'Traffic' On Song As Champion Freshman

Musicians and writers have often found death to be a lucrative career move, prompting a dramatic spike in sales as the media reminds a neglectful public of what they have just lost. After the passing of B.B. King, for instance, Spotify reported a streaming increase of over 9,000%. That's human nature. But an equivalent rise in the fortunes of deceased stallions–Scat Daddy being the most conspicuous example–must be attributed to the sheer cussedness of fate.

In the case of Unbridled's Song, the emergence of Arrogate and Liam's Map after his death in 2013 not only improved his profile as his sire's most successful son at stud, it also promises to contribute to an ongoing transformation of his reputation as a sire of sires. At that stage, his sons had largely failed to build on what was proving, collectively, only a respectable impact. Certainly he did not appear to have left Kentucky an outstanding heir. But with Arrogate and Liam's Map soon to stake their own claims, Unbridled's Song has ended 2018 with two leading achievers among the freshman sires.

Will Take Charge's debut crop placed him fifth in the earnings table, while promising to do better yet with maturity around two turns. But the laurels of champion go to Cross Traffic, whose headline act was GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Jaywalk, but who also separated himself from his peers with four other black-type winners from a total of 47 starters. His fee for 2019 has been duly elevated by Spendthrift from $7,500 to $25,000.

Hats off to B. Wayne Hughes, Ned Toffey and the Spendthrift team, incidentally, for also hosting the leading freshman by number of winners in Goldencents (Into Mischief). It looks as though the farm's top gun is not going to delay as long as Unbridled's Song in establishing himself as a sire of sires.

The precocity of Cross Traffic's stock might suggest a contrast with his own profile, as he did not race until he was four. But he quickly proved himself a natural-born racehorse. Trained by Todd Pletcher for GoldMark Farm, the $300,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling (bred by Diamond A Racing Corp) hurtled through the ranks to win maiden and allowance races at Gulfstream early in the year; ran multiple Grade I winner Flat Out (Flatter) to a head in the GIII Westchester S., the pair 11 lengths clear; and then was foiled only by the nose of Sahara Sky (Pleasant Tap), with Flat Out back in third, in the GI Metropolitan H. That race has, of course, volunteered many stallion prospects over the years, and Cross Traffic sealed his elite caliber by winning the GI Whitney S. (with subsequent Breeders' Cup Classic winner Mucho Macho Man {Macho Uno} well held in third). He bombed out in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, however, and that proved to be that.

It was meteoric stuff, dazzling but brief. Retired to Spendthrift at $12,500, he took consecutive trims to $10,000 and $7,500 to protect a book that opened at 123 before taking the customary dip to 106, 71 and only 60 mares this year. He will obviously get a massive upgrade in quality as well as quantity now, but must hope that his smaller crops can help him ride things out in the meantime.

If a truncated career is hardly inconsistent with aspersions about the durability of his sire's stock, it augurs well for Cross Traffic that his dam Stop Traffic (Cure The Blues) won a dozen times in 35 starts, including two Grade I prizes in the Ballerina H. and Santa Monica H.

She is a prolific producer of winners at a lesser level, two in minor stakes company, and half-sister to the dam of four-time Grade III winner Gouldings Green (Charismatic). But the fact is that you're quickly into the long grass with this family. That's hardly uncommon with good horses, runners and sires alike, so let's call it a welcome diversity because something is clearly working.

It also gives Cross Traffic outcross eligibility in being free of Northern Dancer; while New York legend Cure The Blues is a very legitimate conduit of noble blood as a broodmare sire. His dam was by Dr Fager out of Speedwell, who has an auspicious kinship with Secretariat: Speedwell is also by Bold Ruler, and out of Secretariat's grand-dam Imperatrice. (Dr Fager, incidentally, recurs in the top half of Cross Traffic's pedigree as damsire of Fappiano, the grandsire of Unbridled's Song.)

Mind you, we should have known that all this might combine to produce a possible successor to Unbridled's Song. Cross Traffic won his Grade I at Saratoga Aug. 3, 2013–just eight days after the death of his sire. Later at the same meet ,Will Take Charge won his first Grade I in the Travers. The contest to carve a fitting memorial had begun.