Breeding Digest: Latin Roots of Easter Mission

[Wandering Eyes]

The Easter weekend that would conclude the mission of Argentina's most revered expatriate had begun, in our rather more trivial field of endeavor, with a remarkable testament to the influence of South America on the American Turf.

At Keeneland, the late Pope's compatriot Ignacio Correas saddled his latest big winner, Utah Beach (English Channel) in the GII Elkhorn Stakes. Over at Santa Anita, the flourishing Chilean import Richi (Chi) (Practical Joke) impressed in the GII Santa Maria Stakes. And at Oaklawn the weekend's biggest prize was won by First Mission (Street Sense), whose dam is a conduit to 11 generations of Argentinian breeding extending into the 19th Century.

Yet that line could hardly have begun more precariously. In 1882, a young mare was imported from Britain by Edoardo Casey, whose picaresque rise and fall is among the most remarkable tales of the Pampas. True to his Irish roots, Casey was a passionate horseman. In renaming this mare Perdita (GB), however, he proved sadly prophetic: she died as soon as 1884, leaving a single foal.

But that turned out to be Condesa (Arg), first female winner of the Argentine Derby and later an important producer. One of her sons won the prize now known as the Grand Premio Carlos Pellegrini, while his sister Princesa (Arg) became granddam of Per Noi (Arg).

Per Noi's son Congreve is one of the great patriarchs of the South American breed, his seven Argentinian sire championships unmatched until Southern Halo. And her final foal, delivered 10 years after Congreve in 1934, was his full-sister Carezza (Arg), who duly proved a significant producer herself.

Her daughter by Hunter's Moon (GB)-half-brother to the celebrated trio Hyperion (GB), Sickle (GB) and Pharamond II (GB)-was named Houle (Arg) and can be found behind numerous good runners. One of her granddaughters, Shopping (Arg), was duly among the mares first targeted by the ambitious Haras La Biznaga after its foundation in 1972. (A different Shopping, to be clear, from the U.S.-registered dam of Trappe Shot.)

Perhaps the biggest dividend for La Biznaga was Shopping's great-granddaughter Forty Marchanta (Arg) (Roar), whose two Classic wins in 2004 made her champion filly of her crop. Forty Marchanta was promptly recruited by Godolphin, but proved a disappointing investment both on the racetrack and in the paddocks, culled for just $60,000 at the 2014 Keeneland November Sale.

Luckily for Godolphin, her weanling daughter was retained: after all, she was by Medaglia d'Oro, whose champion Rachel Alexandra was similarly out of a mare by Forty Marchanta's sire Roar. And Elude, as this filly was named, did eventually win a Tampa Bay maiden, albeit only at the eighth attempt. When her first foal finished last in both his starts, however, Elude was ditched at the next opportunity, to International Equities Holding for $105,000 at the 2022 Keeneland January Sale, when in foal to Street Sense.

Once again, however, Godolphin had retained a weanling (strictly, a short yearling). He was also by Street Sense-and has turned out to be none other than last weekend's GII Oaklawn Handicap winner.

First Mission's emergence as a juvenile had already enabled Elude's purchasers to bank an immediate profit: his GIII Lexington Stakes success was glowing out of Book 1 when the brother meanwhile delivered by Elude made $500,000 at the 2023 September Sale. (This colt surfaced at Parx last fall, by the way, but was badly hampered.)

Not for the first time, First Mission looks a Grade I winner in the making. As such, he may well end up entering the competition to succeed his veteran sire-whose ongoing potency is further attested by GI Kentucky Oaks contender La Cara-alongside Maxfield and Speaker's Corner, already in the same barn, and McKinzie elsewhere. That would be some result, after both his granddam and dam were discarded immediately after producing what proved to be their crucial foals.

It would also be an edifying legacy for a family cultivated by Argentinian breeders between 1882 and 2004. If we can flagrantly generalize about an entire continent, I've always viewed the South American Thoroughbred as something of a time capsule, preserving the kind of stamina and robustness eroded by commercial breeding elsewhere. Admittedly only two mares between Condesa and Forty Marchanta were by sires also foaled in Argentina. But the other stallions to have seeded the family, self-evidently, were only available for export because deficient in commercial appeal on native soil.

 

A Complex Situation

I'm a big fan of Baeza, who's in the very best hands to progress past more seasoned types if squeezing into the GI Kentucky Derby. Doing so, however, would not only confirm his dam as perhaps the most precocious blue hen of all. It would also maintain a curious imbalance in the early output of his sire.

McKinzie, like First Mission a son of Street Sense, has catapulted his fee to $75,000 after his first juveniles included two Grade I winners. But they were also his only stakes winners of any kind, compared with five apiece for Vekoma, Tiz the Law and Complexity. Nor have his sophomores materially altered his profile: for now McKinzie has just 13 winners from 74 starters in 2025, one at black-type level. Yet cumulatively he has five Grade I performers, including Baeza.

Complexity | Sarah Andrew

Nobody in this class can lay a glove on Vekoma just now, with 44 winners including six at stakes level (90 starters); but the one closest to doing so is Complexity, despite his smaller books and fee (opened at $12,500). Last Saturday he came up with his third and fourth black-type winners of 2025 (56 starters): Mo Plex in the Bay Shore at Aqueduct, and Complexity Jane in the Weber City Miss Stakes at Laurel.

Mo Plex was already on his sire's resume, having won the GIII Sanford Stakes last summer, but Complexity Jane was going three-for-three on her stakes debut. She was among the last yearlings sold before the passing of her breeder Brereton C. Jones, for $100,000 at the Fasig-Tipton July Sale of 2023 (pinhooked by Scanlon Training & Sales, making $170,000 at OBS the following spring).

Jane's dam Bestinthebusiness (Ghostzapper), a maiden winner in a light career, had been bought (with a maiden cover by Carpe Diem) for $100,000 at the 2020 Keeneland January Sale. While the catalogue showed her to be a half-sister to GIII Tom Fool winner Do Share, and that their dam had managed a couple of graded stakes podiums, the young mare's real appeal lay below the page. For her fifth dam is none other than the Locust Hill Farm legend Shenanigans (Native Dancer), whose six foals before her loss to a paddock accident somehow included Ruffian, Icecapade and Laughter. The latter, a daughter of Bold Ruler, combines the pedigrees of Grade I winners Private Terms (as dam); Coronado's Quest (as second dam); and Orb (as fourth)-and also connects Bestinthebusiness as fourth dam.

Interestingly Airdrie's selection of Complexity for the mare's first “home” cover closely duplicated his damsire Yes It's True, who also sired Complexity Jane's granddam. While Complexity Jane has nonetheless stretched through a second turn, her sire's trademark is plainly speed: he fired Black Forza down one of the sharpest tracks in Europe last summer to win the G2 Richmond Stakes at Goodwood.

 

No Substitute for Deputy

In the previous cycle to Complexity Jane, Scanlon Training & Sales also pinhooked Just a Touch (Justify). Quite a find, as a $125,000 Fasig October yearling: a colt conceived by a $150,000 fee out of a graded stakes winner by Tapit!

He has since proved nearly as well bought by Fergus Galvin, at OBS the following spring, for $300,000. While his Derby tilt plainly didn't pay off, Just a Touch is regrouping impressively now: after a comeback win by 10 lengths, last Saturday at Keeneland he followed up by seven.

Crudo | Coady Media

Justify's other runaway winner on that card, in a maiden, was the $350,000 Keeneland November weanling Crudo (subsequently a $520,000 RNA at Saratoga). This is a horse I shall be following, being out of a mare by Deputy Minister himself. Nowadays we tend to find that legendary distaff only behind second or third dams.

Crudo's mother Blossomed never made the track but it tells you much about our business that she nonetheless changed hands seven times at auction! The final of those transactions brought her to Springhouse Farm from the 2018 Keeneland November Sale for $425,000, the highest price she ever realized (once changed hands for $33,000).

That was because her half-sister by Orb, Sippican Harbor, had that summer won the Spinaway Stakes. For Blossomed to produce a Grade I winner by such a disappointing stallion suggests that Deputy Minister must have been working his usual magic; and, sure enough, Crudo's full-sister (from Justify's first crop) has meanwhile emerged as unbeaten Japanese millionaire Awesome Result.

There must be a few other Deputy Minister mares still in production, as Blossomed was foaled in 2003 and her sire produced two further crops of 54 and 44 live foals. None has been offered at Keeneland since 2020, however. Hopefully that means those supervising Deputy Minister's parting gifts are fully cognisant of their privilege.

By the way, as I've frequently remarked, great broodmare sires often seem to pass on their peculiar potency-and Crudo also draws that out through his sire, whose dam Stage Magic is of course by Deputy Minister's grandson Ghostzapper.

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