drf breeding 5.5

BarBara D. Livingston

WARD JUVENILES CRAM TO ACE EARLY TESTS,PAGE 7

OBS SALE PUTS YOUNG STALLIONS IN SPOTLIGHT,PAGE 8

SPARKMAN:A RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY,PAGE 11

WINNING SIRES MOVE UP IN SALES AND FEES, PAGES 3, 5

DERBY EFFECT

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

CATCHING UP WITH A.P. INDYPAGE 13

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DRF BREEDING Sunday, May 5, 2013 PAGE 3

Derby effect: Winning siregets big-money yearlings

By Joe Nevills

Winning the Kentucky Derby is good for business.

While the benefits to those most closely associated with the horse are obvious, the residual effects of a Kentucky Derby win have proven to be more far-reaching, even affecting prices in the yearling market in the months following the classic race.

Over the past 20 years, the average price for yearlings by the sire of the most recent Kentucky Derby winner has increased 34 percent, rising from $119,018 the year be-fore the Derby win to $160,061 during the sale season immediately following it. The

median price for newly crowned Derby-winning sires jumped 16 percent from $88,751 to $103,222.

Bulk figures show that breeders are more willing to put yearlings by those sires through the auction ring, with an average of 22 percent more horses sold for revenue that improved an impressive av-erage of 65 percent.

Perhaps most important for sellers, the one universal truth during the past two decades was a willingness from buyers to bid higher for the sire’s best offerings. The highest price paid for a yearling by the most recent sire of a Derby winner improved over that sire’s previous crop in

each of the past 20 years, often drastically, by an average of 73 percent.

“It’s all about ‘What have you done for me lately?’ and that’s the way the sales go,” said Pat Costello of consignor Para-mount Sales. “It’s amazing. Some horses can be really hot in the spring of the year, and by September, they can cool again, or vice versa.”

The increase in buyer interest and dollars has been most dramatically felt among the younger, less established sires, whose Derby winners came in their first or second crops.

Flower Alley, the sire of last year’s Ken-tucky Derby winner, I’ll Have Another,

from his second crop, is a prime example. The Distorted Humor horse was lightly re-garded in 2011, and his yearling sales were equally modest, with 18 of his yearlings selling for an average of $14,437.

A year later, with a dual classic winner on his résumé, the number of yearlings sold by Flower Alley nearly doubled to 35, for an average price of $40,314. Perhaps most impressively, the highest price paid for a Flower Alley yearling increased 600 percent in 2012, from $30,000 to $210,000.

While Flower Alley’s rise in popularity among buyers was dramatic, it paled in


Flower Alley, the sire of 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I’ll Have Another, saw his yearlings almost triple in value from 2011 to 2012.

Continued on page 4

Sunday, May 5, 2013 DRF BREEDING

comparison with the Derby sire of a year earlier, Leroidesanimaux.

The Florida-based sire of 2011 Derby winner Animal Kingdom, also from his second crop, sold seven yearlings dur-ing the 2010 auction season for a total of $48,174 and an average price of $6,882. The most expensive Leroidesanimaux year-ling of the season cost $22,000.

After Animal Kingdom’s win, the sire had 21 horses sell, up 200 percent, for a total of $783,160, an improvement of 1,526 percent. While the gross figures would naturally improve with additional horses sold, the averages were just as astounding, with the average price rising 442 percent to $37,293 and the median improving 1,000 percent to $22,000, the same price that the top Leroidesanimaux yearling sold for the

previous year. In 2011, his highest-priced yearling sold for $250,000.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, horses with several foal crops and estab-lished reputations were far less volatile in their yearling prices following their Derby wins. In fact, the two sires with the most foal crops at the time of their Kentucky Derby wins over the past two decades, Mr. Prospector with Fusaichi Pegasus (2000) and Cormorant with Go for Gin (1994), ac-tually saw slight decreases in their aver-age and median sale prices immediately following their wins.

“When Fusaichi Pegasus won it, it was just another feather in Mr. Prospector’s cap,” said Mark Taylor of Taylor Made Sales Agency. “It wasn’t really going to change the dynamic too much, but when you look at a horse like Distorted Humor, when Funny Cide won it, that was a major

boost for him. When Smarty Jones won it for Elusive Quality, he was a horse that started out at a modest fee and was still very early in his career, so it put them on a big stage, like those horses could be the real deal.”

When Costello has horses in his upcom-ing yearling consignment by the same sire as the Kentucky Derby winner, he said the first thing he does is reconsider where he wants to place them in the sale books, now that they have a new marketing point.

“If it was previously a not-so-popular sire that turns red-hot, you’d obviously be moving it up,” he said. “You’d be go-ing on the individual, and you want to make sure it’s in the right book, but your plan would be to move it up a book or two. You’re obviously going to be more excited about it.”

However, Costello stressed that confor-

mation is the most important factor when selling a yearling, regardless of its pedi-gree or catalog updates.

“It’s all about the horse’s physical,” he said. “If they’re not a great physical, they’re going to be tough to sell, no mat-ter what they’re by. But if they’re a really good physical, we definitely try to highlight them being by the Kentucky Derby sire.”

Taylor agreed that bad conformation can sink a yearling by a Derby-winning sire in spite of the big update, but selling a foal in utero does not come with those concerns.

“When you’re selling a mare that’s car-rying a baby, you’re selling more ‘blue sky’ than you are conformation,” he said, “so I think it’s more interesting to have a big up-date like that when you’re selling a mare that’s carrying a baby by that stallion than when you’re selling a direct offspring.”

DERBY EFFECT

FOAL YEARLINGS YEARLINGS AVERAGE AVERAGE MEDIAN MEDIAN HIGHEST HIGHESTDERBY CROPOF SOLD SOLD PRICE PRICE PRICE PRICE PRICE PRICEYEAR STALLION WINNER WINNER PRE-DERBY POST-DERBY CHANGE PRE-DERBY POST-DERBY CHANGE PRE-DERBY POSTDERBY CHANGE PRE-DERBY POST-DERBY CHANGE

2012 Flower Alley I’ll Have Another 2 18 ..........................35 .......................94% $14,437 ......... $40,314 ............179% $12,000 ......... $25,000 ..............108% $30,000 ....... $210,000 ..........600%2011 Leroidesanimaux Animal Kingdom 2 7 ..........................21 .................... 200% 6,882 ............ 37,293 ............442% 2,000 ........... 22,000 .......... 1,000% 22,000 ......... 250,000 .......1,036%2010 Maria’s Mon* Super Saver 10 39 ........................N/A ........................ N/A 82,677 ..................N/A .................N/A 40,000 ................. N/A .................. N/A 500,000 ..................N/A ...............N/A2009 Birdstone Mine That Bird 1 8 ..........................26 .................... 225% 27,770 ............ 56,788 ............104% 16,500 ........... 20,000 ................21% 105,000 ......... 400,000 .......... 281%2008 Boundary* Big Brown 10 1 ........................N/A ........................ N/A 15,000 ..................N/A .................N/A 15,000 ................. N/A .................. N/A 15,000 ..................N/A ...............N/A2007 Street Cry Street Sense 1 68 ..........................57 ..................... -16% 101,580 .......... 127,556 ..............26% 66,322 ........... 67,000 ..................1% 725,000 ......... 750,000 ...............3%2006 Dynaformer Barbaro 13 34 ..........................25 .....................-26% 185,663 ......... 284,640 ..............53% 162,500 ........ 235,000 ................45% 900,000 ...... 1,050,000 .............17%2005 Holy Bull Giacomo 7 23 ..........................51 .....................122% 41,922 ............ 49,526 .............. 18% 25,000 ........... 30,000 ................20% 160,000 ......... 450,000 ...........181%2004 Elusive Quality Smarty Jones 2 18 ..........................47 .....................161% 52,944 ......... 170,234 ............222% 38,500 ........... 75,000 ................95% 160,000 ......... 950,000 .......... 494%2003 Distorted Humor Funny Cide 1 27 ..........................38 .......................41% 37,730 ......... 103,684 ............ 175% 32,000 ........... 45,000 ................41% 135,000 ......... 675,000 ..........400%2002 Our Emblem War Emblem 2 31 ..........................26 ..................... -16% 9,116 ............ 28,631 ............ 214% 5,200 ........... 12,750 ..............145% 37,000 ......... 210,000 ..........468%2001 Maria’s Mon Monarchos 1 40 ..........................35 ..................... -13% 50,094 ............ 87,043 ...............74% 21,000 ........... 37,000 ................76% 325,000 ......... 575,000 ............ 77%2000 Mr. Prospector Fusaichi Pegasus 22 11 ..........................15 .......................36% 1,302,360 ....... 1,257,000 ...............-3% 1,000,000 ........ 790,000 .............. -21% 3,000,000 ...... 4,400,000 ............ 47%1999 Summer Squall Charismatic 4 25 ..........................16 .....................-36% 121,320 ......... 125,688 ................ 4% 60,000 ........... 52,500 .............. -13% 835,000 ...... 1,000,000 ............ 20%1998 Quiet American Real Quiet 3 18 ..........................24 .......................33% 30,779 ............ 95,420 ............210% 22,250 ........... 83,500 ..............275% 100,000 ......... 275,000 ...........175%1997 Silver Buck Silver Charm 11 12 ..........................16 .......................33% 6,809 ............ 30,275 ............345% 5,754 ........... 23,000 ............. 300% 15,000 ......... 125,000 ..........733%1996 Unbridled Grindstone 1 24 ..........................23 ....................... -4% 116,458 ......... 159,000 .............. 37% 97,500 ......... 160,000 ................64% 300,000 ......... 330,000 .............10%1995 Gulch Thunder Gulch 3 19 ..........................23 .......................21% 115,632 ......... 162,604 .............. 41% 95,000 ......... 125,000 ................32% 390,000 ......... 475,000 ............ 22%1994 Cormorant Go for Gin 13 5 ............................8 ...................... 60% 33,620 ........... 26,563 .............-21% 32,000 ........... 20,250 ..............-37% 60,000 ........... 65,000 ...............8%1993 Polish Navy Sea Hero 2 22 ..........................23 .........................5% 27,563 ........... 38,841 .............. 41% 26,500 ........... 35,000 ................32% 70,000 .......... 110,000 ............ 57% AVERAGE 5.55 23................28............. 22% $119,018... $160,061........ 34% $88,751...$103,222...........16% $394,200... $683,333....... 73%

*Final crop of yearlings sold before Derby win.

WINNING SIRE SALES

Continued from page 3


By Nicole Russo

The Kentucky Derby carries a purse of $2 million, but America’s most famous race can pay further dividends for the con-nections of the winner’s sire.

The stallions represented by Kentucky Derby winners – particularly those early in their stud careers – typically see sig-nificant fee increases the following season and can also garner larger books filled with higher-quality mares.

“The American classics are the key rac-es,” said Michael Hernon, director of sales at Gainesway in Lexington, Ky. “They can really propel a [stallion] forward and re-sult in appreciation for the horse himself.”

Gainesway stands 2004 Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone, who produced 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, along with Belmont winner Summer Bird, from his first crop to race. The son of Grindstone, who began the 2009 season standing for $10,000, saw his fee climb to $30,000 the following year as a result.

Birdstone belongs to a group of young sires who have dominated the Derby in re-cent years. In the 20 most recent editions of the Kentucky Derby held prior to 2013, the winner emerged from his sire’s first or second crop 10 times. Producing an early classic winner proved to be a valuable ac-complishment for young stallions estab-

lishing themselves in the market.The average fee increase for a stallion

who produced a Derby winner from his first or second crop and returned to stand for a public fee in North America the fol-lowing season was 225 percent over the past two decades, compared with 31 per-cent for an older sire whose classic winner came from this third crop or later.

The biggest jump over that time span was seen by Our Emblem, who was stand-ing for $4,000 at Murmur Farm in Darling-ton, Md., when his son War Emblem, from his second crop, won the 2002 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. Our Em-blem promptly moved to Kentucky, where he stood at Taylor Made Farm in Nicho-lasville for a fee of $35,000 in 2003 – a 775 percent increase.

Leroidesanimaux produced 2011 Ken-tucky Derby winner and Eclipse Award-winning 3-year-old male Animal King-dom from his second crop, pushing his fee from $10,000 to $22,500 in 2012. His fee has since climbed to $25,000 for this season as Animal Kingdom has found addition-al success, finishing second in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Mile and winning the Du-bai World Cup in March.

“The support of all the breeders and the industry has been phenomenal,” said

DERBY SIRES STUD FEES FEEYEARDERBY FEEYEAROF FOLLOWING PERCENTYEAR WINNER SIRE CROP DERBYWIN DERBYWIN CHANGE

2012 ...... I’ll Have Another ..........Flower Alley ................ 2 ..............................$7,500 ............. $20,000 ..............167%2011 ...... Animal Kingdom .........Leroidesanimaux ....... 2 ........................... $10,000 ............. $22,500 ..............125%2010 ...... Super Saver .................Maria’s Mon ............. 10 .............. N/A (died 2007) ...................... N/A .................. N/A2009 ...... Mine That Bird .............Birdstone .................... 1 ........................... $10,000 ............. $30,000 ............. 200%2008 ...... Big Brown ....................Boundary .................. 10 ....N/A (pensioned 2005) ...................... N/A .................. N/A2007 ...... Street Sense ................Street Cry ................... 1 ...........................$50,000 ........... $100,000 ............. 100%2006 ...... Barbaro ........................Dynaformer .............. 13 .........................$100,000 ............$150,000 ................50%2005 ...... Giacomo .......................Holy Bull ..................... 7 ........................... $15,000 ..............$15,000 ..................0%2004 ...... Smarty Jones ..............Elusive Quality ........... 2 ...........................$50,000 ........... $100,000 ............. 100%2003 ...... Funny Cide ...................Distorted Humor ........ 1 ...........................$20,000 ............. $50,000 ..............150%2002 ...... War Emblem ................Our Emblem ............... 2 ............................. $4,000 ............. $35,000 ............. 775%2001 ...... Monarchos ..................Maria’s Mon ............... 1 ........................... $12,500 ............. $35,000 ..............180%2000 ...... Fusaichi Pegasus ........Mr. Prospector .........22 ...............N/A (died 1999) ...................... N/A .................. N/A1999 ...... Charismatic .................Summer Squall .......... 4 ...........................$25,000 ............. $25,000 ..................0%1998 ...... Real Quiet.....................Quiet American .......... 3 ...........................$20,000 ............. $35,000 ................75%1997 ...... Silver Charm ................Silver Buck ............... 11 ............................. $6,000 ................ $7,500 ................25%1996 ...... Grindstone ...................Unbridled .................... 1 ..............................Private .................Private .................. N/A1995 ...... Thunder Gulch .............Gulch .......................... 3 ..............................Private .................Private .................. N/A1994 ...... Go for Gin .....................Cormorant ................ 13 ..............................$7,500 ..............$10,000 ................33%1993 ...... Sea Hero ......................Polish Navy ................ 2 ................Stood in Japan ....Stood in Japan ................. N/A (fee unavailable) . (fee unavailable) Average fee increase for stallions who stood in North America for a public fee the following year: 141% Average increase for sire whose Derby winner came from first or second crop: 225% Average increase for older sire: 31%

Derby effect:Winning sires see stud fees spike

Photos By ZBirdstone’s stud fee went from $10,000 to $30,000 after Mine That Bird and Summer Bird earned victories in two 2009 classics.

Continued on page 6


Marc Haisfield, who stands Leroidesani-maux at his Hallmarc Stallions at Stone-wall Farm in Ocala, Fla. “He has some big crops coming.”

The most recent young sire to see signifi-cant success on the Triple Crown trail was Flower Alley, who stands at Three Chim-neys Farm in Midway, Ky. The stallion pro-duced two Kentucky Oaks starters – includ-ing Grade 1 winner Lilacs and Lace – from his first crop, then followed up with dual classic winner and champion I’ll Have An-other in his second crop.

Flower Alley’s fee jumped from $7,500 in 2012 to $20,000 this season, the biggest increase for any returning stallion in the United States this year.

“Any time you have a $7,500 stallion who gets a Grade 1 winner in each of his first two crops, that’s obviously going to make more of a difference in the horse’s fee,” said Kyle Wilson, who handles stallion-season sales at Three Chimneys.

The fee increase for a younger sire can be more dramatic than one for an accom-plished older stallion who achieves classic success. Three Chimneys also stood the late Dynaformer, whose fee rose from $100,000 to $150,000 in 2007, the year after Barbaro captured the Kentucky Derby. Although the

dollar amount of his increase was higher than Flower Alley’s six years later, the per-centage change was lower since his fee was already six figures.

“You can only go so high,” Wilson said.Of the established stallions of the past

two decades who produced a Kentucky Der-by winner from their third crop or later, two saw no fee change at all – Holy Bull, whose fee remained at $15,000 after Giacomo won the 2005 Kentucky Derby, and Summer Squall, who produced 1999 dual classic winner Charismatic and stood for an un-changed fee of $25,000 the following season.

While early success can boost the value of a stallion, he still must continue to produce top-quality runners to remain at that level.

“The market is very much ‘What have you done for me lately?’ ” Hernon said, noting that Birdstone’s fee has gone back to $10,000 for 2013. From his first six crops, the stal-lion has produced three other U.S. graded stakes winners in addition to the two clas-sic winners from his first crop.

“I think there has to be a continuance of the performance of the product,” Hernon added. “Birdstone had that very good start, then he was a little quiet for a couple of years. We had to back up on the fee in light of the market. It’s important to price your horse fairly in correlation with the market. You don’t want to miss the target. Other-

wise, you’ll struggle to sell seasons. There’s a lot of choice out there, and we try to price our horses fairly.”

Perhaps helping a stallion build on ini-tial success, book sizes tend to increase for classic-producing sires, with the quality of mares being bred to an individual also im-proving.

“We went from 75 mares in [Flower Al-ley’s] book on Oaks Day to [132] by the time the season was over,” Wilson said. “Obvi-ously, the Derby and Preakness had a huge impact; we nearly doubled his book. We had a little bit of a response after the Santa Anita Derby, but the Sunday morning after the Kentucky Derby, someone called me up wanting to breed five mares to him.”

This season, Wilson said, Flower Alley’s book will be kept to “around 100,” with a fo-cus on quality.

“The quality [of the mares] has gone way up,” he said. “We’re making sure we protect the horse with good mares.”

Haisfield likewise expressed big hopes for Leroidesanimaux’s future, saying the stal-lion’s crop of foals to arrive in 2014 will be his largest yet.

“There are very few sires that have had the chance to sire more than one Kentucky Derby winner,” Haisfield said. “We’re very excited about the future of Leroidesani-maux.”

DERBY EFFECT

“The American classics are the key races. They can really propel a [stallion] forward and result in appreciation for the horse himself.”

– Michael Hernon, Gainesway’s director of sales



Ward’s juveniles cram hard to ace early examsBy Marty McGee

There were some awe-inspiring per-formances by the human participants at the Keeneland spring meet that ended April 26, notably the single-meet records established by owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey, trainer Mike Maker, and jockey Joel Rosario.

But just below all that Keeneland clat-ter could be heard a buzz of a familiar sort: Trainer Wesley Ward dominated the spring “baby races” yet again, prompting folks to wonder aloud how he does what he does with those first-time-starting 2-year-olds of his.

“It’s a lot of time and a lot of hard work,” Ward said after winning the final 2-year-old race of the meet on the closing-day pro-gram with a colt named No Nay Never. “A lot of time, I can assure you.”

Ward saddled the winner in four of the seven baby races run at the meet (and did not have a starter in one of them), sustain-ing a remarkable tradition of domination in what has become his trademark niche. On April 6, he won the first baby race of the meet with a filly named Sweet Emma Rose, marking the fifth time in the last seven years that a Ward horse had cap-tured the first juvenile race at Keeneland.

Many of the Ward horses win by open lengths and at short mutuel prices, dem-onstrating not only how far ahead they are in their maturation process but also the fact that horseplayers long ago caught on to his prowess with youngsters.

Ward, a 45-year-old native of Washing-ton state and the son of trainer Dennis Ward, said he selects certain yearlings he deems to be the most race-ready candi-dates and has them sent to the Palm Beach Downs training facility in Delray Beach, Fla., where the long process begins.

“Starting Oct. 1, my whole crew and I are pulling double shifts in Florida,” said Ward, who has won more than 1,130 races since he began training in 1991 after a riding career that earned him the 1984 Eclipse Award as top apprentice.

“We’ll do our regular morning work at Gulfstream or Calder or Palm Meadows or wherever we have our active runners, and then we’ll all take a 90-minute break or so and reconvene at Palm Beach,” he said. “We’ll work there until sundown getting those babies ready. I’m talking Thanksgiv-ing, Christmas, the whole winter through.”

Ward said he and his staff even break some of the yearlings when the horses first arrive at Palm Beach Downs, an 85-acre, multiuse facility not to be confused with Palm Meadows, the better-known, Frank Stronach-owned facility just to the north.

“That’s one of the most satisfying things about all this,” Ward said. “You’re basi-cally starting from scratch with a lot of them. Obviously, after a certain period of time, you know which ones are going to be quick like cats and which ones will need more time and maybe more distance. Some of them catch on really quickly and want to do the work, and others, not so much so. It’s not like we rush every-thing we have to the races, not at all. So,

that’s basically how we determine who we end up sending to Keeneland and hopeful-ly showing off for their owners.”

One of the most fascinating observa-tions about the Ward 2-year-olds is they often outbreak their opposition and find themselves well ahead within a fraction of a second. Sometimes they look like rockets exploding from the gate.

“That’s a result of how familiar they are with the gate,” Ward said. “It’s very simi-lar to kids going to school: The more edu-cation they have, the better off they’re go-ing to be. It really is a function of the time we put in with them.

“You can draw a direct line from all the hours and hours spent at Palm Beach to the way they [run off] here at Keeneland. There really is no magic to it. It’s just those hours we’re hidden away in Florida, teach-ing them the ways of being a racehorse. It’s a big edge.”

Ward said the expense of renting stall space and paying his employees overtime equates to roughly an additional $40,000 a month, but those costs ultimately are re-couped through the success of the horses, either through purse earnings or private sales. He said the day rate he charges his owners remains at $90 despite the exces-sive overhead.

Ward occasionally is approached by an owner or breeder who would like to have a new sire attract immediate notice. That’s how he winds up sending out an inordinate number of first-timers by non-commercial sires such as Bring the Heat, Weather Warning, Talent Search, and others, although he also is sent horses by

proven sires such as Giant’s Causeway, Ghostzapper, and City Zip.

Invariably, Ward is criticized for being overeager with young horses who perhaps have not yet properly matured, but he bris-tles at the notion that he will run rampant through horseflesh just to maintain his reputation as a 2-year-old master.

“There are plenty of horses we’ve had that have done well at 2 and gone on to be graded stakes winners as older horses,” he said. Indeed, that list includes such no-tables as Gypsy Robin, Judy the Beauty, Politicallycorrect, and Pleasant Prince.

Furthermore, he said, he is able to man-age a horse’s career for years, even after that horse wins as a 2-year-old. The best example is an 8-year-old gelding named New Believer, an eight-time winner at Keeneland for Ward before being claimed from him at the recent meet for $10,000.

“He won his career debut at Keeneland in the fall [of 2007],” he said. “Then he won here at 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. If that’s not taking care of a horse and managing it with care, I don’t know what would be.”

Ward does concede that being typecast as a 2-year-old trainer “is very nice in a way, mostly because it can open doors. You’ve really got to have a niche in this game to distinguish yourself from the other guy. I’m just like every other trainer in the game: I’d like to be involved in all the big races and maybe even win the Ken-tucky Derby one day.”

Alluding to how his horses are known for being so fast and precocious, he added with a big laugh, “Of course, my first Der-by winner is going to go wire-to-wire.”


Trainer Wesley Ward, 45, won four of the seven races for juveniles at the recently concluded Keeneland meet.

IT HAPPENS EVERY SPRING WESLEY WARD’S 2-YEAR-OLD WINNERS AT THE LAST THREE KEENELAND SPRING MEETS, WITH MARGIN OF VICTORY IN LENGTHS.

2013WINNER MARGIN ODDSTO$1

No Nay Never (c) .........................2 ..................*0.80Mary At the Cove (f) ..............2 1/4 ..................*1.60 Pablo Del Monte (c) ....................5 ..................*0.60 Sweet Emma Rose (f) ..................9 ..................*0.50


Undrafted (g) ...............................3 ....................6.20Barisoff (f) ..............................8 1/4 ..................*0.60 Skylander (g) ...............................9 ..................*0.60


Gypsy Robin (f) .................... 7 1/2 ..................*1.40Holdin Bullets (g) ........................1 ...................*1.10Judy the Beauty (f) ............... 1 3/4 ...................*1.10Everyday Dave (g) .................2 1/4 ..................*0.90

(f) - filly; (c) - colt; (g) - gelding; * - favorite


By Patrick Reed

The Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. spring sale of 2-year-olds in training concluded its four-day run April 25 by obliterating the previous year’s record-setting results in gross, average, and median. A total of 39 juveniles each sold for $200,000 or more, up from 21 in 2012, continuing the strong upper-market trend that buoyed activity at the boutique 2-year-old sales earlier this spring.

With a much larger catalog of 1,195 horses, the OBS spring auction also drew a host of middle-market buyers willing to take a chance on progeny from younger, less established stallions. When the last horse cleared the sales ring, several of these up-and-comers had made a strong impression, including two first-crop sires – WinStar Farm’s Colonel John and Get Away Farm’s Two Step Salsa – as well as Darley second-crop sire Street Boss.

Colonel John, a WinStar homebred 8-year-old son of Tiznow whose racing ca-reer included one of the most exciting wins in Travers Stakes history in 2008, finished the OBS spring sale with six juveniles sold from nine offered, with total receipts of $900,000 and an average of $150,000.

His group was led by a filly out of the Smart Strike mare More Oats Please and from the family of Apple Blossom winner Miss Baja who sold for $300,000 to Con-quest Stables. The filly was consigned by Scanlon Training Center as agent. Right behind her was a $290,000 colt purchased by agent Steve Young. The horse is out of the Dixieland Band mare Always Ready, who is a half-sister to top international sire More Than Ready.

Colonel John, who stands for $15,000 in 2013, entered the juvenile-auction season off a solid debut at the yearling sales last summer and fall, where his first crop av-eraged more than $83,000 and included 17 six-figure horses. He had two six-figure juveniles sell at the OBS March select auc-tion and one at Keeneland’s April sale, but the young stallion boosted his profile at Ocala’s larger spring sale just before the 2-year-old racing calendar rolls out in full over the summer.

Seven 2-year-olds by Darley’s Grade 1 winner and multiple track record-setter Street Boss sold from nine offered at the OBS spring sale, for a total of $904,000 and an average of $129,143. His top price, a filly

out of Sigatoo, by Black Minnaloushe, sold for $250,000 to Rockingham Racing, agent. The filly, consigned by de Meric Sales as agent, is from the family of English and Irish champion and leading sire El Gran Senor and Grade 2 winner and sire Strong Hope.

She initially sold for $2,000 as a wean-ling at the 2011 Keeneland November sale, and then brought $10,000 as a yearling at last fall’s Fasig-Tipton Kentucky yearling sale, before becoming Street Boss’s high-est-priced juvenile this sales season.

Three other Street Boss juveniles brought six-figure prices during the OBS spring auction, including a $190,000 colt out of the Valid Appeal mare Credential bought by Ahmed Zayat and pinhooked by Greg and Karen Dodd’s Southern Chase Farm, which paid $60,000 for him as a yearling at the Keeneland September sale.

The 9-year-old son of Darley’s stalwart sire Street Cry also was represented by two six-figure juveniles at the Barretts March sale and one six-figure juvenile apiece at the OBS March and Fasig-Tipton Florida auctions. In addition, his 3-year-old Capo Bastone, third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last year, served notice that he is rounding back into his best form with a fast-closing, runner-up effort in the Grade 3 Derby Trial on April 27.

One of the brightest new stars at the hugely successful OBS sale turned out to be Florida-based freshman sire Two Step Salsa, as 11 of his 12 juveniles of-fered at the auction not only made it to the ring but left with new owners, and the remaining hip sold privately for a perfect strike rate. His horses brought a total of $894,500 for a solid $74,542 average, and they touched every market level, ranging from $8,500 to the sale’s fourth-highest price at $420,000.

That colt, a Florida-bred out of the stakes-placed Pioneering mare Home-steader, was purchased by Conquest from Barry and Shari Eisaman’s successful Ocala-area pinhooking operation, which paid $20,000 for him as a yearling at last August’s OBS sale. Two Step Salsa also had a $120,000 colt named Dance With Fate who was bought by Joseph Ciaglia Jr., and had three more juveniles sell for $60,000 to $75,000.

An 8-year-old son of Petionville, Two Step Salsa was retired to Manuel An-

drade’s Get Away Farm in Lowell, Fla., for the 2010 breeding season after winning half of his dozen career starts and earning $1,104,040. He excelled on the West Coast for owner-breeder Jeff Nielsen and trainer Julio Canani, winning the Lazaro Barre-ra Memorial Stakes at seven furlongs and the 1 1/16-mile Affirmed Handicap, both Grade 3 races, in back-to-back starts dur-ing Hollywood Park’s 2008 spring-summer meeting.

Two Step Salsa changed owners twice in quick succession following a third-place

effort in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile that fall at Santa Anita, ending up with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Godolphin, which shipped him to Dubai for the winter. He rewarded his new con-nections with two wins in as many starts, including a memorable victory over Gaye-go in the Group 2 Godolphin Mile on the World Cup undercard.

Andrade acquired a full interest in Two Step Salsa after his racing career conclud-ed in 2009. The horse stands for an adver-tised fee of $5,000 this year.

OBS SALE PUTS YOUNG STALLIONS IN SPOTLIGHT

HOT SIRES: COLONEL JOHN, STREET BOSS, TWO STEP SALSACOLONEL JOHN, STREET BOSS, TWO STEP SALSA

Photos By ZColonel John, the 2008 Travers winner who now stands for a $15,000 stud fee, had six juveniles sell for an average of $150,000 at the OBS April sale.

Petionville - Two to Waltz, by Seattle Slew $5,000 LFSN

ALSO STANDING:

DOUBLE HONORGone West - Holiday Snow, by Storm Bird $2,500 LFSN

IMPERIALISMLangfuhr - Bodhavista, by Pass the Tab $3,500 LFSN

483, colt...................................... $420,000376, colt...................................... $120,000544, colt...................................... $75,000464, colt...................................... $62,000 970, filly...................................... $60,000

Selling for up to 84 TIMES THE STUD FEE:

GET AWAY FARM 5100 W. County Road 329 • Lowell, FL 32663 • Inquiries to: Manny Andrade (561) 371-8006 or Larry Anderson, Manager (352) 591-1275 Fax (352) 591-4069 • E-mail: [email protected] • www.getawayfarm.net

SERITA HULT ©Millionaire / G2 Stakes Winner

The DRF Breeding editorial team, led by breeding experts Mark Simon and Glenye Oakford, is based in Lexington, KY.

Stallion Roster. Expanded sales and auction coverage. Up to the minute breeding news. Pedigree handicapping. Sire lists. Watchmaker “Horses to Watch.” Up and Coming Sires. Breeder/Owner spotlights and much more…

Plus, DRF Breeding appears every weekend in print editions of Daily Racing Form nationwide.

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BARBARA D. LIVINGSTONBARBARA D. LIVINGSTON


One of the most surprising develop-ments in international racing and breed-ing over the past decade has been the ren-aissance of the German Thoroughbred. Even as German racing has experienced financial difficulties and some internal upheaval, German breeding has made unexpected inroads on international rac-ing, and the principal agent of that ren-aissance is perhaps the most surprising development of all.

Germany’s resurgence to heights sel-dom achieved by such a relatively tiny breeding country (around 1,000 foals per year) is embodied in the pedigree of Pas-torius, the winner of the 2013 Prix Ganay on April 28 at Longchamp. Bred in Ger-many by Prince Franz von Auersperg and Florian Haffa, Pastorious made the Ganay his sixth victory in 12 starts and his third Group 1 victory, but his first outside of Germany.

Pastorius is from the promising first crop of Soldier Hollow, an extraordinar-ily durable and tough racehorse who won 12 of 31 starts over six seasons, including four Group 1 races in Germany and Italy and a Group 2 in France. He also was third in the Grade 1 Arlington Million in 2006 in his sole outing in the United States.

Pastorius is the best of four stakes win-ners to date from Soldier Hollow’s first crop of 51 foals, but it is Pastorius’s brood-mare sire, Monsun, who is almost single-handedly responsible for Germany’s rac-ing renaissance.

By leading German sire Konigsstuhl out of Mosella, Monsun was a good racehorse in Germany in the mid-1990s. It’s worth noting that Mosella was by leading Ger-man sire Surumu from a family residing in Germany since Monsun’s sixth dam, Morning Breeze, by Cameronian, was im-ported in the 1930s.

Monsun won two editions of the Group 1 Europa Preis but was simply not as good as his contemporary Lando (the best son of

Surumu’s best son, Acatenango), who beat him comprehensively in both the German Derby and Grosser Preis von Baden (both Group 1 races).

Monsun has been a much better sire than Lando, however, leading the German sire list four times and the broodmare sire list twice.

The first indication that Monsun might be more than just a good German sire, though, came with his son Shirocco’s vic-tory in the 2005 Breeders’ Cup Turf. The winner of the German Derby the previous year, he franked his Breeders’ Cup form the following year by winning England’s Group 1 Coronation Cup and is now a mod-erately successful sire in England.

Shirocco’s international success was fol-lowed almost immediately by that of Man-duro, Germany’s highweighted 2-year-old of 2004, who blossomed into the best horse in Europe at 5 in 2007, going undefeated in five starts in England and France. Man-duro also has shown promise as a stallion, with his first crop just 4 years old.

Americans are most familiar with the

name of Monsun, though, through the ex-ploits of his daughter Stacelita, the French Oaks winner of 2009 who earned cham-pion-grass-female honors in the United States in 2011 with her wins in the Grade 1 Beverly D. and Flower Bowl Invitational stakes. Monsun has sired three German Derby winners, two German Oaks win-ners, Italian Derby winner Gentlewave, and 2012 French highweighted 2-year-old filly Silasol, who ran second in the Group 3 Prix Vanteaux in her 3-year-old debut an hour or so before Pastorius’s Ganay tri-umph.

In fact, Monsun’s 17 percent stakes-win-ners-to-foals ratio among his foals ages 3 and up is easily the highest of any contem-porary international stallion. Sadly, Mon-sun died in 2012, and his daughters are really just getting started as producers, with 25 stakes winners to date, led by Pas-torius; 2012 Ascot Gold Cup winner Colour Vision, by Rainbow Quest; 2009 German Oaks winner Night Magic, by Sholokhov; and 2012 Group 1 Premio Lydia Tesio win-ner Sortilege, by Tiger Hill.

Pastorius is the third foal out of Mon-sun’s daughter Princess Li, who won three of 16 starts in Germany and Italy but was not stakes caliber. Princess Li’s second foal, Point Blank, by Royal Dragon, served as the pacesetter for Pastorius in the Ga-nay but is a good racehorse in his own right, having placed in four group races in Germany and Italy.

Pastorius’s second dam, Princess Danc-er, by Suave Dancer, produced nothing to make one think her daughter would pro-duce a Prix Ganay winner, but the third dam, Princess Nana, by Bellypha, won the Group 2 German 1000 Guineas in 1992, and her daughter Princess Mood, by Muhtar-ram, is the dam of two recent stakes win-ners. The family’s German history traces to Pastorius’s seventh dam, Tudor Love, by Owen Tudor, whose daughter Love In, by Crepello, was imported to Germany in the 1970s and founded a family that in-cludes German champions or highweights Lomitas, the sire of 2011 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Danedream; Lagunas, Lavirco; Lirung; Lord of England; La Colorada; La Dorada; Lady Marian; La Blue; and Lara.

Soldier Hollow’s racing career was simi-lar to that of Monsun in several ways, and it will be interesting to see if he is able to follow up on the success of his first crop. His pedigree is far more conventional than Monsun’s, however.

Soldier Hollow is one of 77 stakes win-ners (10.7 percent) sired by In the Wings, one of the best colts from the first crop of Sadler’s Wells, and, until Galileo and Montjeu came along, his best sire son in Europe. Second in the Prix Ganay in 1990, In the Wings won that year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf and Coronation Cup as well as the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

In the Wings’s best son, Singspiel, com-piled a similar record and has been a suc-cessful sire, but other sons of In the Wings have not established themselves as viable successors at stud.

Just where Pastorius fits in the interna-tional pecking order remains to be seen.

Germany in the midst of breeding renaissance

Continued on page 12

JOHN P. SPARKMAN

PastoriusBay ColtFoaled March 13, 2009

Princess Li 00

In the Wings 86

Island Race 95

Monsun 90

Princess Dancer 94

Sadler’s Wells 81

High Hawk 80

Northern Dancer 61

Fairy Bridge 75

Shirley Heights 75

Sunbittern 70

Kris 76

Sweetly 75

Caerleon 80

Inisfree 81

Dschingis Khan 61

Konigskronung 65

Surumu 74

Monasia 79

Green Dancer 72

Suavite 81

Bellypha 76

Alys 80

Common Grounds 85

Lake Isle 89

Konigsstuhl 76

Mosella 85

Suave Dancer 88

Princess Nana 89

Soldier Hollow 00


The great Frankel and Cirrus des Aigles beat him by about eight lengths and six lengths in last year’s Group 1 Champion Stakes in his first foray outside Germany. And the horse who finished second in the Ganay, Maxios, sired by – you guessed it – Monsun, has not yet won a Group 1 race, though he has long promised to do so.

With the exception of Monsun, though, the pedigree of Pastorius is pretty conven-tional. He carries five crosses of Northern Dancer in his first six generations, two through Nijinsky II and two through Ly-phard, each in the sixth generation, in ad-dition to distant duplications of Hoist the Flag and Round Table.

That is precisely the kind of breeding environment Monsun was able to take ad-vantage of as a stallion. Shirocco is out of a daughter of The Minstrel, by Northern Dancer; Manduro is out of a daughter of Be My Guest, by Northern Dancer; and Stacelita’s second dam is a daughter of Fioravanti, by Northern Dancer.

In fact, one seldom finds a really tradi-tional German pedigree, based mostly on crossing and recrossing the famous Ger-man lines tracing to the stallions Dark Ronald and Landgraf and the broodmare Festa, anymore. Those lines have been overwhelmed by repeated crosses of American lines descending mostly from Northern Dancer, Mill Reef, and, more recently, six-time leading German sire Big Shuffle, a son of Super Concorde, the second-best son of Seattle Slew’s sire, Bold Reasoning.

That influx of the best international classic genes overlaying the stout substra-tum of stamina and soundness built up in German pedigrees for more than a centu-ry has made the German Thoroughbred a renewed force in international racing.

SPARKMAN


Benoit & associates

Soldier Hollow, a four-time Group 1 winner in Germany and Italy, has produced four stakes winners from his 51-foal first crop.


By Mary Simon

During the month of April, chaos reigned in the Simon household as we prepared to move from Lexington, Ky., to New York City. For weeks, we’d existed in a surreal explosion of cardboard boxes, up to our eyeballs in the bittersweet detri-tus of 26 years of life in a well-loved home.

Amid the packing, planning, bicker-ing, and emotional meltdowns (mine), work needed to be done, conference calls to be made (Mark’s), interviews to be con-ducted, and articles to be written. How, then, in the midst of this crunch time, did we find ourselves one morning strolling through a stallion barn at Lane’s End? How could we possibly have spared a mo-ment for something so ... enjoyable?

Call it a much-needed moment of peace in a personal world steeply atilt. Or per-haps the Simons simply wanted to pay their respects to an industry icon before it was too late. Either way, there we were.

Twenty-one years ago, Mark had the privilege of witnessing firsthand A.P. Indy’s brief but inexorable march to greatness. He’d been on hand for the son of Seattle Slew’s triumph in the 1992 Bel-mont Stakes and for his romp over older stars in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Gulf-stream Park. He had reported with admi-ration on the colt’s honest, resolute style of running – and winning – with head low, legs churning, efficient to the nth degree.

A.P. Indy did not dropkick his rivals off the track in the manner of his broodmare sire, Secretariat, nor did he ram his way through crowded fields like a Mack truck, as did his sire, but he got the job done well and properly, eight times in 11 starts.

I, on the other hand, could only admire the 1992 Horse of the Year from afar. While Mark traveled and wrote, I stayed home, aging five years for every one, locked in mortal combat with a pair of spirited and highly opinionated preschool-age daugh-ters. Though I had never seen A.P. Indy in the flesh, I was well aware of what he was and what he meant to a sport in dire need of stars. So, count me among the legions of fans disappointed when he retired late at 3, largely for economic reasons.

Co-breeder and co-owner Will Far-ish explained at the time to Daily Racing Form: “We wanted to keep him in train-ing. He’s very sound and such a brilliant horse, but it would be taking a tremen-dous risk with a great sire prospect. So

many of our top horses have been retired to Europe or Japan that we need a horse like this to stand in the U.S. Everyone in-volved concluded that this was the right thing to do.”

As it turns out, Farish was onto some-thing.

Off A.P. went to Lane’s End, the Ver-sailles, Ky., farm where he was born and raised, and where his introductory fee of $50,000 would soon look like a steal.

Unlike Northern Dancer or even Mr. Prospector, A.P. Indy was as American as apple pie. As a yearling, neither Arab sheikhs nor major European players were interested; they sat on their hands while Japanese businessman Tomonori Tsuru-maki outlasted trainer D. Wayne Lukas in a bidding battle, acquiring the future champion for $2.9 million.

In later years, virtually all of A.P. Indy’s best sons and daughters excelled on these shores, and it started early: His first 47-foal crop eventually netted 13 stakes winners, including Grade 1-win-ning fillies Royal Indy, Runup the Colors, and Tomisue’s Delight and future top American sire Pulpit. And it just kept get-ting better.

As for my personal non-acquaintance-ship with the great stallion, life continued

to intervene as the years flew by. Though we resided in the same area code, I was always too busy, too harried, too some-thing, to even think about arranging a visit. But now that he was old, and I was old, now that our girls had flown the nest and Mark and I were getting ready to do the same, it was time.

Lane’s End’s marketing director, Joyce Fogleman, an old Thoroughbred Record friend of Mark’s, met us at the stallion complex that morning for a tour. A quick saunter through the foyer and into the ar-chitecturally stunning barn brought us to a smiling man whom Fogleman intro-duced as stallion manager Bill Sellers, a 31-year farm employee.

We ambled on as a group, making small talk before pausing at the open door of a stall bigger than our soon-to-be Manhat-tan living room. Therein, a stallion the color of milk chocolate stood chill, clearly enjoying the vigorous brushing adminis-tered by the man at his side. I’d never seen this horse before, but somehow I knew him at once.

Asa Haley, A.P. Indy’s groom of eight years, finally unclipped the tie and led his prized charge out into

STILL CARRYING HIMSELF LIKE A CHAMPION

Photos By ZA.P. Indy, now a 24-year-old pensioned resident at Lane’s End, has his final foal crop heading to the track this year.

Catching up with A.P. INDY

Continued on page 15

A.P. INDY1989, dk. b. or br. h.by Seattle Slew—Weekend Surprise, by SecretariatMAJOR WINS: 1992 Belmont Stakes (G1), 1992 Breed-ers’ Cup Classic (G1), 1991 Hollywood Futurity (G1), 1992 Santa Anita Derby (G1)

RACING HONORS: 1992 Horse of the Year, 1992 champion 3-year-old male

EARNED: $2,979,815

STOOD AT: Lane’s End Farm, Versailles, Ky. Pensioned in 2011.

BREEDING HONORS: leading sire in 2003 and 2006Top foals: Horse of the Year, champion older male and multiple Grade 1 winner Mineshaft, champion 3-year-old colt and multiple Grade 1 winner Bernardini, champion3-year-old filly and multiple Grade 1 winner Rags to Riches, champion 2-year-old filly and Grade 1 winner Tempera, Canadian champion older male and Grade 2 winner Marchfield, Canadian champion 3-year-old male Eye of the Leopard, multiple Grade 1 winner Aptitude, multiple Grade 1 winner Music Note, Grade 1 winner Stephen Got Even, multiple Grade 1 winner Love and Pride, Grade 1 winner Take Charge Indy, Grade 2 winner Pulpit


cloud-muted daylight, where he promptly as-sumed the “Tony Leonard” – that classic confor-mation pose with legs just so, head up and alert. Smart, old stallions like A.P. Indy and Storm Cat could perform this ritual in their sleep, and why not? The paparazzi have been after them for years.

By the looks of him, it is hard to believe A.P. Indy is more than two decades removed from his days of racing glory. His back has a pronounced dip, and for some years, he’s worn therapeutic adhesive front shoes – a concession to the old foot problems that kept him out of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness and compromised his chances in the 1992 Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Two breeding seasons ago, he was pensioned due to declining fertility, but other than that in-sult, time has been kind to A.P. Indy, who exudes the aura of a much younger stallion. He remains muscular and balanced, deep through the heart, and anchored behind by those same mighty quarters that once propelled him to victories at the highest level of our sport.

There is nothing whatsoever small about A.P. Indy, in body or attitude, a fact he underscored by fashioning a quick right-hind shot at nothing in particular upon exiting his stall. It was a not-so-subtle reminder that despite his advanced years, he remains 100 percent stallion from fet-lock to forelock.

The recently deceased Storm Cat, whom I re-cently visited on his 30th birthday, seemed to dwell very much inside his own head. Converse-ly, A.P. Indy was completely in the here and now. After a moment of holding the “pose,” he began to fidget restlessly, gradually morphing in front of us from equine statue into a well-mannered coil of controlled energy.

He began demanding the attention of Haley, snatching at the lead shank, gnawing on the chain, flicking his ears back and forth at light-ning speed, all the while taking in his world with a highly animated white-rimmed eye. When he deigned to turn that distinctive orb in my direction, my mental musings of the moment took a sharp, 180-degree turn.

Nope, I would not be asking to pose for a pic-ture with this cool mix of danger and dignity. Legendary turf journalist Charles Hatton once described his introduction to Man o’ War thus-ly: “I would no more have walked up and put my hand on his shoulder than I would have poked the Queen of England in the ribs.” So it was for me with A.P. Indy, and apparently for Mark.

We stood, looked, admired – but did not touch – and in the end, checked off a bucket-list item we hadn’t known was missing. Seen A.P. Indy? Oh, yes, we surely did.

A.P. Indy is a statistical powerhouse the likes of which this industry has seldom seen. More than 25 percent of his racing offspring have been of proven stakes class; 148 have won stakes (81 graded), and another 82 placed in such company. In virtually every numerical category, A.P. Indy ranks among the top half of 1 percent of all stal-lions worldwide.

His final juvenile crop of 22 fillies and 13 colts will begin racing in earnest sometime this sum-mer, the blue-blooded issue of champion mares, classic winners, millionaires, and Grade 1 pro-ducers. They represent the sire’s swan song as a progenitor of racehorses, and as always, expec-tations for them are sky-high.

Additionally, the 2013 classic trail has been loaded with contenders carrying A.P. Indy’s precious DNA, among them Orb, Revolutionary,

Normandy Invasion, Flashback, Carve, War Academy, Super Ninety Nine, Dynamic Sky, Tesseron, Departing, Mr Palmer, and Siete de Oros. In the broader scheme of things, this two-time leading American sire has been entirely responsible for hauling the male line of Bold Ruler triumphantly into the 21st century. Sons and grandsons such as Bernardini, Pulpit, Mal-ibu Moon, and Tapit illuminate the racing scene these days with their own brilliant offspring, while daughters are proving worth their weight in diamonds. Champion Royal Delta and 2010 Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver are just two of the 88 stakes winners thus far produced by A.P. Indy mares.

As his cold, hard numbers shoot into the strat-osphere, the aging pensioner himself lives on in quiet comfort, far from the madding crowd. He does not seem to fret for the old days, nor does he become outraged when his champion son Mine-shaft across the aisle heads to the breeding shed on a spring morning.

Horses appreciate routine, and routine is what A.P. Indy gets. For nearly a decade, he’s been tended to by Haley, with whom he has developed a playful and affectionate camaraderie, and eve-ry evening at the same time, he is turned out in the same pasture he has occupied for years. His diet doesn’t waver much, either.

Sellers notes that he is an easy “keeper” who has long battled weight problems, to which I would have high-fived the stallion had that been physically possible. Unlike myself, A.P. Indy has someone carefully monitoring his food intake – he noshes daily on about four quarts of grain, reasonable amounts of alfalfa and timothy hay, and, of course, pastures on the region’s signa-ture limestone-rich bluegrass.

If A.P. Indy could comprehend the facts of his extraordinary life, would he be impressed, or could he not care less? The world’s most ex-pensive yearling of his year, possessed of Cary Grant looks and a royal pedigree to rival Prince William’s, he became a Grade 1 winner, a clas-sic winner, a Horse of the Year, a Racing Hall of Famer, a two-time leading American sire, and a chef-de-race, the latter designation reserved only for the most influential of progenitors.

While A.P. Indy likely has no clue or care regarding the profound impact he’s still in the process of making, he seems somehow aware that he is special, one in a million or more.

Hundreds of visitors converge on Lane’s End for the farm’s occasional fan-appreciation days. Fogleman said most seem eager to acquaint themselves with big names of recent years, the Curlins, Quality Roads, Union Ragses. A.P. Indy’s racing star set so long ago as to place him outside the memory parameters of many current fans.

But, added Fogleman, those in the know are drawn in a different direction, away from the proud, young bucks and down the shed row to the stall of the big, blaze-faced bay with the live-ly, almost human-like eye. There, they pay hom-age to a horse destined to go down in history as one of the best of the best, who will be revered through the ages by racing’s historians and for-ever praised by pedigree analysts of the future.

Someday, A.P. Indy will join his dam, Week-end Surprise, and classic-winning half-brother, Summer Squall, in the Lane’s End cemetery, where a striking bronze in his image holds pride of place. Someday, his name, omnipresent now, will have receded from the four- and then five-cross pedigrees of late-21st-century champions. Someday, A.P. Indy will exist only in the record books and distant stirps of equine family trees. Someday, but not now, not yet, not anytime soon.

A.P. INDY


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