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Gone
West-Fest (Part One): Johar by Michael Ventura, copyright 2004. He was by Mr Prospector from the Secretariat mare Secrettame and traced back to the Aroma-Mixed Marriage branch of the prolific Feola (2-f) female family. This is one of the finest turf-type lines in the Twentieth Century as other descendants of Feola include Known Fact, Sharpen Up, Height Of Fashion, Round Table, and more recently the “maternal cousins” Pulpit and Tale Of The Cat. From 14 crops of racing age, Gone West has sired 76 SW from 638 foals (9%), including Came Home, European Champion Zafonic, Mr. Greeley, Da Hoss; 2005 first year stallions Johar and Speightstown, and finally leading 3rd crop sire Elusive Quality, the sire of Smarty Jones. Like
any son of Mr Prospector from a mare by a son of Bold Ruler, Gone West was 4x4
to Nasrullah through Nashua and Bold Ruler and 5x5 to the great 1930’s
handicap champion Discovery through Miss Disco and Geisha, two all-time great
racehorse/sire throwing mares bred by Alfred G. Vanderbilt’s Sagamore Farm. Gone
West was also 5x6x6 to Bull Dog through Miss Dogwood and Tim Tam; a Calumet bred
Champion 3YO Male who was 3x3 to Bull Dog through his son Bull Lea and daughter
Gaga. The intriguing thing about Gone West is how his dam Secrettame is by Secretariat from a daughter of Tom Fool’s son Tim Tam. Secretariat’s dam Somethingroyal also produced the very important stallion Sir Gaylord when bred to Turn-To; and Tom Fool shared Pharamond, Alcibiades, and either Bull Dog or his full brother Sir Gallahad with an Alice Headley bred daughter of Mr. Trouble named Attica. When Secretariat’s relative Sir Gaylord was bred to Tom Fool’s relative Attica, it resulted in his best son and her best foal, namely the great Sir Ivor. Sir Ivor won the Criterium (FR-GI), English Derby (GB-GI), Champion S (GB-GI), and Washington D.C. Invitational (GI) before becoming an extremely important sire of fillies like Arc winner Ivanjica and colts like 5-time leading Australian sire Sir Tristram. Thus the dam of Gone West paralleled the great sire and broodmare sire Sir Ivor. One crossed Secretariat and Tom Fool; the other was the excellent result of breeding Secretariat’s half-brother Sir Gaylord to Attica, a mare closely related to Tom Fool. Inbreeding to Somethingroyal through the half brothers has worked on many and various occasions; some of the most notable being Broodmare of the Year Weekend Surprise, the dam of AP Indy, Summer Squall, and Honor Grades; Racing Post Trophy (GB-GI) winner Be My Chief; Grand Lodge, 1993's Champion English 2YO and fine sire of horses like Sinndar and Grandera; Dual GI winning French filly Cherokee Rose; and Ashland (GI) winner Do It With Style. Reinforcing the ancestor cluster of Alcibiades, Pharamond, and either Sir Gallahad and Bull Dog by crossing Sir Ivor and Tom Fool has worked in Kentucky Oaks (GI) winner Sweet Alliance (the dam of Shareef Dancer); Irish 2000 Guinieas (IRE-GI) winner Lady Capulet (dam of El Prado); Pound Foolish, the dam of Kentucky Oaks (GI) winner and 7 x time GI winner Goodbye Halo; and Mild Intrigue, the dam of Irish Oaks (IRE-GI) winner Margarula. We're
only left to check the 'criss cross'; there we find Sir Gaylord bred to a Tom
Fool mare got Drone, the broodmare sire of Prix De l'Arc winner Dancing Brave,
Preakness winner Red Bullet, and Kentucky Derby winner Grindstone.
(Unsurprisingly given Attica was a filly, Secretariat and Thus, there was ample reason to like the idea of crossing Gone West on mares tracing Sir Ivor, and in this case the empirical has come to confirm the theoretical: Gone West bred to a granddaughter of Sir Ivor named Touch Of Greatness got Elusive Quality, world mile record (1:31.6) holder for a mile on the turf and the leading 3rd crop sire of 2004; and Gone West's son Zafonic bred to a daughter of Sir Ivor named Monroe got Dewhurst (GB-GI) and Prix De Salamandre (FR-GI) winner Xaar, 1997's Champion 2YO in France and England and 1998's Champion 3YO in France, England, and Ireland. That's some pretty powerful stuff, and I didn't even mention Johar's 3rd dam. Gone West also seems to like In Reality, who got English 2000 Guinieas (GB-GI) winner Known Fact from Gone West's 2nd dam Tamerett. I can't quite figure Johar standing for only $20,000 at Mill Ridge Farm; he has a similar phenotype to his loved of the market sire and there's nothing out of the ordinary about a Gone West son excelling on the grass as his get includes European Champion Zafonic and two time BC Mile (GI) winner Da Hoss. Johar did show a lot of stamina in winning the BC Turf (GI) in a dead-heat with High Chaparral, but he also enjoyed some major successes at 1 1/8 miles; breaking the stakes record for the G2 Oak Tree Derby by winning it in a time of 1:46 flat and winning the Hollywood Derby (GI) with an incredible kick, the last 3f going in 34 2/5. Perhaps his greatest performance for trainer Dick Mandella was his staggering stakes record time of 1:57 4/5 for a mile and a quarter in the G2 San Marcos H. over Grammarian and The Tin Man. Of course, getting injured too late for the 2004 breeding season didn't help matters; it's important for a stallion to retire when his accomplishments are fresh in the collective mindset. Johar was produced from the great Champion Canadian Grass Mare/Champion Canadian Older Mare Windsharp, who won the Beverly Hills H (GI) and enjoyed victory against the males in the 1996 San Luis Rey S (GI). She also showed some major league stamina by finishing second to the colt Raintrap in the 1¾ mile San Juan Capistrano H (GI), the last of the great American marathons on the flat. The greatness of his dam is of relevance to breeding Johar; if you can pick a pair of strains or clusters to reinforce where one strain or cluster is on each side of Windsharp's pedigree, you're almost guaranteed the two or more lines nick good with each other (mares like Windsharp rarely are bred on lines that dislike each other; though that's no excuse for lazily not checking to make sure). 'It's better to reinforce a nick, and it's better to reinforce a nick through examples of it that worked.' Windsharp is an example of 'it' working, that leaves only the other source. Windsharp was by the great stamina influence Lear Fan from the Sharpen Up mare Yes Shes Sharp; Yes She's Sharp was out of the Sir Gaylord mare Yes Sir (who was bred by C.V. Whitney), Yes Sir set a track record (8.5f in 1:41 3/5) at Churchill and traced back to the great Whitney taproot Swinging (5-j), who was the dam of Equipoise and his full sister Schwester (Johar's 7th dam). It's very important that Windsharp is 4x4 to Turn-To through Hail To Reason and Sir Gaylord. This form of inbreeding to Turn-To has also worked in the Champions and top American sires AP Indy (5x5) and El Prado (4x5). El Prado is especially important as his pedigree is precapitulated by Wac, the dam of Windsharp's sire Lear Fan; Wac being by Lt. Stevens from the mare Balthazar, and El Prado being by Sadlers Wells (3rd dam Thong a full sister to Lt. Stevens) from a mare by Sir Ivor (2nd dam Athenia bred on the reverse cross of Pharamond and Man O' War to Balthazar). If you buy into my precapitulation theory, you won't be overly surprised that El Prado has gotten Secretariat (GI) and Joe Hirsch (GI) winning turfer Kitten's Joy from a Lear Fan mare. The amazing thing is that this pattern of combining either Lt Stevens or his full sister Thong with a cross of Man O' War and Pharamond doesn't overlap with the inbreeding to Turn-To through Hail To Reason and Sir Gaylord that Windsharp and El Prado also share. Thus we have here two separate patterns recurring with each other in two Champion runners, one of whom became a Champion sire, the other the dam of two GI winners (Johar and Dessert, by Storm Cat) from her first two foals. (To save space, I'll avoid getting into why these two patterns liked each other so much; suffice it to say they do.) In my estimation, the number one broodmare sire to look for Johar is El Prado. The 3rd dam of Johar, Yes Sir, was a close relative to Sir Ivor, being by the same sire (Sir Gaylord) and out of a mare crossing Mahmoud and Bull Dog (Sir Ivor's damsire Mr. Trouble crossed Mahmoud and Bull Dog's brother Sir Gallahad). Johar-El Prado Mare would thus be 4x4 Yes Sir/Sir Ivor. It would also be 3x4 Lear Fan/Fairy Bridge, who share Hail To Reason and either Lt Stevens or his full sister Thong. In accordance to my own dicta, I should note that Lear Fan won a GI in France and became the sire of 13 Champions and 65 SW from 779 foals to race (8.3%) and that Fairy Bridge was the top weighted 2YO filly in Ireland for 1977 and became the dam of 2000 Guinieas (GB-GI) winner Sadlers Wells and his full brothers Fairy King (excellent sire) and Tates Gallery (won GI in Ireland). Yes
Sir was bred to Sharpen Up to produce Yes She's Sharp; Sharpen Up and Sir Ivor
have combined in the GIWs Squak, Encounter, Invincible Spirit, Embassy, Vinaka,
and the GI producer Shaima, the dam of St Leger (GB-GI) winner Yes She's Sharp was bred to Lear Fan to produce Windsharp; Lear Fan and Sir Ivor have combined in the aforementioned GIW Kitten's Joy. Windsharp was bred to Gone West to produce Johar; as mentioned in the introduction, Gone West and Sir Ivor have combined in Elusive Quality and Xaar. So
all of Johar's ped likes El Prado's damsire Sir Ivor and Johar's damsire
Lear Fan likes El Prado himself. But
that still leaves out El Prado's sire Sadlers Wells.
Not to worry though, Sharpen Up and Sadler's Wells make an incredible nick
in And from very few examples, Gone West and Sadlers Wells have combined in 2004 2YO Racing Post Trophy (GB-GI) winner Motivator (by Sadlers Wells' Champion son Montjeu). The first GI winner from a Gone West mare, Motivator eerily enough has Sharpen Up as his 2nd damsire, making him 2x2x3 to stallions that would show up 2x3x4 in the product of breeding Johar to an El Prado mare. AP Indy mares should also be considered, it would be at least 6x6x6x6 to Turn-To through two shots of Hail To Reason and two shots of Sir Gaylord, besides being 4x4 to Sir Gaylord's half-brother Secretariat through Secrettame and Weekend Surprise. Also note AP Indy has Round Table, a representative of the Feola line that produced Mixed Marriage, a mare to whom Johar is inbred 4x5. AP Indy's son Pulpit and Pulpit's relative Tale Of The Cat are other possibilities. Gone
West-Fest (Part Two): Speightstown and Smarty Jones by Michael Ventura, copyright 2004. Sold for $2 Million as a yearling, Speightstown only started once at two, and then he ran seven times at three with middling success. Then he didn't run at all at four and ran only twice at five; it wasn't till he was six that Speightstown lived up to his fashionable heritage; winning five out of six, including a victory in the G2 Vanderbilt S where he equaled a 32 year old track record for Saratoga set by Spanish Riddle (1:08.00); he also won the BC Sprint in a good time (1:08.11). Largely on the strength of his sire (Gone West), damsire (Storm Cat), 2nd damsire (Chieftain), and dam (Champion Canadian Champion 2YO Filly Silken Cat); Speightstown is standing for $40,000 at Winstar Farm. With a stud this inbred, allowances can be made for him being less than the picture of soundness; oftentimes, horses bred in this fashion outsire and outdam their race records (see for instance Quiet American). Speightstown is the most successful horse inbred to Secretariat, to whom he bears a striking resemblance save his smaller size, so far; and both his sire and damsire inherited a muscular physique from their damsire that was evidently intensified in Speightstown. (Speightstown might thus need some bone.) Besides being 3x4 to Secretariat and 4x4x5 to his sire Bold Ruler, Speightstown is 5x5 to Tom Fool. Note that the three sources (Secrettame, Silken Doll, Terlingua) of the Bold Rulers are found in concert with either Tom Fool or Tom Fool's ¾ relative First Rose. This is a pattern found in many of Gone West's best sons and grandsons; for instance his son Grand Slam (return of the cross comes though dam Bright Candles), and his grandsons Smarty Jones (2nd damsire Foolish Pleasure) and Cajun Beat (damsire Cure The Blues). The interesting thing about Speightstown is that his 2nd dam Silken Doll, who threw three SWs including Ascot Hurdle S winner and Racing Post Trophy (GB-GI) placed Juyish (by Silver Hawk) besides Speightstown's dam, shares many strong lines with AP Indy. (AP Indy being a successful conduit for inbreeding to his damsire Secretariat, see Jump Start and Sky Mesa). Silken Doll and AP Indy share Bold Ruler, Princequillo, Sir Gallahad, War Admiral, La Trioenne, an additional cross of Bold Ruler's ancestor Blenheim through either Bryan G. or Jet Pilot, and either Hildene or Baby League, two very important daughters of Bubbling Over. Speightstown-AP Indy Mare would be 4x4x5 Secretariat, 5x5x5x6x6 to his sire Bold Ruler, 5x5 Buckpasser, and 5x5x6 to Buckpasser's sire Tom Fool. It would also be 2x3 AP Indy/Silken Doll, a potentially explosive pair of genetic relatives. I also think Speightstown could use a little 'lowering' of his big Secretariat neck; if you look at footage of Secretariat running in slow motion, you start to think his neck aided him because he held so low like his grandson AP Indy did. Going
on the theory that he might need more substance, the other broodmare sire I'll
recommend for Speightstown is Cherokee Colony, a stamina
oriented son of Pleasant Colony from the Nijinsky mare Cherokee Phoenix.
A very good thing about Speightstown is that he traces in the female line
to the great Meadow Stud broodmare Hildene through her granddaughter This
is relevant to Cherokee Colony because Copper Canyon (2x4 Blenheim) is his 2nd
dam; Mares by Honor Glide (oldest daughters b. 2004) and Victory Gallop (oldest daughters b. 2001) are other possibilities because both Honor Glide's damsire Run The Gantlet and Victory Gallop himself return Speightstown his 6th dam Hildene through her son First Landing and Chieftain's dam Pocahontas II through his half-brother Tom Rolfe. Smarty
Jones represents the second generation of Gone West's dam getting her pedigree
returned in a statistically successful manner: Elusive Quality's 2nd
damsire Sir Ivor returns Gone West's dam Secrettame, Sir Gaylord for his
half-brother Secretariat and Besides being 3x3 Secrettame/Foolish Pleasure, Smarty Jones is 3x4 Foolish Pleasure/Sir Ivor, who share Mahmoud. But what they share isn't the key thing here, it's what they don't share; one has Somethingroyal but not Bold Ruler, the sire of Somethingroyal's best foal Secretariat, and the other has Bold Ruler without Somethingroyal. Also, one is Sir Ivor, and the other is out of a mare by Tom Fool, a relative to Sir Ivor's dam Attica with whom he nicks beautifully (see above in Gone West section). From none too many examples, Sir Ivor and Foolish Pleasure have also combined 3x4 in the fine Australian runner Universal Prince, who won four GIs (including the Australian Derby) and nearly $3 Million Dollars. Another important thing to note about Smarty's pedigree is that his broodmare sire Smile crossed In Reality and Boldnesian; this made him a precapitulation of the powerful Relaunch (by In Reality) / Seattle Slew (by Boldnesian's son Bold Reasoning) nick which has produced GI winners like Tiznow, Officer, and the mare Passing Shot. Mares with this nick in their pedigree or in the pedigree of their sire or dam, especially where the first ancestor with the nick had serious success, are thus extremely desirable for Smarty Jones. An excellent older strain for Smarty Jones is 1961 Prix De Salamandre (FR-GI) winner Prudent (ped); Prudent is an even earlier precapitulation of Relaunch/Seattle Slew nick than Smile. In fact, it's better to call him a precapitulation of the In Reality/Nasrullah nick that produced Smile himself; Prudent being by My Babu (out of Nasrullah's close relative Perfume), and out of Providence (a daughter of War Relic's full sister War Kilt; In Reality of course being inbred 3x3 to War Relic). Another good thing about Prudent is that he concentrates lines which are dispersed throughout the pedigree of Smarty's dam I'll Get Along: They share either My Babu or his close relative Ambiorix, either Nasrullah or his close relative Perfume, and either War Kilt or her full brother War Relic, who combined with her 3x3 in 1982 Champion 2YO colt Roving Boy. A female source of Prudent is 2003 Personal Ensign (GI) winner Passing Shot, a representative of the recently mentioned Relaunch/Seattle Slew nick. Whereas with Speightstown the difficulty is possibly too much muscle, with Smarty Jones the problem is definitely not enough size. With that in mind I hereby recommend Pleasant Colony (ped) mares for Smarty. He had lots of size, and linebreeding to the full brothers His Majesty and Graustark through His Majesty's best son (Pleasant Colony) and Graustark's best daughter (Broodmare of the Year Glowing Tribute, the dam of Sea Hero and Hero's Tribute) has already worked in Canadian Champion Grass Mare Hero's Love. In her the Glowing Tribute actually came through Hero's Tribute, the damsire of Smarty's sire Elusive Quality; thus the Canadian Champion Hero's Love was 1x2 to ancestors who would show up 4x3 in the result of breeding Smarty Jones to a Pleasant Colony Mare. Again
in the interest of introducing size, Smarty Jones should do well by mares by Dynaformer. Dynaformer was/is a monster
and he's by Roberto (by Hail To Reason) from Top Flight (GI) winner Seattle Slew has been recommended for Smarty Jones by Three Chimneys Matings Advisor Anne Peters and a lot of the other top bloodstock experts, but I still think I have a right to recommend him myself since the thought of breeding Smarty Jones to Seattle Slew mares came to me even before he won his last Derby prep, the Arkansas Derby (G2). Seattle Slew's dam My Charmer had, like your average diploid, four grandparents. They were: Round Table (Feola, 2-f); Glamour (La Trioenne, 1-s); Jet Action (La Trioenne); and Myrtle Charm (Frizette, 13-c). Smarty Jones, again in the diploid mold, had four grandparents as well: Gone West (Aloe); Elusive Quality (Frizette); Smile (Pretty Dark, 8-a); and Don't Worry Bout Me (La Trioenne). Three out four in common ain't bad; it indicates affinity between these three female lines and it's good to reinforce affinities through successful examples of said affinities. In addition, Seattle Slew's sire returns Boldnesian and Hail To Reason to Smarty. And as I mentioned before, Seattle Slew's nick with Relaunch was foreshadowed by Smarty's damsire Smile, making mares with that nick desirable for Smarty Jones. A main reason why Smarty is a valuable stud prospect is that he 'integrates' the important cross of the great broodmare Somethingroyal and either Nasrullah or his ¾ brother Royal Charger (see Secretariat and Sir Gaylord) with the important cross of the great broodmare La Trioenne and the great broodmare sire War Admiral (see Searching, Busher, Striking, Mr Busher, Busanda, and Blue Eyed Momo). Smarty's sire Elusive Quality being 4x5 to Somethingroyal through Secretariat and Sir Gaylord; and Smarty himself being 5x6 to Striking and Searching, who were both by War Admiral and daughters of La Trioenne. Another stallion who integrates those important patterns is Seattle Slew's son AP Indy, a good broodmare sire for Smarty. A
less obvious stallion who integrates those lines is the solid regional ( Another contribution of probable originality that I will here set forth is the idea of breeding Smarty Jones to mares by Dancing Brave, a Prix De l'Arc de Triumph (FR-GI) winning son of Lyphard from the Drone mare Navajo Princess. Smarty
Jones-Dancing Brave Mare would be 4x5 Drone / Sir Ivor; two sons of Sir Gaylord,
one from a Tom Fool mare, the other from a mare ( Dancing
Brave and his best sons spent the best years of their lives in And Dancing Brave has success with another damside Smarty ancestor, namely his 3rd damsire Herbager, in Italian Champion and probable Champion thrower (Dubawi) Zomaradah and Millenary, the Champion European Stayer of 2000. Dancing Brave on a mare by Smarty's sireside ancestor Secretariat got 2xtime French GI winner Cherokee Rose. And Gone West's minor son Zamindar bred to a Dancing Brave mare got the French Classic winning filly Zenda. Since Smarty Jones' is 5x5x5 to Bold Ruler, it's worth noting Dancing Brave has had success with him through sources other than Secretariat and Secretariat's maternal grandson Gone West: Italian GI winner and Arc runner-up White Muzzle, Japan Derby (JAP-GI) winner Meiner Combat, and German Derby (GER-GI) Robertico all having Dancing Brave in the 2nd generation and Bold Ruler in the 4th. And finally, Alleged would return Smarty Jones the *Cinq A Sept female line of Secretariat and Sir Gaylord, and he also brings in his sire Hoist The Flag's dam Wavy Navy, a mare bred on a reverse cross of War Admiral and Tourbillon to Smarty's 4th dam Bases Full. Therefore Smarty Jones-Alleged Mare would be 5x4 to the relatives Bases Full and Wavy Navy. Wavy Navy's son Hoist The Flag and Bases Full have already combined 3x4 in the hardy and talented G2 winning sprinter Say Florida Sandy, who won 33 races in 98 starts and over $2 Million, making him the number one money earner for his sire Personal Flag. And Alleged himself shares Ribot, War Admiral, Alibhai, Sir Gallahad, Blue Larkspur, and Mahmoud with Broodmare of the Year Glowing Tribute, the dam of Elusive Quality's damsire Hero's Tribute. Therefore, Smarty Jones-Alleged Mare would be 2x5 Alleged / Glowing Tribute; two genetic relatives who have already combined 2x2 in 2000 Del Mar Debutante (GI) winner Cindy's Hero from very few examples. Cindy's Hero is the one GI winner for her sire Sea Hero, making this even more impressive. |