Breeding Digest: A Bridge Across The Channel

[Wandering Eyes]

Taking the waters proved a fairly literal recreation through opening week at the Spa. Despite short fields and soggy turf, however, there were one or two sunbeams for those who relish a pedigree.

'TDN Rising Star' Far Bridge (English Channel) was scarcely a revelation in outclassing three rivals for the GII Bowling Green Stakes, his fifth graded success in his last seven starts. But his overall body of work and deeper family together demand the opportunity, someday, to extend his sire's legacy at stud.

Admittedly Far Bridge's page features little else in his immediate vicinity, but his dam (by English Channel's great rival as a turf influence, Kitten's Joy) had tragically limited opportunity. And the maternal line had previously been sown by A.P. Indy, Storm Cat, Pleasant Colony, Northern Dancer and Bold Ruler. That's because it eventually traces to Lea Lark (Bull Lea), ancestress of over 50 elite winners.

This branch of her dynasty, through a daughter by Bold Ruler, has produced two names especially resonant in Argentina: Southern Halo and Blue Prize (Pure Prize). And the genes certainly seemed to be functioning when Far Bridge's third dam, Pleasant Temper (Storm Cat), won two graded stakes on grass; and indeed when subsequently producing the dam of millionaire Long Range Toddy (Take Charge Indy).

Pleasant Temper additionally produced a couple of stakes performers while her daughter by A.P. Indy, Teenage Temper, showed early talent in winning a Churchill maiden by daylight and following up in an allowance. But she regressed thereafter and, after a tepid start to her breeding career, was sold as a 12-year-old for $70,000 at the 2013 Keeneland January Sale, in foal to Kitten's Joy.

The resulting filly, retained by the mare's purchasers at Calumet, showed modest ability on grass as Fitpitcher–gaining her solitary win in a Suffolk Downs maiden–but not enough to prevent her dam being culled as soon as 2017 for just $3,000. The Oklahoma buyers of Teenage Temper were given brief excitement when her Oxbow colt won a dirt sprint on debut at Oaklawn, but he disappeared after his next start to leave the page looking pretty stale.

Fitpitcher appeared unlikely to stoke the embers when her first foal, an English Channel filly, was sold as a weanling for $1,000, duly finishing tailed off in two maiden claimers. Wherever she is now, however, she has meanwhile soared up in the world. Her dam's next foal is the third-highest domestic earner by Bal a Bali (Brz)–a limited distinction, true, but arguably all the more meritorious as a result. And then, having returned to English Channel, Fitpitcher produced a son who, as a sophomore early in 2023, won his first two starts at Gulfstream.

A private purchase by LSU Stables proved ahead of the curve. For hindsight discloses that this horse–and we are, of course, talking about Far Bridge–beat none other than 'TDN Rising Star' Carl Spackler (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) on debut. Some maiden, that anticipates six Grade I prizes in one photo!

Far Bridge won his first that summer, in the Belmont Derby, but has reached a still higher level with maturity–just as we know to expect from the Smart Strike line, as branded by English Channel alongside Curlin and Lookin At Lucky.

The latter has now remained in Chile, where he's properly appreciated, but earlier this month offered a rebuke to the market that deplored his “uncommercial” stock when the exemplary Amerman program added homebred Test Score (another, incidentally, out of a mare by Kitten's Joy) to the Belmont Derby roll of honor. The Amermans have now won both runnings since Far Bridge, last year with a son of their own stallion, Oscar Performance, in Trikari.

Test Score's nearest pursuer, incidentally, was also by Oscar Performance–whose accession as principal heir to Kitten's Joy has proved as seamless as it is unequivocal. Now we just need a horse to perform a similar service for English Channel, who never achieved even the commercial traction of Kitten's Joy but ended up insisting on an equal share of hegemony–such as it can be, nowadays–among Kentucky grass stallions.

English Channel died eight months before Kitten's Joy, in 2021, and is now down to his final sophomores (from a crop of just 45 live foals). Many of his best sons have been geldings, while the couple at stud will do well to carve a lasting foothold from the little support they have received.

Sadly Fitpitcher died the same year as English Channel, but two of her three foals figure among the highest achievers by their respective sires. That obviously counts for far more with one than the other, but suggests her to have been competently reviving a faded branch of a noble dynasty. Given that Far Bridge, as a runner, is displaying precisely those hallmarks that distinguished English Channel on the track, he's suggesting an auspicious capacity for replication top and bottom.

It's a long way to dry land, for any turf stallion tried in Kentucky, but here's a bridge that may yet reach the far bank.

Deep Satin | Sarah Andrew

A Rose With Deep Roots
An even glossier pedigree on the Saratoga grass last week was that of the meet's first black-type scorer.

Unsurprisingly De La Rose Stakes winner Deep Satin (American Pharoah) was never offered at auction by John Gunther and his daughter Tanya, being out of one of their most cherished mares, Take the Ribbon. Herself a graded stakes winner on turf, Take the Ribbon's half-sister is Glinda the Good (Hard Spun), the dam of Good Magic.

All of us should by now be making progress in imitating the way the Gunthers go about matings–or should at least be trying our best!–and the luminous feature of the one that produced Deep Satin is inbreeding to broodmare legend Toussaud (El Gran Senor). One of her sons, Chester House, sired Take the Ribbon; another, Empire Maker, is grandsire of American Pharoah.

This page could yet develop significantly within the same barn through Deep Satin's half-brother Deep Manhattan (Justify), who beat Tom's Magic–another son of Justify, meanwhile winner of two stakes–by five lengths at the Fair Grounds last November. Patiently restored after a setback, he's back breezing and remains an exciting prospect.

Beau Cuts An Early Dash
For now we can only be talking about straws in the wind. But two stakes winners already make Beau Liam a match for all the other first-crop sires combined, only Yaupon and Leinster otherwise mustering one apiece. And that's absolutely consistent with his profile to this point, the son of Liam's Map having included home runs of $270,000, $220,000, $200,000 and $195,000 among a first crop of yearlings conceived at just $6,000.

This was a meteor of a sprinter, brief but bright: his 'TDN Rising Star' debut at Churchill, in 1:08.62, remains the fastest 6f maiden at that storied track; on his next start at Saratoga, his 106 Beyer jostles only Jackie's Warrior (107) and Life Is Good (106) among 7f sophomores of that crop; and he then doubled down with a 107 when burning off his pursuers over 6.5f, again at Saratoga, in 1:15 flat.

Beaten a length on his graded stakes debut, he was not seen again–but a flying start in his second career reminds us how his genes stack up, too.

His dam Belle of Perintown (by the excellent distaff influence Dehere) won the GII Silverbulletday Stakes and has additionally produced graded stakes and stakes winners, plus a stakes-placed Grade I producer. And the granddam is an unraced daughter of Mr. Prospector and GI Fantasy Stakes winner/GI Kentucky Oaks runner-up Jeanne Jones (Nijinsky), herself half-sister to Avenue of Flags (Seattle Slew).

Beau Liam at Saratoga | Sarah Andrew

Pitched at such a fair price, Beau Liam can go to war with 81 named foals. Not quite a match for Yaupon, with a class-high 115, and that horse duly cuts out the early running with six winners from 14 starters including dual black-type scorer 'TDN Rising Star' Sassy C W.

The other with an early stakes strike, Leinster in Florida, has three winners from six including Lennilu, who additionally placed at Royal Ascot. That suggests Leinster to be overcoming his own template, having needed 13 attempts before breaking his maiden at four but finishing with three graded stakes in his final four starts, in between beaten a length at the Breeders' Cup. He appears to be purveying significantly more precocity, along with his speed, at just $2,500.

Mischief Into Uncharted Territory
Just a footnote, here, but that doesn't diminish a historic moment. It's just that we have said it all before, and will be seeking new ways of saying it all again when he matches Bold Ruler this year with a seventh consecutive title. Moreover the transfer of the sceptre has been inevitable for a long time. The least we can do, however, is draw your attention to the fact that Into Mischief has just overtaken Tapit as the richest stallion in American history.

Spendthrift's champion now stands on $218,217,957, having edged past his venerable rival on $217,828,604. As we've often noted, libido and fertility have given Into Mischief virtually identical volume to this point, despite Tapit having four more crops. And his upgrading mares are meanwhile closing the gap, in elite ratios: in fact he has now reached parity, in black-type scorers, at 10 percent of named foals. For now Tapit retains a marginal edge in graded stakes/Grade I action, but the trends here will presumably prove just as inexorable as the one that has brought Into Mischief to this fresh summit.

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