Breeding Digest: Triple Crown Timidity Now Yesterday’s News

[Wandering Eyes]

It is a prerogative of journalism–on the basis that most people won't read what you write, and that those that do will remember only what you get wrong–that you're allowed to repeat yourself. But fear not, I won't be returning to last week's soapbox other than to offer a vote of thanks to Mike McCarthy and his patrons for their willingness to explore whether a modern Thoroughbred is actually more resilient than the timid horsemen of our time generally allow us to see.

It would be nice if they could see it through and run Journalism (Curlin) in the GI Belmont Stakes, even if its abbreviation–temporary, one trusts!–does not make quite the same demands as usual.

As it is, that brawl for the GI Preakness could not have showcased more dramatically the toughness of a horse who had so recently soaked up a demanding race at Churchill. This business is all about weighing risk and reward, and Journalism emphatically seized the chance he was granted to advertise precisely those genetic wares the Triple Crown series is intended to examine.

Whatever he can do from here, he has hugely amplified his appeal as a stallion prospect–just as his own sire did, in himself winning the Preakness after finishing second in the GI Kentucky Derby. (Lest we forget, Curlin went on to run third in the GI Belmont Stakes and was so irreparably shattered by this inhumane, irresponsible treatment that he completed Horse of the Year campaigns at both three and four….)

The future Coolmore sire, moreover, has vindicated another big gamble: the $825,000 one taken by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners (and partners Bridlewood) at the 2023 Saratoga Select Sale. That assures us that Journalism has the physique and pedigree to underpin performance when going on to a stud career.

He will, of course, be entering strong competition among sons of Curlin, not least with a couple of lately offering outlier speed in Elite Power and Cody's Wish.

Journalism is Curlin's only stakes winner out of an Uncle Mo mare, which shows the perils of reducing the mysteries of breeding to any kind of formula. True, the Seattle Slew line does tend to recur with notable frequency behind Curlin's better runners. But then the likes of A.P. Indy, his son Bernardini and grandson Tapit have proved exceptional distaff influences, wherever they hang their hat. Anyhow, for the little it may be worth, Journalism's granddam is a daughter of Bernardini: Peppy Rafaela, a half-sister to triple graded stakes scorer Songster (Songandaprayer). Having shown very little in three starts, she quickly contributed to Bernardini's reputation as a broodmare sire.

Peppy Rafaela was carrying a first foal by Uncle Mo when purchased by Frank Batten for $100,000 at the Keeneland January Sale of 2014, and the resulting filly cleared that investment as a $135,000 weanling in the same ring that November.

After going through two pinhook cycles, the filly was named Mopotism and proved herself as hardy as she was classy: topping $875,000 across 26 starts, she won the GII La Canada Stakes and placed four times at the Grade I level. That earned her a place in Don Alberto's broodmare band for $1.05 million at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton November Sale.

Much of that investment was recovered by Journalism himself, as Mopotism's first yearling. And even though he remained unraced by the time his Tapit half-brother followed him to Saratoga last summer, Flying Dutchmen had to go as high as $1.5 million. Safe to say, then, that Mopotism is throwing knockout models. Presumably her daughter by Into Mischief is presenting a delicious dilemma as the yearling sales approach.

As so often, the rising tide of Journalism is floating many other boats. Mopotism's 3-year-old full-sister Ruth, if seemingly not progressing on the track, ensures that Batten still has skin in the game. (Remember that he already banked $775,000 for a brother to Mopotism, the year after her retirement.) And Peppy Rafaela's daughter by Curlin, tailed off on her only start, was bought by Narvick International for $250,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November Sale, with a maiden cover by Arrogate. The resulting filly is breezing for Steve Asmussen at Louisiana Downs.

Gosger | Coady Media

Glorious Genes Behind Gosger

The lamented Uncle Mo's legacy was doubly measured in the Preakness, one of his daughters producing the winner and a son siring runner-up Gosger (Nyquist).

In progressing smartly towards the elite of the crop, this colt is confirming his unraced dam Gloria S. (Tapit) as something special: she has already given us GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup winner Harvey's Lil Goil (American Pharoah).

Gloria S. is a half-sister to I'll Have Another (Flower Alley), himself a Preakness winner when following up his Derby win in 2012. I'll Have Another having brought just $11,000 as a yearling, that November his breeder, the late Harvey Clarke, tried to cash out his 10-year-old dam Arch's Gal Edith (Arch)–winner of her sole start, in a sprint maiden–at Fasig-Tipton. Whatever disappointment Clarke may have been felt when she failed to reach her reserve, at $950,000, his family can now celebrate his memory, and legacy, with a homebred stallion in the making.

In grieving Clarke's loss, in 2019, they resolved to continue the stable in a streamlined form. One of the highlights of his Turf career had been to race Cairo Prince in partnership, and he had duly sent Gloria S. to be covered by that horse at stud. The resulting filly won on debut and has meanwhile become a black-type producer, her daughter Movin' On Up (Accelerate) having broken the track record when winning a turf stakes at Gulfstream this spring.

Admittedly Movin' On Up had been claimed when breaking her maiden; while Golden Award (Medaglia d'Oro), a half-sister to I'll Have Another and Gloria S., had already been acquired by Summer Wind after she won a maiden and allowance in his silks (went on to win a couple of graded stakes). But the Clarke family is still seeing plenty of action. They have a juvenile filly out of Harvey's Lil Goil by Street Sense, for instance, while the raw Gosger is going to keep drawing on the wholesome seeding of his family.

Behind those first two dams, by Tapit and Arch, we find a third robust influence in Pleasant Tap. And fifth dam Last Bird (Sea-Bird {Fr}) is also third dam of a mare named Leslie's Lady (Tricky Creek).

Last Bird's dam Patelin (Cornish Prince) has combined several other productive lines, notably as fifth dam of that brilliant talent Nadal (Blame), who strikingly combines other flavors noted in Gosger's pedigree: his sire is a son of Arch; his dam is by Tapit's sire Pulpit; and his granddam is by Pleasant Tap's sire Pleasant Colony.

Best Of Intentions For Honor

I always thought Honor A.P. the most talented of his crop, too good for the Horse of the Year the one time he had an uncompromised shot at him, and his physique encouraged me that he might prove as much in his second career.

Honor A.P. | Sarah Andrew

Nobody was ever going to get a proper handle on Honor A.P. until he began sending a few sophomores round a second turn, but the terror that infects breeders whenever they see a starting gate confined him to just 39 mares last spring. In this day and age, then, it won't be easy to extend the chance he deserves even at $10,000. But there is hope yet.

The Preakness turned into a non-event for Heart of Honor (GB), albeit the way he persevered after his gate issues would have made a conventional Belmont Stakes of real interest. But that disappointment had been eased on the eve of the Classic when Margie's Intention secured their sire a first graded success in the GII Black-Eyed Susan Stakes.

This filly's first and third dams were both unraced but the one in between, Dance Hall Days (Seeking Daylight), was a stakes-winning half-sister to GI Prioress winner Cat Moves (Tale of the Cat). That was not enough to earn Dance Hall Days much attention in the record-breaking Edward P. Evans dispersal in 2011, when sold for $80,000. Seven years later she was culled by WinStar for $8,000 and by the time she surfaced in a sale in Arizona, in 2022, she would change hands for just $700.

With hindsight, she had been given limited opportunity in her partners. In 2014, however, she did get access to Into Mischief when still only $20,000. The resulting filly is the dam of Margie's Intention, Playful Dancer. She actually raised $190,000 as a yearling and, despite failing to make the track, was still worth $125,000 to Coteau Grove Farms at the 2018 Keeneland November Sale.

Margie's Intention, Playful Dancer's third foal, proved a nice pinhook when bought by Becky Thomas as a $57,000 Fasig October yearling, realizing $185,000 from Corbin Blumberg at OBS the following spring. And her excellent winter among Louisiana-breds at the Fair Grounds–maiden and allowance scores, two stakes placings–was not lost on the people who had bred her dam. When Margie's Intention ran last weekend, Baron Stable had a new partner: WinStar Farm.

Her sire has actually already had a 10-length maiden winner over 4.5 furlongs from his second crop. So who knows? Maybe even in this feckless commercial age, Honor could yet come back into fashion.

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