Scat Daddy Well Represented In Ireland

Pilgrims doing the rounds of the extremely successful and popular Irish Stallion Trail will have seen some exciting new stallions as well as the established stars. Possibly the most familiar of the new recruits on view was the charismatic grey sprinter Caravaggio, a winner at Royal Ascot in each of the past two seasons. Possibly the least familiar was El Kabeir, a 6-year-old who had never left the United States prior to his recent arrival at Yeomanstown Stud and whose best win came in the G2 Kentucky Jockey Club S. at Churchill Downs in 2014. Despite their differing profiles, though, there is one strong link between the pair: both are providing Irish breeders with a valuable opportunity to tap into the genes of their sire, the late and much lamented Scat Daddy (Johannesburg).

In the current era which has seen a worrying narrowing of the spread of sire-lines, it is always a pleasure to see a dominant stallion emerge from one of the less ubiquitous lines. Scat Daddy did descend from the seemingly ever-present Northern Dancer (Can) (Nearctic {Can}) but not via one of the usual sources. So many of the Northern Dancer-line stallions (particularly in Europe) come via Sadler's Wells or Danzig that Scat Daddy, who descended from the great patriarch via Johannesburg, Hennessy, Storm Cat and Storm Bird, could be seen as a breath of fresh air. It was already clear by the time of his premature death in 2015 at the age of only 11 that Scat Daddy was an extremely good stallion. It is now clear that he was a great one.

Scat Daddy was a very good racehorse. He was one of the best juveniles in the USA in 2006 and then one of the best three-year-olds the following year, when his form was good enough to see him start third favourite in the Kentucky Derby. However, he ran badly in that race and was found subsequently to have damaged a tendon. As so often proves to be the case with tendon injuries, even minor ones, this setback meant that Scat Daddy's season was over. Inevitably, his retirement was announced the following month. In this case, retirement meant recruitment to the Coolmore roster at Ashford Stud in Kentucky, Michael Tabor having had the foresight to buy a significant share in the horse following his Sanford S. triumph 11 months previously.

At the time of Scat Daddy's retirement, his sire Johannesburg was looking as if he might be an influential link in the Storm Bird branch of the Northern Dancer line.  Johannesburg had been an outstanding 2-year-old in 2001, emulating the achievement of Arazi (Blushing Groom {Fr}) 10 years previously of being champion 2-year-old of both Europe and the USA. Scat Daddy was a member of Johannesburg's second crop. When he retired from racing in the summer of 2007 and moved to Ashford Stud, Scat Daddy joined a roster on which his father was still very popular at a fee of $65,000. However, Johannesburg's status soon began to wane. His fee was hugely reduced in advance of the 2009 season, and he was subsequently moved on (to Japan). As his father fell from favour, so did Scat Daddy, despite still being totally unproven at stud. His fee in his first season (2008) was $30,000, but it had already been reduced to $10,000 for his fourth season before he had even had a runner.

At the start of the current century, the Storm Bird branch of the Northern Dancer line looked set to thrive thanks to Storm Cat, North America's Champion Sire of 1999 and 2000. Storm Cat's best son Giant's Causeway was a champion racehorse in Europe in 2000 and has gone on to top the North American General Sires' Table three times (2009, 2010, 2012). But it is now looking as if Johannesburg, a son of Storm Cat's Grade 1-winning son Hennessy, is the branch's key component. Scat Daddy is largely responsible for this situation.

Scat Daddy began having runners in 2011 (when, as mentioned above, his nominations were readily available for a mere $10,000). He had an instant advertisement in Europe that year when his well-named chestnut son Daddy Long Legs carried Michael Tabor's colours to victory in the G2 Royal Lodge S. at Newmarket. (Ironically, this proved to be a slightly misleading advertisement as Daddy Long Legs, a lanky stayer, is far from the typical son of Scat Daddy. He is, though, true to type in that he had plenty of ability and was effective on both turf and dirt, as he confirmed the following spring when taking the G2 UAE Derby at Meydan).

Since then, Scat Daddy's reputation has grown year on year. It was high when he died in 2015 and is even higher now. The brilliantly fast No Nay Never really put Scat Daddy on the map with a string of excellent performances spread over England, France and the USA in 2013 and '14, at the ages of two and three. His feat of registering a superb win as a juvenile at Royal Ascot and then following up in the G1 Prix Morny at Deauville was matched in 2016 by the brilliant Lady Aurelia, another inmate of Wesley Ward's barn. Lady Aurelia then joined Caravaggio in scoring at the Royal Meeting in both 2016 and '17, her second victory there coming in the G1 King's Stand S.). Lady Aurelia's first Royal Ascot victory made her the second successive Scat Daddy filly to take the G2 Queen Mary S. for Wesley Ward, following the triumph in 2015 by Acapulco, who had gone on to finish second at weight-for-age in the G1 Nunthorpe S. at York later in the summer. Furthermore, Caravaggio and Lady Aurelia were not the only Scat Daddy offspring to score at Royal Ascot in 2017, where the stallion was also represented by Sandringham H. heroine Con Te Partiro, another of Wesley Ward's charges.

No doubt inspired by the early success of Daddy Long Legs, the Coolmore team has more recently made sure that plenty of sons of Scat Daddy have found their way into Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle stable. Caravaggio, impressive winner of his first six races including the G2 Coventry S. at Royal Ascot and the G1 Keeneland Phoenix S. at the Curragh as a 2-year-old in 2016 and the G1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot in 2017, has been the star so far. However, he might not hold that honour indefinitely with the stable's current 3-year-olds including the Scat Daddy colts Mendelssohn, Sioux Nation and Seahenge. Last term the former (who had cost $3,000,000 as a yearling at Keeneland in September 2016) stamped himself as a live Classic contender on whichever side of the Atlantic his connections choose when he followed up his second place in the G1 Dewhurst S. at Newmarket by taking the G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar. Sioux Nation won the G2 Norfolk S. at Royal Ascot and the G1 Keeneland Phoenix S. at the Curragh. And Seahenge (a $750,000 Keeneland yearling) landed the G2 Champagne S. at Doncaster.

To date, Scat Daddy's worldwide tally of progeny Grade/Group 1 victories stands at 43, the latest top-level strike having come when G1 Kentucky Oaks runner-up Daddy's Lil Darling took the G1 American Oaks at Santa Anita at the end of December. That was the seventh Grade/Group 1 triumph of 2017 for a son or daughter of Scat Daddy, a total which included the victory in the GI Beverly D S. at Arlington of Dacita (Chi) who ranks as arguably the best of several stars produced by the stallion during his South American shuttling stints.

Scat Daddy, of course, is still unproven as a sire of sires. But he looks to have a very good chance of making a huge posthumous contribution in this respect. The first yearlings by No Nay Never (who stands at Coolmore in Ireland) made a very positive impression at the sales in the autumn of 2017. No fewer than 24 of his yearlings fetched six-figures sums, headed by the colt out of Muravka (Ire) (High Chaparral {Ire}) who was bought by JS Company for 850,000gns in Book 1 of Tattersalls' October Sale. The average price of the 56 who were sold was 107,509gns. Collectively, they appear to give their sire an excellent shot at ending 2018 as Europe's leading first-season sire.

Caravaggio has now joined No Nay Never at Coolmore; while El Kabeir has come to Ireland to stand at Yeomanstown Stud. Simultaneously, the super-tough Tu Brutus (Chi), a nine-time winner who scored in stakes company on six occasions, takes up stud duties at Crestwood Farm in Kentucky. All three look sure to be popular. Caravaggio needs no introduction, and a recent reminder of his charisma was provided when his yearling half-brother by American Pharoah (Pioneerof The Nile) fetched $1 million at Keeneland's January Sale.

Coincidentally, the similarities between El Kabeir are not limited to the fact that both are fast sons of Scat Daddy. Both are greys, with El Kabeir's grey coat coming from his maternal grandsire Unbridled's Song (Unbridled). A Grade 2 winner at two and a Grade 1 place-getter at three, El Kabeir comes from a family packed with stakes winners. His stakes-winning granddam Rose Colored Lady (Formal Dinner) bred four stakes winners, and he is sure to be well supported standing alongside another great grey, Dark Angel (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}). Tu Brutus, a full-brother to the dual Chilean Grade 1 winner El Bromista (Chi), scored in Grade 3 company in his homeland in 2015 and in the Flat Out S. at Belmont Park last year. He looks sure to be popular as the only son of Scat Daddy currently at stud in Kentucky.

The saga of Scat Daddy has been one of the big success stories of the international bloodstock world in recent years (notwithstanding, of course, the tragedy of the horse's premature death) and it is going to be fascinating to see how it develops over the next few years. He is providing a great boost to one of the less celebrated branches of the Northern Dancer line, resurrecting the brilliance formerly displayed by his sire Johannesburg. The latter's influence, incidentally, is also thriving in Ireland thanks to his Group 2-winning son Red Jazz, who stands at Ballyhane Stud and who turned out to be one of Europe's most successful first-season sires of 2017.