Bill Oppenheim: Under The Radar

At the end of 2014, four of the top 10 sires on the TDN North American General Sire List for last year were the four sires with first foals 2006 that have been so prominent since they first had runners in 2008: Gainesway's Tapit; WinStar's Speightstown; Darley's Medaglia d'Oro; and Lane's End's Candy Ride. Among them, by the end of last year, with seven crops of racing age each, they had sired 219 black-type winners (BTW), of which 104 were graded/group winners (GSW), and 43 were Grade I/Group 1 winners (from a total of 28 crops). They are a formidable quartet. 

Arguably, the number five North American F2006 sire was Lion Heart, who was a $1.4-million Fasig Florida 2-year-old trained by Patrick Biancone for Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith. Lion Heart went three-for-three as a 2-year-old, winning the GI Hollywood Futurity and contributing to his sire Tale of The Cat's 2003 North American 2-year-old sire championship with his second crop. Lion Heart ran second to Smarty Jones in the 2004 GI Kentucky Derby, fourth in the GI Preakness, and won the GI Haskell S. at three. After five seasons at Ashford, Lion Heart was sold to Turkey early in 2010. He finished the American phase of his career with an APEX A Runner Index of 1.86, and, typical of his sire and sire line (Storm Cat), a very salty 2.11 ABC Index for 2-year-olds. He also left behind two sons, Ocala Stud's Kantharos and Spendthrift's Line Of David, who both have their first 3-year-olds racing in 2015, and who are both starting to hint they might be names worth knowing. 

A $250,000 OBS 2-year-old from Lion Heart's third crop, Kantharos went three-for-three himself at two in 2010 for owner Stonestreet Stable and trainer Steve Asmussen. He was a real speedball: he broke his maiden by almost 12 lengths at five furlongs at Churchill Downs in May, won the six-furlong GIII Bashford Manor S. there on July 3 by 9 1/2 lengths and won the 6 1/2-furlong GII Saratoga Special by more than seven lengths. Kantharos suffered a fracture, however, after what was described as a routine workout at Saratoga later that month and was retired, initially to Vinery in Florida, then moved to Ocala Stud in 2013. 

So here's what he's done so far. Kantharos had 45 foals in his first crop, now 3-year-olds of 2015. One month in to 2015, he's had 31 runners in total for 19 winners. His only black-type winner so far is Mr. Jordan, impressive winner of two stakes in Florida last fall. But he does have eight black-type horses in all, including last month's GIII Hutcheson S. second, X Y Jet, and is the sixth-ranked North American second-crop sire by cumulative progeny earnings (click here) to date. As Andrew Caulfield was just saying yesterday about Two Step Salsa, Florida has a real history as a nursery of sires, and Kantharos could just be another to follow that tradition. 

Another son of Lion Heart, Line of David, led all the way to defeat Super Saver in the GI Arkansas Derby, but he stopped to a walk in the slop behind Super Saver in the 2010 GI Kentucky Derby and was retired a month later and sold by owners Ike and Dawn Thrush to B. Wayne Hughes, captain of the resurgent Spendthrift Farm stallion development program. Line Of David started at $7,500 in 2011, but is down to an advertised fee of just $2,000 for 2015. Like Horse Greeley at Claiborne, this looks like the bargain of the century. Like Kantharos, Line of David had 45 foals in his first crop. Through Monday he also had 31 starters in total, for 10 winners, and five black-type horses. These include last month's California Derby winner Cross the Line and Firing Line, who gave Dortmund a big scare in the GI Los Alamitos Futurity. These horses are holding their own in good company. Right now Line of David is #12 North American second-crop sire by cumulative progeny earnings, but the crystal ball says he could be climbing up that list. 

At the end of 2014, Lane's End's Quality Road was leading North American freshman sire by $25,000 over WinStar's Super Saver. Ashford's duo of Lookin At Lucky and Munnings were third and fourth (click here). The top two each had two GSWs, including a Grade I winner; Ashford's pair each had three black-type winners, including one GSW. 
After the first month of 2015, the same four are in the same four positions, though Quality Road leads Super Saver by just $5,000 in cumulative progeny earnings as of yesterday. Munnings has moved closer to the top three by virtue of being the leading second-crop sire so far this year, with eight winners, including two BTWs. Airdrie's Majecticperfection, like Into Mischief a son of Harlan's Holiday, was a horse with blinding speed as a 4-year-old, the only year he raced. In his last four starts, all on fast dirt at six furlongs, he was never headed at any call, and in his last two starts, he ran a Beyer 117 at Prairie Meadows in the Iowa Sprint H. and a Beyer 115 at Saratoga in the GI A G Vanderbilt, in which he defeated Big Drama by almost three lengths. He was the fifth-ranked North American Freshman Sire last year, but with no BTWs. He is still fifth, but has two BTWs already this year, including Aqueduct and Laurel BTW Majestic Affair, and is second to Munnings in 2015 second-crop progeny earnings (click here). 

Another second-crop sire that strikes us as a little bit under the radar is Darley's Midshipman, the 2008 GI Del Mar Futurity and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner by Unbridled's Song. He came as part of the Stonerside purchase but rather went off the radar when making only four more starts over the next two seasons. He started out at $15,000 in 2011, but is priced at $7,500 this year. He now has 20 winners, including BTWs on the grass at Louisiana Downs last year, and the speedy filly Lady Shipman, who ran a very fast six furlongs in the Ocala races last week. He's another second-crop sire well worth keeping an eye on.