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

A.P. INDY SOARING

Click above to watch Stay Thirsty winning the Travers Stakes
(Image : USA Today - Footage : NYRA)

TRAVERS STAKES (Grade 1)
Saratoga, Dirt, 2000m
27 August 2011

In the pantheon of America’s racing affairs, as important a three-year-old race as the Kentucky Derby, is Saratoga’s 10 furlong Travers Stakes (Gr1), contested last Saturday at the upstate New York venue. In the end, this was an out-and-out triumph for the sons and grandsons of A.P. Indy, as the winner, Stay Thirsty (by Bernardini), second on his previous start in the Belmont Stakes, strode away from Rattlesnake Bridge (by Tapit) and J W Blue (by Sky Mesa). The latter two stallions are sons of Pulpit (by A.P. Indy).

This throws the Three-Year-Old championship of America into disarray, and it will take some big performances going into the Breeders Cup, to put it to rest. For the time being though, it’s A.P. Indy; game, set and match.

A.P. INDY RETIRED

A.P. Indy
(Image : Lane’s End)

A.P. INDY (USA)
Seattle Slew (USA) - Weekend Surprise (USA)

Lane’s End stallion A.P. Indy (Seattle Slew - Weekend Surprise, by Secretariat) has been pensioned due to fertility issues. “He was bred to 25 mares, and none has come back in foal,” confirmed Lane’s End’s Will Farish.

“He’s been tailing off a little bit the last two years, but nothing like this. This was definitely not expected.” Farish added that every effort had been made to address the problem. “We have had all kinds of veterinarians in to check his semen,” he said.

“He only has one testicle, and it has just deteriorated to the point where he isn’t producing live sperm.” Farish continued, “This is a very sad time for the farm. He’s just been such a wonderful horse for us - a wonderful yearling, a wonderful racehorse and a wonderful sire.”

Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old in 1992, the 22-year-old stallion was the nation’s leading sire in 2003 and 2006. His nine champions include Classic winners Bernardini and Rags To Riches.

“A.P. Indy will remain in the stall he has occupied for almost 20 years,” Farish said. “I feel blessed to have been the co-breeder, along with my friend Bill Kilroy, of this great horse, who was a champion on the track and is proving to be one of the most influential sires of our time. It is our fondest wish that he will live a long and happy retirement.”

Bred in partnership by William S. Farish and William S. Kilroy, A.P. Indy was a handsome youngster, and the emergence of his half-brother Summer Squall (Storm Bird) as the 1990 G1 Preakness Stakes hero enhanced his pedigree by the time he was offered at Keeneland July two months  later. The bay duly topped that boutique venue when selling to BBA Ireland for $2.9 million on behalf of Tomonori Tsurumaki, and joined a rare group of multi-million-dollar yearlings to earn back their purchase price on the racetrack.

Turned over to Neil Drysdale, A.P. Indy finished fourth as the favorite in his debut at Del Mar, then underwent surgery for an undescended testicle. He returned to rattle off three straight wins in 1991, capped by the G1 Hollywood Futurity, and picked up where he left off in 1992 with wins in the G2 San Rafael Stakes and G1 Santa Anita Derby. That winning streak would have ensured him favoritism for the G1 Kentucky Derby, but a quarter crack kept him in his stall during the Run for the Roses.

Drysdale regrouped and sent the colt to New York, where he captured the G2 Peter Pan Stakes and G1 Belmont Stakes. A.P. Indy made his next appearance in Woodbine’s Molson Million in September, but ran fifth at 3-5.

After a terrible start in the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup the following month, he put in a strong late bid to claim third behind eventual champion older horse Pleasant Tap (Pleasant Colony) and 1991 G1 Kentucky Derby hero Strike The Gold (Alydar). Three weeks later, he put matters to right in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic, rallying under regular rider Eddie Delahoussaye to seal Eclipse honors as Horse of  the Year and champion 3-year-old.

His career mark stood at 11-8-0-1 with earnings of $2,979,815.

In Demand at Stud…

A.P. Indy headed to Lane’s End breeding shed as a mouth-watering stallion prospect, and delivered the goods. His first yearlings averaged $298,750 in 1995 (topped by the $700,000 Cromwell) and, from 45 named foals, he was represented by four black-type winners in 1996, headed by GSW Accelerator. Pulpit emerged as the favorite for the 1997 Kentucky Derby following wins in the G2 Fountain of Youth Stakes and G2 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, but sustained a knee chip when fourth on the first Saturday in May.

A.P. Indy had a trio of fillies - Royal Indy, Runup The Colors and Tomisue’s Delight - win at the top level later in 1997, and those results kept breeders clamoring for his services.

The ill-fated Tempera became his first Eclipse Award winner when she secured the 2001 G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and another 1999 crop member, Mineshaft, followed with a Horse of the Year campaign in 2003.

Bernardini gave the stallion his first U.S. Classic win with his success in the 2006 G1 Preakness Stakes, and went on to earn honors as the year’s champion 3-year-old with additional wins in the G1 Travers Stakes and G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup. Rags To Riches came along in 2007 with an epic win over eventual Horse of the Year Curlin (Smart Strike) in the G1 Belmont Stakes, and claimed the Eclipse Award as the nation’s top 3-year-old filly.

A.P. Indy led the general sire list in 2003 and 2006, and has been represented by 132 black-type winners (12% of foals) to date. His progeny have earned over $112,901,838 since hitting the track in 1996.

According to equineline.com, a total of 355 A.P. Indy yearlings have sold at public auction in the U.S. for a total of $191,223,182. Their average price was $538,657, and the median is $375,000. A.P. Indy’s highest-priced yearling to date came last year, when a colt out of Balance (Thunder Gulch) sold for $4.2 million to Besilu Stables.

The Next Generation…

A.P. Indy’s daughters have produced a total of 51 black-type winners to date. That group is headed by five Grade 1 winners thus far, including 2006 champion 3-year-old filly Wait A While and 2010 G1 Kentucky Derby hero Super Saver - both by Maria’s Mon. His sons, in particular, have been the headline grabbers.

Pulpit has established himself as a desirable stallion at Claiborne with top-level winners Corinthian, Ice Box, Pyro, Rutherienne and Tapit, and the latter has emerged as one of the country’s most promising young stallions. Malibu Moon has transferred his early success in Maryland to being in serious demand at Spendthrift in Kentucky, and Mineshaft, after a cautious start, has come alive with last year’s G1 King’s Bishop Stakes hero Discreetly Mine - now alongside his sire and grandsire at Lane’s End - and recent G1 Florida Derby victor Dialed In.

The 2010 freshman sire race came down to a pair of A.P. Indy sons, with Florida-based Congrats edging Darley’s Bernardini by earnings. Both stallions sired two Grade 1 winners last year.

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

DID YOU KNOW?

AP Arrow
(Photo : Summerhill Stud)

“A STALLION BY A.P. INDY
OUT OF A MR PROSPECTOR MARE”

We all have our crosses to bear, but the one we carry with great ease at Summerhill, is the “burden” of a stallion by A.P. Indy out of a Mr Prospector mare. In 2010 alone, what has become one of the most celebrated “stallion-making” recipes in racing, has produced 6 individual sires each with the distinction of having produced a Gr1 winner this year. For the record, they include (current stud fee alongside) Tapit (R560,000), Bernardini (R525,000), Malibu Moon (R420,000), Pulpit (R350,000) and Mineshaft (R225,000).

Our “cross” comes in the form of AP Arrow, as accomplished at the races as at least four of these fellows, and whose first crop at Summerhill has the team doing cartwheels in the aisles. Now this may all sound like some rabid propaganda, so the only way to test it is to ask if you can see them. The number is : (033) 263 1081, and the lady is Linda.

For more information please visit :
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.