Oppenheim: Pulpit Meet Unbridled

In a weekend replete with upsets, two longshots introduced themselves as viable stallion prospects by scoring their first Group 1 or Grade I wins. Sheikh Hamdan's Mukhadram (Shamardal), now a 5-year-old, who had been placed twice behind Al Kazeem (Dubawi) in top Group 1 10-furlong races last year (the Prince of Wales's and the Eclipse), then second to African Story (Pivotal) in this year's G1 Dubai World Cup, in its last year on Tapeta, finally got his first Group 1 win in Saturday's Eclipse S., in which the first three at the start were the first three at the finish. Then, in the inaugural GI Belmont Derby for 3-year-olds at 10 furlongs on the grass, the Phipps's Mr Speaker, who is bred on the same cross as Tapit–by Pulpit out of an Unbridled mare (who happens to be a daughter of the great Personal Ensign), established his stallion credentials when red-hot jock Jose Lezcano cut the corner and came through on the inside rail to deny the Coolmore representative and favored Adelaide (Galileo).
Though only a Grade II winner himself, Pulpit's credentials as a sire of sires are well established, primarily through runaway leading 2014 North American sire Tapit, who stands at Gainesway Farm; Three Chimneys' Sky Mesa; and, new this year, California's Harris Farm's Lucky Pulpit, sire of GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness winner California Chrome. Pulpit is also the sire of successful minor sires Stroll (Claiborne) and Sightseeing, who made a very good start from limited opportunity in Kentucky, but died in South America while on dual-hemisphere duty.
So we know Pulpit can sire a successful sire, and we particularly know he can do so out of an Unbridled mare.
It looked a pretty salty field beforehand for the Belmont race, but the first two pulled 3 1/2 lengths clear, and the speed figures provide an interesting comparison to the respective scales employed on either side of the Atlantic. Research we have recently done suggests that the Racing Post's RPR speed figure (Racing Post Rating) is roughly equivalent to a Beyer figure +17. In the event, the Beyer team awarded Mr Speaker a figure of 95. He defeated Adelaide by a neck, meaning Adelaide is credited with a 94 or 95 Beyer. Adelaide's three runs this year–second in the G3 Prix Greffulhe, winner of the G3 Gallinule S., and second in the G2 King Edward VII S. at Royal Ascot–had yielded RPRs of 110-110-112. The fact that Mr Speaker ran an RPR 112 and Beyer 95, and Adelaide ran an RPR 111 and Beyer 94-95, suggests the +17 conversion has merit.
Interestingly, Mr Speaker has run nine times, seven on the grass and one each on synthetic and dirt. He broke his maiden in the third of three grass tries as a 2-year-old, and followed that up last December with a win in the GIII Dania Beach (1m, turf) at Gulfstream Park. Trainer Shug McGaughey then gave him a spin on the dirt in the GII Holy Bull, in which he finished a distant seventh behind Cairo Prince (Pioneerof The Nile). He bounced back with a close second-place finish, back on the grass at Gulfstream, to the well-bred Gala Award (Bernardini) in the GIII Palm Beach S. at nine furlongs. McGaughey then shipped Mr Speaker to Keeneland, where he scored a four-length win in the GIII Lexington S. at 8 1/2 furlongs in his only try on the synthetic.
He was even-money for the local prep for the Belmont Derby, the one-mile Pennine Ridge, but flashed speed and tired to fifth behind Gala Award. But, stepped up to 10 furlongs, Mr Speaker proved a narrow, but decisive, winner over Adelaide. The latter now has a career total of five starts (in four countries) for two wins and three seconds. He must be a very good traveler.

More 3-Year-Old Form
Prince Khalid Abdullah's G1 Irish 2000 Guineas and G1 St James's Palace S. (RPR 128) winner Kingman (Invincible Spirit) rates as Europe's top 3-year-old miler, and up until last weekend, Coolmore's G1 Epsom (RPR 125) and Irish Derbies winner Australia (Galileo) was clearly the top European mile-and-a-half 3-year-old, with Paul Smith's Epsom second (RPR 123) Kingston Hill (Mastercraftsman) the only conceivable challenger. That division added a new contender last Sunday with the dramatic 11-length win by Sea the Moon, Sea the Stars' second 2014 Classic winner, in the G1 German Derby (RPR 120). Now unbeaten in four starts, Sea the Moon is a homebred for Niko and Heike Lafrentz's Gestut Gorlsdorf, also owners of the unbeaten homebred 3-year-old filly Wunder, from the first crop of In the Wings' son Adlerflug, and winner of the G3 Prix Chloe at Chantilly last week. Both Sea the Moon, who was offered in Tattersalls' October Book 1 in 2012, but bought back for 230,000gns, and Wunder are conditioned by the up-and-coming German trainer Markus Klug.
Sea the Moon will reportedly point for the G1 Grosser Preis von Baden (a Breeders' Cup Turf Win and You're In race) in early September as a prep for the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Sea the Moon has now joined Australia and last year's Arc winner Treve (Motivator) at the top of the ante-post market for this year's edition of the Arc, as 6-1 co-favorites on Betfair.
Meanwhile, in California, last year's 2-year-old champion, the gelding Shared Belief (Candy Ride) remained unbeaten in five starts (two this year) with a facile 4 1/4-length win over Candy Boy, also by Candy Ride, in the $500,000 GII Los Alamitos Derby, formerly the Swaps S. when it was run at Hollywood Park. The Beyer team assigned the race a figure of 105, equaling the figure California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit) was assigned when winning the GI Preakness. It could set up that the 3-year-old Eclipse Award could be decided in California between these two, though there is also the opportunity for GI Belmont winner Tonalist (Tapit), or another East Coast-trained 3-year-old to enter the picture, depending on the results of races like the GI Haskell and GI Travers later this summer. None of them would be favored right now to beat 4-year-old Palace Malice (Curlin) in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita, but there could be some very good racing among these 3-year-olds before that.
Bill Oppenheim may be contacted at [email protected] (please cc TDN management at [email protected]). Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/billoppenheim.