Dogs

❌ Races Not Recognised by the APC A controversial list of 12–17 races in New South Wales were unilaterally upgraded by Racing Australia and Racing NSW, but rejected by the APC due to procedural violations and lack of a functioning national pattern committee. These include: [A Dozen NS...BloodHorse], [Asian Raci...ist of ...], [Races not...ype status], [No interna...rty dozen’] The Invitation (1400m) – proposed Group 2 Five Diamonds Prelude (1500m) – proposed Listed Silver Eagle (1300m) – proposed Group 3 Reginald Allen Quality (1400m) – proposed Group 3 St Leger Stakes (2600m) – proposed Group 3 Tapp-Craig (1400m) – proposed Listed These races are not recognised internationally, meaning they do not appear in pedigree catalogues like Arion or The Blue Book, and horses winning them do not earn official black-type status.   The APC has made it clear that any upgrades must be submitted and approved at its annual meeting. Racing Australia has been urged to reinstate a proper pattern committee to align with international standards.

Agree. Has he not read or understood the APC guidelines and aopproval process?

He seems to have sorta missed the point. 

Sponsored by Pedigrees360. Candidly, it always feels a little cheap to delve into a pedigree once its functionality is established, scrubbing away any genetic mud before triumphantly producing some hidden nugget to explain how it has all come together. “Post rationalization” of this kind is standard in articles like this, and the absolute opposite of the grueling enterprise that has worn out the soles of so many shoes over the past couple of weeks. As ever, Keeneland presented thousands of perfectly plausible pages to measure against the animals paraded before you. Knowing how few will ultimately contribute significantly to those pedigrees, however, the catalogue principally serves to indicate the premium we should expect to pay for a physical. When prospectors assessed Hip 1643 at the 2013 September Sale, they faced a conundrum. The filly was from the third crop of Big Brown, who had made such a pedestrian start that his fee, already $35,000 from $65,000, would the following spring dwindle to $10,000. And she was out of a mare by Silver Ghost, known at stud principally for a vicious temper, his only real distinction being Oklahoma millionaire Silver Goblin. Her name was Boat's Ghost, and while she had managed second in a Prairie Meadows sprint stakes, she had begun and ended a light career under a tag. As for the rest of her family, suffice to say that it left ample space to exhibit some modest black type under the fourth dam. Puca reigns | Sarah Andrew On the other hand, Boat's Ghost had somehow produced an outlier in Finnegans Wake, one of few horses of any caliber sired by Powerscourt (GB) before his departure for Turkey. At that point, admittedly, Finnegans Wake remained no more than Grade I-placed (would later win the GI Turf Classic, plus three Grade IIs) for the Donegal Racing program then taking off for his breeder Jerry Crawford. But his half-sister, co-bred on a foal share, was evidently attractive enough for Crawford to buy her out for the Donegal program at $90,000. That proved a good move, as she ran second in the GII Gazelle Stakes before adding a turf stakes at Suffolk Downs, and on retirement was cashed out to Thomas Clark at the 2017 November Sale for $275,000. Having meanwhile been favored with a place in Gun Runner's debut book, she was flipped to Grandview Equine at Fasig-Tipton the following year for $475,000. By now you'll have recognized that we're talking about Puca, the most precocious blue hen in a long time. Her Gun Runner filly made a solid start, winning three and twice stakes-placed. Last weekend, however, Puca had her third sophomore Grade I winner from three foals since when that rough diamond Baeza finally got it all together in the GI Pennsylvania Derby. The previous two, Classic winners Mage and Dornoch, were both by Good Magic. That left open the possibility of some alchemy between his genes and those of Puca. After all, their combination revealed a neat symmetry, Danzig and Mr. Prospector facing each other across the fourth generation: Silver Ghost was by Mr. Prospector, whose grandson Curlin sired Good Magic; while Danzig, grandsire of Big Brown, also gave us Good Magic's damsire Hard Spun. But now here comes Puca's son by McKinzie, a stallion without a single ounce of Danzig. He does represent another Mr. Prospector sire-line, as does his damsire Petionville, but nobody could sensibly attribute Baeza's talent to two further doses of such a ubiquitous influence, back in his fifth generation. Puca's cluster graph from Pedigrees360. The higher a dot is on the page, the stronger the attribute. In the foreground, at least, the firmest available foothold is surely the fact that Puca is out of a mare competent to give even Powerscourt a smart runner. Boat's Ghost does eventually trace to the Greentree nexus Quick Touch (Count Fleet), dam of Quill (Princequillo) and out of a half-sister to Hall of Famer Twenty Grand. But Quick Touch was already as remote as fifth dam when Crawford and a friend spent $7,000, 35 years ago, on a Native Royalty filly they named Native Boat. She progressed from claimers to win a couple of black-type sprints, prompting them to retain her daughter Rocktheboat (Summer Squall) as a $15,000 RNA yearling. Rocktheboat only won a couple of small races before eventually being sold to Iowa, later changing hands at a local sale for just $500. But while still in Kentucky she had produced Boat's Ghost. After Finnegans Wake made his Grade I breakout, Boat's Ghost was offered at the 2015 Keeneland November Sale. Though failing to reach her reserve, at $435,000, she seems to have changed hands privately–only to be discarded, for $17,000 at the 2023 January Sale, just a couple of weeks before Mage made his debut. (Boat's Ghost did have the good fortune, however, to be spotted by the best farm of its size in Kentucky, where she has since produced a couple of daughters who are now collector's items.) Mage's deeds in the intervening months meant that Puca's McKinzie colt could raise $1.2 million from Mayberry Farm that same September. Even that has now proved a bargain, Baeza already ahead of the game on the track even before entering competition with his two half-brothers at stud. Puca herself, meanwhile, apparently returns to auction at Fasig-Tipton in November, having delivered a colt and filly by Good Magic since her $2.9 million acquisition by John Stewart at Keeneland in 2023. Albeit empty, it's impossible to put a price on a 13-year-old Broodmare of the Year–especially if Baeza, lining up at the Breeders' Cup a couple of days before the sale, happens to suggest that she should retain that crown.   Can't Get Even? Get Mad As for Baeza's sire, he continues his productive habit of producing real standouts from what remains only a competitive impact by most indices. McKinzie has so far mustered seven black-type scorers, among 61 overall, from 155 starters. Among less expensive stallions in the intake, that compares with nine and 61, from just 116 starters, for Complexity; seven and 71, from 140, for Tiz the Law; and seven and 55, from 128, for Thousand Words. Yet McKinzie now has a third Grade I scorer to add to Chancer McPatrick and Scottish Lassie last year. The lucrative dividends of this curiously uneven profile are evident not only in his fee, $75,000 from $30,000, but also in demand for his third crop at the sales, topping the class averages at $196,127. That puts him ahead even of Vekoma, albeit an average of $182,632 is some yield against a conception fee of just $15,000. And the median, always more instructive, currently has the pair level on $150,000. Both stallions have capitalized on sheer volume, but Vekoma's ratios stand out even so. In his Kentucky intake, only Complexity is also showing a five percent clip of stakes winners to named foals; while Vekoma's overall tally of 109 winners is remarkable from 161 starters. Mad House wins the Gallant Bob | Sarah Andrew All he needs now is that first elite success, but he responded as best as he could to McKinzie's latest show-stealer with a fifth graded stakes winner on the same Parx card. Mad House took six attempts to break his maiden, but then went on a roll at Canterbury Park before running them off their feet in the GII Gallant Bob Stakes. That's typical of the way Vekoma has been looking after smaller players, the Florida-bred having been found for $47,000 at OBS last April. He carries a heavy, 3×3 dose of Vekoma's damsire Speightstown, whose son Munnings is responsible for Mad House's unraced dam. The only one of the first four dams to make the racetrack is granddam Wildcat Heiress (Wildcat Heir), but she was fast enough to win four of her first five, including a sprint stakes at the Fair Grounds, before derailing.   Clicquot Restores Fizz Run second in the GII Gazelle Stakes, bomb out in the GI Kentucky Oaks. The Puca formula of 2015 was almost precisely emulated the following year by Royal Obsession (Tapit), who finished 11th (Puca was 12th) at Churchill after her runner-up finish at Aqueduct. And last Saturday at Parx she, too, produced a Grade I winner. The Cotillion for Clicquot | Sarah Andrew The success of Clicquot (Quality Road) in the Cotilion Stakes will go a long way to redeeming the $1.8 million given for Royal Obsession, carrying a first foal by Curlin, by Don Alberto Corp at the 2017 Keeneland November Sale. While the Oaks had proved the beginning of the end, she had shown enough on the track to corroborate the physical impression that had once sustained a remarkable pinhook ($550,000 weanling/$1 million yearling). Royal Obsession's foals have been paying off that investment in fairly steady increments, Clicquot herself seemingly a private deal after falling short of her reserve at $375,000 as a Saratoga yearling. In fairness, the mare has yet to take a colt to market, while one of her previous daughters, Silver Ticket (Curlin), did show high ability (won twice and stakes-placed in only four starts). And now Clicquot has put the bubbles back into a page that shows Royal Obsession to be out of a Tiznow half-sister to Grade I winner Magnificent Song (Unbridled's Song). This was also a timely tonic for Quality Road. Having topped the yearling averages in 2021, and finished a close second in 2022, he stands seventh this time round. At 19, he's becoming vulnerable to the notorious ageism of the market, but his median actually remains extremely healthy at $462,500. And this was his second daughter in a month, following Hope Road's success in the Ballerina, to confirm his continued Grade I prowess. The post Breeding Digest: Baeza Latest In Boat’s Wake appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

5th-CD, 120K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6 1/2f, 6:59 p.m. SOARING HIGH (Curlin), the latest “baby bird” out of dual champion Songbird, debuts for Cherie DeVaux as a Whisper Hill Farm homebred Thursday at Churchill. Mandy Pope went to a sales-topping $9,500,000 to acquire the daughter of Medaglia d'Oro back in 2017 at Fasig-Tipton's November Sale. Of seven foals, she's had three to race and one winner being her 4-year-old daughter Rumours Have It (Tapit). Songbird has one other foal by Curlin, the 3-year-old colt McCorvey who is yet to break his maiden in two starts for Bill Mott. If morning works are any indicator however, DeVaux may have a chance to add a second winner to that tally as Soaring High enters off back to back bullet drills at Keeneland going five furlongs in :59 3/5 Sept. 13 (1/9) and four furlongs in :47 3/5 Sept. 19 (1/27). She is listed at 6-1 on the morning line but will pick up a new rider as the recently-injured Brian Hernandez Jr. was set to pilot. TJCIS PPS The post Thursday Insights: A New Songbird Takes Flight At Churchill appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article