New issue of North American Trainer

The new issue of North American Trainer is online, with features on A.P. Indy -- who has six male-line descendants currently set to run in the Kentucky Derby -- and his grandson Tapit (sire of Derby hopefuls Creator, Lani, and Mohaymen); Hall of Famer Serena's Song; a historic retrospective on lady jockeys; different paths to U.S. classic success; and, of course, the Sid Fernando column, among other articles. Click here to access the magazine.

A.P. Indy with the 2016 Kentucky Derby contenders sired by his sons Bernardini and Mineshaft, grandson Tapit, and great-grandson Trappe Shot: Creator, Lani, Mohaymen, My Man Sam, Suddenbreakingnews, and Shagaf.

A.P. Indy, full speed ahead at 27

By Frances J. Karon

Much has been written on the life and times of A.P. Indy, but a recent visit to the retired 27-year-old stallion at Lane's End -- where he was born and raised, stood his entire stud career, and will live out his days -- got me thinking about his legacy as it stands today.

The myth, the legend: 27yo A.P. Indy -- classic winner, BC winner, HOTY, leading sire -- today at @LanesEndFarms. pic.twitter.com/Nrru9JIt1M

— Frances J Karon (@francesjkaron) February 6, 2016

A.P. Indy sired 155 black-type stakes winners from 1,224 foals, or 13% stakes winners to foals. His youngest progeny are five in 2016, so his number of total stakes winners is unlikely to change.

The breakdown of those 155 stakes winners is:

~29 Grade/Group 1 winners;
~30 Grade/Group 2 winners;
~27 Grade/Group 3 winners.

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Contrast this tally to that of A.P. Indy's sire Seattle Slew, whose 1,103 foals resulted in 111 black-type winners (10%), with:

~27 Grade/Group 1 winners;
~17 Grade/Group 2 winners;
~16 Grade/Group 3 winners.

It is said that the measure of a truly great sire extends beyond the short term, that he must establish a strong male line. We know from A.P. Indy and 21 other Grade/Group 1-siring sons that Seattle Slew did that, but let's look at what A.P. Indy has accomplished, so far, in his lifetime. These figures are current through February 10, 2016, and reflect internationally recognized Grade/Group races:

A.P. Indy as paternal grandsire:

~89 Grade/Group 1 stakes winners sired by 27 sons, including Bernardini with 13, Pulpit (11), and Malibu Moon (9);
~92 Grade/Group 2 stakes winners, with 32 sons responsible for the 181 Grade/Group 1-2 winners, including Pulpit with 17, Malibu Moon (16), Bernardini (8), and Mineshaft (8);
~84 Grade/Group 3 stakes winners, with 39 sons responsible for the 265 Graded/Group 1-3 winners, including Pulpit with 16, Bernardini (11), and Malibu Moon (10).

A.P. Indy as paternal great-grandsire:

~22 Grade/Group 1 stakes winners sired by 6 grandsons, including Tapit with 16 and Sky Mesa (2);
~20 Grade/Group 2 stakes winners sired by 6 grandsons, led by Tapit with 13 and Sky Mesa with the rest (7);
~40 Grade/Group 3 stakes winners sired by 13 grandsons, including Tapit with 14 and Sky Mesa (10).

A.P. Indy as paternal great-great-grandsire:

~2 black-type stakes winners, neither of them Graded/Group, sired by 1 great-grandson (Concord Point, a Grade 3 winner and the first son of Tapit to stand at stud).

A.P. Indy's development as a great-great-grandsire is still in its infancy. In addition to major sons of Tapit who have yet to have runners, Horse of the Year California Chrome (by Lucky Pulpit, by Pulpit, by A.P. Indy) will be well supported when he retires to Taylor Made Farm in 2017.

These results are pretty impressive already, and consider this: Seattle Slew left 22 sons who sired Grade/Group 1 winners. A.P. Indy is already up to 27 sons (accounting for the bulk of Seattle Slew's 34 G1-siring grandsons), and that number is likely to increase: stakes winners Astrology (at Taylor Made Farm, $6,500 fee) and Canadian champion Eye of the Leopard (Calumet Farm, $7,500) have first two-year-olds in 2016; Take Charge Indy (WinStar Farm, $17,500) has yearlings; and Commissioner (WinStar, $7,500) and Honor Code (Lane's End, $40,000) -- 2015 champion older male in the U.S. and the last Grade 1 winner to represent A.P. Indy on the racetrack -- will have foals next year. Any of these could make big waves, as could second-generation A.P. Indy-line horses such as sons of Bernardini and Malibu Moon (sire of Kentucky Derby winner Orb, at Claiborne Farm, $25,000). We are also get to look forward to foals by the first Grade 1-winning sons of Tapit at stud: champion Hansen (who stood one season in the U.S. before exportation to the Republic of Korea) and Tapizar, with two-year-olds this year.

Christophe Clement headlines the summer issue of North American Trainer

Christophe Clement during training hours at Belmont Park the morning after the Belmont Stakes.

The summer issue of North American Trainer is now available online, with my cover profile on top trainer Christophe Clement. You can read it here or access this and previous issues of North American Trainer and European Trainer through the Trainer magazine website here.

The magazine also has an interesting look at backstretch conditions in the U.S. by Bill Heller and the usual thought-provoking column from Sid Fernando, among other articles.

We decided before the Belmont Stakes that we would feature Clement in this issue. “I will either be very happy or very sad,” he said to me when I scheduled the morning after the Belmont -- his call -- to spend with him. His trainee, the Robert S. Evans-owned Tonalist, won the race, of course, so not only was Clement very happy but it was almost impossible to have a conversation with him for all the people coming up to congratulate him.

Clement will always be remembered as the trainer of three-time Eclipse Award winner and turf horse Gio Ponti, but in Tonalist, a son of Tapit, Clement has a leading three-year-old whose talent matches his pedigree and who could go on to do great things, too.

A brilliant sire, Tapit is not known for getting horses who want to go much further than 9 furlongs (here is a blog post on him from February, 2013), whereas Tonalist’s broodmare sire Pleasant Colony is a source of stamina. Incidentally, in 1981 Pleasant Colony won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, then ran third to Summing in the Belmont. Tonalist extends from one of the great female families in the stud book, tracing to Broodmare of the Year Toll Booth and Missy Baba. He is the third Belmont winner, after A.P. Indy and Lemon Drop Kid, representing this family, which also includes Horse of the Year Havre de Grace. Toll Booth is the third dam of Tonalist and Havre de Grace, while Missy Baba is the fourth dam of those two plus A.P. Indy, Lemon Drop Kid, and Preakness winner Summer Squall.

Christophe Clement is on the verge of a personal milestone: as of the morning of July 26th, his horses have won 1,489 races. It won’t be long before he hits the 1,500 mark. Should Tonalist win this afternoon’s Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga, Clement will be one step closer to achieving the momentous win and moving on towards his next milestone.

Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist back at the Clement barn shortly after his big win.

Tonalist was hand-grazed after his post-race bath.

Clement's Green Mask, owned by Abdullah Saeed Almaddah, training on the turf at Belmont, with Ruffian's grave in the background.

Live Oak Stud's six-year-old Za Approval, millionaire and winner of multiple Grade 3s for Clement.

Little Snow at Northern Farm

There will be plenty of upcoming posts -- plus features in North American Trainer and Thoroughbred Daily News (TDN) -- from my trip with Inkmarksofsu to Northern Farm in Hokkaido, Japan. In the meantime, here are some photos I can’t resist posting of Yukichan, Zazu, and Tapitsfly.

Bred by Northern Farm, Yukichan is one of few registered white Thoroughbreds and the only one, to my knowledge, to have won a stakes race (she is a dual stakes winner in Japan). She is a 2005 daughter of gray stallion Kurofune out of the white mare Shirayukihime, whose name translates to Snow White in English. Shirayukihime was sired by the near-black Sunday Silence and is out of a bay Topsider mare.

The first foal out of Yukichan (translation per my new friend Noriko Takahashi: Little Yuki, Yuki being both a woman’s name and the Japanese word for snow), a 2012 filly by King Kamehameha, is bay, but her second foal, the 2013 Harbinger filly shown here, is white.

Optical illusion...how many horses do you see?

Yukichan (right) and her Harbinger filly.

Multiple Grade 1 winners Zazu and Tapitsfly, who are not quite white but gray or roan like their sire Tapit, were purchased by Northern Farm last November and exported to Japan. More info (i.e. what they are in foal to for 2014) will appear in the TDN.

Zazu (left) and Tapitsfly.

Tapit, Saturday Star

Tapit hasn't let his position as one of the stallion ranks' hottest tickets get to his head.

Yesterday I posed the question, “Is anyone having a better day than Tapit?”

With three brand new Graded stakes winners, Tapit was in the zone on a big Saturday in U.S. horseracing. Gary and Mary West’s Flashback, trained by Bob  Baffert, wired Santa Anita’s Robert B. Lewis Stakes-G2 field (of four) to win by 6 1/4 lengths; Joseph Bucci’s Honorable Dillon (Eddie Kenneally) rallied for a half-length win in the G2 Hutcheson Stakes-G2 at Gulfstream; and Besilu Stables’ Tapicat (Bill Mott) was a wire-to-wire winner of the Florida Oaks-G3 at Tampa Bay Downs.

What is particularly impressive is that all three of these horses were three-year-olds making their stakes debuts, and Flashback only his second career start. Under the new Kentucky Derby points system, Flashback is now on the board with ten points, which places him co-fourth on the list in these early days.

It would be no surprise if stakes-placed three-year-old colt He’s Had Enough, third to Flashback in the Lewis on Saturday and second in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, has a big win in him, too. He has five Derby points.

Their illustrious sire Tapit, a gray or roan colt by Pulpit out of Tap Your Heels, was bred by Oldenburg Farms LLC and was sold through Fred Seitz to David J. Fiske, agent for Winchell Thoroughbreds, at the 2002 Keeneland September Sale for $625,000, the second most expensive yearling by his sire that year.

Tapit's sire Pulpit at Claiborne Farm.

Trained by “The Mad Genius” Michael Dickinson, Tapit won three of six starts, including the nine furlong Wood Memorial Stakes-G1 by half a length and, at two, the Grade 3 Laurel Futurity at eight and a half furlongs. He finished a well-beaten ninth in Smarty Jones’ Kentucky Derby, ninth in the Pennsylvania Derby going nine panels, and never raced again. Retired to Gainesway Farm in Kentucky for the 2005 breeding season, he covered his first mares for a $15,000 stud fee.

Tapit at Gainesway Farm in the fall of 2012.

Tapit is one of ten Grade 1 winners by the recently deceased Pulpit (by A.P. Indy), and he has established himself as the most successful so far of the Pulpit stallion sons, with Grade 1 winner Sky Mesa next best with two Grade 1 stakes winners.  (Not to be outdone, Pulpit also got a new stakes winner on Saturday, with Guilt Trip in the Strub Stakes-G2; Guilt Trip is out of a mare by Quiet American and therefore bred on a Pulpit/Fappiano cross, like Tapit.)

In truth, Tapit was born to be a good sire, pending a flash of brilliance on the racetrack.

His dam Tap Your Heels (by Unbridled) is a three-quarters sister to champion sprinter Rubiano (by Unbridled’s sire Fappiano). Rubiano sired graded stakes winners, including Burning Roma, who won the 2000 Futurity Stakes-G1 at Belmont via DQ, and he’s the damsire of young sire War Front as well as Take Charge Lady-G1, whose three-year-old son Will Take Charge (by Unbridled’s Song) won a stakes race at Oaklawn in January.

Coincidentally, 2009 Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird’s second dam is a half-sister to Tap Your Heels. Summer Bird is one of many top horses from the Fappiano sire line in this family.

Tap Your Heels has four other foals by Pulpit, none of which has won. She is the dam of a yearling colt by Malibu Moon and was bred to Medaglia d’Oro for 2013.

The Nijinsky II mare Ruby Slippers, Tapit’s second dam, was a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Glitterman (by Dewan), whose nine graded stakes winners include millionaire Glitter Woman-G1, later the dam of G1 Suburban Handicap winner Political Force (by Unbridled’s Song).

Moon Glitter is Tapit’s third dam, and she was a full sister (by In Reality) to dual Grade 3 winner (at eight and nine furlongs) Relaunch, whose progeny included 27 Graded stakes winners. Remember when we used to have 12 furlong dirt races in this country? Well, in the late 80s, Relaunch’s son Waquoit won three of those: back-to-back editions of the Brooklyn Handicap-G1, and one Jockey Club Gold Cup-G1. Another Relaunch son, Skywalker, won the 10-furlong Breeders’ Cup Classic in 1986 and sired ten-furlong Grade 1 winner Bertrando.

There were fourteen stakes winners in Tapit’s first crop, with champion Stardom Bound one of four Grade 1 winners, although only she and Laragh earned that distinction at the age of two. Careless Jewel won hers at three and Japanese-raced Testa Matta (who won the 10-furlong Japanese Dirt Derby at three) at six in 2012.

Tapit’s graded stakes winners to date are:

~Hansen-G1 (2009; out of Stormy Sunday, by Sir Cat): champion 2-year-old; maximum win distance at top level: 8.5 furlongs

~Stardom Bound-G1 (2006; My White Corvette, Tarr Road): champion 2-year-old filly; 8.5 furlongs

~Careless Jewel-G1 (2006; Sweet and Careless, Hennessy): 10 furlongs

~Dance Card-G1 (2009; Tempting Note, Editor’s Note): 9 furlongs

~Laragh-G1 (2006; Rose of Summer, El Prado): 8.5 furlongs

~Tapitsfly-G1 (2007; Flying Marlin, Marlin): 8 furlongs

~Tapizar-G1 (2008; Winning Call, Deputy Minister): 8 furlongs; also won a G2 and G3 at 8.5 furlongs

~Tell a Kelly-G1 (2008 Evrobi, Tabasco Cat): 7 furlongs

~Testa Matta-G1 (2006; Difficult, Concern): 8 furlongs; also won a 9-furlong G3 and a 10-furlong stakes

~⨎Zazu-G1 (2008; Rhumb Line, Mr. Greeley): 8.5 furlongs

~Concord Point-G2 (2007; Harve de Grace, Boston Harbor): 9 furlongs

~Dancinginherdreams-G2 (2008; Mayan Milagra, Menifee): 8 furlongs

~⨎Flashback-G2 (2010; Rhumb Line, Mr. Greeley): 8.5 furlongs

~Headache-G2 (2006; Pamric, Woodman): 10 furlongs

~Honorable Dillon-G2 (2010; Shy Greeting, Shy Tom): 7 furlongs

~Joyful Victory-G2 (2008; Wild Lucy Black, Wild Again): 8.5 furlongs

~Trappe Shot-G2 (2007; Shopping, Private Account): 6 furlong; also won a stakes at 8.5 furlongs

~Hightap-G3 (2006; Don’tellmichelle, Regal Classic): 8.5 furlongs

~Tapicat-G3 (2010; Zealous Cat, Storm Cat): 8.5 furlongs

~Touching Beauty-G3 (2007; Victory Road, Ikari): 8 furlongs

~War Echo-G3 (2006 Wild Vision, Wild Again): 8.5 furlongs; also won a stakes at 9 furlongs

⨎full siblings
colt
gelding
filly

Champion Stardom Bound at Keeneland in 2009.

Five of Tapit’s 21 Graded winners, including three Grade 1 winners, are out of Storm Cat-line mares. Joyful Victory and War Echo are out of daughters of Wild Again, who sired the second dam of Tapizar. Concord Point is 4x3 to the full siblings Moon Glitter and Relaunch, and three of Tapit’s other stakes winners -- Redreamit, Tapajo, and Tidal Volume -- are out of Relaunch-line mares.

Stardom Bound (Juvenile Fillies-G1), Hansen (Juvenile-G1), Tapizar (Dirt Mile-G1), and Tapitsfly (Juvenile Fillies Turf) have all won Breeders’ Cup races. Tapit gets graded stakes winners on dirt, all-weather, and turf -- their one commonality is brilliance, with many runaway winners, such as Careless Jewel by 11 in the G1 Alabama, Trappe Shot by 8 1/2 in the G2 True North, and Hansen by 13 1/4 in the Kentucky Cup Juvenile. He also adds class to his mares: Hansen’s dam, for example, had been claimed for $5,000 out of her maiden win.

Grade 1 winner Tapitsfly training at Churchill Downs last May. Katsumi Yoshida purchased her for $1,850,000 at the Fasig-Tipton November sale in 2012.

Like Rubiano and Relaunch, Tapit is a gray, and he is known for getting progeny who are almost white at a young age. It’s a distinctive trademark and makes them often easy to identify without having to look up their pedigree in the catalogue page or racing program.

Of his Graded stakes-winning sons at stud, Concord Point (at Hill ’n’ Dale) has yearlings, Trappe Shot (Claiborne) has first foals this year, and Hansen (Ashford) and Tapizar (Gainesway) will stand their first seasons in 2013.

Trappe Shot and the blacksmith in Kiaran McLaughlin's Belmont barn in June, 2011, two days before winning the Grade 2 True North Handicap by 8 1/2 lengths.

Tapizar at Gainesway on Friday.

Hansen, who resembles his sire, at Ashford Stud.

Mares who were bred to Tapit for 2013 foals include Stormy Sunday (dam of Hansen); My White Corvette (Stardom Bound); Rhumb Line (Zazu and Flashback); and Mayan Milagra (Dancinginherdreams). Yearlings include full siblings to stakes winners out of My White Corvette (colt); Winning Call (dam of Tapizar; filly); Evrobi (Tell a Kelly; filly); Mayan Milagra (colt); and Zealous Cat (Tapicat; colt). Winning Call and Wild Lucy Black (Joyful Victory) were both covered by Tapit’s son Trappe Shot in 2012.

Whether or not Tapit ever gets a winner of the ten-furlong Kentucky Derby, he has clearly risen to the top of his game: 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta is due to deliver a foal by him this spring, and 2011 Horse of the Year Havre de Grace (not to be confused with Harve de Grace, dam of Concord Point) will be bred to him for her first foal. In North America, only Bernardini at $150,000 commands a higher stud fee than Tapit’s $125,000.

Top Ten at Fasig-Tipton March Sale

Hip 149, Big Brown - Cool Ghoul colt, getting his whites scrubbed during a bath on the Wednesday before the breeze show.

Yesterday’s Fasig-Tipton sale of two-year-olds in training yielded a few big prices and was headed by a flashy, well-made colt by first-year sire Big Brown. The gorgeous bay out of Cool Ghoul (by Silver Ghost) is a half-brother to Listed stakes winner Dagnabit; a $220,000 yearling, he blossomed into a $1,300,000 juvenile.

A previous blog post had a photo of him as “a handsome Big Brown colt,” being hand-walked the day before the sale horses breezed in front of prospective buyers on March 23rd. You couldn’t walk by this horse without noticing him!

Click here to see timed results from the workouts and here to see prices for all the horses.

Below are photos of the top ten most expensive horses sold.

The '10 Cool Ghoul on Thursday in the Wavertree Stables consignment of Ciaran Dunne.

And on Friday, blazing an eighth down the track in 10.1 seconds.

His fluent, powerful stride caught the eye of Demi O'Byrne, who signed the ticket for $1,300,000.

Hip 96, a Distorted Humor - Secret Thyme colt consigned by Lynne Boutte and sold to John Ferguson for $1,200,000 after working an eighth in 10.1.

Another six-figure two-year-old: hip 51, a Tapit colt out of Liberty Flag consigned by Stephens Thoroughbreds. He was purchased on behalf of Black Rock LLC for $1,000,000 after working in 10.3.

Hip 40, a Bernardini colt out of Jolie Boutique, was bought for $875,000 by John Ferguson out of the Hartley/De Renzo consignment.

This Hard Spun colt out of Lucky Lavender Gal, catalogued as hip 56, was sold by Eddie Woods to John Ferguson for $870,000.

Another from the barn of Eddie Woods, this son of Street Boss and Varnish, hip 123, attracted a bid of $825,000 from agent Steve Young.

This Pike Racing-consigned colt, by Malibu Moon out of Seek to Soar (hip 51), went to John Ferguson for $725,000.

Hip 67, the Lion Heart colt out of Obligation North who sold for $625,000. He changed hands from the consignment of Eddie Woods to trainer Mark Casse.

Sequel Bloodstock sold the only filly in the top ten, this daughter of Bernardini and Runnin Ute. Todd Pletcher purchased hip 91 for $550,000.

Rounding out the ten highest-priced two-year-olds sold was Niall Brennan's hip 93, a colt by Tale of the Cat out of Saratoga Drive. He was bought for $550,000 by F. Thomas Conway.

Breaking in Headache

Buck Wheeler and the Tapit - Pamric colt at the beginning of the breaking-in process.

In October of 2007, I met up with Buck Wheeler at Ramsey Farm in Nicholasville, Kentucky, to write an article for North American Trainer on Buck’s method of breaking yearlings. Buck uses his Stableizer -- a string under the horse’s top lip that hooks behind the ears and hits key soothing pressure points -- as a tool for relaxing the young horse, and I watched the entire, rather quick process as a yearling was taught to accept a saddle for the first time.

The colt I observed Buck working on was chosen at random. He was a gray son of Tapit and Pamric, by Woodman, that Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey had purchased for $85,000 from Highclere Sales, agent, at the Fasig-Tipton July yearling sale, where he had been catalogued as Hip 102.

To start with, the yearling is fitted with Buck's Stableizer.

I put my voice recorder in the pocket of Buck’s shirt and stood back to watch, listen, and take photos from the center of the round pen as Buck and the yearling worked together. The ’06 Pamric was a good student, soon accepting Buck as the alpha and willing to do all that was asked of him. I went home, wrote my article, and that was that.

Recently, I was reminded to look for my pictures from this outing when a friend made a reference to Headache, a Grade 2 winner last year for the Ramseys. Because Headache, of course, is Pamric’s 2006 foal -- the very one who was used for my breaking-in demonstration at Ramsey Farm four-and-a-half years ago.

Buck blowing into the colt's nostrils.

Now a gelding, Headache has raced 28 times, compiling a record of 8-5-5 with earnings of $774,123. His racing career has had its ups and downs -- after three maiden special weights at two and three, he dropped to maiden claimers, winning finally in his fifth lifetime attempt. He stayed at claiming level and was haltered from the Ramseys and trainer Nick Zito for $20,000 in his seventh race, but the Ramseys, with his current trainer Mike Maker, claimed him back, one start and 28 days later, for $25,000.

The girth is tightened for the first time.

His progression to Graded stakes quality was not a natural one. He made his stakes debut in July, 2010, winning the [N] (non-black-type) Claiming Crown Jewel Stakes at Canterbury. Headache continued to run against allowance and claiming competition for the next 11 months, winning just once in the timeframe, before his first foray into a black-type stakes race, the Grade 3 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap. He won, with Grade 1 winner Awesome Gem behind in second.

Headache impressed his team enough in the Cornhusker that he only ever started in Graded stakes races afterwards. He next finished fifth in the Whitney H.-G1, won the Grade 2, $500,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup Handicap, was 12th in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and ran sixth in the Clark Handicap last November, his most recent start.

Waiting for a command.

Ken Ramsey told Joe DePaolo in his Breeders’s Cup blog that the horse was “a headache when he got to Nick Zito, and that’s why he’s a gelding.” (And, of course, hence the name.) It’s funny, because from what I remember, and sorting through my pictures of the day Headache was broken to saddle -- despite coming from a hot-blooded sire line, he was quite docile.

On the draw reins.

The colt watches with curiosity as Buck is about to release the lasso.

He recoils backwards but remains calm.

Lungeing, stirrups flying.

Headache has accepted Buck as his alpha and, loose, follows him around the round pen.