Breeding Digest: Lamented Mare Mapping Out the Derby Trail

[Wandering Eyes]

Whether you consider it just a random squeaking of the hamster wheel, or evidence of some latent order awaiting our discovery, these Thoroughbreds certainly know how to make us stop and think about the strange operation of life.

Last Friday it was announced that Miss Macy Sue (Trippi) had died at 22. The very next day, her son Liam's Map produced a Derby contender in GIII Holy Bull Stakes winner Burnham Square. The 20 starting points banked there, moreover, matched those earned two weeks previously in the GIII Lecomte Stakes by Disco Time, a new star for Not This Time–Miss Macy Sue's still more successful son, who famously owes his name to the lucrative success of his half-brother by Unbridled's Song. (“Not this time” being Dennis Albaugh's response when asked whether the mare's latest yearling, by Giant's Causeway, should follow Liam's Map to the sales.)

Miss Macy Sue closely combined two of just five named foals out of Ta Wee, the champion sprinter who joined her half-brother Dr. Fager in the Hall of Fame: Ta Wee's daughter by Secretariat, Tweak, as third dam; and her son by Minnestoa Mac, Great Above, as damsire.

Some familiar Tartan Farm brands there–and it was actually the farm's general manager, Bryan Howlett, who bred Miss Macy Sue with its trademark inbreeding to dominant females.

The best example of that strategy was Quiet American, who shared both a third dam (Cequillo) and a damsire (Dr. Fager) with his own sire Fappiano. And the Albaugh family evidently kept that philosophy in mind when choosing a son of Unbridled for Miss Macy Sue: Unbridled's third dam was a Buckpasser half-sister to Dr. Fager and Ta Wee, and we just noted how Unbridled's sire Fappiano was out of a Dr. Fager mare.

That said, Giant's Causeway conveyed no Tartan Farm duplications and perhaps the priority, all along, was simply to complement Miss Macy Sue's Florida speed (sufficient to have secured her a Breeders' Cup podium) with Classic, two-turn influences. Many breeders have sought that kind of balance and ended up with the worst of both worlds, but this mare has twice achieved an optimal, speed-carrying blend.

But Liam's Map is himself counterweighted, in Burnham Square, by the work of another remarkable family program. For this gelding represents a third consecutive generation of graded stakes winners homebred by Whitham Thoroughbreds as a result of the $150,000 purchase at the 1992 Keeneland November Sale, through the family's great friend and counselor Frank Penn, of a young Secretariat mare named Listen Well.

Liam's Map | Sarah Andrew

She had only won a maiden, in a light career, but her dam and two half-sisters were graded stakes winners and she was pregnant to Night Shift. That first foal turned out to be GI Hollywood Oaks winner Listening, but the mare was just getting started. Her next foal, a Storm Bird filly, was unraced but produced GII Amsterdam Stakes winner Listen Here (Gulch) plus the dam of GI Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup winner La Coronel (Colonel John); while a later daughter by Spinning World was beaten a neck in the GI Del Mar Oaks.

In between, moreover, Listen Well came up with GII Santa Ana Handicap winner Beautiful Noise (Sunny's Halo). In turn Beautiful Noise did produce another Grade II winner on turf (Mrs. Revere Stakes) in Linda (Scat Daddy) but otherwise had a fairly thin production record. And Linda, in turn, had made a modest start as a producer–three starters (two by Whitham stallions Fort Larned and McCraken) all bumping along in claimers, with a solitary success between them–by the time she was culled for $55,000 to Springwood at the Keeneland January Sale last year.

Her next foal, however, has turned out to be Burnham Square. The Derby trail will have to be its own reward, then: the horse himself has been castrated, his dam sold, his two half-sisters claimed. But he represents a program that has punched far above weight, over the years, and the gratification available in this latest adventure can be judged from the Whithams' fidelity to those horsemen who have served their cause over the years: when Carl Nafzger retired, for instance, they stayed with his assistant Ian Wilkes–who trained Linda, and is now nurturing Burnham Square.

These folk come from rural Kansas; the Albaughs from Iowa. Both have quietly developed a formula for repeating talent, conflated in Burnham Square, that we would all do well to emulate–not least their shared priority of horses that can run, rather than merely sell.

If Liam's Map and Linda both slipped into other hands, programs like these have wider legacies: most obviously Not This Time, now one of the world's top stallions and already with several sons extending the dynasty founded by Miss Macy Sue. And perhaps destiny has reserved a fitting memorial for that mare for the first Saturday in May, with a stretch duel between Burnham Square and Disco Time.

A WIN-WIN SCENARIO

Scat Daddy's daughters haven't quite emulated him in terms of producing sire sons of their own–albeit 200 mares for Pappacap in his debut book have given him a rather startling opportunity to do something about that. In the meantime Burnham Square's castration has left him in the same boat as Whitmore, while the portfolio of fillies out of Scat Daddy mares continues to expand.

A week after Take Charge Milady (Take Charge Indy) stated her claims as Kenny McPeek's next Oaks filly, in the Martha Washington Stakes, Eclatant (Into Mischief) cut her rivals for the GIII Forward Gal Stakes.

Eclatant is out of Downside Scenario, who was claimed by Steve Asmussen for just $40,000 on the final of eight starts (had won a Fair Grounds maiden). She was then sold at the 2018 Keeneland January Sale, to BlackRidge Stables for $250,000, carrying a first foal by Into Mischief.

That foal turned out to be Mutasaabeq, a $425,000 yearling purchase by Shadwell who went on to win the GII Bourbon Stakes. (Confusingly her owners gave the same name to an Invincible Spirit (Ire) colt from the same crop, over in Britain, who became a still more accomplished runner and is now standing at the National Stud in Newmarket.)

Downside Scenario was duly returned to Into Mischief prior to her return to the same ring in the 2021 November Sale, where she was acquired by Stonestreet for $1.15 million. The filly she was carrying in utero that day was Eclatant.

But Into Mischief had already been summoned to the service of this page, having barely started when producing Downside Scenario's older half-sister back in 2015. Catching Diamonds failed to make much impact on the track, despite starting favorite for each of her three starts, and was in fact sent by her owners at Spendthrift straight from her final disappointment for a date with their $6,000 cover Race Day.

Their son was sold for $7,500 as an OBS short yearling, and for $40,000 back in the same ring as a juvenile. His name, of course, is White Abarrio–who has just completed his latest revival in the GI Pegasus World Cup.

White Abarrio is obviously a wild outlier, by the standards of his sire. But his dam and Downside Scenario have another notable sibling in Cool Cowboy, whose two Group wins in Dubai qualify him as one of the very top earners by Kodiak Kowboy. So it does seem as though some kind of genetic potency must be in play.

White Abarrio | Lauren King

Their dam Grand Breeze (Grand Slam) is a half-sister to an important mare in Brazil, and their mother in turn is out of Faneuil Lass (Somebody II {Aus}), runner-up in the GI Hollywood Oaks and sibling to GI Matron Stakes winner Fiesta Lady (Secretariat).

But around here this becomes a family conspicuous primarily for its cosmopolitan origins, plus a collector's item in Grand Breeze's fourth dam Miss Newcastle, one of the few foals mustered by Coaltown. Co-Horse of the Year in 1949, Coaltown broke a series of world records before unfortunately proving subfertile.

Too long ago to be relevant, no doubt. It was certainly a different era: Miss Newcastle made 130 starts across seven campaigns!

HUMOR MARES ALWAYS NEED TAKING SERIOUSLY

Distorted Humor's late start at stud didn't prevent him being blessed by far greater longevity than Scat Daddy and his daughters have taken significant advantage in widening his legacy. Though Arrogate left us tragically soon, Constitution and Practical Joke are other top guns out of Distorted Humor mares, while younger prospects like Life Is Good, Arabian Lion and Happy Saver are among those that could be contributing in the coming years.

It will certainly be a resonant cross that Citizen Bull (Into Mischief) eventually takes to stud, though we didn't learn much about the champion on his return, indulged as he was in the GIII Robert B. Lewis Stakes. His connections must have been just as pleased with their less experienced runner-up, the May 20 foal Rodriguez, who regrouped smoothly after somehow losing his position and switching out. He could prove an important horse for Into Mischief's son Authentic, who has endured such a giddy plunge in fee after his tepid start last year.

Citizen Bull | Benoit

 

Incidentally, two others that shaped well in defeat on their sophomore resumption are both out of Distorted Humor mares: Tappan Street (another Into Mischief) pulled nine lengths clear of the third once headed in the Holy Bull, having somewhat set things up for the winner; while Sandman (Tapit) closed much the best on Speed King in the GIII Southwest Stakes.

Distorted Humor's sons don't look like they will quite match the legacy of his daughters, but Maclean's Music has one to watch in River Thames, who followed up his TDN 'Rising Star' debut in an allowance at Gulfstream at the weekend. Out of a Discreet Cat mare, we'll have to see how far he can stretch but he's obviously quite a dasher.

CAPTAIN COOK'S EPIC WHITNEY VOYAGE

The premature loss of John Hendrickson last year could yet have a poignant sequel for his friend Vinnie Viola, who bought a $410,000 Practical Joke colt (through agent Steve Young) from the dispersal at the Keeneland last November. Captain Cook had made his debut just days previously, a troubled midfield in a Churchill sprint, and promptly broke his maiden with a TDN 'Rising Star' romp at Aqueduct at the end of the year. He has now put himself in the Derby picture with his win in the Withers, the extra distance enabling him to draw on one of the deepest families bequeathed by Hendrickson's late wife Marylou Whitney.

Captain Cook | Sarah Andrew

His third dam is Bird Town (Cape Town)–and if you rewind to her GI Kentucky Oaks success in 2003, you may recall that she already had a further five generations of Whitney homebreds dividing her from an Idle Hour mare named Boys I'm It, who seems to have arrived at Greentree via the famous syndicate deal (along with King Ranch and Ogden Phipps) for the E.R. Bradley estate after his death in 1946.

It's just as we said at the outset, then, regarding the dam of Liam's Map and Not This Time. Whether from Macy Sue or Marylou, and whether by the accidents or design of fate, the Derby trail this year is already allowing us to cherish some great legacies.

The post Breeding Digest: Lamented Mare Mapping Out the Derby Trail appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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