The international news and the national news continue to be the blame game: who did what, when, and to whom, and who’s lying (everybody) to whom (also everybody). But in thoroughbred racing, the blame game is something entirely different. Claiborne Farm’s young stallion, Blame, currently at number 18 on the leading sires list with only four racing crops, has offspring that continue to excel, and this weekend’s racing was no exception. It’s worth noting that, in the top twenty leading stallions, Blame, as a foal of 2006, is joined by only Uncle Mo, Lookin’ at Lucky and Quality Road, all stars in their own right, among much older sires, usually from the foal crop of 2000 or before.

This weekend, on December 1 at Aqueduct, Bob Baffert shipped Marley’s Freedom, by Blame, from his Southern California base, along with Mike Smith, and she took the Go for Wand H.-G3 with relative ease, rebounding from her disappointing second on Breeders’ Cup Day. Bob Baffert doesn’t ship expecting to lose, and his Blame filly clearly looked the part of a serious winner and contender for Eclipse honors. She now has earnings of $815,935, is a grade one winner, and has won seven times from 14 outs, with two second place finishes.

Blame, standing next year for $30,000, is a pedigree anomaly, being by Arch, out of a Seeking the Gold mare. Marley’s Freedom’s pedigree brings inbreeding to both Mr. Prospector and Danzig with her to Blame, making her an anomaly among Blame’s roster of stakes winners. Until now, he has tended to like mares featuring A.P. Indy and either Storm Cat or his son Forestry, though inbreeding to Mr. Prospector has occurred in his progeny. Nijinsky II in Blame’s pedigree offers the ultimate inbreeding to Northern Dancer with all of these, and Chief’s Crown, in Marley’s Freedom’s dams’ side, offers Secretariat to the mix through Six Crowns, adding to the mare power inherent in Blame’s success, because of daughters of Princequillo (Sharp Queen, the dam of Kris S. and Secretariat’s dam Somethingroyal). The other obvious strength in Marley’s Freedom’s pedigree comes from her supercharged doses of La Troienne through her broodmare sire, Formal Gold, which hook up with Seeking the Gold’s dam, Con Game, by Buckpasser.

Blame isn’t going anywhere, in world news and thoroughbred news. With more and more Tapit mares being retired to broodmare bands, with their ideal pedigree for him, Blame’s influence on big race days seems insured. Finding Tapit mares with Storm Cat-line dams’ sides is an easy deal, and, even at $30,000, Blame continues to be a bargain given his success. With the death of his sire, Arch, Blame will carry on the outcross tradition of Hail to Reason-line sires, and seems the likely successor to both his father and More Than Ready, adding vigor to thoroughbred breeding.

-- Roberta Smoodin