Breeding Digest

It's easier to identify the phenomenon of a broodmare sire than to account for it. But we certainly have a modern marvel of the genre in Bernardini, whose posthumous consolidation of what had been an exceptionally precocious emergence in this sphere reached a fresh peak as the Saratoga summer drew to a close. On Saturday, one of his daughters produced Immersive (Nyquist) to win the GI Spinaway Stakes; and on Monday another Bernardini mare gave us Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie) to achieve a reciprocal status among the crop's colts in the...

However obvious it may now appear that the "real" Fierceness didn't show up for the GIII Holy Bull Stakes back in February, he was keeping tougher company than many assumed at the time. Of the pair, in fact, things went rather more blatantly wrong for Domestic Product, bumped early before wasting energy against a slow pace and coming home wide. Domestic Product still managed to get closer to the winner than did the juvenile champion, and even in scrambling home in the GIII Tampa Bay Derby next time left a...

Once again American investors have shown an increasing receptivity to European bloodlines, this time at the big yearling sale in Deauville. For now, however, we're still only talking about a minority even among those with the resources required to import elite yearlings. But with a reciprocal curiosity also growing in Europe--thanks to Justify, in particular, but also to those breeze-up pinhookers now preparing their next raid on the September Sale--it does feel as though the overdue renewal of transatlantic traffic is beginning to gain commercial traction. We still have a...

Three 'TDN Rising Star' debutants last weekend followed up in graded stakes to confirm their place among the leading juveniles of the summer. Two were by established big guns Uncle Mo and Curlin. But GIII Sorrento Stakes winner Nooni is by a $5,000 Florida rookie who had already that day celebrated his first black-type winner, by nearly five lengths, in his backyard at Gulfstream. That's some day at the office for Win Win Win, and confirms the contrasts emerging from the early skirmishes in the freshman table. Obviously the cavalries...

There can't be many tracks that that deviate further from the standard American model than Goodwood. Even in Britain nobody today would dream of laying out a racecourse along a twisting ridge of downland, and we remain duly indebted to the militia officers who first eked out a little sport here 223 years ago. Not that the horses themselves share our appreciation for a gorgeous panorama of cornfields and woodland, focused as they are on keeping their balance over the swaying terrain and round sharp right-hand bends. Yet last week...

An interval of 136 years between Apollo and Justify, followed by one of just five to Mage, tells us all we need to know about the way modern trainers can (and increasingly prefer to) prepare their Derby prospects. So these remain very early days for the freshmen sires, nowadays responsible for such a large portion of every juvenile crop. In this era of monster books, especially, even the rookie with most action to date has barely scratched the surface. At the moment that's Vekoma, who lies second in the freshman...

If you didn't know the sophisticated people behind the mating, you might imagine that Puca went to Good Magic on no better premise than to double down on the alchemy implicit in both names. Because a puca (or pooka) in folklore is a shape-changing sprite, capable of bringing good or bad fortune. Shakespeare named Puck accordingly in A Midsummer Night's Dream, but my favourite example is Elwood P. Dowd's invisible drinking buddy Harvey, a rabbit standing just under six feet four inches. Perhaps you've noticed his silhouette at Harvey's Bar...

Back on the hamster wheel, everybody. You know the drill. Usual freshman hype, please. Just remember to change the names--and not to dwell too unhelpfully on how things played out for those being talked up four or five years ago. But the legitimate, perennial challenge of the yearling circuit also abides, and likewise much of its color and character. Just not quite all. Not enough time has elapsed, certainly, to heal one aching void. For many of his compatriots, in particular, every barn we enter we still half-expect to hear...

It is the typically interesting opinion of John Sikura that "a stallion's genetic switch is either on or off." The quality and quantity of his books may affect his profile, but his potency (or otherwise) will be operative the day he covers his first mare. Sure enough, six Grade I winners to date for Not This Time all belong to his first two books, conceived at just $15,000. Whatever he might yet achieve with his upgraded mares, paying $135,000 last year and now $150,000, he did not need their help...

Before anything else, first and foremost we need to acknowledge the unfathomable legacy of Darling My Darling (Deputy Minister) as second dam of both colts denied in an agonizing three-way finish to the GI Kentucky Derby. The odds of that coincidence, for all her elite blood and performance, are best be left to an actuary. In the meantime, however, we should salvage the contrasting narratives aptly condensed, in what remains the definitive test of the American Thoroughbred, by her two grandsons. For our collective obsession with first place is such...

The racing year is only just doing up its laces, but already Into Mischief is on the march. Last week we examined the GI Kentucky Derby candidature of his son Timberlake and now, with a little help from the evergreen Dettori, he has a 19th Grade I scorer in Newgate. I must admit that my heart went out to connections of Subsanador (Arg) (Fortify), who led every step bar the last, and would have been John Sadler's fourth winner of the storied Santa Anita Handicap-still dearly cherished by some of...