Sid Fernando

Practical Joke will be sought after

By winning the 7F G1 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes at Saratoga, Practical Joke became one of the most attractive stallion prospects from the 3-year-old crop. Attractive is a key word because he’s an outstanding looker to begin with. That was obvious to his breeders, Keith and Allen Crupper of Whispering Oaks, who sold him as … Read More...

Early success for Treasure Beach

Treasure Beach is a British-bred son of Galileo who won the 12F Irish Derby in 2011. Earlier, he’d lost the 12F Epsom Derby by a head, to Pour Moi, and later he won the G1 Secretariat Stakes at Arlington at 10F. This bonafide European classic-distance horse, however, is surprisingly among the leading first-crop sires in … Read More...

Saw Jim Gagliano and Eric Hamelback on the same day at Saratoga

You can sit on a bench between the paddock and the grandstand at Saratoga and observe a lot. That’s where I was last Wednesday morning before the races, sitting with Frances J. Karon, editor of North American Trainer magazine, when we saw owner Peter Brant, daughter in tow, walking back and forth about a dozen … Read More...

Sumaya and Don Alberto in Kentucky

Justice Real Estate of Lexington, Ky., had a 234-acre property for sale on Georgetown Road in Bourbon County that was formerly R.D. Hubbard’s Crystal Springs Farm, but there’s a “sold” sticker slapped across its image on the company’s website now. The new owner is Chilean Oussama Aboughazale, who also owns Haras Sumaya in Chile and has … Read More...

The most interesting woman in racing

I didn’t coin the headline; Steve Byk did, in tweets in 2014 and 2015. But he’s right. Congrats to Isabelle Haskell de Tomaso, The Most Interesting Woman in Racing, whose Irish Strait wins 10th @MonmouthPark for @GrahamMotion. — Steve Byk (@Steve_Byk) August 22, 2015 Isabelle Haskell de Tomaso is the owner and breeder of the … Read More...

Exaggerator’s qualifications are certainly not

Curlin was represented by his seventh G1 winner Saturday when Connect won the Cigar Mile at Aqueduct, and this is a notable achievement for a stallion with only four crops of 3-year-olds to race through 2016. Furthermore, each of those crops has contained a classic horse — the goal of owners and breeders. Palace Malice, from Curlin’s … Read More...

Brody’s Cause gives Albaugh another Giant in Kentucky

Brody’s Cause is one of two sons of Giant’s Causeway for the Albaugh Family Stable to enter stud in Kentucky in 2017. He’ll stand at B. Wayne Hughes’s Spendthrift for $12,500 and is priced attractively for a dual G1 winner. The other, Not This Time, was covered here. Dennis Albaugh, an Iowa billionaire, first got … Read More...

Not This Time to stud for Albaugh Family Stable

The Albaugh Family Stable was preparing to support its dual G1 winner Brody’s Cause at stud in ’17 at Spendthrift when the bad news hit that its promising classics contender for ’17, Not This Time, had hurt a tendon, was done, and would go to stud, too, at Taylor Made. Both colts are sons of … Read More...

Air Force Blue: Another juvenile champion for Ashford

After a near monopoly of standing recent North American 2-year-old champions at Ashford in Kentucky, Coolmore’s streak was stopped when Darley nabbed 2015 champion Nyquist, but the Irish conglomerate was undeterred. It has sent two juvenile champions from abroad to stand the 2017 season at Ashford to keep the mojo alive, and one of them, … Read More...

Desert God’s Indian St. Leger and record

By Major Srinivas Nargolkar (Retd.) (Ed. note: link to video of race below. Grades of races listed for informational purposes only. All Indian graded races qualify as Listed black type internationally.) In 1976-77, Squanderer, one of India’s all-time great horses, went through his Classic year with a string of nine unbeaten runs. Today (Sept. 24), … Read More...

Uncle Mo lands the haymaker against Tapit

All spring leading up to the Derby, heavyweights Uncle Mo, the bay challenger, and Tapit, the gray champion, traded blows each weekend, it seemed, with one or the other landing major punches in the runup to the main event. And these weren’t the fluffy nothings like those thrown in a fight between “pastel bros” captured here … Read More...

Uncle Mo lands the haymaker against Tapit

All spring leading up to the Derby, heavyweights Uncle Mo, the bay challenger, and Tapit, the gray champion, traded blows each weekend, it seemed, with one or the other landing major punches in the runup to the main event. And these weren’t the fluffy nothings like those thrown in a fight between “pastel bros” captured here … Read More...

Derby sire-line facts

Since Spectacular Bid, the champion 2-year-old colt of 1978, won the Derby in 1979, two other champion juvenile colts have emulated him in the ensuing 36 years: American Pharoah in 2015 and Street Sense in 2007. This isn’t a flattering endorsement for championship form at 2 for the Derby, and it extends to the winners of the … Read More...

Giant’s Causeway is big cat for sire and Ashford

Tapit and Uncle Mo have received the lion’s share of Derby press this year — including from this corner — with potential multiple entries in the classic, but they aren’t the only two. Results from the last few days were the reminder that there’s a third stallion in this elite group with far-reaching influence.  He’s Ashford’s … Read More...

Lonhro’s Shakhimat makes move to Queen’s Plate for Attfield

Roger Attfield, along with Harry Giddings Jr., has won Canada’s premier classic, the Queen’s Plate, a remarkable eight times. Last year he attempted to enter the record books with Danish Dynaformer, a homebred colt from the last crop of Dynaformer for client Charles Fipke. This year, he will try again with Shakhimat, a colt from the … Read More...

Montjeu sprinter rising as a sire in New Zealand

Lots of news from Australia and New Zealand today. Winx is becoming an icon for her late sire Street Cry — a Southern Hemisphere bookend for Street Cry’s legendary Northern Hemisphere daughter Zenyatta. Written Tycoon, fresh off the G1 mark with the Golden Slipper winner Capitalist a few weeks ago, struck again at the highest level with … Read More...

Pope link to California Chrome and Sunday Silence

The last two posts here were about California Chrome and Sunday Silence, both linked by the races in Dubai on Saturday — and perhaps by their non-commercial female families. California breeder George A. Pope, Jr. (1901-1979), mentioned in the piece on Sunday Silence as the breeder of his first three dams (4th dam Dowager was bred … Read More...

Weak family of Sunday Silence

Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Sunday Silence, the broodmare sire of G2 UAE Derby winner Lani and the paternal grandsire of G1 Dubai Turf winner Real Steel this past weekend, was sold to Japan for stud duty because there wasn’t interest in him here. In a Daily Racing Form piece on January 3, 2014, the … Read More...

Tesco Boy’s heirloom line back with Big Arthur

The speedy Princely Gift branch of Nasrullah through Tesco Boy is an heirloom sire line though this was not always the case. Before the advent of the big-time Shadai stallions, which have dominated the leading sire list almost uninterrupted since Northern Taste topped it in 1982 to Deep Impact in 2015, the Nasrullah sprinter Princely Gift’s British-bred … Read More...

Taylor Made gamble pays off big

What a change in the perception and accomplishments of California Chrome from a year ago, huh? Second in the Dubai World Cup, he was then taken from the popular trainer that had developed him and sent to Newmarket to prepare for … well, you know the strange and unflattering story that ended with Chrome’s return … Read More...

Speed of Kantharos trickles to X Y Jet

It’s going to take an exceptionally fast old horse to defeat the 4-year-old gray gelding X Y Jet in the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen, a 1200-meter dirt race with a $2 million purse that’s attracted nine others with a combined average age of almost 7 years. X Y Jet has been brilliant in his last … Read More...

Three Tapits at Meydan

The champion sire and most expensive horse in North America will be represented by an eclectic trio on Dubai World Cup day, and it’s possible by next week that all the chatter will be about Tapit again because one, two, or all three could win. Frosted is Tapit’s main chance, and he’s the most straightforward … Read More...

The graying of America

Just a few Tapits from the last year or so, some accomplished, others on the way up. Of course all the good ones are not all gray, but run against them and you’ll get gray quickly. TAPIT @Gainesway, Sires the 2016 Rebel S.-G2 winner, Cupid, by Tapit shown with Neil Drysdale, trainer of A.P.Indy pic.twitter.com/ug48aj9ljo — … Read More...

Tapit, Uncle Mo continue to rock ‘n’ roll

With apologies to Led Zeppelin, the song remains the same for Uncle Mo and Tapit each weekend, it seems. Both stallions are represented by the two leading contenders for the Kentucky Derby, Nyquist for Uncle Mo and Mohaymen for Tapit, and the two undefeated 3-year-olds are scheduled to meet on a crash course before the … Read More...

Written Tycoon, sire of Slipper winner Capitalist

A prolific winner-getter and noticeably bubbling just beneath the G1 surface for a while, Written Tycoon popped like a bottle of champagne today when his son Capitalist won the G1 Golden Slipper at Rosehill Gardens — one of the most famous 2-year-old races in the world and the most important race in Australia for making … Read More...

Market Rally and the UAE Derby

The March 26 G2 UAE Derby at 1900 meters on dirt is a $2 million race and a lucrative target in its own right, but it has the added allure of conferring 100 qualifying Kentucky Derby points to the winner, too. That’s why trainer Doug O’Neill’s California invader Frank Conversation is headed to Dubai. The … Read More...

War Front’s Jack Milton

Pope McLean’s Crestwood near Lexington is the latest Kentucky farm to stand a son of Claiborne’s War Front — one of the most sought-after stallions in the world. Jack Milton, a G1 winner who joined the Crestwood roster for 2016, is the least expensive of his sire’s five sons in the state at $6,500 live … Read More...

Desert God wins Indian Turf Invitation Cup

By Major Srinivas Nargolkar (Retd.) (Ed. note: link to video of race below. Grades of races listed for informational purposes only. All Indian graded races qualify as Listed black type internationally.) The G1 Kingfisher Ultra Indian Derby winner Desert God (Burden of Proof – Running Flame) added the G1 Indian Turf Invitation Cup to his tally … Read More...

Big Saturday for Darley stallions

Darley had a weekend to remember with top stallions Medaglia d’Oro, Teofilo, Dubawi, Shamardal, Hard Spun, and Bernardini represented by notable Graded winners around the world on Saturday, March 5. Songbird remains unbeaten in the Grade III $100,000 Santa Ysabel Stakes! #SantaAnitaPark pic.twitter.com/2dZY43oYNi — Santa Anita Park (@santaanitapark) March 5, 2016 At Santa Anita yesterday, Medaglia … Read More...

Sire Watch Pedigree Focus: First-crop sires, Street Boss

The Wednesday, March 2, edition of At the Races with Steve Byk featuring ‘Sire Watch Pedigree Focus.’ Topics include first-crop sires at Fasig-Tipton and Street Boss and Street Cry, among other things. Click here to listen. Read More...

Treasure Beach reminiscent of Florida sire Sword Dance

At first blush, British-bred Treasure Beach, who stands for $10,000 at Pleasant Acres in Morriston, Florida, seems out of place in the state. He’s by Galileo out of Honorine, by Mark of Esteem, and is a product of the great Sadler’s Wells/Darshaan cross noted for turf stamina. He ran true to his pedigree, winning, among … Read More...

Juvenile sales can be a barometer for sire success

Recent juvenile sales have unearthed some of the best first-crop runners of new sires and can be an indicator for high placement on the year-end Freshman Sire list and also a barometer for future sire success. Last year, Nyquist sold for $400,000 at the Fasig-Tipton February sale and led the charge for Uncle Mo, who … Read More...

New sires at Fasig-Tipton

Below is a listing of new sires represented by 2-year-olds at the Fasig-Tipton Florida sale. Click on the sire for his page at the farm. Click on the works for the pedigrees of the individual horses. The fastest time recorded was :10 flat, shared by 10 horses. Algorithms (by Bernardini at Claiborne): 10.1, 10.3 Astrology … Read More...

Street Boss, sire of undefeated Cathryn Sophia

Street Boss was one of four G1 winners from the celebrated first crop of Street Cry, Darley’s flagship stallion who died in Australia in September of 2014 at the age of 16 and is the sire of more than 100 stakes winners. The star of that crop was Zenyatta, but it also included the Kentucky … Read More...

Karakontie, from Japan to USA via Europe

The number of new foreign-bred and/or primarily foreign-raced stallions standing in Kentucky keeps increasing incrementally each year, it seems. At the moment the only two active leading sires bred or raced abroad on the Top 40 General Sire list of 2015 are Lane’s End’s Candy Ride, bred in Argentina; and Ashford’s Giant’s Causeway, raced in Europe. Darley’s … Read More...

Super Saver’s Competitive Edge is speed

Competitive Edge is the “other” new sire for 2016 at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky after the poster boy and racing icon American Pharoah, but when he comes out of the stallion barn to pose for visitors, he’s got the swag of a rugged matinee idol instead of the look of a supporting actor. At $12,500 … Read More...

Hampton Court, fourth Aussie-bred reverse shuttler

B. Wayne Hughes’s Spendthrift Farm is traveling the road first paved by John Phillips’s Darby Dan with All American and later traversed by Darley’s Lonhro and Denman; Spendthrift is reverse shuttling Australian-bred Hampton Court from the farm’s Australian facility to Kentucky this year. (Technically, Darley’s Animal Kingdom is a reverse shuttler from Australia, too, but, … Read More...

Radio: ‘Sire Watch Pedigree Focus’

“At the Races with Steve Byk,” Byk’s daily racing radio show on Sirius satellite radio Monday through Friday from 9AM to 12 each morning, has a new sponsor for the pedigree segment where I’m a guest each Wednesday beginning the second hour at 10AM. Download the App and join @sidfernando on ATR for 'Sire Watch … Read More...

Dixie Union’s emergence as a sire of broodmares

Three highly regarded 3-year-old colts share Dixie Union as a broodmare sire, and when something like that happens it’s usually a sign that a broodmare sire is on his way up. This is a nice position in which to be if you happen to own a daughter of Dixie Union, too. Mohaymen, the pro-tem leader … Read More...

Candy Ride and sons

The recent success of Argentine-bred Candy Ride’s Gun Runner in the G2 Risen Star Stakes from the Uncle Mo runners Forevamo and Mo Tom is a snapshot of unconventional triumph. Both Candy Ride and Uncle Mo represent odd branches of significant stallions, and their success may in part be attributable to the outcross opportunities they … Read More...

Who are the Derby contenders plucked from 2-year-old sales?

The Derby preps starts to heat up concurrently with the 2-year-olds-in-training sales, and trainers, like college coaches, are on the recruiting trail for next year’s prospects while preparing this year’s athletes. It all starts in Florida (Fasig-Tipton’s sale pictured above; photo by Frances J. Karon) in late February/early March, first at Fasig-Tipton’s “The Florida Sale,” … Read More...

Airoforce: turf future if dirt doesn’t pan out

Airoforce, who makes his season debut in the G2 $400,000 Veterans Ford Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds Saturday as the 5-2 morning-line favorite, faces 12 others, including four sons of Uncle Mo and Rachel Alexandra’s half-brother Dolphus, but if he doesn’t win or take to the track like he did the dirt at Churchill … Read More...

AP wire: Suddenbreakingnews

Two of the last three Derby winners, California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit, by Pulpit, by A.P. Indy) and Orb (Malibu Moon, by A.P. Indy), are by A.P. Indy-line stallions, and this year’s crop of contenders includes several others, including Mohaymen (Tapit, by Pulpit), Greenpointcrusader (Bernardini, by A.P. Indy),  Shagaf (Bernardini), Economic Model (Flatter, by A.P. Indy), … Read More...

Can Nyquist stay?

Shortly after undefeated juvenile champion Nyquist (Breeders’ Cup Photo, above, winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile) had scorched the seven furlongs of the G2 San Vicente at Santa Anita in 1:20.71 on Monday, questions and comments — all legitimate, given his pedigree — surfaced on Twitter about his ability to get the Derby distance. Really, really … Read More...

New Chilean stallion standing in Kentucky

Ro Parra’s Millennium Farms in Lexington has an unusual stallion entering the ranks in 2016. He’s Chilean-bred and-raced Hakassan, initially a Green Hills Farm acquisition for racing. Hakassan came to the US after having last raced in Chile in December of 2012 and was held in high esteem as a winner of five of seven … Read More...

Songbird’s Campbell history

Fox Hill Farms’ champion Songbird (Breeders’ Cup Photo, above) made an impressive 3-year-old debut on Feb. 6 in the G2 Las Virgenes at Santa Anita — if you don’t believe the speed figures — by winning off by six and a half lengths in 1:36.84 to remain undefeated in five starts. Now, this is the … Read More...

Congrats has another stakes filly in Polar River

The conversation and observation above on Twitter on Jan. 17 was a result of the way Congrats had started off the year near the top of the General Sire List (alongside his brother Flatter and in the mix with Tapit and Candy Ride). His top runner this year is the 3-year-old filly Forever Darling, who … Read More...

Mor Spirit and Baffert

Before he was on the Triple Crown trail for Bob Baffert, Mor Spirit was a ‘lovely looking 2-year-old’ from the consignment of Ciaran Dunne’s Wavertree, as announcer Terence Collier notes in the video above when bidding stalls at $575,000. Mor Spirit had worked an eighth in 10 1/5, but his physical maturity, athleticism, and sheer attractiveness … Read More...

Bayern as a prospect

Bayern, who will start his career at stud at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm in a few days, is a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner (in 1:59.88), a Haskell winner (in 1:47.82 by seven-plus lengths), a G2 Pennsylvania Derby winner (in 1:46.96 by five-plus lengths), and a G2 Woody Stephens winner (in 1:20.75 by seven-plus lengths) over … Read More...