Bustino's Breeding Bits

Very thoughtful

 

Of course Ron, Ribot could similarly perform on any going and did. He also seemed capable of winning over a huge range of distances: winning over 8f one week, then over 15f a few weeks later.

 

Saturday week sees the two-year old season starts in the UK and with it the interest in who will be this year's Freshman sire or First Season Sire (FSS). The current betting puts Blue Point top of the list, followed by Inns of Court (who appears to have had most foals), Ten Sovereigns and Soldier's Call.
There are a lot of interesting sires appearing this year like Too Darn Hot, Masar, Magna Grecia and Waldgeist, who are likely to be slower starters yet more suited to produce Classic types.
My outside bet for FSS champion is Advertise. Calyx will be popular with a lot of people. Last year Sioux Nation was odds on to be champion FSS yet was outgunned by Havana Grey (admittedly 2nd favourite).

 

Though it doesn't affect the UK/Ire FSS figures Magna Grecia got off the mark at St Cloud today. By Invincible Spirit, this half-brother to St Marks Basilica stands at Coolmore at 15,000€ a pop.

 

Top of the 2yo sires list goes Pearl Secret. Who he?
He's a 14yo stallion who has been at stud since 2017 and stands at the Norton Hall Stud at £3000 a pop. His son Doddie's Secret did him proud yesterday.
More interesting to me is that his sire line is the now almost defunct Byerley Turk line ( see my article After you've filled up on Northern Dancer where do you go? | Not606) . This was in the '50s a tremendously powerful line in Europe, thanks mainly to the Boussac horses Djebel and Tourbillon. This line became depleted by the premature deaths of Hethersett, Ahonoora (Pearl Secret's great grandsire) and Indian Ridge (his grandsire). I don't expect major breeders to start beating a path to Norton Hall, but it might make others think.
Looking at his pedigree, he has no Northern Dancer at all in his first 4 removes, and only one in his 5th. This is rare these days.

 

Wonderful back story, the 'mad giraffe' would have appreciated the win. Add to that the jockey was Billy the Whizz who wss unable to claim his 5lbs. Pearl Secret now stands at £2000.

 

Pearl Secret is a lovely horse , with a lot of white that some might not like. There was a horse called Cacador that was registered in the 1950 Stallion Book as a skewbald, Cacador is common in National Hunt pedigrees but I have never been able to find an image of him.

 

When I hear a name like Big Rock I immediately think it must be an American racehorse. Well I'd be wrong, because he's a French bred and trained 3yo colt. Yesterday he won the 9f Prix de Guiche, a Group 3 event and that's his second G3. He's by Rock of Gibraltar out of a Sea the Stars mare called Hardiyna, and as soon as I see that 'H' alarm bells ring. And I'm right as this colt has Hazy Idea as his 5th dam. In fact he shares his 4th dam and 5th dam with Vadream Hurricane Lane and Emily Upjohn. He shares his 3rd dam with Harzand's dam.
Big Rock already stays further than Vadream but will he stay as far as that trio of 12f horses. My guess is that he won't but he may stay far enough to make his presence felt in the Prix de Jockey Club.

 

Paddington wins the Irish 2000G and it's a feather in the cap of French based sire Siyouni. He never won over further than 7f (though he may have just stayed 8f) and was not a prolific winner. However this son of Pivotal has done well at stud and his latest star (before Paddington) is Tahiyra, who appears a top class filly.
Despite his own lack of stamina he seems fully capable of getting horses that stayed further, and an example of this is Prix de Diane winner Laurens. So a question must be, will Paddington get further. For once this is a Coolmore horse not out of a Galileo mare but is out of Montjeu, which makes a change. The second dam is by Peintre Celebre and the third dam is by Alysheba (who although he didn't win over further than 10f was a solid 10f horse). So there is plenty of stamina in the pedigree.
Looking back further this is one of the most famous families in the stud book. It is the family of Conjure, purchased by the Cambridge undergraduate Waldorf Astor for 100gns. She became one of the three broodmares that encompassed his stud. She and her daughters gave Astor several Classic winners and many other fine horses. The family still figures in good horses, such as Desert Crown and Black Caviar.
Though the latter was a sprinter the family was stamina based. Will Paddington be a new addition to this family and might he just get the classic distance of 12f?

 

Another Classic victory for Siyouni, with Tahiyra's Irish 1000G win. Not bad for a sire who started at €7,000 a covering and is now standing at €140,000. His son's St Mark's Basilica and Sottsass will get even more interest now.

 

Interesting to hear Paddington's stable lad say that the further he goes the better he'll be. I felt he showed his stamina in the last 300m of today's race when drawing away from Chaldean (who I think found the tough Ascot mile near his limit). The pundits seemed to think Paddington's next race will be the Sussex Stakes, but might it not be the Eclipse or Juddmonte?

 

Currently, the top rated 3yo in Europe is Prix de Jockey Club winner Ace Impact. He's by Cracksman. and from his first crop, out of an Anabaa Blue mare. Although not really inbred (he is inbred 5 x 5 x 4 to Danzig) he exhibits this interesting 'fashion' of being inbred 5 x 4 to the mare Allegretta. Breeding fans will know she's the dam of Arc winner Urban Sea and so the granddam of super-sires Galileo (Cracksman's grand-sire) and Sea the Stars. Here she's also the granddam of Anabaa Blue, hence the 5 x 4 inbreeding.

Whether this inbreeding is truly significant or just a matter of chance, would need to be investigated and is beyond my little brain.

Another thing about Ace Impact is that he comes from the Lord Derby family of Ouija (his 5th dam) and Ouija Board's granddam. So also the 3rd dam of Australia. Not surprising that Ace Impact is seen as a likely future stallion.

 

Well, it was the Eclipse.

So he seemed to see out 10f OK. The form looks good with the 3rd 6 lengths back. The question must now be: where to now? My guess is either the Juddmonte or Irish Champion and not a rush to try 12f just yet. But come early October might there not be a different complexion on things and he may take on staying horses in the Arc. I think there's every chance he'll get 12f.

 

This is this year's class horse. I hear that he is now being talked about as an Arc possible. Why not?

At least he's an interesting horse who is not running over one distance, again and again.

 

Blimey! The 'wonderful' author Julian Muscat has come out on the side of the idea of culling Group 1 races. About time.

A few Group 2s can be downgraded at the same time. Then we might know how good horses really are.

Personally I'd get the pin out and reset to 1971 factory settings.

 

That Blue Point was going to be a good sire of 2yos was never a longshot. He was a fast horse throughout his career. A top 2yo he probably lost his Middle Park through racing too keenly but he won 3 times as a juvenile over 5 and 6f. He was lightly raced as a 3yo winning only twice in 4 outings. He was outpointed by Caravaggio and Harry Angel in a top class Commonwealth Cup. As a 4yo he again only ran 4 times but won a good Kings Stand Stakes beating the top class Battaash and Mabs Cross. As a 5yo he ran 5 times and was unbeaten winning both Royal Ascot sprints including another Kings Stand victory against Battaash.
One could fairly say that he was campaigned against the best throughout his career.

He's now a sire and looks as if he'll be successful. If his offspring follow his career trajectory there's every reason to believe they'll get better with age. The question for me has to be whether he will only be a sire of mainly 5 and 6f horses? His career points to that being the case. His only attempt at further than 6f resulted in a 3rd place in the 2016 Dewhurst Stakes behind Churchill. He was soundly beaten and the conclusion must be that he didn't stay that distance at that class of race. His pedigree seems to support that if you look at his distaff side. His non-winning dam was by Royal Applause, his granddam by Ballad Rock and his great granddam by the fast American horse Windjammer. He looks to have a 5f/6f horse bottom half to his pedigree..
His sire Shamardal has got horses that stayed further. He himself was an unbeaten, staying 2yo who won 3 races culminating in a fine Dewhurst win. As a 3yo he ran 4 times winning the French 2000G followed by the French Derby and the expectation was that he'd go for races such as the Eclipse and Champion Stakes. Surprisingly he went for the St James Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot and won convincingly. It was to be his last race and we'll never know if he could have stayed beyong the 10.5f he won over in France. Shamardal had a stout female line coming from a family that produced classy stayers such as Sun Princess and Conduit.
So given Shamardal could be regarded as a solid 8f+, maybe 10f, horse it seems that Blue Point on the racetrack took very much after his dam's family (and pedigree) in terms of appropriate distance than his sire's. That's as a racehorse. Things can change as a sire because the stamina genes of Giant's Causeway and Troy are all there. Will they come through? I am reminded of the miler Kris who was by the sprinter Sharpen Up yet in his first crop produced a St Leger winner. Where did that come from? Well it was from his dam's side as she was by Reliance, a stout stayer.
What prompted this piece is that in the last week Blue Point has had two 7f winners (there may have been more before). Today Serene Seraph waltzed away with a 7f Novice event at Newbury. She is out of a Dalakhani mare who is out of a Sadler's Wells mare so is stoutly bred. She'salso from a fine staying family that produced the Arc winner Peintre Celebre, amongst others. Today Serene Seraph won, very much, an egg and spoon race, but she did it in fine style. I'd be surprised if she doesn't get further and better.

I'm not saying Blue Point will be a sire of stayers but given the right mares he may get horses that have that wonderful mixture of speed and stamina that is the sign of the greatest racehorses. He may even get top class milers and even at a stretch10f horses. I don't believe he's going to be just a 5f/6f sire of mainly 2yos.

One other significant detail with Blue Point is that though he is from the Northern Dancer sire line, he is only inbred 5 x 5 to Northern Dancer, which isn't really inbred at all. He may be a super sire to send to all those Galileo etc mares out there.

 

I should clarify the last paragraph. Just because Blue Point is not closely inbred to Northern Dancer doesn't say he's therefore a possible outcross for Galileo etc. mares. What makes him a good outcross is the nature of the Northern Dancer sire-lines he has in his pedigree. His top line is Northern Dancer-Storm Bird- Storm Cat- Giant's Causeway and the other line is Northern Dancer-Try My Best-Waajib-Royal Aplause. There are none of the Northern Dancer branches you normally see that are dominated by Sadler's Wells (to Galileo, Frankel etc) and/or Danzig (to Green Desert and Danehill), and their descendants.. Therefore Blue Point presents as an effective outcross.

It just so happens that No Nay Never similarly has none of the popular Northern Dancer sub-branches.

 

A hugely impressive Arc winner by Cracksman. So this son of Frankel has bred a colt better than himself with his first crop.

The distaff side of Ace Impact's pedigree is mostly British bred. It is the family of Ouija Board (and that iron gelding Teleprompter) and Australia. Tracing back to a Lord Derby family via a few generations in the Highclere Stud.

 

I loved Cracksman. A great big baby in his Derby. Great to see him doing so well as a sire

 

As if to order, Rosallion underlines the ability of Blue Point to get horses of class that will win over further than he did. Out of an unraced New Approach mare from a stoutly bred family that traces back to an excellent racefilly called Dunette. He looks as if he should easily get 8f. A lively 2000G colt I should think.