Taking Stock: Grass Getting Greener for English Channel

[Wandering Eyes]

The leading North American-based sires of Grade l winners this year are Quality Road (five), War Front (four), and English Channel (four). The latter might seem out of place among the other two, but he’s a successful stallion at Calumet Farm who’s flown under the radar for a long time, and his time in the sun might be now. Within a span of 20 minutes last Saturday, for example, three sons of English Channel (Smart Strike–Belva, by Theatrical {Ire}) won a maiden special weight, a listed stakes race, and a Grade I event on turf and brought into focus some distinct aptitudes their sire reliably imparts: turf prowess at a mile or over–frequently at a mile and a half–and a penchant for racing on or near the lead, particularly over soft or yielding surfaces where stamina is at a premium. Turf racing, if you haven’t noticed, is proliferating, and the English Channels are taking advantage of this.

The maiden winner was 2-year-old Calumet homebred ridgling Flying Scotsman (from a French Deputy mare), who won at a mile at Santa Anita on firm turf in his second start, tracking the pacesetter in second for half a mile before taking over and holding off the favored Omaha Beach, a son of War Front.

Three-year-old colt Channel Cat (Kitten’s Joy mare), another Calumet homebred, won the inaugural $150,000 Bald Eagle Derby at Laurel over a mile and a half on yielding turf by also tracking the leader in second until the real running began turning for home. The distance of the race and the testing conditions played to his strengths, and he was up by 5 3/4 lengths at the finish. Channel Cat had won the $400,000 Dueling Grounds Derby at a mile and five-sixteenths at Kentucky Downs in his prior start, and altogether he has taken four of 12 starts and earned $521,792 in an all-turf career.

Channel Maker (Horse Chestnut {SAf} mare), a 4-year-old gelding, won the mile-and-a-half Grade I Joe Hirsch Turf Classic S. at Belmont Park over a soft course. He led throughout and had 4 1/2 lengths at the finish on favored Robert Bruce (Chi) (Fast Company {Ire}), whose stamina wilted noticeably as the winner kept running. Bred by Tall Oaks Farm in Canada and owned by the Wachtel Stable and Gary Barber, Channel Maker is his sire’s latest top-level winner, though he was a Canadian Classic winner last year. He has won four of 20 starts and earned $1,090,000, all on turf or all-weather.

English Channel’s three other Grade l winners in 2018 are Heart to Heart (Silver Deputy mare), a 7-year-old horse; Voodoo Song (Unbridled’s Song mare), a 4-year-old colt; and Johnny Bear (Horse Chestnut {SAf} mare), a 7-year-old gelding and a brother to Channel Maker. Each has won at the highest level on turf.

Heart to Heart was bred in Canada by Red Hawk Ranch, is owned by Terry Hamilton, and has won both the nine-furlong GI Gulfstream Park Turf S. and the Gl Maker’s 46 Mile S. at Keeneland on firm ground in front-running style. He is 15-for-37 with $2,012,290 in earnings and was a champion 3-year-old colt in Canada.

Voodoo Song was bred by Barry K. Schwartz’s Stonewall Farm in New York and races for the owner, for whom he won the GI Fourstardave H. at a mile on turf at Saratoga this summer under showery conditions. The course was labeled “good” that day and Voodoo Song led throughout. He has now won eight of his 17 starts and earned $880,935.

Johnny Bear was bred in Canada like his brother Channel Maker by Tall Oaks and races for Colebrook Farms and Bear Stables, Ltd. He won the GI Northern Dancer S. at a mile and a half at Woodbine on firm ground, coming from mid-pack to win. Last year, he’d won the same turf race by stalking the pace over a slightly slower track. He has a record of eight wins in 40 starts for $689,265 in earnings. It’s worth noting that the third-place finisher in the Northern Dancer this year was English Channel’s 5-year-old gelding English Illusion (Woodman mare), a 12-furlong black-type winner on turf and another Canadian-bred.

What’s evident from this recounting is the money and opportunity nowadays for specialist turf horses, something I noted in this space here in March. Last year, 17% of all flat races in the United States were contested on turf compared to 5% in 1991, and the trend seems to be continuing, especially at the premier meets. Dana Byerly of “Hello Race Fans!” recently said that 38.5% of all races at the recently-concluded Del Mar meet were on turf, and researcher Chris Rossi told me via a private message on Twitter that the numbers were the same at Saratoga. “[There were] 245 [races] on dirt, 153 on turf. Those numbers exclude jump races. Fifty races were taken off the turf. If they run on the turf, 203 turf races, 195 dirt races.”

Last year, 39% of all graded races in the U.S. were on turf in 2017. That number would increase by including Canada, where racing at Woodbine is exclusively on turf or all-weather. This is one reason why so many of the English Channel horses noted here were bred in Canada, but there’s also a pedigree link to his popularity north of the border. English Channel’s Mr. Prospector sire Smart Strike was bred in Canada by Sam-Son Farm, is a half-brother to the top-class filly Dance Smartly, and traces to the blue-hen mare No Class, who founded a family that excelled in the Canadian Classics.

English Channel

English Channel is one of three notable Smart Strike stallions at stud, along with Lookin At Lucky and Curlin. None of them broke six figures as sales yearlings. James Scatuorchio, who also raced Scat Daddy, paid $50,000 for English Channel at Keeneland September in 2003. Curlin was purchased for $57,000 at the same sale by Kenny McPeek in 2005. And Lookin At Lucky was a $35,000 RNA at the 2008 Keeneland September sale. Each had something or another to depress his price, but immaturity might have been a common theme, and in English Channel’s case it was compounded by a lack of size. Even today as a mature stallion, he looks small and unimposing.

Auction prices notwithstanding, each became a champion, and both Curlin and Lookin At Lucky were Classic winners as well. The three of them, in a nutshell, are the outstanding examples that characterized Smart Strike’s stud career. He’d gone to stud at Lane’s End with a lot of commercial promise as a Grade l-winning son of Mr. Prospector with a top family behind him, but found the sales arena challenging until he established his bona fides with his runners, which took a little time because, like him, many developed later than earlier.

Smart Strike didn’t race at two and didn’t become a stakes winner until he was four. Lookin At Lucky was a champion 2-year-old, but Curlin was unraced at two and English Channel made only one start as a juvenile, winning a mile-and-a-sixteenth maiden special on turf at Saratoga.

English Channel was brought along slowly at three on turf, became a Grade I winner at four, and was named the champion turf horse of 2007 at five when he won three Grade I races, including the mile-and-a-half Breeders’ Cup Turf by seven lengths over a soft turf course at Monmouth Park. He retired to stud at Hurricane Hall in 2008 with a record of 13 wins from 23 starts, six Grade I scores, and earnings of $5,319,028. For the 2010 season, he was moved to Lane’s End, where he stood alongside Smart Strike and Curlin, but he was again relocated for 2015 to Calumet.

Brad Kelley, who bought Calumet in 2012, had purchased an interest in English Channel when he went to stud and is the breeder of English Channel’s first-crop runner Optimizer (A.P. Indy mare), who like his sire won his debut at a mile and a sixteenth on turf at Saratoga. Optimizer, however, was switched to dirt and competed in all three legs of the Triple Crown–unsuccessfully–and became a black-type winner for the first time only when he got back on the grass, in the Glll Kent S. at Delaware, a nine-furlong race that he won by tracking the pace in second until taking over in the stretch to win by 4 1/4 lengths. He won two more Grade III races on the turf, was Grade I-placed twice, and retired at age six with a record of five wins from 33 starts and earnings of $979,289. Another member from that first crop, multiple Grade III turf winner Potomac River, is still racing in 2018 as a 9-year-old and was recently placed in a stakes race.

This is a common theme for the English Channels. They aren’t particularly successful on dirt–English Channel’s GI Travers S. winner V. E. Day is the notable anomaly–but they have longevity on the racecourse and get better with age, just as English Channel and his sire did. It’s a pronounced developmental bent to this branch of Mr. Prospector through Smart Strike, and it’s evident in the Lookin At Luckys, too. The latter’s son Accelerate is an example.

Because they are primarily turf horses and aren’t 2-year-olds or even early 3-year-olds for the most part, the English Channels tend to get punished at the sales. At Keeneland September this year, for instance, the stallion had 19 yearlings sell for an average price of $28,326 with a median of $22,000. In retrospect, that’s value for buyers.

His stud fee as advertised is $25,000, so he isn’t the friend of the commercial breeder, but owner-breeders that have the wherewithal to stay the course should be patronizing him as the racing landscape turns greener.

This is a stallion that has sired 39 black-type winners (a very good 6% from foals and a number that includes many as-yet unraced 2-year-olds) through eight crops, including other Grade I winners The Pizza Man (Lear Fan mare), who retired at eight with earnings of $2,158,941 and won the Northern Dancer at a mile and a half and the 10-furlong GI Arlington Million along the way; Canadian champion Interpol (Strawberry Road {Aus} mare), who retired at six and also won the Northern Dancer; and Al’s Gal (Winning mare), a GI E.P. Taylor S. winner at a mile and a quarter on turf at age five.

In essence, ignore English Channel at your peril. With four Grade I winners to his credit this year, he’s proving that.

Sid Fernando is president and CEO of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., originator of the Werk Nick Rating and eNicks.

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