Cavorting Part of a Trend

In a bid to put what follows into perspective, the world-famous Galileo–Danehill nick is currently credited with an impressive 17% black-type winners, with 76% starters and 56% winners. And Galileo's flourishing partnership with Danehill Dancer mares is challenging the status quo, with 16% black-type winners.

But even these celebrated nicks are currently being overshadowed by Bernardini's achievements with daughters of Carson City. Twelve of Carson City's daughters have produced 16 foals of racing age to 2006's champion 3-year-old colt. Thirteen have started (81%), 11 have won (69%) and five of them have become black-type winners–a terrific 31%.

Those five black-type winners would be impressive enough is they were merely listed winners, but they are not. Two of them–the recent GI Personal Ensign S. winner Cavorting and the Frizette S. winner A. Z. Warrior–have scored at Grade I level. Another of the five–Wilburn–won the GII Indiana Derby, while Gala Award landed the GIII Palm Beach S. on turf. The quintet is completed by the graded-placed La Appassionata.

This achievement is made all the more meritorious by the fact that each of the four graded winners is out of a different mare. Bearing in mind that Bernardini's fee has never been lower than $60,000 and has often been in six figures, it is fair to assume that these particular Carson City mares ranked among the former Overbrook stallion's high achievers.

Sure enough, Wilburn's dam Moonlight Sonata was a Grade III winner, in addition to being a half-sister to the Grade I-winning Bevo; A. Z. Warrior's dam Carson Jen was stakes placed; and, although Gala Award's dam Wilshewed failed to win, her dam So Cosy produced four black-type winners. Arguably best of the four, though, was Cavorting's dam Promenade Girl, who retired with earnings in excess of $670,000. Her most important success came in the GII Molly Pitcher S. over 1 1/16 miles, after which she was third in a couple of Grade Is, including the Juddmonte Spinster S.

Her credentials were good enough for her to fetch $1.125 million at the end of her racing career. It is hard to believe now that her price fell to $335,000 when she reappeared at Keeneland five years later, in foal to none other than War Front. The War Front filly she was carrying recouped most of that price, selling for $290,000 and Promenade Girl's next foal, a colt by Bernardini's son Thirstforlife, added another $240,000 to the bankroll when he was sold as a weanling.

Thirstforlife has already shown some of his three-parts-sister's ability, earning 'TDN Rising Star' status after an impressive debut win, and he has since been placed in the GII Best Pal S. The omens look good for the mare's 2016 Uncle Mo colt and for Promenade Girl's subsequent return mating to Bernardini.

Cavorting is proving an excellent emissary for Bernardini, and must be a leading contender for the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, as she has won two legs of the Longines Distaff Challenge. In addition to her Personal Ensign success, she had earlier won the GI Ogden Phipps S. and Cavorting's earnings for the year stand at $1,250,000. She thoroughly merits this belated write-up, as this hardy filly was a Grade II winner at two and numbered the GI Test S. among her three sophomore successes. She has now won eight of her 13 starts.

If she makes it to the Breeders' Cup, Cavorting may well face some of Bernardini's other daughters, as the Darley stallion has been enjoying a particularly good time with his distaffers. In addition to Cavorting, they feature such as Carrumba (GIII Top Flight H. and GI placed), Genre (GIII Molly Pitcher S.), Innovative Idea (GIII Groupie Doll S.), Lewis Bay (GII Gazelle S. and second in the GI Mother Goose) and Penwith (GII Royal Delta S. and Grade I placed). There have also been listed victories for Angela Renee and the turf filly My Sweet Girl. In comparison, Bernardini's sons have been lagging behind, even though there have been graded/group successes for Le Bernardin (in Dubai), Sassicaia (GIII Toboggan S.) and Shagaf (GIII Gotham S.)

Don't get the idea, though, that there is a pronounced sex bias in Bernardini's progeny. His 30 northern hemisphere graded/group winners divide evenly between the males and the females and so do his 10 winners at the top level (with the colts Stay Thirsty, To Honor And Serve, Greenpointcrusader, Alpha and Biondetti being balanced by Cavorting, Rachel's Valentina, Dame Dorothy, A.Z. Warrior and Angela Renee). His Australian group winners are also quite evenly spread, with four fillies and three males, but the fillies account for two of his three Group 1 winners. Incidentally, Bernardini stood eight consecutive southern hemisphere seasons between 2008 and 2015, but he is not among Darley's Australian team this year.

Cavorting's broodmare sire Carson City deserved more respect than he often received. Perhaps this stemmed from his failure to win a Grade I race, but it mustn't be forgotten that winning a Grade I sprint was no easy task for a male sprinter in 1990, when the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint represented their only Grade I opportunity at less than seven furlongs. The seven-furlong opportunities were also few and far between. Carson City was a Grade II winner over six furlongs at both two and three, taking the Sapling S. and the Fall Highweight H. He was tough too, as he raced 10 times in his second season.

Fortunately, that lack of a Grade I victory didn't prove much of a hindrance to Carson City during his lengthy innings at Overbrook. Although the small son of Mr. Prospector never covered huge books, his legacy was 1,057 foals, of which an impressive 94–9%–became black-type winners.

In addition to being the broodmare sire of those four graded winners by Bernardini, Carson City fills the same position in the pedigree of the GI Hollywood Gold Cup winner Rail Trip, who was sired by another son of A.P. Indy.

Even so, these do not represent the zenith of his career as a sire of broodmares. Of course it was his daughter La Ville Rouge who produced the much-missed Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, while another daughter, Easter Bunnette, became the dam of Horse of the Year Havre de Grace.

Carson City has also done pretty well as a sire of sires, with five of his sons–City Zip, Cuvee, Flying Chevron, Hear No Evil and Pollard's Vision–managing to sire at least one Grade I winner. Needless to say, it has been the very tough City Zip (a veteran of 23 races in two seasons) who has been easily the most successful, with the likes of Catch A Glimpse and Dayatthespa among his Grade I winners. In fact, he has been so successful that his fee has climbed from $7,500 to $40,000.

With City Zip's total of graded-winning daughters standing in double figures, I wondered whether any of them have visited Bernardini. Several of them are too young to have embarked on their second career, but none of the older graded winners have done so far. Expect that to change before too long