By Heather Anderson
Juddmonte homebred Westover (GB)'s seven-length thumping of the G1 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby field last month was the second consecutive Irish Derby victory by a son of Frankel (GB) after Hurricane Lane (Ire) in 2021, but his achievement was also a timely reminder of the potency of his late broodmare sire Lear Fan. Born in 1981, the dark bay has also featured as the broodmare sire of another prominent Sadler's Wells-line runner, the two-time U.S. Champion Sire Kitten's Joy (El Prado {Ire}), who died at Hill 'n' Dale Farm at Xalapa in Kentucky on July 15, but more on that Ken and Sarah Ramsey homebred later.
A son of Derby winner Roberto (Hail to Reason), Lear Fan, trained by Guy Harwood for Ahmed Salman, went three-for-three as a juvenile, his campaign culminating with a victory in Doncaster's G2 Champagne S. Making his 3-year-old bow in the G3 Craven S., the colt had future Arc victor and sire Rainbow Quest (Blushing Groom {Fr}) back in second. He emulated his sire with a placing in the G1 2000 Guineas in the wake of the high-class runner and future star sire El Gran Senor (Northern Dancer).
Sent to France in search of a top-flight victory, Lear Fan trotted up in the G1 Prix Jacques Le Marois and was then second in the G1 Prix du Moulin. Although he participated in the first edition of the GI Breeders' Cup Mile at Hollywood Park, Lear Fan did not land a blow and was duly retired after a brief but brilliant eight-start career to Gainesway Farm in Kentucky, where he lived out the rest of his years as a stallion.
Despite not founding a mainstream male line, Lear Fan did well in the breeding shed with an above-average percentage of black-type winners, leaving 68 stakes winners (7%) and 32 graded/group winners from 914 foals. Among his 12 Grade/Group 1 winners were eight champions headed by 2008 Hong Kong Horse of the Year Good Ba Ba, a three-time winner of the G1 Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile from 2007-2009 and earner of over $7.4 million. Other standouts included Italian champion and seven-time Group 1 winner Sikeston, as well as the four-time Grade/Group 1 winner Ryafan, successful at the highest level in both France (Prix Marcel Boussac) and thrice in the States, who was named the Eclipse Champion Grass Mare in 1997.
However, it is through his daughters that Lear Fan, the sixth of 13 foals out of Wac, a daughter of noted broodmare sire Lt. Stevens out of a daughter of an even more significant broodmare sire in War Admiral, is maintaining his presence in pedigrees. Bred by Preston Madden, Wac was a full-sister to the stakes-placed Bel Sheba, herself the dam of dirt router par excellence and 1988 U.S. Horse of the Year Alysheba (Alydar), who won the 1987 Kentucky Derby and Preakness S., as well an additional seven Grade I races, including the 1988 Breeders' Cup Classic.
Inking His Legacy
Pensioned after the 2004 breeding season, four years prior to his death, Lear Fan's grandchildren began arriving in 1991, and it did not take him long to make his mark as a broodmare sire. The first inkling of his eventual 85 stakes-winning grandchildren came with the win of Tzar Rodney (Fr) (Assert {Ire}) in the 2100-metre Listed Prix Maurice Caillault at Saint-Cloud in March of 1995. The son of the winning Laquifan then became the first of 35 group winners for Lear Fan as broodmare sire with a win in the G3 Prix La Force later in the season.
The G1 Haydock Park Sprint Cup second by Danetime (Ire) (Danehill in September 1997 was another notable milestone for his grandsire. Subsequently placed in the G1 July Cup too, Danetime was given a place at stud and served mares in both hemispheres before his death in Western Australia in 2005. The bay's progeny includes three Group 1 winners among his 30 stakes winners.
Just Desserts
Grade I winners that produce Grade I winners are few and far between, and those that repeat that feat are in another stratosphere entirely, but the 1996 Canadian champion Windsharp, who raced for Ahmed Salman's The Thoroughbred Corp., was one such quality filly. From Lear Fan's 1991 crop, she punctuated her career with top-level scores in the GI San Luis Rey S. and the GI Beverly Hills H. in the mid-90s, and even stretched her stamina when second, by only a length, in the 1 3/4-mile GI San Juan Capistrano Invitational H.
At stud, she provided Lear Fan with his first two top-level winners as a broodmare sire in the form of the 2002 GI Hollywood Derby hero Johar (Gone West) and the Storm Cat filly Dessert, who won the GI Del Mar Oaks in August of 2003. Both were also Thoroughbred Corp. homebreds. Johar would go on to pad his reputation with a dead-heat victory that November–with High Chaparral (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) –in a memorable edition of the GI Breeders' Cup Turf. Offered at Keeneland, Windsharp later brought an eye-watering $6.1 million from John Ferguson to join the Darley broodmare band after her childrens' accomplishments that November.
Over one quarter of Lear Fan's 11 Grade/Group 1 winners earned that badge in 2003, with Volga (Ire) (Caerleon) following in the wake of Dessert with a victory of her own in the E.P. Taylor S. at Woodbine that autumn. Lear Fan's annus mirabilis ended on a high note with Vallee Enchantee (Ire) (Peintre Celebre) taking out the G1 Hong Kong Vase at year's end.
'Mour' Heights To Scale
The best runner out of a Lear Fan mare in Europe was undoubtedly the impeccably bred Aga Khan homebred Azamour (Ire) (Night Shift), a son of the Irish listed heroine Asmara. The John Oxx-trained winner of the 2004 G1 St James's Palace S. and G1 Irish Champion S. was also Classic-placed in both the 2000 Guineas and Irish equivalent earlier that year. Kept in training at four, he secured the G1 Princes Of Wales's S., the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond S., and ran third in the Breeders' Cup Turf at Lone Star Park in Texas.
At stud, he left 43 black-type winners (including five Group 1 winners), but sadly died at the relatively young age of 13. The 2015 G1 Irish Oaks heroine Covert Love (Ire), who was also successful in the G1 Prix de l'Opera, was the best of his progeny, which included the G1 Prix de Diane victrix Valyra (GB). However, his best male flagbearer was the gelded Best Of Days (GB), who struck in the G1 Cantala S. In Australia.
Johar, too, was given a place at stud, and came up with 16 stakes winners (10 at group level), with GI Breeders' Futurity S. winner Joha on dirt and New Zealand Group 1 winner Guiseppina (NZ) the two stars. Besides the latter, the admirable filly Keertana won a quintet of graded races and was third in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf in 2010.
Kitten's First, The Rest Nowhere
Initially not the most distinguished daughter of Lear Fan to grace the paddocks, Kitten's First made just $17,000 as a 1992 Keeneland September Yearling and was selected by Sarah Ramsey for $41,000 out of the OBS Spring Sale one year later as her first horse. The future blue hen achieved a debut win in a seven-furlong turf maiden special weight at Belmont Park in July of 1993 and was pulled up in her only other start, Monmouth's Junior Champion S., later that summer.
However, her true merits were revealed at stud, and she hit pay dirt with her very first foal–the dual stakes-winning and graded stakes-placed Justenuffheart (Broad Brush). As it stands, that branch of the Kitten's First family now features no fewer than 11 black-type horses out of Kitten's First's firstborn, anchored by 2006 Eclipse Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Dreaming Of Anna (Rahy), who won the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.
Kitten's First visited El Prado (Ire) in 2000, and the resulting foal, Kitten's Joy, has guaranteed Lear Fan's influence well into the 21st century. A $95,000 RNA out of the 2003 OBS April Sale and named in honour of the late Sarah Ramsey, the blaze-faced chestnut was destined to become a dual Grade I winner in 2004 with victories in the Secretariat S. and Turf Classic for trainer Dale Romans. Although he was second in the Breeders' Cup Turf, his earlier efforts granted him a championship at year's end as the Eclipse Champion Turf Male. He returned the next year with a victory in the GII Firecracker Breeders' Cup H. and ended his career with an unlucky runner-up performance in the GI Arlington Million a few months later.
Predominantly a miler by trade, although he did win beyond that in the Firecracker and turned in several noteworthy efforts in defeat at longer distances, Kitten's Joy achieved sire success beyond the wildest dreams of most breeders, with two American sire titles (2013 and 2018) and took every U.S. Champion Turf Sire crown from 2013-2018. Currently sitting at 111 stakes winners (53 graded/group winners), the late chestnut, who stood at Ramsey Farm until he was moved to Hill 'n' Dale in 2018, has also accrued 15 Grade/Group 1 winners.
Three of his offspring won Grade I races on the same day–Aug. 17, 2013–Big Blue Kitten in the Sword Dancer Invitational S. in New York and both Real Solution and Admiral Kitten stamped their names on historic Chicago fixtures–the Arlington Million and Secretariat S., respectively. His European stars were Group 1 winners Hawkbill, the late Cartier Horse of the Year Roaring Lion, and 2000 Guineas victor Kameko, while GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Bobby's Kitten also won at listed level in Ireland. All four went to stud, though Roaring Lion's tenure was sadly short-lived. He died of colic after siring just one crop in Europe.
(For a more in depth look at the exploits of Kitten's Joy by Lucas Marquardt, please click here.)
The legacy of Kitten's First continued with her Catienus filly of 2003, Precious Kitten. Although a championship title evaded her, she did strike several times at the highest level in the 2007 John C. Mabee H. and Matriarch S., before adding her final Grade I in the Gamely S. at Hollywood Park in the spring of 2008.
As a broodmare, she has produced Grade III winner and sire Divining Rod (Tapit), who was second in the GI Cigar Mile H. and earned a Classic placing when third in the GI Preakness S.
Late To The 'Pizza' Party
Lear Fan's grandchildren continued to make an impact on the world stage after his death in 2008. Mutual Trust (GB) (Cacique {Ire}), out of the stakes winner Posteritas, claimed the 2011 G1 Prix Jean Prat, while Camilin Camilon (Per) (Unbridels King), a son of the winning Lear Dancer, struck in Peru's G1 Derby Nacional in 2013.
English Channel's The Pizza Man was the final top-flight victor for his broodmare sire prior to Westover, with a win in the 2015 Arlington Million. The immensely popular gelding, out of the multiple stakes-placed mare I Can Fan Fan, became a dual top-level scorer with a narrow tally in the Northern Dancer Turf S. the following year.
Go West My Son
The Juddmonte breeding programme is renowned near and far, and Westover's first three dams are all products of the storied operation. His 20-year-old dam, Mirabilis, gained black-type as a juvenile with a second in the G3 Prix Miesque, before improving to take the Listed Prix d'Angerville at three. Two more group-placings followed, among them the all-important Group 1 with a third in the Prix de la Foret. Sent Stateside, she captured the GIII Churchill Distaff Turf Mile S. as a 4-year-old and was also third in the GII Jenny Wiley S. and GII Buena Vista H.
A consistent producer, Mirabilis had three winners from three runners prior to foaling Monarchs Glen (GB). By European champion sire Frankel, the full-brother to the Irish Derby hero took the G3 Club S. Also, a stakes winner on American shores just like his dam, Monarchs Glen was placed in the GIII Mint Million at Kentucky Downs. Westover, who was also third in the Derby at Epsom, is the 10th foal from Mirabilis and is followed by the Expert Eye (GB) juvenile filly Japala (GB), who has yet to race.
The Ralph Beckett-trained Classic winner wasn't the only new stakes winner for his grandsire recently either, with Nick Papagiorgio (Outflanker) running out a half-length victor of Laurel Park's Find S. in Maryland on June 19.
With his youngest broodmare daughters now 17, most of the chapters on Lear Fan's immediate influence as a broodmare sire have been written, but Westover's victory illuminated once again what a conduit for class the Gainesway stallion yet embodies in pedigrees. That point could be illustrated even more poignantly on Saturday, with Westover entered in the G1 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth S. If he completes the Irish Derby/King George double, he would be the first 3-year-old colt to do so since Alamshar (Ire) (Key Of Luck) in 2003.
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