Breeding Digest: Tragedy of Journalism’s Dam Redeemed by Vital Legacy

[Wandering Eyes]

The horse giveth, the horse taketh away. How typical that Mopotism (Uncle Mo), one of those rare commercial diamonds that oblige with a champion at the first attempt, succumbed to her animal frailty in the very week that Journalism (Curlin) excavated new depths of the toughness she had given him.

At least the cruelty of her premature loss has been matched by a proportionately outsized legacy. For while we can't yet be certain that even a prowess measured as persuasively as that of Journalism will be competently replicated, surely his endeavors–along with the explosive impact at stud of the latest Triple Crown winner–have terminally embarrassed any talk of desecrating the Classic schedule.

Michael McCarthy and his patrons have unanswerably challenged the new orthodoxy that horses are no longer equal to the brief met by their predecessors. It is hardly as though they have gone wild, starting this horse in five Grade I races across 15 weeks. I must remind you, yet again, how Jim Bolger in 2021 ran Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}) in three Classics in 22 days, winning the first and beaten a short head in the third, before destroying his rivals at Royal Ascot after a 24-day vacation! As it is, Journalism has been beaten by a single horse since his debut, and who can say how that horse might have fared in a conventional Belmont? Regardless, the fearless campaigning of Journalism has become a fabulous stallion advertisement–due reward for taking risks abjured by so many others.

Faint heart never won fair maiden, nor fair broodmare either. Yet owners are allowing trainers to imply shortcomings in their stallion prospects that may well not exist. Look how Kenny McPeek has been filling the gaps obligingly left by rivals better resourced in all but horsemanship. Eventually, surely, the big investors will tire of trainers who only run their horses every other moon, and take their business elsewhere.

That would be something to remember Mopotism by! Obviously Curlin has played his part in Journalism, too, as a great stallion trademarked by stock that continues to thrive. But Mopotism made 26 starts across three years, including 19 inside 21 months, and 21 at Grade I/II level. Her only day in the sun admittedly came in a photo for the GII La Canada Stakes, but she meanwhile banked nearly $900,000 and was then cashed out to Don Alberto Corp for $1.05 million.

Some of the rock from which she was hewn traces to Sylvanaise (Fr) (Meridien {Fr}), imported from France by Elmendorf Farm in the early 1950s. Two of Sylvanaise's granddaughters shared the limelight on Florida Derby day in 1983. One produced Croeso (Super Concorde), to land a shock in the big race; another, Rare Bouquet (Prince John), produced Slewpy (Seattle Slew) to dazzle on his sophomore debut after being stopped three times.

Besides Slewpy, Rare Bouquet stands above quite a black-type dynasty. One daughter, for instance, produced millionaire Top Corsage (Topsider); another, Kentucky Derby fourth Water Bank (Naskra), who later finished third to Slewpy when the family ushered Deputy Minister into retirement in the GI Meadowlands Cup; while still another, stakes winner Fresh Pepper (B. Major), is granddam of a pertinent mare in Peppy Lapeau (French Deputy).

Though unraced herself, Peppy Lapeau's first foal was that fast but infertile horse Songster (Songandaprayer). Then, mated with a distaff legend in the making, she produced Peppy Rafaela (Bernardini). While this filly showed little in a light track career, she was bought for $100,000 by Frank Batten at the 2014 January Sale, carrying a first foal by Uncle Mo. The resulting filly cleared that investment as a $135,000 weanling back at Keeneland that November and then, after two pinhook cycles, was named Mopotism for a racing career with Reddam Racing.

Journalism himself, in turn, recovered most of the price eventually paid by Don Alberto for Mopotism, raising $825,000 as her first yearling. And even though he remained unraced when his Tapit half-brother followed him to Saratoga last summer, Flying Dutchmen still had to stretch to $1.5 million.

Mopotism certainly paid her way in the little time she was allowed, then, and was also considerate enough to ensure that her last two foals, by Into Mischief and Flightline, were fillies.

Batten, meanwhile, will also remember her with affection. After she had shown their genetic wares on the track, he sold a brother for $775,000; while earlier this month her retained full-sister Ruth returned to winning form over the same Monmouth surface that has now exalted the family higher than ever.

No Second Thoughts on Collected

Having burdened him with “gold” in my Value Podium for $10,000 sires last winter, I am relieved to see Collected kicking on with Thought Process, whose dashing success in the GII San Clemente Handicap was her fifth in six since debut.

Seven graded stakes winners to date leave Collected behind only big guns Justify and Good Magic in what has proved a formidable intake. (Oscar Performance and Bolt d'Oro also have seven; City of Light and that quiet achiever Mo Town, six.)

Thought Process | Benoit

Collected has already produced a useful juvenile from his fourth crop in Comport, a debut winner at Churchill before running second in the Bashford Manor. But the sire's own template guarantees that his stock will keep progressing, as we lately saw with 5-year-old Taxed adding a near-miss in the GI La Troienne Stakes to her resume.

Those emulating their sire's class on dirt have this year also been complemented by a graded stakes winner on synthetics, consistent with the nice blend of influences in his pedigree. But Thought Process obviously adds to Collected's turf profile and, with first four dams by Johannesburg, Danehill, Lyphard and Alleged, he really needs to be on the radar of European pinhookers–especially as the next dam Runaway Bride (Wild Risk {Fr}) produced Blushing Groom himself.

Tenuous as that blood may seem, remember that Collected's grandsire Carson City is out of a Blushing Groom mare. That flavor was artfully replicated in the mating (yet another credited to the late Brereton C. Jones) that produced Thought Process, whose dam Creative Thinking (Creative Cause) adds two further strains of Blushing Groom: her granddam, a European Classic runner-up, is by one of his sons, Groom Dancer; while Mariah's Storm–dam of Creative Thinking's grandsire Giant's Causeway–is by another, in Rahy.

Collected must ride out that familiar, lonely “bubble” with his present yearlings, with only a handful likely to reach the market, but numbers already started picking up last year and there's a rising tide to catch.

Overcoming Our Insecurities

When you've had as raw a deal as Maximum Security, you take your blessings wherever they may fall. It feels typical of his fortunes, however, that his biggest score to date should have been as remote from the Kentucky radar as a group race at Chantilly last weekend.

His travails are too familiar to need reprising, but none has been his own fault, nor that of the farm that took him on as crop champion. His pedigree admittedly contained its challenges, but his dam is half-sister to multiple Grade I winner Flat Out (Flatter) and the functionality of those genes has only ever been doubted by dint of unfortunate association.

His fee having plummeted, it would be a hard heart that does not warm to this underdog now fighting his corner. Instant Replay built on his strong finish in the GII Louisiana Derby with two stakes scores and his approach to adversity in the GIII Indiana Derby suggests that he's not done yet. And the way Rosa Salvaje (Ire) saw off her pursuers in the G3 Prix Chloe was another of those low-key reminders, to Europeans, that the elusive combination of speed and stamina is precisely what they have been missing in neglecting speed-carrying dirt sires for so long.

After all, this filly bears a heavy imprint of A.P. Indy: one of his sons, Malibu Moon, as damsire and another, Anasheed, serving the same role for Maximum Security himself. The intriguing name, however, is that lurking behind Rosa Salvaje's granddam–a daughter of Storm and a Half.

Instant Replay | Renee Torbit/Coady Media

That son of Storm Cat was a milestone sales success in the emergence of Ashview as one of the exemplary family farms of the Bluegrass, raising $1.2 million at the 1998 September Sale. He was out of four-time stakes winner At the Half (Seeking the Gold), herself homebred from a $9,000 mare. Unfortunately Storm and a Half never made the starting gate, but he was given a chance at stud by Arkansas stalwart Donald Dewitt McDowell and almost immediately came up with Downthedustyroad, who broke her maiden under a $25,000 tag, but won the GI La Brea Stakes before the year was out.

Sold for $1.5 million soon afterwards, she appeared to achieve little from some commensurate coverings at stud. But her daughter by Malibu Moon, Idle Hour, was stakes-placed besides winning two of just six starts before being picked up by Yeguada Centurion for $130,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November Sale. And Rosa Salvaje, who surfaced at Arqana as a yearling to make €75,000 from Frederic Sauque, is only her second foal.

Taken in context, she's a legitimate feather in the cap of Maximum Security. Who knows, perhaps his up-and-down saga could yet level off into a heartwarming sequel.

The post Breeding Digest: Tragedy of Journalism’s Dam Redeemed by Vital Legacy appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article