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The victory of Winter View in the Grey Goose Bewitch Stakes (gr. IIIT) last week gives us the opportunity to give a call to a great value racehorse sire, and to note the further deeds of a family that is currently on fire.

TrueNicks rated A+, Winter View is by 1995 champion 3-year-old Thunder Gulch (TrueNicks,SRO) . Now 17 years old Thunder Gulch is advertised by Kentucky's Ashford Stud for a $15,000 stud fee. If you consider that he has at least 43 stakes winners from his first nine Northern Hemisphere crops, including champion Point Given (TrueNicks,SRO) , Breeders’ Cup Distaff (gr. I) victress Spain, and other grade I winners Circular Quay, Balance, Tweedside, and Sense of Style, you’d have to say he’s hard to beat for value if you're looking for a stallion that can give you a shot at a top-class runner while getting a distance of ground. The level of success Thunder Gulch's progeny have enjoyed on both dirt and turf encourages the belief that his offspring should also like all-weather surfaces (the offspring of his son, Point Given, excel on the all-weather).

Winter View is half-sister to group I winner Rainbow View, the top 2-year-old filly in Europe last year, and almost certain to start favorite for the upcoming English One Thousand Guineas (Eng-I). No Matter What, the dam of Winter View and Rainbow View, won the Del Mar Oaks (gr. IT), and is half-sister to E Dubai (TrueNicks,SRO) , winner of the Suburban Handicap and Dwyer Stakes (both gr. II), and now a useful young sire. The granddam, Words of War, is a multiple stakes winner and graded-placed, and is a sister to graded scorer Ascutney, who in turn is dam of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. I) and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (Eng-I) victor Raven’s Pass.

Words of War and Ascutney are also half-sister to the stakes-winning Red Ransom filly Word o’ Ransom, dam of three stakes winners, including last year’s Will Rogers Stakes (gr. IIIT) scorer Polonius, and granddam of Advice, who recently threw his hat into the classic ring with a tally in the Coolmore Lexington Stakes (gr. II).