Category Archives: Bloodstock

If one were to design the ideal horse, the result might very well be Giant’s Causeway, whose death at 21 on April 16, 2018 marks a great loss for the thoroughbred horse industry. Without question Storm Cat’s best son at stud, his sons and daughters have thrived on the race track and in the breeding shed themselves; a Giant’s Causeway mare is the dam of the great Gun Runner. European Horse of the Year and Champion Three-Year-Old Colt, he was also a three-time champion sire, equaling Danzig’s record. He never finished worse than second, running 13 times with nine wins and four seconds.

Remember Majestic Warrior? A beautifully bred, precocious, grade one winning son of A.P. Indy, out of the millionaire, multiple grade one winning daughter of Seeking the Gold, Dream Supreme, he was the leading sophomore sire of 2013, thanks in part to his fantastic first crop daughter, Princess of Sylmar. She swept the Coaching Club American Oaks-G1, the Kentucky Oaks-G1 (defeating Beholder) and the Beldame Invitational S.-G1 (defeating Royal Delta), earning over $1.6 million.

Unless you’re standing a horse with instant name recognition and a high profile career (think American Pharoah or Honor Code), getting mares booked to a freshman sire can be a daunting proposition. As lower end horses sell worse and worse at auction, while competition for the few mares, two year olds, yearlings and weanlings who are in foal to or by the hottest horses (think Tapit and War Front) and who tick all the boxes in terms of physical perfection heats up, stud farms must bring more and more creativity to their marketing of young stallions.

I fell in love with Honor Code the first time I saw him race. Such a handsome horse, both masculine and elegant, with that magnificent head and eye, and that determined running style. And of course that pedigree—as if the gods of racing designed utter perfection, both on the page and in the flesh.