Mohaymen

Traffic trouble proved to be no problem for Major Dude (Bolt d'Oro), who muscled his way to the lead and went on to becoming racing's newest millionaire in the GII Ft. Lauderdale Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Despite winning twice this season in the lead up to this race, Major Dude had been rounding into his best form to date. When he won last out Oct. 10 at Keeneland against allowance company, his two-length victory was given a 96 Beyer and his effort July 20 at Saratoga against optional claimers garnered...

Those that swallowed the 1-5 about last-out GI Woody Stephens Stakes winner Book'em Danno (Bucchero) were made to sweat it out, as the Jersey-bred star needed every last inch of the Monmouth stretch to peg back the previously unbeaten Little Ni (Midshipman) in Friday's Jersey Shore Stakes. Clearly last of a scratched-down field of four to leave the gates, Book'em Danno was outsprinted and caboosed the field as Proprietary Trade (Practical Joke) set the pace from Little Ni, with Buccherino (Bucchero) not far away in third and three deep on...

Adare Manor (f, 4, Uncle Mo--Brooklynsway, by Giant Gizmo), a big, rangy daughter of her Breeders' Cup-winning sire, made it four in a row and a first Grade I with a facile win in the $400,000 GI Clement L. Hirsch S. at Del Mar Saturday. The filly will likely attempt to win a Breeders' Cup of her own as the "Win and You're In" Hirsch offers a fees-paid berth to the GI Distaff, which will be held at Santa Anita in November. When the field broke in the Hirsch, it...

Crypto Mo (Moyhamen), winner of Saturday's GIII Iowa Oaks, has been supplemented to Monday's Fasig-Tipton July Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale. She is catalogued as hip 645 with Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent. The three-year-old filly led throughout in the 1 1/16-mile race to win by two lengths with a Beyer Speed Figure of 90.  It was her second consecutive stakes win following a victory in the Panthers S. in early June. She has now won four of eight career starts for $210,870. It is her third win this...

Elm Drive took command of the Angels Flight S. and never looked like anything but the winner in an eye-catching 3-year-old bow reminiscent of her early juvenile form. As brilliant as she was on unveiling June 26 at Los Alamitos, where she dominated a five furlong field of maidens by eight easy lengths, and then a head victorious in Del Mar's GII Sorrento S. Aug. 6 over eventual GISW Eda (Munnings), she was as uncharacteristically dull in her prior two starts. Eased to a distant seventh in the GI Del...

Freshman sire Mohaymen (Tapit--Justwhistledixie, by Dixie Union) will be the lone stallion standing at Shadwell Farm's Nashwan Stud near Lexington in 2022. Barnmates Tamarkuz (Speightstown--Without You Babe, by Lemon Drop Kid) and Qurbaan (Speightstown--Flip Flop {Fr}, by Zieten) will move to Louisiana and Indiana, respectively. Mohaymen, the $2.2-million joint topper at the 2014 Keeneland September sale and four-time graded stakes winner, currently ranks sixth among North American-standing freshman sires. Among the 11 winners to date in his first crop are two black-type scorers, including GII Sorrento S. winner Elm Drive....

Following the completion of the last major 2-year-old sale of the season in each of the past three years, we looked at the potential success of the freshmen sires by creating a handicapping event, noting that the freshmen sires of each year were very competitive bunches, i.e., many of them were capable of rising to the top five or so of their contemporaries after a few crops had raced. With the aberration in sales dates last year caused by the COVID-19 situation behind us, this season's major sales proceeded as...

I noted on Steve Byk's "At the Races" radio show last Wednesday that some stallions that enter stud for between $10,000 and $20,000 occasionally punch above their weight and find lasting success. The in-your-face examples of this are Into Mischief, Tapit, and War Front, three of the best and most expensive horses at stud, but others that have fit the profile through the years include Distorted Humor, Candy Ride (Arg), Elusive Quality, Munnings and Twirling Candy. Twirling Candy, a son of Candy Ride, was recently profiled in this space along...

Freshman stallion Mohaymen got off the mark as a sire when Whistlewhileyoumow won a maiden special weight at Prairie Meadows in a dead heat Monday. The 2-year-old gelding, gray like his sire, was making his first career start in the 4 1/2 furlong contest after being purchased earlier this year at the OBS March sale for $37,000 by John Ballantyne/NBS Stable. He had worked a furlong in :10.2 at the sale and had since been gelded. Whistlewhileyoumow broke from the inside and was quickly up with the leaders. Before the...

And so we come to the group standing on the brink. The group facing the moment of truth, when their most precocious stock enters the gate and offers some initial indication as to their competence for the task for which, ostensibly at least, they were bred. As such, this should perhaps be the moment we double down. That's what we would do, at any rate, if we had real faith in the choices we have made for our mares. If we have selected their mates well, then people will be...

We've taken a breather in this series during the January Sale, where I shared many conversations on themes raised in its first two parts--notably the market's addiction to unproven stallions. Time after time, it was the same story. A shrug of the shoulders, a helpless spreading of the hands: "Yes, we know it's nuts. But we have to make the game pay." Fair enough. It's a bit like the individual who asks why he or she should make a massively inconvenient personal sacrifice, with regard to the climate crisis, when...