Span of Arch Legacy Growing

[Wandering Eyes]

His own name describes one who protects something, typically historic buildings or artefacts, from the degradation of time. But Preservationist, who might well prove the most demanding of the senior pros if lining up against Code Of Honor in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup on Saturday, could yet become a conservationist, too.

Because his pedigree gives him every chance, wherever he ends up at stud, of protecting the environment around him-specifically, the Thoroughbred gene pool-from the damage caused by mankind’s heedless quest for a fast buck.

When Arch died, aged 21 in January 2016, his most feasible heir Blame was on a rapid slide from an opening fee of $35,000 to just $12,500. On the track, meanwhile, Preservationist himself remained an unraced 3-year-old, who would not break his maiden for another two years.

Arch’s last crop are now 3-year-olds, but it has turned out that his legacy was already in good hands. Blame has so turned things round at Claiborne that he is now back in strong demand at $30,000, having only a few days ago notched his fourth Grade I success through Abscond in the Natalma S.

And Preservationist, having spread just four starts across his first three seasons, has achieved a remarkable flowering as a 6-year-old. His Grade I breakthrough in the Woodward S. last month makes him look eligible to join Blame as a conduit for this branch of the Hail To Reason line, but in the meantime the merit of tapping into Arch’s influence was magnified the very same day, on the opposite coast, by the GI Del Mar Debutante S. success of Bast. This represented spectacular vindication for the bold pairing of her mother, Arch’s daughter Laffina, with Uncle Mo, whose damsire is Arch.

Laffina was carrying this 3×2 package in utero when purchased privately–having failed to meet her Keeneland November reserve at $290,000-10 months after Arch’s death. Bast, who is her first foal, proceeded to make $500,000 as a Saratoga yearling, so maybe her purchasers Baoma Corp. are fans of the model that gave us the European champion, Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), who has similarly proximate inbreeding to Sadler’s Wells.

Certainly if you buy into the principle that you can’t have too much of a good thing, then Arch can be counted a very good thing indeed. There’s something characteristically worthy, something understated but solid, about the way he (setting an example to Blame, who followed him to the same farm) reversed a plunge in fee, in his case from $20,000 to $5,000 before he had even had a runner. Winding up with a ratio of stakes horses tipping 10 percent, he maintained a career-high fee of $40,000 through his last four years.

Arch’s track career had a corresponding solidity, albeit seeming to leave him just a notch below the very best. But his candidature at stud was massivelLy buttressed by a maternal line that finds its celebrated nexus in third dam Courtly Dee, whose 15 winning foals included three apiece at Grade I and Grade II level. The best was Alydar’s champion juvenile filly Althea, whose own fertile yield included Arch’s stakes sprint-winning dam Aurora. She was by Danzig, who was also responsible for the family’s two premier sires in Europe, Bertolini (out of a sister to Althea) and the outstanding Green Desert (out of an unraced half-sister by broodmare sire titan Sir Ivor).

That turf resonance to his maternal family is complemented in Arch’s sire-line, his father Kris S. having given us an Epsom Derby winner in Kris Kin as well as two Breeders’ Cup winners on grass, Prized and Soaring Softly; while Kris S.’s own sire Roberto famously won the Derby himself. Of course, the hulking Kris S. also sired top-class dirt horses (not least another three Breeders’ Cup winners) but he has certainly contributed to the overall versatility of the Roberto line, alongside the likes of Red Ransom, Silver Hawk and Dynaformer, who all gained a degree of traction in Europe. And it’s worth noting that two of Blame’s four elite winners to date, European Classic winner Senga and now Abscond, have come on turf; a third, Fault, is also a Grade II winner on grass.
It certainly doesn’t always happen that a mix of opposites yields a balanced blend, but in this instance the dirt speed of his dam and turf stamina / acceleration of his sire appear to have given Arch a pretty comprehensive range. His first elite scorers, for instance, were turf sprinters in South Africa and Britain, namely Overarching and Les Arcs (the latter having notoriously reverted from hurdle races); whereas the most illustrious of his dozen Grade I winners was, of course, a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner. In depriving Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}) of her unbeaten record on her final start, Blame ensured a memorable showcase for the Roberto sire-line on dirt-the victim of “the Arch villain”, so to speak, herself being out of a Kris S. mare.

At that same Breeders’ Cup, moreover, Uncle Mo’s Juvenile success gave Arch a flying start as a broodmare sire, his dam Playa Maya being a winner from his very first crop. (Two other stallions out of Arch mares are Uncaptured (Lion Heart) and I’ll Have Another (Flower Alley).)

Uncle Mo’s dam is out of a Dixieland Band mare-and so, too, is Preservationist. Overall the parentage of Preservationist really takes us back, his late dam Flying Dixie having been foaled when Dixieland Band was 25 years old. The Lane’s End patriarch was of course a splendid broodmare sire; while the next several dams are likewise by copper-bottomed influences: A.P. Indy, Mr Prospector, Blushing Groom and Dr. Fager.

So while his profile is hardly commercial, the family seeded by these great stallions really does qualify Preservationist as a highly eligible stallion prospect. That’s no less than you would expect, given that he bears an Emory Hamilton trademark top-and-bottom: Hamilton and / or her family bred Preservationist’s first five dams, as well as Arch and his first two dams.

Their cultivation of Preservationist’s family began with a champion filly imported from France, Monade, whose mating with Dr. Fager produced the dam of a brilliant Grade I winner in Too Chic; she in turn gave Hamilton the GI Ashland S. winner Chic Shirine, grand-dam not only of Flying Dixie but also of Ashford’s Verrazano (More Than Ready).

So just as Blame underpins his credentials as an heir to Arch with a wonderful family, tracing to Rough Shod as fifth dam, Preservationist hardly suffers by comparison. Though his record of soundness is not as old-fashioned as the rest of his profile, both Arch and Kris S. became associated with stock robust enough to thrive with distance and maturity despite themselves making nor more than seven and five starts respectively. Actually it seems that Preservationist never really had any major issues and, as much as anything, simply needed time to be able to sustain his brawn.

Certainly there is now a pleasing ruggedness to Preservationist’s style of running. Having exposed him to a wild pace in the GI Whitney S., his rider put things right in the Woodward and Preservationist responded by imposing himself on heavy traffic in the stretch. What was striking was that he didn’t just bully his way through; he came bounding forward on the bridle, showing conspicuous athletic flair for such a big guy. (He was a $485,000 yearling, after all.)

If he can hit another big number on Saturday, he will be entitled to head west and gladden the hearts of the old school-from admirers of Jimmy Jerkens (and everything his surname condenses) to those who regard Arch as a wholesome, somewhat throwback influence on the 21st Century breed.

Arch’s first crop numbered just 40 foals. But his blood came through-blood saturated, in each generation, by venerable Classic stallions. The top line, admittedly, is looking a little frayed in the U.S. Obviously the Halo branch of the Hail To Reason line has a potent foothold in Japan, but Roberto’s has limited local representation: Dynaformer is not without hope, through the likes of Point Of Entry and Temple City, but Arch has hitherto had almost all his eggs in Blame’s basket.

As such, a second Breeders’ Cup Classic winner would offer a major posthumous boost to his legacy, given that only a farm smart enough to maximise his chances will be smart enough to stand Preservationist in the first place.

The Roberto line often trades in substance sooner than elegance. Kris S. was a stevedore, while Dynaformer was notoriously far more about function than form. But their female families entitle Blame and hopefully Preservationist not just to recycle all that physicality and power, but also to refine it.

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