Bustino's Breeding Bits

I was more interested in the debut of Talent's son Aerospace (by Sea the Stars) yesterday to delve into the pedigrees of other runners in his race. As it was Aerospace ran a perfectly respectable 4th and really didn't get a run. He should do better.
As it was the race was won by Gosden's other representative, Emily Upjohn (also by Sea the Stars). She comes from Major Lionel B Holliday's Lost Soul family, which I have mentioned several times. The family is now more connected with the Aga Khan but branches of the family crop up all over the place. Emily Upjohn shares the same granddam (Hazardjat) and obviously great grandam, Hazy Idea, who raced for Brook Holliday and was a top 2yo filly and a decent 3yo. So Harzand's dam (by Xaar) and Emily Upjohn's dam, Hiiden Brief (by Barathea) are half-sisters. This is also the family of this year's Irish Derby winner, Hurricane Lane, who has Hazardjat as his 4th dam. The 60,000gns they paid for Emily Upjohn last, looked cheap for a Sea the Stars then, but looks even cheaper now.

 

As the flat year comes to an end it will be no surprise that Mehmas is not only the GB/Ire leading 2nd crop sire but also Europe's leading 2nd crop sire (GB still in Europe). It doesn't matter what way you cut it (winners, wins, prize money) he comes out top. Not in France by the way, there Shalaa leads the way and that must be a relief as many saw him as a likely First Crop champion. Mehmas, or more correctly the owners of this stallion, have been rewarded with his fee going up to £50,000: those lucky people who got him at about 15% of that amount must be pleased.
I've been a big fan of this sire but today I'm going to pull out the performance of a fellow 2nd crop sire who's now a lot cheaper than Mehmas. If you look at the European table you'll see that in 2nd place is Territories. He had 63 winners (versus Mehmas's 89) and 91 wins (vs. 139) from only 129 runners (vs. 194). So ratio to runners a very creditable performance by Territories.

He's a Darley stallion who stands at Dalham Hall Stud and unlike Mehmas ran until he was a 4yo. As a 2yo he was 2nd in the Lagardere beating Gleneagles into 3rd but then Gleneagles turned the tables in the 2000G in which Territories was again 2nd. His biggest victory was in that year's Jean Prat. He's by Invincible Spirit out of a Machiavellian mare called Taranto and has only one line of Northern Dancer in his first 4 removes (he's inbred 4X5 to Northern Dancer which most people don't consider in-breeding).

Darley have had huge success in the last year with Dubawi but just 3 years ago it was Shamardal who was hitting most of the headlines. Shamardal also has been a fine sire of sires with his son Lope de Vega probably leading the way. Shamardal comes from the same family as Street Cry who was very successful in the US as a sire, and had some good horses here. Street Cry was by Machiavellian out of a Sadler's Well's mare called Queen Helen, who won the 1985 Irish Oaks but was then purchased by Darley. Queen Helen's daughter Helsinki (by Machiavellian) was the dam of Shamardal, so another example of the Queen Helen/Machiavellian cross. When you look at Territories pedigree you see that his dam Taranto (as I said a daughter of Machiavellian) has Queen Helen as her great grandam. Now there are great families that continually throw up good racehorses. Queen Helen's family seems to be capable of throwing up decent sires. Territories progress in the coming years will be watched. He is likely to be more popular this year after his success and especially the success of his daughter Rougir.

 

After my Newmarket trip in October I mentioned a few horses to look out for. So far they haven't captured any headlines but a filly who went in my tracker (honest), Sound Angela, won for the 2nd time yesterday. On her debut that day she blew her chances at the start (so I knew my money was done) but she ran on well to finish 4th beaten nearly 4 lengths over 7f. 5 weeks later she reappeared on the AW at Kempton and made no mistakes going in at 9/4 over the same distance. Yesterday she ran again (at Lingfield over 8f) and almost blew it at the start once more. Unlike Newmarket she made up the gap relatively quickly to be about 8th after 2f. However, with 2f to go she was still 7th and on the inside. Her rider, Jefferson Smith, then brought her right round the field to hit the front half a furlong out and win going away by a long looking 2 lengths. As she was giving weight to the rest of the field and ran a bit further than most of them I thought this was a taking performance. She still looks a bit green to me and she's definitely a filly with the scope to improve.
I mention her here because she is yet another racehorse from the Hazy Idea family (she's her 5th dam). with Harardjat as her 4th dam. Though at first sight she looks to have a miler's pedigree, being by Muhaarar out of an Invincible Spirit mare, there are elements in her pedigree and something in her style of running to suggest she may get to at least 10f (Muhaarar got one of 2021's top staying fillies). The Hazy Idea family seems to improve with age, so maybe one for next year.

 

Paddy Power is already publishing prices for the 2022 First Season Sires Championship. Odds-On favourite is Sioux Nation. He was a very good 2yo and he's got lots of foals (I believe about 140).
He may turn out to be a great sire but such a short price is surprising. Perhaps Paddy Power have seen a lot of amazing looking foals. My fear as a FSS is that he's probably been sent to plenty of stamina laden mares, whose produce may not get going until late August. We'll see if this Scat Daddy stallion is another No Nay Never.
I'll be looking out for the cheapie Kessaar, and what his produce do..

 

The Brocklesby Stakes was won by a pretty good horse last year in Chipotle, though not as good as the 1890 winner, Donovan, who went on to win the 1891 Derby and St. Leger. It's often won by a speedy sort, whose career is over by midsummer. I'd be surprised if that is the case with this year's winner Persian Force. Sold as a foal then bought as a yearling for €225,000 he won as he liked. Hannon had the colt well primed and he was cantering over his field most of the way.

Unsurprisingly he's by 2020 Champion First Crop Sire and 2021 Champion 2nd Crop Sire Mehmas. As most Mehmas's tend to improve with racing there could be a lot more to come. To add to the positives it was a record time for the Brocklesbury., not bad considering the going was on the soft side of good.

So how about his pedigree.Well he's out of an unraced Lope de Vega mare, which suggests he could have some stamina. The next 3 dams are fairly uninspiring, with two of them being non-winners (one did get a place) and then a further unraced filly. It's her 5th dam who sparks interest. She was the champion sprinter in 1975, winning the Abbaye, July Cup and Sprint Cup (amongst others). She was always a good filly, a good 2yo (winning the Papin), a good 3yo (winning the Maurice de Gheest) and as a 4yo (he top sprint races). But that's not the whole story as she ran over longer distances too. She was 3rd in the Sussex , 3rd in the Moulin and won the Jacques le Marois. So she had top class form at 5-8f.
Looking at the pedigree of . Persian Force it would not be a surprise if he stayed a bit further than 7f. As it is he's likely to be kept to 5 and 6f.I think the main point I'd make is that the Broclesby winner shouldn't always be seen as an inferor being. This one may prove my point.

10 minutes later Ocean Quest gave Sioux Nation (see previous post) his first winner. I'm sure there'll be many more.

 

A good start for Kessaar as Tajalla readily wins at Newmarket

 

Last week’s Wood Ditton threw up 3 interesting colts, none more so than the winner Francesco Clemente. When the Ballymacoll Stud went into their sudden and deep decline, 10 years ago, they still had their two wonderful families, as exemplified by the fillies Sun Princess and Islington. Since that decline, and the whole sale of all those mares in 2017, sightings of ex-Ballymacoll horses have been few and far between.
Last year saw one good 2yo colt in the shape of Berkshire Shadow, who is a son of Oasis Dream mare Angel Vision. This filly won twice as a 3yo and was a daughter of excellent Group 1 filly Islington (herself a Sadler’s Wells daughter of Group 1 filly Hellenic). On his first two starts Berkshire Shadow looked to have a big future but a run in the Gimcrack and then a fourth in the Dewhurst rather took the gloss of the colt.

Francesco Clemente is a Dubawi son of an unraced mare called Justlookdontouch, who is a Galileo half sister to Islington. Justlookdontouch’s first foal was Abingdon (by Street Cry) who won 4 times including the listed Galtres Stakes. She was one of the brighter sparks during the last years of Ballymacoll. At the end of her 4yo season she was sold for 1.05 million guineas. At the same sale Justlookdontouch was sold as a barren mare for 1.2million guineas. Francesco Valente won well last week and could be even better at 10f. The Gosdens don’t seem to think he’s a Derby possibility, which is just as well. He could easily be a group winner though.

What about what he beat? Godolphin had the favourite and he came 2nd. Appleby is in brilliant early season form. He may not have that advantage in the months to come. I’m sure Secret State will win races but he seemed far more clued up and ready than the horse be beat a nose, Stoute’s Kiteflyer. This Iffraaj colt was also balked by the winner in the dip, but ran on well in the last half-furlong. Definitely one to look out for over 8-10f.

 

Very cheap now.

 

Dettori swerves the first day of the Guineas meeting to ride Fancesco Clemente in a £4,000 Novices event at Newcastle. He's upped to 10f which should be no problem. He's got to give 7lb to likely types from Stoute, Varian and Haggas.

 

non-runner

 

To lose one Classic winner looks like misfortune, to lose another looks like carelessness. Well maybe. But having sold Makfi (by Dubawi) as an unraced 2yo, Tregoning/Shadwell may have done it again with the sale of Rogue Millennium ( by Dubawi) last November. She looks a good filly anyway.

She traces back to Doff the Derby, who was the dam of the excellent Generous. She's very well-bred and has a nice mixture of stamina and speed. She may not like Epsom though.

 

Looks very much an Oaks winner to me.
Another Holliday bred horse to come along.

 

I met someone the other day who said they lived near Bishop Monkton. Anywhere near Copgrove I asked. They replied that yes quite near Copgrove House. Famous for one of the greatest owner-breeders on the turf I mentioned. 'Guy Reed' they said to which I replied yes he did live there but that I was thinking of Major L B Holliday. They hadn't heard of him.
Well yesterday the the two fillies who fought out yesterday's Oaks were both 'Holliday' horses.
Winner Tuesday traces back to Holliday mare Belle Sauvage. Holliday was a huge Nearco fan, and had the funds that allowed him to use him. To Nearco Belle Sauvage produced a filly called Noble Lassie, who wasn't bad and won the Lancashire Oaks. In 1964 Major Holliday (who was to die the next year) surprisingly sent her to a minor sire in Vienna (a son of the Queen's Aureole). The offspring was one of the finest racehorses of the 1960s Vaguely Noble. After this colt had won the 1968 Arc Noble Lassie produced a full-sister to him called Vive La Reine. Tuesday (and her full-sister Minding) have Vive La Reine's daughter Alathea as their third dam.
Of course, Emily Upjohn's already been featured on here. Like Noble Lassie the key to her family was sending a mare called Phase to Nearco, not only did that produce Emily Upjohn's ancestor Netherton Maid (but an Oaks winner Neasham Belle). It also produced other family members like Hethersett, Harzand and Hurricane Lane.
A great Oaks for Yorkshire Thoroughbreds. .

 

She loves her jump winners - I was once told by Sir Michael Oswald that she deliberately put a huge Foxhunter Chase trophy as the centre piece on the table at one of the Royal Ascot lunches about 10 years ago!

 

Research at Dublin University has shown that higher levels of inbreeding has resulted in more horses never racing. The first thing you want from a horse is that it gets to the races. This is not happening to a greater degree in in-bred horses. This measurement of in-breeding was not based on pedigree analysis but actual DNA analysis.
Sires covering huge books of mares cannot have helped this situation. I'd be surprised if much happens to deal with this situation.

 

Camelot's Sammarco wins the German Derby. He traces back to Suleika, whose daughter Sayonara was purchased and brought to england by Lord Howard de Walden's stud manager Leslie Harrison. She was very successful producing Slip Anchor, amongst others.

 

Sound Angela: been missing for 7+ months but immediately gets back into winning ways.

 

Yesterday's Lennox winner Sandrine comes from an interesting family, assembled by her owner/breeder Kirsten Rausing. She's by Rausing's own stallion Bobby's Kitten, whom Rausing purchased from the USA to stand at her Newmarket stud (Lanwades). In some respects Rausing's stallions could be viewed as maverick choices as the main reason one might put forward for importing him was that he was by Kitten's Joy who had just produced the excellent Roaring Lion. I wouldn't see Rausing as maverick, more the keeper of the out-breeding flame.
It's not total out-breeding with BK, as he's from the Northern Dancer/Sadler's Wells line but at least a different branch to Galileo and Montjeu. He was a decent racehorse winning the Breeder's Cup Turf Spring as a 3yo. As a 2yo he won over a mile and was 3rd in the BC Turf juvenile.
The female side of Sandrine traces back to Sushila, a Petingo mare bred by the Rogers in Ireland. She came to fame when breeding a Nininski (Rausing's stallion) colt called Petoski, who did little wrong as a 2yo, disappointed in the Spring of his 3yo career but then upset many by beating Oh So Sharp in the King George and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Petoski was the horse that put Rausing on the map, though she'd had significant earlier winners. Lord Howard de Walden bought into Sushila after this, but not before Rausing bred herself a filly called Shimmering Sea to LHdW's Derby winner Sea Anchor, whose best performance was a 3rd in the Silken Glider Stakes in Ireland.
She seemed to be a miler and when sent to Oasis Dream produced a surprisingly fast filly called Starlit Sands, who was 2nd in the Queen Mary and later won a Group3 race over 5.5f. She in turn was sent to Pivotal and produced Sandrine's dam Seychelloise who was no star but won a handful of AW races over 6 to 7f. Sandrine is her 2nd foal, a 4yo colt by Sea the Stars has won a couple of races. There's a sold 2yo colt called Roaring Ralph by Roaring Lion and there's a yearling filly by Shirocco, who now becomes of value.
Rausing has had the S family for some time, and while not as prolific as her A family (Alpinista etc.) now has a promising mare and a very good looking filly, in Sandrine, who could be a wonderful broodmare. Meanwhile she keeps the Mill Reef line alive with Sir Percy, a Deep Impact sire in Study of Man, Sea the Moon who has the interesting Sea the Stars/Monsun cross and Bobby's Kitten.

 

This filly has shown enough to get a shot at a Gp3 at Deauville tomorrow. Pleasingly Roger Varian keeps Jefferson Smith on her. He's ridden her in all her starts so far.