Bloodstock Digest: La Troienne Jubilee Starts Early

[Wandering Eyes]

In terms of upcoming centenaries, the good news is that we should be favored with plenty of Marilyn Monroe movies. True, her most enduring contribution to equine sport was to exclaim, in Some Like It Hot: “Water polo! Isn't that terribly dangerous?” “I'll say,” replies Tony Curtis as the fake millionaire. “I had two ponies drowned under me.” In the Thoroughbred world, therefore, we will instead be honoring another immortal female born in 1926.

Through the next year, in fact, it might be fun to make a specific note of every graded stakes winner tracing to La Troienne (Fr), just as a snapshot of her legacy. Because we had a pretty instructive sample last weekend, when horses as remote in origin as South American champion Obataye (Brz) (Courtier) and the Louisiana A.T.M., Touchuponastar (Star Guitar), could ultimately be entwined by the great matriarch.

La Troienne's influence can hardly be condensed in a few paragraphs here; nor have we scope to reprise the encouragement she offers anyone who recently invested in a cull from a major program at the breeding stock sales. In short, the daughter of Teddy (Fr) never won a race (albeit highly tried, and placed a couple of times) and was discarded by Marcel Boussac for 1,250 guineas in December 1930. Though her dam was a steeplechaser, it was a Classic family overall and her purchase by Colonel E.R. Bradley duly consolidated his status as one of the principal architects of the modern American Thoroughbred.

By now, of course, the direct genetic impact of La Troienne will be fairly infinitesimal. She's the 10th dam of Obataye, the ninth of Touchuponastar. But these two horses do legitimately measure the sheer range by which their ancestor has become such an icon. Each traces to a different daughter of La Troienne, among several to have established lasting lines; these latter having in turn proliferated to allow widespread access. Sure enough, both extend branches identified with relatively modern names-respectively those of The Garden Club (Herbager {Fr}) and La Mesa (Round Table)-but have since been diluted sufficiently to become perfectly affordable.

Touchuponastar is out of a mare who cost $25,000 as a yearling and, while Star Guitar is a deserving legend in Louisiana, was conceived at no more than $7,500. But this tapering of values is pretty steep. The dam is out of a Deputy Minister mare who was in utero when Harbor View Farm decided that $450,000 was not enough for a half-sister (by Farma Way) to Bernstein and Sky Mesa's dam Caress (both by Storm Cat). Their dam was out of La Mesa, who was herself out of Buckpasser's half-sister-whose granddam was La Troienne's daughter Businesslike (Blue Larkspur).

The line that leads to Obataye, meanwhile, was cultivated by Ogden Phipps, who acquired La Troienne's daughter Baby League (Bubbling Over) after Bradley's death in 1946. Her value had just been giddily elevated by her daughter Busher (War Admiral), Horse of the Year in 1945, but she was carrying a full sister who would repay Phipps every cent, in Striking.

Striking's daughter by Nasrullah, So Chic, has become one of the principal thoroughfares to La Troienne, notably through her granddaughter The Garden Club. The latter's acquisition by William S. Farish III was pivotal to the development of Lane's End, with her daughter Up the Flagpole (Hoist the Flag) becoming dam of seven stakes winners and, eventually, granddam of Mineshaft (A.P. Indy).

Obataye's profile on Pedigrees360

By that stage the farm had sold a Storm Cat filly out of The Garden Club's final foal, Hidden Garden (Mr. Prospector), for $360,000 as a yearling in 1998. The filly, named Hidden Storm, never made the starting gate but her latest owners were able to cash her out for $700,000 after Mineshaft refreshed the page in 2003.

She redeemed that investment when the Danehill filly she was carrying was sold to Coolmore as a yearling for $1.45 million. But a single placing for that filly at Listed level proved the highlight of her dam's production record-albeit from only half-a-dozen named foals-and a later daughter by Unbridled's Song was discarded to Brazil, for just $28,000, as an unraced 2-year-old at the 2009 Keeneland November Sale.

That has proved a moment of tremendous renewal for this strand of the La Troienne dynasty-even though neither this filly, Paris Commune, nor her daughter Surfi'n Usa (Crimson Tide {Sadler's Wells}) ever made the racetrack. For her son Gargalo's Hill (Brz) meanwhile won a couple of local Group races; and now Surfi'n Usa has become the dam of the Continent's outstanding racehorse.

Obviously some credit is owed to Obataye's sire, Courtier, whose own maternal line extends to Almahmoud-a name that stands comparison with that of La Troienne herself-via the Coup De Folie (Halo) branch to Natalma. Courtier was a Juddmonte homebred, a half-brother by Pioneerof the Nile to multiple Grade I winner Emollient (Empire Maker), and was found a place at stud in Brazil after being beaten by a length in the GII National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes in 2015. Not many of us will remember him, on the racetrack, but he has sired three previous Group 1 winners in Brazil.

Obataye may be a big fish in a relatively small pond. But nobody can belittle his genes as when a prize swordfish is described, in Some Like It Hot, as a member of the herring family. “Isn't it amazing how they get those big fish into those little glass jars?” remarks Marilyn. Curtis replies: “They shrink when they're marinated.”

 

Warrior a Folk Legend

Spreading our wings a little, this week, with the build-up to the holiday rather quiet on the domestic front. From South America we proceed to Asia, to acclaim a truly outlandish animal in Romantic Warrior (Ire), now winner of a fourth G1 Hong Kong Cup.

And “acclaim” is the word. It was a year ago this month that Rathbarry Stud mourned the loss of Romantic Warrior's remarkable sire Acclamation (GB), whose very first crop included a future champion sire in Dark Angel (Ire). Though sire of seven elite winners, Acclamation never stood at a higher fee than €40,000.

Admittedly he could work with some quite some interesting material in Romantic Warrior's dam Folk Melody (Ire) (Street Cry {Ire}). She had been culled in 2016 by Godolphin for €82,000 after a regressive track career (impressed on debut) contributed to the rather disappointing production record of her dam, GI E.P. Taylor Stakes winner Folk Opera (Ire) (Singspiel {Ire}), herself discarded that same fall as a 12-year-old, for no more than 240,000gns.

Of the various good opportunities granted to Folk Opera, however, it has turned out that her first two foals-both daughters of Street Cry-would draw most of her ability. The unraced Opera Lily is dam of Argentinian Group 1 winner Mr Bailetti (Arg) (Exchange Rate); and then came Folk Melody.

Folk Opera had herself been the first foal of her dam Skiphall (GB) (Halling), who similarly faded thereafter. That was a disappointment, given that Skiphall had been bred by Juddmonte from Minskip (The Minstrel), who can be found over some pretty smart horses-which would have been no less than would have been hoped, when her dam Fabulous Native (Le Fabuleux {Fr}) was expensively recruited halfway through her breeding career.

Fabulous Native's dam, by Raise A Native, was a granddaughter of Exclusive (Shut Out)-whose own date with Raise A Native had produced Exclusive Native.

 

Nyquist Passing the Test

While the success of Litmus Test (Nyquist) in the GII Los Alamitos Futurity plainly consolidated the credentials of the crop champion, he is certainly coming along admirably in his own right and will stretch out next year with a nice, old-fashioned base of experience.

Meanwhile he has completed a fine year for his sire, whose incoming juveniles will still only have been conceived-like Litmus Test-at $55,000. Now that he is trading at $175,000, the expectation will be that his upgraded mares will cycle through and keep up the momentum. As it is, his 10 Grade I performers this year represent 3.6 percent of starters, a match even for Not This Time, Gun Runner and his pensioned neighbor Medaglia d'Oro, the only others (among meaningful opposition) to bat three percent in 2025.

It is certainly to Nyquist's credit that he was able to convert a relatively reachable fee into a $875,000 payday at Saratoga last year, much the best yet for Litmus Test's dam Study Hard (Malibu Moon). The latter was found by Machmer Hall as a yearling for $100,000 at the 2016 September Sale. Though she showed nothing in a light career, she was always going to be able to fall back on her genes, as full sister to triple graded stakes winner Sweet August Moon. The latter had an unusual distinction, by the way, in both starting and finishing her career in Grade I races! (Seventh when taking the Del Mar Debutante literally, and bowed out with third in the Santa Monica Stakes.)

Study Hard duly contributes to the expanding distaff legacy of Malibu Moon, whose daughters have so far given us one excellent stallion in Girvin and now launch a couple of young “Guns” in Locked and Sierra Leone.

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