VINERY KENTUCKY STALLIONS RELOCATING TO WINSTAR FARM

More Than Ready (USA)
(Photo : Vinery)

WINSTAR FARM
Versailles, USA

Vinery Kentucky’s More Than Ready (Southern Halo) and Congrats (A.P. Indy) headline a group of five stallions who have been relocated to WinStar Farm in Versailles. Kodiak Kowboy (Posse), Pure Prize (Storm Cat) and Street Hero (Street Cry) are also headed to Kenny Troutt’s operation for the 2013 breeding season. It was announced in December that fellow Vinery stallions Pioneerof the Nile (Empire Maker) and Maimonides (Vindication) were also headed to WinStar.

“These are exciting times at WinStar, and we’re thrilled to be able to welcome these terrific stallions to the WinStar family as we get set to open the doors on our new state-of-the-art stallion complex,” said Elliott Walden, President and CEO at WinStar. “We’ve already enjoyed overwhelming response from breeders since adding Maimonides and Pioneerof the Nile, and we’re thankful that the shareholders of these five stallions have shown confidence in WinStar, too.”

More Than Ready, a leading sire in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, has sired 112 stakes winners worldwide, including a trio of Breeders’ Cup winners. He will stand for $60,000. Congrats, already the sire of three Grade 1 winners from his first three crops to race, will stand for $35,000.

“Vinery has done a terrific job with these stallions, and we will strive to be good stewards of all of their careers,” Walden continued. “What a great way to baptize our new stallion facility with proven horses like More Than Ready, Congrats and Pure Prize, as well as promising young stallions like Kodiak Kowboy and Street Hero. They complement our roster extremely well, and we look forward to our greatest days ahead of us.”

Vinery CEO Tom Ludt added, “With the announcement of the selling of the farm earlier this year, we knew this day would come. I am proud of what we accomplished with these stallions, and I am excited to see them continue their careers at a place like WinStar.”

www.winstarfarm.com

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

SEVEN GREAT STALLIONS. ONE COMMON FACTOR.

A.P. Arrow
(Photo : Greig Muir)

EMPERORS PALACE NATIONAL YEARLING SALE
27 - 29 April 2012

Pulpit, Congrats, Malibu Moon, Tapit, Flatter,
Bernardini and Mineshaft.

The elite of American Sires. All by A.P. Indy.
All from Mr Prospector-line mares.

Just like A.P. Arrow.
Except, A.P. Arrow was better than most of them at the races.

FIST FOALS AT THE NATIONAL YEARLING SALE.

Enquiries :
Tarryn Liebenberg 27 (0) 83 787 1982
or email tarryn@summerhill.co.za
www.summerhill.co.za

CONGRATS TO A.P. INDY

Click above to watch Turbulent Descent winning the Hollywood Starlet (G1)…
(Photo : ESPN - Footage : Hollywood Park)

NORTH AMERICAN FRESHMAN SIRE CHAMPIONSHIP

Turbulent Descent’s win in the Hollywood Starlet (G1) at Hollywood Park a couple of Saturdays back means Congrats has now gone beyond recall in the race for the 2010 North American Freshman Sire title; in fact, his progeny earnings are now over $1.6 million, taking him past even Leading European Freshman Sire, Iffraaj, who has been leading the combined list the last couple of months. As we noted a couple of weeks ago, it’s still all A.P. Indy, as far as the top three on the North American Sires list is concerned. Congrats, whose Wickedly Perfect had previously won Keeneland’s Alcibiades Stakes (G1), is by A.P. Indy himself, and is a full-brother to Claiborne’s successful sire, Flatter. He has no fewer than 10 individual runners that have won or placed in black-type races. You can never quite be sure what’s going to happen with Florida stallions when they migrate to the Bluegrass, but Congrats’s only graded-stakes win came around two turns as a five-year-old; you’d hardly figure him as one who would sire flash-in-the-pan, precocious types.

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

Editor :

At a purely parochial level, we’ve already pointed to the parallels between Congrats and our man, A.P. Arrow. Both are from Mr Prospector mares (like A.P. Indy’s top sons, Pulpit and Malibu Moon, as well as Bernardini and Tapit, bred on the same pattern), both are Grade Two winners, and both millionaires, with great pedigrees. On a strict evaluation of their racing class though, A.P. Arrow was clearly superior.

THE A.P. INDY / MR. PROSPECTOR PARTNERSHIP

A.P. Arrow
(Photo : Summerhill Stud)

“THE LETHAL COCKTAIL”

When Summerhill and its fellow investors first got their hands on A.P. Arrow, we knew we had something out of the ordinary. Just how extraordinary though, we didn’t know. The events of the past 12 months have been illuminating, as Andrew Caulfield points out in the Thoroughbred Daily News.

“We have known for a long time now that easily the most prolific source of above-average performers by A.P. Indy has been his partnership with Mr. Prospector’s daughters.

There are now 15 graded winners, plus another five black-type winners, among the 121 foals of racing age from this ultra-popular nick.

These 121 foals represent roughly 11 percent of A.P. Indy’s total output, but their 15 graded winners equate to around 19 percent of his 80 winners at that level.

So is it any surprise that A.P. Indy’s sons from this highly effective Mr. Prospector nick are proving the most effective as stallions? Although this select band accounts for less than 20 percent of A.P. Indy’s graded winners, they have so far supplied two thirds of all then graded winners by A.P. Indy’s sons, including a similar proportion of their Grade 1 winners.

These impressive figures have been compiled largely by Pulpit, Malibu Moon and Mineshaft, with help from Flatter, Accelerator and Indy King, and now the name of Congrats can be added to the list. His daughter Wickedly Perfect has collected the G3 Sorrento Stakes and G1 Darley Alcibiades Stakes, with the latter success marking the start of a profitable weekend for Vinery’s Florida-based freshman stallion.

Congrats also took third place in the Alcibiades, thanks to Jordy Y, and third place in the G1 Champagne Stakes, with his son I’m Steppin’ It Up.

This fine sequence means that Congrats now holds a lead of over $300,000 on the first-crop sires’ table, with earnings in excess of $1million.

His exploits for the Claiborne-Dilschneider partnership included a victory in the G2 San Pasqual Handicap and a good second, dividing Rock Hard Ten and Borrego, in the G1 Santa Anita Handicap. These efforts earned Congrats a trip to Dubai for the 2005 World Cup, in which he finished fifth of 12 to Roses In May (Devil His Due).

Even so, there were a few important shortcomings on his resume. For a start, he hadn’t become a stakes winner until he was four, or a graded winner until he was five, and he failed to achieve that all-important Grade 1 win. To compound these shortcomings, he had nothing better than a Grade 3 placing to show for his final year on the track, in 2006, which never helps launch a stallion career.

There are some striking parallels between Congrats and A.P. Arrow, though the latter was obviously the more accomplished runner of the two. For starters, they were both superior racehorses, both were Grade 2 winners, and both were millionaires with Grade 1 performances. Both stand 16,2 hh, and they have almost parallel pedigree make-ups (…see the boxes below).

Congrats	A.P. Indy (USA)	Seattle Slew	Bold Reasoning
			My Charmer
		Weekend Surprise	Secretariat
			Lassie Dear
	Win Approval (USA)	Mr Prospector	Raise A Native
			Gold Digger
		Wild Applause	Northern Dancer
			Glowing Tribute

A.P. Arrow	A.P. Indy (USA)	Seattle Slew	Bold Reasoning
			My Charmer
		Weekend Surprise	Secretariat
			Lassie Dear
	Garimpeiro (USA)	Mr Prospector	Raise A Native
			Gold Digger
		Far Flying	Far North by Northern Dancer
			Nalees Flying Flag

Although I have pointed out how much A.P. Indy owes his reputation as a sire of sires to his sons out of Mr. Prospector mares, there is no reason why he shouldn’t also make his mark through some of his younger stallion sons. Bernardini, after all, is out of a Mr. Prospector line mare, by Quiet American (who has 20 percent graded winners among his daughters’ foals by A.P. Indy).”

Footnote :

For more on the successful mating patterns of this “tribe”, click on www.summerhill.co.za and go to A.P. Arrow. It seems the opportunities are endless with Danzig, Roberto, Storm Cat and “Mr.P” himself. Think National Assembly, Qui Danzig, National Emblem, Al Mufti, Var, Tiger Ridge, Secret Prospector, Western Winter and Muhtafal. Any other suggestions?

For more information please visit :
www.summerhill.co.za