Breeding Digest: Twin Trails Lead To Churchill Gold

To many, no doubt, her genetic contribution is by now too attenuated to merit attention. At the very least, however, it must be acknowledged an impressive coincidence that the winners of both the GIII Iroquois Stakes and GIII Pocahontas Stakes–whose shared value, as reconnaissance for the Classics over the same track next May, is recognized by allocation of the first starting points–should share as sixth dam the Darby Dan foundation mare Golden Trail.

The Golden Trail dynasty entwines such productive lines as those branded by Memories of Silver, Sunshine Forever and Brian's Time. Foaled in 1958, Golden Trail had completed a modest racing career when acquired by John W. Galbreath from the Isabel Dodge Sloane dispersal in 1962. Sloane had bred Golden Trail by sending a half-sister to her 1958 Acorn Stakes winner Big Effort to Hasty Road–a sire who ultimately recycled his tremendous constitution primarily through his daughters, none more so than the one who produced Forego. Golden Trail would prove another luminous example.

Jonathan's Way | Coady Media

Galbreath eventually “married” Golden Trail to Graustark, who sired 11 of her last 12 foals (from 17 overall). But that charismatic horse was only born the same spring that Golden Trail was mated with Olympia to produce her second foal, On the Trail. While the latter never made the racetrack, she opened an early conduit for the Golden Trail blood as dam of Darby Creek Road (whose 1:20.40 over 7f at Saratoga has now survived a 46th summer) and second dam of that splendid influence, Dynaformer.  Though On the Trail herself remained an eligible date for Graustark, they only had a single foal together. That was Regal Road, who has already achieved distinction as third dam of Monarchos–and now comes to notice as fourth dam of Jonathan's Way (Vekoma).

The Iroquois winner is the latest discovery for Rigney Racing by John Moynihan, who emboldened his clients to go to $290,000 for an Ohio-bred weanling when discovering him in the Brookdale consignment at the 2022 Keeneland November Sale. He was bred by Turfway trainer Susan Anderson from Female Drama (Indian Charlie), one of just three broodmares at her lay-up farm near Milford, Ohio.

This branch of the dynasty had seemed to go fairly cold by 1998, when Darby Dan culled a dual winner by Dixieland Band out of Regal Road's daughter by Roberto. But she promptly produced a dual Group 1 winner in Argentina and subsequently Female Drama, who won both her juvenile starts at Belmont (a maiden and a sprint stakes) before failing to consolidate at three. Female Drama has entertained a fairly mixed range of suitors and, while all six of her starters have won, it is to Vekoma's credit that she has now produced a much brighter talent. We'll give him some consideration in the next item.

As for Pocahontas winner La Cara (Street Sense), she traces to Golden Trail's second foal by Graustark, Java Moon. Herself winner of the GIII Comely Stakes, Java Moon has become celebrated as the link between Golden Trail and one of the most cherished families in the Darby Dan story: she recurs as granddam of Memories of Silver (Silver Hawk); third dam of Winter Memories (El Prado {Ire}); and fourth of To Honor and Serve and Angela Renee, both by Bernardini, Grade I winners all.

La Cara | Coady Media

The latter pair were out of the stakes-winning Deputy Minister mare Pilfer, whose Grade II-placed dam Misty Hour (by Miswaki out of Java Moon's unraced daughter by Nijinsky) had been sold by Darby Dan as a yearling. Pilfer was cashed out to Three Chimneys for $1.95 million after the rise of To Honor and Serve, but his two most accomplished siblings turned out to be already on the ground: Angela Renee, then a weanling, went on to win the GI Chandelier Stakes before herself being sold for $3 million; while Elnaawi (Street Sense) had run a promising third on his sole juvenile start, later becoming a Grade I-placed stakes winner. Nonetheless Three Chimneys could retrieve their investment in Pilfer by selling the colt (naturally by Bernardini) she had been carrying in utero for $750,000 as a yearling, plus two subsequent full-sisters for $1.5 million and $500,000.

The latter transaction was made by Tracy Farmer. While his filly, named Cara Caterina, could not eke out a win from eight maiden starts, Farmer sent her to Street Sense for her first cover. Her dam, remember, had given the Darley stallion Elnaawi, while the same cross with a Bernardini mare had just produced Maxfield. The result is La Cara.

It was Cara Caterina's sire who prompted our recent reflections on broodmare sires, after daughters of Bernardini produced the winners of both the juvenile Grade Is closing out the Saratoga meet. The subject could be seamlessly resumed after this race, both La Cara and runner-up Liam in the Dust (Liam's Map) being out of Bernardini mares. La Cara, indeed, is an absolute poster girl for the whole phenomenon: her second and third dams by Deputy Minister and Miswaki. Whatever she may yet achieve on the track, La Cara will surely make a broodmare.

Vekoma On His Way

It's a nice problem to have, for sure. But the astounding purses at Kentucky Downs are such that we have now seen the freshman standings skewed by a single performance.

Of course, we've become used to similar distortions of the general sires' list when earnings are bloated by desert plunder in the first weeks of the year. Admittedly Into Mischief is so dominant that he has absorbed that challenge very comfortably. This year, in fact, he took the additional precaution of himself siring the G1 Dubai World Cup winner, and as a result will soon break his own record on his way to a sixth consecutive title. (He's up to $27 million already in 2024, closing on the $28.5 million he banked two years ago.) But for now the venerable Mineshaft still clings to second, his three black-type scorers happening to include the G1 Saudi Cup winner, who accounts for 80 percent of his bank.

The situation is nothing like so extreme with Tiz The Law, whose son Tiztastic has catapulted him to the top of the freshman table by winning the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile, a listed race carrying a first prize 3.5 larger than the GI Hopeful Stakes a few days previously. Having already pocketed $150,000 in an allowance at Kentucky Downs, Tiztastic has contributed half the earnings so far accumulated by the first crop of Tiz The Law.

To be fair, in working from a somewhat narrower base than some peers with 82 named foals, the Ashford stallion has made a perfectly respectable start overall. Besides his premier earner, nine of his other 29 starters are off the mark, including Out On Bail, winner of the Skidmore Stakes at Saratoga.

But while Complexity is the one still punching above weight, alone boasting two graded stakes and three stakes scorers, last weekend was unmistakably a landmark one for the horse who has for now inserted himself between him and Tiz The Law.

Vekoma | Autry Graham

While Vekoma has the biggest armada of the class, with 140 named foals, he need not seek too far beyond his own stall for evidence that sheer weight of numbers won't always guarantee a flying start. And his 19 winners from 47 so far through the gate now include Jonathan's Way, the GIII Iroquois Stakes winner whose antecedents are discussed above. The same day, moreover, Vekoma only just missed the GI Natalma Stakes when Vixen was foiled by a neck.

The son of Candy Ride (Arg) retired with a highly commercial profile, as a GI Met Mile/GI Carter Handicap winner, out of a single-turn Grade I scorer from the family of Street Sense and Mr. Greeley. His rather eccentric action did not discourage a staggering debut book of 222 mares, with another 408 through the revolving door across the next two seasons. Nor did the consequent congestion of the market prevent him converting a $20,000 opening fee into a $60,000 median for 102 sold from 120 yearlings offered last year. His positive start on the track has been reflected in the prices so far commanded by his second crop, headlined by $625,000 and $600,000 transactions at Keeneland last week.

Vekoma is making the familiar farm model function well, then, with breeders trading potential catalogue inundation for an accessible fee, and has been kept in the game at $15,000 the last couple of years. It's still early days, of course. But that's just as well for one or two of his peers, and you'd certainly rather be where this horse is right now. His own template, having excelled at four after a long post-Derby layoff, suggests that his stock should thrive with maturity. Even as it is, with six stakes performers to date, he's matching all his quantity with strong hints of quality.

Taking the Blame One More Time

Returning to broodmare sires, Saturday was another day of precocious achievement in that sphere for Blame when his daughter Complicated produced And One More Time (Omaha Beach) to win the GI Natalma Stakes at Woodbine.

And One More Time | Michael Burns

Claiborne could duly celebrate a further upgrade for the $300,000 War Front filly out of Complicated they purchased at Saratoga in August. Even since the sale, the page had been decorated by a first graded success (a valuable Grade II at Kentucky Downs) for the mare's sophomore Simply In Front (Summer Front), who had finished runner-up in the Natalma last year. With their 4-year-old sibling Honor D Lady (Honor Code) having already done her bit, romping in the GII Delaware Handicap in July, Complicated can be credited with a pretty extraordinary achievement: graded stakes wins from three consecutive foals within barely two months. Of her two previous foals, incidentally, one was unraced and the other, Churchtown (Air Force Blue), is a stakes winner who missed a Grade II podium by a nose last summer. All these have been bred by William Harrigan and Mike Pietrangelo.

We can't attribute all this success exclusively to Blame, for whom Complicated's trio are among 14 graded stakes winners already as damsire. For she extends a distinguished Phipps line, having left that program on retirement from the racetrack for $110,000 at the Keeneland November Sale of 2016.

Her dam Consequence (El Prado {Ire}) was a Grade II-placed stakes winner on turf out of millionaire Educated Risk (Mr. Prospector), herself half-sister to a still more accomplished racemare in champion Inside Information (Private Account). Live Oak Plantation will duly have factored her residual value into the $750,000 they gave for And One More Time at Saratoga last year.

Whatever help he has received from Complicated, of course, Omaha Beach can gratefully incorporate And One More Time into a snowballing second campaign, not least at Woodbine where he recently provided King's Plate winner Caitlinhergrtness. Omaha Beach finished behind three cheaper neighbors in Spendthrift's private race for the freshman title last year, but the cream has risen with their first sophomores and he now tops the second-season sires' table, whether cumulatively or this year, on most indices. This class has admittedly fallen short of historic standards, in their aggregate of graded stakes winners, but Omaha Beach is consolidating with 21 black-type performers overall at 15 percent of named foals.

In terms of his synergy with Blame, there's a striking echo between the pair. For a start, both are out of Seeking the Gold mares. But Omaha Beach is additionally by Danzig's son War Front, while Blame's sire Arch is out of a Danzig mare.

Running From the Law

Not that War Front himself is done just yet, the noble veteran notching his 25th elite scorer last weekend through Full Count Felicia's runaway exhibition in the GI E.P. Taylor Stakes.

War Front | Claiborne

Fast as she went, she wasn't ever going to stop with so much elite European staying blood to draw upon. Her dam is a Galileo (Ire) half-sister to three female nuggets in Moonstone (GB) (Dalakhani {Ire}), L'Ancresse (Ire) (Darshaan {GB}), and her sister Cerulean Sky (Ire), runner-up in this same race 25 years ago.

Their dam Solo de Lune (Ire) was by one of the dourest influences in the modern breed, Law Society. He would today be treated as commercial poison, but other stars out of his daughters include Classic winner/producer Love Divine (GB) (Diesis {GB}); champion Japanese sire Manhattan Café (Jpn) (Sunday Silence); and dual French Classic winner Brametot (Ire) (Rajsaman {Fr}).