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Sunday was a huge day for Dynaformer (TrueNicks,SRO) , who scored an international "classic" group/grade I double.Wiener Walzer (GER) scored Sunday in the IDEE Deutsches Derby (Ger-I) and Gozzip Girl captured the  American Oaks Invitational Stakes (gr. IT) the same day. What's particularly interesting is that both Wiener Walzer and Gozzip Girl are out of mares by Kingmambo, as is Ocean Silk (stakes winner and group I-placed, and a highweight in England). Not surprisingly, the Dynaformer/Kingmambo cross rates A++.

The weekend events inspired us to reflect on the broader Dynaformer/Mr. Prospector cross. When we created TrueNicks, we noted the cross of Dynaformer with Mr. Prospector-line mares was one that had a rating only a little better than opportunity, but had produced some top-class horses (Barbaro, Riskaverse, and Film Maker are great examples). We speculated that while the cross is a good one on pedigree (it brings together the genetic relatives Bramalea and Gold Digger, respectively dams of Roberto and Mr. Prospector), Dynaformer -- a horse with a fairly unusual phenotype -- might be very sensitive to the physical type of Mr. Prospector-line mare that he covers.

Well, there are now 14 stakes winners by Dynaformer out of Mr. Prospector-line mares and a look at the broodmare sires reveals, we think, something of an aptitudinal pattern. The broodmare sires of the stakes winners are Mr. Prospector himself (three, including a grade I winner and a grade II winner), Kingmambo (TrueNicks,SRO) (three, with two graded and one grade I-placed), Seeking the Gold (three, including two graded with one a grade I winner), Woodman (two), Carson City (Barbaro), Thunder Gulch (TrueNicks,SRO) , and Conquistador Cielo.

I'd suggest that what we are looking at here is a trend of success with the more turf-oriented Mr. Prospector-line mares, often with more classic or European pedigrees. Ten of these were foaled in 2002 and later, despite the fact that Dynaformer had 11 crops born before that date. So we'd suspect that before that, the majority of his Mr. Prospector-line mates were less expensive, and more dirt and sprint-oriented. Looking at what might appear to be possible exceptions to the turfy Mr. Prospector theory we can note that grade I winner Film Maker is out of a Mr. Prospector mare whose dam is by turf runner Green Dancer; Masseuse, a grade II winner out of a Mr. Prospector mare has a second dam by Topsider (by Northern Dancer out of turf champion Drumtop, and often a grass influence); Barbaro's dam, La Ville Rouge, was an atypical daughter of Carson City, as she was effective going long and on turf; and Dynaman, out of a Conquistador Cielo daughter, was only an overnight stakes winner. That leaves us with Kingmambo, Woodman, and Thunder Gulch, all of whom are noted turf sires, and Seeking the Gold, who has sired a number of very good turf performers. Kingmambo also gives line-breeding to the brothers His Majesty (broodmare sire of Dynaformer) and Graustark.

By the way, we'd be remiss if we didn't also note that Dynaformer had a third weekend stakes winner in Guantana (GER) (out of Oaks d'Italia (Ity-I) winner Guadalupe (GER), a daughter of Monsun (GER)), who took the Credit Suisse Siemens-Rennen Hanshin Cup in Germany on Saturday.

Filed under: Recent Winners, Emerging Nicks, Sires

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