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Mares on Monday: Domestic Spending by a Foreign Princess

11/30/2020

In a tight finish, Domestic Spending captured his fourth win from five starts in November 28's Hollywood Derby (USA-G1). In doing so, he became the second North American Grade 1 winner for a burgeoning European family, that of Lucayan Princess, who may be on her way to becoming a modern matriarch.

Foaled in Ireland in 1983, Lucayan Princess is by the Hyperion grandson High LIne, a good staying horse who led the combined English/Irish broodmare sire list in 1998, and is out of Gay France, a mare sired during Sir Gaylord's sojourn in France. Gay France's pedigree shows a 4x4 cross to Admiral Drake, a champion sire and broodmare sire in France and one of the clutch of top sire sons produced by the great broodmare Plucky Liege.

Gay France was not much of a race mare, but she did produce two stakes winners in France. Her mating to High Line was an outcross with regard to Admiral Drake, but it resulted in inbreeding to two other important French horses: the broodmare La Diva, dam of the fine racer and sire Chanteur II and granddam of the equally accomplished Tanerko, and the first-rate racehorse and sire Djebel, both of which appear 4x5. The key to the structure of this pedigree is the granddams of Lucayan Princess: Her sire's dam Time Call is by Chanteur II out of the Djebel mare Aleria, while her maternal granddam Sweet and Lovely is by Tanerko out of a paternal granddaighter of Djebel.

Lucayan Princess improved on her dam both as a racer and as a producer. A listed stakes winner as a juvenile, she produced four Group stakes winners after her retirement to the paddocks. The best of the bunch were multiple Group 1 winners Warrsan (by Caerleon) and Luso (by Salse), with the latter including the classic Derby Italiano (ITY-G1) among his credits. Her other two Group winners were Group 1-placed, with Needle Gun (bu Sure Blade) scoring at the Group 2 level and Cloud Castle (by In the Wings) winning the Shadwell Stud Nell Gywn Stakes (USA-G3) as a 3-year-old. Lucayan Princess is also the dam of stakes-placed Luana (by Shaadi), dam of Group 3 winners Hattan (by Halling) and Tastahil (by Singspiel), and of Lunda (by Soviet Star), dam of multiple Group 3 winner Blue Monday (by Darshaan) and of Australian listed stakes winner Rugged Cross (by Cape Cross) and second dam of multiple Group 2 winner Mehmas. In addition, Lucayan Princess is the dam of Maskunah (by Sadler's Wells), dam of multiple Group 3 winner Laaheb (by Cape Cross), and of Mantesera (by In the Wings), dam of Group 3 winner Nideeb (by Exceed and Excel).

Cloud Castle was the best of Lucayan Princess' daughters on the race course and has also proved the most influential as a producer. All three of her stakes winners were fillies, and each has come up with a Group or graded winner. Listed winner Reverie Solitaire (by Nashwan) produced Royal Solitaire (by Shamardal), winner of the 2016 Badener Meile (GER-G2) and Group 1-placed in Germany. Group 3 winner Queen's Best (by King's Best) did still better, producing 2016 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (USA-G1) winner Queen's Trust (by Dansili. And listed winner Urban Castle (by Street Cry) produced Domestic Spending as her first foal.

Domestic Spending is a gelding, but Royal Solitaire is now a young broodmare, and her dam and a number of her sisters are still in production. Aside from those already mentioned, they include Sandaniya (by Machiavellian), dam of 2017 Fred Darling Stakes (ENG-G3) and Classic-placed Dabyah (by Sepoy), and Kaabari (by Seeking the Gold), second dam of 2000 Snow Fairy Stakes (IRE-G) winner Thundering Nights (by Night of Thunder). Thus, prospects appear bright for this family to keep churning out talented runners, and it would take only a relatively small step up in overall production for Lucayan Princess to be hailed as a true queen of her breed.

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Weekend Trivia Challenge for 11/27/2020

11/27/2020

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This Thoroughbred champion was the only non-human listed among Sports Illustrated's top 100 female athletes of the 20th century, Name her.

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Mares on Monday: From Argentina With Love

11/23/2020

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On November 21, Artie's Princess picked up her second stakes win and her first graded stakes victory in the Bessarabian Stakes (CAN-G2) at Woodbine. Showing admirable consistency, the 3-year-old daughter of We Miss Artie has now won five times and finished second once from seven starts.

Artie's Princess is a fifth-generation descendant of Taba, best known in North America as the dam of 1986 American champion older male Turkoman. There is a bit more to her story than that, however, beginning with her origins in Argentina. The champion 2-year-old filly of 1975/1976 in her native county, she trained on at 3 to win the 1976 Polla de Potrancas (Argentine One Thousand Guineas, ARG-G1), making her one of three Classic winners produced by mating the Round Table horse Table Play to her dam, Filipina. (The others were 1978 Argentine Quadruple Crown winner Telescópico and 1974 Polla de Potrillos (Argentine Two Thousand Guineas, ARG-G1, winner Telefónico.) Taba is also a full sister to Titania, dam of multiple Argentine Group 1 winner Cerbetana (by Cipayo), and to multiple stakes producer Telescópica, both the ancestresses of Argentine champions.

Taba produced one other stakes winner besides Turkoman, the Fluorescent Light horse Slow Fuse, but while two of her daughters produced stakes winners, neither seemed likely to carry on the family at more than a very modest level. That has changed thanks to Taba's stakes-winning granddaughter Now Dance (Sovereign Dancer x Now Go, by Exclusive Native), who produced listed stakes winners Timetobewild (by Time for a Change) and DanceroftheRealm (by King of Kings) as well as restricted stakes winner Touch Now (by Pleasant Tap). Still better, Now Dance has three daughters with graded stakes-winning granddaughters: Dancerofthelake (by Meadowlake), whose Group 1-placed Wild Event daughter Square Dance is the dam of Brazilian Group 3 winner Beach Dance (by Northern Afleet); Gambader (by Holy Bull), whose Mr. Greeley daughter Irish Connection is the dam of Grade 2 winner Irish Jasper (by First Defence); and the aforementioned Touch Now, whose line descends to Artie's Princess via her Stormy Atlantic daughter Stormkeeper.

Taba herself got a happy ending to her story, becoming one of the first mares accepted at Jeanne Mirabito's Our Mims Retirement Haven, There, she became the pasture buddy of My Turbulent Miss, dam of 1985 Breeders' Cup Turf (USA-G1) winner Prized, and the two old mares grazed and played and lazed in the sun together until they passed on within a few months of one another. Today the two are buried side by side, while other retired broodmares enjoy the pastures of Mirabito's legacy (Mirabito herself having died on August 5, 2020). And perhaps, as Artie's Princess and her "cousins" take their own turns in the paddocks, another champion will emerge to carry on bloodlines with a spark of Argentine fire.

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Weekly Trivia Challenge for 11/20/2020

11/20/2020

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Three-generation chains of male champions, while not common, are hardly unheard of. Three-generation chains of female champions are much rarer thanks to the fact that mares have far fewer foals than males. The trick has been done in Canada, where Classy 'n Smart (champion 3-year-old filly) foaled Dance Smartly (Canadian Horse of the Year), in turn the dam of Dancethruthedawn (Canadian champion 3-year-old filly). Can you name a similar three-generation chain of champion race mares in the United States? For purposes of this challenge, the championships earned by the granddam-dam-daughter chain may be in different divisions and may be by voting or by general acknowledgment of historians if the distaffer in question raced before 1936.

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Mares on Monday: Red Flag a Glowing Tribute to Top Bloodlines

11/16/2020

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The field for the Bob Hope Stakes (USA-G3) on November 15 may not have been as deep or classy as the one that contested the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, but winner Red Flag nonetheless fired a warning shot at other potential contenders for next year's Triple Crown events. In spite of running four-wide down the backstretch and around the turn, the son of 2016 Las Vegas Breeders' Cup Dirt MIle (USA-G1) winner Tamarkuz went past the leaders in a matter of strides and drew away easily down the stretch, leaving Grade 1-placed Grade 2 winner Weston and multiple Grade 1-placed Spielberg up the track. It was the first stakes victory for the colt after breaking his maiden in a 5.5 furlong turf race in his last outing and made him the first stakes winner for his freshman sire. If the ease with which he disposed of his rivals means anything, it will not be the last time the promising colt visits the winner's circle in a graded race.

Had the odds been placed on female families instead of past performance lines, Red Flag would probably not have been 10-1. He is a great-great-grandson of one of the greatest modern matrons in the American Stud Book, Glowing Tribute. A multiple Grade 2 winner on turf during her own racing days, Glowing Tribute was honored as the 1993 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year after producing five stakes winners, headed by 1993 Kentucky Derby (USA-G1) and Travers Stakes (USA-G1) victor Sea Hero (by Polish Navy) and multiple turf Grade 1 winner Hero's Honor. Her Grade 2-winning daughter Wild Applause (by Northern Dancer) became a first-rate broodmare in her own right, and another Grade 2-winning daughter, Glowing Honor (by Seattle Slew), is the third dam of 2014/2015 Chilean Horse of the Year Il Campione.

Not contented to rest on her laurels, Glowing Tribute produced two more daughters who won stakes after her selection as Broodmare of the Year. The elder, Coronation Cup (by Chief;s Crown), won the 1994 Nijana Stakes (USA-G3). The younger, Mackie (by Summer Squall), won the 1996 Busher Stakes (USA-G3) to become her dam's final stakes winner.

While not the equal of Wild Applause as a producer, Mackie did become the dam of Grade 2 winner Mr. Mellon (by Red Ransom), a successful sire in India, and Japanese Group 3 winner Seeking the Best (by Seeking the Gold). She is also the dam of Montfleur (by Sadler's Wells), whose German-bred son Mawingo (by Tertullian) is the winner of the 2012 Doomben Cup (AUS-G1).

Beaucette, Mackie's 2000 daughter by Mr. Prospector, was stakes-placed as a 4-year-old. The dam of eight winners from 11 named foals, she has yet to come up with a stakes winner, but her daughter Surrender (by Stormy Atlantic) is making up for that deficiency. Red Flag is Surrender's fourth foal, and the mare previously produced listed juvenile stakes winner Surrender Now (by Morning Line).

The big questions now facing Red Flag are how well he will train on and how far he will want to go. At the least, a mile should be within his scope, though his 4x3 inbreeding to both Storm Cat and Mr. Prospector suggests that brilliance may be more his calling card than stamina. Still, his pedigree includes horses like Lemon Drop Kid, Seattle Slew, Summer Squall, and Graustark, all of which indicate at least the possibility of more staying power than might be suspected on the surface. And if Red Flag turns out to be "just" a fine sprinter or miler? There are far worse tributes to his fine bloodlines than that, which would be more than most horses ever achieve..

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Weekend Trivia Challenge for 11/13/2020

11/13/2020

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The Domino male line wielded influence greatly out of proportion to its small numbers during the first half of the 20th century but has waned steadily since. Who was the last male-line descendant of Domino to earn a sire championship in a major racing nation, and when and where did he gain his honors?

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Mares on Monday: What's Next for Monomoy Girl?

11/9/2020

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On November 7, Monomoy Girl left American racing as its unquestioned queen, capping a remarkable comeback from physical issues with her second victory in the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (USA-G1). On November 8, the great mare became the queen of the sales ring as well, topping Fasig-Tipton's "Night of the Stars" at US$9.5 million on a bid from Spendthrift Farm. Her price tied her with Songbird as the third highest-priced mare ever sold through this venue, though well below 2007 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year Better Than Honour's US$14 million price tag at the 2008 sale and also below the US$10 million paid for 2011 American Horse of the Year Havre de Grace at the 2012 sale.

Will Monomoy Girl be worth such an enormous price? Time will tell, though the odds are not in her favor; even among the top-producing and top-performing mares that have fetched multimillion dollar prices at the "Night of the Stars," more are disappointments or at best modest successes than future Broodmares of the Year or breed-shaping matriarchs. Better Than Honour, for instance, already had her best producing days behind her when she topped the 2008 sale, and Havre de Grace has yet to produce anything but relatively ordinary winners in spite of visiting sires of the standing of Tapit and War Front.

What Monomoy Girl does have going for her besides her own unquestioned ability and certain access to the best sires available---her first mate may very well be Spendthrift's champion sire Into Mischief---is a connection to a good if not spectacular family. A half sister to 2020 Risen Star Stakes (USA-G2) winner Mr. Monomoy (by Palace Malice), she is by 2012 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (USA-G1) winner Tapizar (by Tapit) out of the winning Henny Hughes mare Drumette, whose Dynaformer half brother Drum Major won the 2006 Knickerbocker Handicap (USA-G3).

Drumette, in turn, is out of multiple listed stakes winner Endless Parade, whose sire Williamstown (by Seattle Slew) won the 1993 Withers Stakes (USA-G2). A half sister to Mexican stakes winner Winning Limit (by Honour and Glory), Endless Parade is a daughter of the Saratoga Six mare Mnemosyne, whose half sister Afleet Floozie (by Afleet) won the listed San Houston Distaff Handicap at age 6. The next dam in the tail-female lineage is stakes-placed My Lady Love (by Smarten), a daughter of 1965 Adirondack Stakes winner Lady Dulcinea and, thus, a half sister to 1980 American champion 2-year-old filly Heavenly Cause (by Grey Dawn II), 1983 Monmouth Oaks (USA-G2) winner Quixotic Lady (by Quadratic), and stakes winner Jacques Who (by Grey Dawn II).

While not on a par with the greatest families of the American Turf, this is one that has produced its share of top-flight individuals even when not bred to the best sires of its time. Given the quality of stallions that Monomoy Girl is likely to visit, she will have every possible opportunity to come up with high-class runners and producers. Will she actually do so? Only time will tell.

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An Authentic Finish to a Strange Year

11/8/2020

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Even with the camera focused on the racing action, the silence from the stands at Keeneland created an eerie counterpoint to the thunder of hooves and gave a surreal quality to this year's Breeders' Cup. As has been the case for most of the racing year, precautions taken because of the COVID-19 pandemic limited the live audience to a pathetic few hundreds, whose yells of encouragement for their favorites echoed hollowly in empty space that would normally have been packed by thousands.

Even so, the horses neither know nor care about COVID, and their displays of speed, power, courage, and beauty were a reassuring point of normalcy in the midst of the bizarreness. None embodied those attributes better than Authentic, who topped off an admirably consistent season with a front-running, track record-setting performance in the Breeders' Cup Classic. The first horse to run a mile and a quarter in under two minutes at Keeneland (he finished in 1:59.19, breaking American Pharoah's 2015 record of 2:00.07), he almost certainly sealed titles for himself as champion 3-year-old male and Horse of the Year.

Two other championships were probably locked up in the Classic. First, Authentic gave his sire Into Mischief an insurmountable lead in the 2020 sire standings. Second, a second-place finish after a wide trip will probably be enough for clinch the case for Improbable as the best of this season's older males.

While Monomoy Girl's second Distaff win probably will not be enough to unseat Authentic as the king of this year's racing, it was nonetheless a magnificent performance by the undoubted champion older female and may well make her an Eclipse Award finalist in the Horse of the Year category as well, no small honor in itself. The only blemish on that race was Swiss Skydiver's stumble out of the gate, which took her completely out of her game and turned perhaps the most anticipated matchup of the year into a might-have-been.

Both the Juvenile Colts and Juvenile Fillies proved the coronations for worthy champions, as previous Grade 1 winners Essential Quality and Vequist scored clear-cut victories. On the other side, the results of the Turf, the Filly and Mare Turf, and the Mile left the male and female turf categories in something of a muddle, with Rushing Fall (who was barely caught over a distance probably a little longer than she best likes) and the erratic but clearly capable Channel Maker probably about the best of the American runners in these two divisions. The male sprinter division is likewise tangled, with voters having to weigh the brilliance of Vekoma's earlier campaign with the popular sentiment for the veteran Sprint winner, Whitmore.

The biggest snarl of all may be that surrounding the female sprinter and 3-year-old filly divisions. In spite of the cloud hanging over her head because of repeated drug positives, there is little doubt that Gamine is the fastest filly in the country around one turn, and without that cloud, voters would have a hard time weighing the merits of her brilliance over shorter distances against the consistency and grit shown by Swiss Skydiver over routes prior to the Breeders' Cup. With it? Gamine will probably still take the female sprinter division unless something untoward turns up yet again, but given that her race in the Distaff was a throw-out, Swiss Skydiver's Preakness win will probably giver her the nod in the 3-year-old filly category.

COVID or no COVID, the Breeders' Cup horses delivered as they usually do, serving up two fine afternoons of racing. And in the end, they left us with an unquestioned champion, which in an uncertain year, was authentically needed.

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Weekend Trivia Challenge for 11/6/2020

11/6/2020

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What horse was awarded the highest Longines World's Best Racehorse ranking for a Breeders' Cup Classic win and in what year?

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Mares on Monday: The White Ladies of Japan

11/2/2020

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White horses have had a mystique surrounding them throughout recorded history. Traditionally the mounts of conquerors and deities, they have also been sacrifices to the gods and emblems of both fertility and death. Even in the hard-nosed world of Thoroughbred racing, white horses garner attention greatly disproportionate to both their tiny numbers and their racing accomplishments thanks to their striking appearance.

To date, white Thoroughbreds have generally been more noted for their beauty than their racing ability, but while white Thoroughbreds in North America have yet to come up with a major winner, a Japanese family of "white ladies" may have produced its best representative yet in Sodashi, who won the Artemis Stakes (JPN-G3) on October 31 and had previously won the Sapporo Nisai Stakes (JPN-G3). Unbeaten in three starts, Sodashi already has a sizable fan base in Japan and will undoubtedly be watched with fervent interest as she continues her racing career.

The source of white coats in Thoroughbreds is mutations to the KIT gene, which have cropped up as spontaneous changes in the offspring of nonwhite parents. In Sodashi's case, the mutation (W14) arose in her granddam Shirayukihime, a white Japanese-bred produced from the union of Sunday Silence (a dark bay or brown with modest white markings) with the Topsider mare Wave Wind (also a dark bay or brown) and is completely separate from the W2, W5, and W22 mutations that led to the best-known American groups of white or white-spotted horses.

Aside from tiny numbers, one disadvantage white Thoroughbreds have generally had in trying to come up with good racehorses is that most of them have sprung from bloodlines rather unlikely to produce notable racers of any color. Shirayukihime was an exception to that rule. Sired by the most dominant stallion in Japanese history, she came of good bloodlines on the dam's side as well. While Wave Wind never raced, her sire Topsider was a good sire son of Northern Dancer, and her dam Storm and Sunshine (by 1979 American champion sprinter Star de Naskra) won the 1986 Test Stakes (USA-G2) and Post-Deb Stakes (USA-G3) before producing 2001 Bel Air Handicap (USA-G2) winner Smile Again, listed stakes winner Halo Sunshine, and restricted stakes winner Montecito. Both the last two named horses were multiple Grade 2-placed, and Montecito is the dam of Group 3-placed Irish listed stakes winner Bunairgead.

Shirayukihime managed only one third-place finish from nine starts, but her bloodlines were nonetheless good enough to make her a decent broodmare prospect even aside from interest in perpetuating her unusual coloration. Thus, all her 11 named foals were sired by high-class racehorses. 10 of the 11 were white, and six of those white foals were winners. The best of the group was Yukichan. A daughter of 2001 Japanese champion dirt horse Kurofune (a gray), Yukichan won three races that were accounted as Group stakes by Japanese standards and listed stakes by international standards. She has produced three winners thus far, and her eldest daughter Shiroinger (a white by Harbinger) is the dam of 2020 Kokura Nisei Stakes (JPN-G3) winner Meikei Yell (a bay by Mikki Isle). Shirakayuhime is also the dam of Marshmallow (a white full sister to Yukichan), whose first foal is the white King Kamehameha colt Hayayakko, winner of the 2019 Leopard Stakes (JPN-G3).

Hayayakko may be the first white horse to win a race accounted as a Group stakes by international standards, and Sodashi is bred on the reverse cross to that colt, as she is by Kurofune out of Buchiko (white), by King Kamehameha (the champion Japanese 3-year-old male of 2004 and a two-time Japanese champion sire) out of Shirayukihime. Thus, Sodashi was bred on good racing lines regardless of color, and her successes to date are by no means a fluke.

Top Japanese horses have proven themselves well up to international standard during the last few decades, so it may be only a matter of time before Sodashi or another white member of her burgeoning family steps outside Japan to test the competition in North America or Europe. In the meantime, look for the descendants of Shirayukihime to continue gracing Japanese racing with their beauty---and more than a little talent.

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