Maturing Grammer Sets the Tone for Sire

[Wandering Eyes]

In principle, the megaprizes of the modern Turf threaten a fatal distortion of the traditional system for ranking stallions by earnings. The advent of races like the G1 Saudi Cup, the G1 Dubai World Cup and, initially at least, the GI Pegasus World Cup has even raised the specter of a single exceptional performer someday catapulting to the general sires' title a stallion otherwise so undistinguished that he has meanwhile been evicted to a regional or overseas program.

Even highly-accomplished stallions can be flattered by outsized purses. In 2017, for instance, posthumous champion Unbridled's Song would have finished 44th but for that lucrative start to the year by Arrogate. Into Mischief's sheer breadth of achievement, in contrast, has since helped to renew the validity of the prizemoney system. From his record haul of $24,945,619 in 2021, indeed, he owed just $1,560,000 to his premier earner.

In the case of Country Grammer's sire Tonalist, elevation to second in the current standings arguably secures him some overdue attention. No doubt Into Mischief will be closing from third, through the rest of the year, but for now Tonalist stands behind only his Lane's End buddy Quality Road–who owes his own position, of course, largely to shock Saudi Cup winner Emblem Road. And if Country Grammer, in banking over $10 million for his second in Riyadh and now success at Meydan, happens to be overcompensating, then the fact is that Tonalist has hitherto suffered precisely from our tendency to value “headline” horses above consistency of achievement.

Though he found himself in a very competitive intake, and has never matched the kind of books herded by its bigger names, Tonalist is actually performing very respectably if measured by his ratio of either stakes or graded stakes action. His 23 black-type and 12 graded-stakes operators respectively represent eight and 4.2% of his named foals. That stacks up very well against all other fourth-crop sires bar Constitution, who is setting a freakish clip of 15 and 8.5% in these categories. American Pharoah, for instance, stands top by cumulative earnings with 8.4 and 5% black-type/graded stakes horses; while another young stallion of incontestable merit, Liam's Map, is standing at four times his neighbor's fee while trading at 7.5 and 3.6%.

What his rivals have managed to do, and Tonalist has not, is land his biggest punches on the jaw of publicity. American Pharoah and Liam's Map both have four individual Grade I winners, whereas Tonalist had none until Country Grammer won the GI Hollywood Gold Cup last year; and still has no more than eight stakes winners.

But nobody is suddenly trying to pretend that Tonalist is the best sire in Kentucky. All we're saying is that he deserves our esteem for the consistency of his output, from pretty limited opportunities, and that serial fee cuts to just $10,000 now qualify him as some of the very best value around, period; never mind in terms of access to the precious blood of his sire Tapit.

Tonalist, as such, has been a Value Podium regular in our midwinter surveys of Kentucky stallion options. And it's worth stressing that he only reached his own peak at four, on the track, despite contributing as a sophomore to his sire's remarkable GI Belmont S. record. Country Grammer himself, remember, represents his very first crop to achieve maturity–and as a May 11 foal.

Tonalist's books have been up and down, but he has one of 122 to keep him in the game with his forthcoming crop of yearlings. Even as things stood, a solid $35,000 yearling median in 2021 was beaten in his intake only by American Pharoah, Liam's Map and Constitution. If Tonalist has not exactly seized the commercial imagination to this point, that's sooner a reflection on the market's aversion to two-turn “run” than on the $3.6 million he banked–including 11 triple-digit Beyers–in winning Grade Is at eight, 10 and 12 furlongs.

Those old-school achievements were hewn from a corresponding pedigree, extending the same Toll Booth-Missy Baba line as Havre de Grace (Saint Liam). And it must be said that Country Grammer himself doubles down that quality with a family tree that augurs extremely well for his own next career.

Of course, it's easy to extol an aristocratic pedigree once a horse has actually gone out and run faster than various close relatives bred on similar lines. Pending the fulfilment of his potential, indeed, Country Grammer left more than one investor to regret a loss of faith. While his breeders evidently did not have to pay a great deal for his dam, for example, they did subsequently sell her for just $5,000. And Country Grammer himself, having been a lucrative yearling pinhook ($60,000 purchase by Brooke Hubbard, converted by Wavertree to $450,000 at OBS April), somehow dwindled to $110,000 when alertly picked up by WinStar at the Keeneland January Sale last year–even though he had won the GIII Peter Pan S. (emulating his sire) on his penultimate start for the late Paul P. Pompa Jr.

Be all that as it may, Country Grammer's breakthrough on the racetrack is underpinned by genes that qualify him as an extremely wholesome stud prospect. Much like Saturday's big winner on the domestic stage, Epicenter (Not This Time), he combines dirt class on top with turf class along the bottom.

On both sides, moreover, Country Grammer replicates two absolutely copper-bottomed Classic brands in Pleasant Colony and Nijinsky. Tonalist is out of a Pleasant Colony mare, and so too is Country Grammer's damsire Forestry. Nijinsky, meanwhile, is responsible for both Tapit's second dam Ruby Slippers and next sire Pulpit's third dam State; and he also sired Country Grammer's fourth dam Nijinsky Star from a mating with Hall of Famer Chris Evert (Swoon's Son).

Though unraced, and with the alarming accessory of a tube draining her lung (legacy of a bout of pleurisy in her youth), Nijinsky Star brought $700,000 from Juddmonte at the Keeneland November Sale of 1987, as part of the Carl Rosen dispersal. Her half-sister by Secretariat had by then become the dam of champion Chief's Crown, while Nijinsky Star's first foal had lately proved to be GI Kentucky Oaks runner-up Hometown Queen, subsequently dam of millionaire Bowman's Band (Dixieland Band). (As a daughter of Pleasant Colony, perhaps Hometown Queen was a trigger to the way his influence was ultimately compounded behind Country Grammar.)

The following year, the family received fresh distinction when Winning Colors (Caro {Ire}), a daughter of Chris Evert's half-sister, beat the colts in the GI Kentucky Derby. And while Nijinsky Star would not have the most straightforward breeding career for the evolving Juddmonte program, the handful of foals that she did muster would qualify her as one of its most important foundation mares.

Besides producing a smart runner in Grade II winner Revasser (Riverman), it was her two daughters by Nureyev–himself, of course, a son of her own grandsire Northern Dancer–that did especially well as producers. One, stakes winner Viviana, became dam of multiple Grade I scorers Sightseek (Distant View) and Tates Creek (Rahy); second dam of dual Classic winner Special Duty (GB) (Hennessy); and third dam of GI Breeders' Cup Mile winner Expert Eye (GB) (Acclamation {GB}). The other was Country Grammer's third dam, Willstar.

A winner in a light career in France, Willstar not only gave Juddmonte a G1 Prix de la Foret winner in Etoile Montante (Miswaki), herself subsequently dam of multiple graded stakes winner/producer Starformer (Dynaformer). She also produced a couple of daughters that have kept the family very active over the past year or two: one, by Macho Uno, became the dam of Obligatory (Curlin), who just a couple of weeks ago scored a third graded stakes success at Gulfstream; the other, by Tapit, produced Bonny South (Munnings) to win the GII Fair Grounds Oaks in 2020.

But Willstar's daughter by Distant View–whose influence as a broodmare sire in Europe is highlighted by stallions Bated Breath (GB) (Dansili {GB}) and Cityscape (GB) (Selkirk)–showed so little in a couple of starts that she was culled as a 3-year-old, for 75,000gns at the 2001 Tattersalls December Sale.

Her name was Prima Centauri and, having meanwhile produced a fast juvenile in G2 Richmond S. runner-up Bodes Galaxy (Ire) (Marju {Ire}), she was sold on to Dixiana Farm for $270,000 at the 2005 Keeneland November Sale; and again for $170,000 to Woodland Farm at the same sale in 2008.

The Dixiana Stables-bred weanling filly she had delivered to Forestry that spring, meanwhile, was sold at Keeneland the following September to Rabbah for $40,000. An interesting aspect of this mating was that Forestry's fourth dam, Sequence (Count Fleet), was also granddam of Distant View's sire Mr. Prospector. But while Arabian Song, as she was named, won a maiden claimer over six furlongs on the dirt at Churchill for Eoin Harty, that was as good as it got before she was acquired privately by Dr. Scott Pierce and his wife Debbie.

They tried her with a few stallions at various tags without much reward before discarding her cheaply, as already noted, to Saudi interests at the 2018 Keeneland November Sale. Her weanling filly by Runhappy achieved a rather better yield at the same auction, at $90,000, before advancing her yearling value still further to $235,000. As Joyful Cadence, she went down by just a nose and a head in the GIII Miss Preakness S. last year and has lately been taking off at the Oaklawn meet with consecutive allowance scores. But it was Arabian Song's colt by the rookie Tonalist, sold as a yearling that September, that truly makes this mare “one that got away”.

In fairness, the success of Country Grammer confirms the excellent foundations laid at Omega Farm by his breeders, both widely respected veterinarians well versed in the ups and downs of our industry. Their small operation, after all, has already produced a special European talent in Saoirse Abu (Mr. Greeley), a dual Group 1 scorer at two and beaten barely a length in the G1 1,000 Guineas; while only last month another farm graduate, Bank On Shea (Central Banker) went five-for-eight in the Pelican S. at Tampa Bay, his third black-type prize.

Obviously Scott and Debbie Pierce also deserve credit for the choice of Tonalist for Arabian Song, in the process duplicating Pleasant Colony and Nijinsky as conduits of constitution as well as class. Their combined influence, compounded by the stubborn commitment and royal genes of Tonalist himself, was summoned for all to see as Country Grammer dug deep last Saturday.

It's in the nature of the business that even the best families will hit flat spots. But future breeders will be indebted to the Pierces for the opportunity to tap into a pedigree pegged down by Chris Evert opposite Missy Baba–while also seeded, along the bottom line, with plenty of pep. The first three dams, remember, are all by sprinter/miler types: Forestry, Distant View, Nureyev. That gives beautiful balance to the Classic trademarks of Nijinsky, Pleasant Colony, and the Tapit-A.P. Indy-Seattle Slew sire-line.

Despite the quality a couple of generations back, however, it has taken Tonalist to stoke up the genetic embers. That's greatly to his credit. Bearing in mind that he has other tough types flourishing with maturity, such as Shamrocket (first crop) and Betsy Blue (second), then it seems reasonable to hope that Tonalist can now continue to consolidate. And if $10 million is meanwhile hardly a standard yield, then few $10,000 stallions are more deserving of a day in the sun.

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