Family Values Favor Uncle Chuck

“Bob's your uncle.” It's one of those baffling British expressions, of no coherent origin. You use it much as the French would say: “et voila!” Typically, it rounds off some counsel so elementary that the dividends are almost mechanical. Do this simple thing, and “you're all set”.

For instance: go to a horse sale; buy a colt with Classic pedigree; put him into training with a silver-haired dude in California–and Bob's your uncle.

Not that it can have been terribly easy for Bob Baffert to show his most avuncular side just lately. A few weeks ago, for any of his unbeaten sophomores even to prove the best in their own shedrow seemed likely to certify something close to greatness. But now Nadal (Blame) has been retired; Charlatan (Speightstown) is out of the GI Kentucky Derby; and Authentic (Into Mischief) has met his match out on the track. Moreover positive tests for lidocaine now menace the immaculate records of both Charlatan and the breathtaking filly Gamine (Into Mischief) with a first blemish.

With the confirmation this week of what had previously been a prematurely leaked report, at least Baffert has been able to publish the case for his exculpation. In the meantime, however, he had already reminded us that this cluster of scintillating talents, back in the spring, was never just a happy coincidence but simply the latest proof of his program's historic efficacy. For the conveyor belt is still turning, and could yet draw him this year alongside Ben Jones with a sixth Derby winner.

Because if Nadal and Charlatan could be counted unfortunate, in having to settle for a division apiece of the GI Arkansas Derby for their Grade I success over nine furlongs on the first Saturday in May, then neither of the fresh troops now trying to fill their shoes were ready even to contest a maiden until June.    Potentially, then, the coronavirus “giveth” as much as it “taketh” away.

True, most programs would function pretty well with material like Cezanne (Curlin), who topped the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale last year at $3.65 million. Last week this colt maintained his special aura as the parting gift of his late consignor, J.J. Crupi, when passing a two-turn test in allowance company. Next, however, he must earn some starting points for the Derby-in which regard, Uncle Chuck (Uncle Mo) is one step ahead after likewise proceeding to Los Alamitos to follow up an impressive debut success at Santa Anita.

Uncle Chuck beat only three rivals in the GIII Los Alamitos Derby, but the whole crop may not contain many capable of matching the sheer extension he showed in striding clear of barnmate Thousand Words (Pioneerof The Nile). And there's no doubting his genetic eligibility to add substance to the style with which he has announced himself.

The emergence of Uncle Chuck extends a golden run for his breeders at Stonestreet. Only a few days previously their homebred Cazadero (Street Sense) had positioned himself in the vanguard of the next generation with an impressive success in the GIII Bashford Manor S. at Churchill. That performance had itself prolonged celebrations after the G2 Queen Mary S. success of Campanelle (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}), an artful purchase at Tattersalls last fall. The same day that Campanelle scored at Royal Ascot, moreover, Gamine added that incredible 18 3/4-length romp in the GI Acorn S. to the produce record of Stonestreet mare Peggy Jane (Kafwain). (Albeit strictly Peggy Jane represents the “Grace” division of Barbara Banke's operations.)

Gamine, though a famous pinhook as a 2-year-old, had first been sold through Summerfield at the 2018 Keeneland September Sale. And it was the same consignment, on the same day, that processed Uncle Chuck as Hip 1378–towards the very end of the fifth session–for $250,000 to Three Amigos (namely Karl Watson, Mike Pegram and Paul Weitman).

That was pretty deep in the sale for a half-brother to none other than Maclean's Music (Distorted Humor), who had managed a breakout Classic success from his first crop when Cloud Computing won the GI Preakness S. the previous year. In fact, the notorious brevity of his racetrack career (comprising a single start, and a record Beyer for a debutante) appears to have allowed Maclean's Music to slip off the catalog page altogether.

Instead the principal credits to their dam Forest Music (Unbridled's Song) were listed as the Grade III winner Kentuckian (Tiznow) and a couple of other winners including Electric Forest (Curlin), who had won on debut that spring only to disappoint on her only subsequent appearance. After the sale, however, she confirmed her caliber in three further starts, winning an allowance and then finishing second and first at Grade III level.

So Forest Music's record as a producer is actually pretty outstanding: of five foals to have made the starting gate, all are winners; three are now graded stakes winners; and the other two include an authentic freak in Maclean's Music. And that's all perfectly consistent with her own racing record, and the family she is now decorating afresh.

Speed was her forte, and sufficient class not only to win two graded stakes–notably making all in the GII Honorable Miss S.–but also to make the podium twice at the elite level (GI Prioress S., GI Test S.).

Forest Music, acquired privately by Stonestreet late in her track career, has since produced some lucrative dividends at the Keeneland September Sale. True, Maclean's Music himself did not reach a giddy reserve at $900,000, a gamble that ultimately looks to have paid off; but his half-brother by Street Cry (Ire) brought $1.2 million in 2011; Kentuckian realized $610,000 in 2013; and a full-brother to Maclean's Music made $1,525,000 in 2015. (Typically of our business, this colt would prove the most limited of Forest Music's five winners; while her other seven-figure son was unraced.)

Forest Music's dam was also pretty brisk, as a daughter of Gone West who set a Retama Park record of 1:22 1/5 in a seven-furlong stakes. Besides Forest Music, she produced a couple of other worthy creatures: the unraced dam of Baffle Me (First Samurai), a five-time stakes winner on turf; and a useful juvenile in Shooter (Dehere), who scored by eight lengths on debut and followed up in the GIII Sapling S. before rather losing his way.

Flamboyant starts are actually pretty standard in this family. Maclean's Music wrote the book, with that 114 Beyer; Kentuckian won first time out by 11 lengths; and their sibling Electric Music, as noted, also landed running. Their mother, moreover, notched a 105 Beyer when romping by 8 1/2 lengths on debut. But the deeper family offers Uncle Chuck ample foundations to build on what he has done so far. In fact, his third dam–an unraced daughter of Damascus named Defer–gives him a fifth-generation toehold in the important Ogden Mills Phipps and/or Wheatley Stable family centered on the matriarch Lady Be Good (Better Self).

Defer was culled in her youth, before her older half-brother Mining (Mr Prospector) launched himself with a streak of six wins culminating in the GI Vosburgh S., only to derail in what proved his final start in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. Their dam, the Buckpasser mare I Pass, also flashed talent in a track career confined to just three weeks (during which she nonetheless won twice). It was a similar story with the mother of I Pass, a daughter of Lady be Good named Impish: she won her one and only start. (To be fair, let's remember that Forest Music herself was pretty hardy, winning six of 18 starts.)

Lady Be Good's most regular partner was Bold Ruler; and she also had two foals by his son Bold Lad, one of which disowned the patchy soundness of subsequent generations by winning 26 of 146 starts. Lady Be Good, herself fast and precocious, had 10 daughters among 13 named foals. Between them, they established such fertile branches of the dynasty as one that produced Wavering Monarch (Majestic Prince) plus Epsom Derby winner Motivator (GB) (Montjeu {Ire}); or another that yielded a cavalry of top-class milers in Europe: Zilzal (Nureyev), Polish Precedent (Danzig), Culture Vulture (Timeless Moment) and Intikhab (Red Ransom). Impish herself was the second dam of six other stakes winners besides Mining, including Grade I winner Miss Shop (Deputy Minister) and one of Tapit's first stars, Trappe Shot.

In the round, then, Uncle Chuck can draw on some pretty deep wells of speed and class, hardly surprising when his first five dams are by Unbridled's Song, Gone West, Damascus, Buckpasser and Majestic Prince. Now it's over to Uncle Mo to help stretch out the family brilliance–conceivably to meet the demands of a 20-runner Derby.

The most conspicuous element in that process is the duplication of Caro. Uncle Mo, of course, is keeping his outcross sire-line alive; while Forest Music's sire Unbridled's Song is out of the Caro mare Trolley Song.

Though Uncle Mo is a grandson of the speedy In Excess, as bedrock Caro offers a strong Classic influence. Certainly Uncle Mo–whose first two dams, after all, are by Arch and Dixieland Band–wasted no time in establishing his two-turn potency, conjuring Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist from his first crop. And he can count King Guillermo (GII Tampa Bay Derby), Modernist (GII Risen Star S.) and Pneumatic among those currently reserving a Derby gate ahead of Uncle Chuck.

That kind of footprint is no less than we should expect of a stallion whose current sophomores were conceived at a fee elevated overnight–thanks to the flying start of his debut crop-to $75,000 from $25,000. Their dams belonged to a staggering book of 253 mares, much the biggest of 2016. Uncle Mo's imminent juveniles, moreover, graduate from a book that again surpassed 200 even after that fee was doubled to $150,000. (An auspicious marker was laid down for this crop in Golden Pal's superb second in the G2 Norfolk S. at Royal Ascot.) With his fee since stabilizing at $125,000, the pipeline remains loaded: down to “only” 179 partners in 2018, Uncle Mo entertained 241 last year.

The Ashford stallion has dominated his intake from the outset, albeit they proved a pretty mediocre group overall with only Twirling Candy really breaking through behind him. And if Uncle Mo could hardly maintain his opening tempo, and is inevitably going to find his percentages exposed by the sheer volume of traffic, that's a risk embraced by those farms that play the numbers game.

With triple Grade I winner Bast unfortunately retired through injury, perhaps Uncle Chuck will now seize the standard among their sire's Classic crop. Certainly it was interesting that Donato Lanni specifically invoked a resemblance to Uncle Chuck when giving $1.1 million on behalf of Michael Lund Petersen for another son of Uncle Mo at the Fasig-Tipton Midatlantic Sale last week.

We've seen that there is no shortage of dash in Uncle Chuck's family but Maclean's Music has shown it can hit a Classic seam with suitable help. (Cloud Computing is out of an A.P. Indy mare.) And, for all her own speed, the routing capacities of Forest Music's sire Unbridled's Song are well established, including through his daughters–as we see, for instance, in GI Santa Anita H. winner Gift Box (Twirling Candy) or the premier Classic colt of the current Japanese season, Contrail (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}).

All that is on paper, of course. And Uncle Chuck fundamentally has the shape and stride of a horse that will stay. If anything, there's a hint of extravagance to the way he moves. But he sure covers sand and, watching his works also, the overriding impression is one of effortless rhythm and buoyancy.

While the Los Alamitos Derby did not get due numbers for its unprecedented role as a staging post on the road to Churchill, Uncle Chuck could assist the renewal of a race that traditionally serves either as an opportunity to regroup, for Classic also-rans, or as a launchpad for horses that missed out on the Triple Crown trail. Though relegated to Grade III status in 2017, the six names engraved under that of Uncle Chuck include Shared Belief (Candy Ride {Arg}), West Coast (Flatter), Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky) and Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg}). That doesn't look like a Grade III roll of honor to me, and it may well be that Uncle Chuck can emulate the first pair by proceeding directly to an elite score next time.

Both the race and his own family, then, have lately gained an increasingly aristocratic aspect. And each could now gain anew from something that would please any of us: the sudden discovery of a rich Uncle.