I’m going to stay on topic of A.P. Indy sons for another blog because there’s one particular son of his that I think – as the English would say – is the business!
While at the Keeneland November sale, bloodstock agent Steve Silver and I inspected some of the new stallions in Kentucky. At Ashford we saw A.P. Indy’s son Majestic Warrior. Wow, does he have the goods!
Majestic Warrior enters stud in 2009 for a $20,000 fee, and, in my opinion, that’s a bargain, even in this economic climate. Here are a few of the reasons why:
I’ve already given the one – he’s a physical standout. And, we all know about his sire. A.P. Indy, who stands for $250,000 and so far has 114 SWs in the books, including Preakness winner Bernardini (another top young prospect) and Belmont Stakes winner Rags to Riches. He’s had a 2nd-place horse in the Kentucky Derby – Aptitude – and maybe this is the year he completes the classic triple. Friesan Fire maybe?
Now take a look at Majestic Warrior’s dam, Dream Supreme. She’s by the brilliant broodmare sire Seeking the Gold, and she was a multiple G1 winner who earned $1,007,680, with 9 wins coming from 16 lifetime starts from age 2 to 4! One of Dream Supreme’s G1 races was the Test Stakes at Saratoga at 3. This is the premier sprint for 3-year-old fillies at 7 furlongs.
Like mother like son: Majestic Warrior also won a 7-furlong G1 race at Saratoga. And he did it at 2!
Granted, Majestic Warrior didn’t do anything as a 3-year-old at the racetrack, but he’s done everything to earn a place at stud. He also goes to stud with one credential that all breeders ought to pay attention to: Majestic Warrior is the only G1 winner by A.P. Indy at less than a mile! This set him apart from the other A.P. Indys.
If you’ve been reading my last few blogs, you’ll note that one reason I think Pulpit has done so well is because he was one of A.P. Indy’s speedier sons, when compared to many of the A.P. Indys that are great classic-type runners. Speed is the name of the game here, but in the Southern Hemisphere, as I noted, a few sons of A.P. Indy have really racked it up because the distances are a little longer and the pace isn’t quite as severe, to generalize.
Majestic Warrior probably has one of the best chances of any recent son of A.P. Indy to make it here, when you consider his speed, precocity at 2, pedigree, sire, dam, and looks.
He’s also got a few elements in his pedigree that should actually suit the broodmare population that’s heavy on Northern Dancer and Mr. Prospector. A.P. Indy has sired 21 unrestricted SW’s with Buckpasser inbreeding within four generations, something which I’ve found makes top racehorses but not necessarily good sires. There have been at least 149 unrestricted SWs with inbreeding to Buckpasser within four generations, but you can practically count the number of good stallions on one hand.
Two A.P. Indy stallions that Majestic Warrior shares characteristics with are Indygo Shiner and Jump Start – both of them obviously successful young stallions standing for $10,000 or less.
All three horses are inbred 4×4 to Buckpasser – don’t worry! read on! — and all three horses have Northern Dancer in their pedigrees. What I’ve found Is that stallions who are inbred to Buckpasser AND also have Northern Dancer in their pedigrees benefit from an additional strain of Northern Dancer from their mate, so that the resulting foal is inbred to Northern Dancer. You can see the success of this in Indygo Shiner’s foals. Six of his 9 SWs are inbred 4×4 to Northern Dancer. And Jump Start has 2 SWs inbred to Northern Dancer, including one of his best runners.
Majestic Warrior and Jump Start share another similarity: Both also have 3×4 inbreeding to Secretariat, in addition to their Buckpasser inbreeding. [Pulpit’s Sky Mesa (4×4) and Tapit (3×4) are also inbred to Secretariat] . Both Majestic Warrior and Jump Start also have Mr. Prospector in their pedigrees, so you can see that mares with Mr. Prospector will allow for inbreeding to Mr. Prospector, and this also has been successful for A.P. Indy stallions. Jump Start has several runners bred this way, and you’ll note that Tapit himself is inbred 3×4 to Mr. Prospector.
Also working for Majestic Warrior is the fact that Mr. Prospector-line mares are an excellent nick for him based on the A.P. Indy/Mr. Prospector cross.
With all this going for him, how can Majestic Warrior miss?