Breeding Digest: Time Traveler Returning to Roots

Wandering Eyes · 2026-01-27T16:55:07Z

Having so often berated Europeans for neglecting Not This Time, I do see the irony in the odyssey of his son Six Speed. Last spring, this colt was one of few Not This Time foals to have been given conspicuous opportunity to plant his flag on European turf. As a yearling, he had been found at Keeneland by Mags O'Toole, showing the familiar acuity that exonerates her from charges of myopia that must be leveled at so many other bloodstock professionals over the water. He cost just $50,000, from breeder KatieRich Farms, and at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale showed enough dash to realize 220,000gns (around $300,000). Yet it turned out that he had been passed up by all the big local programs. Instead he was exported to Dubai by Bhupat Seemar, for whom he last week won the G3 U.A.E. 2,000 Guineas by five lengths.

He did so in new American ownership, banking 20 gate points for the GI Kentucky Derby. So a colt that might easily have advertised to Europe his sire's equal prowess on turf could well find himself instead returning to his native soil to confirm a core efficacy on dirt.

That's obviously crucial to a sire now standing at $250,000. Not This Time was champion turf stallion last year and six of his 11 elite scorers to date have come on that surface, but the balance will doubtless be tilting back with the upgrading of his mares. For the most important thing about Not This Time remains the astonishing fact that even his incoming sophomores were still only conceived at $45,000.

Really this horse cannot be accused of any specialisms. He is as likely to get you an Epicenter as an Up to the Mark, a Cogburn as a Next. Versatility, after all, was also a trademark of his sire, Giant's Causeway, and grandsire, Storm Cat.

Six Speed results from one of those $45,000 covers in 2022. And his dam Browse (Medaglia d'Oro) was an early sign of the way Not This Time was going up in the world.

For she represents a line previously in Phipps hands for nine generations, all the way back to Baby League (Bubbling Over), the daughter of La Troienne (Fr) purchased from Colonel Bradley's estate in 1946–at a price doubtless reflecting the Horse of the Year campaign of her daughter Busher (War Admiral) in 1945.

This branch of the dynasty is branded by Busher's sister Striking, acquired in utero, via So Chic's sister Glamour (Nasrullah) as granddam of champion juvenile filly Numbered Account (Buckpasser). The latter is fourth dam of Browse.

As a stakes-placed four-time winner, Browse herself attested to the continued genetic functionality of her noble family, which had been as well seeded as you might expect. Her half-brother by the sire of Not This Time, Imagining (Giant's Causeway), landed the GI Man o' War Stakes; and their Forestry half-sister is granddam of GI Frizette Stakes winner Chocolate Gelato (Practical Joke). They are out of multiple graded stakes winner Daydreaming (A.P. Indy), who brings a series of accomplished siblings onto the page. For instance, brothers Girolamo (Vosburgh Stakes) and Accelerator, respectively, won and placed at the elite level; and a Deputy Minister half-sister produced GI Spinster Stakes winner Got Lucky (A.P. Indy). Then there were two sisters that each produced three graded stakes winners. In the case of unraced She's a Winner (A.P. Indy), her best was GI Haskell Stakes winner/Derby runner-up Bluegrass Cat (Storm Cat); while her sister Supercharger went one better by producing Super Saver (Maria's Mon).

So while he has not tended to need much help, Not This Time was offered plenty by Browse. The mare had been culled from the Phipps program on retirement, for $600,000 at the 2019 Keeneland November Sale. Returned to the same ring two years later, her value somehow depreciated to $350,000 even though neither of her first two foals had yet run.

Purchasers KatieRich will have been satisfied, then, to see her daughter Pipit (Quality Road) come out and win a Woodbine sprint stakes as a juvenile, especially after favoring Browse with Curlin and Uncle Mo for her next two covers. In turn, the continued rise of Six Speed has put a nice gloss on other recent transactions. Pipit changed hands only days ago for $585,000 (to Pursuit of Success) at the Keeneland January Sale, in foal to Practical Joke; while a 13-year-old sister to Browse, three-time winner Sabbatical (Medaglia d'Oro), was also culled at the 2024 Keeneland November Sale, for $400,000 to D.J. Stable–in foal to none other than Not This Time.

The Taylor Made top gun is arguably owed a favor by the barn aiming to get Six Speed to Churchill via the GII U.A.E. Derby, having previously taken the same route with Summer Is Tomorrow (Summer Front). It was the manic pace set by that horse in 2022 that helped to set things up for Rich Strike's pounce on Epicenter, so denying Not This Time a Derby winner from his second crop. Sooner or later, that is going to be redressed–though I suppose that will just make the Europeans even less disposed to try him.

Another Masterpiece for Humor Mares

Medaglia d'Oro certainly quit at the top, having made a mockery of the self-fulfilling prejudice against ageing stallions. And Six Speed could yet be adding to his distaff legacy, with young sires out of his daughters already including Olympiad, National Treasure, Prince of Monaco and First Mission.

Very often, of course, broodmare sires reserve their real pomp for when they have left us altogether, and sadly that is now where we find ourselves with Distorted Humor, who died a few days ago at the venerable age of 33.

Distorted Humor does have an accomplished sire of sires extending his male line in Maclean's Music, but his daughters have been spreading his footprint wider yet, through the likes of Arrogate, Constitution and Practical Joke, and now Life is Good, Citizen Bull and Patch Adams. The latter four, all by Into Mischief, represent quite a challenge for those of us inclined to scepticism about the whole business of nicks. (And very big business it is, too!).

Maybe these are indeed just daughters of one very good stallion being covered by another. Either way, the cross has yielded another exciting talent in Canaletto, whose eight-length debut success at Gulfstream made him an automatic 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard.'

Certainly there's an awful lot more to this horse than a nice “cross.” That much was clear from two visits to the ring as a yearling: he raised $650,000 as an unusual proposition at the Fasig-Tipton February Sale, in the poignant dispersal of the late Bob Lothenbach's program; and elevated himself to $1 million at Saratoga not six months later.

At that stage, his half-brother by Tapit had only run once, disappointing at Churchill, but two days after the sale, he broke his maiden over the street. His name is Sandman and last spring, of course, he won the GI Arkansas Derby.

Their dam, three-time winner Distorted Music, had already produced multiple black-type winner (GIII Chilukki Stakes) She Can't Sing (Bernardini), and Distorted Music was herself a half-sister to the dam of solid graded stakes performer Moon Over Miami (Malibu Moon).

But the real action in this family centers on third dam Note Musicale (GB), an unraced daughter of Sadler's Wells and champion It's in the Air (Mr. Prospector). She's dam of two elite performers: French Classic winner Musical Chimes (In Excess {Ire}) and five-time Grade I scorer Music Note (A.P. Indy), subsequently celebrated as dam of G1 Dubai World Cup winner Mystic Guide (Ghostzapper). It's in the Air is also granddam of an elite scorer both sides of the Atlantic in Storming Home (GB) (Machiavellian).

With all that behind her, and now another son shaping up on the track, Distorted Music looks a characteristically smart pick by Springhouse Farm, for $375,000, as a 14-year-old at the dispersal.

John Magnier and his partners have proved quite unerring when reserving names of great painters for their most promising prospects, and we look forward to seeing Canaletto fill out this flamboyant first sketch.

Skippylongstocking | Coglianese

An Exaggerated Effect

Yet another by Into Mischief out of a Distorted Humor mare is Tappan Street, who beat the Horse of the Year at Gulfstream last March, but disappointed back over the same circuit last weekend. That left us an old-school finish, with the first three in the GI Pegasus World Cup adding up to an aggregate age of 20.

Evergreen winner Skippylongstocking is much the most accomplished son of Exaggerator, a pretty disappointing sire given his class (split Nyquist and Gun Runner in the Derby) and constitution (won the GI Preakness two weeks later, overall 15 starts inside 16 months). He was only nine when moving to Louisiana, however, so can certainly keep consolidating there.

As for what clicked with “Skippy,” the rags-to-riches $15,000 yearling: his dam has produced two other stakes winners, while her own sire War Chant principally reserved his Danzig flair for his daughters, who have additionally come up with Derby winner Country House (Lookin At Lucky) and top-class European juvenile Shalaa (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}).

Tempting though it is, not even I will pin his toughness on the sire of his fifth dam! Nonetheless, it's fun to see a small footprint for Tudor Way (Arg), whose family traces to a mare imported to Uruguay way back in 1895. That South American ore has always been worth mining…