Bullet Train at Wintergreen

Here is Group 3 winner, and a Sadler’s Wells three-quarters brother to champion Frankel (by Galileo; both Juddmonte homebreds are out of Danehill’s stakes-winning daughter Kind). The six-year-old is at Wintergreen Stallion Station, standing his first season at stud in 2013 for $7,500. Not the best pictures -- it was very cold and windy!

If you want to read about Bullet Train, my friend Sid Fernando posted a blog entry (with a video) just this morning.

Legend Maker

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.”

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*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:

The Mien of a Queen

The fairytale story of Lisa’s Booby Trap hit a small bump when the previously undefeated filly finished last in the second division of the Riskaverse Stakes at Saratoga yesterday for owner-trainer Tim Snyder. (Glenn Craven has a nice entry about a personal meeting with Tim and Lisa here at his blog “Fugue for Tinhorns.”) But what’s a fairytale without an evil queen or ugly stepsister?

Cue Queen of the Creek.

Queen of the Creek at Churchill Downs in June.

While the sentimentalists were pulling for Lisa’s Booby Trap, Queen of the Creek – I'll refrain from branding her “evil” – skipped over the lawn under Julien Leparoux and won the Riskaverse easily. The daughter of Irish-bred turf champion Theatrical and Miasma (by Lear Fan) enhanced her already significant value with this, her first stakes win.

Theatrical, sire of Queen of the Creek.

Queen of the Creek was a valuable broodmare prospect before she set foot on a racetrack. Her three-parts sister – which is as close as we’ll get to a stepsister in this tale – Mien (by Nureyev, the sire of Theatrical) was an undistinguished racehorse, winning one of two starts, but quickly made a name for herself at stud. Her second foal Big Brown won the 2008 Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Haskell Invitational, and Florida Derby en route to the three-year-old division championship the year Queen of the Creek was sold to Nathan Tinkler’s Patinack Farm for $140,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale.

Mien, the dam of Big Brown, as a foal with her and Queen of the Creek's dam Miasma in 1999. Contrary to appearances, Miasma has not been decapitated.

For your amusement, here’s the only photo I got of Queen of the Creek’s nephew Big Brown and Kent Desormeaux (rider of Lisa’s Booby Trap) as they won the Derby. My timing was legendary for all the wrong reasons:

Oops. Headless Big Brown winning the Kentucky Derby.

Queen of the Creek is linebred 5x5 (and Mien 4x5) to the blue hen mare *Rough Shod II, through the full siblings Thong and Lt. Stevens. A profile on Rough Shod and a salute to the many graded and group stakes winners who have multiple strains of her blood is a topic for another post. For the moment, suffice it to say that any time you see Lear Fan or Alysheba (whose dams are full sisters by Rough Shod’s son Lt. Stevens) crossed with Nureyev or his close relatives Sadler’s Wells and Fairy King (full brothers), that horse is linebred to Rough Shod. Some examples through Alysheba or Lear Fan are classic winner Bright Moon, Hong Kong Vase-G1 winner Vallee Enchantee, French highweight Loup Solitaire, and, of course, Queen of the Creek.

Similarly, the potent Kingmambo/Sadler’s Wells cross that has produced Japanese Horse of the Year El Condor Pasa and European classic winners Henrythenavigator, Divine Proportions, Virginia Waters, and Workforce is based on the same principle of a duplication of the Rough Shod family, because Kingmambo’s dam, multiple champion Miesque, is by Nureyev.

I suspect we’ll see a continuation of this pattern when Blame goes to stud: his third dam Special is the dam of Nureyev and second dam of Sadler’s Wells.

[The name of this blog – you guessed it! – is based on this family. As Nureyev’s No. 1 fan, I wanted to honor his female family when I named my business a few years ago. His first three dams were Special; Thong; and Rough Shod. The name Special was apt for the horse but too presumptuous for me, and while the humor of going with Thong was tempting, I was wary about the kind of clients it would attract – although it would certainly have been, er, interesting to hand out “Thong” business cards or to make breeding recommendations on “Thong LLC” letterhead. So, Rough Shod it was!]

Nureyev, great-grandson of Rough Shod and grandsire of Queen of the Creek and Big Brown.