Breeding Digest: No Banishing This Vital Ghost

[Wandering Eyes]

In fairness, an authentic Triple Crown was never available to Sovereignty even if his connections had deigned to seek one. We must still wait and see, then, whether Into Mischief can someday crown his evolution into a Classic influence with the winner of a 12-furlong Belmont Stakes.

As and when that happens, it will feel much as when Justify-representing another Storm Cat speed brand, Scat Daddy-set off fast and just kept going.

That ability to carry speed is the dirt grail and perhaps we can give some credit for the 2018 Belmont to Justify's damsire Ghostzapper, who stretched his own speed so memorably at the Breeders' Cup. It was that same hallmark, historically, that made dirt stallions so influential in the European theater, where Justify has lately added to his laurels (admittedly assisted by the inevitable Galileo {Ire} mare) with a Group 1 winner over fully two miles round Goodwood.

At 25, Ghostzapper is moving from the evening of his career to its sunset. His transfer from Kentucky last winter was accompanied by an expectation that a managed book, back with Adena Springs at their Ontario base, might be his last before being pensioned. If that proves to be the case, then he's certainly still attending dynamically to his legacy.

Besides Justify, his distaff influence also extends to Up to the Mark; while he now has a couple of highly eligible sons in the early stages of their stud careers, in Mystic Guide and Loggins. That's particularly gratifying after McCraken hit the rocks with his fertility and with Ghostzapper's more recent headliners having been either females, notably Moira and Goodnight Olive, or geldings.

Book 'em Danno | Sarah Andrew

Both dimensions to his portfolio featured in a remarkable afternoon for the veteran stallion last Saturday, when two gelded sons won graded stakes and Book'em Danno (Bucchero) extended his Grade I impact as a damsire.

In the GII Pat O'Brien Stakes at Del Mar, Ghostzapper accounted for both the first two, Dr. Venkman and Stronghold. Actually Dr. Venkman somewhat echoes the pedigree of Book'em Danno's dam Adorabella, who's out of an Arch mare. (Presumably nobody needs reminding who sired Dr. Venkman's damsire, Archarcharch…) Stronghold is still an entire, incidentally, and this excellent return from a seven-month lay-off augurs well, given Ghostzapper's propensity to eke improvement from his maturing stock.

A case in point is the 5-year-old Banishing, who could scarcely have made a more dispiriting start for his new owners after his $80,000 purchase from Godolphin at Fasig-Tipton's HRA July Sale last year, vanned off the track at Saratoga. Having resurfaced to win a claimer at Keeneland's fall meet, he has been thriving wildly since and last weekend won his second graded stakes–having meanwhile run Mindframe (Constitution) to a neck at Grade I level–in the GII Charles Town Classic.

Banishing carries a healthy dose of Deputy Minister, responsible for his grandsire Awesome Again and also for his third dam, GII Demoiselle Stakes winner Minister Wife. The latter entered the Godolphin broodmare band in 2000, for $525,000 at the Keeneland November Sale, in time to join what tragically proved the only book of Dubai Millennium (GB). The resulting filly, Thousand Islands (GB), won a listed race in a light career with Andre Fabre and produced a couple of minor graded stakes performers.

Minister Wife subsequently came up with Marietta (Machiavellian), who broke the track record in the GIII Arlington Oaks. Unfortunately, Marietta didn't really reward some classy covers, and was culled for $30,000 in 2020; and only this January at Keeneland she was followed out of the Godolphin program by her daughter by A.P. Indy.

Dowager had shown fair ability, indeed breaking her maiden at Aqueduct by a dozen lengths; was in foal to Speaker's Corner; and her most recent representative on the track-her fifth foal-had only a few days previously beaten that hard-knocking stakes operator Tejano Twist (Practical Joke) in an Oaklawn allowance. Nonetheless, Sean Perl was able to get her for just $9,000.

Barely two weeks after the auction Banishing followed up by seven and a half lengths in a stakes, initiating some relentless upgrades for his Speaker's Corner half-brother at the forthcoming September Sale. Bravo to Perl, who last year bought a young Curlin mare of very similar profile from Godolphin for $20,000 at the February Sale. Back in the same ring in November, she brought $325,000—her half-sister having in the interim emerged as champion Immersive (Nyquist).

Ghostzapper was not handled very temperately when he started out, launched at $200,000 and slashed from $125,000 to $30,000 after his first juveniles blew out. Though a colt from that debut crop won a Grade I the following spring, he was cut again to $20,000. It was a long way back but his 105 stakes winners (16 at Grade I level) represent eight percent of named foals, essentially a match for the great Curlin. So while we wish him long and comfortable leisure in the years ahead, how heartening that his legacy only continues to grow.

 

A Well Dressed Stud Prospect

You can't have it both ways. Apparently Sovereignty “would” have won the Triple Crown. But the fact is that he wasn't deemed equal to the schedule–even in a year when the Belmont, as already noted, wouldn't have asked anything like the same question as usual.

If Sovereignty is only imposing his brilliance so effectively because he was spared the Preakness, then his claims to greatness has been skillfully protected. If, on the other hand, he would have dominated the crop regardless, then he has been denied his due place in the pantheon by the meekness not of the modern Thoroughbred, but of modern horsemen.

Everyone in this debate claims to be representing the “interests” of the horse, and therefore the sport. But if we're serious about equine welfare then we should be trying to identify those genes that best channel toughness and resilience. That's the purpose of the schedule we've inherited and trainers trying to bully the sport into abandoning it–and good luck, by the way, maintaining Main Street's attention once you make the series not only easier but much longer–appear complicit with the promotion of “commercial” brilliance that cannot reliably stand up to the demands of training.

Be all that as it may, Sovereignty and Patch Adams last weekend elevated their phenomenal sire past $21.5 million in his regal progress to a seventh consecutive championship, matching Bold Ruler's 1963-69 streak. Bold Ruler added an eighth title in 1973 but Into Mischief–with his libido, fertility and books all holding up–is plainly menacing that modern record, too. His 2025 earnings currently stand 76% higher than those of his closest pursuer, Gun Runner (albeit 390 starters represent a nearly proportionate advantage over the latter's 241).

Patch Adams | Sarah Andrew

Obviously, even Into Mischief must share the credit for his best horses and, Sovereignty's maternal background having been thoroughly explored, we should acknowledge the depth of family behind Patch Adams. Its development will give WinStar huge satisfaction, as and when he returns to his native farm for a stud career.

His third dam, Well Dressed (Notebook), was recruited for $150,000 at Keeneland in November 2001, as a stakes winner with a maiden cover by Awesome Again. The resulting filly has since become granddam of Cyberknife (Gun Runner); while the black type meanwhile proliferating beneath Well Dressed includes G1 Dubai World Cup winner Well Armed (Tiznow); the dam of GI La Troienne Stakes winner Played Hard (Into Mischief); and the granddam of millionaire Mr. Money (Goldencents).

A sister to Well Armed, Life Well Lived, contributed only a maiden success to the dynasty but then produced four black-type operators, headed by Grade I turf scorer American Patriot (War Front). The only filly among these was Well Humored (Distorted Humor), winner of three races in just five starts, including a stakes at Tampa Bay. Patch Adams is her first foal.

Well Dressed, herself out of a sister to the dam of Japanese giant Symboli Kris S (Kris S), traces to the export to Elmendorf Farm in 1899 of a mare named Berriedale (GB), heavily inbred to titanic Classic influences of the Victorian Turf. The Elmendorf connection lingered until 1945, when Well Dressed's fifth dam was foaled there. She shared a granddam with Whirlaway, the only Triple Crown winner to precede Sovereignty on the GI Travers roll of honor. In all Whirlaway won 32 races-from the Saratoga Special, over six furlongs, to the Jockey Club Gold Cup, then over two miles…

 

A Triumph of Hope

We all know notorious instances of top racemares proving abject producers, and that may be just as well when the most pragmatic compromise, in your mare budget, favors physical form over proven function. But then you get a race like the GI Ballerina Stakes, where replication of elite ability proves to be almost literal, with Hope Road (Quality Road) emulating the 2018 success of her dam Marley's Freedom (Blame). Just to underline the point, she was chased home by Scylla (Tapit), whose mother Close Hatches (First Defence) was herself a Grade I winner over the same track in 2014.

Cicero Farms bought Marley's Freedom as a yearling for just $35,000, at the 2015 September Sale. Obviously, they could never have known that her young sire would become such a precocious distaff influence, but it must be tremendously fulfilling-having resisted lucrative opportunity to cash her out-to see her first cover now pay off in this way.

 

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