Sophomore sire Orb didn’t make many waves as a freshman sire, but his career has now made a big splash with his first graded stakes winner, two-year-old Sippican Harbor, becoming the longshot winner of the Spinaway S.-G1 at Saratoga on Saturday, September 1. With only 83 starters, Orb now boasts 33 winners, but clearly Sippican Harbor is the belle of this ball, moving her sire up to number 12 on the second crop sires list. Sippican Harbor’s record is now three starts and two wins, for earnings of $242,650.
Her trainer, Gary Contessa, entered her in the Spinaway filled with doubt. “I really thought she was a turf horse, shows you what I know,” he said. “A blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.” Out of a Deputy Minister dam and a Mr. Livermore second dam (the wonderful producer French Flick), Orb demonstrates he is following in his father’s footsteps. Malibu Moon has sired graded stakes winners Freedom Child and Heavenly Love with Deputy Minister mares, graded stakes winner Prospective with an Awesome Again mare, and graded stakes winner Sara Louise with a Mt. Livermore mare, making the concept of this cross an attractive one, especially since Orb himself is a representative of one of Malibu Moon’s most successful crosses, with Unbridled mares and daughters of his son, Unbridled’s Song. Both the inbreeding to Northern Dancer through Nijinsky II in Orb’s pedigree crossing with the Deputy Minister in his grade one winning daughter, and Nijinsky II’s affinity for the Blushing Groom line, in her second dam, seal the deal. Gary Contessa himself purchased the filly out of the Fasig Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale in 2017 for $260,000, but she failed to reach her reserve of $110,000 at the Ocala Breeders Sale in March of 2018. Clearly Contessa is much more than a blind squirrel.
Orb won the 2013 Kentucky Derby-G1 over such luminaries as Will Take Charge, Revolutionary, Mylute and Oxbow, all currently at stud as well. He stands at Claiborne Farm for $25,000, but his first crop did little to boost his reputation as a sire, with only two winners and a grade three placer, Orbolution. His yearlings clearly looked the part, with an average auction price of nearly $150,000, bolstered by two million dollar plus yearlings. Orb has every right to be a sire on paper, as his tail female line goes back to the blue hen Laughter, by Bold Ruler, the dam of longtime Claiborne stallion, until his death, millionaire Private Terms, among many other black type winners.
Malibu Moon has yet to prove himself as a sire of sires, though his get more than proves his ability to sire top runners. This grumpy old man stands at Spendthrift Farm, and now, with Orb, Freedom Child, and Gormley carrying the mantle, this new grade one winner foretells good things to come.
— Roberta Smoodin