Pedigree Insights: Hoppertunity

BEST HOPPERTUNITY FOR SIRE
    While not quite as dramatic as some of the chariot-racing scenes in Ben Hur, there was plenty happening from the entrance to the stretch in the GII Rebel S. With more than one of the principals at fault, the stewards reached the sensible decision to allow the result to stand. We are likely to learn more if the Rebel’s first four return to Oaklawn for the GI Arkansas Derby over an extra 110 yards, when the Rebel winner Hoppertunity won’t enjoy the same 5lb weight advantage with runner-up Tapiture. However, the extra yardage is likely to suit the courageous Hoppertunity, who, incidentally, shares the same broodmare sire–Unaccounted For–as last year’s Arkansas Derby winner, Overanalyze. 
Hoppertunity comes from the third crop by Any Given Saturday. This distinguished son of Distorted Humor developed into one of the main contenders for the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Monmouth Park following a sequence of decisive victories in the  GII Dwyer S., GI Haskell Invitational and GII Brooklyn H. Unfortunately he sank in the slop at Monmouth and was quickly retired. 
    In addition to being officially ranked inferior only to Curlin and Street Sense among the America 3-year-olds of 2007, Any Given Saturday possessed some powerful bloodlines which guaranteed that he would be much in demand as a stallion. His sire Distorted Humor was one of only three stallions scheduled to stand the 2008 season at a fee of $300,000, another being Any Given Saturday’s broodmare sire A.P. Indy. 
Any Given Saturday duly made his debut at Darley in 2008, as part of a a 17-strong team at the Kentucky farm. No fewer than 10 of the stallions were standing their first, second or third season and it is interesting to explore what the future held for this collection of unproven stallions. As Charlie Boden said in the TDN last week, breeders tended to move away from unproven stallions during the worst of the economic downturn, so it was arguably even harder for a young stallion to make his mark. Perhaps this contributed to the exodus of young sires from Darley, which collectively underline the potential perils facing new stallions. 
    Songster had to be returned to training after failing to get his mares in foal, while Consolidator was sent to Florida, before ending up in the Philippines. Western Australia was the original destination for Henny Hughes, who is now in Japan, whereas Offlee Wild, Rockport Harbor and Any Given Saturday were all moved to Pin Oak Lane Farm in Pennsylvania. Even Street Sense and Hard Spun have spent time in Japan, leaving Bernardini and Discreet Cat as the only ones to have enjoyed an unbroken residence at Darley. 
    Any Given Saturday’s transfer to Pennsylvania came last fall, a few months after Pin Oak Lane had lost Ria Antonia’s sire Rockport Harbor to laminitis. Any Given Saturday had attracted only 49 mares in 2012 and 76 in 2013, these figures being in sharp contrast to his earlier years. His books stood at 144 mares at a fee of $40,000 in 2008, 132 at $30,000 in 2009, 123 at $25,000 in 2010 and 103 at $20,000 in 2011. By 2013 his fee was down to $7,500 and his fee in his first season in Pennsylvania is a mere $5,000. 
    The son of Distorted Humor has 348 northern hemisphere foals of racing age, including 76 untried two-year-olds. He also has nearly 200 foals of racing age in Australia, including 76 two-year-olds. By my reckoning that’s around 370 foals aged three or over in the two hemispheres but Hoppertunity is the first to become a graded/group winner (if we leave out his Panamanian Grade II winner Tomas Gabriel). 
    There is a good chance that we still haven’t seen the best of Hoppertunity. With only four starts under his belt, he has comparatively few miles on the clock and he also has a May 7 birthday. There’s also a good chance he will improve over nine and ten furlongs, even though he is inbred 4×3 to Danzig (through his daughters Danzig’s Beauty and Polish Maid). 
Hoppertunity follows First Samurai’s high-class juvenile filly Executiveprivilege as the second consecutive graded winner produced by Refugee. This daughter of Unaccounted For was therefore well bought by Blandford Bloodstock when she was knocked down for $480,000 at Fasig-Tipton in November 2012. Unusually, Refugee has been mated to a different stallion in each of her 11 years as a broodmare. She produced a Cowboy Cal colt (a three-parts brother to Executiveprivilege) in 2013 before visiting War Front (who produces 2×3 inbreeding to Danzig). 
    Refugee was a talented performer, good enough to finish third in the GII Orchid H. over a mile and a half. Stamina clearly wasn’t a problem for her, as might be expected of a filly of her pedigree. Unaccounted For stayed a mile and a quarter, as he proved with his second to Cigar in the Jockey Club Gold Cup and his third behind the same champion in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. 
    Refugee has a couple of outstandingly talented and tough racemares close up in her pedigree. Unaccounted For’s second dam Mrs Penny, who raced 22 times, was a champion at two and three in Europe, where she was a Group 1 winner over six, 10.5 and 12 furlongs. The other standout is Refugee’s second dam Davona Dale, who retired as a winner of 11 of her 18 starts. She took the 1979 Kentucky Oaks in addition to the NYRA Tripe Tiara, at a time when the CCA Oaks was over a mile and a half. 
    Davona Dale was one of those top-notch racemares who was to prove less effective in the role of broodmare. However, she left daughters by Mr Prospector, Alydar, Danzig and Seattle Slew. Her Alydar filly Rita became the dam of Just A Cat (GII Cowdin S.) and now the Danzig filly, Polish Maid, is the second dam of Executiveprivilege and Hoppertunity. We therefore probably haven’t heard the last of Calumet’s champion daughter of Best Turn.