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I was at Woodbine the day Deputy Minister ran his first race on May 10th 1981.A good looking son of the unraced Northern Dancer sire Vice Regent and on his dam side his Great Grandsire Bunty Lawless has a race named after him this very week-end at Woodbine.Just eight days after breaking his maiden he was back in the traditional first 2 year old stakes at Woodbine,the Victoria were he blazed the 5 furlongs in 57 amd one fifth.In those days Belmont Park

had a healthy 2 year old stakes program in the spring so he

was sent down for the Youthful Stakes which he duly won and after that we knew we were talking about a good colt.He then

ran off three successive stakes wins at Woodbine before being sent back down again to Belmont in the Champagne were

he suffered his only defeat that year to a useful colt called Timely

Writer and finishing second that day was the Calumet filly

Before Dawn who would go on to great success herself.Deputy

Minister,s last two races that year were superb,a victory in the Laurel Futurity followed by the same in the long gone

Young America Stakes at the Meadowlands.Although the Young

America is gone,it had some useful winners including Spectacular Bid who won it in 1978.

In 1996 when the Breeders Cup was held at Woodbine one of the supporting races was the one hundred grand Swynford Stakes for 2 year olds and a young son of Deputy Minister,

Touch Gold out of the Buckpasser mare,Passing Mood finished

second.Who would have thought that day as a 3 year old he would go on to win the Belmont Stakes.

What a field!

A lesson to all the people who insist that a stallion must have a particular type of pedigree, full of fashionable sires. DM's sire might have been by Northern Dancer, but his dam was by Menetrier and the next dam was by Windfields. Of course, this is solid E. P. Taylor breeding but it is idiosyncratic breeding; no other major breeder used the same bloodlines he did. (This is true of other great idiosyncratic breeders like Tartan farm, Fred C. Hooper, and George Pope.)

And the damside is even more unfamiliar; a Canadian SP daughter of Bunty's Flight (whose sireline goes back to Fair Play's son Ladkin) out of a dam by Jabneh (a turf star in the early days of turf racing).

And the moral(s) of the story is(are) a) exceptional performance is still one of the best indicators that the stallion deserves a proper chance at stud, i.e. being sent good mares not unraced daughters of unplaced daughters of good mares; and b) never reject out of hand the oddball breeding that a master breeder used to produce a top-class runner.

Great race, thx Ian....nasty finish for AAgain. Silvercharm and Swain conveniently move out of his way!

No Class & Pedigree Shelly,

It is interesting that Go For Wand rates D. This doesn't mean Go For Wand had a poor pedigree, but rather that the cross has a very low strike rate for stakes winners. There have been 60 starters on the cross of Vice Regent and sons/Cyane and sons and grandsons. Of these 60 starters, Go For Wand is the only stakes winner.

Ian

Marc

Not unlike Devil's Bag/Saint Ballado. These are rare cases as it is usually the superior runner that has all the genes in the right places to pass them on.