Category Archives: Bloodstock

Freshman sire Strong Mandate was bound to throw precocity. He himself won the Hopeful S.-G1 at two, and finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile-G1. Though he underachieved at three, his pedigree is chock full of quality black type on his dams’ side, and sons of Tiznow continue to be well represented as sires.

Kudos to Spendthrift Farm for a stellar weekend. Its freshman sire Goldencents, twice winner of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile-G1, looks more and more to be a chip off the old block, another Into Mischief in the making. His Bano Solo, a two-year old colt out of the Unbridled’s Song mare Royal Paradise, easily won the fifth race, a maiden special weight, at Churchill Downs on June 23.

Flashback stood his first season at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms, just outside of Lexington, Kentucky, and his book filled fast. I know, because I wanted to breed my Stormy Atlantic mare to him, but I was too late. The word was out that this was an exceptionally good-looking son of Tapit, and breeders were offered incentives to breed to him.

The young Coolmore stallion Camelot has been making waves on both sides of the Atlantic, surprising everyone with his first crop success, which continues as his first crop turns into sophomores.

Every year, the Fasig-Tipton July Sale provides us with our first glimpse into which sires are hot and which are not. In the Cretaceous period when dinosaurs roamed the earth, some of us old timers will remember that Keeneland also had a select July sale (Fusaichi Pegasus sold in this sale), and Fasig began its July sale with what it called its “New Sires Showcase,” in which first and second crop sires were sold before the well-known and reliable sires’ offspring were auctioned. Now, freshman sires’ offspring are scattered through the single day sale, making this first select sale of the yearling season more egalitarian: a good horse is a good horse.

Kudos to Spendthrift Farm for a stellar weekend. Its freshman sire Goldencents, twice winner of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile-G1, looks more and more to be a chip off the old block, another Into Mischief in the making. His Bano Solo, a two-year old colt out of the Unbridled’s Song mare Royal Paradise, easily won the fifth race, a maiden special weight, at Churchill Downs on June 23.

Spendthrift Farm’s freshman stallion Shakin It Up is having one heck of a June. Two of his first-time starters became winners on debut, propelling the stallion, who stands for $5000, to number five on the freshman sires list. The handsome son of Midnight Lute did not demonstrate unusual precocity at two, but was a G1 winner at three in the Malibu S.

If I were to invent a perfect imaginary pedigree, I would probably invent Lewis Bay’s. I’ve wagered on her many a time because of her stunning lineage, and have been let down until recently because of my high expectations of her. But her victory in the June 8 Bed O’ Roses Invitational S.-G3, in which heavy favorite American Girl virtually failed to show up, validated her pedigree further, allowing me the great pleasure of writing about her. Her trainer, Chad Brown, said of her, after the race, “she deserves to get a Grade 1,” and, with that pedigree, she certainly does.

Though the day belonged to Justify, Quality Road’s offspring racked up two Grade One wins on the Belmont undercard, with Abel Tasman taking the Ogden Phipps S. by 7 ½ lengths, and Spring Quality winning the Manhattan S. But that was just the beginning.

We live in a world where there are so few things we can really count on: the proverbial death and taxes, of course. And Old Faithful, the reliable geyser in Yellowstone that erupts every ninety minutes, to the awe and admiration of tourists who don’t realize they’re standing on a spot that may explode into magma and boulders and unbreathable ash at any moment. But in the thoroughbred world, there are some stallions that can be counted on, and Thursday, May 17, exemplified that. Let’s start with Curlin, twice Horse of the Year, who had fallen on hard times just a few years ago, not producing runners as expected.