Breeding Digest: Joke Gets Serious Sprinting at the Spa

However obvious it may now appear that the “real” Fierceness didn't show up for the GIII Holy Bull Stakes back in February, he was keeping tougher company than many assumed at the time. Of the pair, in fact, things went rather more blatantly wrong for Domestic Product, bumped early before wasting energy against a slow pace and coming home wide. Domestic Product still managed to get closer to the winner than did the juvenile champion, and even in scrambling home in the GIII Tampa Bay Derby next time left a strong impression that he would ultimately thrive round a single turn.

Sure enough, last Saturday both Fierceness and Domestic Product completed their respective rehabilitations after running down the field in the GI Kentucky Derby—the former still at 10 furlongs, the latter duly back at seven. And while their owners will doubtless be seeking fresh blood at the September Sale, they will do well to find anything to match this homebred pair.

That Domestic Product's metier should turn out to be sprinting is no surprise, though his connections started him on a very different road: he broke his maiden over nine furlongs last fall before contesting a strong edition of the GII Remsen Stakes, where Dornoch (Good Magic) and Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) came clear to claim an early place among the cream of the crop.

But he has meanwhile emulated his sire by regrouping post-Derby to win the GIII Dwyer Stakes and now the GI Allen Jerkens (albeit Practical Joke also managed third in the GI Haskell in between).

That template encouraged Practical Joke's reception at stud as a source of commercial speed and, having been conceived when Into Mischief was still just $20,000, he certainly belongs to the early, sprint-oriented phase of his own sire's record-breaking rise. But while Into Mischief has since proved competent to eke some extra stretch from his upgraded mares, it remains to be seen whether Practical Joke can achieve the same from his own soaring fee (hiked to $65,000 after an eye-watering book of 252 at $25,000 in 2023).

While he has evidently come up with some stayers in South America, domestically even his GI Santa Anita Derby winner Practical Move seemed to tip the fuel gauge into red. And Domestic Product is his owner-breeder's second Grade I scorer over seven furlongs this month, Test Stakes winner Ways and Means having likewise dropped in trip after fading in a Classic (fourth in the GI Kentucky Oaks).

Seven at Saratoga is proving a trademark for Practical Joke, himself winner of the GI Hopeful Stakes besides the Jerkens. As it happens, his dam also won her first two starts at the Spa in what proved a light career.

As a sprinter by Distorted Humor out of Gilded Time mare, her visit to Into Mischief complemented speed with speed and her family appears to offer little extra distance. The only really accomplished horse on her page was her grand-dam's half-brother Moment of Hope (Timeless Moment), who did manage to win the GII Stuyvesant Handicap (9f) but also chased home Groovy in the GI Vosburgh Stakes over seven.

Domestic Product's dam Goods and Services might have provided some fuel, as an unraced daughter of Paynter, but she was out of a stakes sprinter by Cherokee Run (albeit her sibling won a graded stakes over nine furlongs of turf).

Goods and Services was actually culled from the Klaravich program when Domestic Product was a weanling, for $37,000 in foal to Complexity at the 2021 Keeneland November Sale. Her new owners were granted little opportunity to profit from Domestic Product's emergence, however. While they did bank $220,000 for the mare's Complexity filly at OBS in March, she had aborted next time before tragically succumbing to laminitis.

Given his commercial agenda, nobody will be losing any sleep if Practical Joke remains perceived as primarily a speed brand. The bottom line is that he's the only one of their intake to have clung to the coattails of Gun Runner, and by any normal measure is consolidating very well.

Fierceness Keeping City's Name In Lights

Fierceness and crew after the Travers | Sarah Andrew

The next class also has a freakish leader in Justify, but remains way more competitive behind him and City of Light owes a corresponding debt to Fierceness, first as champion juvenile and now as winner of the GI Travers.

After a brilliant sales debut, City of Light found himself up against several rivals who set a demanding pace in their relative ratio of stakes winners. Besides Justify, Good Magic and 2022 champion freshman Bolt d'Oro, these include several who have arguably punched above weight: Oscar Performance, Army Mule, Collected, Girvin.

Some have been duly rewarded with improved books, Girvin for instance last year up to 181 mares from 86 and Oscar Performance to 160 from 63, but that will obviously take time to cycle through. As a result, the third-crop prizemoney table is still largely determined by sheer volume: 262 starters already this year, for instance, keep Mendelssohn third while Oscar Performance is confined to fifth with just 114.

City of Light sits between that pair (146 starters) in fourth. Himself a relatively late developer, he's entitled to consolidate the gains made by Fierceness, especially granted the soundness observable in his only other domestic graded winner, Chop Chop. After his breakout with Fierceness last year, City of Light's book this time round rallied to full subscription (at his commendably restrained farm, that's around 145) after dropping to 85 in 2023.

Just as well, then, that Mike Repole happened to buy into the stallion. For consecutive visits by his cherished mare Nonna Bella (Stay Thirsty) have also given an early spark to City of Light's third crop: Mentee, the brother to Fierceness who broke the Aqueduct track record in debut in June, is now reportedly breezing towards the GI Hopeful Stakes.

Nonna Bella has plenty to throw into the mix, not least precocity, as a daughter of Nonna Mia (Empire Maker), one of the foundations of Repole's program when acquired as a $200,000 Saratoga yearling in 2008. With her own page subsequently boosted by the emergence of three-parts brother Cairo Prince (Pioneerof The Nile), Nonna Mia was herself Grade I-placed before producing Outwork (by Repole's beloved Uncle Mo) and then Nonna Bella, who showed good ability in a brief career.

Repeated interruptions to Nonna Mia's production were redressed when her 2022 Into Mischief colt topped the September Sale at $3 million, arriving into the ring just a couple of weeks after Fierceness tore up the Saratoga track on debut. So if City of Light owes much to this mare, their son certainly performed a reciprocal service for her mother.

Raging Sea Belongs to High Society

Society Draws Off in the Ballerina | Tod Marks

As noted above, Practical Joke is the only member of their intake anywhere near the slipstream of Gun Runner and it was another fine weekend for the Three Chimneys top gun—albeit Sierra Leone again consumed all his reserves closing from the rear in the GI Travers. Even so that colt has now paid off even his $2.3 million yearling tag, and has every right to generate a good yield once joining the many sons of Gun Runner now congregating at stud. Meanwhile Gun Runner not only accounted for first and third in the GI Ballerina Handicap, through Society and Vahva, but also cranked his next crop into gear with a sensational “TDN Rising Star” debutante, Senza Parole, on Friday's card.

Society is the latest advertisement for the expertly curated program of Peter Blum, who acquired her granddam Archduchess (Pleasant Tap) in 2010. She had changed hands for just $12,000 at the Keeneland November Sale three years previously, but in the meantime her son Pleasant Prince (Indy King) had emerged to win the GIII Ohio Derby and miss the GI Florida Derby by a nose. That suggested her to be a fully functional conduit to her third dam, the matriarch Missy Baba.

Society is duly a bloom on the same family tree as Raging Sea, who won a duel of Curlins when shading Idiomatic in the GI Personal Ensign Stakes the previous day. Raging Sea was similarly homebred by a program that concentrates on quality in Alpha Delta Stables, who acquired her unraced dam Stormy Welcome (Storm Cat) for $600,000 at the 2015 November Sale.

The mare was out of A.P. Indy's half-sister Welcome Surprise, a graded stakes winner by Seeking the Gold. And their famous dam Weekend Surprise was of course out of Lassie Dear, the daughter of Buckpasser and Missy Baba's daughter Gay Missile (Sir Gaylord).

Buckpasser had also been consecutively chosen for Missy Baba's 1969 and 1970 covers, which respectively produced Sooni and Toll Booth—and Sooni is the fourth dam of Society. We know that many a good racehorse will challenge our principles with an unaccountable background, but two Grade I winners in consecutive days for the Missy Baba line reassures us that sometimes blood really will out.

Crash, Bang, Wallop: It's Violence!

Mullikin Takes the Forego | Sarah Andrew

Fierceness is the second consecutive champion juvenile for his owner, who previously shared Forte with St Elias Stables. Forte has meanwhile begun his second career at Spendthrift, following another son of Violence over at Three Chimneys, in Volatile. And the virility of the Violence brand was certainly on show last weekend. Mullikin, a graduate of the same crop as Forte, flew home in the GI Forego Stakes; Volatile's son Tip Top Thomas won a signpost maiden on the same card; while a daughter of Violence produced a breakout sprinter in California.

Tip Top Thomas was co-bred by a farm that reliably punches above weight, Wynnstay, in partnership with Donna Moore and Jim Richardson. From the same Consolidator mare they've already managed to breed the second highest earner by Graydar, as well as Dua (Arrogate), who made $400,000 at the Fasig-Tipton July Sale in 2022 before running third in the GII Chandelier Stakes. Wynnstay have a deserved toehold in Book 1 at the September Sale, with an Uncle Mo colt early [Hip 13] and a Yaupon half-sister to Brightwork (Outwork) [358] on the second day. Be sure to drop by Barn 15.

By the way Wynnstay, along with longstanding collaborator Allen Poindexter, can also take credit for Angkor, who got his first graded stakes podium behind Mullikin. At $250,000, he reached a higher price than any other yearling by Anchor Down.

As for Mullikin, bred by the estimable Hertrich-Fielding partnership, he's much the best to date out of a Congrats mare who earned herself some pretty lavish covers with a somewhat opportunist podium in the GIII Schuylverville Stakes. That plainly reflects well on Violence, who has had to deal with a few ups and downs in his stud career. And now his changeless assets of physique and pedigree can also serve his emergence as a distaff influence.

Having himself produced the fastest in the East, Violence now accounts for something similar out West through his daughter Violent Wave. She was only a moderate runner but her son Raging Torrent (Maximus Mischief) brought an end to the marvelous streak of The Chosen Vron (Vronsky) when pulling him 12 lengths clear in the GII Pat O'Brien Stakes.

Raging Torrent was found by Mark Davis for $75,000 in Randy Bradshaw's consignment at OBS April last year, having failed to meet his reserve at Keeneland the previous September at $27,000. Fortunately for Rodney J. Winkler and Alfonso Mazzetti, who also bred the dam, they appear to have retained her after sending her into the ring when carrying Raging Torrent ($27,000 RNA, KeeJan 2021) and again when empty last November ($145,000) after his initial graded stakes cameos.

Raging Torrent is also a first graded stakes winner for Maximus Mischief—and duly makes a precious contribution to the reputation of the second-crop sires overall. As a group, they have traded in plenty of quantity but by historic standards have been embarrassed by their slow delivery of quality.