Breeding Digest: Epsom Reminds Us Who’s the Daddy

[Wandering Eyes]

First and foremost, let's salute Journalism (Curlin) and his connections for confirming that only feebleness in horsemen, not horses, menaces the Triple Crown schedule. In last weekend replicating his Churchill challenge to crop leader Sovereignty (Into Mischief), moreover actually moving up his numbers, the only horse to contest all three legs demonstrated precisely the prowess that breeders have long sought from this series. That deserves to be remembered once Journalism goes to stud.

Obviously, the GI Belmont Stakes is not asking quite so exacting a question just now. By the same token, we cannot give full weight to what would otherwise represent a new horizon for the sire of the horse who denied Journalism a Triple Crown. Into Mischief's evolution as a Classic influence, having started as a purveyor of precocity round a single turn, has corresponded to the upgrading of his mares with uncommon neatness. For him to sire a Classic winner over 12 furlongs, however, would still feel almost as startling as when Scat Daddy did so in 2018.

As it turns out, Justify has duly confirmed himself to have advertised genetic wares of great significance that day. Sadly his prospects of in turn slaking our thirst for a British Triple Crown winner were thwarted by Ruling Court's withdrawal at Epsom on Saturday. Nonetheless the horse who exploited his absence, Lambourn (Ire) (Australia {GB}), was still able to enhance the legacy of Scat Daddy-this time as a broodmare sire.

Lambourn's dam Gossamer Wings (Scat Daddy) was a very sharp juvenile, beaten a nostril in the G2 Queen Mary Stakes. If her contemporaries matured past her, that scarcely disqualified her as a familiar kind of foil for that latent dourness that Coolmore managed so successfully in Galileo (Ire) and meanwhile in sons such as Australia.

Many breeders can attest that matings intended to balance extremes mostly cancel out distinction of any kind, so there's nothing merely formulaic to the way Galileo conjured the best of both worlds from sprinting mares. True, you might argue that Sovereignty represents a broadly similar equation, in reverse: a mare laden with the Triple Crown endurance of Seattle Slew (sire of her third dam, while her own sire Bernardini is a grandson) sent for extra pep to Into Mischief.

But remember that when Justify stretched for the Belmont, he could draw even on his sire for help: Scat Daddy's granddam was by the last horse to win that 8f-14f British Triple Crown. Nijinsky also recurs in the bottom half of the pedigree, Justify's third dam being by his son Baldski. One of his lesser sons, maybe, but one who certainly channelled aristocratic blood: his dam, inbred 2×3 to Nasrullah, also produced Capote and Exceller.

Now these names lurk in a pretty deep seam. For some of us, however, one of the keys to pedigree breadth is seeding by sires that themselves represent good family. Because if you can't even be sure what color your foal's coat will be, then you want to be entwining as many strands of quality as possible.

As grandsire and damsire of Gossamer Wings, for instance, neither Johannesburg nor Rubiano are necessarily limited by their individual stud records when it comes to an eligibility, in the right circumstances, to spark something special. (As Rubiano perhaps did already, for instance, as damsire of War Front.)

Johannesburg is a conduit for the Narrate line, his dam being half-sister to Tale of the Cat and Minardi. And Rubiano's dam Ruby Slippers, who incidentally introduces another dose of her sire Nijinsky, additionally produced Tapit's dam Tap Your Heels (Unbridled). (Tapit, of course, is by another stallion representing the Narrate family in Pulpit.)

Lambourn's third dam, meanwhile, was by Hero's Honor. Hardly one of Northern Dancer's more influential sons-but look at the other taps out of the same pipe: his siblings include Sea Hero and Wild Applause, herself dam of Yell, Eastern Echo and Roar. Again, then, his individual profile doesn't necessarily put a ceiling on the right of Hero's Honor to filter something special into the mix.

Ultimately, indeed, the same holds true of Australia himself: if his overall performance cannot be considered electrifying, exceptional genetic embers remain available to be stoked up behind him (Ouija Board (GB)/Urban Sea/Park Appeal (Ire) etc).

Few would bother with this kind of exercise when it comes to Crowned (Bernardini), the late dam of Sovereignty. Besides being by an outstanding broodmare sire, her grandsire and damsire are huge brands: A.P. Indy and Empire Maker. But let's not forget that both are out of mares, Weekend Surprise and Toussaud, that do not owe their celebrity exclusively to the sons who happen to put their names in this pedigree.

In fact, it's much the same even with Into Mischief. When he went to stud, a dam by Tricky Creek looked a pretty tricky proposition-but then of course Leslie's Lady additionally produced Beholder (Henny Hughes) and Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy).

Into Mischief's Sovereignty winning the Belmont Stakes | Tod Marks

Now Sovereignty is plainly entitled to draw on much else besides, his first three dams all having been seven-figure yearlings. Crowned was the second foal of GI Spinster winner Mushka (Empire Maker), herself first foal of turf stakes winner Sluice (Empire Maker); and the latter, in turn, was second foal of Lakeway (Seattle Slew), winner of four Grade Is.

Beyond this sequence of early foals, this family has admittedly produced plenty of expensive disappointments. It certainly hasn't lacked opportunity. We can seldom account for why one particular angle should have clicked, when so many others subsequently don't. But that's the point, really: the richer the seeding of those neglected third and fourth generations, the less it will matter which flavor ultimately percolates through.

 

Mischief Nearing New Heights

With another sophomore son Patch Adams winning the GI Woody Stephens Stakes on the same card, Into Mischief is already hurtling towards his seventh successive championship.

That would match the streak put together between 1963 and 1969 by Bold Ruler, who added an eighth title in 1973. Even that modern record-we must leave Lexington's achievements the previous century as a case apart-scarcely feels safe from a 20-year-old of such freakish libido and fertility. Despite his intimidating fee, Into Mischief's last published book in 2024 actually moved back up to 193 after an outstanding 82 percent of 174 mares the previous year delivered live foals.

His sheer volume makes it very hard to lay a glove on the Spendthrift phenomenon, now breathing down the neck of Tapit at the head of the all-time North American sires' table. Despite Tapit's four extra crops, the pair are virtually in step, Into Mischief having now just edged ahead by starters (1,458 over 1,453), winners (1,069 over 1,065) and stakes winners (175 over 168). Tapit's ratios in the elite indices remain clear, however, last weekend reaching another landmark with his 200th graded stakes performer, ahead of Into Mischief on 161.

But that gap has steadily closed with the upgrading of his mares, and Into Mischief will shortly seize Tapit's crown. His lifetime earnings have now reached $216,254,446, with the venerable gray clinging on at $217,020,128.

 

Well Dressed Family Cutting a Dash

Like so many stallions, even Into Mischief finds himself indebted to Distorted Humor mares. In fact, Patch Adams brings them up to a startling one-in-five among his 25 elite winners.

Back in 2021 the WinStar team had particular encouragement to send the dam of Patch Adams, Well Humored (Distorted Humor), over to Spendthrift. For just about then they were buzzing over the sensational emergence of Life Is Good, a yearling purchase with China Horse Club on the same cross.

CHC are duly also partners in Patch Adams, the first foal out of Well Humored to reach the track.

This family had quite a weekend. The day before the Woody Stephens, Well Humored's half-brother Parchment Party (Constitution) romped over twice the distance in the GIII Belmont Gold Cup-a freakish test, albeit transferred off the turf, for American Thoroughbreds.

Well Humored herself won a stakes in a light career, while her brother Muqtaser managed a couple of graded stakes podiums. But the most accomplished foal out of their dam Life Well Lived (Tiznow) remains GI Maker's 46 Mile winner American Patriot.

The latter joined Darley Japan on retirement, his third dam being sister to the mother of dual Japanese Horse of the Year Symboli Kris S. But the core of the dynasty spreads beneath Life Well Lived's dam, Well Dressed (Notebook), a stakes-winning sprinter whose $150,000 purchase at the 2001 Keeneland November Sale has proved outstanding value.

The Awesome Again filly she was carrying that day has since become granddam of the top-class Cyberknife (Gun Runner). But Well Dressed in the meantime discovered a particular affinity to Distorted Humor and/or Tiznow, both of course resident at WinStar.

Most obviously Well Armed (Tiznow) banked over $5 million; while the five Tiznow siblings inspired by his G1 Dubai World Cup success included not just Life Well Lived but also the dam of GI La Troienne Stakes winner Played Hard (Into Mischief).

Well Dressed's three foals by Distorted Humor, meanwhile, all contributed to the page: graded stakes winner/producer Witty; GI Travers-placed Helsinki; and the unraced O'Toole, whose daughter by Tiznow produced multiple graded stakes winner Mr. Money (Goldencents). That formula (by a son of Into Mischief, first two dams by Tiznow and Distorted Humor) represents an especially strong echo of Patch Adams (by Into Mischief, first two dams by Distorted Humor and Tiznow). No patching up required by a family as Well Dressed as this one.

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