Bill Oppenheim: The Youngest Guns
What a weekend it was for first-crop sires. They ran 1-2-3 in the GII Davona Dale for 3-year-old fillies: Ekati’s Phaeton (Tale of Ekati) scored her second graded win by hanging on grimly from Birdatthewire (Summer Bird), with Eskenformoney (Eskendereya) a close third. They also dominated the filly ranks in New Orleans, with I’m A Chatterbox (Munnings) defeating stablemate Lovely Maria (Majesticperfection) in a Larry Jones first-crop exacta in the GIII Rachel Alexandra. The one who really went into the notebook, though, was GII Fountain of Youth third Frammento (Midshipman). While Itsaknockout and Upstart were duking it out up front, Frammento, who was incidentally bred by Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Tait, came flying at the finish in a style to suggest Nick Zito might have a very live colt for the GI Florida Derby in five weeks’ time.
This flurry of success for first-crop sires just re-emphasizes the importance of breeders having a close look at young, unproven stallions; not only do the results show they seem to more than hold their own against more ‘proven’ commodities, they’re also usually considerably more affordable. Of course, it’s a risk commercially, but that’s why they stand for half the price of proven sires.
On that note, this week my two colleagues, TDN columnist Andrew Caulfield and International Editor Kelsey Riley, join me in revealing our personal predilections–each of our choices of young European stallions from the F2015 (first foals this year) and F2016 (standing first season 2015) ‘sire crops’ who we’ll bet to become successful sires. As last week, we were each to select one regardless of stud fee (up to 50,000 £/€), and one for 10,000 and under.
F2015 SIRES: FIRST FOALS 2015
Just one small hitch appeared with that plan–we all picked the same horse among European F2015 sires: Coolmore’s CAMELOT. Talk about a huge endorsement (we hope)! So we also each selected a ‘first runner-up’ among this group, as well as a ‘10,000 and Under’ stallion.
ANDREW: As all three of us have chosen Camelot, I’ll restrict myself to what I consider his main attraction–the power of his immediate bloodlines. With Montjeu as his sire and Sadler’s Wells and Kingmambo as his grandsires, his pedigree combines three of the most potent Classic sires of the last 25 years or so.
With a score of four Epsom Derby winners, Montjeu is one ahead of his paternal half-brother Galileo and two ahead of their sire Sadler’s Wells. Montjeu also supplied four winners of the Irish Derby, three of the Grand Prix de Paris (arguably France’s nearest equivalent of the Derby) and even two of the Australian Derby. Throw in winners of three St Legers and two Irish Oaks and Montjeu has strong claims to being one of history’s finest sources of Classic middle-distance stayers. But only one of those Classic winners–Camelot–had the speed to win a Classic over a mile.
For that Camelot probably owes a sizeable debt to Kingmambo and Danehill, the stallions responsible for his stakes-winning first and second dams. Kingmambo himself was a Classic-winning miler out of a Classic-winning miler, and he also proved a dominant stallion at Classic level. In addition to siring a Belmont S. winner in Lemon Drop Kid and a Japanese Derby winner in King Kamehameha, he sired winners of the 2000 Guineas (two), 1000 Guineas (two), Oaks and St Leger (two). The Derby may have escaped Kingmambo’s grasp, but his son King’s Best was responsible for the impressive 2010 winner Workforce.
Poignantly, it was a son of Kingmambo who denied Camelot the honor of becoming only the second Triple Crown winner since 1935. That was the quality colt’s first defeat in six starts. Unfortunately his subsequent career featured three more defeats, which perhaps owed something to the colic surgery he underwent soon after his disappointing effort in the Arc. Breeders, though, have those defeats to thank for making Camelot available for no more than €25,000 in his first two seasons (he reportedly covered 195 mares in Ireland last year, followed by 103 when he shuttled to Australia).
BILL: We put Andrew’s comments first here, not only because he is a great man and possibly older than me, but also because he sent his in first, and made a couple of key points with which I completely agree; so rather than going first myself and saying “as Andrew says below,” we thought it made more sense for his reasoning to kick off our coverage.
One key point Andrew makes is that Montjeu sired the winners of 14 colts’ Classics (including the G1 Grand Prix de Paris, which is not the official ‘French Derby’) at a mile and a half and beyond, but only one colt who had the speed to win a Classic at a mile–Camelot, winner of the 2012 G1 English 2000 Guineas. This is relevant when we look at Montjeu as a sire of sires. Two of his four Epsom Derby winners are established stallions (the third, Pour Moi, has his first 2-year-olds this year, and was featured in this column last week); ironically, both are now at stud in France, having started their careers in England.
Montjeu’s first-crop 2005 Derby winner Motivator, who now stands at the Haras du Quesnay for €15,000, did not have year-end 2014 APEX ratings because he missed the 2010 covering season and had no 2011 foals (sires had to have 10+ foals of 2011 to be rated), but he did have a 1.70 A Runner Index at the end of 2013; since then, of course, Treve has scored her second win in the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Authorized, the 2007 Derby winner, now stands for €7,000 at the Haras du Logis. He has a 1.23 A Runner Index and, while not knocking the barn down, he’s not a bad sire, either–and this year he’s starting to have some impact as a jumps sire, too. Montjeu is clearly at least a reasonable sire of sires, so I reckon Camelot, who had plenty of class and speed, has got to be a good bet to become a successful sire.
KELSEY: I couldn’t possibly add anything more to Bill’s and Andrew’s analysis of Camelot’s pedigree, so I’ll take the on the honor of recapping his race record. Camelot ran just twice as a 2-year-old–both wins–and won the G1 Racing Post Trophy with an RPR of 118. He displayed enough speed to win the G1 2000 Guineas in just his third start (RPR 121), and a month later drubbed last year’s dual Eclipse champion and GI Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Main Sequence by five lengths in the Derby (RPR 126). He slugged through an atrociously soft track to win the Irish Derby a month later, and the margin would have been 11 lengths back to his overmatched rivals had it not been for Galileo and Sea the Stars’ brother Born to Sea two lengths back in second. Camelot suffered his first loss when a valiant three-quarter length second in the 14 1/2 furlong St Leger in a rare attempt to complete the British Triple Crown six weeks later, and was at the end of a long and busy season when finishing seventh in a boggy Arc three weeks later. Camelot gave connections a scare when suffering a bout of colic bad enough to require surgery between his 3- and 4-year old campaigns, and while he won just one of three starts as a 4-year-old–the G3 Mooresbridge S.–he did run an RPR of 120 when second to Al Kazeem in the G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup. Considering Camelot’s pedigree and race record–he is a three-time Classic winner over a mile and a 1 1/2 miles, after all–it is remarkable to think he is available for €25,000.
BETTING WITHOUT CAMELOT
BILL: Darley stands FARHH (Pivotal) at Dalham Hall in England; he stood for £17,500 last year, but is down to £12,000 for 2015. Farhh has a couple of pretty strong indicators going for him: he was never out of the first three (5-4-1) in ten starts over four seasons, and in five of his last six starts he ran RPR’s of 126-127; very comparable to Nathaniel’s form, though Farhh was an 8-10 furlong horse, whereas Nathaniel was more 10-12 furlongs.
Mention of Nathaniel brings in Frankel, and, like Nathaniel and Excelebration, Farhh had very good form behind Frankel. That was in 2012, the year all four of them were 4-year-olds; but whereas the other two had form behind Frankel at two and three, Farhh had run just once at two and once at three, winning both, but 16 months apart. Farhh really got going as a 4-year-old, when he ran six times: he won a handicap called the Thirsk Hunt Cup off an Official Rating of 100, which must have made him the handicap certainty of all time. His other five runs were placings in Group 1 races. He was third, beaten 2 3/4 lengths, by So You Think and Carlton House in the Prince of Wales’s S. at Royal Ascot. Then he was second, beaten a half-length by Nathaniel, in the Eclipse S. He was then a distant second twice to Frankel, beaten six lengths in the Sussex S. (one mile) and seven lengths in the Juddmonte (10 1/2 furlongs). He closed out the year by running Moonlight Cloud to a diminishing head in the Prix de Moulin at Longchamp.
Farhh came back at five to score his first two black-type wins, both Group 1’s, five months apart: the Lockinge S. (one mile) at Newbury in May, and the British Champion S., defeating the doughty Cirrus des Aigles, at Ascot in October 2013. He didn’t race much, it is true, but he sure made it count when he did.
ANDREW: History went a long way towards repeating itself when New Approach’s first-crop son DAWN APPROACH reached the track. Both father and son ended their juvenile career as the champion of their generation after an unbeaten campaign which featured victories in the G1 National S. and G1 Dewhurst S. Timeform rated the father 127 and the son 126p. Their career paths eventually diverged, but only after both had confirmed their class in the 2000 Guineas. The father lost by just a nose, whereas the son romped home five lengths clear. The difference between the two was highlighted in the Derby, with Dawn Approach pulling too hard to give himself any chance of emulating his sire’s success. Dawn Approach was still tough enough to win the G1 St James’s Palace S. in very game fashion when dropped back to a mile just 17 days later. Timeform considered that both were worthy of a rating of 132 at the end of their second season.
Dawn Approach was the more precocious and speedier of the two, as he demonstrated by making a winning debut as early as Mar. 25 as a 2-year-old, whereas New Approach debuted on July 15. And whereas New Approach never tackled a distance shorter than seven furlongs, Dawn Approach had four victories over five or six furlongs, including the G2 Coventry S.
We don’t have to look too far for the source of Dawn Approach’s speed, as his broodmare sire is the American flyer Phone Trick. And here we have a difference between the two. Neither of Dawn Approach’s first two dams managed to win, despite making a joint total of 13 starts. New Approach, on the other hand, is out of Park Express, a top-class racemare and producer. I have spoken to breeders for whom the bottom half of Dawn Approach’s pedigree rings a few alarm bells, but his third dam, the Alydar mare Kittihawk Miss, is out of Kittiwake, a high-class racemare and producer. Another of Kittiwake’s Alydar fillies was Miss Oceana, a champion who built a record of 19-11-6-1. This is an outstanding American family, so I am inclined to forgive Dawn Approach’s first two dams for their lack of racecourse prowess.
More to the point, Dawn Approach bears a very strong resemblance to his sire, the main difference being that his hocks are behind him. Bearing in mind that New Approach was 2012’s champion first-crop sire and had at least 20 2-year-old winners from his third crop, the more precocious Dawn Approach must have every chance of developing into a formidable sire of juveniles. He covered 166 mares in his first season, including plenty of mares belonging to Jim Bolger, who bred Dawn Approach and trained both father and son. So don’t be surprised if the 2017 Royal Ascot meeting sees his first crop challenge the remarkable start made by New Approach’s five years earlier.
KELSEY: INTELLO raced just nine times over two seasons (seven times as a 3-year-old), but he never finished worse than third, and his career was marked by high-level consistency throughout–an important trait in a sire prospect. After shipping from his French base to take Newmarket’s Feilden S. to kick off his 3-year-old campaign, Intello was unlucky to draw in post 17 for the French Guineas, and after overcoming a troubled trip flew home to be beaten just a half-length in third. He rebounded decisively to take the French Derby six weeks later with an RPR of 121, and added the G3 Prix Messidor a month later. He ran a 122 RPR when finishing third, beaten 1 3/4 lengths, by the crack sprinter/miler Moonlight Cloud in the G1 Jacques le Marois another month later, and prepped for the Arc with a victory over 10 furlongs in the G3 Prix du Prince d’Orange. Intello ran his eyeballs out to be third to Treve in the Arc three weeks later, recording a career-best RPR of 125 in his swansong.
Intello also boasts one of the top pedigrees of his sire crop; his dam, Impressionnante (GB) (Danehill) was a Group 2 winner and second in the French 1000 Guineas, and she herself was out of the dual Group 1 winner Occupandiste (Ire) (Kaldoun {Fr}), who has produced two other stakes winners. He traces back further to the sire-producing family of outstanding broodmare Fall Aspen. He stands for €25,000 at Cheveley Park Stud, which developed Pivotal (GB) from a stallion that stood for as low as £5,000 to a high of £85,000.
F2015 SIRES AT 10,000 & UNDER
BILL: Like Andrew with Bated Breath last week (and with Frankel, by the way), I have to declare an interest here: I was a contributor to the decision that led to the mating of Gestut Fahrhof’s syndicated (big word for a German stallion)MAXIOS, a half-brother, by Monsun, to the 2004 ‘Arc’ winner Bago, bred by the Niarchos Family and out of Moonlight’s Box, a daughter, by Nureyev, of Coup de Genie, herself a champion 2-year-old and full-sister to Machiavellian. It is an absolutely mouth-watering pedigree: his fourth dam, Raise The Standard, was only a half-sister (by Hoist The Flag, remember him?) to Northern Dancer.
A Group 3 winner as a 2-year-old and a Group 1 winner at a mile (he slammed Olympic Glory by five lengths in the 2013 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp) to 1850 meters (Prix d’Ispahan, 9 1/4 furlongs), Maxios has received unprecedented support from major German breeders, in a country where syndication has been rare. But what really makes Maxios an even more interesting bet was his reception in the commercial marketplace at last year’s Tattersalls December Sale. The Fahrhof team made the decision to bring Maxios from Germany to Newmarket to have him available for breeders to look at. They told me they had shown him almost 300 times, and Maxios went from being a stallion people had a sort of vague idea about to a horse a lot of breeders, outside of as well as inside Germany, are paying attention to. More than one ‘judge’ who toured the Newmaket stallions that week came back to say Maxios, as an individual, rated right up there with the best they’d seen. Eight mares in foal to Maxios averaged $91,849 at the Mixed sales, ranking him fifth among European sires still at stud (in other words, excluding Al Kazeem and Reckless Abandon, who had three sell each), off a €10,000 fee.
ANDREW: Gestut Fahrhof added two new stallions to its team for the 2014 season. I guess the one which will have attracted more attention from breeders outside of Germany will have been Maxios, a dual Group 1 winner in France by the much-missed Monsun. Spare a thought, though, for PASTORIUS, the other Fahrhof recruit.
For €6,500, Pastorius offers group-winning form at the ages of two, three and four and his trio of Group 1 successes include a victory over the future King George winner Novellist in the Deutsches Derby and a defeat of Maxios in the Prix Ganay. Clearly he was well up to top international standard.
I can imagine non-Germans thinking that they know little about his sire, Soldier Hollow. Well, there is nothing wrong with this grandson of Sadler’s Wells. Like that very successful stallion Singspiel, Soldier Hollow is by Sadler’s Wells’s highly effective son In The Wings. Soldier Hollow was also very talented and his long and distinguished racing career saw him become a multiple Group 1 winner over middle distances in Germany and Italy. He also defeated Manduro to take the G2 Prix Dollar.
In common with some other good German stallions, Soldier Hollow has been siring much smaller crops than is the norm in Britain and Ireland. Fortunately that hasn’t stopped him siring a top international performer in each of his first two crops, with Pastorius coming from his first and Ivanhowe from his second.
Pastorius’s appeal extends to his being out of a mare by the mighty Monsun, who has sired the dams of the last three Deutsches Derby winners, including the most recent, Sea The Moon. Pastorius also comes from a classic German female line, so he should prove an asset to the German industry.
KELSEY: In addition to Intello, Cheveley Park will also be developing LETHAL FORCE, who began to hit his best stride late in his 3-year-old campaign when taking the G2 Hungerford S. and blossomed into a top-class sprinter at four, with clear-cut victories in the G1 Diamond Jubilee and G1 July Cup (123 and 124 RPR, respectively). Only Moonlight Cloud stood between Lethal Force and three straight Group 1s in the Prix Maurice de Gheest, and he was ninth in the G1 Betfred Sprint Cup to round out his career. Lethal Force hails from a productive immediate family that includes fellow Group 1-winning sprinter G Force, and while Dark Angel has not yet had a chance to prove himself as a sire of sires, his sire, Acclamation, is proving useful with limited representatives; in addition to Dark Angel he has Equiano, who notched 16 winners with his first-crop 2-year-olds last year. Lethal Force is down to €10,000 this year after starting at €12,500 last year.
F2016 SIRES: COVERING 1ST SEASON 2015
There is a big group of 10 European sires retiring for 10,000 or more in 2015, including 2014 G1 Epsom Derby winner Australia (Galileo, €50,000) and 2014 champion miler in Europe, Kingman (Invincible Spirit, £55,000), both of whom we’ve declared ineligible for consideration for this feature, because, who wouldn’t want to breed to them? Besides the big two, Qatar’s Al-Thani family retires three: impressive 2014 G1 Prix de la Foret winner Olympic Glory (Choisir) goes to Haras de Bouqeutot for €15,000; impressive 2014 G1 Queen Anne S. winner Toronado (High Chaparral) goes to the English National Stud for £10,000; and the near-champion 3-year-old miler, Charm Spirit, like Kingman by Invincible Spirit, goes to Tweenhills, in England, for £25,000. Coolmore also retires three: 2013 G1 Epsom Derby winner Ruler of the World (Galileo, €15,000); 2013 G2 Coventry S. and G1 Dewhurst S. winner War Command (War Front, €20,000); and the 2013 2-year-old rocket, No Nay Never (Scat Daddy, €20,000), winner of the G2 Norfolk at Royal Ascot and the G1 Prix Morny at Deauville, and last year a narrow loser to Bobby’s Kitten in the GI Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita. Darley retires 2014 G1 Diamond Jubilee S. and July Cup winner Slade Power (Dutch Art, £20,000) to Kildangan in Ireland; and Kirsten Rausing stands the 2014 G1 German Derby winner and one-time ‘Arc’ favorite Sea The Moon(Sea The Stars, £15,000) to her Lanwades Stud near Newmarket. A lot of form there; a lot to choose from.
BILL: An €140,000 Arqana yearling bought by trainer Freddy Head for Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani, CHARM SPIRIT developed into a near-champion by the end of 2014, winning his last four races, including three Group 1’s at a mile: the Prix Jean Prat, Prix du Moulin de Longchamp, and the Queen Elizabeth S. at Ascot on British Champions Day, after which he was retired to Tweenhills Stud.
Charm Spirit’s form bears the closest scrutiny. Winner in his second start at two, he then ran third to subsequent 2014 G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Karakontie in the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere on Arc Day 2013. Last year, at three, his only defeat in six starts came when he was fifth, beaten under four lengths by Night of Thunder, Kingman, Australia, and Shifting Power in what is turning out to be a red-hot 2014 G1 English 2000 Guineas. Charm Spirit subsequently beat Shifting Power in the Jean Prat, Night of Thunder twice, and Toronado. He’s out of a Montjeu mare, out of a Machiavellian mare, and is sure to benefit from the patronage of the increasingly powerful Al-Thani family as well as having great appeal to commercial breeders.
ANDREW: One of the most remarkable stories of the last few years has been the transformation in War Front’s status. His initial fee of $12,500 in 2007 reflected a racing career which featured just four wins from 13 starts, his best victory coming at Grade II level. Yet by 2014 his fee had risen to $150,000, and it could be argued that he has the highest international reputation of any U.S.-based stallion. This transformation has also resulted in keen demand for War Front’s stallion sons. In the U.S. in 2014, The Factor covered 151 mares, Soldat 124 and Data Link 121, while Declaration of War attracted more than 170 mares in what proved to be his solitary season at Coolmore.
This suggests that WAR COMMAND, another of War Front’s best sons, will be highly popular as he attempts to fill the void left by Declaration of War’s transfer to Kentucky. War Command is starting out at only €15,000, compared to Declaration of War’s €40,000, the disparity stemming from a largely disappointing second season by War Command. However, Ireland’s commercial breeders love a horse with a high-class record at two years and War Command certainly meets that standard.
Five starts produced four victories, starting as early as June 7, and War Command was highly impressive in winning the G2 Coventry S. by six lengths on his second start. He later gave weight and a decisive beating to the future Jersey S. winner Mustajeeb in the G2 Futurity S. before rounding off an excellent first season with victory in the G1 Dewhurst S. Few colts possess the necessary blend of class, precocity and durability to complete the Coventry-Dewhurst double, other examples being the great Mill Reef and Dawn Approach.
War Command’s grandsires, Danzig and Red Ransom, both showed enormous potential at an early age but neither stayed sound long enough to fulfil the huge expectations. Fortunately War Command proved more durable and there is good reason to think he will thrive at Coolmore. For a start, he has no Sadler’s Wells blood, which opens the door to daughters of Galileo, Montjeu, High Chaparral, etc, and he should also flourish with mares by Danehill’s tough sons.
When I reviewed War Command’s pedigree in the TDN, I commented that “from the viewpoint of War Command’s future stallion career, it can only be good news that his dam [the Grade II winner] Wandering Star is bred along similar lines to that excellent sire Silver Hawk. In fact her sire [Red Ransom] is a son of Silver Hawk’s sire Roberto and her dam was a daughter of Silver Hawk’s dam, the Prix Jacques le Marois winner Gris Vitesse.”
KELSEY: Choisir was represented last year by first-season sire Starspangledbanner, who recorded two stakes winners (including the Group 1 winner The Wow Signal) from just 19 starters, and another in the pipeline for Choisir will beOLYMPIC GLORY, who enters stud at Haras de Bouquetot this year for €15,000. Olympic Glory’s family boasts a lot of class–his third dam won the G2 Queen Mary and his fourth dam was the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas victress Favoletta–but the key attraction of Olympic Glory is his consistent brilliance on the racetrack (and his sizzling turn of foot). Olympic Glory ran 125+ RPRs on four occasions–twice as a 3-year-old and twice as a 4-year-old, and was also a Group 1 winner and dual Group 2 winner as a juvenile. His only loss in five juvenile outings came when second to champion and subsequent Classic winner Dawn Approach in Royal Ascot’s G2 Coventry S., and after that effort Olympic Glory garnered the G2 Superlative S., G2 Vintage S. and G1 Jean-Luc Lagardere. After shipping back to Britain to take the G3 Greenham S. on 3-year-old debut, Olympic Glory was an excusable 11th in the French Guineas after drawing poorly and enjoying no luck in running. He ran Moonlight Cloud to a short head when notching his first 127 RPR in the Jacques le Marois later in the year, and hit that figure again two starts later when taking the G1 Queen Elizabeth S. on British Champions Day. Olympic Glory received a 125 RPR for his season-opening score in the G1 Lockinge S. thefollowing year, and closed out the season with the same figure when using his remarkable turn of foot to go last-to-first in the G1 Prix de la Foret. If you haven’t seen Olympic Glory’s Foret, take 1:17.33 and watch it. Yes, a fast pace set up for him, but the way he comes through the pack in a matter of seconds is spine tingling.
F2016 SIRES UNDER 10,000
BILL: Oasis Dream has at least 10 sons who have gone to stud in Europe since 2010, including successful 2014 freshman sire Showcasing, and two sons featured by one of us in these two columns, Power and Frozen Power. Here’s number three: the Irish National Stud’s GALE FORCE TEN, who was a £280,000 Doncaster yearling bought for the Coolmore team. He was quite precocious, running second to Reckless Abandon in the G2 Norfolk S. at Royal Ascot, then at the end of the season was third to the same horse in the G1 Middle Park S. At three he ran a good fourth to Style Vendome in the G1 Prix d’Essai des Poulains– French 2000 Guineas–then second to Magician in the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas, then went to Royal Ascot for a second year and won the ultra-competitive G3 Jersey S. as a well-backed favorite. He was then unplaced in three runs behind buzzsaw older horses in the G1 July Cup, G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest and G1 Prix du Moulin. He ran four times the following winter in Dubai for trainer Mike de Kock, but never got close. Nonetheless, it’s all about how good the horse was in his best form, and on that score, I’d say Gale Force Ten’s best form is definitely good enough to make him a good punt for a €5,000 sire.
ANDREW: Being in competition with near-neighbor Coolmore must make it all the more difficult for Rathbarry Stud to establish a young stallion. However, the Cashman family have a proud record in this sphere, thanks to such as Alzao, Taufan, Barathea and Acclamation. With the notable exception of Barathea, none of these stallions had won at Group 1 level, so it is going to be interesting to see whether Rathbarry can again work its magic with Lilbourne Lad andMOOHAAJIM, two young members of the team that finished second in the G1 Middle Park S.
Moohaajim failed narrowly to deprive Reckless Abandon of his unbeaten record in the Middle Park of 2012. Moohaajim had first drawn attention to himself at Tattersalls’ Craven Breeze-Up Sale, when a fast piece of work put him on many short-lists. In the end he fell to a bid of 200,000gns from Marco Botti, who explained that he considered him a very good physical model.
The Cape Cross colt proved a shrewd purchase, and he raced exclusively at group level after making an impressive winning debut at Ascot. He warmed up for the Middle Park by overcoming traffic problems in the G2 Mill Reef S. I had high hopes that Moohaajim would make a fine 3-year-old but he was injured in the 2000 Guineas and that was the last that was seen of him.
His sire Cape Cross has found fame as the sire of the brilliant Sea The Stars, who did so well with his first 3-year-olds last year, and he’s also the broodmare sire of the highly talented Australia. Cape Cross seemed to do very well with mares with Nureyev blood, to the extent that he has eight stakes winners with second dams by Nureyev. Moohaajim’s dam, the Irish and American winner Thiella, is inbred 3×3 to Nureyev through two of that brilliant stallion’s most important progeny, Miesque and Theatrical. With no Sadler’s Wells or Danehill in his pedigree, he should prove an attractive addition to the Rathbarry team, especially with his fee set at only €5,000.
KELSEY: Pedigree and racetrack performance combined, ANODIN is the complete package, and for €7,500 he is a gift, really. Bill highlighted Anodin as a European bargain in December (click here), and in fact would have written about him here had I not stolen him first.
Anodin is a full-brother to the 14-time Grade/Group 1 winner Goldikova and a half to G1 Prix Vermeille victress Galikova, and their second dam and third dams are both Group 1 winners and accomplished producers.
It is likely Anodin is available at a bargain price because his best performances were not victories; in fact, he won just twice in 14 starts: the G3 Prix Paul Moussac and a Longchamp conditions race as a 3-year-old. He was unfortunate to run into a handful of giants as a 4-year-old last year. A talented miler, he finished second to Cirrus des Aigles when stretched out to 9 1/2 furlongs in the G1 Prix d’Ispahan (RPR 118). He finished third to Toronado in the G1 Queen Anne (RPR 119) and second to Kingman in the Prix Jacques le Marois (RPR 119). Fifth to Olympic Glory when dropped back to seven furlongs in the Foret, Anodin ran an absolute blinder to be second to Karakontie in the GI Breeders’ Cup Mile–the race his famed sister won three times.
Among the sires produced by the legendary stallion master Alec Head are Anodin’s sire Anabaa, so you can be sure the master of Haras du Quesnay will give Anodin the best possible chance. Head also selected as yearlings and started at stud Lyphard and Riverman, both of whom appear in Anodin’s female family.