by Ann Ferland©

As I have staked-out California-breds as my particular area of study, it may seem strange that this author is writing about a German horse who has been winning races in the Far East. But Silvano is my choice because his mom is a Cal-bred with many a Cal-bred or -raced horse in her pedigree. Just another example of the international nature of the bloodstock industry today.

Silvano is a bay colt, foaled in 1996, sired by Lomitas out of Spirit of Eagles, by Beau's Eagle. Back home in Germany, Silvano was a pretty good runner, winning the semi-classic Union Rennen (G2) at three, and another G2 race at four, but his form was certainly behind those of other members of his generation like Belenus, Catella, and Sumitas, older horses like Caitano and Tiger Hill, and younger ones like Samum.

Yet put him on a plane to East Asia, and, like the French frequent flyer Jim and Tonic, he steps up several notches, with wins in the Singapore Cup and the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup in Hong Kong, defeating horses that he had no business beating, off of the European form. One possibility is that Silvano seems to be a 10-furlong sort of horse and German racing has always emphasized stamina; even today, all the Group1 races but one are run at distances approximate to 12 furlongs. No two-year-old races, sprints or mile races are have G1 status, and only a few are G2.

Lomitas, the sire of Silvano, followed a typical German program, winning his only two races at two, then a couple of classic trials early at three; he then followed a second in the Deutsches Derby with wins in three G1 weight-for-age races, including the Grosser Preis von Baden and the Preis von Europa. And since German sires aren't sought after by the big-money studmasters, he came back to win more stakes races at four. He tried a U.S. campaign at five and was not disgraced but came away with only placings some G2 turf contests.

Like many a German horse, Lomitas is the product of one truly German parent and one foreign; in his case, his sire was the English stallion Niniski, a St. Leger specialist son of Nijinsky II from a Tom Rolfe mare, and Lomitas' dam was a champion German-bred mare named La Colorada. The sire and damsire of La Colorada, Surumu and Kronzeuge, were top-class racers and sires, and close relations include champions Lagunas and Lavrico, so Lomitas was bred in the purple. Silvano was from his first crop, which also included the above-mentioned classic horses Belenus and Sumitas.

Going back along Lomitas' tail-female line, we come to a mare named Amora, bred by the noted French breeder Marcel Boussac according to his usual pattern - inbred to Tourbillon, with multiple crosses of Teddy, Sardanapale, Bayardo. And the female line traces back to the celebrated matron Fairy Gold, who, after importation to the U.S., produced the stars Fair Play and Friar Rock, as well as founding more female lines of merit.

Silvano's California-bred dam Spirit of Eagles was a decent sort of racemare, sound (she ran 59 times) and consistent if not particularly classy. She was sold to Germany after her racing career and has had five reported foals, all of them winners, although Silvano is by far her best. Her own dam, Big Spirit, was another successful broodmare - she produced six consecutive foals from 1985 to 1990, all of them winners, two stakes winners; skipped one year, and then produced three more consecutive winners. Her one graded stakes winner, Big Pal, was a full-brother to Spirit of Eagles and raced in stakes company from ages two to six, earning over $500,000.

The sire of Spirit of Eagles and her brother, Big Pal, was a sterling Cal-bred racer named Beau's Eagle, bred by Mr. and Mrs. John C. Mabee at their Golden Eagle Ranch. Winner of his only start at two, Beau's Eagle at three won the G2 California Derby (setting a new track record in the process) and Cinema H, placed in the Santa Anita Derby and other stakes. At four, he scored in the G1 San Antonio Stakes and the Los Angeles Handicap (G3), placing in such races as the Santa Anita Handicap and San Carlos Handicap.

Beau's Eagle's dam was by the regally-bred Maribeau (Ribot-Cosmah) from the family of champion Busher; his sire was the French-bred Golden Eagle II, a sound and honest sort who was only a listed winner in Europe and scored his best win in the San Bernardino Stakes at age seven. Golden Eagle II was the first stallion to stand at the Mabee's ranch of the same name.

Golden Eagle II's sire Right Royal V was a top runner and sire across The Pond but little known in the States, while his dam Aquilla II, had a peculiar disability; she had two possible sires who were not just any sires - they were Nasrullah and Princequillo. Although her registration indicates that Princequillo was considered the true sire, breeders with mares with one or the other of these sires close-up in their pedigrees might approach Golden Eagle II with caution or not at all, severely limiting his potential mates.

Nonetheless, Golden Eagle II started out pretty well at stud, with his first crop of 22 foals including four stakes winners, featuring Beau's Eagle and the filly Splendid Girl, later the dam of Hollywood Derby (Gr1) winner Thrill Show among her three stakes winners. His second crop of 20 produced only one stakes winner, Score Twenty Four, who also scored in a G2 race at three before winning the G1 San Antonio Stakes as an older horse.

After his fast start, Golden Eagle II began to attract larger books of mares, but the quality of his offspring seemed to decline as the crop size increased. After 13 more years at stud, and 419 more foals, he never sired another graded winner and only one that was even placed in a graded race.

There have been a few stakes winner who own Golden Eagle II as a broodmare sire, but most are winners of minor stakes at major tracks or stakes winners on minor circuits. Beau's Eagle had a slower start at stud and has always been a regional stallion with only one graded winner, Big Pal, the full brother to Spirit of Eagles, from nearly 500 foals. He has, however, begun better as a broodmare sire with Silvano and G2 winner Wilbur 'n Orvilles already to his credit. Both he and his sire tended to get miler types who came to their best form at three or older.

The dam of Spirit of Eagles was the unraced mare Big Spirit, a daughter of the distance-and-turf-loving Big Spruce, a familiar face on the California racing scene, as was his top-class half-sister Manta. Big Spirit may not have been a runner, but her California-sired half-sister Beautiful Glass (by Pass the Glass) was. She won the first two legs of the La Canada series at Santa Anita - the La Brea and the El Encino - before an injury caused her retirement. Beautiful Glass has also been a valuable broodmare, producing Fantasy Stakes (G1) winner Jeanne Jones; once beaten stakes-placed Avenue of Flags, now a prominent sire in California; and the granddam of English G1 winning two-year-old Teggiano.

Big Spirit and Beautiful Glass had another half-sister named Beautiful Melody, winner in a dead-heat of the Beverly Hills Handicap at Hollywood Park. Beautiful Spirit, the next dam, was likewise unraced, one of only three foals from the Cal-bred mare Baby La; the other two were a winning colt and the filly Bold Baby, a full sister by Bold Bidder, and a G1-placed winner of seven races. Bold Baby had no recorded foals, so it was left to Beautiful Spirit to carry on the family.

Baby La won four of her 36 races and ran second in the Del Mar Oaks; she was the best of her dam's foals but all of the five of her siblings who raced were winners at some level. Her sire was another familiar California stallion, Sisters Prince, winner of the Golden Gate Handicap in his racing days. Sisters Prince was a son of Princequillo out of Honeys Sister, a full sister (obviously) to the great Cal-bred mare Honeymoon, still the only filly to win the Hollywood Derby over colts; she ran second in the Hollywood Gold Cup as a three-year-old, won the Vanity at four, won or placed in major stakes-races East and West.

The female line continues with Juliette T., one of 11 winners produced by a mare named Speed Shot, whose only other foal was never named. One was a minor stakes winner in New Mexico; one was the mare Lar Tay Jo, ancestress of such stakes winners as Larrikin (Del Mar Derby), Riverside Sam (Rebel Handicap), and the unfortunately-named Isitingood; yet another produced the swift two-year-old filly Lulutorch (Cinderella and Cygnet Stakes at Hollywood Park).

Juliette T.'s sire was Lights Up, a name rarely seen in pedigrees today despite his sterling race record (Travers Stakes, Remsen Stakes, Sunset Handicap, second Belmont Stakes, etc.) and excellent bloodlines (Eight Thirty - Tedmelia, by Teddy).

Speed Shot was yet another generation of the family sired by a stallion familiar to students of California bloodlines, Count Fleet's full brother Count Speed. Only an allowance-level winner himself, Count Speed earned a stud career on the merits of his brother's exploits and did decently as a regional sire with only one offspring, the handicap stalwart Eddie Schmidt, who made any noise on the national scene. Many a California racing-bred Quarter Horse has a cross of Count Speed in their pedigree.

Starshot, the dam of Speed Shot, was an import to California from Kentucky and she came bearing the finest of bloodlines; her sire was the blue-blooded champion Bimelech (Black Toney - La Troienne, by Teddy) and her dam, Astralobe, an unraced daughter of the many-time leading broodmare sire Sir Gallahad III (by Teddy) and the foundation matron Etoile Filante. Starshot foaled three winners from her five runners (all her foals), none of any particular class, and none of her daughters aside from Speed Shot founded female lines of much note. (One did have a couple of Ohio-bred stakes winners, but the line did not breed on.) Speed Shot was also her only offspring by Count Speed.

Astralobe was dam of The Shah, who gained his stakes brackets in England, and of two significant daughters: the full sisters Starshot and Stellar Role. The latter gained fame as the dam of the grand old gelding Find, a winner of numerous top stakes races throughout the 50s, running second in the Hollywood Gold Cup to Hillsdale at age nine and earning over $800,000 the hard way. Find's half-sister My Alison has founded a fine female line of her own, with such as Sardula (Kentucky Oaks, etc.), At Talaq (Melbourne Cup, etc.), Annoconnor (Vanity Handicap, etc.), Banner Bob (Malibu Stakes, etc.), and One Pound Sterling (champion sprinter in Canada) to her credit.

And now we come to Etoile Filante, one of those rare mares for whom nearly every foal seems touched with some spark that produces a fine runner or progenitor or both. She had three high-class stakes winners, High Quest (Preakness Stakes, etc.), Fair Star (Pimlico Futurity, over colts) and Evening Tide (Test Stakes); and every one of her daughters has had a significant stakes winner in her line of descent.

Fair Star has the most, counting Arts and Letters, Silverbulletday, Parlo, Grindstone, and Waquoit among her many descendents; but Sari's line includes Island Whirl and Singh. Evening Tide's includes Behrens and Guilty Conscience; Bonne Etoile leads down to Royal Owl; Evening Shadow to Old Pueblo; and King's Idyll to the English stakes winner and sire Bleep-Bleep.

Etoile Filante was bred, like so many Nursery Stud horses, along the same lines as Man o' War - by Fair Play out of a Rock Sand mare who never saw another stallion. Her brother Chatterton was a stakes winner and the Leading American Sire of 1931, however none of her sisters bred on as she had, so she can rightly be named the foundation of her family.

Silvano has only a little obvious inbreeding, just the repetition of Ribot twice in the fifth generation, but in the same generation are the half-sisters Natalma (dam of Northern Dancer) and Cosmah (dam of Maribeau) and the accumulation of Princequillo in his dam (4 x 5 x 6 x 5) is equivalent to more than two crosses in that same generation. Both of those sires, Ribot and Princequillo, tended to transmit stamina, and with Nijinsky II and Herbager and the German sires close-up, we are looking at a stoutly-bred horse, without a doubt.

P.S. for Barry, et. al. For those who are interested in this sort of thing: Spirit of Eagles had lots of Sir Gallahad III but no Bull Dog; Lomitas adds Bull Dog from Nijinsky II-Bull Page. Spirit of Eagles has numerous crosses of Fair Play (Hastings-Fairy Gold), Man O' War (Fair Play-Mahubah, by Rock Sand) and Friar Rock (Rock Sand-Fairy Gold), as does Lomitas; but the only female line to Fairy Gold comes from Lomitas' tail-female line through Amora. Both Golden Eagle II and Bold Bidder trace in tail-female to the mare Traverse, by Tracery (son of Rock Sand).

Starshot had Teddy 3 x 3; her granddaughter Juliette T. had the full brothers Sun Briar and Sunreigh 4 x 4 plus another cross of Teddy. Beautiful Spirit had no Hyperion; Beau's Eagle added two crosses via Owen Tudor and Alibhai; Lomitas added three more, via Owen Tudor, Lady Angela, and Suncourt. Silvano has a lot of Dark Ronald from his German ancestors as well as his English ones, more perhaps, than he has of Hyperion's grandsire Bayardo (both sons of Bay Ronald).

Copyright Ann Ferland 2001.