Breeding Digest: Venerable Grays and Living Legacies

[Wandering Eyes]

Horses obviously derive no comfort from the legacy they might leave. A stallion's reproductive ardor is presumably driven sooner by the means than the ends! In our own case, on the other hand, foreknowledge of mortality allows us to think about legacy. Racehorse trainers, for instance, can impart horsemanship to the next generation; or disclose, in horses, a genetic prowess that may have remained undisturbed in less skilled hands.

Everyone intimate with her quirks is unanimous that Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}) could easily have slipped through the cracks in a less artistic program than that operated by John Shirreffs. Ironically, she has turned out to be one of those females perhaps too virile to prove any kind of broodmare. But while her trainer's gentle and generous disposition proved equal even to the circus that developed around her, his wider accomplishments remained grossly overshadowed.

Certainly he produced elite performers at a ratio unequivocally superior to others who have preceded him to the Hall of Fame. I remember writing many years ago that his absence diminished only the institution, not the man; and that those already inducted would consider their distinction incomplete until shared by Shirreffs. Doubtless his neglect will now be redressed, albeit-how suddenly-too late.

Shirreffs himself, of course, would prize 15 minutes communing with a horse far above any bauble devised to gratify human vanity. Yes, we can honor his legacy; best of all, by emulating his benign and patient engagement with horses. In the meantime, however, we can bleakly share their point of view; can find it hard to think past the here-and-now, when it will never again be sweetened by his inquiring mind, and a voice that transparently conveyed his beautiful nature.

I hope you will indulge my starting with this apparent digression. But there are lessons pertinent to the world of breeding: not least, a reminder to appreciate what we have, while we have it.

So take a bow, Tapit! At 25, the venerable gray's books are being managed with scrupulous care and his diminished output has seen the three-time champion slide anonymously down the sires' table. But while competition among his male heirs grows ever stronger, his living legacy is expanding giddily through his daughters, hitherto responsible for 144 stakes winners headed by Cody's Wish (Curlin).

Tapit-P360-Profile.jpg" alt="" width="346" height="432" />   Last Saturday, Tapit was damsire of three big winners at the Fair Grounds: Paladin (Gun Runner) in the GII Risen Star Stakes; Bella Ballerina (Street Sense) in the GII Rachel Alexandra Stakes; and Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}) in the GIII Mineshaft Stakes. A flying start, then, to his defense of a broodmare sire championship-largely contested by pensioned or deceased sires-in which he has finished first, second and first in the last three years. With more and more daughters cycling through to a second career, they will be consolidating his breed-shaping status for a while yet.

The fact that two of their winners on Saturday were respectively by Gun Runner and his sire Candy Ride (Arg) will not discourage those who like to reduce matings to mere nicking formulae. After all, Gun Runner has previously given Tapit mares the likes of Society, Red Route One, Disarm and Wicked Halo. But the fact is that both stallions represent the same miraculous program, which was hardly going to resist the experiment of supporting the younger of the pair with daughters of the other. To the rest of us, blundering in their wake, the cross would seem to be producing good horses no more or less than one would expect when one top-class stallion is mated with the daughters of another.

We noted last week that Gun Runner has himself opened his account as a broodmare sire with none other than GIII Southwest Stakes winner Silent Tactic, who is of course by a son of Tapit in Tacitus. But just as that horse has much else going on besides, so even a stallion like Gun Runner-whose sophomores on the Classic trail also include Further Ado and Brant, plus fillies Life of Joy, Meaning and Search Party-will gratefully accept the genetic contribution of his steeply upgrading mares.

Paladin himself traces to the matriarch Golden Trail (Hasty Road) via her daughter Java Moon (inevitably by Graustark, sire of 11 of Golden Trail's last 12 foals). But we explored his background after the GII Remsen Stakes, so now we'll take a look at the rest of Tapit's weekend.

 

Dancer Not Just Pretty but Bellissima

Only Street Cry (Ire) in 2024 stood between Tapit and three consecutive broodmare sire championships, having of course already shown himself a potent sire of female runners including not just Zenyatta but also Winx (Aus). Among his sons, however, Street Sense has had to do almost all the heavy lifting.

Now represented by four heirs of his own at stud in Kentucky (including three in the same barn), Street Sense is in turn emerging as a top broodmare sire, with Mindframe (Constitution), Roaring Lion (Kitten's Joy) and Good Cheer (Medaglia d'Oro) among those delivered by his daughters.

The latter set up her GI Kentucky Oaks success last year-when one of her biggest rivals in the crop, La Cara, was not only by Street Sense but shared her third dam with none other than Paladin-in the same Fair Grounds race that was won last weekend by another Godolphin homebred in Bella Ballerina. And so, too, did Bella Ballerina's half-sister Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief) two years previously.

Pretty Mischievous was the result of the first mating arranged by Godolphin for Pretty City Dancer (Tapit), the GI Spinaway Stakes after her $3.5 million at Fasig-Tipton in November 2018. With her fourth starter now having started the way she has, that is looking like big money well spent–something of a recurring theme on the Classic trail this year–with Paladin a $1.9 million yearling and Plutarch out of a $6 million mare. But the sale of Pretty City Dancer had itself vindicated another very significant investment, John Oxley having bought her as a yearling for $825,000.

That reflected her status as half-sister to GI Gazelle Stakes winner Lear's Princess (Lear Fan), though their unraced dam Pretty City (Carson City) already had that to her credit when Gainesway alertly managed to pick her up for $160,000 as a 13-year-old at the 2011 Keeneland November Sale. Pretty City, moreover, was half-sister to turf millionaire My Big Boy (Our Hero), winner of the GI Bernard Baruch Handicap.

Their dam by Riverman was a cheap Ogden Phipps cull (two nondescript starts) after five unbroken generations in that program, tracing to none other than Businesslike (Blue Larkspur), the daughter of La Troienne (Fr) who additionally gave it Busanda (War Admiral)- dam of the great Buckpasser.

In her anniversary year, La Troienne (Fr) appears to be making it compulsory to feature a fresh blossom on her family tree every week.

 

Best Supporting Actress

 

The other graded stakes winner out of a Tapit mare last Saturday has a pretty familiar pedigree, by this stage, Hit Show having come to general notice in Dubai last spring. Nonetheless his page had been freshened up only a couple of days previously, when Prom Queen (Quality Road) broke her maiden with sufficient dash to be named a 'TDN Rising Star' at Gulfstream.

Prom Queen is out of Miss Bling Bling (Tapit), full sister to Hit Show's dam Actress. The latter, who won a couple of graded stakes including the GII Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (when breaking her maiden), was the first foal out of Milwaukee Appeal (Milwaukee Brew), the Canadian champion and millionaire recruited privately by Gary and Mary West on her retirement.

Miss Bling Bling, that mare's fourth foal, was beaten half a length on her solitary start. It seems safe to assume that Hit Show must have been a pleasing foal, as his dam's sister was promptly sent to Candy Ride (Arg) for her next cover. That produced Money Game, winner of both his starts at Oaklawn last year and now back on the worktab at Payson Park.

By the way, you have to love the way Accelerize (Omaha Beach)-who pushed Hit Show so hard-is rewarding such a bold mating by Spendthrift: both his sire's dam and his damsire Take Charge Indy are out of Take Charge Lady (Dehere).

Mind you, Royal Champion (Ire) (Shamardal), the big turf winner in Riyadh, sees Accelerize and raises him: his sire's dam Helsinki (GB) and damsire Street Cry (Ire) are full siblings! Actually I am myself guilty of having introduced a mare to the Bluegrass bred on exactly the same lines. She may yet prove that you can have too much of a good thing, but at least we now have a “champion” for the theory. Even in a world darkened by the abrupt loss of one of its finest horsemen, and truest gentlemen, we can live in hope.

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