By Christina Bossinakis
For over a half century, Airdrie Stud has grown into one of the most recognizable names in the breeding industry. Well known for producing future stakes horses, developing stallions or selling livestock, the Midway, Kentucky operation has become part of the very fabric of racing. And while the nursery, founded in 1972 by Governor Brereton Jones and his wife Elizabeth, has been a fixture at the yearling sales for much of its history, its return to the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale offers a departure from its sale's program in recent times.
Hailing from one of its most prolific families, Airdrie is represented by a single yearling in next week's sale, a colt by Triple Crown winner American Pharoah out of Indian Pride (Proud Citizen). Offered as Hip 79 on Monday, the Feb. 6 foal is the first foal out of TDN Rising Star Indian Pride, a daughter of Airdrie's accomplished mare Ms. Cornstalk (Indian Charlie).
“If you bring a horse to Saratoga, they better be special and I think this horse fits the bill,” Airdrie Vice President Bret Jones affirmed.
Further explaining the colt's allure, he said, “He has a lot of Indian Charlie in him. Indian Pride was all Indian Charlie–a big, strapping, powerful type that Indian Charlie would so often throw. And a lot of his brilliance as well. This colt has such a great mind, like you would hope you'd get from American Pharoah, who was such an intelligent horse. It's that combination of brilliance and thankfully, the class as well.”
While American Pharoah's racetrack accomplishments have become the stuff of legend, the colt's dam Indian Pride was hardly a secret in her own career debut for trainer Chad Brown in the summer of 2019. Sent off the 3-5 favorite negotiating six furlongs at Saratoga, she blew the doors of her competition with an eye-catching eight-length score in 1:09.45. (video) Subsequently third in Keeneland's GII Raven Run S. later that October, the Airdrie homebred rebounded to take a 6 1/2-panel Belmont allowance in her 4-year-old bow in June. In what would be her final career start, the bay triumphed in Saratoga's Shine Again S.
“A big reason that we brought this colt here is that Indian Pride ran in New York,” explained Jones.
He continued, “The best way to explain it is she's just different. I honestly think she is as good as any of the fillies we were lucky enough to win the Kentucky Oaks with [Airdrie had three winners–Proud Spell, Believe You Can and Lovely Maria].”
And according to Jones, Indian Pride's talent was plainly obvious very early on in her career.
“The first time we breezed her with Wayne Mackey, she went :24 and galloped out in :36 just as easy as you can ever see a horse do it,” he recalled. “Generally, our 2-year-olds are going in :26 or :27 the first quarter. So that was kind of our 'a ha' moment.”
“She got very sick before what was supposed to be her first start, to the point where we almost lost her. She had pneumonia. We weren't sure she could even get back to the races if she did pull through. It was a long path. She finally did start, the following year at Saratoga. We never had a horse produce a debut like she did. It looked like she was just breezing.”
Despite the high hopes of being able to catch up on lost time with the uber-talented filly, the wheel of fate would once again take another turn.
“We really thought we'd win the Ballerina with her as a 4-year-old,” Jones admitted. “She won the Ballerina prep, [the Shine Again], in 1:21 3/5. Heading to the Ballerina, we thought we had a big shot to win it but, unfortunately, she got sick again. It was never musculoskeletal–it was just lousy luck.”
Weighing in on who the filly would go to in her first season following her retirement from the track, the Airdrie team decided to send her to a stallion that was up to the quality that they felt she possessed while never fully able to demonstrate on the track.
“We felt she such was such a brilliant filly that we bred her to what we thought was about as brilliant a horse as we had ever seen–American Pharoah,” he said.
This story, however, really begins well before Indian Pride ever set foot on the racetrack with Ms. Cornstalk, who was also bred by Airdrie. After RNA'ing for $35,000 at Keeneland in January, she was subsequently withdrawn from the September sale and ultimately retired to the breeding shed at two.
Her inability to find a buyer in the ring, however, proved to be a stroke of very good fortune for the Airdrie team.
Her first foal, Biofuel (Stormin Fever), earned the juvenile filly championship in Canada in 2009 before following up with another divisional title and Horse of the Year honors at three.
“Ms. Cornstalk was just so special,” Jones said. “We bred her as a 2-year-old because she never made it to the races. Her first foal was Biofuel, which gave us her first champion when she was only five.”
He said, “She was unbelievably good to us. We didn't necessarily breed her to stallions that went on to great success. We ended up keeping Biofuel because she was by Stormin Fever and we didn't think she would bring what we thought she could at the sales.”
Two years later, Ms. Cornstalk would foal Tu Endie Wei (Johar), Canada's 2-year-old Champion Filly in 2011. Both Biofuel and Tu Endie Wei were campaigned by Brereton Jones and trained by Woodbine-based Reade Baker.
“The only other horse that I can remember that had as impressive a career debut as Indian Pride was Tu Endi Wei, who debuted in a stakes race [Woodbine's 2011 My Dear S.],” Jones recalled. “She made a Zenyatta-like move from the back where she came down the middle of the track and won going away. She was just so impressive early on that she probably had the championship sewn up then.”
Sadly, Ms. Cornstalk died shortly after foaling a colt by Airdrie stallion Upstart earlier this season. Tu Endie Wei died in 2013.
“That was a very tough loss for all of us,” said Jones of the recent loss of Ms. Cornstalk. “We still have Biofuel and several of her daughters that are all being bred to very nice stallions. So, I think this family can go on rewarding us.”
In stark contrast to the caliber of sires that Ms. Cornstalk had visited early in her career, Airdrie has gone completely the opposite route with what it considers to be her most brilliant offspring. In addition to American Pharoah, Indian Pride produced a colt by Constitution this season and was bred back to Into Michief.
“Constitution is ascendant and Into Mischief is as good a stallion as there is in the world,” he said.
“With American Pharoah, we thought breeding the most brilliantly talented filly we've had to the most brilliantly talented sire we've seen, made sense,” he said. “That might be overly simplistic. It probably is, but I can promise you that the colt is just might be a little bit different himself.”
He added, “I really think he's a wow horse. He's the type of horse that when you see him, you'll think about him the rest of the day. He's just that type of physical. He's got this big, gorgeous, strapping Indian Charlie body. He's been a total class act since the day he was born. If you combine that physical and that charisma, he's just the type that stays on your mind.”
Looking forward to a return to the Saratoga sale, Jones is optimistic that the colt will be well received at a venue that can be unforgiving for a lesser animal but also explosive for the right one.
“We haven't had a horse up there in a very long time,” he said. “But I think this colt will be worth the wait.”–@CBossTDN
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