Songbird's First Foal Thriving at Timber Town

It was a mating of two of the best racehorses of modern times, both maidens in the breeding shed if not on the track. So how is Songbird (Medaglia d'Oro)'s first foal, a filly by Arrogate (Unbridled's Song), coming along? Lucas Marquardt visited the pair and Wayne Sweezey at Timber Town Farm recently to check in on the new mom and her baby; chatted as well with Juddmonte's Leif Aaron about Arrogate's first foals; and spoke to Mike Smith, who rode both champions. A composite of the conversations appears below.

Marquardt: Wayne, you could have bred this mare to anybody in the world. Why did you choose Arrogate?

Sweezey: To watch the horse run and the way he drops his head and moves, he's just such an impressive creature. And so obviously we were drawn to that. And we spent a lot of time on pedigree and matings. A lot of folks would go, “How could you breed a maiden to a maiden?” And that's a fair argument. In this particular situation, you're looking at two exceptional individuals and I think [Songbird owner] Mandy [Pope] thought it was worth it a shot to take with Arrogate, just because of how exceptional the two of them were. So that was part of it. And then, the Unbridled's Song and Medaglia [cross] worked well, and from a phenotype standpoint, Arrogate had a lot of leg and this mare has got leg but not as much as he does. We like a big horse on this end. It just seemed like a good fit. And we got what we wanted.

Marquardt: How did this mating come about?

Aaron: Not many horses ever achieve that kind of greatness. To take a young mare like her, and a young stallion like ours, who had similar accomplishments on the track, and breed them together was a special opportunity. [Mandy] could have gone to any horse in the world to breed Songbird to, and she actually mentioned after she bought her that she was thinking about Galileo (Ire), Tapit, Frankel (GB), and she picked Arrogate. We were very excited about that. She's a filly that ran a 107 Beyer, which is huge, and Arrogate ran a 122. She had a devastating cruising speed and so did we.

Marquardt: How strong was the rest of Arrogate's first book which produced the foals we're just now seeing on the ground?

Aaron: About one-quarter of his first book were Grade I winners or Grade I-winning producers, which is a phenomenal number. It was, I think, 30 in total, which is something not a lot of people can boast, especially in their first crop. The only stallion that covered more Grade I winners or Grade I-winning producers last year was Tapit. There are a lot of really nice proven horses underneath us in that list, which is something we're very proud of. I think it shows the kind of support that breeders were willing to give this horse.

Marquardt: Describe the foal.

Sweezey: Initially, the foal was a mini-me for Songbird. It might as well have been her twin, just in a foal size. She has a great hind leg and lovely shoulder; the same package as the mother. So initially I thought we were going to get more of a replica of Songbird than, say, Arrogate, in the leg we were looking for. But the foal is almost two months old now, and she's starting to get some leg on her. We looked at all the foals when Mandy was in town. I stood back objectively and looked at this little filly, and, I was like, `Wow.' [Juddmonte General Manager] Garrett [O'Rourke] hasn't seen her in a while and I'm sure he'll be impressed when he sees her because she is developing some leg. She is a beautiful mover and just a lovely, lovely filly.

Marquardt: Leif, would you agree?

Aaron: Yes. It's very exciting. When you have a maiden mare like that, sometimes you don't expect big, strong foals. This is a big, strong foal. The horse has a lot of leg. It's kind of reminiscent of Songbird, to be honest. Just a ton of quality, really, overall. You couldn't hope for more with this first foal and she's been a great mother to the foal and I think they're very pleased with what they have. We were honored to have Songbird in Arrogate's first book. She was 13-for-14 on the racetrack, but of those races, nine of them were Grade Is, I think at seven different tracks. You take two horses that are very similar in their running styles, very similar in their accomplishments and breed them together and yeah, that's exciting. If you believe in the phrase `black cat, black kitten,' that foal has a lot of opportunity in front of her.

Marquardt: When you looked at Arrogate as a prospect and went to Juddmonte to inspect him, what impressed you?

Sweezey: When I fist looked at him, he's a typical Unbridled's Song. He's scopey and he's got a lot of leg. He was actually a little bit bigger than I anticipated when I got up to him. He's filled out to be an absolutely stunning horse. So with his size and scope, and she being a kind of thicker type, but strong and thick, from a phenotype standpoint we thought we might put those two things together and get a beautiful animal. And I think the end result has given us that. We have gotten the horse that we bred for. With a little bit of luck, Mike Smith will be on this one in another couple of years.

Marquardt: You've been around a long time so you've had the opportunity to ride offspring of horses that you've ridden. Does that give you any kind of advantage? Do you think about that at all when you go into a race?

Smith: You definitely think about it. You see if they have the same types of mannerisms. I know in people we do, and you do see it a lot in horses. A lot of times you'll find the same things about them which is good to know. It can't hurt anyway. But when they're blessed with that abundance of talent all you got to do is point them in the right direction and they run. They're bred to run and they love to run. That just run through the wind. I've got to stay fit, and stay healthy, so I can maybe get an opportunity to ride her. I'm hoping, anyway. I plan on riding another three, four, five years, so there's a good chance.