Besides Street Sense, as Andrew Caulfield detailed yesterday, we have to go back nearly 25 years to find the last GI Kentucky Derby winners to make successful sires, and in fact there were two major sires: Sunday Silence won the 1989 Derby, and Unbridled was the winner in 1990. With I've Spent It's game win in Sunday's GII Saratoga Special–he threaded the needle and got an inside run, much as Seek Again (Speightstown) had the day before in the GII Fourstardave–WinStar's 2010 Derby winner Super Saver, a WinStar homebred by Maria's Mon out of an A.P. Indy mare, has gone to the head of the class on the 2014 TDN YTD First-Crop Sire List (click here–All).
Darley's Street Sense, the 2007 GI Kentucky Derby winner, is battling away at making a sire; as of Monday he is #29 on the TDN YTD General Sire List–NA only.
He has five Black-Type Winners (BTW) this year; just one is a Graded Stakes Winner (GSW), though he also has five Graded Stakes Horses (GSH), 2014 earners of over $3.5-million, and a career A Runner Index of 1.87. He's in there pitching, and it could yet happen–his oldest are 5-year-olds this year.
Trained by Todd Pletcher for WinStar, Super Saver went two-for-four as a 2-year-old, both wins coming in wire-to-wire fashion. He led all the way and drew off to win by seven lengths over a mile at Belmont, on a
sloppy track, in his second start, then set the pace but faded late to finish two lengths fourth to Homeboykris (Roman Ruler) in the GI Champagne. He then rebounded to lead all the way and win the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. at Churchill by five lengths. At three he went into the GI Kentucky Derby off two losses–a close third after setting the pace in the GIII Tampa Bay Derby, and a narrow miss to Line of David in the GII Arkansas Derby. But he was a well-backed 8-1 shot in Kentucky, the track did come up sloppy, and Super Saver ran out a decisive 2 1/2-length winner over Ice Box and Paddy O'Prado, with Calvin Borel in the irons. The time was a slow 2:04:2/5, but the Beyer figure of 104 was close to the recent average for the Derby. Unfortunately, Super Saver didn't win again in his three subsequent starts–the GI Preakness, GI Haskell (both won by Lookin At Lucky), and the GI Travers, won by Afleet Express.
When the time came to set 2011 stud fees for stallions retiring that year, four horses retired for fees of $30,000 or $35,000: Blame (Claiborne), Quality Road (Lane's End), Lookin at Lucky (Ashford)(all $35,000), and Eskendereya (Taylor Made, $30,000). Super Saver went to stud for $20,000, the fifth highest price among North American F2012 stallions. He duly ranked fifth by 2012 weanling average, with 30 foals (these figures include 2013 'short yearlings' in sales through February, 2013) averaging $49,317; the four with higher entering stud fees were the four with higher weanling/short yearling averages (all figures from TDN's Instatistics).
It was at the 2013 yearling sales that Super Saver began to move up the commercial ladder. Blame had the highest average (39, averaged $183,666), with Eskendereya (47, $129,659) second. Quality Road (68, $109,735) was third, while Super Saver (65, $100,803) climbed to fourth, with Lookin At Lucky (54, $86,826) fifth. Then, at this year's 2-year-old sales, Super Saver had no fewer than 49 2-year-olds sell, averaging $148,031, second only to Blame ($209,111, nine sold) among North American F2012 sires.
So Super Saver had progressed from fifth, to fourth, to second in his group the closer they got to the racetrack, including those high “6 1/2-figure” (a colloquial description of the range from $500,000 but below $1-million) 2-year-old sales to which Andrew alluded.
The market often gets it wrong, but it looks like it's got it right in Super Saver's case. Andrew listed some of the pedigree elements which arguably are contributing to his success. Here's another interesting little pedigree wrinkle–well, I think it's interesting. It didn't help Monarchos, but it is notable that Maria's Mon comes from another branch of Raise a Native other than Mr. Prospector, Alydar, or even Exclusive Native. Look at the broodmare sires of the relevant sires. Maria's Mon is out of a Caro mare, and is by Wavering Monarch, who is out of a Buckpasser mare. Wavering Monarch is by Majestic Light, who is out of a Ribot mare, and was by Majestic Prince, winner of the 1969 Kentucky Derby and Preakness. Those pedigree elements didn't help Monarchos, Maria's Mon first Kentucky Derby winner, at stud, but they were still there, maybe just waiting for the right trigger–maybe that A.P. Indy on the bottom side of Super Saver's pedigree. There's a lot of two-turn class in his sire line and, as precocious as they are proving, a lot of the Super Savers sure look like two-turn horses.
Only two other North Americans figure among the top ten F2012 sires in North America and Europe at the moment: Spendthrift's Warrior's Reward (Medaglia d'Oro), who now has no fewer than seven debut winners and four black-type horses, ranks second in North America and fifth overall; and Ashford's Lookin At Lucky (Smart Strike), who ranks seventh in progeny earnings and has nine winners, including two black-type horses.
The leading European first-crop sire continues to be Zebedee, a son of Invincible Spirit who won six of his seven starts, all but one over five furlongs, and was retired to Tally-Ho Stud in Ireland after this 2-year-old campaign in 2010. Zebedee has so far sired 22 winners from 66 runners, including Ivawood, unbeaten winner of three races including the G2 July S. and the G2 Richmond S., both at six furlongs. Coolmore's Rip Van Winkle, a top mile to 10-furlong horse by Galileo, has moved up to third on the combined NA/EU list (second in Europe), with Dick Whittington's win in the soft-ground G1 Phoenix S. Rathasker's Fast Company (Danehill Dancer), sire of Royal Ascot G2 Norfolk S. winner Baitha Alda, is next, followed by (in Europe): Whitsbury Manor's Showcasing (Oasis Dream), sire of 14 winners including group-placed Cappella Sansevero; Haras de Bonneval's Siyouni (Pivotal), sire of G3 Prix de Cabourg winner Ervedya; Coolmore's (returning for 2015) Starspangledbanner (Choisir), sire of two Royal Ascot Group winners, The Wow Signal (G2 Coventry S.) and Anthem Alxander (G2 Queen Mary S.), who was scratched out of last weekend's G1 Phoenix S. due to the heavy ground.
Rounding out the top ten NA/EU freshman sires at this moment is Kildangan's (Darley) Vale of York, like Zebedee by Invincible Spirit. Vale of York upset Lookin At Lucky (who drew the 13 hole) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita in 2009 and is the sire of nine winners so far, including Italian Group 3 winner Fontanelice.
Bill Oppenheim may be contacted at bopp@erb.com (please cc TDN management at suefinley@thoroughbreddailynews.com). Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/billoppenheim.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
