TrueNicks : Recent Winners, Broodmare Sire Lines

And Now For The Stakes Winners...

Alan Porter 1 — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:18:00 GMT

Wildcat Heir, sire of a record 39 first crop juvenile winners, is now up to three stakes winners. Alan Porter takes a look a their pedigrees....(read more)

A Lucky Pair With Three of a Kind

Alan Porter 1 — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 23:26:00 GMT

Last weekends grade I juvenile winners Lookin at Lucky and Blind Luck have three ancestors in common....(read more)

Not Your Father's Cross

Alan Porter 1 — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:10:00 GMT

Unlike their sires, sons of Kingmambo and Gone West are working well with Deputy Minister line mares....(read more)

The Aga Khan Stars Also Shine

Alan Porter 1 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:31:00 GMT

Horses bred or owned the Aga Khan swept seven French group events, five of them group I last weekend and they came all across the distance scale, with all manner of pedigree patterns....(read more)

Un Homme Français au Japon

admin — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:04:00 GMT

In an increasingly commercial world it is becoming more and more evident that particular sire lines - and more specifically, one stallion and his sons - can, at least from a commercial sense, quickly dominate the broodmare population of a given country.

It then becomes a race for the next sire line - one that fits the dominant sire and his sons from a physical and genetic viewpoint - to emerge, as in general terms breeding a sireline back upon itself is never as profitable as finding an alternate sireline.

A great example of this is the position that Japanese breeders are in after the dominance of Sunday Silence and his sons. While Sunday Silence followed on the back, at least from a nicking viewpoint, of the great Northern Taste, the increased dominance of Sunday Silence and his sons in Japanese racing has seen the frequency of his blood appearing in the commercial end of the broodmare population reach almost saturation point.

Shadai Farm, which stood both Northern Taste and Sunday Silence, has been trying for the past few years to find the logical successor. Shadai held great hopes for the ill-fated duo End Sweep and El Condor Pasa, the international superstar Falbrav (IRE), and the shy breeding Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem - all receiving their fair share of mares by Sunday Silence and his sons.

One stallion that seems to have found some level of favor with mares by Sunday Silence is the former Three Chimneys Farm stallion French Deputy. Imported to Japan in large part because of his highly successful son Kurofune, French Deputy has done quite well with Sunday Silence mares, with the most recent example being the weekend's Oka Sho (Japanese One Thousand Guineas) winner Reginetta. Hailing from the great Fall Aspen family, Reginetta's win came as a bit of a surprise to the betting public, but not to her connections, who think that better is in store for the well-bred filly.

As TrueNicks is able to use the vast Jockey Club database, we are able to look at all the stakes results in Japan and use this data to generate ratings for Japanese runners. Reginetta is a B TrueNicks rated horse, falling right on the cusp of becoming a B+, which is reflective of the fact that French Deputy has received a great number of Sunday Silence mares, yet has still produced some outstanding runners.

Hitting a Rich Seam

admin — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 13:03:00 GMT

Mineshaft and his family were major winners over the Feb. 24-25 weekend. On Saturday, Little Belle took the Busher Stakes at Aqueduct. A daughter of A.P. Indy, she is out of Dubai Belle, a Mr. Prospector mare who is three-parts sister to Prospectors Delite, the dam of Mineshaft (Dubai Belle is by Mr. Prospector out of Flagbird, a grade I winning half sister to Prospectors Delite). All of this makes Little Belle a seven-eighths relative to the 2003 Horse of the Year.

Meanwhile, Mineshaft's stud career took a major step forward when Cool Coal Man - a member of his first crop - took the Fountain of Youth Stakes (gr. II), to become the first graded scorer for his sire. Cool Coal Man is out the Rubiano mare Coral Sea, and the A.P. Indy/Rubiano cross - which has also produced graded winners Teammate and Ecclesiastic - has already done enough to earn an A++ TrueNicks rating. Of course this is an extension of a cross that has already proved very potent in preceding generations, A.P. Indy being very good with both Rubiano's sire, Fappiano, and of course, his sire, Mr. Prospector.

There are a couple of other points of interest here. Firstly, Mineshaft is out of a Mr. Prospector mare, as are A.P. Indy's leading sons, Pulpit and Malibu Moon, who have both sired multiple stakes winners out of Mr. Prospector-line mares, including from the Fappiano branch. Secondly, whatever his shortcomings as a sire, champion sprinter Rubiano is looking very promising as a broodmare sire. His daughters have already produced 19 stakes winners, including grade I winner Take Charge Lady and graded stakes winners War Front, Victorina, and Minatlya (FR), in addition to Cool Coal Man, Ecclesiastic, and Teammate

It's a Family Affair

admin — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:01:00 GMT

The 6-year-old Giant’s Causeway horse Angliana, who captured his first stakes with a win in last week's Aqueduct Handicap, has a very clever pedigree pattern. Out of the graded stakes winning Jade Hunter mare Pratella, he earns an A TrueNicks score on the basis of the extremely successful Giant's Causeway/Mr. Prospector cross-one that has also produced grade I winners Shamardal, Maids Causeway (IRE), My Typhoon (IRE), and Aragorn (IRE).

Another important feature in this pedigree is that Angliana's third dam is by Nijinsky II, a genetic relative to Storm Bird, whose son Storm Cat is the sire of Giant's Causeway. We can note that there are at least 59 stakes winners from the Storm Cat male line out of mares carrying Nijinsky II, and a third of them (20) are out of Mr. Prospector-line mares, giving the type of pattern we have here.

The unique factor in the pedigree, however, is the appearance of Devil's Bag as sire of the second dam of Angliana. He's popped up in at least six previous stakes winners by Storm Cat and his sons, but is particularly interesting here as Giant's Causeway is out of a mare by Rahy (TrueNicks, SRO), a horse whose dam, multiple champion Glorious Song, is a sister to Devil's Bag. This is the first time we can recall the siblings - both by Halo out of Ballade - appearing together in a stakes winners, but there are going to be plentiful opportunities to combine these genes, either with each other or with another sibling, Saint Ballado.

With Rahy daughters having also produced young stallions Posse (TrueNicks, SRO) (the leading freshman sire of 2007), After Market, Even The Score, Freud, Grand Reward (TrueNicks, SRO), and Roar of the Tiger (TrueNicks, SRO), there is a good chance of seeing these crossed-over mares carrying either Devil's Bag or Saint Ballado. Devil's Bag is most likely to appear through his daughters, although he is also broodmare sire of 2008 first year sire Teuflesberg (TrueNicks, SRO). Saint Ballado, who has some very well-bred daughters from his Kentucky crops, also has some stallion sons out there, including Sunriver (TrueNicks, SRO)-a grade I winning brother to Ashado-who just retired to start his stud career in New York.