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November 4, 2014
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SPECIAL
Horse of the Year? It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over
By Ray Paulick
Who is Horse of the Year for 2014?
That’s an easy one. No one, at least not yet. The year isn’t
over.
While many of the divisional titles in Eclipse Awards
competition unquestionably were sewn up as a result
of the two-day Breeders’ Cup championships at Santa
Anita Park, there is no definitive answer about the biggest
category of all.
There is a new Horse of the Year contender in Bayern,
who, whether you think should have been disqualified or
not, was ultra-game in winning the Classic by a nose over
Taste of New York, with California Chrome just a neck
back in third and Shared Belief 3 1/2 lengths farther
back in fourth after getting roughed up in the early going.
The Classic was Bayern’s second Grade 1 victory of the
year, the other coming against 3-year-olds in the Haskell
Invitational. That’s the same number won by Shared Belief,
who, along with Moreno, got the worst of the bumpercar action in the opening furlong of the Classic. Both of
Shared Belief’s Grade 1 wins came against older horses
(Pacific Classic and the Awesome Again).
Only three of the last 15 winners of Horse of the Year
won as few as two Grade 1 events: Ghostzapper in 2004;
Tiznow in 2000; and Charismatic in 1999.
California Chrome, the other 3-year-old contender for
Horse of the Year honors, has three Grade 1 victories in
the Santa Anita Derby, Kentucky Derby and Preakness.
How do you weigh that trio against Breeders’ Cup Turf
winner Main Sequence, who rolled to his fourth consecutive American Grade 1 victory for Maria NiarchosGouaze’s Flaxman Holdings since being imported from
Europe and joining the Graham Motion barn.
His wins came in the United Nations at Monmouth Park,
ASK RAY
QUESTION: Did the stewards make the right
call in the Classic?
ANSWER: In my experience watching races in
Southern California, the stewards seldom disqualify horses
for interference at the start, so their decision not to DQ
Bayern was consistent. How’s that for dodging the question?
Sword Dancer at Saratoga and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic
Invitational at Belmont Park. The field he defeated in the
Breeders’ Cup Turf was a good one and included Prix de
l’Arc de Triomphe winner runner-up Flintshire.
There used to be a prejudice by Eclipse Award voters
(members of the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters,
Daily Racing Form and NTRA/Equibase) against horses
who were exclusively turf runners, but Wise Dan broke
that mindset the last two years with his back-to-back
Horse of the Year titles – aided in part by the absence of
a dominating dirt runner in the 3-year-old or older male
categories. You have to go back to 1993 and Kotashaan
to find the last turf horse named North American Horse
of the Year.
continued on Page 5
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Page
2
Stallion Spotlight
Union Rags
By Frank Mitchell
A Grade 1 winner at 2 and 3, Union Rags possesses the
best credentials and opportunity of any son of Dixie Union
to continue this branch of Northern Dancer, which comes
through his son Dixieland Band.
Union Rags is the leading earner for his sire with nearly
$1.8 million, and the successes of Union Rags in the Champagne at 2 and Belmont Stakes at 3 earned him a spot at
stud at Lane’s End, where his sire and grandsire stood.
One of those sons of Northern Dancer who was a good
racehorse but notably an even better sire, Dixieland Band
was also fortunate to stand at Lane’s End, where good
mares were available to him on a
consistent basis. As a sire of stallions, Dixieland Band’s most effective sons included Bowman’s Band,
the sire of champion Groupie Doll;
Citidancer and Dixie Brass, the
sires of 65 stakes winners between them; and Dixie Union, who
caught the fancy of the commercial market to a degree that none
of the other sons of Dixieland Band
managed to do.
With a fee of $35,000 live foal, Union Rags has attracted
sizable books in his first two covering seasons. His first
foals are now weanlings, and some are on offer at Keeneland’s November sale.
As a result, the death of Dixie Union
in 2010 at age 13 was a loss for
the breed and for breeders. The
dark brown stallion has sired 48
stakes winners (6 percent from 10 crops of 829 foals),
and 451 of his yearlings sold for a gross of slightly more
than $51 million.
Of those, no son stood higher in the estimation of racing
fans and breeders than Union Rags. A big horse at 16.3
hands and very strongly made, Union Rags makes a great
visual impression, and he backed up that eye appeal at the
sales and on the racecourse. Sold as a yearling by breeder
Phyllis Wyeth for $145,000, she bought Union Rags for
$390,000 as a 2-year-old in training.
MY
ADVANTAGE
Among the 25 Union Rags weanlings cataloged in Keeneland’s first
three books, one of the most interesting is Hip 314, a gray colt who
is a half-brother to stakes winner
Quindici Man (Came Home) and
to graded stakes-placed Spurrier
(Dixieland Band). Consigned by Mill
Ridge, this colt is a March 26 foal.
In addition, Union Rags is the covering sire for 22 mares in the first
three books at Keeneland November. Among those are Hip 346,
Mini Chat, a daughter of champions
Deputy Minister and Phone Chatter. She has produced two
stakes winners, including G1 Norfolk Stakes winner Dixie
Chatter (Dixie Union).
Another mare of note is Hip 55, Decennial, a stakes-placed
daughter of Trippi and a half-sister to two stakes winners.
Even more importantly, two half-sisters have produced G1
winners Musical Romance (Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare
PRS
Sprint) and Rigoletta (Oak Leaf Stakes).
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Page 3
Honor Roll
Crown Queen follows in ‘royal’ footsteps
By Scott Jagow
Turf racing was the exclusive target for Crown Queen under the tutelage of Royal Delta’s trainer, Bill Mott. After
a pair of third-place finishes as a 2-year-old, Besilu’s Ben
Leon decided Crown Queen needed more time to mature,
and she was put on the shelf for eight months. She returned to the races in June, 2014 and hasn’t lost since
from four starts.
“It’s worked out perfectly,” said Mott. “He made a good call
and she’s undefeated this season and now she’s a Grade
1 stakes winner.”
Coady Photo
(2011, Dark bay mare, Smart Strike–Dela Princess
by A.P. Indy. Consigned by Chanteclair Farm to 2011
Keeneland November Sale. Sold to Besilu Stables for
$1.6 million)
When you’re a half-sister to two-time Breeders’ Cup champion and Eclipse Award winner Royal Delta, naturally expectations will be high from the very beginning. Despite
something of a slow start as a juvenile, Crown Queen has
proven in her 3-year-old season that she’s up to the task of
meeting those expectations -- and more.
The filly by Smart Strike out of the A.P. Indy mare, Delta
Princess, was foaled in February, 2011 by Palides Investments just two weeks after the death of Prince Saud bin
Khaled, the breeding venture’s founder. As a weanling,
Crown Queen sold that year in the Palides Keeneland November dispersal for $1.6 million to Besilu Stables. At the
same sale, Besilu went to $8.5 million for her elder halfsister, Royal Delta, registering one of the highest prices
ever paid for a racing/broodmare prospect.
Following a Maiden Special Weight victory over a mile in
June, Crown Queen beat allowance company the following month at Saratoga. She then took the G2 Lake Placid
Stakes at 1 1/8 miles, and in October, shipped to Keeneland, where she won the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup at the same distance.
It’s not clear what’s next for Crown Queen, but Leon is confident more good things on are the horizon.
“She’s answered absolutely every question we’ve asked,”
he said. “I’m looking forward to her 4-year-old year. That
PRS
should be an exceptional year, I think.”
Random FactS
by Ray Paulick
The 2013 Keeneland September Yearling
Sale produced Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner
Texas Red, 1-2 Juvenile Fillies finishers Take
Charge Brandi and Top Decile, Juvenile
Turf winner Hootenanny, and Juvenile Fillies Turf 1-2
finishers Lady Eli and Sunset Glow.
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Page
4
Back Ring
Getting to know trainer Bruce Headley
What would you be doing if you didn’t become a horse
trainer? I’d already be buried. There could be no other
thing for me to do because that’s all I ever thought about.
board. Shoe came along and would stand on his toes and
not hold the horse back. I transformed that into how I rode
in the morning.
What was your first job? I was in the eighth grade, 1946,
right after the war, and I had to muck out two stalls. It was
at the Pomona fairgrounds. I slept in the feed room. By the
time of the Korean War I was free-lancing as an exercise
rider, getting on 30 horses every morning. I bought my first
yearling in 1957 from Frank Childs, who won the Kentucky
Derby with Tomy Lee in 1959.
Who influenced
your
training
methods? I copied
R.H. McDaniel, the
guy who jumped
off the bridge.
From him I learned
to hit the gap and
start
galloping.
Simplicity to the
racehorse is important. I watched
how Buster Millerick trained the
day a horse would
work: gallop, walk,
then breeze them.
From Jim Maloney I learned to give horses an easy time
the day before a work. Before his horses ever raced, Mesh
Tenney gave them five works at every distance up to the
distance of a race, seven days apart, starting at a quarter
mile. And Pie Man Johnson told me what Willy Molter did
with his horses in the days after a race.
Who is the best horse you’ve ever seen? Different eras.
The first era was Citation. The next era was Swaps. Then
Secretariat and Spectacular Bid.
Who is the greatest jockey you’ve seen? No contest. Billy
Shoemaker. He revolutionized riding with the forward pitch
and the float. We were all taught to put our foot in the dash-
About
For advertising inquiries please
call Emily at 859.913.9633
Ray Paulick - Publisher [email protected]
Emily Alberti - Director of Advertising [email protected]
Scott Jagow - Editor-in-Chief [email protected]
Mary Schweitzer - News Editor [email protected]
Natalie Voss - Features Editor [email protected]
Emily White - Weekend Editor [email protected]
Frank Mitchell - Contributing Writer
Copyright © 2014, Blenheim Publishing LLC
Why do horses have fewer starts today? Cortisone injections, breaking the synovial sac, shock waving and drugstore, bartender and baby photographer trainers.
How did you develop an interest in art? I’ve always like
beautiful things … and my father was an artist in school.
What’s the last thing you Googled? Googled? I don’t know
what that is. PRS
3rd Annual Thoroughbred Sale
MIXED SALE
HORSES OF ALL AGES
Saturday, Dec. 13, 2014
Entries must
be received
no later than
Nov. 15th
Consign Now!
11:00 a.m.
2829 South MacArthur Blvd.
Oklahoma City OK 73128
405.682.4551
www.heritageplace.com
email: [email protected]
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Page
5
Breeders’ Cup Trivia
By Ray Paulick
1) Work All Week, winner of the Sprint, became the second horse bred in Illinois to win a Breeders’ Cup race. Who
was the other one?
2) Texas Red won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile by 6 1/2
lengths. What Juvenile winner has the largest winning margin in this race?
C
M
Y
3) Take Charge Brandi’s victory in the Juvenile Fillies gave
trainer D. Wayne Lukas his 20th Breeders’ Cup race win.
What trainer has the second-highest number?
CM
MY
CY
4) Victories by Main Sequence (Turf) and Karakontie (Mile)
gave the Niarchos family/Flaxman Holdings their sixth and
seventh Breeders’ Cup wins. Two other owners (including partnerships) have the same number. Can you name
them?
CMY
K
5) Untapable’s Distaff win gave her sire Tapit his fifth
Breeders’ Cup winner. Can you name the previous four?
6) Who is the only sire with more than five Breeders’ Cup
winners?
7) Goldencents became the 18th horse to win at least
two Breeders’ Cup races. How many of the others can you
name?
8) A $2 win mutuel on Take Charge Brandi in the Juvenile
Fillies paid $125.40. Only four previous winners paid $100
or more on $2 win bets. Who were they?
9) Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith won his 21st Breeders’
Cup race aboard Judy the Beauty in the Filly & Mare Sprint
to extend his margin as leading rider by wins. What active
PRS
jockey is second behind in number of winners?
ANSWERS
Have You Seen The Light?
We will be at
Keeneland Sales
all week.
Please give us a call on
859-270-7319 for more information.
To Order: www.equilume.com
Tel:
859-270-7319 / +353 45 579025
continued from Page 1
Speaking of Wise Dan, his 2014 campaign cut short by injury
looks pretty good on paper: four wins in four starts, three of them
in Grade 1 events. He’ll get some Horse of the Year support, too.
It’s been six years since a “male dirt horse” won Horse of the
Year when Curlin won the second of his two golden statuettes for
the late Jess Jackson in 2007-08. Before Wise Dan came three
fillies and mares who won top honors: Rachel Alexandra in 2009,
Zenyatta in 2010 and Havre de Grace in 2011.
Some will build a case that 3-year-old filly Untapable should join
that list, based on her four Grade 1 wins in 2014 and a record
of six wins from seven starts, culminating with an overpowering
triumph in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Friday. But her one defeat
came in her lone try against colts, when she finished fifth, beaten
nine lengths by Bayern, in the Haskell.
So this race may be far from over.
The Clark Handicap, a Grade 1 race for 3-year-olds and upward
going a mile and an eighth at Churchill Downs on Nov. 28, would
be a great opportunity for Bayern, California Chrome and Shared
Belief to make one more run before Eclipse Awards ballots are
mailed.
If that race comes up too soon, then how about the Grade 1
Malibu Stakes on opening day of the Santa Anita Park winterspring (and now into summer) meeting on Dec. 26?
Run at seven furlongs and restricted to 3-year-olds, the Malibu
has been a Grade 1 event since 1995. It has grown in importance in the minds of stallion owners and breeders over the
years, and it might just be the event that decides the 2014 race
for Horse of the Year.
As Yogi Berra said, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
PRS
1) Buck’s Boy, turf, 1998
2) Street Sense, 2006
3) Bob Baffert, 11 victories
4) Eugene Klein owned 6 winners individually and one in partnership;
Coolmore partners also owned 7 winners, including Hootenanny, winner of 2014 Juvenile Turf
5) Stardom Bound, 2008 Juvenile Fillies; Tapitsfly, 2009 Juvenile Fillies
Turf; Hansen, 2011 Juvenile; Tapizar, 2012 Dirt Mile
6) Sadler’s Wells, 6
7) Goidikova (3); Bayakoa, Beholder, Conduit, Da Hoss, Groupie Doll,
High Chaparral, Lure, Midnight Lute, Miesque, Mizdirection, Ouija
Board, Royal Delta, Secret Circle, Tiznow, Wise Dan, Zenyatta
8) Arcangues, $269.20 in 1993 Classic; Court Vision, $131.60
in 2011 Mile; Spain, $113.80, in 2000 Distaff; Lashkari, $108.80,
1984 Turf.
9) John Velazquez, 13
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Page
6
Five to Watch
A look at some of the sale’s top hips
By Frank Mitchell
Hip 66 Egg Drop (2009 mare by Alphabet Soup x Rehocracy, by Adhocracy): One of the best prospects for
outcrossing with a high-class race record, Egg Drop does
have an eensie Mr. Prospector cropping up in the fifth generation. Otherwise she is free of the most common names
in contemporary pedigrees, such as A.P. Indy, Storm Cat,
Sadler’s Wells, etc. That absence did not hinder Egg Drop
from becoming a G1 winner and winning six of her 13
starts to earn $534,020. She is in foal to leading sire Tapit
on an April 13 cover.
Hip 106 Iotapa (2010 mare by Afleet Alex x Concinnous,
by El Corredor): One of two stakes winners out of the dam,
Iotapa comes to the sale fresh from a gallant third in the
G1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff. The daughter of Afleet Alex has
been in the money for 13 of her 14 starts to earn more
than $1 million. Despite being claimed out of her 2-yearold debut for $50,000 at Hollywood Park, she became a
stakes winner at 3, and a G1 winner at 4.
Hip 132 Stanwyck (2009 mare by Empire Maker x Set
Them Free, by Stop the Music): This young mare is a halfsister to Giacomo and Santa Anita Derby winner Tiago, but
herself is a G3 winner and was three times G1-placed. Her
classic-winning sire has proven one of the best sons of Unbridled, and Set Them Free’s progeny fill the catalog page.
Hip 153 My Happy Face (2010 filly by Tiz Wonderful x
Summer Star, by Siberian Summer): My Happy Face was
second in the G1 Frizette at 2, then carried that form onward to be second in the G1 Coaching Club American Oaks
at 3, along with third in the G1 Test. My Happy Face is one
of the top runners by her sire, G2 winner Tiz Wonderful. She
is the first stakes winner of her dam, and is from the family
of Carter Handicap winner Forest Danger.
Hip 156 Naples Bay (2008 mare by Giant’s Causeway x
Cappucino Bay, by Bailjumper): A graded stakes winner by
one of the world’s leading sires, Naples Bay is a half-sister
to top sire Medaglia d’Oro. They are out of stakes winner
Cappucino Bay, and Naples Bay is in foal for the first time
to War Front. PRS
Throughout the sales | 12pm – 3pm
Lunch will be served.
Come see G1 winners
CROSS TRAFFIC, SHAKIN IT UP,
and back-to-back Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1)
winner GOLDENCENTS
B. Livingston photo
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