Breeding Digest: Timely Memorial to a Man of Honor

[Wandering Eyes]

Okay, so probably we're just running these animals in sufficient circles for the squeaking of the hamster wheel eventually, randomly, to yield something that seems curiously meaningful. But there are times when horses give the impression that they are participating in some mysterious wider scheme in human affairs.

Last week, however inadequately, I joined the many in our community grieving the abrupt loss of one of its great horsemen, and gentlemen. The very next day, at Fair Grounds, a colt saturated with the legacy of John Shirreffs missed Olympiad's track record by the narrowest possible margin in routing an allowance field by seven lengths. The resulting speed figures confirmed a GI Kentucky Derby trial to be imperative for Reagan's Honor (Honor A.P.), and you can but wonder whether somebody up there–though barely installed–is watching over a horse who combines so much of his own work with the skills of those missing him most.

Be all that as it may, here we only have a page to consider!

This time, however, I want to start with the sire. That's because Honor A.P. is doing something pretty heroic here. He stands, unmistakably, in an hour of need. But until more people finally wake up to his potential, as they never did during his first career, he's having to do the hard yards himself.

Last spring, with a single crop of juveniles behind him, he received just 19 mares. It was hardly as though he had ever been very likely to produce a bunch of maiden winners at Keeneland in April. But with some maturity behind them, Honor A.P. has actually assembled his eight stakes scorers at a clip superior to every other stallion in a competitive intake.

He has still only fielded 99 starters, half as many as Authentic (216), Vekoma (201) and McKinzie (200). Only Complexity, who has punched above weight throughout, can match Honor A.P.'s 6.1% black-type winners to named foals, his dozen coming at an even 6%. And the soaraway Vekoma is just a whisker behind (19 at 5.7%). But the rest of the top 10 (by this measure) comprises Tiz The Law (13 at 4.6%, apparently good enough to warrant 274 mares in 2025), Thousand Words (eight at 3.7), Win Win Win (three at 3.0), McKinzie (nine at 2.8), Volatile (seven at 2.7), Authentic (eight at 2.4) and Instagrand (five at 2.1).

Honor A.P. beat the Horse of the Year on merit, the only time he got a clean run at him, while for a son of Honor Code to bring $850,000 as a yearling tells you everything about his shimmering physique (though a millionaire, Grade I-winning dam also helped). His unfortunate derailment essentially left the horse with unfinished business, but these things become self-fulfilling. Honor A.P. started at one-fifth of his big rival's fee, had a fairly old-fashioned debut book of 110, and must now fight his way out of a corner at just $7,500.

While Margie's Intention (GII Black-Eyed Susan Stakes) for now remains his only graded stakes winner, his debut crop also includes A.P. Kid, sidelined after winning the Pennine Ridge Stakes by six lengths; and Heart Of Honour (GB), who missed the G2 U.A.E. Derby by a nose last year. Among his newly minted sophomores, meanwhile, Hollywood Import has won consecutive stakes at Laurel this winter, while Counting Stars did the same at Oaklawn. Romeo disappeared after the GI Hopeful, but had certainly impressed in the Bashford Manor. And now we have Reagan's Honor, as yet not even a stakes winner, but potentially best of the lot.

John Shirreffs | Sarah Andrew

His maternal family carries the sublime touch of Shirreffs no less than his sire. The colt was co-bred by his stepson David Ingordo and long-standing patron Jerry Moss, for whom Shirreffs trained the dam's half-brothers Giacomo and Tiago to win the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Santa Anita Derby, respectively. Those had been among eight males in the first 10 named foals out of Set Them Free (Stop the Music), a triple stakes-winning sprinter (dirt and turf) purchased as a 2-year-old for just $45,000 by her trainer Brian Mayberry. (Whose family, of course, played their part–along with Ingordo–in giving this program its finest hour with Zenyatta). It was a blessing, then, that Set Them Free consented to deliver three fillies among her final four named foals.

Middle of these was Rutile (Medaglia d'Oro), who tested even the famous patience of Shirreffs in making a single start at ages four, five and six! But you could see why everyone had persevered when she won on debut in 1:10 flat.

Rutile has evidently required patience in her second career, too. There's a poignant three-year interval between her first foal, a son of Quality Road who made $950,000 as a yearling, and the $140,000 Honor A.P. colt bought by West Point Thoroughbreds alongside Ingordo's daughter Reagan at the 2024 Keeneland September Sale.

The Quality Road ended up winning under a $5,000 tag at Penn National, but brought the money he did with a legitimate stallion's page. For Set Them Free's daughters have played an ample part, alongside Giacomo and Tiago, in the page now decorated by Reagan's Honor. One became a graded stakes winner, another was Grade II-placed, and a third is granddam of the flying Nashville, now at WinStar. Set Them Free herself, incidentally, represents a strong European family. She was out of a half-sister to the dam of Baiser Vole (Foolish Pleasure), a champion juvenile and Classic winner in France.

In other words, it's all there on paper. All that remains to be discovered is whether some benign hand is directing the celestial traffic.

Volatile Consequences of Synthetic Route

Whatever alienation you might perceive between the corporate interests of Churchill Downs and those held dear by certain others in the industry, the loading of Derby starting points into another of its tracks is a perfectly understandable strategy.

But it is worth wondering, A) whether the synthetic Turfway program, in the long term, might materially alter the kind of horses that can make the Derby gate; B) how that may alter the character of the race, and therefore of the type of horse we breed to get there.

Already Turfway has produced Final Gambit (Not This Time) and Two Phil's (Hard Spun) as prominent supporting players in the Derby since Rich Strike (Keen Ice). In some ways, favoring synthetic performers takes to a new level the elimination of raw dirt speed from the race. In the old days, trainers used one-turn races to sharpen and condition Classic prospects. Now that trainers run horses so sparingly, they won't do that when they also need starting points.

Great White | Coady Media

Mind you, Great White (Volatile) evidently drew on some pretty wholesome reserves in banking 20 points in the John Battaglia Stakes. If his sales provenance is unusual, a $55,000 yearling out of a Fasig-Tipton digital sale, so is the way his sire's speed has been balanced by second and fourth dams who both won the G1 Premio Diana, or Brazilian Oaks.

The earlier of those, Sweet Eternity (Brz) (Effervescing), was imported to California, but repatriated by Stud TNT–whose work Great White extends into a fourth consecutive generation.

Sweet Eternity's dam and granddam each had wholly indigenous parentage. The names mean zilch to me, and I have no idea whether they condense the kind of robust genes we so often admire in South American pedigrees. Even if they do, however, the family has meanwhile been seeded by plenty of U.S. commercial speed, with the three dams below Sweet Eternity, respectively, by Woodman, Elusive Quality and Uncle Mo.

Volatile certainly contributes more of the same. He now has four graded stakes winners, all from his debut crop. Speed King banked Derby points in the GIII Southwest Stakes last year, but lived up to his name by returning to sprinting for his only win since.

His trainer feels that Great White will handle distance, and we must respect that, given the fine job he has done with inexpensive horses. Returning to our earlier point, however, it's worth noting that his Epic Ride (Blame) reserved his big payday for turf at Kentucky Downs last year.

If the Turfway trials continue to produce horses of that type, a Derby already shorn of pure dirt speed will continue to evolve in another direction.

Gone but Not Forgotten

Before departing for Korea, where he sadly died, Preservationist was one of the most culpably neglected young sires I've seen. Having duly left only a few horses behind, to preserve his legacy, he nonetheless managed a startling posthumous flourish at Laurel last Saturday. Peach Tie's second stakes success took him to five wins in six; while Bring the Smoke's 18-length maiden score was nationally the second fastest of the week (91 Beyer).

It may yet be, then, that the $2,500 yearling Chunk of Gold (earnings to date $893,311) and Grade I-winning millionaire Antiquarian will not represent Preservationist's last word.

Not that even I can pretend that bad luck and judgement together denied Preservationist some breed-shaping influence. For that, we make our compulsory weekly visit to La Troienne (Fr). Latest to mark the matriarch's centenary is Fairy Glen (Fr) (Farhh {GB}), a Group 2 winner in Dubai. Her fifth dam is the great Allez France (Sea-Bird {Fr}), who was out of a granddaughter of La Troienne's daughter Big Hurry.

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