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Despite the colossal natural talent that he obviously was, the pedigree of Bellamy Road (TrueNicks,SRO) didn’t make him a natural commercial sire, nor an obvious sire of precocious two-year-olds (he's by Concerto, a son of Chief’s Crown and useful sire in Florida, but not exactly at the head of anyone's "sire of sires" list, out of a mare by Deputed Testamony). Still, he's off to a cracking start with four first crop two-year-old winners, headed by Position Limit, five-length winner of the Adirondack Stakes (gr. II), and Embellished, who took the Princess Margaret Stakes at Northlands Park by 3½ lengths.

TrueNicks rated A++, Position Limit is out of the Out of Place (by Cox’s Ridge) mare Payable On Demand. She’s a half sister to two Riley Allison Futurity-winning siblings Sum Trick and Disappearing Trick, out of a half sister to Belmont Stakes (gr. I) winner Summing, so Position Limit has the pedigree to continue to perform as the distances stretch out.

One odd "coincidence" struck us looking at the pedigrees of Position Limit and Embellished. Position Limit’s broodmare sire, Out of Place, is actually a half brother to Rub al Khali, the third dam of Bellamy Road (in fact Rub al Khali is a reverse relative to Position Limit’s dam, as she’s by Mr. Prospector out of Arabian Dancer, and Position Limit’s dam is by a son of Arabian Dancer out of mare by a son of Mr. Prospector). Arabian Dancer is a granddaughter of notable broodmare Exclusive Dancer (by Native Dancer out of Exclusive). When we come to Embellished we see that she's out of a mare by Belong to Me (TrueNicks,SRO). What is key here is that he is by Danzig (also great-grandsire of Bellamy Road), out of a mare by Exclusive Native, three-parts-brother to Exclusive Dancer, the sixth dam of Bellamy Road, so again doubling the Exclusive (As an aside, years ago we planned the mating of millionaire Chief Honcho, who was by Chief’s Crown out of a daughter of Exclusive Dancer, so bred like Bellamy Road and Belong to Me). Now we admit, that the Exclusive family connection is a long way back in the pedigree, but with the sire getting his first two stakes winners with a duplication that’s not that often seen, we’d say any Bellamy Road’s that you come across with Exclusive in the dam are at least worth a second look.

The economic crunch proved to be quite a windfall for several regional markets who were able to acquire stallions who in better times would never have been on the market. One example is Lion Heart, who is now in Turkey. The son of Tale of the Cat (TrueNicks,SRO) did very little wrong in his stud career, getting nine stakes winners, five graded in his first crop; three more, including this year’s Arkansas Derby (gr. I) victor Line of David (TrueNicks), in his second; and he now has the dominant juvenile Kantharos (TrueNicks A++), wide margin winner of the Bashford Manor Stakes (gr. III) and Saratoga Special (gr. II) from his third.

Kantharos is a half brother to graded winning sprinter Ikigai (by Whywhywhy (TrueNicks,SRO) ) and to Bonifacio (by Even the Score (TrueNicks,SRO)), who narrowly won her first stakes, the Daisycutter Handicap, at Del Mar this weekend. The dam is by Southern Halo (making Kantharos the second stakes winner for Lion Heart out of a mare by a son of Halo), out of a Conquistador Cielo mare, giving Kantharos Mr. Prospector 4 x 4, Hail to Reason 4 x 4, and Northern Dancer 5 x 4 (meaning three of the four great-grandsires of Kantharos’s dam are duplicated in the sire).

Sky Mesa (TrueNicks,SRO) has a sharp couple of juvenile fillies this year in Final Mesa and Wonderlandbynight, who took the Ontario Debutant Stakes this weekend. Wonderlandbynight (TrueNicks A) is out of a mare by Gulch, a horse that has not tended to be particularly outstanding under A.P. Indy/Seattle Slew, but Sky Mesa seems to like all kinds of Mr. Prospector, and has six stakes winners from only 42 starters out of mares by sons of Mr. Prospector (the others from mares by Carson City, Forty Niner, Woodman, and Distinctive Pro). He also has two stakes winners from 25 starters out of mares by grandsons of Mr. Prospector.

A less well-known son of Sky Mesa’s sire, Pulpit (TrueNicks,SRO), is Lucky Pulpit, a five-furlong spring stakes winner out of a Cozzene three-parts-sister to the dam of Unbridled's Song (TrueNicks,SRO), who stands in California. His first crop are two-year-olds, and he already has a dual stakes-winning juvenile in Luckarack, who won the Cavonnier Juvenile Stakes at Santa Rosa at the weekend. Out of a mare by Dehere (and TrueNicks rated A++) has 4 x 4 inbreeding to Seattle Slew through A.P. Indy (TrueNicks,SRO) at the top of the pedigree, and the somewhat similarly-bred Slew o’ Gold at the bottom.

Filed under: Recent Winners