Stallions are supposed to prove themselves through a fairly lengthy and somewhat rigorous campaign of racing through at least a couple of seasons, scoring victories at the highest level of competition in such a manner as to distinguish themselves as potential titans of breeding and to indicate the qualities that are the most important in their own makeup.
But to every rule, there must be exceptions.
Witness Danzig. Unbeaten in three starts, none in a stakes, and yet arguably the most successful and influential son of the great Northern Dancer.
And it surely appears that breeding has another exception to the rule in the once-raced and emphatically unbeaten Maclean's Music (by Distorted Humor). The powerful bay made one start.
Maclean's Music won that single start by 7 1/4 lengths in 1:07.44 for six furlongs at Santa Anita on Mar. 19, 2011. For that debut, Maclean's Music earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 114, a figure much higher than most other horses ever run at any time in their racing careers.
And the fact of the colt's speed, a dizzy expression of athletic ability seen and not forgotten, was his ticket to a chance at stud. Because the good-looking young horse was perhaps too fast for his own good and never raced again.
Maclean's Music, however, did show the speed he possessed, and that fact brought him great notice. He was also fortunate enough to be bred and raced by Stonestreet, which saw to it that the colt went to stud at the sire-making emporium of John G. Sikura at Hill 'n' Dale Farms in 2013 after the colt hadn't been able to come back to the races as a 4-year-old.
At Hill 'n' Dale, Maclean's Music received good-sized books of good mares due to the renown of his single race and to the racy look of his own physique. Those who believed in the colt were correct, and Maclean's Music sired 2017 Preakness Stakes winner Cloud Computing in his first crop.
With that Grade 1 winner, Maclean's Music proved that he could sire racehorses who would go farther than sprint distances, and with his two subsequent Grade 1 winners, Complexity and Jackie's Warrior, the stallion has improved the perception among buyers and breeders that he possesses qualities of excellence.
In the Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park on Oct. 10, Jackie's Warrior stretched his unbeaten run to four races with a victory by 5 1/2 lengths in 1:35.42. Bred in Kentucky by J & J Stables, Jackie's Warrior took his second Grade 1 in the Champagne; he'd previously won the G1 Hopeful at Saratoga, as well as the G2 Saratoga Special.
Out of the A P Five Hundred mare Unicorn Girl, Jackie's Warrior is the mare's first stakes winner. Unicorn Girl herself is inbred 3×3 to Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew through his sons A.P. Indy and Doneraile Court.
Of more immediate import, however, is the fact that Unicorn Girl won 19 races from 54 starts and nearly a half-million dollars without earning any black type. Most of her victories came in claiming races, and the mare raced through age eight, when she was picked out of a $16,000 claiming race by J & J Stable.
She is a type of hickory racehorse who seems less common in racing today, but Unicorn Girl began her life in the usual way, selling for $45,000 at the OBS April sale in 2007 and making her debut at Saratoga in August of that year.
The now 15-year-old Unicorn Girl is out of stakes winner Horah for Bailey (Doneraile Court), and that mare won the Catcharisingstar Stakes at Calder, then produced a pair of stakes-placed horses, as well as Bernie the Maestro (Bernstein), who won 18 races, including a trio of stakes, and earned $694,317.
Unicorn Girl and Horah for Bailey trace back through the unraced Rahy mare Horah for the Lady to the latter's dam, Istria. An English-bred, Istria was by the Champion Stakes winner Silly Season (Tom Fool) and was ranked as the champion 2-year-old filly in Germany.
Although this family has had plenty of racers and winners since Istria, Bernie the Maestro was a potent reminder that the family has quality as well as quantity on its side, and perhaps that prominent south Florida campaigner played a role in sending his half-sister to the wunderkind who needed, most prominently, toughness in his mates.
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