Category Archives: Bloodstock

At first, it seemed that Noble Mission’s sole claim to fame was being the great champion Frankel’s full brother. Having run only on grass in Europe, the Group One winning millionaire seemed an odd choice for Lane’s End in Versailles, Kentucky, to import to add to its stallion roster in 2015. However, it would seem that doubting the stallion acumen of the masters of Lane’s End, William Farish, the elder, and former Ambassador to England, and William Farish, the younger, who has run the farm for the past decade, is utter foolishness.

The Lake Placid S.-G3T at Saratoga (August 17) was a hard-fought thriller ending in a lengthy stewards’ consultation which eventually declared a dead heat between Varenka and Regal Glory. Neither mare deserved to lose. What was surprising was that the most superficial glance at the two mares’ pedigrees revealed stunning similarities, making them almost seem like sisters from another mother.

Saturday, August 17, in the space of little more than thirty minutes, a remarkable thing happened. Two Grade One races were run, the Del Mar Oaks, on turf, won by Cambier Parc with an explosive turn of foot, making her rivals look like nags down the stretch, and the Pacific Classic S., won easily by Higher Power. Why is this remarkable?

On Arlington Million day, Crestwood third crop stallion Get Stormy, who stands for a bargain $6500, had his first grade one winner when Got Stormy beat the boys in the Grade One Fourstardave H. on turf at Saratoga. While the racing world had eyes on Chicago, Got Stormy set a new course record of 1:32 flat, decimating the previous record by nearly a second, and putting her sire on the map.

When veteran trainer Jorge Navarro says he’s currently training the best horse he’s ever had, people should listen. Anyone who bet the farm on Shanghai Bobby’s son, Shancelot, in the Amsterdam S.-G2 July 28 at Saratoga is very happy.

The continuing influence of the glorious stallion El Prado surfaced over Haskell weekend, as two of his sons, Artie Schiller and Medaglia D’Oro, sired stakes winners, Bowie’s Hero in the Eddie Read S.-G2 at Del Mar and Golden Award in the Shuvee S.-G3 at Saratoga.

I’ve been waiting to write about Liam’s Map’s first winner, because I love the horse. When I visited Lane’s End to view him when he first went to stud, he knocked my eyes out. He is the most unusual of gray horses, with a silver coat that appears to be star-spangled.

The Stillwater S. on July 18 at Saratoga turned into a showcase for one freshman sire, and an exclamation point for another. Ashford’s freshman Competitive Edge emerged from the shadow of American Pharoah when his fillies, My Italian Rabbi and Fierce Lady, finished first and second in that race, dueling one another like real pros.

The Fasig-Tipton July Sale is the first indicator of another trend: which freshmen sires look the most promising to buyers. Though a buzz about the first crops of certain freshman sires begins when the babies hit the ground, the July Sale is the true, initial barometer of that buzz that can be quantified, and Darley at Jonabell and Winstar Farm were the big winners.

Though it hardly seems possible, Khalid Abdullah and his Juddmonte Farms have outdone themselves in terms of audacious breeding in the creation of super-mare Enable, who on July 6, 2019, won the Coral Eclipse S.-G1 with ease, and with her trainer, John Gosden, saying she was only 85% fit. She is en route to her third Prix de le Arc de Triomph S.-G1, which she has won two years in a row, beating the boys with astonishing ease.