After a bit of a delay, Q B One, the first foal out of multiple Eclipse Award winner Beholder, is on track to make his first start in the coming weeks, Daily Racing Form reports.
Trainer Richard Mandella told DRF's Brad Free that 3-year-old Uncle Mo colt was “three or four weeks away from a race.”
A homebred for Spendthrift Farm, which also campaigned Beholder, Q B One was set to debut last year as a 2-year-old, but Mandella stopped on the colt after a July workout at Del Mar. The colt remains based in Southern California, where he most recently breezed five furlongs in 1:01.80 on Friday at Santa Anita.
The setting of new sire records in the modern era tends more than not to be a direct consequence of ever-greater book sizes. But they must still be acknowledged as legitimate breeding benchmarks as they will inevitably feature some outstanding performances. Just look at Mehmas (Ire)‘s tally of first-crop 2-year-old winners this term. Currently on 56 winners, he is already 17 clear of Iffraaj’s old record and in normal circumstances we might be entitled to expect his record to stand for many years. It may well do, but his strike rate of 53% winners to runners, achieved by quite a few other freshman sires down the years, suggests that the big total of winners is just as much a function of a big crop of runners. So, we cannot rule out another Mehmas-like total in the near future.
We could say the same about black-type records. Larger numbers of runners tend to be the reason why these records fall, but it’s not always so. Take the case of Frankel (GB), the sire who has posted the highest number of stakes winners (56) and group winners (41) of any European sire in the first five years of his career. Frankel has already eclipsed the previous records set by Dubawi after his first five years, which stood at 53 stakes winners and 35 group winners. Dubawi, in turn, took the record away from Galileo (Ire), who had amassed 51 stakes winners and 30 group winners after his first five years.
No one could accuse Frankel of relying on sheer numbers of runners to outpace Dubawi and Galileo. In fact, he has set the new standards with fewer runners than either of his major rivals. Hence he has posted superior strike rates–14.2% stakes and 10.4% group winners–than Dubawi and Galileo had at the same point in their careers. But Frankel really did get a head start on all his rivals by covering Europe’s best mares from the outset of his career, unlike either Galileo or Dubawi. As many as 62% of the mares that have produced Frankel’s runners so far can be classed as elite, which is in stark contrast to the corresponding percentages for the early runners by Dubawi (30%) and Galileo (35%). What’s certain is that Frankel will need to have very long innings at his current strike rate to overhaul Dubawi’s current mark of 171 stakes winners and, by my calculations, another 20-plus years to reach his sire’s tally of 298. It’s a sure sign of the times that Frankel not only has more group winners than Galileo after five years but also has nearly double the number of his grandsire Sadler’s Wells and has over three times what the great Northern Dancer had in their first five years.
Remarkably, there is yet another sire that can boast an even higher number of group winners in his first five years. Shadai’s Deep Impact (Jpn), the very definition of a big fish in a small pond, sired 47 group winners in his first five years with runners. The lack of serious competition among Japan’s stallion ranks possibly casts a shadow over such an achievement, as does the fact that Deep Impact’s percentage of group winners (7.4%) is not quite as good as the percentages posted by Frankel, Galileo or Dubawi all of whom average above 10% group winners to runners. To counter that argument, though, it must also be recognized that Japan has far fewer group races per head of population than Europe does. So, 47 group winners in five years is still a formidable achievement.
Not surprisingly, North America’s records for stakes winners and graded winners at the end of five years have also fallen quite recently. The phenomenal Uncle Mo set new standards at the end of 2019 with his 48 stakes winners and 26 graded winners. It’s hard to believe that there are now 19 sires with more stakes winners in their first five years than the great Danzig, but none will ever get close to his 21% strike rate.
Among sires who stood exclusively in America, few would have guessed that it wasn’t Speightstown, nor Distorted Humor, nor Scat Daddy that held the record prior to Uncle Mo, but the one and only Kitten’s Joy, a sire that perhaps still struggles for due recognition.
3rd-GP, $50K, Msw, 2yo, 5f, 1:05p.m.
Repole Stable, St. Elias Stable, Michael Tabor, Mrs. John Magnier and Derrick Smith’s SHAFTESBURY (Uncle Mo) kicks off his career for Todd Pletcher, who already owns 16 training titles at the South Florida oval. Out of the stakes-winning Lemon Kiss (Lemon Drop Kid), the $675,000 KEESEP yearling purchase is a half-sibling to Grade I-winner Lochte (Medaglia d’Oro). TJCIS PPs
7th-GP, $50K, Msw, 2yo, f, 7f, 3:08p.m.
Todd Pletcher sends out a pair of wel-bred first-time starters, led by Charles Fipke’s UNBRIDLED D’ORO (Medaglia d’Oro). The homebred is a the first foal out of GI Ballerina S. heroine Unbridled Forever (Unbridled’s Song), herself a daughter of GI Kentucky Oaks winner Lemons Forever (Lemon Drop Kid). Pletcher also saddles Shadwell homebred Zaajel (Street Sense). Dam Asiya (Daaher) is responsible for dual graded placed Ajaaweed (Curlin). Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott is represented by James Karp’s first-time starter Mail Order (Liam’s Map). The Ontario-bred is a $300,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale graduate, the co-third highest priced yearling of 78 offspring by the sire sold in 2019. TJCIS PPs
In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this weekend running at Chukyo and Hanshin Racecourses:
2nd-HSN, ¥9,680,000 ($93k), Maiden, 2yo, 1800m AMERICAN PEACE (c, 2, Tapit–La Cloche, by Ghostzapper) is one of at least four runners by this sire entered this weekend for owner Katsumi Yoshizawa of Master Fencer (Jpn) fame and is the early 1-2 favorite off a strong runner-up effort when trying the dirt for the first time at Chukyo Oct. 4 (video, gate 10). The $325K Keeneland September yearling, a full-brother to GSW Bellevais, is out of a Grade III-winning daughter of MGISW Memories of Silver (Silver Hawk), herself the dam of MGISW Winter Memories (El Prado {Ire}) and granddam of MSW & MGSP ‘TDN Rising Star’ Winter Sunset (Tapit). This is also the female family of ‘Rising Star’ Hawkish (Artie Schiller). Don Alberto Corp. acquired La Cloche for $2.4m in foal to Tapit at Fasig-Tipton November in 2014. B-Don Alberto Corporation (KY)
5th-HSN, ¥13,400,000 ($129k), Newcomers, 2yo, 1800m MOZU LADY MO (f, 2, Uncle Mo–Czarina, by Bernardini) cost $375K at KEESEP in 2019 and is out of a full-sister to MGISW To Honor and Serve and GISW Angela Renee; and a half to SW & GISP Elnaawi (Street Sense). The filly’s third dam was responsible for MGSW India (Hennessy), whose MG1SW son Mozu Ascot (Frankel {GB}) was recently retired to stand the 2021 breeding season at Arrow Stud. The March foal is bred on the same cross responsible for GISW Mo Town and GSW Modernist. B-Rigney Racing LLC (KY)
Sunday, December 13, 2020 4th-HSN, ¥13,400,000 ($129k), Newcomers, 2yo, 1800m YORIKUN ROAD (JPN) (c, 2, Quality Road–Hymnotic, by War Front) is the first produce for his dam, a full-sister to SW & G1SP Whitecliffsofdover, who was purchased for $240K with this foal in utero at KEENOV in 2017. The colt’s second dam Orate (A.P. Indy) also produced SW & GISP Endless Chatter (First Samurai) and is a full-sister to the late, influential sire Pulpit. Since her export to Japan, Hymnotic has foaled colts by Horse of the Year Kitasan Black (Jpn) (Black Tide {Jpn}) each of the last two years. B-Yanagawa Bokujo
10th-CKO, ¥19,110,000 ($184k), Allowance, 2yo, 1400mT MOON BEAD (JPN) (f, 2, American Pharoah–Evening Jewel, by Northern Afleet) overcame a wide trip from the 18 hole to graduate by a half-length going this distance on Niigata debut Oct. 17 (see below) and should enjoy a softer run in this more compact field. Shadai Farm acquired this MGISW dam for $950K at KEENOV in 2016 and the mare foaled a Pioneerof the Nile colt the following spring. She was bred to American Pharoah and was exported before producing this filly in March 2018. Evening Jewel is the dam of a yearling Deep Impact (Jpn) colt and was covered this past season by Duramente (Jpn). B-Shadai Farm
