Scat Daddy

The energy seems to be building by the hour now that the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Sale yearlings are in place as buyers sift through the barns surrounding the famed Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion. There's much to look forward to in this 100th edition of the auction, including a sample of the highly-anticipated first crop of yearlings from Triple Crown champion Justify (Scat Daddy - Stage Magic, by Ghostzapper). With 10 sons and daughters of Justify currently slated to go through the sales ring, these youngsters represent the first book of...

When regally-bred Grade I winner Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy-Leslie's Lady, by Tricky Creek) joined the stallion roster at Ashford Stud in 2019, his half-brother Into Mischief had just received a bump in stud fee from $100,000 to $150,000 at nearby Spendthrift Farm. The next year, as Mendelssohn's first foals were hitting the ground, Into Mischief was represented by GI Kentucky Derby hero and eventual Horse of the Year Authentic. Today, as Into Mischief is now widely regarded as the leading stallion in the world, Mendelssohn awaits the day when his first...

No matter how ugly racing can get over here on our dirt tracks, most recently highlighted by the Gl Kentucky Derby betamethasone positive of the Bob Baffert-trained Medina Spirit (Protonico), North American pedigrees have to be reckoned with wherever racing is conducted at the highest levels, and that includes on turf in Japan (Sunday Silence) and Australasia (Danehill) in addition to Europe (Sadler's Wells). No one knows this better than the Coolmore partners, headed by maestro John Magnier, who learned this lesson decades ago on American buying sprees as the...

While most American breeders are just now getting their first look at multiple Group 1 winner Caravaggio, who stood his first three years at Coolmore's headquarters in Ireland and now takes on the U.S. market for 2021, the son of Scat Daddy is not new to Ashford Stud. The speedy grey was born and raised at Ashford, having been bred by the farm's Director of Sales Charlie O'Connor and his in-laws' Windmill Manor Farms. "Caravaggio is a horse that's obviously very close to our hearts," Coolmore's Adrian Wallace said. "He...

There will be an infusion of new American blood into the Japanese stallion ranks in 2021 with retirements to stud of Mozu Ascot (Frankel {GB}) and Mr Melody (Scat Daddy). Each is the first of their respective sires' progeny to take up stud duty in the island nation. Bred in Kentucky by Jane Lyon's Summer Wind Farm, Mozu Ascot was led out unsold on a bid of $275,000 at the 2015 Keeneland September sale before being acquired privately by Capital System Co. Ltd. A maiden winner at third asking under...

TEPIN S., $100,000, Aqueduct, 11-29, 2yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 1:47.14, gd. 1--LOVESTRUCK, 120, f, 2, by Tapit      1st Dam: Love Style, by Mr. Prospector      2nd Dam: Likeable Style, by Nijinsky II      3rd Dam: Personable Lady, by No      Robbery 1ST BLACK TYPE WIN. O/B-Godolphin, LLC (KY); T-William I. Mott; J-Junior Alvarado. $55,000. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $94,600. *1/2 to Scat Daddy (Johannesburg), Among the Leading Sires-U.S., Leading Sire-Chi, MGISW, $1,334,300; 1/2 to Antipathy (A.P. Indy), GSW & GISP, $341,784; 1/2 to Grand Daddy (Johannesburg),...

G2 Railway S. winner Van Beethoven (Scat Daddy-My Sister Sandy, by Montbrook) has been retired from racing and will stand at Haras de Grandcamp in 2021. Van Beethoven ran eight times at two for trainer Aidan O'Brien in the Michael Tabor silks, winning twice including the Railway. He was second, beaten a length, in the GI Secretariat S. at Arlington Park the following summer and hasn't run since the 2019 GI Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland. Van Beethoven is out of a full-sister to the dam of triple Grade I-winning...

Scat Daddy's Royal Ascot superstar Caravaggio has been relocated from Coolmore's headquarters in Ireland to its American base at Ashford Stud, Coolmore announced Thursday. "Ever since he retired to stud, Caravaggio has been supported by top [North] American-based breeders such as David Anderson, Peter Berglar, John Gunther, Hunter Valley Farm, Runnymede Farm, Fred Hertrich, Mike Ryan, e5 Racing & Merriebelle Stables," said Ashford's Director of Sales Charlie O'Connor, who co-bred the MG1SW sprinter with his father-in-law's Windmill Manor Farms. "This support carried into the sales ring in both the U.S....

Flameaway (Scat Daddy) will shuttle to South America to stand at Haras Dadinco in Chile for the upcoming Southern Hemisphere breeding season. The deal was brokered by Matt Bowling Bloodstock and Sullivan Bloodstock. The two-time graded winner and GII Toyota Blue Grass S. and GII Jim Dandy S. runner-up stands at Darby Dan Farm in Lexington, Ky. "We are thrilled to partner with Haras Dadinco," said Ryan Norton, stallion director at Darby Dan Farm. "Flameaway was a versatile racehorse and he has a stallion's pedigree. He generated a lot of...

An intentional breeder is a student of their broodmares, diligently studying each mating and the resulting offspring while adjusting and making inferences at every corner. Over the past seven years, the Don Alberto Corporation has meticulously analyzed each foal produced on their growing Kentucky-based farm and has endeavored to make each mating more successful that the last as they continue to learn from their elite broodmare band. "The engine has started working," Don Alberto's Executive Director Fabricio Buffolo said. "We know the mares and know more about how they are...

Despite having to scratch defending champion and morning-line favorite Gift Box (Twirling Candy) due to filling in an ankle Saturday morning, trainer John Sadler and Hronis Racing still managed to score their third consecutive Big 'Cap victory with recent acquisition Combatant. Campaigned for his first 22 starts by trainer Steve Asmussen, Winchell Thoroughbreds and Willis Horton Racing, Combatant hit the board in several preps for the 2018 GI Kentucky Derby before finishing 18th in the Run for the Roses. He tried turf with some success later that season, finishing a...

Never mind a Fountain of Youth. Right now we find ourselves in need of a rather more pressing therapy. Without wishing to be impertinent, in Europe it does feel as though the insidious economic peril of coronavirus--quite apart from its biological impact, deadly as that can be--has been grasped rather more urgently on one side of the Atlantic than the other. That's perfectly understandable, given its unexplained foothold in Italy at a time when the U.S. President could still declare that domestic cases would "within a couple of days... be...