Stardom Bound: 2 Year Old Review (Week 9)

Original article written by The Steward posted 13 years 0 weeks ago

Week 9 didn't hold as many extremely dominant animals as the prior two weeks, but was merely a lead in to the chaos of Week 10. It did, however, give us a solid look into the first-crop stallions that are really going to make it as sires. For example, Desert Longshot has a whopping 22 winners already, which is astounding given the short amount of time that mile races have been available. He also already has five stakes winners, the most of any miler/router. I've also been impressed by both Paoli and Evenmoneyfavorite, the latter being a bit of an under the radar type sire who might be really worth breeding to in the last few years of his life.

And how about Independence Day, the leading freshman sire? He has 44 winners already, which would put him in 5th on the list of 2nd crop sires. That's some impressive stuff!

Cleanse by Fire became the Edge Rising Star of the week when breaking her maiden by 4 1/2 lengths at Futurity Park. The Carolyn Eaton-bred daughter of Fire Added Starter (shocker, I know) sold for a mere $12,000 to Eugene Ferguson last year. She earned a brisk 74 speed figure for the effort. Greentree Racing's homebred filly Betrlivngbyscience came from last in a short field to score going a mile, despite being by router extraordinaire Something Better. Her dam is by Epic, which adds speed to the pedigree. The mare wasn't bred last year, but she undoubtedly will be this year after this smart debut.

Speaking of Desert Longshot, he had a pair of potential superstars unveiled during Week 9. Both are owned by Happy Trails, who is sitting pretty for the next two seasons with these babies. The filly, Charades, appears to be a female counterpart to such class runners as Shadowless and Land of the Gods, i.e. she's that fast. The homebred filly scored by 8 lengths at Futurity Park in the Tiara Stakes, splashing home to a 90 speed figure. Over at Adolescent Acres, The Longshot (who already has a gorgeous headshot) won the Epic Stakes by two lengths, earning a "boring" 73. The Longshot was bred by The Steward and purchased for $336,000. He is sure to make that back.

A lot of true miler stars rather than route stars were out en masse Week 9; Amanda Kessler's filly Angel of Fire stormed home to win a 1 mile stakes race at Adolescent Acres by 5 3/4 lengths. She got the coveted "Hand ride to wire" running line. She is by Fire Added Starter and out of Spirituality, who has the distinction of being one of the very few horses two win two different Steward's Cup races.

Dan Lindsay is a name you don't hear too often, but his M H S Wildcats, a son of Accmplished, broke his maiden at Seattle Downs in the mud, which he loves. The colt is out of an Epic mare who won only once in 17 starts. It is unfortunate that Epic is now pensioned, he had some nice horses but seems to really be making an impact of late!

The Ricky Bobby-trained and Amy Schmidt-bred One Tribe Y'all became two for two after winning a NW2 Week 9. I liked the allowance win better than the Week 7 maiden, even if it was only a little bit faster. To top off the milers on the track, the $10 million purchase Bridges to Cross, out of Hall of Fame mare Big Dreams and by Boise, took his second start by 1 3/4 lengths. It will be interesting to see if Peihe is brave enough to stretch this colt out, as he is not Steward's Cup nominated but perfectly fits the profile of a Juvenile winner/1 1/16-mile type horse. This colt looks to be more Derby Dreams/Big Gamble than Gift of the Moon.

I have to pause here and mention John Slotman's colt Big Fat Duck, who I didn't mention in the Week 7 report because I was skipping sprint races. Big Fat Duck is out of Slotman's tremendous mare Very Nice and is now two for two. His Week 9 win was more laughable than anything; despite being at such an easy location like Adolescent Acres, Big Fat Duck faced only two computer horses in that start and danced home to score by 28 1/2 lengths - that's steeplechase-esque!

Two Derby-horse types and two Oaks-filly types hit the ground running in Week 9. Paul Heinrich has yet another dreaded dirt router - the poor guy can't catch a break with those, it seems. This one is by Flames and is named Dostoyevsky. Now poor me if this horse ever makes it to a big race! The colt is by Flames and is out of another one of those Epic mares - could this be a trend I'm seeing? The win doesn't look that impressive because it was only over a 4 horse field and only by two lengths with a 67 speed figure, but none of that matters. He's that kind of horse that catches your eye: Dostoyevsky (this horse will be the death of me, I had to type it 3 times to get it right!) sat back off the pace in good position, gained ground around the turn, and pulled away professionally to the wire. He is back in tonight in a Week 11 NW2 which I'm sure he wins.

A lot of people are high on Promoted, a son of Father's Day out of the Herkemayah mare Promote. The Steward-bred was a $2.4 million purchase by Ricky Bobby earlier this year. He won by 2 1/2 at Louisville Downs in a very professional performance. His dam is a half sister to Persevere and Boise, so he has quite the pedigree on him.

As for the fillies, occasionally Eric Nalbone lets a good one get away and Greylands looks to be that kind of horse. The Braveheart filly is also out of a Herkemayah mare, this one named Conceal, and she defeated a very solid field by over two. The second place filly, Shamim, is royally bred and went from wings to wow as she aged. The other filly was Stephen Skaggs' The Ville, a daughter of Tot Ziens out of the mighty mare Significant, a half-sister to Fighter Jet. The Ville may be nice, but I'll take this time to promote Significant's weanling son by Notorious, bred by me. That's probably the best colt in my crop this year!

On the turf, Nick Gilmore's Collision Course won by 3 1/4 in London, defeating the nice-looking miler Joking. Collision Course was bred by The Steward and is by Stealth Ninja. She cost $429,000 earlier this year.

Speaking of Steward-breds on the turf, my favorite turf colt in the crop broke his maiden first out for Laura Ferguson. His name is Andre, and he is apparently bay but I thought he was chestnut. Not that that matters. He's a flashy sort with a big white blaze and won by 5 1/4 over a pathetic field but what can you do, I wouldn't want to run against him either. He is one of six winners in Trafalgar's first crop and is out of the Conduit mare Northern Most, making him a half to stars like Greatest and Well Traveled.

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