Horse Racing Forum - USA Thoroughbred Races

As we all know, the only bottom line most breeders really care about is found at the base of a balance sheet. And the ink they use, red or black, tends to be ascribed sooner to the top line of a pedigree than to the one running along the bottom. Commercial yearlings are branded first and foremost by their sires, even though the equal genetic contribution of the dam should make her family of critical interest.

On the one hand, then, it was edifying to see three Classics in eight days magnify names in the bottom line: Miesque (Nureyev) as grand-dam of G1 Prix du Jockey-Club winner Study Of Man (Fr) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and great-grand-dam of G1 Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Alpha Centauri (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}); and the great Urban Sea (Miswaki) as fourth dam of Derby winner Masar (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}), besides also being dam of his grandsire.

Arguably, however, both Miesque and Urban Sea are exceptions to prove the rule. As such celebrities, in both their racing and breeding careers, they stand out luminously in a family tree: barely less of a short-cut, in terms of attention span, than crediting everything to the sire. But when Study Of Man, for instance, takes one of the best pedigrees in Europe to stud, we should be no less interested in all the other spars and buttresses that support the family around his famous grand-dam. It will be easy enough, at that stage, to be excited by the fact that Study Of Man is out of a mare by one of the great modern broodmare sires in Storm Cat. But how many people, in renewing their admiration for Miesque, are still asking themselves how much of her priceless legacy might be credited to her mother Pasodoble-who was by Prove Out (Graustark) out of a Sanctus (Fr) (Fine Top {Fr}) mare?

Niki McCardell was tense as Justify (Scat Daddy) rolled into the Belmont stretch, and with each stride the big chestnut took to secure his place in history, McCardell’s pent-up excitement became noticeably palpable. She started clenching her fists and raising her arms at the sixteenth pole and finally emptied her emotional tank when the colt hit the wire. Shortly afterward, I heard McCardell almost sheepishly tell her companion Chuck Fipke that witnessing Justify’s GI Belmont S. was as exciting–if not more–as seeing Fipke’s homebred Bee Jersey (Jersey Town)’s win the GI Metropolitan H. two races earlier on the card.

“No, I agree with you,” Fipke replied. “It was more exciting to see this. He just won the Triple Crown, eh.”

Mind you, Bee Jersey’s race had been a nailbiter with the son of Jersey Town’s margin of victory only a nose at the wire, but Fipke had meant what he’d said because he breeds mostly for the Classics and had appreciated–envied, even–what had transpired.

“He’s a beautiful horse,” Fipke uttered to no one as he watched Mike Smith parade the colt before fans after the win.

The big and handsome Justify is owned by a partnership that numbers hundreds of individuals. This type of ownership structure–popular overseas–is becoming more evident here. The colt was initially purchased by the partnership of Kenny Troutt’s WinStar Farm; China Horse Club; and SF Bloodstock, a global entity that includes Newgate Farm in Australia; and it was later enlarged to include the Jack Wolf-led syndicate of Starlight Racing and Sol Kumin’s Head of Plains Partners LLC. The latter two entities had purchased SF Bloodstock’s racing interests in the son of Scat Daddy for one year, with SF holding on to its share of the colt’s breeding rights. It’s a fairly complex ownership situation between the racing and breeding rights, but it certainly amplifies the number of individuals that can say they owned a Triple Crown winner.

Fipke, in contrast, is at the other end of the spectrum in the deep end of the game. He’s an owner who races almost exclusively only those horses that he bred, and he races them by himself, in his name, and in his own colors. He doesn’t buy yearlings or 2-year-olds, he doesn’t claim horses, and he doesn’t have partners. In many ways, he’s a throwback to the owner-breeders of the last century, and his model of operation is very much in the minority these days. In fact, I’d hazard a guess that there’s no one else in North America that operates quite like Fipke does, because not only does he race homebreds, he breeds the majority of his mares to his own homebred stallions, even if those stallions are not fashionable or supremely accomplished at stud. Bee Jersey is an example of this. He’s a first-crop son of Fipke’s homebred GI Cigar Mile winner Jersey Town (Speightstown), who entered stud at Darby Dan but was moved to Road’s End Farm in British Columbia for 2018 after demand in Kentucky waned.

The Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training and Horses of Racing Age, the final auction of the juvenile sales season, concluded its three-day run Friday with a colt by Scat Daddy (hip 742) attracting the day’s top price of $360,000. Another son of the late Coolmore stallion, sire of Triple Crown winner Justify, brought the sale’s highest price of $650,000 when he sold during Wednesday’s first session of the auction.

Through three sessions, OBS sold 520 horses for $17,125,500. The average was $32,934 and the median was $15,000. At last year’s two-day sale, 434 horses grossed $14,999,900 for an average of $34,562 and a median of $18,500. The buy-back rate was 21.8%.

Eleven horses sold for $200,000 or more this year, while nine hit that mark a year ago, when the top price was $320,000.

“It was a very solid sale,” OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski said at the close of business Friday. “The trend we’ve seen all year is that the top end kind of takes care of itself. It was nice to see some vibrancy in the middle and lower levels, to see some active trade there.”

The sale’s leading consignor was Wavertree Stables, with 28 head sold for $2,105,500. The leading buyer was Carlo Vaccarezza, who purchased seven horses, including the $650,000 sales topper, for $1,010,500.

Eddie Woods, who sold a million-dollar juvenile at the Fasig-Gulfstream sale and topped the Barretts April sale, said he noticed more strength at the top end of the market during this spring’s 2-year-old sales.

“I think, at the better end, there was a bit more strength,” Woods said. “There were more horses sold for better money across the board at all the sales throughout the country. I don’t think at any sale was there a horse that brought crazy money, but there was a lot of money at the better end and there was more of it. It’s a growing trend, both at the yearling sale and in every part of our industry, the top end is getting a little bit more spread out and a little stronger.”

Olin Gentry, managing partner of Gaines-Gentry Thoroughbreds, collapsed in the barn area while attending the OBS June Sale Friday in Ocala.

Gentry was taken by ambulance to North Florida Medical Center where he was undergoing tests Friday afternoon, according to consignor Ciaran Dunne.

Gentry purchased a pair of juveniles by Uncle Mo during the three-day auction.

Sparrow Castle wrote:There have been many articles I have wanted to share but didn't because they didn't neatly fit under an existing topic. I don't know why I don't start threads more often, but I think most of the articles I find interesting are related to breeding, theories, strategies, or general in nature.

This is an article I posted under an unsuitable thread and Treve thought it should have its own thread. I agree, but then I came across another article today that I almost posted under the Justify thread, even though the point of the article was much more about breeding and a certain breeder. I'll start the thread out with the article about genetic diversity, then post the new one. I would love to see similar articles you found interesting.
[snip]

More: http://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/by ... -the-line/

Katewerk wrote:Further in the article is a mention that the Darley Arabian line was "defunct" in the US. MUSKETIER (GER) gr/r. H, 2002 is from that sire line, standing at Calumet. Unfortunate that a tough one like him hasn't had more opportunities.

https://www.bloodhorse.com/stallion-reg ... ketier-ger

Flanders wrote:

Katewerk wrote:Further in the article is a mention that the Darley Arabian line was "defunct" in the US. MUSKETIER (GER) gr/r. H, 2002 is from that sire line, standing at Calumet. Unfortunate that a tough one like him hasn't had more opportunities.

https://www.bloodhorse.com/stallion-reg ... ketier-ger

No it said "The Byerley Turk line has been defunct in the U.S. for a while already". Almost every stallion standing at stud in the US is the Darley Arabian sire line. Musketier is a little different in that he doesn't come from the Phalaris line.

Even as the vast Belmont Park grandstand quaked with the roar of fans celebrating Justify’s Belmont Stakes triumph to cap his undefeated run through the Triple Crown last Saturday, a quiet shadow was inescapable: a stabbing sense of what had been lost in the chill of a late winter's day three years earlier.

On December 14, 2015, the sire of Justify fell over dead, stricken by heart failure as he was walking out of his paddock at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud.

Scat Daddy was only 11 on the day he died. Today his record, as the sire of America’s Triple Crown champion and numerous Royal Ascot winners such as Lady Aurelia and Caravaggio, reveals that one of the world’s most versatile and promising progenitors was lost just as he was beginning to receive his best mares.

Members of the final crop sired by Scat Daddy, who have been in hot demand at breeze-up sales this year, will have their chance at Royal Ascot to blaze to even more glory for their sire, who is remembered by all those who were connected with him as a horse who always gleamed with a special shine.

“I’m sure he was heading in the direction of the Galileos and the Sadler’s Wells of this world as far as how good he was going to be as a sire,” says Fergus Galvin, co-owner of Hunter Valley Farm near Lexington, where Scat Daddy was raised.

“It was just such a shame. You hate any stallion to pass away, but when he died, he was just on the crest of a wave. To think what he could have accomplished with proper Grade 1 mares, which he would have been getting, it could be staggering.

"It's staggering already – the fact that he had such international appeal, the fact that his offspring could literally run on any surface and at any distance."

Flanders wrote:

Katewerk wrote:Further in the article is a mention that the Darley Arabian line was "defunct" in the US. MUSKETIER (GER) gr/r. H, 2002 is from that sire line, standing at Calumet. Unfortunate that a tough one like him hasn't had more opportunities.

https://www.bloodhorse.com/stallion-reg ... ketier-ger

No it said "The Byerley Turk line has been defunct in the U.S. for a while already". Almost every stallion standing at stud in the US is the Darley Arabian sire line. Musketier is a little different in that he doesn't come from the Phalaris line.

Olin Gentry, who collapsed from a `massive stroke’ at the OBS Sale Friday, has been taken off life support at the North Florida Regional Medical Center, a stroke facility in Gainesville, Florida, according to his close friend Tom Van Meter. “Olin collapsed at the sale at OBS yesterday,” said Van Meter. “He had a massive stroke at that time. He was basically brain dead at that point. They kept him on life support for a 24-hour period, and that ended today. He has been taken off life support. His son was with him, his closest friends, we were all there,” said Van Meter. “Ciaran Dunne, myself, his signifcant other Athena, we were all with him.” Van Meter said that Gentry had been at the Wavertree barn when the collapse happened. “It was so great that he was doing what he loved to do, which was making a horse trade at the horse sale. He was with his buddies. But it was way too soon, and it’s brutally painful.” Van Meter said that Gentry was 51 years old. More details will be added as they become available.

The other day we rolled down various leading sires lists in search of a topic for this installment and immediately came to a halt. That’s because we noticed that Eclipse champion Blame had suddenly snuck up a few of those lists to the point where he has to be considered a serious bet after what was probably a fair assessment that–echoing his racing career–he’d gotten off to a slow start as a sire.

That statement was not meant to be anything other than a logical observation. One has to consider that even though he is from one of the most incredible families of the past 75 years–that of *Rough Shod II, his fifth dam–it was always his sire, and his sire line, which was mostly greeted with a bit of hesitancy by a market oversaturated with commercial hyperventilation. But with ten stakes winners this year (four graded), headed by filly Fault (GI Santa Margarita S.) and the turf colt Maraud (GII American Turf S.), attention must be paid.

But the eyebrows were arched when we continued scrolling down the list and discovered that his deceased sire, Arch, and his now exported (to Korea) speedball son, Archarcharch, were ranked among the top 50 sires in cumulative 2018 earnings. To double check, we ran the 2017 list–and they were in the Top 55 at the end of the year. That’s an interesting discovery for a branch of a sire line that snuck up on a lot of people and is often overlooked by more, i.e. that of Kris S., a son of Roberto.

Taking a step back, we wondered how other Roberto branches were doing and discovered of course, that there’s only one other which is prominent in North America, that of Dynaformer. The latter has some young sons at stud, but only Temple City and second-crop sire Point of Entry are beginning to make any noise that might compete with that of Blame. One reason is that aside from the ill-fated Barbaro (whose full brother Lentenor is now at stud), many good racing sons of Dynaformer were geldings.

More interestingly, except for Darby Creek Road, Lear Fan and Silver Hawk, each of whom had successful records but never established viable branches, the sons of Roberto who left sons behind did so overseas, e.g., Brian’s Time in Japan and Red Ransom in Australia.

In 1991, only 5% of all flat races in the United States were on turf. By last year, that figure had risen to 17%. The incremental increase of turf racing over the past 27 years is vivid in the accompanying graph, which was extrapolated from racing data provided by researcher Chris Rossi (See below). This trend to turf is even more significant than the data suggests because in 2017 there were almost 50% fewer races than in 1991. The net effect is that turf racing is playing a greater role in the sport as the industry shrinks. Throw in that 39% of graded races in America were contested on turf in 2017, and you get the picture.

Stud farms in Kentucky have been adjusting to the change. In 2018, 14 Kentucky nurseries are offering 30 stallions that either won or placed in Grade I turf races (plus one, Violence, who was a Grade I winner on all-weather) with first foals age three or younger (See Chart below). That’s a revelation, but it’s not unexpected, because the trend line in the Rossi data suggests that turf racing will continue to grow in the ensuing years. Note that the Breeders’ Cup recently announced that its newest race is a $1-million sprint on turf for juveniles.

“Well, there was a prejudice against turf sires at one point,” said Pope McLean Sr. of Crestwood Farm, which stands the War Front horse Jack Milton. “For a while, people just didn’t want to touch them, but recently, with Kitten’s Joy and others like War Front, and even a horse like Artie Schiller, breaking barriers, things are changing. We were pretty pleased to get 100-plus mares to Jack Milton in his first year, and they seem to have caught on at the sales, too.”

Back in 1991, Walmac International’s Nureyev led all U.S.-based sires by yearling average and Claiborne Farm’s Danzig led the North American General Sire List. Both sons of Northern Dancer were outstanding turf sires and were favorites of European buyers, just as Danzig’s son War Front, also at Claiborne, is today. But Nureyev and Danzig operated in a different landscape than do War Front and Kitten’s Joy. For example, when Kitten’s Joy led the General Sire List in 2013, he did so primarily with domestic turf and all-weather horses that had more opportunities beyond dirt than ever before; in 1991, Danzig needed significant main-track runners–like Dance Smartly, the Canadian Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner that season, when she was also named Horse of the Year in Canada and champion 3-year-old filly in the U.S.–to land the sire championship.

“I think what everyone wants, if possible, is a versatile horse that can get both dirt and turf,” said Duncan Taylor of Taylor Made Farm, which stands three young stallions in California Chrome, Mshawish, and Midnight Storm that were successful on the two surfaces. “We were lucky we got horses that could run on both, and we like that they could run on both, but we didn’t go out consciously looking for turf. We got the best horses we could find. But we think people want a versatile horse.”

That versatility was best exemplified in 2017 by Darley’s Medaglia d’Oro, the sire of Mshawish–who won the GI Gulfstream Park Turf H. at five and the GI Donn H. on dirt at six. Like Kitten’s Joy and Artie Schiller, Medaglia d’Oro is a son of the imported El Prado (Ire), a European-raced son of Sadler’s Wells. El Prado was the first son of Sadler’s Wells whose progeny transitioned to dirt in the U.S., and Medaglia d’Oro, himself a dirt horse, has continued the duality that El Prado established as a sire of dirt and turf horses. At the Breeders’ Cup, for instance, he was represented by Talismanic, winner of the GI Turf, and Bar of Gold, first in the GI Filly and Mare Sprint. In short, he gets 2-year-olds, classic horses, and older runners, and they act on all surfaces. He’s the model of versatility at the top end of the market and as such his sons–even some foreign-bred ones–are getting their chances at stud in Kentucky.

The lessons Juddmonte Farms learned from the first mares bred to Empire Maker and Aptitude have put its new sire and champion Arrogate on a better path toward early success, according to the farm's manager, Garrett O'Rourke.

"With Arrogate, we've set about showing what we've learned," said O'Rourke. "We made sure he had a nice blend of quality mares, those of the caliber to produce the type of runners similar to what he was—a classic, American dirt runner.

"We used a certain percentage of turf mares, but we went heavier than we did in the past on good dirt mares. We even went out and bought some precocious speed mares to bolster his chances of getting early runners," he said.

What reinforces a standout year for Sea The Stars is that, having not thus far been noted as a source of precocity, he has fared better in that department this summer.

He has five two-year-old winners to his name from his 2016 crop, including Layaleena, who triumphed on debut at Newmarket for Sir Michael Stoute on Friday; Fox Tal, a close fourth in the Listed Stonehenge Stakes at Salisbury later that day; and Star Terms, who has won her last two starts for Richard Hannon.

“Sea The Stars always gets those nice juvenile winners towards the end of the season, but this year we appear to be seeing some earlier types than in other years,” says Downes. “We're in August and we've already seen several smart performances.

“It's good to see, because I think as far as his own profile goes, that's the final piece of the jigsaw.”

Seabiscuit was not an impressive looking horse and was considered to be quite lazy, preferring eating and sleeping to exercise. The horse had been written off by most of the racing industry after losing his first 17 races, however, he eventually became one of the greatest Thoroughbred champions of all time.

The grandson of Man o' War, Seabiscuit raised the hopes and spirits of a beleaguered nation during the Great Depression with a series of unlikely victories. Nov. 1st, 2018 marks the 80th Anniversary of his legendary win in a match race against Triple Crown winner War Admiral at Pimlico in 1938. The race drew 40,000 spectators, an enormous crowd in those days, and was broadcast by radio to President Franklin Roosevelt and 40 million other listeners across the country. Considered a West Coast underdog, Seabiscuit inspired America with his awe-inspiring win against all odds, but what made this crooked legged, supposed lazy horse a champion?

This and other questions led to an exciting collaboration between molecular geneticist Dr. Steven Tammariello, the Director of the Institute for Equine Genomics at Binghamton University (NY), Jacqueline Cooper, Seabiscuit Heritage Foundation President Emeritus and Col. Michael Howard, US Marines (Ret.), the great-grandson of Seabiscuit's owner, Charles S. Howard. The study, however, began not with Seabiscuit himself, but with one of his descendants.

Dr. Tammariello was initially contacted by Cooper, a private Thoroughbred breeder, who owns Seabiscuit's descendants stabled at historic Ridgewood Ranch, the home and final resting place of the champion, located in the oak and redwood-studded ranch land and mountains of northern California. Seabiscuit stood at stud there and was nursed back to health, after sustaining serious injury at age seven. His recuperation at Ridgewood set the stage for an electrifying blaze-of-glory career finish at Santa Anita Park that captivated Depression-era America.

At Cooper's request, Dr. Tammariello initially tested a 5x descendant of Seabiscuit, Bronze Sea, on a genetic panel that can be used to predict a horse's racing potential, giving rise to a question of a comparison between the DNA of the horse and its famous ancestor. This could only work if DNA from Seabiscuit still existed — an unlikely proposition since he died in 1947, explained Tammariello.

Obtaining a sample of Seabiscuit's DNA was made possible in a joint effort between the Seabiscuit Heritage Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to historic preservation and land conservation at Ridgewood Ranch, and the California Thoroughbred Foundation where Seabiscuit's silvered hooves, originally loaned by Marcela Howard, are currently on display. Although not common practice today, historically it was customary to remove the hooves of a champion racehorse as a keepsake prior to burial. Howard family historian, Col. Howard, agreed that an attempt could be made to extract the champion's DNA from the hooves and attested they are authentic.

Tammariello and PhD student Kate DeRosa, with assistance from Dr. Andy Merriwether, Professor of Anthropology and the Director of the Ancient DNA and Forensic Laboratory at Binghamton University, successfully isolated DNA from the coffin bone inside of two of the hoof capsules. Analysis of the samples revealed that the nuclear DNA is somewhat degraded, most likely due to the age of the hooves, or because of the harsh chemical treatment during the silvering process. However, the mitochondrial DNA is intact and was used to verify that the DNA extracted from each hoof is from the maternal family line 5-j. This, coupled with Col Howard's historical connection to the hooves, suggests the DNA extracted is indeed from Seabiscuit.

Though the nuclear DNA was significantly degraded, Tammariello and DeRosa were still able to partially sequence specific genes associated with optimal racing distance in Thoroughbreds. Seabiscuit was found to have gene variants often observed in horses that have a strong route-running ability, however underlying this were variants in minor racing genes that are normally found in sprinting horses. This somewhat rare genetic combination of stamina and speed seems to be reflected in the champion's race record, as he won races from 5 furlongs to 1 ¼ miles. Further, horses with this genotype today tend to be late developing, winning their first race almost three months later (on average) than horses with a genotype of precocity.