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Mares on Monday: Echoing the Past?

3/28/2022

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On March 26, Echo Zulu kept her flawless record intact with a nose score over the late-charging Hidden Connection in the Twinspires.com Fair Grounds Oaks (USA-G2). The narrow win proved that the daughter of Gun Runner possesses plenty of heart as well as the brilliance that carried her to a title as last year's champion 2-year-old filly, for a less determined runner would probably have chucked it under the stiff challenge provided by the 2021 Pocahontas Stakes (USA-G3) winner. Nonetheless, the narrow margin is perhaps disquieting given the way that Echo Zulu ran her competition into the ground last year. Given that the Longines Kentucky Oaks (USA-G1) is a sixteenth of a mile longer, what does Echo Zulu's performance imply for her chances later this year?

Most likely, the race means mostly that she needed a race, especially since she was facing a quality opponent who had clearly benefited from a previous start in 2022. She is, after all, a daughter of Gun Runner, who clearly had no problems staying 9 or 10 furlongs, and she is a maternal granddaughter of Menifee, who won two Grade 1 races over 9 furlongs and was runner-up in both the Kentucky Derby (USA-G1) and the Preakness Stakes (USA-G1) in 1999. Still, a look back into the past via her dam line may be instructive, for her fifth dam is Leallah, the American champion 2-year-old filly of 1956.

Sired by Nasrullah from the Bull Lea mare Lea Lark, Leallah was from the female family of 1942 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Shut Out and 1954  American champion steeplechaser King Commando, but this was a family that had historically produced a pretty fair amount of speed, and Nasrullah transmitted brilliance quite as often as he did stamina. Leallah showed that brilliance early. After easily graduating from the maiden and allowance ranks, the fleet filly made her first stakes start in the Colleen Stakes at Monmouth Park on June 30, 1956. She had a four-length lead at the stretch call and was still edging away when she hit the finish line in 1:04, tying the track record for 5½ furlongs. In her next two outings, she enjoyed similar romps in the 6-furlong Arlington Lassie Stakes and the 5½ furlong Astoria Stakes before coming a cropper in the Princess Pat Stakes over a heavy surface that she seemed to dislike. Perhaps embarrassed by her fourth-place finish there, she finished up the season with two more wins, honing her speed in a 6-furlong allowance after a six-week layoff and then concluding her season over about 7 furlongs in the Alcibiades Stakes.

Like many another brilliant 2-year-old filly, Leallah was not the same at 3 as she had been at 2, though this may not have been entirely her fault. She was unable to return to the races until July of her 3-year-old season, suggesting significant illness or physical problems, and she did not recover her earlier form until October. That month, she finished second by a head to the classy Alanesian in a Belmont allowance race over 6 furlongs, then won a 6-furlong allowance at Keeneland and a 6½-furlong allowance at Churchill Downs before ending her season with an impressive win in the Falls City Handicap at a mile on November 2. She was off for another extended period before making her first start at 4, failed to win in three tries that year, and was retired.

Leallah produced 12 foals by a group of high-class sires and produced three stakes winners. The best of them was the Princequillo colt Go Marching, who proved to be a good turf runner and was the equivalent of a multiple graded stakes winner by modern standards. She also produced stakes-placed Table Play (by Round Table), who proved an influential sire in Argentina, and three of her daughters produced stakes winners.

Among those daughters was Tatallah, a multiple stakes-placed juvenile whose sire was two-time Argentine Horse of the Year 
Tatán, a horse that won against top-class rivals from 1000 meters (about 5 furlongs) to 3000 meters before becoming a good sire and broodmare sire. Tatallah's best winner was Grade 2-placed juvenile stakes winner Joi'ski (by Key to the Mint; dam of stakes winner Joi'ski Too, by Bold Bidder), and her daughter Haleallah (by Hawaii) produced 1982 Vosburgh Handicap (USA-G1) winner Engine One (by Our Michael) and 1997 Prix Messidor (FR-G3) winner Neuilly (by Trempolino).

Kashie West, Tatallah's 1982 daughter by Sir Ivor, won or placed in eight of her 12 starts and was a nice allowance filly. As a broodmare, her best runner was listed stakes-placed Echo Echo Echo (by 1990 Futurity Stakes, USA-G1, winner Eastern Echo), who in turn produced 2005 Stonerside Forward Gal Stakes (USA-G2) winner Letgomyecho (by Menifee). A half sister to juvenile stakes winner Soundwave (by Friends Lake), Letgomyecho produced Echo Zulu as her 12th foal, following 2017 Gotham Stakes (USA-G1) winner J Boys Echo (by Mineshaft) and 2020 H. Allen Jerkins Stakes (USA-G1) winner Echo Town (by Speightstown).

Although Leallah's line has not been devoid of horses that could compete well at 9 furlongs or more, this family has continued to lean toward speed, and the question that Echo Zulu will have to answer on May 6 is how much bottom Gun Runner has contributed to the mix. The champion will be dangerous regardless if she can get an uncontested lead, but it will be the final 100 yards of the Kentucky Oaks that tells the tale as to whether Echo Zulu is a brilliant sprinter-miler in the mold of her female family or whether she is truly her father's daughter as well as her mother's.




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Weekly Trivia Challenge for 3/25/2022

3/25/2022

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Who was the first filly to both start in the Kentucky Derby and to produce a Kentucky Derby starter?
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Mares on Monday: A Look Reveals Much to Love

3/21/2022

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The Grande Prémio Diana (Brazilian Oaks, BRZ-G1) on March 13 at Rio de Janeiro's Gávea course should perhaps have been retitled the "Grande Premio Agnes Gold." The late two-time Brazilian champion sire accounted for five of the 15 starters in the race, including the first four finishers. Pride of place in the group went to Look of Love, who outgamed High Wire to the winning post to take the 2000-meter event by a head.

A homebred who races for Stud Rio Dois Irmãos, Look of Love became the first stakes winner for her dam Mandjula, whose sire Roi Normand (by Exclusive Native) led the Brazilian general sire list and the Brazilian broodmare sire list five times each. The winner of the 1988 Sunset Handicap (BRZ-G1), Roi Normand is best remembered in North America as the sire of 2000 American champion older female Riboletta and multiple Grade 1 winner Redattore, both bred in Brazil and imported to the United States.

Mandjula herself became a Group stakes winner at 
Gávea at age 5, taking the 2011 Grande Prémio Adayr Eiras de Araujo (BRZ-G2) over 2000 meters and the Grande Prémio Euvaldo Lodi (BRZ-G3) over 1600 meters. She is a half sister to 2003 Grande Prémio Juliano Martins (BRZ-G1) winner Irving (by Beyton) and multiple Brazilian Group 2 winner Guardiola (by Choctaw Ridge). Her dam, Sea World, is a winning daughter of Midnight Tiger, a Group 2-placed son of The Minstrel who became an important sire of broodmares in Brazil, and is out of Jaywalk, by multiple Brazilian Group 2 winner Lunard. 

This female line reached Brazil via Jaywalk's dam Never Say VII, a daughter of 1954 English champion 3-year-old male Never Say Die and a half sister to 1975 Hungarian champion 2-year-old filly Hungary (by Red God) and minor American stakes winner Thunder of Zion (by Tumble Wind). Also a half sister to Rossaldene (by Mummy's Pet), the dam of English listed stakes winners Regiment (by Shaadi) and Cape Town (by Desert Style), Never Say VII is out of Palestra, a Palestine half sister to English juvenile stakes winner Harwyncyl (by Luminary II).

Look of Love's pedigree carries only one duplication within five generations, a 4x5 cross to Northern Dancer. This is nothing unusual nowadays, but it is worth noting that the crosses come through Northern Dancer's sons Northern Taste (winner of the 1974 Prix de la 
Forê
t and a 10-time champion sire in Japan) and The Minstrel (the 1977 English Horse of the Year and a good though not outstanding sire). Although these two horses differed in their racing proclivities, with Northern Taste preferring no more than a mile and The Minstrel proving quite adept over the European classic distance of 12 furlongs, they were similar in pedigree and physique: Both were maternal grandsons of Victoria Park, and both were smallish, rather chunky chestnuts liberally marked with white. Northern Dancer and Victoria Park were both products of E. P. Taylor's breeding program, and Agnes Gold carries another link to that program through his sire Sunday Silence, whose sire Halo was bred by Taylor and was produced from a half sister to the dam of Northern Dancer.

While Agnes Gold did his best racing over 1800 meters (about 9 furlongs), Look of Love has a distaff-side pedigree laced with stamina influences and should be one to look for if her connections elect to send her after more of the lucrative and prestigious prizes carded at 2000-2400 meters on the Brazilian racing calendar. With a Classic success already attached to her name, there is already plenty to like about Look of Love, and any future major wins---especially wins showcasing the gameness and determination she showed in the Diana---will only provide more to love about a talented young performer.
 



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Weekend Trivia Challenge for 3/18/2022

3/18/2022

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After failing to win during her racing career, the subject of this week's challenge got off to an inauspicious start to her breeding career as her first foal ended up being destroyed and her second was so undersized that it was not considered worth nominating to any important juvenile races. By the time she was 12, our heroine had also gone blind in one eye and suffered a nearly-fatal run-in with a tree in her paddock. Nonetheless, she survived and left a rich legacy behind her when she passed away in a ripe old age, having made significant contributions to five major breeding programs through her daughters and granddaughters. Who was she, and who were the breeders who were the major beneficiaries of her treasure trove?
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Mares on Monday: A Flying Start for Bleecker Street

3/14/2022

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On March 12, lightly raced Bleecker Street moved another notch up the class ladder by annexing the Hillsborough Stakes (USA-G2) at Tampa Bay Downs. Now 5-for-5, the 4-year-old Quality Road filly won the Endeavour Stakes (USA-G3) at the same course last out and franked that form in the Hillsborough with a powerful stretch run that left her rivals looking as if they had suddenly found themselves hitched to the eighth pole---and this on a course that jockey Hector Diaz Jr. said was softer than Bleecker Street really cares for. Given what she has accomplished thus far, it doesn't take a crystal ball to foresee that a crack at Grade 1 company is probably in Bleecker Street's future.

Owned by Peter Brant and trained by Chad Brown, Bleecker Street comes from a family in which marked success is far from unprecedented. She is a fifth-generation descendant of Flight Dancer (by Misty Flight x Courbette, by Native Dancer), a granddaughter of the great race mare and foundation mare Gallorette. A half sister to 1967 Jockey Club Cup winner and Irish St. Leger runner-up Dancing Moss, who later became a champion sire in Argentina, Flight Dancer was stakes-placed as a juvenile in England.

Flight Dancer produced two stakes winners during her broodmare career: Misty Gallore (by Halo), a tough multiple graded stakes winner on dirt who went on to produce the good Mr. Prospector stallion Silver Ghost, and Minstrella, the 1986 Irish champion 2-year-old filly and the first or second dam of five graded stakes winners. Further, Flight Dancer's success as a broodmare did not end with her stakes-winning daughters. Bred to Lyphard, she produced the 1988 filly Misty Dancer, a stakes producer who is the second dam of four Grade 1 winners including 2005 American Horse of the Year Saint Liam and the third dam of 2017 American Horse of the Year and 2021 American champion freshman sire Gun Runner.

Flight Dancer's only other daughter is Key to Flight, a daughter of 1972 American champion 3-year-old male Key to the Mint who did not live up to the standards set by her sisters. Unraced, she produced only one black-type runner, Grade 2-placed Levitation (by Raja Baba), whose primary distinction as a broodmare is her status as the second dam of multiple Group 1-placed Chilean Group 2 winner Tao Mina. Another daughter of Key to Flight, Key Flight (by 1983 American champion older male Bates Motel), did fairly well as a producer, her foals including Grade 1-placed stakes winner Key Hunter (by Jade Hunter; dam of 2007 Aqueduct Handicap, USA-G3, winner Liquor Cabinet, by Hennessy), Grade 3-placed listed stakes winner Hatfield (by Proud Citizen), and Cabo de Noche (by Cape Town), dam of multiple Grade 2 winner Pants on Fire (by Jump Start).

Key to Flight's last daughter was the winning Halo filly Trip Around Heaven, who produced 13 winners from 14 foals but none of particular distinction on the track although three were stakes-placed. The best on the track was 2009 Del Mar Oaks (USA-G1) runner-up Nan (by High Yield), the dam of Selene Stakes (CAN-G3) winner Power Gal (by Empire Maker). Nan's half sister Star of Atticus (by Atticus) was not quite as good on the track, placing in a listed event, but was superior as a broodmare, her six winners from six foals to race including 2015 Eddie Read Stakes (USA-G1) winner Gabriel Charles (by Street Hero).

The third stakes-placed filly out of Trip Around Heaven is Limoncella (by 2000 American champion older male Lemon Drop Kid), who placed in two modest stakes events as a juvenile and produced only one black-type runner, Lemon Liqueur (by the good Danzig horse Exchange Rate). Third in a restricted stakes as a juvenile, Lemon Liqueur produced Bleecker Street as her second foal. She has since produced the unraced 2020 filly Red Lemonade (by Always Dreaming) and a 2021 filly by Flatter before most recently being bred to Not This Time.

Like many modern American stakes winners, Bleecker Street is line bred to the great Native Dancer, primarily through his paternal grandson Mr. Prospector and his maternal grandson Northern Dancer. Her pedigree reveals crosses of 4x5x5 to Mr. Prospector, buttressed by an additional fifth-generation cross to Mr. Prospector's sire Raise a Native via Alydar (the sire of Quality Road's second dam), and 5x6x4x7 to Northern Dancer. This is not wildly uncommon in American breeding these days, and many a bad horse could claim similar distinction in its bloodlines. Nonetheless, in Bleecker Street, the best of her ancestry has clearly come together in a talented package, and that is all that can be asked as the result of any mating.

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Weekend Trivia Challenge for 3/11/2022

3/11/2022

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This champion of yesteryear certainly earned his oats with enough work for at least three of his modern counterparts put together. Not only did he make 19 starts during his busiest season, but in his "spare time" he was used as a work horse to encourage a lazy and cantankerous but talented stablemate into putting some effort into workouts. Remarkably, he finished the season sound and was able to keep racing the following year. Name him, and name the stablemate he was used to sharpen.
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Mares on Monday: Kathleen O. Looks Toward the Lilies

3/7/2022

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For most first-time racehorse owners, just getting a winner is a thrill like few others. For 83-year-old Pat Kearney of Winngate Stables, the thrill is far more than that. His first racehorse is the unbeaten Upstart filly Kathleen O., and on March 5, the filly put herself squarely in the picture for the Longines Kentucky Oaks (USA-G1) with an authoritative win in the Davona Dale Stakes Presented by FanDuel (USA-G2). Racing at the back of the pack early, Kathleen O. ran into traffic trouble going into the far turn. Once Javier Castellano tipped his mount out four-wide in upper stretch, though, the race was as good as over. Running her final quarter-mile in the neighborhood of :24.4, Kathleen O. forged to the front in a matter of strides and was simply kept about her business after that. Her efforts earned the Shug McGaughey trainee 50 points toward a starting slot in the Oaks and a 94 BRIS speed figure. Those who pay attention to such things will note that this is in the same ballpark with the exciting Honeybee Stakes (USA-G3) winner Secret Oath (see "Mares on Monday: No Secret Any More," February 28, 2022), who owns a top BRIS figure of 97.

Kathleen O. is from the second crop of Upstart (by the A.P. Indy horse Flatter), who won the 2015 Lambholm South Holy Bull Stakes (USA-G2) but was one of those frustrating horses who always seem to find one or two better than they when the biggest prizes are on the line, placing in six Grade 1 events. She is the first foal of of stakes-placed Quaver, whose sire Blame was the American champion older male of 2010 after defeating the great mare Zenyatta in that year's Breeders' Cup Classic (USA-G1).

Quaver was the only black-type runner from the four foals produced from her dam Skipper Tale (by Tale of the Cat), but the picture improves considerably at that point. A nice allowance-level filly, Skipper Tale is a full sister to 2007 Railbird Stakes (USA-G3) winner Ashley's Kitty and a three-quarters sister to multiple Grade 3 winner Heart Ashley (by Tale of the Cat's Grade 1-winning son Lion Heart), dam of multiple Japanese Group 3 winner Fiano Romano (by Fastnet Rock) and second dam of last year's Chandelier Stakes (USA-G2) winner, Ain't Easy (by Into Mischief). Skipper Tale is also a half sister to Gold Cup at Santa Anita (USA-G1) winner Cupid (by Tapit), who also collected three Grade 2 wins as a 3-year-old, and to listed stakes winner Indianapolis (by Medaglia d'Oro).

Skipper Tale and her siblings were produced from 2001 Railbird Stakes (USA-G2) runner-up Pretty 'n Smart, whose sire Beau Genius started 42 times and won a dozen stakes races---including the 1990 Philip H. Iselin Handicap (USA-G1)---before becoming a useful stallion. A half sister to multiple Grade 3 winner Hostess (by Chester House), Pretty 'n Smart is out of the Vice Regent mare Charge d'Affaires, whose female line traces back to the great handicap mare Gallorette.

Like many top American pedigrees nowadays, Kathleen O's background is steeped in line breeding to the great Native Dancer through his son Raise a Native (5x6x6x6x7) and his maternal grandson Northern Dancer (5x6x6x6x6x6). More immediately, she carries crosses of 4x5x5 to Raise a Native's son Mr. Prospector and 5x5 to Northern Dancer's son Vice Regent.

A leggy, gangly filly who still has some filling out to do, Kathleen O. has a long stride and lacks early speed. These characteristics force her into an off-the-pace running style that will leave her vulnerable to traffic jams. Nonetheless, she has so far had more than enough closing punch to dominate her opposition once in the clear and has proven a bit handier than her appearance might suggest, and heavy traffic is generally less of an issue in the Oaks than in the Kentucky Derby. The big filly will probably race in one more prep prior to the Oaks---McGaughey has indicated that he is leaning toward the Gulfstream Park Oaks (USA-G2) on April 2, though the Central Bank Ashland Stakes (USA-G1) on April 8 is also under consideration---and if she continues her winning ways, she will likely be among the favorites to wear the lilies on May 6.
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Weekend Trivia Challenge for 3/4/2022

3/4/2022

2 Comments

 
Albert "Pinky" Brown was one of the best-known American exercise riders of the 20th century, in no small part because of his association with Calumet Farm during its glory days. Because of defective vision, he never made the transition to "jockey," but he rode eight Kentucky Derby winners during the course of his career. Who was the first Kentucky Derby winner that he exercised?
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    I'm Avalyn Hunter, an author, pedigree researcher and longtime racing fan.

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