Running Rough Shod

Fasig-Tipton in February

2012-02-11T12:58:00.001-05:00

The weather during the Fasig-Tipton February sale is often snowy, icy, and miserable. We were lucky to enjoy a day of sunshine and blue skies this year.

Here are a few pictures from last Monday’s sale:

A three-year-old Perfect Soul colt gets tidied up before a show.

He doesn't seem to think much of the beauty salon.

Showing to a prospective buyer.

Nice teeth!

A winning four-year-old colt by Encosta de Lago.

A spirited filly coming back to the barns after going through the sale ring.

Everybody oohs and aahs over the foals. This is a 10-day-old Old Fashioned colt.

Four-day-old Tale of Ekati filly.

Taking a newborn foal through the sale ring is never an easy task, but this Tale of Ekati filly is handling herself with aplomb.

Sold!

Unusual Path to Acclamation

2012-01-17T19:55:00.015-05:00

The 1990 Nureyev-Rossard colt as a yearling.

Havre de Grace, Zenyatta, Rachel Alexandra, Azeri, Lady’s Secret, All Along, Moccasin, Busher, and Twilight Tear aren’t the only female Horses of the Year that have made their mark in the United States. Another filly Horse of the Year, Rossard, is a most unusual source of stakes winners in this country, unusual because she carries a quaint country code after her name: (DEN) for Denmark, where she was foaled in 1980. Her grandson, Acclamation, picked up an Eclipse Award last night as 2011 champion older male.

Rossard had been an exceptional runner in Scandinavia. In 1983, she won the Denmark Derby, Swedish Derby, Danish Oaks, Swedish Oaks, Danish St. Leger and the Danish 1,000 Guineas for trainer Hans Adielsson. The filly won all Danish classics that season bar the 2,000 Guineas. She was named Horse of the Year in Sweden, as well as champion three-year-old filly in both Denmark and Sweden.

She made eight starts the following season in North America, for Catherine T. Koffend and trainer Evan S. Jackson, winning three times, including the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Handicap at Belmont Park under Laffit Pincay Jr.

Rossard was a daughter of Swedish St. Leger winner Glacial, a Danish-bred son of Pardal. Pardal, a full brother (by Pharis) to Arc winner Ardan, had won the Jockey Club Stakes, Princess of Wales’s Stakes, Lowther Stakes, and the Great Yorkshire Stakes, all in England. Her dam was the British-bred Peas-Blossom, who was exported to Denmark after she had failed to win on the racecourse, a daughter of the Paul Mellon-bred stakes winner Midsummer Night. Rossard’s was a stout pedigree, and unheard of bloodlines in North America.

Having said that, the success of this family is not unprecedented on the continent. This is the same female family as 1986 Canadian Broodmare of the Year Loudrangle. Light of Day (by Hyperion), Rossard’s third dam, was also the third dam of Loudrangle, who produced 1986 Canadian Horse of the Year Ruling Angel – another female Horse of the Year! – and 1987 Canadian champion Tilt My Halo, and was granddam of two more Canadian champions: 2004 Horse of the Year Soaring Free, and 1988 champion three-year-old colt Regal Intention.

Rossard was retired to stud following her lone season of racing in North America, and she was subsequently bred to dual Arc winner Alleged. John T.L. Jones Jr. of Walmac Int’l purchased her from the 1985 Keeneland November sale consignment of Pegasus Stud for $300,000.

Crystal Springs Joint Venture and Jones (in partnership with Red McCombs one year) bred the mare’s first three foals: a 1986 colt by Alleged (Pitchfork); 1988 filly by Nureyev (Dot Dot Dash); and 1989 filly by Miswaki (Danish Prospector).

With three foals on the ground – one of which, Pitchfork, had raced, managing just a placing – Crystal Springs and Jones put Rossard, in foal to Walmac’s flagship stallion Nureyev, through the 1989 Keeneland November sale, where Jones bought out his partner for $320,000, probably more for the valuable Nureyev foal in utero than for the mare herself.

Nureyev, sire of Unusual Heat.

Rossard foaled a stout, near-black colt on January 1, 1990. Jones bred the mare back to Nureyev’s son Stately Don and sold her to Kirsten Rausing – the Swedish doyenne of Newmarket-based Lanwades Stud in England – for $55,000 at the Keeneland November sale.

A skittish Unusual Heat meeting me (my arm) for the first time.

Unusual Heat with his best childhood friend, Julie's Jazz.

When the Nureyev colt was a yearling, Walmac offered him at the now-defunct Keeneland July sale, where he was not sold for $185,000. A year later, Jones’s Two Creek Ranch consigned him to a two-year-olds-in-training sale, selling him to The Oaks (Dr. Thomas T.S. Liang) for $250,000, and he was subsequently exported to Ireland and sent to the Curragh yard of trainer Dermot Weld.

The colt, named Unusual Heat, was moderately successful, winning four-of-ten starts from two to four in Ireland. He won three Listed stakes races, two at a mile and one at nine furlongs, and was third in the Group 3 Concorde S.

Owner Liang sent the horse to Richard Mandella in California, where he made his first start as a six-year-old, debuting in an allowance at Santa Anita. He was a half-length second to stakes winner Nonproductiveasset, who had finished second in the Strub Stakes-G1 two years prior. Unusual Heat’s next race, another allowance, saw him run third – a length and a neck behind 1995 Breeders’ Cup Turf-G1 winner Northern Spur (Ire) and Grade 2 winner Wavy Run (Ire).

Encouraged by Unusual Heat’s ability to hang with the big boys, Mandella ran him (along with a Grade 1 winner he trained, Atticus) in a minor stakes race at Hollywood Park, but Unusual Heat could only finish fifth, one place behind Atticus. Fifteen days later, on June 10, 1996, Unusual Heat was entered in a claiming race, which he won under regular rider Laffit Pincay Jr. – who had guided Rossard to her Flower Bowl victory.

The real winner that day was Barry Abrams and the Auerbach family, although it would be some time yet before they realized the full extent of it. They (along with Team Green and Wolkoff, et al) claimed him for $80,000, beating out trainer Mike Mitchell in the shake. Under Chris Antley (the only time Pincay did not ride him Stateside), he next ran sixth of seven in the Grade 2 Shoemaker Breeders’ Cup Mile S. (six days after the claim), followed by another win in the claiming ranks, for $125,000, after which a tendon injury that failed to heal properly in eight months’ time forced his retirement.

A deal to sell him to an Argentine farm fell through, and his owners boldly thought they had no other option and concluded, “Why not stand him ourselves?”

Why not, indeed.

Unusual Heat duly rewarded their faith in him by quickly producing top-quality runners, despite starting off with a meager-sized first crop of 15 foals, two of whom would go on to be stakes winners. He has been the leading sire in California from 2008-2011, and sired the newly minted Eclipse Award winner Acclamation, who won three Grade 1 stakes last year and one in 2010.

Other top sons and daughters of Unusual Heat are Grade 1 winners Golden Doc A, The Usual Q. T., Unusual Suspect, Grade 2 winners Burns (who sadly passed away at Santa Anita last year), Lethal Heat, Pretty Unusual, and Tucked Away, and Grade 3 winner Lightmyfirebaby. Among his other stakes winners (24 in total) are Grade 1-placed Bel Air Sizzle and Grade 2-placed Spend it All Baby. Many of these, although not Acclamation, raced as homebreds for the Auerbachs and were trained by Abrams. Acclamation was bred by Old English Rancho, where Unusual Heat stood before moving to Harris Farms prior to the 2011 breeding season, and trained by Don Warren on behalf of E.W. “Bud” and Judy Johnston (of Old English Rancho) and Peter and Mary Hilvers.

(Click here to go to Unusual Heat’s website.)

As it turned out, from thirteen named foals out of Rossard, Unusual Heat was the only one who was any count on the racetrack. But his older full sister, Dot Dot Dash, produced multiple stakes winner Dash of Humor (by Distorted Humor), dam of 2011 stakes winner Lil Bit O’Fun (by Langfuhr); and stakes-placed Two Dot Slew (by Evansville Slew), dam of 2011 stakes winner Angelica Zapata (by Sharp Humor).

Stakes producer Dot Dot Dash, as a two-year-old.

Dot Dot Dash, a full sister to Unusual Heat, and a very different physical type to him.

Danish Prospector, the Miswaki filly out of Rossard, is granddam of stakes winner Three’s a Crowd (by Ecton Park). Notice that three of the four stakes winners under daughters of Rossard are by Forty Niner-line sires!

Rossard produced her last foal, for Tim Holland, in 2002. The mare was found dead of old age in her paddock at Huntertown Farm in Paris, Kentucky, in March of 2005, at the age of 25.

As a sidenote to this blog post, I knew Rossard, as well as Dot Dot Dash, Danish Prospector, and Unusual Heat as youngsters. I don’t remember much of Rossard physically except that I think she was plain and not a big horse, nor do I recall her personality. (I would scan in a photo if the entire R section of my filed pictures hadn’t disappeared.) She shared her paddock with Parrish Princess, the dam of champion Princess Rooney and a Nureyev filly (Julie’s Jazz) who was Unusual Heat’s playmate.

Danish Prospector was the first horse I ever showed at a yearling sale, at Keeneland in July of 1990. I was paired up with her because she was small, especially for a foal of January 7, and the thought was that she would look less tiny next to an equally small me. I well remember a British stud manager inspecting the plain bay filly and saying to me, “Even with you holding her, she’s still small.” My confidence was quite shaken!

"E.T." (and the gray tail of Parrish Princess).

A year later, during a summer vacation from high school, I worked in the yearling barn with Unusual Heat. I had also known him as a foal, when one of the farmhands nicknamed him “E.T.” because he thought the marking on the colt’s face was in the shape of Spielberg’s martian. As a yearling, the Rossard colt, as he was then known, was not my favorite to exercise: he was very thick – a tank – and always had some fancy footwork with undiscriminating, rather violent placement of his shod feet, but occasionally I ended up having to turn him out. One night, he stomped on me so hard I thought my little toe was severed. I managed to get him to his paddock, then hobbled back to the barn to take off my shoe and sock to see the damage. My toe was smashed but, I was happy to note, still attached to my foot. To this day, there’s a bump on it, which of course now I wear with pride.

A tank, after being bought back in July of his yearling year.

Who would have ever thought that the U.S.’s breeding industry’s most influential female Horse of the Year of the last 40 years (not counting Havre de Grace, Zenyatta, and Rachel Alexandra, who haven’t produced foals yet) would be a Danish-bred, primarily Scandinavian-raced, one?

Royal Delta at Keeneland

2011-11-08T18:03:00.002-05:00

Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic winner Royal Delta sold through Chanteclair Farm for $8,500,000 to Ben Leon’s Besilu Stables at Keeneland this afternoon. Besilu has horses with Todd Pletcher, so there’s speculation that she may be transferred from trainer Bill Mott’s barn to Pletcher to continue her racing career. For owner/breeder Palides Investments N.V., Inc. and Mott, the four-year-old daughter of Empire Maker and Delta Princess also won the TVG Alabama S.-G1, Black-Eyed Susan-G2, was second in the Beldame Invitational S.-G1, and third in the TVG Coaching Club American Oaks-G1.

Havre de Grace at Keeneland

2011-10-24T14:02:00.004-04:00

This morning, Fox Hill Farms’ Horse of the Year candidate Havre de Grace breezed at Keeneland in preparation for the Breeders’ Cup Classic against the colts at Churchill Downs on Saturday, November 6th.

It was my first time seeing the four-year-old filly, and I was impressed by her professional attitude and the ease and fluidity of her long stride. She covered five furlongs in :58 3/5, the second fastest of 14 horses to work the distance on the day.

Cindy Jones, wife of trainer Larry, leads Havre de Grace on to the track.

Galloping around the turn well in hand before beginning her timed work.

The second time around, breezing, under jockey Gabriel Saez.

She really stretches out.

Coming off the track after the breeze.

Clydesdales, Clydesdales, CLYDESDALES!

2011-10-16T10:29:00.020-04:00

The gorgeous Budweiser Clydesdales were at Keeneland this week in preparation for their annual parade on the racetrack. This particular traveling team -- one of three that sends ten horses on the road in their high-tech semi-trucks ten months a year -- is from Merrimack, New Hampshire. The beauties made their appearance yesterday, on the undercard of the Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup S.-G1, following the second race.

We wandered over to Barn 1, the Clydesdales’ home when they visit Keeneland, a few minutes before noon and were treated to the unloading of the rig and the harnessing of the geldings. The process took about 35 minutes from the time the first horse, Gregg (or Mitch?), was out of his stall until the last one, the lead horse on the left, was hitched up, then additional time to get the reins in order and whatever other finishing touches.

By the time the eight-horse, two-driver, one-dog team stepped on to the Polytrack (which, as a synthetic surface, makes the rig much harder for the horses to pull), it was a good two hours after Gregg (or Mitch) had stood so patiently in the shedrow getting brushed. This, for just a few minutes parading in front of the grandstand and clubhouse! I missed the show, but I stayed long enough to watch the team clop, or rather, CLOP!, between the barns to a chorus of excited whinnies and dainty Thoroughbred heads poking out of every occupied stall. At two o’clock, from the barn where I was with Nereid and Star Billing (who later ran third and sixth, respectively, in the Queen Elizabeth), I heard the crowd cheering for these beautiful, gentle giants over the beat of the Budweiser jingle, “Here Comes the King,” composed by Steve Karmen in 1971.

It gets me every time.

Three men manipulate the 8,000 pound rig out of the semi.

Moving the rig into place.

The right wheel horse, Gregg (or Mitch?), waiting to get the dust knocked off before he is harnessed.

Gregg (or Mitch).

Mitch (or, of course, Gregg), the left wheel horse.

The first horse -- we'll go with Gregg -- is in place. The pair closest to the rig are chosen for strength.

Mitch in his harness, ribbons billowing in the wind.

The equipment is cleaned and polished daily.

I don't know this one's name, but isn't he a cutie?

Mitch and Gregg spend more time harnessed than any other pair in the team.

One of the two drivers (he later changed into a green suit) holds a bridle and waits for another gelding to suit up.

The first step is to put on the collar.

Then the halter comes off and the bridle with blinders goes on.

Buckling up the surcingle.

The leather gear is hooked up under their bobbed and beribboned tails.

In just a few minutes, the 130-pound gear is on the gelding.

Imagine having to keep these feathers clean!

Four butts in a row.

The parking brake holding the 8,000 pound rig with its eight two-ton horses.

It's Brewer! He turns a year old next week.

After the full team was hitched up, this guy spent a long time configuring these reins -- eight individual reins, weighing approximately 40 pounds that is more like 75 pounds with the tension. He handed them to the driver very carefully.

Heading up through the kitchen to the gap leading to the track at Keeneland Race Course.

Brewer gets a ride behind the team. The final detail, he gets lifted up on the wagon at showtime.

It's Queen Elizabeth day at Keeneland

2011-10-15T10:23:00.000-04:00

The Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Stakes this afternoon is shaping up to be a very good race. Here are some of the contenders:

Summer Soiree galloping on Friday.

Winter Memories out for a graze on Friday.

Together on October 8, when she ran second in the First Lady S.

Grade 1 winner Nereid schooling.

Nereid

Grade 3 winner Star Billing.

Star Billing.

John Shirreffs and Tiger.

Tiger.

No mention of Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S.-G1 should be complete without a visit from the Queen, Zenyatta.

A few more shots from Keeneland

2011-10-11T15:25:00.006-04:00

Stakes-placed Rescue Squad coming off the track after morning training.

Above and below, breeder/owner/trainer Bart Evans shows his affection for his multiple Graded stakes-winning mare Wasted Tears ($941,463).

Barbara the horse identifier reading a lip tattoo in the paddock.

Here Comes Frazier, the Kenny McPeek-trained colt who swerved into the rail, and catapulted rider Julien Leparoux clear over the rail, when a Bourbon Stakes victory was within his grasp.

Flaxman Holdings' Aruna, trained by Graham Motion, minutes before winning the Spinster.

Protesting, granddaughter of My Flag and great-granddaughter of Personal Ensign, on her toes before the Spinster as jockey Johnny V, trainer Shug McGaughey, and assistant trainer Buzz Tenney look on.

Protesting, protesting.

Spinster winner Aruna leading second-place finisher Pachattack down the stretch.

The Spinster finish, from Aruna in first to the gray Tapitsfly in last.

Photos from Keeneland's opening day

2011-10-07T20:40:00.007-04:00

I took waaay too many photos, but here are some of my favorites from opening day at Keeneland:

Johnny V prepares to hop on Stephanie's Kitten on their way to winning the Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades S.

The outrider ponied the 7 horse, Second Street City, from the paddock for the 4th. The three-year-old filly subsequently won the race.

Millionaire and two-time Grade 1 winner Switch is STUNNING.

Aikenite, Grade 2 winner.

Take Charge Indy, entrant in Saturday's Grade 1 Dixiana Breeders' Futurity. He's a son of Take Charge Lady, who won two Grade 1s at Keeneland.

Snow Top Mountain, Keertana's stakes-winning younger half-sister.

He's out of focus but I still love this picture of Ron McAnally with his Grade 1 winner Eclair de Lune.

Billy Koch of Little Red Feather Racing loves on Egg Drop as she gets saddled for the Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades.

It's opening day of the fall season at Keeneland

2011-10-07T12:17:00.004-04:00

Just one hour away until Keeneland kicks off its’ 75th anniversary fall meet!

Fall barn scene at Keeneland.

Two-year-old filly Tu Endie Wei has made the trek from Canada to run in today's Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades S. Trained by Reade Baker, she is 2-for-2, both stakes wins.

Tu Endie Wei.

Group 3 winner Theyskens' Theory (trained by Shug McGaughey), cross-entered in the G1 First Lady S. on Saturday and the G1 Spinster S. on Sunday.

Wasted Tears (Bart Evans) grazing the day before her scheduled start in the G1 First Lady S.

Together (a daughter of Galileo), over from Ireland for Aidan O'Brien. The three-year-old finished second in two Classics this year, the English 1,000 Guineas and Irish 1,000 Guineas. She, too, runs in the First Lady on Saturday.

Shotgun Gulch, winner of April's Grade 1 Vinery Madison S., switching leads on the track at Keeneland. Oklahoman C.R. Trout bred, owned, and trains this filly, who runs in the Thoroughbred Club of America S.-G2 on Saturday.

Aruna (trained by Graham Motion) galloping at Keeneland. She runs in the G1 Spinster S. on Sunday.

Aruna.

Pachattack, European filly who was 2nd in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign H. at Saratoga in her last start. The Gerard Butler-trainee starts in the G1 Spinster.

Grade 2 winner Well Monied, another Spinster entrant, is in town from California for trainer Howie Zucker.

Random horses working in tandem over the training track.

Down at Old Del Mar

2011-08-27T10:37:00.004-04:00

No complaints about this view of the races! Thanks to Bob Feld for the margarita.

The worst thing about going to Del Mar, is leaving Del Mar. Ten minutes before I left for the airport to return home, I was in a hammock enjoying a cool ocean breeze and this view, so you can just imagine the willpower it took to get up:

View from a barn hammock, snapped with my iPhone. Forty minutes later, I was standing in my socks waiting with a few hundred people to go through airport security.

But as always, it was wonderful to be there, even for a whistle-stop tour that allowed for just one day of racing. And after my “work” was done, I had a few free hours to spend with friends on the backside the morning I left, which made the aggravation of one missed connection and one nearly missed connection -- we pulled in at the gate with ten minutes for me to change terminals -- in three days’ time, and the misery of getting sick (which I’m really feeling today) in the process, worthwhile.

It was overcast on both mornings at Del Mar so I missed getting pictures of some good horses and deleted blurry photos of others, but here are some:

My first stop off the plane was to see old friends, equine and human. Here are two of them: Grade 1 winner Harmonious with her groom Mario behind her. Look at those great dapples!

Grade 2 winner The Factor schooling in the paddock ahead of Sunday's Pat O'Brien S.-G1.

Grade 1 winner and Pacific Classic contender Game On Dude schooling.

Grade 2 winner Banned, trained by Tom Proctor. iPhone picture.

Unraced two-year-old El Corredor filly Zella (Jacqueline up) accompanied by John Shirreffs on the pony.

Del Mar Mile-G2 entrant Mr. Commons on the track.

Mr. Commons (Max up).

Mr. Commons cooling off...

...and hamming it up.

Harmonious and Max heading to the track on Thursday morning.

Eblouissante (held by Bruce) about to get her feet trimmed by Tom Halpenny (behind).

Another of Eblouissante, Zenyatta's two-year-old half-sister by Bernardini.

Grade 1 winner Nereid.

Tiz Golden, a Tiznow in today for Ron Ellis. I love his markings.

Ultimate Decision, a Rock Hard Ten three-year-old running in a maiden special weight today for Ron Ellis.

Grade 1 winner Stately Victor about to leave for a pre-Pacific Classic workout.

Recent maiden special weight winner Drill, a son of Lawyer Ron trained by Bob Baffert.

Roger Attfield's Grade 3 winner Don Cavallo, another Pacific Classic horse.

Group 1 success for US-based son of Sunday Silence [with video]

2011-08-21T11:08:00.026-04:00

Walmac Farm’s Japanese-bred first-season sire Hat Trick had his first Group 1 winner today when his undefeated nearly-black colt Dabirsim (out of Rumored, by Royal Academy) was an impressive winner of the 6-furlong Prix Morny at Deauville.

Hat Trick, whose dam is the speedy Grade 2-winning Lost Code filly Tricky Code, is the only Group 1/Grade 1-winning son of Sunday Silence standing stud outside of Japan during the Northern Hemisphere breeding season. He scored in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile-G1 in (where else) Hong Kong and the Mile Championship-G1 in Japan, both at a mile, as a four-year-old. (Grade 1 winner Tale of Ekati is the only other G1 connection to Sunday Silence standing in North America: he is out of a mare by Sunday Silence.) Hat Trick is represented by four winners from seven starters to date from his 99 two-year-olds.

Below is footage of the Prix Morny. Bred in France, Dabirsim is owned by Simon Springer, trained by Christophe Ferland, and ridden by Frankie Dettori. He was sold by his breeder Mme. Liliane Monfort for €30,000 ($38,000) as a yearling at last year’s Deauville August sale.

For more on Hat Trick and Sunday Silence, click through to a blog entry by Sid Fernando posted on August 3.

Allegretta, Racing's Great Seductress

2011-07-28T10:41:00.004-04:00

“She was a useful race filly who gave the impression of not having much heart…but she descended from an exceptional family…I went to look at her. She is not elegant, but she has an exceptional body. I was seduced.”

Allegretta

These were the words of Michel Henochsberg, told to Paris-Turf and relayed by John P. Sparkman in a 2001 Thoroughbred Times pedigree profile on Allegretta (GB) (1978-2005).

As Sparkman wrote in his profile – a must-read for racing history and pedigree buffs – Asterblute, the fifth dam of Allegretta, was sired in Germany by Pharis II in 1946, during the stallion’s last of five years as a Nazi captive.

Gestut Schlenderhan bred and raced Asterblute, winning the German Derby and German Oaks with her, and cultivated the female line that resulted in the birth of Allegretta in England in 1978. (Allegretta was the first of her direct line to be foaled outside of Germany.) Because of the dodgy circumstances surrounding Pharis’ acquisition by the Nazis, the international stud book outside of Germany didn’t recognize Asterblute and her line until the 1970s, when Pharis’ owner/breeder Marcel Boussac allowed a number of his stallion’s German-bred progeny to be legitimized.

Horses don’t come much more stoutly-bred than Allegretta. Her sire Lombard was a German St. Leger winner and two-time Horse of the Year in Germany, divisional champion at two, four, five, and six. He was by German St. Leger winner Agio, a son of 1950-1951 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Tantieme. (Tantieme is found in North American and European pedigrees through the full brothers Diesis and Kris). Belle Sauvage, the second dam of Lombard, was also the second dam of 1968 Arc winner Vaguely Noble.

In 15 crops, Lombard sired 214 foals, 14 of them stakes winners. Allegretta was not among these fourteen, although her full siblings Anno (first in the German St. Leger) and Arionette were. Trained in England by Sir Michael Stoute, she won two-of-three starts at two and placed second in the Group 3 Oaks Trial at three.

Late in her three-year-old season, Allegretta went through the sales ring at Tattersalls and was sold to American interests. Imported to the U.S., she was bred the following year but failed to get in foal. She returned to the racetrack, running exclusively in sprints (for which she was clearly not bred) at Suffolk Downs in Massachusetts, making her four-year-old debut in the autumn for Big E Farm and trainer Bruce G. Smith and finishing sixth. She was third and seventh in her subsequent starts.

She was retired again and covered in 1983, resulting in a second barren year. When, during her third season at stud, she conceived to the cover of Irish Castle, Big E understandably wanted to cut their losses on her and sold Allegretta in the 1984 Keeneland November sale, where Robert Nataf of Horse France purchased her for $55,000 on behalf of Marystead.

She had been culled by Schlenderhan; sold by Big E after three unproductive years; but for Marystead (who also breeds under M3 Elevage), Allegretta was to become one of the most influential broodmares of our time.

One interesting aspect of Allegretta’s bloodlines is that her fifth dam Aster (dam of Asterblute) was also granddam of Lombard’s sire Agio, reinforcing this strong female family with Aster 4x5 in Allegretta’s pedigree. Allegretta was also 4x4 to German Derby winner Alchimist.

Lombard’s daughters produced just twelve stakes winners. Allegretta foaled three of them. Here is her produce record:

1983 barren
1984 barren
1985 Marlene Kelly, f. by Irish Castle; winner

1986 Anzille, f. by Plugged Nickle; placed; stakes producer

1987 Irish Allegre, g. by Irish River (Fr); winner

1988 Shadideen, g. by Shadeed; winner

1989 URBAN SEA, f. by Miswaki; Group 1 winner; stakes producer

1990 Turbaine, f. by Trempolino; stakes-placed winner; stakes producer

1991 ALLEZ LES TROIS, f. by Riverman; Group 3 winner; stakes producer

1992 Oslo Connection, c. by Trempolino; placed

1993 Albada, g. by Houston; winner

1994 no report

1995 Saleela, f. by Nureyev; winner

1996 barren

1997 KING’S BEST, c. by Kingmambo; Group 1 winner

1998 no report

1999 Altruiste, f. by Diesis (GB); unraced; stakes producer

2000 barren

2001 barren

King’s Best – one of just two colts out of the temperamental Allegretta who wasn’t gelded – was lightly raced, winning three-of-six starts in England. Trained, like his mother, by Stoute, he won the Listed Acomb Stakes at two and the 2,000 Guineas at three. He was injured in the running of his next start, the Irish 2,000 Guineas, and subsequently retired under the Darley Stud banner, where he his six G1 winners include Workforce (GB), who won the 2010 Epsom Derby and Arc, and last year’s Japanese Derby victor Eishin Flash.

Allegretta and King's Best

Criquette Head-Maarek trained Allez les Trois to score three wins in France, including the Prix de Flore-G3. The filly later placed in the Grade 3 Saratoga Breeders’ Cup Handicap when trained in the U.S. by Christophe Clement. Her first foal was Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby winner Anabaa Blue, one of her three stakes winners to date. She is also granddam of two-time Group 1 winner Tamayuz.

Allez les Trois

Globe-trotting Urban Sea, trained by Jean Lesbordes, ran in France, Germany (where she was third in the 1,000 Guineas), England, Japan, Canada, and the U.S. All seven of her stakes wins came in France, highlighted by her victory in the 1993 Arc.

Yet Urban Sea went on to greater fame and fortune. At stud, she produced eleven foals, seven of them stakes winners, six at Group or Graded level: Sea the Stars-G1, Galileo (Ire)-G1; My Typhoon (Ire)-G1; Black Sam Bellamy-G1; All too Beautiful-G3; and Urban Ocean-G3. She died in 2009. Her final foal is a two-year-old son of Invincible Spirit named Born to Sea, for the Sea the Stars connections – owner/breeder Christopher Tsui and trainer John Oxx.

Of the European Broodmare of the Year’s four daughters, the only two with foals of racing age to date are All too Beautiful, dam of this year’s Cheshire Oaks [L] winner Wonder of Wonders, who was placed in the Epsom Oaks and the Irish Oaks; and Melikah, granddam of 2011 U.A.E. Derby-winning filly Khawlah.

Urban Sea’s European Horse of the Year son Sea the Stars received a Timeform rating of 140 – placing him on a par with Dancing Brave, Dubai Millennium Shergar, and Vaguely Noble. He lost only the first of his nine lifetime starts, scoring emphatic victories in all six of his Group 1 races as a three-year-old: the Arc, English 2,000 Guineas, Epsom Derby, Eclipse, International, and the Irish Champion. He became only the second foal of a female Arc winner to follow in his dam’s footsteps. (Detroit and Carnegie were the first mother-and-son Arc winners.) Retired to stud in Ireland, Sea the Stars’s first foals were born this year.

Sea the Stars will have a long way to go to emulate the stud career of his 13-year-old half-brother Galileo.

Galileo was European champion three-year-old after winning the Epsom Derby, the Irish Derby, and the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes. His two losses in eight starts came at the end of his career, when he was second in the Irish Champion and unplaced in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont.

Surely, Galileo is the best proven Thoroughbred stallion at stud in the world. In his current three-year-old crop, he’s the sire of European Classic winners Frankel (2,000 Guineas); Golden Lilac (Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1,000 Guineas and Prix de Diane); Misty for Me (Irish 1,000 Guineas); Roderic O’Connor (Irish 2,000 Guineas); and Treasure Beach (Irish Derby). His Nathaniel won last weekend’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth S.-G1 over Workforce. Many racing luminaries are hailing Frankel as the possibly best ever; Timeform has the undefeated colt, who on July 27th won the Group 1 Sussex Stakes against older horses with a chilling turn of foot, rated at 142, the greatest since Brigadier Gerard (144), a foal of 1968. Only Sea-Bird (145), Tudor Minstrel (144), and the Brigadier are rated higher than Frankel, who may yet improve his figure.

Other Galileo flagbearers this month are four-year-olds Cape Blanco, who won the Man o’ War Stakes (and last year’s Irish Derby), and the filly Igugu, winner of the prestigious Grade 1 Durban July over colts.

If Allegretta “gave the impression of not having much heart,” the same cannot be said for many of her sons, daughters, and their progeny. And 33 years after her birth, the grand old mare continues to “seduce” those of us who follow horseracing, with the likes of Frankel, Sea the Stars, and Galileo, who will hopefully continue to sweep us off our feet for many generations to come.

Photos of horses training at Belmont during Belmont Stakes week

2011-06-10T22:26:00.003-04:00

A special visit to Ruffian's grave.

Some comings and goings at Belmont Park, in photos, from June 5th to June 10th, the week of the Belmont Stakes. They're not in any particular order, and I have more to upload in the next few days.

Animal Kingdom gallops.

Animal Kingdom.

Grade 2 winner Aviate going to the track.

Birdrun, two days before winning the Grade 2 Poker.

Courageous Cat, two days before winning the Brooklyn H.-G2.

Three-time champion Gio Ponti on Thursday.

2010 Cigar Mile-G1 winner Jersey Town.

Master of Hounds, fresh out of quarantine.

Master of Hounds heading back to his barn.

Belmont horse Santiva.

Preakness winner Shackleford.

Belmont horse Stay Thirsty.

Stakes winner Trappe Shot on the track...

...and in the shedrow.

Unidentified Barclay Tagg horse on Thursday.

Grade 1 winner Vineyard Haven on Thursday.

Impressive first-out two-year-old maiden winner Artest, a son of Hard Spun, on Friday.

2010 G3 Jerome winner Afleet Again.

2010 BC Marathon winner Eldaafer.

Multiple stakes winner Rose Catherine off to the winner's circle.

Courageous Cat after winning the G2 Poker on Friday.

2010 Belmont Stakes winner Drosselmeyer.

Stakes winner Right One.

Stakes winner Alma d'Oro.

Same Old Wish's stall, number 6 in Barn 11, used to belong to Alydar.

Shackleford paddock-schooling on Friday.

Grade 2 winner Winter Memories.

Animal Kingdom: Before he was a Derby winner

2011-05-10T13:04:00.004-04:00

John Velazquez and Heather Craig leading Animal Kingdom after his Derby victory.

Having done a cover profile on Graham Motion for North American Trainer and a Q&A interview with Team Valor’s Barry Irwin for the May issue of Thoroughbred Owner & Breeder, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I had a special rooting interest in Animal Kingdom to win the Kentucky Derby.

I got a good look at the colt in his stall hours before he won the Grade 3 Spiral Stakes at Turfway on March 26, and was impressed by what a gorgeous, physically imposing horse he is. My camera’s memory card chose that day to quit working, so I had to rely on my camera phone for my pictures.

Relaxing in his stall before the Spiral.

Graham putting Animal Kingdom's blinkers on at Turfway.

To the winner's circle! Alan Garcia up.

Graham kept Animal Kingdom at my home track, Keeneland (photos below), for most of the six weeks between the Spiral and the Derby, so I was able to see him train some mornings. In retrospect, it was nice to have him all to myself; that will certainly never happen again...!

Animal Kingdom, held by John Panagot, sneaking a look behind him on the track in mid-April.

Out for a gallop at Keeneland.

Graham leads Animal Kingdom off the track.

Returning to the barn.

Kentucky Derby Footage [video]

2011-05-08T18:33:00.001-04:00

My very amateur footage of the Kentucky Derby -- before, during, and after -- in two parts:

Derby and Oaks horses at Churchill on Wednesday morning

2011-05-04T17:08:00.004-04:00

Here is some of my apologetically amateur footage of the Derby and Oaks crew on parade at Churchill this morning; contrary to his subtitle, Soldat IS in the Derby:

Kentucky Oaks favorite Joyful Victory.

On Nureyev's Birthday

2011-05-02T19:46:00.001-04:00

I was on the phone with a friend from my Walmac days and as we were talking I pointed out that today would have been Nureyev’s birthday. “I know,” she said, having been thinking about him too, and it really kind of hit home how much I miss obsessing over his sons and daughters on the racecourse.

At a time when Danzig and Sadler’s Wells are firmly establishing themselves as the prevalent names in international pedigrees, it has made me sad to see the sub-fertile Nureyev’s line dying out, and to realize that the younger generation of racing folk are probably not familiar with his amazing story.

I found a few links on Wikipedia leading to Blood-Horse articles that were published after Nureyev’s death on October 29, 2001, and I’m re-posting two of them here. If you love horses and don’t know what Nureyev went through, I highly recommend “A Look Back.” The fact that this horse not only survived but lived comfortably and physically flourished for 14 years after his accident is a testament to the people who cared for him.

“Remembering Nureyev” is his obituary.

Even the best laid plans...

2011-04-30T16:06:00.016-04:00

...sometimes go awry.

Despite getting up at 5:30am to drive to Louisville to watch Derby and Oaks contenders train in their designated time slot of 8:30-8:45, I was foiled by the Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon, which blocked off all roads into Churchill Downs from the only way this directionally challenged person knows how to get there. Each police officer I asked directed me to another blocked road. By the time I asked Ed DeRosa of Thoroughbred Times how to maneuver around the [expletive deleted] blockades and successfully got to the track, I caught just the last of the Classic hopefuls. (Mind you, I was only a few blocks away from Churchill at 7:40, but it was 8:35 when I actually got there.)

The horses on the footage below are, in order of appearance:

Summer Soiree

Daisy Devine (blinkers with four yellow wraps)

Stay Thirsty (misidentified by the woman beside me as Uncle Mo)

Uncle Mo

Midnight Interlude

Plum Pretty

Lilacs and Lace

Santiva

Watch Me Go

Daisy Devine (not Daisy “Fever” as I called her)

Midnight Interlude

Lilacs and Lace

Summer Soiree

Brilliant Speed

The Factor

You’ll hear an outrider saying Uncle Mo stumbled and nearly threw his rider after they had passed us. I didn’t see it so won’t speculate on what, if anything, happened. None of the recaps I found on the morning’s activities commented on any such incident.

Here are some photos from the morning:

Mucho Macho Man

Stay Thirsty

Kathmanblu

Summer Soiree

Brilliant Speed

Shackleford

Shackleford getting a bath.

Pretty in pink!
The big, tough John Deere tractors working the track after training hours were over.

For my future reference, I was informed by one of the men on the backstretch that had I turned at the, er, “titty bar,” I would have been able to avoid all of the closed roads and get to the track with ease. Shocking how I didn’t know about that shortcut...

Legend Maker

2011-04-26T16:30:00.024-04:00

Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, U.K., circa 1808.
Photo from Wikipedia.

A quick entry to acknowledge the loss of the legendary sire Sadler’s Wells in Ireland today at the age of 30. (He celebrated his actual 30th birthday 15 days ago, on April 11th.) No doubt the Racing Post will have comprehensive tributes by my friend Tony Morris (also a legend!) and other experts detailing the exploits of Sadler’s Wells as a racehorse, sire, and his legacy as sire of sires in the days to follow.

Below is Sadler’s Wells’ win in the 1984 Phoenix Champion Stakes (his only victory I was able to find on YouTube). Notice that among the vanquished are the fillies Flame of Tara, who produced his marvelous three-time Classic-winning daughter *Salsabil (Irish Derby, English 1,000 Guineas, and Irish Oaks) in his second crop; and Princess Pati, dam of a Group-placed runner by him:

On a personal note, I was fortunate enough to spend an afternoon at Coolmore in the autumn of 1998. Having been working at the gray, wet Goffs sales grounds near Kildare for the Orby and Challenge yearling sales, one day I escaped to the blue skies and green grass at Fethard. Coolmore associate and one-time general manager Bob Lanigan (whose son David, now a successful trainer in England, worked with me at Walmac Int’l some years later) arranged the visit, and Tim Corballis gave me a grand tour of the gorgeous farm.

I remember as Sadler’s Wells, covered in a light dusting of dried mud, was led out for a face-to-face meeting. He seemed very kind and stood quietly but attentive, looking at me as intently as I looked at him, and allowed me to scratch his pink nose. I would have stayed for hours, but when after a couple of minutes he turned his distinctively long head toward his paddock, it seemed time to go.

Sadler's Wells in 1998, looking toward his paddock.

Over the years, I often harrumphed at Sadler’s Wells because he was a nephew of my favorite, Nureyev, and his success relegated Nureyev to an undeserved role as understudy in the family. Sadler’s Wells had many advantages over Nureyev at stud -- better fertility; a European base; and no direct competition from the likes of Mr. Prospector, Danzig, and Storm Cat. They were both great, but there is no question that Sadler’s Wells has had a wider influence and exerted a greater impact on the breed. His son El Prado was one of my favorite Kentucky sires even from the time he was standing for $7,500 at Airdrie Stud, long before his fee peaked at $125,000. With El Prado’s 2009 death and Powerscourt’s move to Turkey, Perfect Soul is the only Sadler’s Wells who remains advertised at stud in Kentucky, but El Prado’s popular sons Medaglia d’Oro and Kitten’s Joy are also doing their part to keep the Sadler’s Wells line going strong in the U.S.

Sadler’s Wells’ European flag flies high through the many leading sire sons, including Galileo and Montjeu, and grandsons left in his wake. The powerful influence of this “Legend Maker” (the apt name of one of his 320+ stakes winners) is set to continue for the foreseeable future.

As Sid Fernando alluded in passing along news of the great stallion’s death: “The King is dead. Long live the King.” Perhaps in the case of Sadler’s Wells’ legacy, the proclamation should be: “The King is dead. Long live the Kings.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Here is a look at the three-year-old season of Salsabil (“River of Heaven” as I recall), with commentary from her trainer John Dunlop and jockey Willie Carson. The year was 1990, six years before her death from cancer:

Pattern for Success

2011-04-22T13:25:00.009-04:00

Last weekend’s $1,000,000, Grade 1 Arkansas Derby winner Archarcharch (Arch – Woodman’s Dancer, by Woodman) has arrived at Churchill Downs ahead of a planned start in the Kentucky Derby on May 7. His popular trainer “Jinks” Fires hopes to pull off a huge score with Robert and Loval Yagos’s colt, who despite a third (albeit distant) in the Grade 2 Rebel and a win in the Grade 3 Southwest, Archarcharch paid more than $50 to win the Arkansas Derby.

Archarcharch is familiar with the track at Churchill, where in late November he made his first start, running second in a maiden special weight before shipping to warmer climates for the winter and spring racing seasons.

Churchill is also, of course, the scene of the thrilling 2010 Breeder’s Cup Classic won by Blame three weeks before Archarcharch’s debut, as well as where Pine Island broke down during the 2006 Distaff. Besides being by Arch, Blame and Pine Island have something else in common with Archarcharch: damsires by sons of Mr. Prospector out of daughters of Buckpasser. Historically, Roberto and Mr. Prospector nick well in pedigrees together, but these three are the only Grade 1 winners to have emerged to date through Arch.

Arch, sire of Archarcharch (obviously!).

Blame and Pine Island are out of mares by Seeking the Gold, while Archarcharch’s broodmare sire is Woodman. (Seeking the Gold and Woodman are both from Phipps female families as well.) Another of Arch’s stakes winners, Arch Mistress (a Group 3 filly in South Africa), is out of a mare by Black Tie Affair (Ire), whose sire Miswaki is another representative of the Mr. Prospector/Buckpasser cross.

But Blame and Archarcharch have a deeper connection, and not just that the sires of their second dams (Nijinsky II for Blame and Nureyev for Archarcharch) are sons of Northern Dancer: Blame’s granddam Bound is a three-parts sister to Archarcharch’s great-grandsire Nureyev, putting the mare Special in the third generation of Blame and fourth of Archarcharch.

What is also interesting (well, okay...at least to me) is that Nureyev appears in three other stakes winners sired by Arch. Two of these – Irish Group 3 winner Arch Swing and Arch Rebel (also in Ireland, a 16-furlong, Group 2 winner over hurdles and later a three-time Listed winner from a mile to 10 furlongs on the flat) – are, coincidentally (?!), closely related to Archarcharch through their second dam, Pattern Step.

Pattern Step in early 2006, before foaling her last known foal, a winning colt by Vindication.

Trained by Charlie Whittingham for owner/breeder Nelson Bunker Hunt (of Dahlia fame), this daughter of Nureyev won 5-of-12 starts and finished second four times at two and three, all while racing exclusively in California. She won the Hollywood Oaks-G1 on the dirt (a very rare Grade 1 winner on that surface for turfy sire Nureyev) and the Listed Providencia Stakes (on turf), and placed in the Grade 3 Honeymoon Handicap, Santa Ysabel Stakes, and Senorita Stakes. (Her dam, the *Commanding II mare Tipping Time, had also won the 1969 Hollywood Oaks.)

As a broodmare, Pattern Step foaled two minor stakes winners (Seattle Pattern, by Seattle Slew; and Total Bull, by Fusaichi Pegasus) from 13 foals, but as a graded stakes-winning daughter of the great broodmare sire Nureyev, her produce record is disappointing.

Pattern Step has, however, come good through her daughters, especially when Arch is involved. Three individual daughters – Gold Pattern (winner; by Slew o’ Gold, whose dam is, like Woodman, out of a Buckpasser mare), Sheba’s Step (unraced; by Alysheba and therefore linebred to the Rough Shod family), and Woodman’s Step (Grade 2 stakes-placed; by Woodman) – are responsible for three of Arch’s 26 stakes winners. (Another daughter, the Mr. Prospector mare Nortena, is dam of a stakes winner by Arch’s sire Kris S.)

It’s fair to suggest that Archarcharch owes his existence to the previous success of Arch Swing, who in addition to being a Group 3 winner was second in the Irish 1,000 Guineas-G1, and Arch Rebel. The three-year-old has already surpassed his cousins, and whether or not he wins the Kentucky Derby in two weeks, one could say that the pattern for success is in his genes.

Pattern Step

European Classic contender Pluck schooling at Keeneland

2011-04-07T12:47:00.000-04:00

One day before running in the Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes at Keeneland, Pluck (More Than Ready - Secret Heart, by Fort Wood) had a morning schooling session in the paddock. Depending on the outcome of tomorrow’s race, Team Valor International’s homebred winner of last season’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf may head to France for the Poule d’Essai des Poulains or to Ireland for the Irish 2000 Guineas. Graham Motion trains the colt.

Rounding Third

2011-03-20T16:54:00.027-04:00

As a pedigree analyst, racing writer, blogger, and president of eMatings and Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Sid Fernando is an imposing social media presence. Sid rarely (if ever) sleeps, and he uses Twitter as an outlet to channel the thoughts in his ever-busy mind at all hours of the day and night. Horseracing, pedigree matters, exotic food, waiting for hours in his car for alternate side parking to come into effect -- no topic is off limits for Sid. Consequently, he has made over 1,500 friends, from people in his borough of Brooklyn to those who live across the world. He has bonded with fellow insomniacs, with people who unwittingly step in cat vomit (in Sid’s case, often barefoot, and with photo evidence), and others with a like tendency to spill something on their clean white shirts. Of his Twitter acquaintances, he knows just a few, including me, in person.

Sid was bloodstock editor and columnist at Daily Racing Form for many years, but when a close friend counseled him not to miss out on a single moment of his young children’s lives, he took the advice to heart and left the paper to focus on raising his sons.

John and Joe grew up wearing baseball gloves, with the dust of the infield diamond dirtying their pants, swinging bats and rounding bases. Sid was there for it all, as a coach and travel manager for the Brooklyn Bulldogs youth baseball team -- which won the national championship in 2007 -- until he stepped down last summer.

Johnny and Joe were among the team’s star players, on and off the field. The Billy Zitelli Award, named for a highly talented Bulldog who passed away of leukemia in 2000 at the age of 14, was given to John in 2008 and to Joe in 2010. That both boys won this award, bestowed upon the player recognized as “the heart and soul of [his] team -- a great competitor, a good winner, a feared opponent, and a good friend” -- is a testament to the values Sid and his wife Cynthia instilled in them.

John and Joe Fernando

John and Joe continued to play ball after they outgrew the Bulldogs, but last year John reached an age where he wanted to explore other options, to forge his own path.

Sid inwardly felt this was the end of a chapter for himself, that he was losing his son. He soon realized instead that Johnny had turned into a fine, interesting, and engaging young man, and he spent time getting to know and respect him from a different perspective.

And because his parents gave him the freedom to try new things, John learned this: that he truly loved baseball. Before long, and to his father’s delight, he started asking Sid to practice ball with him again.

Sid’s many Twitter friends followed along on the journey, usually through baseball, he took with his boys. His fatherly pride was evident when he wrote about them -- Johnny, who was going to play ball in college after graduating from high school this year; and Joe, now completing his first year at a boarding school he chose for its baseball team.

Last Saturday, Johnny played in a pre-season Beacon High School game. Many of his teammates were boys Sid had coached and mentored during their Bulldog days, and even Joe was in town from school in Massachusetts. As always, Sid posted photos and updates on Twitter. It was Sid’s dream day, one that he’ll remember as perhaps one of his happiest.

On Sunday, John fell down some stairs and sustained a serious, 8-inch laceration on his arm. His baseball career was probably over, but at 17, Johnny -- bright, sensitive, and very well-liked among his peers -- was college bound, with the promise of any future he chose ahead of him. Music, perhaps; he loved music, and had recorded some demos.

It was not to be. When John Fernando died tragically on March 19, 2011, in his place went up a wall of grief for his parents, family, and many friends.

Twitter exploded with sadness for the Fernando family. One of Sid’s friends (who blogs as Pull the Pocket) summed it up this way: “1600+ people are sad. That’s what happens when you’re a good man.”

But also, we feel like we knew Johnny. It was only in a slightly shocking and surreal moment while coming to terms with John’s death that I realized I’ve never met Cynthia, John, or Joe. Sid’s eloquence in describing their daily trials and tribulations brought his family, and his palpable love for them, to life.

Requiescat in pace, John Fernando, who touched and enriched the lives of more people around the world than he will ever know.

Sid posted this on Saturday: Thanks for all notes, emails. I'm touched. A week ago today, JF was on 3rd; today he couldn't make it home.

Risen Star: At the Heart of the Matter

2011-02-17T14:03:00.003-05:00

This weekend marks the running of the Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds, a race for three-year-olds on the Kentucky Derby trail. The Risen Star was previously known as the Louisiana Derby Trial Stakes, before being renamed in honor of the son New Orleans will always be proud to call their own.

Here is a more detailed background on Risen Star, the horse who won two-thirds of the Triple Crown in 1988:

John Galbreath’s Darby Dan Farm acquired Risen Star’s Irish-bred great-great-granddam Bibibeg from the Aga Khan in 1954. Thirteen at the time, she was a year-younger half-sister to Nasrullah (grandsire of Secretariat), by British Triple Crown winner Bahram. From Bibibeg, Galbreath bred Quaheri, by Olympia, in 1959. Quaheri was unplaced and further disappointed as a broodmare, producing below her family’s high standard.

But her winning Hail to Reason daughter Break Through was stakes-placed once at three in 1973 in Ireland for Galbreath. Bred to Darby Dan sire His Majesty, she foaled the bay filly Ribbon in 1977. Harry Trotsek trained Ribbon for Arthur Hancock III and Leone J. Peters. She won nine times in 27 starts, with seven seconds and five thirds, at two and three. Her four stakes wins came in the Grade 3 Pucker Up Stakes at Arlington Park, the $100,000 Golden Harvest Stakes at Louisiana Downs, the Arlington Oaks, and the La Troienne Stakes at Churchill Downs, all as a sophomore.

Ribbon’s third foal, born on March 25, 1985, was a dark bay or brown colt with four white ankle socks, sired by Secretariat. The colt was linebred 4x5 to the great producing mare Mumtaz Begum, a daughter of “The Flying Filly” Mumtaz Mahal, and he was her last foal for the partners, who sold the broodmare to Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Stud Management at the Keeneland November sale. In foal to Danzig, she brought $2-million.

Ribbon, who I met in 1990.

In 1986, her yearling colt was offered under the Stone Farm banner at the Keeneland July sale. By then, Ribbon had produced a graded stakes-placed winner in Premier Partner, and Secretariat’s daughter Lady’s Secret was midway through what was to be her Horse of the Year campaign. Those two things helped make Ribbon’s colt the second most expensive of his sire’s yearlings that season, attracting a final bid of $210,000 from Harold McKenzie. However, it transpired that it was a buy-back, and the colt reappeared in the Fasig-Tipton February sale next year, consigned by Albert Yank on behalf of his breeders Hancock and Peters.

Louie J. Roussel III, a law school graduate from Louisiana who trained horses instead of practicing law, bought the horse for $300,000 at the two-year-olds-in-training sale for himself and partner Ronnie Lamarque, a singing Ford car salesman from New Orleans. (Years later, in 1994 or so, I was shocked to see a feature on a news show describing how Lamarque had been the target of a botched murder-for-hire plot hatched by his estranged wife in 1993.)

A bout with throat cancer had left Roussel a deeply religious man. So he named the horse Risen Star and took him home to New Orleans, where Roussel’s family had a majority stake in Fair Grounds Race Course. In a generous gesture, Roussel pledged 10% of Risen Star’s earnings to a local charity, the Little Sisters of the Poor.

Risen Star skipped conditions and made his debut on September 24, 1987, in the 6½-furlong, black-type Minstrel Stakes at Louisiana Downs. He won by a length. He was second in his next start, the Sport of Kings Futurity in October, and closed out his juvenile season with an allowance win at Fair Grounds going 7½ furlongs on December 6.

The Secretariat colt opened his three-year-old account in similar fashion, registering an allowance victory at the same track on January 2, stretching out to a mile and a sixteenth.

Returned to stakes company in the Lecomte Handicap on February 6, Risen Star could only finish second to Pastourelles, whom he defeated by a length in their next start, the Louisiana Derby Trial, on February 27. Risen Star stepped up to graded stakes level and won the Grade 3 Louisiana Derby in March on his next outing.

After seven lifetime starts in Louisiana – five consecutive at Fair Grounds – the colt traveled to Kentucky where he won the Grade 2 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland in his final prep race for the Kentucky Derby. Forty Niner, champion two-year-old the previous year and considered all but “a sure thing” in the Lexington, was a head behind in second.

The field that lined up for the 1988 Kentucky Derby included undefeated favorite Private Terms, narrow second choice Winning Colors, Seeking the Gold, Canadian juvenile champion Regal Classic, Brian’s Time, and Proper Reality. Winning Colors grabbed an early lead and held on by a diminishing neck from a flying Forty Niner. Risen Star had raced wide after encountering traffic problems, running on to take third without threatening the top two home.

Drama ensued in the two weeks leading up to the Preakness. Roussel had canceled two post-Derby workouts for his colt, prompting speculation that something was physically amiss with Risen Star. Then when it poured for days in Maryland, Roussel told the press his horse was ‘99% certain not to run’ and only decided not to scratch him – he’d had the card already filled out – about an hour before the race.

As fourth choice, Risen Star and jockey Eddie Delahoussaye redeemed their Kentucky Derby loss to win by 1¼ lengths over Brian’s Time in a pedestrian 1:56 1/5 over a good track. Roussel and Lamarque’s black silks with a cherry cap – in homage to the Phipps silks – with gold stars down the sleeves and a gold cat on the back (for the superstitious Roussel) were painted on the jockey atop the cupola at Pimlico and Ronnie Lamarque was singing his praises in the winner’s circle. Literally!

To the tune of “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans,” he sang something like this:

Way down yonder in New Orleans,

Risen Star is the king of kings.

He’s the talk of the town there,

You know what I mean!

There was more, of course, but that’s all I recall 23 years later. No trace of it survives on YouTube, but to give you an idea, here’s a commercial Lamarque recorded in support of the New Orleans Saints football team:

The headline stories after the Preakness were less about Risen Star and more about the tactics employed by Pat Day on Forty Niner, whose trainer Woody Stephens sacrificed his colt’s natural running style to keep Gary Stevens and Winning Colors from getting their typical, free-running lead. The two horses bumped all the way down the backstretch. Winning Colors held on for third, and Forty Niner faded to seventh.

Wayne Lukas, who trained Winning Colors, and Stephens erupted into a war of words in which Stephens dubbed Lukas’ filly “Whining Colors.” Up against the very public Lukas/Stevens/Winning Colors versus Stephens/Day/Forty Niner affair, Risen Star emulating his sire’s feat of winning the Preakness was barely acknowledged.

The scene switched over to the Empire State, where Lamarque changed his tune to “New York, New York.” He transformed the line about vagabond shoes into: “These lucky horse shoes / will run away / from the rest of the field / in old New York!”

But Risen Star had hurdles to clear first. During a routine gallop on May 28, he rapped his right front ankle and missed two days of training due to a strained suspensory. As such, he had only one workout in the three weeks between the second and third races of the Triple Crown, and during that work he was so bullish that he pulled a shoulder out of his exercise rider/assistant trainer Jimmy Nichols’s socket and zipped three furlongs in :33 3/5 the day before the Belmont. Again, his trainer considered scratching the colt, worried that Risen Star may have left his race on the track Friday morning with that fast move.

Judge for yourself:

The nuns from the Little Sisters of the Poor were celebrating Risen Star’s victory. In addition to the regular purse of the Belmont, he had earned a $1-million bonus for garnering the highest point total in all three Triple Crown races. That 10% earnings pledge from Roussel was changing a lot of lives.

Risen Star’s official margin of victory was 14¾ lengths, which while significant pales in comparison to Secretariat’s 31-length rout. The time of 2:26 2/5 was the second-fastest Belmont, after only Secretariat’s 2:24, and Risen Star had run the last quarter in :24 4/5, a fifth of a second faster than his sire. (Easy Goer and A.P. Indy have both bettered Risen Star’s time.) Sadly, his co-breeder Leone Peters didn’t live to see Risen Star’s second Classic win; Peters had died a week earlier.

People were really taking notice of Risen Star now, calling him unlucky not to have won the Triple Crown, and Louie Roussel and Ronnie Lamarque vowed to keep him in training the following season. Delahoussaye raved about the colt as the best he had ever ridden, boldly telling the press, “he might even be better than his sire.”

The morning after the Belmont, Risen Star’s ankle filled up again, but it didn’t look to interfere with Roussel’s plans to turn the horse over to great trainer Charlie Whittingham as a four-year-old. Whittingham, it turned out, had been the underbidder at $200,000 on Risen Star as a yearling. The Bald Eagle anticipated big things and couldn’t wait to get the colt in his shedrow, speculating that he would like to try him on the grass.

In the meantime, Risen Star was syndicated to stand at John T.L. Jones Jr.’s Walmac Int’l at the close of his career, in a deal that valued him at $14-million. Roussel and Lamarque kept half of their colt in the agreement.

But by the end of July, when the ankle still showed no sign of improvement, Risen Star was officially retired. He had won eight of his 11 races, with two seconds and one third, earning $2,029,845. He was voted champion three-year-old colt of 1988, yet the focus was more a matter of what might have been. Risen Star had been improving almost exponentially with every race, and the thought of him in Whittingham’s hands gave hope that he would prove himself to be one of the greatest ever.

Still, he was finished, and the high hopes resting on Risen Star’s tall withers shifted from racing to his stud career. Although he stood the 1989 season for a hefty $75,000, he was up against it for becoming a great success at stud. Like other sons of Secretariat – and unlike Risen Star’s leading-sire contemporaries Forty Niner, Seeking the Gold, and Brian’s Time – he failed to make much impact. From 311 foals, he got 14 stakes winners (5%), including German Oaks winner Risen Raven and Grade 1 Pimlico Special-winning millionaire Star Standard, who was second in the 1995 Belmont.

I first saw Risen Star in person at the Belmont. The race fell on the day before my birthday, so for my present my parents took me to New York for the race. It was the first time I had been to a racetrack other than my home track of El Comandante (now Camarero).

Risen Star with jockey Eddie Delahoussaye and groom Harold Joseph in the paddock before the Belmont.

I had access to the paddock area for the Belmont and picked up a gold-colored button with a horse head insignia that I found ground into the dirt, hoping that it would bring me luck. I was rooting for Winning Colors, and when I saw that she wasn’t going to win, I slammed the button down in disgust. But the rocking grandstand shook me to my senses, and I looked from Winning Colors falling back, to Risen Star drawing away. Fifty-six thousand people were jumping and screaming, and 56,000 people couldn’t be wrong. It was an electrifying moment. Secretariat’s son looked like the second coming of Secretariat in the Belmont stretch.

Two months later, in August, I visited Risen Star at Walmac. He was confined to a stall because his ankle wasn’t well enough for turn-out yet, and he stared forlornly through the bars on his door.

A stall-bound Risen Star in August, 1988.

Physically, “Star” was a tall, leggy, imposing horse, standing almost 17 hands high. He was short-backed which, from a distance, made him seem deceptively smaller than he was. For instance, if you watch the Belmont footage, you may notice how his saddlecloth dwarfs him, especially compared to the fit on Winning Colors, who was also a very big horse but smaller than Risen Star. His oversized stall in a three-horse barn (Alleged was across the aisle) at Walmac had been specially built to accommodate him, and a simple wooden plaque from the Little Sisters of the Poor was beside his door. The plaque depicted the Star of Bethlehem and guarded over Star to his dying day.

Risen Star in 1993, coming over to say hello.

As a stallion, Risen Star was likeable and kind to be around but lacked the charisma of his sire; he was, I always thought, like a goofy kid. And because he was prone to bellyaches if his routine was upset, stallion manager Ron Gilbert was careful to keep his stress level low.

One morning, farm vet J.D. Howard quickly stopped by the office to tell me that Risen Star had colicked and was in surgery. He had had colic surgery several times before, and the odds of the horse pulling through another were slim.

It was so early – just past seven – that I was the only person in the office, and with J.D. in a rush to get to the hospital, it fell on me to call Louie Roussel. This twist in my journey with Risen Star, whom I had watched as a wide-eyed racing fan with no ties to the industry a decade earlier, was ironic; here I was telling his owner that his beloved Star was dying.

I also cancelled Risen Star’s breeding session that was scheduled with an off-the-farm mare that morning, explaining that the stallion was fighting for his life in surgery. Even now, so many years later, I’m still offended at the string of invectives the mare owner threw at me because Star couldn’t honor his breeding commitment. The man used the f-word quite liberally and called me names. “Sorry about your mare,” I said, sarcastically. “That seems like such an important thing next to Risen Star dying.” I hung up on him.

As expected, Risen Star died on the operating table, and not ten minutes after my first call to Roussel I had to call him again.

Ron took down the plaque from the Little Sisters of the Poor, which we put it in a box with the halter the stallion had been wearing, and mailed it to Roussel that afternoon. Star was 13, dying ten years to the day – March 13, 1998 – that he had won the Louisiana Derby. In keeping with a traditional form of burial for racehorses, we placed his head, heart, and hooves in a wooden box.

I asked to see at Risen Star one last time before he was buried. Maybe it was a strange or morbid request but I just wanted to have a look. His heart – and I couldn’t tell you what it weighed or how it compared in size to other equine hearts – was massive; the engine that powered Risen Star was as big as a soccer ball. Now, every time I watch a replay of the 1988 Belmont, in my mind I see this perfect engine driving him home.

Are There Sugar Cubes in Heaven?

2011-01-21T08:49:00.008-05:00

Thoroughbred Times editor Mark Simon knew of my fascination with all things Nureyev when I interned at the newsmagazine for a summer in 1994. It was kind of hard not to know; I had photos of his progeny taped to the wall behind my desk, including one of a foal, captioned, “Nureyev’s newest stakes winner.” That one raised a few eyebrows in the office, as the filly in question was only a couple of months old. (She never fulfilled my prophecy but she did place second in a Group 3 race in France and is the dam of a stakes winner.)

One day Mark said, matter-of-factly, “I can arrange for you to meet Miesque, if you want.”

Miesque. Did I want to meet Miesque? That was like asking an actor if he wanted to meet Brando.

I recalled an article published during Miesque’s racing days that said something to the effect of: there was no superlative adequate enough to describe her, that the word “miesque” would have to be added to the dictionary for that purpose. That is to say, that the filly was not merely magnificent, she was miesque. Mark called Lane’s End - Oak Tree division manager Callan Strouss and scheduled my appointment while I held my breath.

Miesque and her Mr. Prospector filly were turned out in a small paddock. She was initially interested in me before changing her mind and wandering off to graze. The foal was more attentive than her dam had been, in that curious, in-your-face way that made it hard to get photos. I was disappointed in the pictures but...I had met Miesque, what else mattered to me beyond that, really?!

Miesque on July 23, 1994.

Later I came to know Callan through my association with Nureyev at Walmac Int’l. He appreciated my fondness for the great mare, and I was fortunate enough to get to visit Miesque a few times throughout the years. I soon learned that her quick dismissal of me at our first meeting was because I had made the very amateur mistake of not bringing her a sugary gift, which she would have been expecting.

Miesque was a fiend for sugar cubes. When she’d see or hear her sugar tin, she’d spring to life and follow you around, attacking you with her tongue until she got what she wanted. And then she wanted more. It was hard to say no to Miesque, and even after bidding farewell with the gate closed behind me I always caved in to give her “just one more!” between the fence boards, while secretly thinking I really ought to make an escape before the sugar rush kicked in.

Miesque, my favorite racehorse (in a three-way tie with Man o’ War and Zenyatta), was small and slight; if you hadn’t seen her turn of foot for yourself (or in my case on TV) you’d never believe how powerful she was. She was a homebred for Stavros Niarchos’ Flaxman Holdings, which is now managed by the Niarchos Family. Niarchos had raced both Nureyev and the Listed-winning Prove Out mare Pasadoble, who often acted as pacemaker for the French Classic winner River Lady. Foaled on March 14, 1984, Miesque was the first of six foals by Nureyev out of Pasadoble – there was also Listed winner/stakes producer Massaraat, Group 1-placed Siam, and the unraced stakes producer Bravemie. (As a sidenote, Pasadoble’s 1993 Riverman filly Yogya produced 2003 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Six Perfections.)

Here is a link to Miesque’s pedigree and race details. North American readers know her primarily for her consecutive Breeders’ Cup Mile victories, but Francois Boutin also trained her to two Classic wins in Europe, and she beat males in the Prix Jacques le Marois (twice), Prix de la Salamandre (at two), and the Prix du Moulin in addition to her Breeders’ Cups. The opening lines of her race record read like this: 1986 - champion 2-year-old in France; 1987 - champion 3-year-old filly in France, champion 3-year-old filly in England, champion miler in France, champion miler in England, champion turf mare (in U.S.); 1988 - champion older mare in France, co-champion miler in France, champion turf mare (in U.S.).

Surprisingly for a racemare of her caliber, Miesque was an outstanding broodmare. Her first four foals were stakes winners: French Classic winner Kingmambo (by Mr. Prospector), a leading international sire; French Classic winner and highweight East of the Moon (by Private Account), a graded stakes producer; Group 3 winner Miesque’s Son (by Mr. Prospector); and Moon is Up (by Woodman). Her fifth foal was Monevassia, the filly I met in 1994. She is the dam of European champion Rumplestiltskin. Also among Miesque’s 14 foals are Group 3 winner and sire Mingun (by A.P. Indy) and stakes-placed Inventing Paradise (by Mr. Prospector).

Whenever I ran into Callan I’d ask how “she” was doing. I never had to specify who “she” was, not just because he knew me but because, I suspect, Miesque was first also in his mind. I tried to see her at least once a year. If I was having a bad week, there was nothing that would cheer me up faster than being drooled on by Miesque and laughing with my friend Shana (Callan’s executive assistant) at how the mare would paw impatiently then knock us over to get to her sugar, with such an expression on her face. For years now, every time I see a cube of sugar, I think of Miesque.

Her last foal was born in 2005, after which Miesque contentedly lived out her final years in a field with other pensioned broodmares, lovingly looked after by her longtime groom Wayne. She greeted her human visitors in a cozy winter blanket or fly mask, depending on the season, but always with pricked ears and wagging tongue diving after the treats she knew she deserved. And so it was until the day Miesque died peacefully, aged 27, on January 20th, 2011.

I know my friends at Oak Tree, in particular, will feel her loss.

But more importantly, since I heard the news of her passing I’ve been wondering: are there sugar cubes in heaven?

August, 2010. One of the last photos I took of Miesque...and her beloved sugar tin.

Before He Was "Uncle Mo"

2011-01-18T10:47:00.007-05:00

And here he is, in February of 2009, a month shy of his first actual birthday: the newly-crowned champion 2-year-old colt of 2010, Uncle Mo.

Uncle Mo at the Greathouse Family's Glencrest Farm as a yearling, with John Greathouse III.

Then, he was known as the ’08 Playa Maya, and he had clearly been having fun being a horse and rolling around in his paddock at Glencrest Farm in Midway, Kentucky.

Now, he will be one of the most closely-watched horses in 2011, as this undefeated son of Indian Charlie embarks on a Classic campaign off one of the most brilliant, though brief, juvenile campaigns in recent history. He will be coiffed and polished to perfection in all his appearances from here on out.

But I love that I knew him when his coat was fuzzy and his mane in knots, when he was a young horse staring straight into the camera, full of unfulfilled promise.

Congratulations to Four Star Sales, who sold him as a Keeneland September yearling on behalf of Glencrest and partners for $220,000, and to owner Repole Stable, trainer Todd Pletcher, and bloodstock agent J.J. Crupi.

Some Thoughts On the Eclipse Awards, and My Votes

2011-01-04T09:46:00.012-05:00

When I became a member of the National Turf Writers Association (now the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters, or NTWAB) in 2009, there was a delicious thrill at the prospect of participating in the voting for the Eclipse Awards. Having been in love with horseracing for almost as far back as I can remember, it was a personal achievement to have ‘made it,’ if you will.

My excitement last year quickly fizzled in the ensuing ugliness that erupted in the Rachel Alexandra vs. Zenyatta debate. I use the word “debate” out of politeness; my experience was not pleasant, and the verbal attacks I received and witnessed against both sides is not something I want to go through again, ever. My philosophy is this: I respect your right to have an opinion within reason, and in return I ask that you respect my right to have an opinion within reason. I couldn’t tell anyone who argued for either Rachel Alexandra or Zenyatta as 2009 Horse of the Year that their opinion was “wrong,” just as I wouldn’t do that to anyone who opts for Blame or Zenyatta this year. I stand behind and wholly support my candidate, which means that I’m not going to insult anyone’s intelligence by hitting them over the head with my opinion. I’ve learned that that approach has a counterproductive effect, and being respectful of each other’s opinion should not be too much to ask.

There are those who think the Eclipse Awards are meaningless, a dinosaur, that their chief purpose is to enhance stud fee values or the like. Me, well, I believe it is an honor to have one’s achievements recognized in an industry where we have bred pure-blooded horses for hundreds of years in the quest for a superior animal. Claiborne Farm imported Rough Shod (for whom this blog is named) to the United States circa 1951, and from her the Hancock family nursery bred Thong, Thong’s daughter Special, Special’s daughter Bound, Bound’s daughter Liable, and Liable’s son Blame. You can bet that breeding a horse such as Blame from a mare purchased 60 years and five equine generations ago is a pretty big deal to Claiborne – for whom I voted, along with Blame’s co-breeder/co-owner Adele B. Dilschneider, as leading breeder. They have invested 60 years into cultivating the Rough Shod family; do you honestly think an Eclipse Award is meaningless to them?

I worked at Walmac Int’l in 1997, when 2-year-old Favorite Trick was named Horse of the Year. Walmac stood Favorite Trick’s sire Phone Trick and had bought an interest in Favorite Trick early in his juvenile season, so it was doubly meaningful. When that gold statuette – a duplicate of the original, which principal owner Joe LaCombe kept – arrived at the farm, it was…wow!…beautiful. To pick it up and hold it gave me a tangible understanding of what it’s all about. That Horse of the Year statue was placed in the office of Walmac owner and general manager Johnny T.L. Jones Jr. (Sid Fernando has a post on Johnny here.) Amid the smell of cigars, a collection of Western saddles, and a Remington bronze, paintings of Nureyev and Alleged hung over the fireplace and a portrait of Phone Trick was on another one of the cushioned dark green-paneled walls. A small, framed note handwritten in cursive was displayed so inconspicuously on a narrow strip of wall that one might have missed its importance: a thank you letter from Breeders’ Cup founder John Gaines to Johnny for having broken the ice between disagreeing parties and making the Breeders’ Cup a reality. Favorite Trick’s Horse of the Year award sat on the shelf behind Johnny’s desk, where he and any visitor could easily see it, in front of the window overlooking the mares and foals in the front field on Paris Pike. I don’t know if through the years Johnny still noticed the statuette every single time he went into his office, but I know that I did. Perhaps the memory of how it felt in my hands is why the Eclipse Awards are still important to me; if they weren’t, I couldn’t use my vote.

Horse of the Year Favorite Trick at Walmac in 1998.

I do have some quibbles with the voting process. I question why we are required to list three horses per category – if we fail to do so, our vote will not be counted. The vote is not set up to award, say, five points for a first place vote, three for a second, one for a third; there are no “points” at all, so the only name that counts for anything is in the first field. In many cases, choosing the top horse is simple, and agonizing over who was second- and third-best is not. The killer is that it essentially makes zero difference if I type in Quality Road’s name as second best older male, or if I go with Mine That Bird. If only first place votes are tallied, why the need to rate others? (I am joking about using Mine That Bird, whose best effort this season was a fifth-place finish, to make a point here.)

Another quibble: an award for the sake of an award. The male turf horse category was exceptionally difficult for me this year, not because there was more than one excellent horse, but because there is no clear-cut, truly deserving winner of the 2010 Eclipse. I went back and forth between Gio Ponti and Winchester, and then Paddy O’Prado, and out of frustration very nearly opted for Champ Pegasus. I considered abstaining from the category. In the end I didn’t abstain because someone is going to get the award and I felt like it was my duty to choose; if I had had an option for “no award” I would have taken it.

(I did abstain from the apprentice category; I simply don’t feel I know enough about those young riders to make a qualified decision.)

I would also like to see some of the information on leading owners and breeders laid out differently – not just their totals, but for starters, how many horses did they race or breed that started in the year in question? Obviously, breeding or owning four graded stakes winners from 40 starters is more impressive than eight graded stakes winners from 200 starters.

That there are no guidelines for choosing the best horse is a common complaint against the system, but not for me. I prefer it this way; it gives me a freedom to choose based on whatever criteria in which a horse excelled. Look, I was never into My Little Pony and I promise not to vote for a horse just because it has the prettiest forelock, okay? If the guidelines were “the horse who won the most open Grade 1 races” or “the horse who faced and defeated more Grade 1 winners” or whatever, then a computer may as well calculate the winner. Instead, I get to vote as a person, and as a person who knows what a rush it is to have met the likes of Secretariat, Alleged, Miesque, Affirmed, Forego, Seattle Slew, Nijinsky, Dubai Millennium, John Henry…

And Zenyatta.

Thus, after the long prelude, I arrive at my votes in the equine categories:

2-year-old male: Uncle Mo

2-year-old female: Awesome Feather

3-year-old male: Lookin At Lucky

3-year-old female: Blind Luck

Older male: Blame

Older female: Zenyatta

Sprint male: Big Drama

Sprint female: Dubai Majesty

Turf male: Gio Ponti

Turf female: Goldikova (this was not as clear-cut for me as one might suppose)

Steeplechase: Slip Away (this would have been another “no vote” category)

Horse of the Year: Zenyatta

You are welcome to a different opinion but please – this is not a forum to be hateful or to argue your case (as I myself have refrained from doing).

One Man’s Trash; Or, The Kindness of Strangers; Or, When it’s Time to Check Yourself in to the Loony Bin*

2010-11-23T17:06:00.012-05:00

I collect things. Weird things, by most standards. Among my favorite possessions are worn halters, used horseshoes, and mane and/or tail hair from favorite racehorses. These items are not necessarily easy to come by, so I will often seize any opportunity to get a memento. When Harmonious lost a baby tooth in October, I diverted it from being thrown away and kept it. When at Oaklawn I saw the great mare Zenyatta shake her head vigorously and a wad of cotton fly out of one ear, I picked it up. Let’s face it: chances are slim I will ever be able to get a more mainstream keepsake like a halter or shoe of Zenyatta’s, so the cotton ball was like a treasure.

And then it occurred to me before Zenyatta’s start, her final race, in this year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs that the rundown bandages a horse wears in a race are typically thrown away. I asked my friend, John Shirreffs’ stable foreman Francisco, if he would try to keep Zenyatta’s hind leg wraps for me. After all, if they were going to end up in the trash…

In the aftermath of Zenyatta’s second-place finish in the race on Saturday evening, remembering to take the bandages home with me was the last thing on my mind. By early Sunday afternoon, when I realized what I had done, I was at Keeneland with no hope of being able to drive to Churchill to pick up the bandages prior to Zenyatta and her groom Mario, Harmonious, and Francisco boarding their flight to California.

Like any insane person paranoid about losing a piece of, let’s face it, junk with dirt ground into it, I panicked briefly until my friend Sarah connected me with Alice, who had vanned over to Churchill with a horse on Sunday. I can only imagine how crazy I, a complete stranger, must have sounded when asking if she would get the rundowns for me. But she got them anyway and took the wraps back to her stable barn at the farm in Versailles. I was tied down at the sales for the next two weeks, but I knew that my beloved Zenyatta’s bandages were safe and waiting for me to get them.

Yesterday, the first weekday after the sale was finished, I sent Alice a text message that I would be coming by to get the bandages. But I had to much to do after a month of overexerting myself -- for instance, the milk in my refrigerator was dated October 7th -- and I only wish I were kidding -- and then I felt uncomfortable showing up at the training barn unannounced, so I decided to wait one more day and e-mail someone I know in the office to say I would be there today.

I was up early and eager to pick up the wraps, but I made myself wait, not wanting to show up during the busiest hours of their workday. Mid-morning, on my way out the door, I grabbed a gallon-sized freezer bag and wrote “Zenyatta – hind bandages from 2010 BC Classic” on the label. As I scrambled to get the dog and myself into the car, I missed a call from Alice on my cell phone.

With dread, I listened to Alice’s voicemail saying that between yesterday and today, the bandages had ended up in the dumpster and couldn’t be found. I sat in the car, still in the driveway, clutching on to my baggy for dear life, running the gamut of emotions, not moving for 25 minutes. I was crushed.

I knew that I had to call Alice; I felt equally bad for both of us. I could tell from her message that she felt horrible, and I needed to tell her that it was alright. None of this was her fault: I had left them at Churchill, and I hadn’t picked them up on Monday like I said I was going to do. All she had done was to perform an act of kindness for someone she didn’t even know, and whatever the outcome, I appreciated it. But I didn’t want her to hear in my voice how sad I was, so I decided to hold off on calling her until I knew I would sound better.

Unbeknownst to me, while I was idling in my car staring at the empty freezer bag, some of Alice’s co-workers – Rosa (or Rosie) and two guys – had driven to the big dumpster across the farm and were searching for the bandages. So less than half an hour after the first call, and before I was composed enough to call her, I heard from Alice again: Zenyatta’s rundown bandages had been found!!

Two of my treasures: my traveling companion poses (unhappily) with my rundown bandages.

I really don’t know quite how to express an adequate “thank you” to the people who would and did do all that they did so I could add this unconventional prize, from a horse I love unabashedly, to my collection, but what I do know is that my unique piece of Zenyatta memorabilia is even more special to me now as a reminder that human kindness does, in fact, still exist.

*Special thanks goes to @EJXD2 for the vocabulary lesson/thinking clearly on my behalf.

BC Classic Footage Shot from the Track

2010-11-13T21:05:00.003-05:00

I’m in desperate need of video editing software but I think this will still be fun to watch even with the distractions:

Zenyatta – Paddock Scene and Off to the Track

2010-11-10T18:15:00.000-05:00

Here are two more installments from my very amateur video footage following Zenyatta to the Breeders’ Cup Classic…

Zenyatta – Breeders’ Cup Classic Walkover

2010-11-09T21:01:00.003-05:00

I still hope to write a blog about the pre- and post-Breeders’ Cup Classic experience with Zenyatta, but in the meantime, here is some video footage of the walkover with the big mare.

My videography skills leave something to be desired, yet I think this manages to convey something of what it was like to be there. Please pardon the rather embarrassing heavy breathing and sniffling – it was cold, I was out of breath, and my nose was running the entire time!

Breeders' Cup Friday

2010-11-05T23:34:00.000-04:00

Here are just a few photos (all I have the energy to upload) from the first day of Breeders' Cup racing:

Boys at Tosconova in the morning, the day before the Juvenile..

Delegator.

Garrett Gomez on Apart, pulling up on the far turn with a lot of run left after winning the G3 Ack Ack S.

Gabby's Golden Gal grabs the lead in the Filly and Mare Sprint after the start.

Ah, the calm before the storm: Javier Castellano loving on Prince Will I Am.

I didn't see the incident during the race (or the post-race incident until YouTube) but thought it was odd to see Calvin Borel standing straight up in the irons on A. U. Miner after the Marathon.

Winter Memories, favorite, and eventual second-place finisher, in the Juvenile Fillies Turf.

I can guess a few things Informed Decision might be thinking here, but none of them are PG.

As the Breeders' Cup Nears, the Big Show Hits Town

2010-11-02T17:38:00.007-04:00

Beauty. Majesty. Perfection. Zenyatta.

I am swamped – completely in-over-my-head, what-am-I-going to do?! swamped. And yet after getting up at 5am and putting in five solid hours of work this morning, I somehow, and quite without my permission, ended up in the car driving to Churchill Downs. What can I say, the devil made me do it! And yes, there will be hell to pay as I pull another all-nighter.

Was it worth it? Well, I was there for this, Zenyatta walking off the van after a police (and news helicopter) escort from the airport:

Before her arrival, I was squished in behind the barricade elbowing for room with the other members of the press when I heard my name and looked up to see Marcelino, Evening Jewel’s caretaker who I had met when they were stabled near Harmonious at Keeneland. “Come inside the barn,” Marcelino said, “you’ll see better.” So thanks to him, I had a lovely, roomy, unobstructed view of the big girl from the shedrow of the barn housing Evening Jewel, The Usual Q.T., Blink Luck, Dakota Phone, etc. – though facing into the sun (the location behind the barrier was not much better, light-wise).

Pardon my finger...I was recording with my camera phone while taking this picture.

After two spins on the gravel, Zenyatta’s groom Mario took her through the barn to the other side to stretch her legs for a few minutes on the grass (what little there is of it!):

Another treat was getting to pet this girl’s nose, after the commotion surrounding Zenyatta had awakened her from her nap:

Breeders' Cup "Distaff" favorite Blind Luck watching the Zenyatta parade.

…and I saw a couple of other Breeders’ Cup horses from California arrive on the grounds who I haven’t even tried to identify yet. (I missed Lookin At Lucky, that much I know.):

Frizette winner and BC Juvenile Fillies morning line pick A Z Warrior.

Two of the Baffert horses. Last season's Acorn S.-G1 winner Gabby's Golden Gal leads. I don't know who is behind -- it's not a BC horse.

Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint contenter Tropic Storm.

Breeders' Cup Marathon morning line favorite, 7-year-old Awesome Gem.

So, was it? Worth it? When it involves seeing Zenyatta, the answer is always going to be an emphatic, “Yes! Yes, it was worth it!”

I could, however, have done without the accidental detour to Indiana on my way home.

Its precious cargo of 16 horses including Zenyatta unloaded, the Tex Sutton charter leaves Standiford Field.

Something Good This Way Comes A-Blowing

2010-10-26T22:03:00.002-04:00

It was a day for crazy manes and flying tails.

Sunrise at Fasig-Tipton.

A beautiful, warm Tuesday morning in Central Kentucky gave way to a tornado watch and a fierce wind that rattled the trees, the red and yellow leaves on the ground raced each other in lazy, upward circles. (Those leaves had me thinking of La Hojarasca, a book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez that I read in high school; the English title is Leaf Storm.) At 1:30, the breeze suddenly – quite literally in a matter of seconds – lowered the temperature some 20 degrees and brought with it a cold, wet rain that persisted into the evening.

Fasig-Tipton, 1:25 pm.

Standing outside showing and selling horses in this weather is not much fun, nor is getting soaked through to the bone and wearing wet clothes for six hours. However, on this – the second day of the three-day Fasig Tipton October sale – Four Star Sales (for whom I work at the sales) sent some nice horses through the ring as agent. The bright spot was hip #761, a bay colt by top sire Tiznow out of the graded stakes-placed Boston Harbor mare Papa to Kinzie. Canadian-based trainer Mark Casse purchased him as agent for $170,000. This flashy, unflappable yearling has a lot of size and scope, like his sire, and he was the second highest-priced horse of the session and third highest of the sale so far:

BC F&M Turf Contenders Spotted Out & About

2010-10-22T17:47:00.002-04:00

Harmonious, patiently (?) on the lookout for the arrival of her exercise rider:

“Lemme go! Lemme go!”

2008 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf winner/champion turf female Forever Together:

Old Timers Solid in the Sycamore

2010-10-22T00:47:00.003-04:00

Today’s feature at Keeeneland was the Grade 3 Sycamore Stakes over a mile and a half on the Haggin turf course. The race had lost its defending champ, ten-year-old Cloudy’s Knight, when the popular gelding retired this week, but several other old fogies made it into the gate, with the average age of the runners 5.88 years old. The field of twelve had earned over $7.66-million combined (it would have been over $10-million had Cloudy’s Knight run!). I’m posting photos of them in appreciation of these grand old warriors.

The retiree Cloudy's Knight, photographed in November of 2009, a few days prior to his second-place effort by a nose in the Breeders' Cup Marathon..

Brass Hat (1st), a nine-year-old gelding who was registering his first win this season, was the senior citizen of the group, and third betting choice.

Brass Hat in the paddock.

The only horse under the age of five was four-year-old Southern Anthem, who ran second at odds of 54.6-to-1.

Four-year-old Southern Anthem.

The favorite, eight-year-old Musketier (Ger) (3rd), was making his first start since defeating Brass Hat in the Fifth Third Elkhorn S.-G2 over course and distance in April.

Musketier entering the paddock.

Yate’s Black Cat (5th) was one of two seven-year-olds in the field.

Handsome Yate's Black Cat.

The other, three-time Grade 1 stakes winner Presious Passion (9th) – he of the catch-me-if-you-can racing style – was second choice on this, his first appearance on a Kentucky racetrack.

Presious Passion in the paddock...

...and leading the field the first time under the wire.

As you can see, Brass Hat barely broke a sweat in securing the win by a length in 2:30.73.

Brass Hat awaiting win circle photo #2 after winning the Sycamore.

After posing for the traditional graded stakes race winner’s circle photo on the grass course, jockey Calvin Borel did something I’d never seen before when he hopped on the bareback Brass Hat for a win photo in the regular winner’s circle.

Calvin Borel posed bareback on Brass Hat.

Harmonious at Keeneland for the QE II

2010-10-17T12:42:00.010-04:00

Marty, Pam, and Emily Wygod’s Harmonious shipped in to Keeneland from her base of Hollywood Park in California to run in the Grade 1, Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes for three-year-old fillies on Saturday, October 16.

These are some (of many, many) photos from the days preceding the race and of raceday itself. Click on the pictures for a better look.

Schooling with Frank between the races on Thursday:

Pre-gallop entertainment at the barn on Friday morning:

Walking before heading out to the track:

Four other QE II fillies were in the same barn or directly across, including Evening Jewel and Zagora (Fr), who finished third and second, respectively, seen here cooling out after their morning exercise on Friday:

Harmonious in the paddock on the way to the track...under her regular rider Frankie, she couldn’t wait to go out:

Back at the barn, posing for the camera:

The crowd-pleasing daughter of Dynaformer paused to nibble on the hedge during her Friday afternoon schooling session:

Saturday A.M., she was walked in the paddock by Frank and Frankie under the eye of her trainer, John Shirreffs:

And here she is getting kitted up at the barn right before race time:

Entering the paddock and getting saddled:

John doing his thing, signing autographs before the start:

And Harmonious is an impressive winner under jockey Joel Rosario:

Crossing over to the grass course for the win photo and trophy presentation:

At the test barn:

And finally back to her barn:

...where this awaited her:

Photos of Spinster Stakes Runners

2010-10-10T20:01:00.002-04:00

The beautiful Acoma, who won the Juddmonte Spinster S.-G1 for trainer David Carroll and owners/breeders Helen Alexander and Helen Groves:

Acoma is an Empire Maker half-sister to Super Derby winner Arch (the sire of Blame) and a granddaughter of champion Althea. Her third dam is 1983 Broodmare of the Year Courtly Dee.

2009 Canadian champion 3-year-old filly Milwaukee Appeal got a bath before her second-place effort:

Third-placed Hot Cha Cha, who won the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S.-G1 last fall at Keeneland:

Rinterval (6^th) looked none the worse for the wear after flipping over and being scratched from the Lady’s Secret at Hollywood last weekend:

Zardana (9^th) in the paddock:

Photos from Second Day of Keeneland Fall 2010 Season

2010-10-09T23:08:00.047-04:00

Keeneland staged its first-ever Arabian race – the President of United Arab Emirates Cup-G1, featuring the undefeated filly Sand Witchh, who was 9-for-9 going in:

But she lost to the colt Grilla (below), who left her floundering 1½ lengths behind yet still nearly 11 lengths in front of the third-place horse. Arabians are not as fast as Thoroughbreds – the 10 furlongs were covered in 2:15.42.

Silver Timber prior to winning the Grade 3 Woodford Stakes:

The trifecta in the Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes-G1:

Dubai Majesty, 1st.

Old Time Religion, who paid $48.60 to place.

Champion Informed Decision, 3rd.

And the trifecta in the Abu Dhabi First Lady Stakes-G1:

Winner Proviso getting her legs stretched by trainer Bill Mott.

C. S. Silk, 2nd.

Gotta Have Her, 3rd.

Two-year-old colt J. B.’s Thunder, impressive winner of the Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity-G1 for trainer Al Stall Jr.:

Here are some photos I posted in early September of J. B. at the barn:

Reigning older male and turf male champ Gio Ponti added a second G1 to his 2010 CV by capturing the Shadwell Turf Mile. The shadows of the late afternoon made for nearly impossible picture-taking.

Gio Ponti.

Photos from Opening Day Keeneland Fall 2010 Season

2010-10-08T20:48:00.005-04:00

Courageous Cat, second in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile, schooling ahead of his race in the Shadwell Turf Mile on Saturday:

Big Polk a Dot was putting on such a show I missed photographing his Grade 1-winning stablemate Champagne d’Oro behind him. He runs in an allowance optional claiming on Saturday:

The other “Z” trained by John Shirreffs, this is Zardana, a Grade 2 stakes winner who defeated Rachel Alexandra in the New Orleans Ladies S. this year. She is entered in the Grade 1 Spinster on Sunday:

California Flag, a three-time Grade 3 winner who shipped in from California for the Woodford Stakes on Saturday. Here is the winner of the ’09 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint schooling between races:

And here is a video of him nearly nailing two people who were paying absolutely no attention to their surroundings. That’s his trainer Brian Koriner going up to him at the end (also to whom I was talking, or shouting into the phone from the sounds of it):

2009 Del Mar Oaks-G1 winner Internallyflawless, who ran off the board in the 7th race, an allowance:

Wise Dan, who became a graded stakes winner with his victory in the Phoenix S.-G3:

Carter S.-G1 winner Warrior’s Reward prior to running third in the Phoenix S.:

And finally, before my camera battery died and my memory card was full (at least they happened simultaneously), here is Wickedly Perfect prior to winning the Alcibiades S.-G1:

Secretariat: The Premiere

2010-10-05T11:09:00.003-04:00

Marquee for the Secretariat premiere in Lexington on October 3, 2010 -- one day before the 21st anniversary of the champion's death.

In advance of the red carpet Secretariat premiere in the Bluegrass State, I bought a new dress, new shoes, and borrowed an old friend to take to the screening. My escort, Four Star Sales colleague Kerry Cauthen, was graciously on loan to me from his wife Julie.

The weather had turned cold and damp after a September marked by 90 degree heat, but we sweated it out in the will-call tent where my tickets were M.I.A., neither under my name nor that of the trainer and his wife who had given me theirs. I hoped we weren’t on the verge of becoming Lexington’s version of Tareq and Michaele Salahi, but I wasn’t about to have gotten dressed up for nothing.

The women working the ticket tables were very helpful, and after a few minutes and with the help of a confirmation number, we were given replacement passes. Small crisis averted.

We found the express line on the red carpet and were able to sneak unnoticed behind Calvin and Lisa Borel and a crowd of others without having to go through the full red carpet experience as though we were somehow famous.

Inside the historic Kentucky Theatre, the ticket snafu had relegated us to the penultimate row. John and Donna Ward, who had had a similar ticket malfunction, were seated beside us. Ward trained Monarchos to win the 2001 Kentucky Derby in the second-fastest winning time after Secretariat’s. He lamented that he had been riding Otto Thorwarth (AKA Ron Turcotte in Secretariat) on an increasing number of his horses when Thorwarth quit riding to take the acting gig.

Casey Chavez, a jockey who exercises horses for Al Stall, was in the row behind us with other riders who had participated in the movie’s race scenes. I know Casey peripherally as the regular workrider for Blame and it was a pleasant surprise to find out he was in Secretariat. In the wheelchair row behind the jocks was Ron Turcotte, accompanied by Charlie Davis, one of Secretariat’s exercise riders. Davis was decked out in a fabulous pastel lilac suit and matching hat; I chatted with him at the afterparty and as you might imagine from the outfit, he is quite a character. The lighting was bad for taking photographs with my camera phone, so you will have to use a little imagination for the full effect:

Charlie Davis.

Most but not all of the theater’s 816 seats were filled. The event got underway with Bucky Sallee, longtime bugler at Keeneland, playing the Call to the Post, after which we stood and sang My Old Kentucky Home. A gentleman from Disney – apologies to him as I can only recall that his name is Sean – handled the intros. Among the speakers were Governor Steve Beshear; Lexington mayor Jim Newberry; Penny’s daughter Kate Tweedy; and Diane Lane. Penny Chenery was in attendance, a day after presenting the trophy for the Lady’s Secret Stakes (named for the Horse of the Year sired by Secretariat) to Zenyatta’s connections in California. Bill Nack, who wrote the book on which the film is based, was there as well. I learned recently that one of Nack’s closest friends is movie critic extraordinaire Roger Ebert, so I’m curious to see what Ebert thinks of Secretariat.

As for the movie itself, I smiled from beginning to end. Okay, I admit: sometimes my smile was a laugh at how loosely the script portrays the facts about Secretariat and horseracing in general. I’m not going to say that the inaccuracies and omissions didn’t irk me. And I was sad that Riva Ridge, who always played second fiddle to his year-younger, more illustrious stablemate, didn’t warrant a mention. I seem to remember that Penny Chenery has said that Riva was her favorite of the Meadow Stable horses.

But it’s a movie – a Disney movie – and the story will work for those who don’t know it. It’s a tale of a strong woman who believes in her horse at all costs as she makes her way in a man’s world. In a victory for the anything-is-possible-if-you-believe-hard-enough mentality, the horse vindicates her faith and transforms everyone in and out of her immediate circle into fans and believers.

For those who know the story and are upset that this one is nothing like it, I offer this, that the movie is not really for you or me, but for the person who’s not already hooked on horseracing. Go back to and embrace that innocent time in your childhood when you fell in love with horseracing, before you knew the ins and the outs of the industry and its people. I watched the film among people who’ve lived and breathed horseracing for generations, and they enjoyed themselves. I’ve never been to a movie where the audience was so attuned to everything, with so much electricity. Many scenes were played to applause and laughter, and Penny Chenery’s cameo while Secretariat is winning the Belmont brought down the house.

All I care about is this: was it a positive portrayal of the sport? Was the movie handled in a way in which even just a few newbies might switch on a big race or go to their local track? If yes, as I believe here, then Secretariat has done us proud.

Like, Titanic was realistic?!

Lane, John Malkovich, and Thorwarth were excellent as Penny Chenery Tweedy, Lucien Laurin, and Turcotte; my favorite was probably Margo Martindale’s spunky, scene-stealing character of Miss Ham. Blame’s rider Casey got a few seconds of face time (he was unidentifiable during the racing scenes) in the scene directly after Secretariat relieves himself on the foot of a reporter; look for Casey seated at a table in the background in the track kitchen when Turcotte bursts in with a newspaper to break the news that Secretariat had been named Horse of the Year.

Jockey Casey Chavez.

Once the screening was over, the crowd walked (or shuffled, in the case of those of us who chose footwear for fashion over function) across E. Main Street to a cocktail party at Portofino’s, a locally-owned restaurant. They did an excellent job of keeping the wine flowing while horsey people and state politicos beamed at what felt like a triumph for horseracing and for Kentucky, where the movie was filmed, including at Keeneland and Churchill. Even the governor came over for a brief chat and clanked wine glasses with us.

In post-movie dissection conversation, the word I heard repeated over and over again was “fun.” Kerry’s 17-year-old niece, Katelyn, was there with her parents and two younger sisters. Not only did Katelyn enjoy Secretariat but it resonated in a unique way for her: it was kind of cool, she said, to get a perspective of how important those “three races” are. Katelyn was born 15 years after her dad Steve won those same three races on Affirmed in 1978, and though she has seen footage of Affirmed’s Triple Crown, the full impact of what it means started to sink in after watching the movie.

Katelyn also told us that Drew Roy, who portrays Seth Hancock, is well-known to people in her age group for a role in Hannah Montana. (We would never, ever have known this on our own.)

It’s been many years since I’ve seen Penny Chenery in person. She is now a breathtakingly beautiful 88 years old and from the looks of it is enjoying this, what I’d have to assume is the second most exciting ride of her life.

A blurry Penny Chenery at the premiere.

A personal highlight of the evening was when Steve gave me a very special introduction to Ron Turcotte. I had spoken to Turcotte for a minute at Churchill Downs in June, one of those moments to which you look forward your entire life…right up till you open your mouth and make an eejit of yourself. That’s a story for another time, but the long and short of it is that I was reduced to an emotional, unintelligible, blubbering idiot that day at Churchill. I reminded him at Portofino’s that I had tried to tell him I had worked with Flag of Leyte Gulf, on whom he had had his accident, when she was a broodmare. He remembered and put his hand over his eyes with feeling and said, “Oh…that was you?”

Ron Turcotte and his portrayer, Otto Thorwarth.

The third living Triple Crown-winning jockey, Jean Cruguet – whose wife sadly died last week – was also at the premiere. He has a cameo during the Belmont Ball.

My advice about seeing the movie? Lighten up! Have fun with it! Even if you spend $10 or $15 to get in and are disappointed, think of it as a cheap investment to publicly support horseracing. Secretariat is a gift horse, and I, for one, won’t be looking it in the mouth.

Of course, I didn’t have to do much soul-searching to revert to the era when I fell in love with horseracing…

Secretariat and me in 1988. Slightly embarrassing photograph, yes, but posted in the spirit of the moment.