Pedigree Insights: Shagaf

If ever anyone wanted to prove that success breeds success, they need look no further than Bernardini, the champion 3-year-old colt of 2006.

With the GI Preakness S., GI Travers S. and GI Jockey Club Gold Cup among Bernardini's sequence of six victories, his success on the track made him easily the highest-priced freshman sire of 2007, at $100,000. Four years later, Bernardini took the title of leading second-crop sire by a considerable margin from Bluegrass Cat, War Front and Congrats. He owed this success largely to two sons which were officially rated just three pounds inferior to GI Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom. One, Stay Thirsty, emulated his sire's victories in the GII Jim Dandy and the Travers while the other, To Honor and Serve, became a Grade I winner in the Cigar Mile H.

This very bright start was enough to restore Bernardini's popularity. In common with so many young American stallions, his fee had been reduced in his third and fourth seasons, to $75,000 and $60,000, respectively, before a very encouraging start by his first-crop juveniles bumped his fee back up to $75,000. It was his 2011 efforts, though, which revived everyone's high hopes and doubled his fee to $150,000 in 2012.

As I said earlier, success has led to further success, with his 2013 crop promising to develop into Bernardini's greatest achievement so far. It still has some way to go before it matches his first crop, which numbered four Grade I winners among its seven graded/group winners, but there is good reason for thinking that it has the potential to do so.
At this early stage, the 2013 crop already has two Grade I winners to its credit in Rachel's Valentina and Greenpointcrusader. The latter, who was runner-up to Mohaymen in the GII Lambholm South Holy Bull S., currently ranks 14th on the road to the Kentucky Derby, with 14 points, and there are now two other sons of Bernardini higher up the list. Thanks to his victory in the GIII Gotham S. three days ago, Shagaf ranks third with 50 points. Then there's Zulu in 10th, with 20 points, following his good second to Mohaymen in the GII Fountain of Youth S. Sail Ahoy, another colt from this crop, has also run respectably against Mohaymen, when a two-length third to him in the GII Nashua S. There's also another colt, Malibu Sunset, who achieved 'TDN Rising Star' status at around the same time as Zulu and Shagaf, so the future looks positively rosy.

This 2013 crop also contains a fourth graded winner in the filly Lewis Bay (GII Demoiselle S.), as well as the talented filly La Appassionata, runner-up in the GIII Delta Downs Princess S.

Shagaf's bloodlines give him a good chance of developing into a star, especially when he gets a chance of tackling further than a mile and a sixteenth. This Shadwell homebred is a grandson of Habibti, who was acquired by Sheikh Hamdan for $2.9 million in November 2003. This high-class daughter of Tabasco Cat was carrying her first foal, by Point Given, at the time.

Racing for The Thoroughbred Corporation, Habibti had shone as a juvenile, with three wins from four starts. Among them were two Grade Is–the Del Mar Debutante over seven furlongs and the Hollywood Starlet over a mile and a sixteenth. This was good enough to earn her second place to Tempera among the fillies on the Experimental Free Handicap. Although Habibti never won again, she maintained her ability well enough to finish second in the GI Las Virgenes S. and GI Santa Anita Oaks before taking third place in the GI Kentucky Oaks.

Habibti ought to have stayed quite well, given the chance. With his victories in the Preakness and the Belmont, Tabasco Cat had shown that he stayed better than most of Storm Cat's sons. Like Bernardini, Tabasco Cat also finished second in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. Habibti's broodmare sire, Temperence Hill, also thrived over longer distances, as he demonstrated with his wins in the Belmont, Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Habibti's first mating for Shadwell was with Bernardini's sire A.P. Indy, the result being Eldaafer. Although Eldaafer was claimed for only $20,000 after winning once for Shadwell, the gelding later proved worthy of his bloodlines, collecting a handful of graded stakes, including the GII Brooklyn H. and GIII Breeders' Cup Marathon, the latter over 1 ¾ miles.

As if to demonstrate the inconsistencies of the bloodstock world, Habibti also has a 4-year-old colt by Bernardini, but this colt is winless in four starts.

Shagaf's dam, the Unbridled's Song mare Muhaawara, became a stakes winner in the Sky Beauty S. over an extended mile. The Gotham winner is her second foal and second winner. It is going to be interesting to follow the career of Mahasen, Muhaawara's 2-year-old filly by Tapit, as she is inbred 3×3 to Unbridled.

With a son of A.P. Indy as his sire and a granddaughter of Unbridled as his dam, Shagaf represents a popular cross which has already supplied American racing with the likes of Tapit, Orb, Mr Speaker and Unbridled Command. Polar River, the Congrats filly who recently completed the UAE 1,000 Guineas and Oaks double, is another bred along these lines, her dam being by Unbridled's son Empire Maker.

The very speedy Runhappy is another with a pedigree which includes A.P. Indy and Unbridled, with these two appearing among this four great-grandsires. Expect to see many more combining these two dominant Classic influences.