trot a horse up and back and tell you right away where a problem was. I didn't think anything of it, and I think it did help my horse recover after works or races. A vet always prescribed and administered it. You know, Dr. Rhein had a lot of clients, and everyone knew everyone else was using it until they put it out on that overnight in September that no one was permitted to use it. When that came out, I got scared, and I never used it again after that. No one told us it was illegal before.”

In September of 2019, NYRA, at the direction of the New York Gaming Commission, put a note on the bottom of its daily overnights saying the use of SGF-1000 was prohibited. Perhaps the FBI alerted the commission and NYRA that SGF-1000 use on its grounds was widespread. By this time, the FBI already had Dr. Rhein, one of the co-owners of Medivet, boasting on tape that he'd sold “assloads” of the substance, and we've subsequently learned from court filings that Medivet was making “millions” from the sale of it. All of this makes it obvious that SGF-1000 was being used by more than just Navarro and Servis.

On Aug. 3, 2021, Dr. Rhein pled guilty in federal court to a felony charge of drug misbranding and adulteration. The government has a list of Dr. Rhein's clients who purchased and used SGF-1000 and is aware that some of these trainers had horses for well-known owners, some of whom belong to elite industry organizations. From court filings, the government also is aware of the labs that made the SGF-1000 – “unregistered facilities,” according to the Department of Justice, in California and Australia. These labs shipped SGF-1000 to Medivet's facility in Kentucky for packaging. The government's case that SGF-1000 was misbranded is convincing.

Just the Facts, Ma'am

As far as SGF-1000 is concerned, however, it appears that government prosecutors, who repeatedly called it a PED in court filings and press releases, may not have been correct. In a court filing that noted an FBI application to search emails of one of the owners of Medivet, an FBI agent wrote this in part about SGF-1000: “I have further learned that the Hong Kong Lab did not detect the presence of any growth factors or growth hormones in the sample that was analyzed, but did detect the presence of sheep amino acids.”

A person with direct knowledge who is not authorized to comment on the matter told me FBI investigators don't believe SGF-1000 was a PED, unlike other substances that were named in the indictments.

According to court filings, New Jersey regulators and a confidential source working with the FBI took blood samples from Maximum Security after he was administered SGF-1000 in early June of 2019. The confidential source dispatched the samples to the Hong Kong Jockey Club lab, and the testing came back negative for PEDs. During this time frame the HKJC responded with this email note – obtained from court filings – to the confidential source: “We had analysed (sic) the content of the SGF 1000 from Medivet some years ago. It is listed to contain a combination of growth factors, peptides, proteins, and signal molecules obtained from ovine placental extract. No detectable amount of growth factors was found but collagens common to ovine or bovine origin were detected.”

SGF-1000 originated in Australia and since 2014 has been tested by a number of other reputable organizations with no relationship to Medivet, including the Racing Medication & Testing Consortium (RMTC), Australian authorities in 2015, and UC Davis Maddy Laboratory, and not once in these tests has it been positive as a PED, according to court filings. Each time, however, it tested for sheep collagen, which is widely used in the manufacture of facial creams and other human skin-care products.

Government Test

According to court filings, government agents had obtained a bottle of SGF-1000 by July of 2019 and “sent the substance to a laboratory in Hong Kong for testing to determine the precise chemical contents of that substance.”

The thinking here seemed to be that SGF-1000 didn't test in Maximum Security's blood, but it would from the actual sample straight out of the bottle.

The results of that test have never been publicly revealed. If SGF-1000 did contain PEDs, wouldn't the government have publicized it? If it didn't test positive, the government wouldn't be under any obligation to share the results, because the charges of misbranding and adulterating have nothing to do with whether a substance is a PED or not.

Tellingly, after Servis pled guilty to the misbranding charge for SGF-1000, the DOJ press release did not use the words “performance-enhancing drug” or “PED” in reference to SGF-1000 – an about-face from before; instead, the government noted that Servis was guilty of having SGF-1000 administered to horses after NY regulators said the substance was illegal to use in Sept. of 2019. The federal misdemeanor charge was essentially for a state regulatory violation.

The government had a chance to reveal the results of its 2019 test but never did.

The government had access to the “unregistered” labs that manufactured SGF-1000 and could have readily exposed the ingredients that went into the formulation of the substance, but it never did.

Based on the standing facts, SGF-1000 was a misbranded substance, but it was not a PED.

And by the way, the exact line “Just the facts, ma'am” was never uttered by Sgt. Joe Friday, either. It's an urban legend. That's what happens when something gets repeated over and over again.

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

The post Taking Stock: Is SGF-1000 a PED? appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Taking Stock: Mr. Prospector is the Most Influential

A few weeks ago, I was a guest on the weekly Going In Circles podcast, which is hosted by Chuck Simon, the former trainer who's also a top-notch writer at his blog, and Barry “The Sniper” Spears, an excellent handicapper and well-known figure on Twitter. Simon asked for my opinion on which stallion I'd consider to be the most influential of the past 50 years. You can listen to a nine-minute clip of the conversation here. My answer? Claiborne's iconic Mr. Prospector, of course.

The clip generated quite a bit of interest and debate on social media. Simon kept Northern Dancer out of the equation, and I made my selection on North American-based stallions whose careers had begun within the 50-year window. Mr. Prospector, a son of Raise a Native from Gold Digger, by Nashua, was born in 1970–the same year as Secretariat and Forego–and entered stud in 1975 in Florida. This timeframe eliminated not only Northern Dancer but also Raise a Native, another icon.

Mr. Prospector's stud career and substantial influence has been thoroughly documented through the years from the time he went to stud until his death in 1999 at the age of 29. All told, he sired 1,195 foals and 182 black-type winners, a ratio of 15% from foals– not starters. These days top stallions are lucky to hit 10%.

Fifty-odd years since his birth, Mr. Prospector's influence is still palpable. Five of the top 10 sires on the general sire list of 2022– Quality Road, Curlin, Gun Runner, Speightstown, and Munnings–trace in tail-male descent to him, as do four of the top 10 broodmare sires–Street Cry (Ire), Smart Strike, Distorted Humor, and Unbridled's Song.

In 2015, John Sparkman wrote a piece in Daily Racing Form titled “Mr. Prospector line has no American equal” that said in part, “…Mr. Prospector now stands at the head of the most successful classic sire line in the United States. His fifth-generation male-line descendant American Pharoah, who broke a 37-year Triple Crown drought with his Belmont Stakes victory on June 6, is the 32nd American classic winner descending in male line from Mr. Prospector dating back to when his son Conquistador Cielo won the Belmont in 1982.”

According to Sparkman, the Northern Dancer line was second to Mr. Prospector in this timeframe, with 17 Classic winners.

Since then, the Mr. Prospector line is responsible for an additional seven Classic winners in the U.S., the most recent of which was last year's Gl Preakness winner Early Voting (Gun Runner). The Northern Dancer line also has had another seven.

If the Classics are the gauge, Mr. Prospector's impact on them certainly makes him the most influential stallion of the last 50 years.

Florida to Claiborne

Mr. Prospector, who was bred by Leslie Combs ll, topped the 1971 Keeneland July sale at $220,000. He was purchased by A.I. “Butch” Savin's AISCO Stable and trained by Jimmy Croll, but he wasn't a Classic horse himself; he was sprinter, and a brilliantly fast one when he was sound. On the same day that Savin's Regal and Royal won the Gl Florida Derby, defeating Forego by three lengths, Mr. Prospector set the track record for six furlongs at Gulfstream in 1:07 4/5, winning by nine lengths in his third start.

Mr. Prospector, who was unraced at two, would go on to win seven of 14 starts, including the Gravesend and Whirlaway while contemporaries Secretariat won the Triple Crown and Forego three Horse of the Year titles.

Mr. Prospector attained his legendary status in the breeding shed, and improbably at that. Savin retired him to stud inexpensively at his AISCO Stable in Florida, far away from the best broodmares in Kentucky, but Mr. Prospector simply had what it took to overcome lesser mares. From his first crop, he got 1978 Eclipse champion 2-year-old filly It's in the Air, among others. Fappiano, a Grade l winner and top racehorse who became an influential stallion himself, was a member of Mr. Prospector's second crop. Another future successful stallion, Grade l-placed Crafty Prospector, was from Mr. Prospector's fourth crop.

Peter Brant | Sid Fernando

Peter Brant, who picked up an Eclipse award for Regal Glory (Animal Kingdom) as top turf filly or mare last week, was among the first owner-breeders to notice Mr. Prospector's prepotency and was instrumental in acquiring Mr. Prospector and moving him to Kentucky for the 1981 breeding season. I spoke last week to Brant, whose White Birch Farm is in Connecticut, of how he was able to move the stallion from AISCO to Claiborne.

“Butch Savin was in the concrete mix business in Connecticut. When he had Mr. Prospector, he lived in Connecticut and also in Boca Raton in Florida. I started to notice this horse was getting some nice horses from some cheap mares, as I was looking up stallion stats to see who to breed to, and this horse was looking very, very good, so I made it my business to meet Butch Savin. I would go down to Boca Raton, because at the time I was playing polo in Wellington. I kind of lived in Florida three months of the year while I was playing polo. So, I would go down to Boca–he had a condominium overlooking the ocean–and I would pick him up; he had a favorite Chinese restaurant and we would go there and sit and talk of the future plans of Mr. Prospector.

“I'd called Seth Hancock up and told him this horse was the real deal, and Seth was interested but the horse was in Florida and the horse was good with cheap mares but would he do well on the Kentucky circuit against those other stallions, especially the ones Seth was carrying at the time,” Brant said.

“Anyway, I'm talking to Butch and I tell him why don't we move the horse to Kentucky, and he says, 'Well, I'm not going to move. I have a farm in Florida.' And I said, 'Why don't you stay in on the horse, and we'll move him to Kentucky?' So, I'm talking to Seth and Butch Savin–it was really like arbitraging Seth and Butch Savin–and it wasn't the easiest job in the world. Finally, Butch agreed to move the horse to Kentucky and said he would stay in on the horse. I was going to keep like a third of the horse, and Seth was going to syndicate the rest of him. You know, Seth did a great job syndicating him–he had the best owners in there. And then Savin says, 'I don't want to stay in on the horse. I'm not, realistically, going to send any mares up to Kentucky.' So, he didn't stay in. And we paid real money for the horse. It was probably between $175,000 to $200,000 per share, and there were 40 shares.

“I ended up keeping a third, and as the prices went up I'd spin off some shares. You know, at one point he was standing for $300,000 no guarantee. He was a very valuable horse, and what made him a great investment for everybody involved was that the shares went to over a million dollars. And what made him even more valuable was he was one of the few stallions who was breeding to more mares back then, and so you basically got an extra season every other year. Back then, horses were breeding 40 to 48 mares, and he was breeding 64, 65 mares, up to 70. And so it was a very good deal, and he also lived a very long life and was fertile for a long time.”

And he sired some of the best colts and fillies of his era, and they in turn became sires and dams of other high-quality stock, and the cycle kept continuing.

And it keeps continuing, which is why Mr. Prospector is the most influential sire of the last 50 years in North America.

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

The post Taking Stock: Mr. Prospector is the Most Influential appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Taking Stock: Influence of ‘Roarer’ and Sub-Fertile Ormonde

In just over a week, Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable's Forte (Violence), bred by South Gate Farm and trained by Todd Pletcher, will be crowned the champion 2-year-old male of 2022. He traces in tail-female to the imported La Troienne (Fr), one of the most influential mares in the Stud Book. So many champions and high-class racehorses trace to her that it would be futile to try to list them all here.

La Troienne was foaled in 1926 and bred by Marcel Boussac. Her sire, Teddy (Fr), had a son, 1923 French Guineas winner Sir Gallahad lll (Fr), who was purchased by an American syndicate headed by A.B. Hancock Sr. for $125,000 and entered stud at Claiborne the year she was foaled. Sir Gallahad quickly changed the complexion of US racing, getting William Woodward's Gallant Fox, the 1930 Triple Crown winner, from his first American crop (he'd stood one year in France). Claiborne-based Gallant Fox, in turn, sired 1935 Triple Crown winner Omaha, also for Woodward. (There's a book about this by Jennifer Kelly, “The Foxes of Belair: Gallant Fox, Omaha, & William Woodward,” that will be out in May.)

Sir Gallahad's full brother Bull Dog (Fr) was imported a few years later by Coldstream Stud, and he made his mark as well. His son Bull Lea, at Calumet, sired Citation, winner of 1948 Triple Crown.

By this time, Teddy's influence was pervasive through La Troienne on the bottom side–she was the dam of champions Black Helen and Bimelech, plus numerous producing daughters–and Sir Gallahad and Bull Dog on the top line.

Teddy, a foal of 1913, was himself imported as an aged stallion to stand the 1932 season at Kentmere Farm in Virginia, from where he sired two other stallion sons that were massively important in retrospect. Sun Teddy, a foal of 1933, is the direct male-line ancestor of Damascus through the sire sequence Sun Again/Sunglow/Sword Dancer (sire of Damascus). And Case Ace, a foal of 1934, is the broodmare sire of Raise a Native – sire of Mr. Prospector, who is inbred 4×5 to Teddy, as his third dam is by Bull Dog.

The Teddy sire line is no longer of any consequence in this country–the Damascus branch was the last hope, and there's some symmetry to this because Damascus was bred and raced by Edie Bancroft, daughter of William Woodward, who bred and raced Gallant Fox and Omaha and was a shareholder in Sir Gallahad–but his influence within the recesses of pedigrees was powerful throughout the last century and is still felt today. And in many cases, the tail-female lines of many iconic runners have dams that were sired by Teddy-line horses, and some contain multiple strains of Teddy. The 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat's fourth dam was by Teddy himself; the 1977 winner Seattle Slew's dam is inbred 3×3 to the full sisters Busher and Striking, granddaughters of Teddy's La Troienne; and the 1978 winner Affirmed was inbred 5x5x6 to Teddy, while his dam had three crosses to Sir Gallahad and one to Bull Dog in her first five generations.

How about the last English Triple Crown winner, Nijinsky? His dam was by a Teddy-line horse and 4×6 to Teddy. Spectacular Bid, a near Triple Crown winner? His dam, by the Teddy-line horse Promised Land, was 5×5 Teddy. Sunday Silence was from a mare by Understanding–a son of Promised Land–and he was distantly inbred to Teddy as well. And Forego's dam, by a Teddy-line horse, was 3×3 to Sir Gallahad and Bull Dog on the sire-line cross.

More recently, the sixth dam of Flightline is champion Lady Pitt, a daughter of Teddy-line Sword Dancer.

There are too many others bred this way to list here, but you get the picture.

Teddy's Sire Line

This is Teddy's four-generation tail-male lineage: Teddy/Ajax (Fr)/Flying Fox (GB)/Orme (GB)/Ormonde (GB). The latter was a son of Bend Or (GB), from the Doncaster (GB)/Stockwell (GB) line.

Teddy was bred by Edmond Blanc and sold as a young colt to Jefferson Davis Cohn, who raced him and then bred and raced his sons Sir Gallahad and Bull Dog.

Blanc, who owned Haras de Jardy (later purchased by Boussac), also bred and raced Teddy's sire, Ajax, the French Derby winner of 1904. Ajax was from the first crop of Flying Fox, the 1899 English Triple Crown winner for the 1st Duke of Westminster, who died the same year.

In March of 1900, Blanc purchased Flying Fox at auction for the equivalent of $189,000–a record price at the time–and brought him to stand at Haras de Jardy, where he was successful and influential. Jardy (Fr), from Flying Fox's second crop, won the Middle Park S. at two and was second in the English Derby at three for Blanc, who sold him to Argentina for the equivalent of $150,000. Blanc also bred and raced Val d'Or (Fr), another from Flying Fox's second crop. Val d'Or won the French Guineas and the Eclipse S. in England, and Blanc also sold him to Argentina, for the equivalent of $140,000.

Argentina was a wealthy country at this time and had a penchant for importing European Classic winners and well-raced horses, such as the 1900 English Triple Crown winner Diamond Jubilee (GB), for approximately $151,000; the 1899 Ascot Gold Cup winner Cyllene (GB), for about $158,000; the disqualified English Derby winner from the infamous 1913 running, Craganour (GB), for about $150,000; and the U.S.-bred 1912 St. Leger winner and English Derby third, Tracery, for the equivalent of $180,000.

It wasn't just Argentine breeders paying big money for European horses. August Belmont paid $150,000 for 1903 English Triple Crown winner Rock Sand (GB), the sire of Tracery and the broodmare sire of Man o' War. Tracery was from a mare by Orme, the sire of Flying Fox and a son of undefeated Ormonde, the winner of the English Triple Crown of 1886 and the “horse of the century.”

Ormonde

The Duke of Westminister bred Ormonde, his son Orme, and his grandson Flying Fox at his Eaton Stud, and all three were trained by John Porter, who also trained English Triple Crown winner Common (GB) in addition to Triple Crown winners Ormonde and Flying Fox.

Ormonde was by the Duke's homebred 1880 English Derby winner Bend Or, who stood at Eaton, and he was undefeated in 15 starts (some records say 16, counting a private race that was a walkover), according to the book “John Porter of Kingsclere: An Autobiography,” co-written by Edward Moorehouse.

One of the most intriguing sections of Porter's book is where Ormonde began to develop a wind infirmity before winning the St. Leger. Porter wrote: “The satisfaction I derived from Ormonde's performances that year was sadly discounted by a discovery I made on the Kingsclere Downs one misty morning shortly before he won the St. Leger. As Ormonde galloped past me I heard him make a whistling noise. I was dumbfounded.”

Porter continued: “I hardly slept at all the following night. My mind would dwell on the fact that Ormonde had become a victim of that scourge roaring. I at once wrote to the Duke, who was naturally deeply grieved by the news. At that period the ailment was very slight, but it gradually got worse.”

Over the winter as he turned four, Ormonde was treated with an electric sponge “applied every day to the paralysed nerve in his throat,” but when the colt was back working “we could hear him breathing when he was nearly half a mile away,” Porter wrote. Nonetheless, Ormonde ran a few times that year and won, but he was retired by July and entered stud at Eaton in 1888.

The following year, 1889, Ormonde was leased to another farm, where he contracted pneumonia and became seriously ill – and this has been attributed as the cause of his low fertility. He covered only a few mares that season before returning to Eaton in the summer. He was then sold by the Duke to an Argentine breeder, Juan Boucau, for the equivalent of $58,000 and was sent abroad in September. It's likely that Ormonde's wind and fertility issues caused his sale, and at a price that was considerably lower than what top-class horses were bringing from Argentine breeders during this period.

Ormonde spent three Southern Hemisphere seasons in Argentina–1890, 1891, and 1892–before he was sold again, this time to Californian William O'Brien MacDonough of the Menlo Park Stock Farm (later renamed the Ormondale Ranch) in San Mateo on the San Francisco peninsula. The purchase price was $150,000, because by then several of Ormonde's first crop, headed by Eclipse S. winner Orme, were winning impressively.

Ormonde's fertility remained poor and he left behind few foals in Argentina and California, dying in 1904. None were of the quality of Orme, who sired English Derby winner Orby (GB) in addition to Triple Crown winner Flying Fox. One of his best American runners, however, was Ormondale, winner of the 1905 Futurity S. in New York. He later stood, among other farms, at Hamburg Place in Kentucky.

Ormondale, like his prolific male-line relative Teddy, has played a role in the pedigrees of some American Triple Crown winners, believe it or not. The 1941 winner Whirlaway's third dam is a daughter of Ormondale, and, more recently, the 2015 winner American Pharoah's eighth dam is by Ormondale.

How about that?

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

The post Taking Stock: Influence of ‘Roarer’ and Sub-Fertile Ormonde appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Taking Stock: Practical Joke Is Value

There's a lot that can be gleaned from the freshman sires and leading sires of 2-year-olds lists.

Last year, Coolmore America's Practical Joke (Into Mischief) was second to Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) on the freshman sire list by progeny earnings, $2,339,717 to $4,315,980. Those numbers were good enough to make Gun Runner the leading sire of 2-year-olds and Practical Joke third, with leading sire Into Mischief splitting the newcomers with $2,971,018. That Practical Joke tied Gun Runner by number of black-type winners with six, tops among all freshman sires, suggested he was passing on some real quality to his 2-year-olds. This year, that's been confirmed: Practical Joke is sixth on the 2-year-old list with earnings of $2,197,908 through Tuesday, and he's the sire of three juvenile black-type winners, including Grade l winner Chocolate Gelato–his first in the Northern Hemisphere–and Grade ll winner Practical Move.

Practical Move won the Gll Los Alamitos Futurity Dec. 17, a race that was expected to be a cakewalk for the Justify (Scat Daddy) colt Arabian Lion. Had the latter won, Justify, who also stands at Coolmore America, would have significantly tightened the race for champion first-crop sire and given the Triple Crown winner a leading seven black-type winners for the year. As it now stands, Justify is third on the freshman list with earnings of $2,398,040 behind Hill 'n' Dale's Good Magic with $2,473,517 and leader Spendthrift's Bolt d'Oro with $2,641,366 (all statistics are through Tuesday and for the Northern Hemisphere only).

On the leading 2-year-old sire list, Into Mischief is on top, followed by Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro), Hill 'n' Dale's Violence (Medaglia d'Oro), Good Magic (Curlin), Justify, and Practical Joke.

This puts Practical Joke, who will stand for $25,000 live foal next year, in heady company and makes him a bargain at that. His sire Into Mischief's fee is $250,000. Bolt d'Oro's advertised fee for 2023 is $35,000, but he can't be had for that anymore. He's booked full at the farm price and only a couple of NG seasons are available, with one offered the other day for $42,000–the equivalent of close to $55,000 live foal if converted with insurance. Violence and Good Magic are both advertised at $50,000 and selling fast, and Justify, who was initially advertised at $100,000 for 2023, is now at $150,000 live foal as he closes in on a full book.

Three Chimneys's Gun Runner is listed as private but his fee is in the neighborhood of $300,000.

Gun Runner's first crop has now yielded a surreal total of six Grade l winners, which justifiably makes him the most expensive sire in North America. But so far he has no 2-year-old black-type winners from his second crop, which has earned $1,385,921–good for number 21 on the 2-year-old list that he led last year. In a head-to-head comparison of second-crop juveniles, Practical Joke beats Gun Runner across the board, including by winners (24 to 17), black-type winners, black-type runners (seven to four) and Grade l winners.

As a general rule, second crops don't perform as well as first crops, but Practical Joke has admirably held his form with his second crop by progeny earnings, $2,197,908 versus $2,339,717 from last year.

Practical Joke's performance is also notable compared to the eight stallions who finished behind him on the first-crop Top 10 list last year, listed here by progeny earnings from last year versus this year's figures for their current juveniles: Connect ($2,106,071 vs. $1,235,808 ), Classic Empire ($1,645,824 vs. $818,616), Cupid ($1,303,652 vs. $98,947), Klimt ($1,276,592 vs. $728,861 and exported), Caravaggio ($1,275,118 vs. $191,481 and exported), Gormley ($1,126,007 vs. $553,091), Mohaymen ($1,074,109 vs. $169,044), and deceased Arrogate ($1,069,239 vs. $1,795,218). Only Arrogate's second-crop juveniles outperformed his first.

Stallions frequently cover a lower number of mares in their second year at stud, and these mares are generally of lesser quality than those from their first year, which mostly accounts for this paradigm. Cupid, who also stands at Coolmore America, is a particularly stark example. Last year, he was represented by 123 named 2-year-olds, of which 75 started and 23 won. This year, he has 29 juveniles, eight starters, and two winners.

Expect similar results next year for some of the leading freshman sires of 2022, and pay attention to those like Practical Joke whose numbers don't fall off a cliff with their second crop of 2-year-olds.

Practical Joke's Second Career

Practical Joke, an outstanding physical specimen who stands 16.2 hands, is bred like Life Is Good, one of Into Mischief's most talented racing sons and another physical standout who will cover mares for $100,000 at WinStar next year. Both are out of Distorted Humor mares–Practical Joke's dam is Halo Humor, a black type-placed sprinter–and neither was suited for Classic distances, but both had plenty of talent over shorter trips.

Life Is Good won only a maiden special at two. Practical Joke, trained by Chad Brown for Klaravich Stables and William H. Lawrence, won three of his four starts as a juvenile, including the Gl Hopeful S. and the Gl Champagne S. His only loss was a third-place finish in the Gl Breeders' Cup Juvenile to Classic Empire and Not This Time.

At three, Practical Joke was put on the Classics trail and performed well enough, even running fifth of 20 in the Gl Kentucky Derby, but he didn't win again until he was cut back in distance. His most notable score that year came in the Gl H. Allen Jerkens S. over seven furlongs.

He was retired to stud in 2018 with a record of five wins from 12 starts and earnings of close to $1.8 million, and he stood for $30,000 his first year. He's been well patronized since.

Like many Coolmore horses, he was also shuttled, in his case to Haras Paso Nevado in Chile, and he's been Gun Runner-like over there with four first-crop Group 1 winners to date. Perhaps the more appropriate comparison is “Scat Daddy-like,” because Paso Nevado also shuttled Coolmore's Scat Daddy, who sired busloads of South American Group 1 winners before he got rolling in the Northern Hemisphere. Two of the four top-level Practical Joke winners in Chile are from Scat Daddy mares, and the other two are from mares by Lookin At Lucky and Powerscourt (GB), two other Coolmore sires that shuttled to Paso Nevado at one time or another.

Meanwhile in the Northern Hemisphere Practical Joke is the sire of 11 black-type winners so far, meaning that some of his stakes-winning 2-year-olds from last year have trained on at three. One of them is Wit, who won the Glll Sanford S., was second in the Hopeful and third in the Champagne. Wit won the Glll Bay Shore S. over seven furlongs earlier this year but has recently transitioned to the turf, on which he won a listed race at Saratoga before placing in the Gl Hollywood Derby at Del Mar over nine furlongs on Dec. 3. The favorite in the race, Wit was beaten by three-quarters of a length for everything.

Another is Girl With a Dream, a listed winner last year who won the Glll Forward Gal S. this year. Practical Joke also has had some first-time 3-year-old stakes winners, like Little Vic, who won the Listed $100,000 City of Laurel S. on Nov. 26.

But horses like Gl Frizette S. winner Chocolate Gelato and Grade ll winner Practical Move, plus the four Group 1 winners in Chile, suggest that Practical Joke has more in the tank, and that's a tantalizing thought, especially at a fee that's below those of the notable young sires he's running with.

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

The post Taking Stock: Practical Joke Is Value appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post