Category Archives: Bloodstock

In 2009, a client requested I get his mare a season to a first-year stallion, Into Mischief, who was standing for $7500. I did so, and his mare got in foal, but I thought he was crazy. Who the heck was Into Mischief? Was the Harlan’s Holiday line going to produce a rightful heir? I didn’t think so. I was wrong, in a big way.

When a 65-1 shot wins the Kentucky Derby, it’s both history and news. But the way Country House won the Kentucky Derby transcended both of those with the disqualification of Maximum Security and what seems sure to be a court battle over that DQ. Maximum Security was clearly the best horse in the race, but Country House, the overlooked Mott trainee with star Tacitus the near-favorite, ran a hell of a race himself.

Omaha Beach’s stretch duel with Improbable made the Arkansas Derby-G1 an exciting race. The War Front colt demonstrated grit and tenacity by holding off one of Bob Baffert’s leading Kentucky Derby-headed contenders, and rocketed Omaha Beach to second place on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard, behind only Tacitus.

Winstar freshman stallion Carpe Diem’s first starter delivered a wire-to-wire win by over four lengths in a maiden special weight at Keeneland on April 17. Named Nayibeth, and trained by precocity-specialist Wesley Ward, she is a half-sister to Soldat, a multiple graded stakes winner who stands at Calumet Farm.

The third race at Keeneland, Wednesday April 24, featured the debut of a rocket ship, appropriately named Anna’s Fast. She won the maiden special weight by six lengths, taking the lead shortly out of the starting gate and never looking back. The first winner (and only second starter) for freshman sire Fast Anna, standing for only $7500 at Three Chimneys Farm, she was also his most expensive two-year-old, selling for $470,000 at the Ocala Breeders March Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training.

Munnings’ success at stud comes as something as a surprise. Standing at Ashford/Coolmore America with all the superstars, such as Uncle Mo, American Pharoah, Justify and others, and at a $20,000 stud fee this year, his offspring have made him a proud papa.

Two-year-old filly Reiterate became first crop stallion Competitive Edge’s first winner in a thrilling dead heat at Gulstream Park on April 11, 2019. The maiden special weight contest’s win turned Competitive Edge into the leading first crop sire of the year thus far, though it is early and that list will certainly change.

The Louisiana Derby-G2 seemed like a lock for War of Will, but one bad step a few feet from the gate seemed to sideline this magnificent horse and leave his future uncertain, while 22-1 longshot By My Standards, by Spendthrift’s second crop sire Goldencents, picked up the pieces.

Given my love for the great mares, the Blue Hens of thoroughbred breeding, it should come as no surprise that my Kentucky Derby horse is the blue-blooded, Juddmonte-bred Tacitus, winner of the Tampa Bay Derby this year. The Juddmonte breeding program has a tradition of boldness, and its inbreeding and ground breaking are second to none. Tacitus is by Tapit, the leading stallion of our time, and himself a treasure trove of wondrous DNA…

Scat Daddy was a great sire, gone way too soon. Once considered a one-dimensional patriarch of sprinters on grass, his last few crops have featured a Triple Crown winner, Justify, able to get a distance on dirt, clearly. Not to mention many others, on turf, dirt and synthetic surfaces, at any distance, most recently the winner of the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate, Anothertwistafate, running off by seven lengths on the Tapeta surface.