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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
The Fasig-Tipton Digital August Sale will offer 90 horses as part of a major reduction of Harris Farms, the Thoroughbred operation of leading California breeder and owner John C. Harris, who passed away in July at the age of 81. The auction will be conducted from Aug. 14 through 19. “John Harris was a pillar of racing, both in California and nationally,” said Leif Aaron, Fasig-Tipton Director of Digital Sales. “We are honored to be entrusted with the reduction of Mr. Harris's breeding and racing stock, which he carefully cultivated for more than 40 years. These offerings present prospective buyers with a rare opportunity to access bloodlines that have seldom been available in the commercial marketplace.” Harris took the reins of his family's Thoroughbred operation in 1981, following the passing of his father, Jack Harris. He expanded the Harris Thoroughbred operation to become one of California's premier stallion farms, standing such stallions at Cee's Tizzy, sire of Horse of the Year Tiznow; Lucky Pulpit, sire of Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome; Unusual Heat, leading California sire by earnings multiple times; as well as prominent California sires Moscow Ballet and High Brite. Alone or in partnership, Harris campaigned the likes of Soviet Problem, California Horse of the Year who finished second in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint; Unzip Me, a multiple graded stakes winner who finished third in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint; Grade I winner Alphabet Kisses; and graded stakes winners Closing Remarks, Lucky J.H., and High Standards. Since 2000, Harris runners have won 695 races for earnings of more than $22 million. The reduction includes horses of racing age and breeding stock, including mares with foals at foot. Pedigree previews are available here. Prospective buyers can register to bid at digital.fasigtipton.com. The post Fasig-Tipton Digital to Offer Major Reduction of Harris Farms appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Jose Ortiz added to his 2025 graded stakes victories with wins Aug. 2 in the Test Stakes (G1) and the Saratoga Special Stakes (G2) and a total of nine wins for the week, earning him Jockey of the Week honors for July 28-Aug. 3.View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Even some of the best Thoroughbreds are one-dimensional. They want to race on the lead or from the back of the pack, and taking them out of their comfort zone can lead to upsetting results. Then there's Far Bridge. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Juvenile colt Gentlemanlike caught the eye of Mandore International Agency's Nicolas de Watrigant for €250,000 during Arqana Online's August Pop-Up Sale on Wednesday. De Watrigant signed for a French partnership consisting of Alain Jathiere, Gousserie Racing, Ecurie David Layani and Gerard Augustin-Normand. He was originally sold for €12,000 from the Baroda Stud draft during the Arqana October Yearling Sale last year to owner/trainer Igor Endaltsev. Consigned by Endaltsev on Wednesday, the Al Shira'aa Racing-bred son of Group 1 sire Australia and the Kodiac mare Samskara won his only start by four lengths at Chantilly in July. His granddam is Chiara Wells (Refuse To Bend), a winner of the Listed Premio Certosa and third in the G3 Premio Carlo Chiesea. This is also the family of Meafara (Meadowlake), a multiple graded winner and placed in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. Coolmore's dual Derby winner Australia is responsible for G1 Derby/G1 Irish Derby hero Lambourn and G1 Coronation Stakes heroine Cercene this term. The post Mandore International Goes To €250K For Gentlemanlike During Arqana Pop-Up Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Anyone kindly persevering with this column as it gropes through the pedigree maze will by now be familiar, perhaps wearily so, with my proclivity for broodmare sires. From all that tremendous sport at Saratoga last Saturday, then, you won't be surprised that I'm going to focus on the fact that two of four Grade I winners–Kilwin (Twirling Candy) and World Beater (Oscar Performance)–were out of Blame mares. Though approaching the evening of his career at 19, the Claiborne stallion remains highly precocious in this slow-burning sphere. His daughters have not yet sent 300 foals into the gate, compared with 1,741 even for another active sire in Tapit, five years his senior. So really, Blame has barely started. Even so, he is already damsire of 33 stakes winners, representing 11.3 percent of starters–as many as 17 in 2024, eight at graded level, from 181 starters. At 9.4 percent, that clip destroyed all meaningful opposition (though we'll acknowledge one potential exception below). Of the many whose bigger arsenals elevated them up the prizemoney table, closest was Curlin at 5.2 percent! Yet Blame is no one-trick pony. His own runners include 6.3 percent black-type winners to named foals, and 2.7 percent for his 22 graded stakes winners, a match for many standing at multiples of his $25,000 fee. He connects at market too–his $91,119 yearling average in 2024 is rock-solid against their conception fee (then $20,000). Meanwhile, his son, 'TDN Rising Star' Nadal, has made a brisk start at stud in Japan. In the round then, there are few better ways to prove a mare at this kind of money. But the real fun begins if you get a filly, whether to retain for your own program or to profit as Blame's reputation as broodmare sire–first announced in 2022, when 'Rising Stars' Forte (Violence) and Loggins (Ghostzapper) slugged it out in the GI Breeders' Futurity–continues to soar. Obviously the respective dams of Kilwin and World Beater can't take all the credit, having been mated with high-achieving stallions, and we'll examine their respective pages shortly. But let's just consider how Blame's key attributes might at least inform the perennial mystery of what actually “makes” a broodmare sire. First and foremost, each side of his pedigree is rooted in one of the best families in the book. His own maternal line reaches fifth dam Rough Shod (GB) via the main highway of her daughter Thong (Nantallah) and then Special (Forli {Arg}), with everything that entails: Blame's Grade I-placed granddam Bound (Nijinsky), for instance, duly being half-sister to Nureyev. And his sire Arch represents a similarly aristocratic dynasty, pegged down by Courtly Dee (Never Bend) as third dam. And, in the old days of controlled books, that guaranteed elite seeding throughout. Arch's first four dams, for instance, are by Danzig, Alydar, Never Bend and War Admiral. Kilwin wins the GI Test | Sarah Andrew That's working horizontally, as it were: following maternal lines. But you duly get equally seamless quality in what I like to call the “stairwell,” working top-to-bottom. The four sires in Blame's third generation are Roberto and Danzig behind Arch; plus Mr. Prospector and Nijinsky behind Blame's dam Liable (Seeking the Gold). The eight in his fourth generation are Hail to Reason, Princequillo, Northern Dancer and Alydar behind Arch; plus Raise a Native, Buckpasser, Northern Dancer again and Forli (Arg) behind Liable. Not too many creaking steps there! And by the way, this kind of thing we may never see again, if we keep flooding the gene pool with hundreds of foals by new stallions, only a small minority of which will ultimately prove to have been contributing healthily to the breed. In this context moreover, it's also intriguing to see so many names–above all those of Princequillo and Buckpasser–that especially excelled as distaff brands. The puzzle persists as to why some stallions will smuggle genes through a daughter that aren't manifested so consistently in their own runners. And we also know that blood, both good and bad, does not always tell–whether on the track or at stud. But we must be grateful for such footholds as we can find in the scree of pedigrees. And in a world where we can't even be certain of the color of a foal's coat, what a comfort to know that the depth of quality behind Blame means that it barely matters which particular strand might filter through. A Shooting Star Among Mares As noted above, Blame cannot claim all the credit for his daughters' landmark weekend. While the unraced one who produced Kilworth, for instance, is certainly proving an excellent producer, she had much else to work with besides. Actually one aspect even of her $1,500 purchase as an unraced 3-year-old, at the 2017 Keeneland November Sale, suggests that Spanish Star must have had more going for her than that price might suggest. For the docket was signed by Tommy Wente of St. Simon Place, who has a history of unearthing these diamonds in the rough. He presumably figured that Spanish Star was a blank slate out of a mare of high ability in La Gran Bailadora (Afleet Alex), a Grade III winner on synthetic who also made the podium in the GI Spinster Stakes (at the time also on such a surface). The next dam Affirmed Dancer (Affirmed) was also well above average, failing by just a neck in the GIII Gallorette Handicap on turf before closing out with a stakes win on dirt. And her own dam Woolloomooloo (Regal Intention), a leading grass mare in Canada, complemented her two stakes wins in that discipline with another on dirt. Sure enough, soon after Wente had her covered by Trappe Shot, Spanish Star's half-brother by Awesome Again won the GI Belmont Stakes as Sir Winston. Wente took the chance to cash out the mare, albeit the Trappe Shot colt did not himself exploit the upgrade when sold for just $21,000 as a yearling, admittedly in the tricky 2020 market. Nonetheless he would certainly do his bit for the page as One Timer, running away with a Grade II sprint at Kentucky Downs. His flowering was especially welcome to Gilder-Schwarz Farms, who had purchased Spanish Star for $275,000, also in 2020, when she returned to the November Sale. The Arrogate filly she was carrying that day, retained under the name Just Basking, ran away with the Iowa Oaks last year before running third in the GI Alabama Stakes. The first cover chosen for Spanish Star by her new owners was Twirling Candy, and the resulting filly, found by BBN Racing for $225,000 at the September Sale, we now know as GI Test Stakes winner Kilwin. Twirling Candy duly continues his unobtrusive rise to stardom. Just $10,000 when launching his first runners a decade ago, he has been standing for $60,000 the last four years and punched above even that weight when sixth in the general sires' table last year. Only Into Mischief can match his three elite winners in 2025 and Kilwin's inspired switch to dirt–Ag Bullet and Fionn having scored on turf–confirms his versatility. (He has had winners of dirt races as varied as the Bing Crosby Stakes, Preakness and Santa Anita Handicap.) I will always reserve a soft spot for a horse whose fourth dam is the result of allowing Alydar to cover the dam of his nemesis Affirmed! By the way, we hinted earlier that one stallion could lay a semi-meaningful glove on Blame's crazy performance as damsire last year. His name is, of course, Twirling Candy. Albeit from an even smaller footprint, his daughters represented by just 70 starters last year, he mustered no fewer than 10 stakes winners. World Beater | Tod Marks 'Doc' Has The Prescription There's quite a history to the other Grade I winner out of a Blame mare last Saturday. In fact you have to rewind to a maiden claimer at Del Mar in 1999, where a sophomore named Sharp Apple showed nothing but was eagerly claimed for $25,000. Though by Diesis (GB) out of a stakes-placed Top Ville (Ire) half-sister to the European star Apple Tree (Fr) (Bikala {Ire}), she was running in a dirt sprint. Her new owner, Dr. John Chandler, knew better than that–between his wide experience in Europe, and the fact that Diesis had come over to stand at his wife's farm, Mill Ridge–and promptly switched her to grass. Sharp Apple required some patience, but broke her maiden the following spring and eventually won a Listed race at Penn National. In her second career, she produced Pomology (Arch) to win two Group races in Europe before missing the G1 Prix Vermeille by a whisker in 2014. And it was by an equally desperate margin that Pomology's half-sister by Artie Schiller, Sassy Little Lil, would be denied the GI American Oaks two years later. At that point Chandler had just brought Sharp Apple's final foal, by Blame, home from the September Sale as a $95,000 RNA. Named Dabinett, she won a turf maiden at the Spa in a light career. And it was over the same circuit that her second foal, sold for $105,000 to Pin Oak Stud as a yearling, won the GI Saratoga Derby winner as World Beater. Quite a promising young breeder, “Doc”, also recently responsible for a Breeders' Cup winner in Nobals (Noble Mission {GB}). Happily, he has meanwhile kept Dabinett “married” to Oscar Performance, who's putting Mill Ridge back on the stallion map in such spectacular fashion–two decades after the farm mourned the loss of Sharp Apple's sire. The post Breeding Digest: Credit To Blame appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
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