Pedigree Insights: I Spent It

Over the centuries, people all over the world have attempted to divine the future using an extraordinary range of methods. At the extreme end of the spectrum were the ancient cultures with a penchant for examining the entrails of human sacrifices. They obviously didn’t know about less messy options, such as tea leaves or crystal balls. 
A desire to predict the future is also integral to the Thoroughbred world, whether you are trying to bet on horses, or breeding or buying them. All we have to guide us is data, together with instinct based on past experience, but unfortunately the data is often too meagre to allow a fair test. 
So how were we to judge Super Saver when he retired to WinStar Farm at a fee of $20,000 at the end of 2010? 
    On the plus side, he had inherited plenty of the juvenile talent that had made his sire Maria’s Mon a champion 2-year-old. A five-length victory in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. earned Super Saver a figure of 122 on the Experimental Free Handicap, just 4lb below the top. The compilers of the World Thoroughbred Rankings also rated him 4lb below the best American colts as a 3-year-old, with this gap reflecting the colt’s failure to build on his decisive victory in the GI Kentucky Derby. 
    There were also some very attractive aspects to Super Saver’s pedigree. Some of America’s most effective bloodlines were concentrated in the colt’s dam Supercharger, who had been acquired by WinStar for $160,000 while carrying the future Kentucky Derby hero. WinStar no doubt liked the fact that Supercharger’s sister She’s A Winner had already provided WinStar with Bluegrass Cat, runner-up in the 2006 Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont S., prior to taking the GI Haskell Invitational. 
    The quality of Supercharger’s pedigree was clear to see, as she represented the tremendously successful A.P. Indy-Mr Prospector cross. Her female line was also first class, tracing all the way back to the legendary La Troienne. Put briefly, Supercharger was a talented sister to three graded winners, including the Grade I winner Girolamo, and her first three dams were all graded winners. Indeed her second dam Dance Number and third dam Numbered Account both scored at Grade I level. Numbered Account, of course, wasn’t just a Grade I winner and this champion daughter of Buckpasser won eight of her ten juvenile starts before adding another five stakes victories at three. 
    This female line has also produced its share of successful stallions, such as Private Account and Woodman. 
So far so good where the omens were concerned, but there was one piece of data which provided less encouragement to those attempting to read Super Saver’s future. When Super Saver came home in front at Churchill Downs, his sire Maria’s Mon became one of the relatively rare stallions to have sired more than one Kentucky Derby winner since WWII. While that was a major achievement on Maria’s Mon’s behalf, Super Saver’s predecessor had been Monarchos, a stallion who hardly set the world alight. 
    Having started out at $25,000 at Claiborne, Monarchos stood the latest season at only $4,000. From over 400 foals aged three or over, Monarchos has sired only two graded winners in the Northern Hemisphere and this statistic is hard to forgive, even if one of the two graded winners was that grand filly Informed Decision. 
Also, it could be argued that winning the Kentucky Derby is no longer the best launch-pad for a stallion career. Since Unbridled won in 1990, the Derby’s roll of honor makes generally uninspiring reading, featuring such as Strike The Gold, Lil E. Tee, Sea Hero, Go For Gin, Grindstone, Silver Charm, Charismatic, Smarty Jones and Giacomo. 
However, there was one thing which possibly separated Super Saver from Monarchos. Unlike Monarchos, Super Saver represented the Seattle Slew alliance which provided Maria’s Mon with several of his best winners, others being the champion filly Wait A While (dam by A.P. Indy) and the GI Malibu S. winner Latent Heat (dam by Capote). 
This success story was no accident, as it could be attributed to an accumulation of lines to La Troienne. With regards to Super Saver, the number of lines to La Troienne rises to seven, including 4x5x5 to her brilliant great-grandson Buckpasser. 
    The early signs are that Super Saver is proving capable of siring progeny speedier than himself (a mile was the shortest distance he won over). This speed was apparent at the 2-year-old sales, which saw first-crop youngsters by the WinStar resident make such impressive prices as $750,000, $675,000, $600,000 and $525,000. 
The Saratoga meeting has been showing several of these high-priced juveniles to excellent effect. The $750,000 colt, Competitive Edge, earned  “TDN Rising Star”  status when he came home more than ten lengths clear over six furlongs on July 26. The following day saw the $675,000 High Dollar Woman take another six-furlong maiden special weight. And then two days ago the $600,000 I Spent It maintained his unbeaten record with a courageous effort in the GII Saratoga Special over 6 1/2 furlongs, having scored over five furlongs on debut. 
    I Spent It has a particularly interesting pedigree, as he creates 3×4 inbreeding to A.P. Indy, coupled with 4x5x4 inbreeding to Mr Prospector. It was only a week ago that I detailed A.P. Indy’s achievements with Mr Prospector mares. To recap, A.P. Indy sired 127 foals from 71 daughters of Mr Prospector, with no fewer than 22–17%–becoming black-type winners. As many as 16 of the 22 black-type winners were graded stakes winners, with five winning at Grade I level, five at Grade II and six at Grade III. 
    The 127 also included the twice-raced Malibu Moon, sire of the Kentucky Derby winner Orb, as well as Pulpit, the sire of 68 black-type winners. A.P. Indy’s broodmare daughters out of Mr Prospector mares have also shone, producing the Grade I winners Moreno, Imagining, Mr Sidney and Bluegrass Cat in addition to Super Saver. Daydreaming, dam of this year’s Man o’War S. winner Imagining, is a sister to Super Saver’s dam. 
It is Pulpit who provides the second lines of A.P. Indy and Mr Prospector in I Spent It’s pedigree, as the colt’s dam, Rateeba, is by Pulpit’s son Sky Mesa. This heavily-built horse proved himself one of the best juveniles of 2002 but missed the Breeders’ Cup and the Triple Crown during a nine-month absence from the races. It is still very early days for Sky Mesa’s broodmare daughters, but another of them has a stakes winner by Latent Heat, another representative of the Maria’s Mon-Seattle Slew alliance. 
    It is also very early days to be talking about a stallion career for I Spend It, but there is good reason for thinking that he will improve further when he tackles two turns and he surely has the makings of a very effective 3-year-old. 
His dam’s half-sister Pert Lady has also produced a Saratoga Special winner in Zavata, who took the GII Amsterdam S. as a 3-year-old. Another excellent 2-year-old from this family was Dixie Union, out of a half-sister to I Spent It’s second dam. Dixie Union trained on well enough to win the GI Haskell Invitational, before a stallion career which yielded 48 black-type winners headed by Union Rags. For good measure, I Spent It’s fourth dam, Paintbrush, was a half-sister to that exceptional broodmare Fall Aspen, who numbers last year’s Prix du Jockey-Club winner Intello as the latest of her numerous Group 1-winning descendants.