WHAT DO THESE FAMOUS SIRES HAVE IN COMMON?

Click above to watch Visionaire.
(Image and Footage : Team Valor)

Medaglia d’Oro, Leroidesanimaux,
Hat Trick and King Kamehameha?

They all came via
Team Valor.

SO DID GRADE ONE HERO,
VISIONAIRE.

Enquiries :
Linda Norval 27 (0) 33 263 1081
or email linda@summerhill.co.za
www.summerhill.co.za

PLUM PRETTY WINS KENTUCKY OAKS 137

Plum Pretty wins the 137th Kentucky Oaks (Grade 1)
(Image : NBC - Footage : Churchill Downs)

KENTUCKY OAKS (Grade 1)
6 May 2011

When she first got off the van, I called her “Plum Ugly,” trainer Bob Baffert admitted as he headed to the winner’s circle after the G1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs yesterday. “But now she’s beautiful.”

Peachtree Stable’s Plum Pretty (Medaglia d’Oro) gave Baffert his second Oaks winner; his first was Silverbulletday (Silver Deputy) in 1999. A 6-1 chance, the bay tracked Summer Soiree (War Front) through fractions of :23.65, :46.99 and 1:11.25. She drove to the lead when they straightened into the lane and looked home free, but jockey Rosie Napravnik wheeled 16-1 St. John’s River (Include) off the rail inside the eighth pole and the longshot came flying. It was close, but the wire came just in time for Plum Pretty to hold on by a neck. “Everybody talks about how long the stretch here is at Churchill Downs,” Napravnik said after the race. “I wish it was just a nose longer today.”

Plum Pretty made one start at two, graduating at first asking at Oak Tree October 27. The bay came back to be third in the January 15 G2 Santa Ynez Stakes and she was 5 1/2 lengths behind winner Zazu when completing the triple in the February 5 G1 Las Virgenes Stakes. Connections hit the road in search of a softer field, and boy, did they find one. The Pennsylvania-bred was bet down to 1-20 in the March 27 Sunland Park Oaks and made those slim odds look right on the money as she romped home a 25-length winner over five grossly overmatched rivals.

The Peachtree colorbearer proved that effort was no fluke yesterday. Content to settle off the runaway Summer Soiree (War Front) early, she had no trouble collaring the tiring leader as they raced around the bend and was flicking her ears as they hit the lane.

Jockey Martin Garcia sent her on about her business and she had opened up daylight by the time they hit the sixteenth pole. St. John’s River moved off the rail and hit the gas, but ran out of real estate late. “Great trip; great filly,” Garcia said. “I couldn’t have asked for more.” Added trainer Bob Baffert, “That was awesome. We hoped she’d run like that. She thought she was at Sunland Park.”

KENTUCKY OAKS (Grade 1)
FINAL RESULT

#	Horse	Sire	Jockey	Trainer
1	PLUM PRETTY	Medaglia d’Oro	Martin Garcia	Bob Baffert
2	ST. JOHN’S RIVER	Include	Rosie Napravnik	Andrew Leggio
3	ZAZU	Tapit	Joel Rosario	John Sadler
4	JOYFUL VICTORY	Tapit	Mike Smith	Larry Jones
5	BOUQUET BOOTH	Flower Alley	John Velazquez	Steve Margolis
6	KATHMANBLU	Bluegrass Cat	Julien Leparoux	Ken McPeek
7	DAISY DEVINE	Kafwain	Jimmy Graham	Andrew McKeever
8	STREET STORM	Stormy Atlantic	Shaun Bridgmohan	Steve Margolis
9	SUAVE VOIR FAIRE	Suave	Miguel Mena	Daniel Michael Smithwick
10	SUMMER SOIREE	War Front	Gabriel Saez	Larry Jones
11	HER SMILE	Include	Garrett Gomez	Todd Pletcher
12	LILACS AND LACE	Flower Alley	Javier Castellano	John Terranova
13	HOLY HEAVENS	Holy Bull	Kent Desormeaux	Bernard Chatters

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

A VISIT WITH IPI TOMBE

      

IPI TOMBE
“Almost incomparable with any filly, anywhere.”

Click above to watch a few clips of Mick and Cheryl Goss
visiting Ipi Tombe, in foal to Medaglia d’Oro,
in the US with Alec Hogg and Barry Irwin.

Footage courtesy of Alec Hogg.

A GOLDEN GROUP : THE NEXT GENERATION

Medaglia d’Oro
(Photo : Darley Stud)

THIRD CROP STALLION POWER

One thing which constantly exercises the minds of stallion men, is where the next sire of sires is going to come from. After many years of doubting, Sadler’s Wells has truly arrived, and on the other side of the Atlantic, A.P. Indy has stamped his name in bold black type as the pre-eminent producer of young sires.

There’s been considerable conjecture of late in every facet of the racing media, including these columns, on the shift of the balance of stallion power back to Europe, a reversal of a trend which manifested itself for some thirty to forty years between the 1940’s through to the 1980’s. Somehow you wondered what was becoming of the American thoroughbred after so many years of dominance, but it seemed that with the weight of spending power so strongly concentrated in predominantly European hands, there would be no let up in the swing back.

A change in their respective strategies by the two power houses, Coolmore and the Maktoums which led to the establishment of their own operations in the USA, has to a degree, mitigated against the flow eastwards. The result has seen the emergence on the American continent of Coolmore’s Giants Causeway (Storm Cat) as Champion Sire, and for Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley, of the new giants, Street Cry (Machiavellian), and more recently, Medaglia d’Oro a grandson of Sadler’s Wells. Interestingly, both the latter two are by European-raced turf sires.

However, these horses are not alone, and the current group of third crop stallions is where the excitement rests. In a recent article labelled the Hot List, the Thoroughbred Daily News commented that this group was so good that Candy Ride (Arg) (Ride The Rails), sire of five Grade 1 winners, currently sits in fifth on that particular TDN Sire List by way of cumulative progeny earnings, while Birdstone (Grindstone), whose sons Mine That Bird and Summer Bird are both Classic winners, is sixth.

As it stands, with just about two weeks left in 2010, Medaglia d’Oro (El Prado) leads the stellar studs with $15,355,047 in progeny earnings. Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra accounts for $3,506,730 of that total, but of course Medaglia d’Oro is no one-trick pony. He sports a co-leading nine graded stakes winners and a co-leading five Grade/Group 1 winners.

The Darley stallion joins Tapit (Pulpit) and Speightstown (Gone West) as the only horse to be on the leaderboard on all five lists. From named foals, he hits at 5.93 percent clip with black-type winners (20), a 10.39-percent clip with black-type horses (35), a 2.67-percent clip with graded winners, and a 4.45-percent clip with graded runners (15).

Sitting behind Medaglia d’Oro is Gainesway resident Tapit, whose earners have bankrolled $14,330,588. The gray, sire of another top filly in the form of Stardom Bound, rivals Medaglia d’Oro in many statistical categories. His 23 black-type winners equates to a strike rate of 8.27 percent, with his 40 black-type horses checking in at a clip of 14.39 percent. His nine graded stakes winners matches Medaglia d’Oro’s number, but his 3.24-percent clip edges his rival.

In third, with $13,081,052 in earnings, is championsprinter Speightstown, who proved he could sire a Classic-distance horse when his four-year-old son Haynesfield wired the 1 1/4-mile G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont in October. The WinStar stallion now has four Grade I winners in all. Lion Heart, in fourth with $12,834,440 in earnings, has been exported to Turkey for the 2011 season, while Candy Ride sits with $11,265,565 in earnings.

Standing at Lane’s End, Candy Ride joins Medaglia d’Oro as the lone stallion of the group with five Grade 1 winners.

Interestingly, the writing was on the wall very early with this group. The top five third-crop sires now were the top five freshman sires then, albeit in a different order. At the conclusion of he 2008 season, Tapit led Lion Heart, Candy Ride (Arg), Medaglia d’Oro and Speightstown. The aforementioned Stardom Bound, heroine of the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, flew the flag for Tapit and was his chief earner, while Medaglia d’Oro’s leading earner that year was a filly named… Retraceable. The Mark Casse-trained filly won the $250,000 Princess Elizabeth Stakes at Woodbine and earned $227,717 that season. Rachel Alexandra, winner of the G2 Golden Rod Stakes, earned $201,440.

WORLD TOP 30 SIRES

A.P. Indy
(Photo : NYC/Karen Kasper)

“Top 5% of North American
and European Sires”

Bill Oppenheim Thoroughbred Daily NewsEach year there are between 1,000 - 1,100 sires in North America, Europe, and Japan who are assigned APEX ratings.

When we talk about a “World Top 12”, therefore - given that we do know we’re really only talking about North American and European sires on the world’s number one international circuit - we are essentially saying, these are the top two percent of sires. When we say “World Top 30,” practically speaking it is the top five percent of sires. I don’t mean to diss the top Southern Hemisphere and Japanese sires, but they aren’t really on this number one international circuit, so, practically speaking, the “World Top 30” is the top five percent of available proven sires in North America and Europe with foals three years old and up.

A.P. Indy sired 9.76 percent top-two-percent earners in the major racing countries covered; Galileo sired 7.50 percent top-two-percent earners; Dynaformer, 5.32 percent; Elusive Quality and Invincible Spirit 3.62 percent. The second figure is the career percentage of “unique” A Runners to named foals of racing age. So, since his first foals raced in 1996, 14.15 percent of the named foals of racing age by A.P. Indy became A Runners in at least one year. That’s an astronomical percentage. As you can see, most younger sires from the “Big-Book Era” have considerably lower percentages. A Runners roughly equate to listed winners and above. A few years ago, if you’ll remember, our research indicated “six percent is the new 10 percent,” and six percent is the yardstick I use now for this category.

I will note that all of the current World Top 12 have A Runner indices above 2.50, and, with a couple of exceptions, their percentage of unique A Runners to foals is above seven percent. The two exceptions are Coolmore sires Danehill Dancer (6.77 percent with huge crops starting with impossible mares - this is a lifetime statistic, remember) and Montjeu (6.63 percent, but with a severe colt bias). Obviously those numbers don’t guarantee you a spot among the World Top 12, but you just about can’t get there without them. They are what are called “necessary, but not sufficient” conditions for inclusion.

As you’ll see from my (admittedly subjective) table, the first four Kentucky sires I’ve listed in the “World Next 18” portion of the table all do have A indexes of 2.50 - plus, and all have eight percent-plus unique A Runners from foals. I can’t really explain the voodoo which tells me where a sire really rates, but there must be hundreds of industry professionals who are compiling similar lists, using their own voodoo. As noted last week, I now think the balance of power among the world top 12 has shifted from North America (now five of the top 12) to Europe (now seven). But in the second tier, I counted 12 Kentucky sires, against five from Europe. Oh yes, that means one slot is open for reader input. There are 30 slots in the World Top 30, and I have only filled 29 of them. Who else deserves to be in (and no, you can’t kick out some of mine to make more room - just one opening for now)?

It’s also interesting that the two F2005 sires (first foals now five-year-olds) are both European, top 12 sire Oasis Dream and top 30 sire Dalakhani. Then the four top F2006 sires (first foals now four-year-olds), all Top 30 sires at the moment, are all North American: Medaglia d’Oro, Speightstown, Tapit, and Candy Ride; and the two F2007 sires (first three-year-olds; rarely are sires from this category included in these lists), both Darley European sires, are: newest world top 12 sire Dubawi, and newest world top 30 sire Shamardal.

Interesting, too, that Coolmore (Galileo, Montjeu, Danehill Dancer, Giant’s Causeway) leads Darley (Street Cry, Dubawi) four to two among the World Top 12, but in the remainder of the World Top 30, there are four Darley sires (Elusive Quality, Medaglia d’Oro, Cape Cross, and Shamardal), but none for Coolmore.

THE WORLD TOP 12 STALLIONS

Sire	Farm	Index* Apex A	A’s-Fls Pct	2010 Fee	Ring	Sold 2010	$ Average Yearlings
A.P. INDY	Lane’s End	4.88	14.15	150,000	28	19	544,736
SMART STRIKE	Lane’s End	3.16	9.41	75,000	40	34	252,037
DISTORTED HUMOR	Winstar	2.69	10.69	100,000	29	26	381,153
GIANT’S CAUSEWAY	Coolmore	3.09	9.11	100,000	73	54	161,483
STREET CRY	Darley	2.96	9.90	150,000	40	34	282,752
GALILEO	Coolmore	3.75	8.91	private	62	47	422,698
MONTJEU	Coolmore	2.71	6.63	private	34	28	244,891
DANEHILL DANCER	Coolmore	2.68	6.77	private	42	38	186,145
DANSILI	Juddmonte	2.66	7.10	65,000	32	26	231,147
OASIS DREAM	Juddmonte	3.19	9.25	65,000	52	45	224,995
PIVOTAL	Cheveley Park	2.58	7.46	65,000	46	37	168,152
DUBAWI	Darley	2.76	7.63	20,000	37	33	174,257

REMAINDER OF WORLD TOP 30 STALLIONS

Sire	Farm	Index* Apex A	A’s-Fls Pct	2010 Fee ($)	Ring	Sold 2010	$ Average Yearlings
DYNAFORMER	3 Chimneys	2.66	8.42	150,000	25	18	277,284
UNBRIDLED’S SONG	Taylor Made	2.97	8.17	115,000	64	49	181,204
PULPIT	Claiborne	2.50	8.26	60,000	36	26	155,500
AWESOME AGAIN	Adena Springs	2.84	8.03	50,000	50	34	92,071
ELUSIVE QUALITY	Darley	1.81	5.90	75,000	72	54	93,292
INDIAN CHARLIE	Airdrie	2.04	5.76	70,000	56	41	137,231
MALIBU MOON	Spendthrift	2.24	5.92	40,000	81	57	157,184
TIZNOW	Winstar	2.53	6.84	75,000	70	49	159,285
MEDAGLIA D’ORO	Darley	3.68	8.33	100,000	57	43	148,383
SPEIGHTSTOWN	Winstar	4.08	9.74	35,000	57	38	93,311
TAPIT	Gainesway	3.58	12.07	50,000	43	34	120,470
CANDY RIDE	Lane’s End	3.70	5.99	25,000	24	14	93,035
MONSUN	Schlenderhan	3.72	10.16	private	11	8	207,928
CAPE CROSS	Darley	1.93	4.55	35,000	64	52	90,819
DALAKHANI	Gilltown	3.92	7.65	50,000	37	24	109,772
INVINCIBLE SPIRIT	Irish National	1.81	5.53	45,000	40	35	146,255
SHAMARDAL	Darley	2.87	6.78	20,000	51	41	101,056

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News