There’s a powerful new nick emerging with I Want Revenge as its newest representative. It’s the A.P Indy/Roy cross, but that is just a more specialized expression of the broader A.P. Indy/Fappiano cross. To date, I Want Revenge is the third SW and second G1 winner from the A.P. Indy/Roy cross, Great Hunter (Aptitude – Zenith, by Roy) being the other G1 winner.
The A.P. Indy/Fappiano cross, by the way, is also represented by the recent G1 Blue Grass winner General Quarters. He’s by Sky Mesa (by Pulpit) out of an Unbridled’s Song mare. Not only that, Dunkirk’s pedigree is the reverse cross: by Unbridled’s Song out of an A.P. Indy mare.
The powerful A.P. Indy/Fappiano cross is now responsible for 15 SWs, and, incredibly, 14 are graded, including a whopping 7 G1 winners. They are:
G1 Winners
A.P. Adventure
Bernardini
General Quarters
Great Hunter
I Want Revenge
Sky Diva
Tapit
G2 Winners
Admiral’s Cruise
A. P. Warrior
Cool Coal Man
Teammate
G3 Winners
Aratama Indy
Ecclesiastic
Quadriball
Unrestricted SW
Dona Terca
(Click here to View their Pedigrees)
Given this well-established pattern of success, it’s understandable why my company’s nick rating system (eNicks) has for quite a long time accorded the A.P. Indy/Fappiano sire-line cross a very favorable nick rating. In the meantime, The Blood-Horse has come up with a competing nick rating system, and, for reasons that are not as easily understandable, their system gave this cross a very low nick rating until I Want Revenge got its attention by winning this year’s Gotham Stakes (G3) by 8 1/2 lengths.
Just prior to the spectacular entrance of I Want Revenge into this year’s Derby picture with that Gotham win, Roger Lyons, writing in my company’s Pedigree Matters blog, showed how The Blood-Horse nick rating system tends to under-rate the nick ratings of certain sires (click here to see the post titled “Can Stephen Get Even?”), and he happened to choose Stephen Got Even’s cross with Mr. Prospector-line mares as an illustration. Then, I Want Revenge drove the point home.
Now, I know they don’t like me calling it “The Blood-Horse nick rating system,” but there’s a reason why I do that, and it’s part of the story. When Blood-Horse Publications and partners launched their nick rating system in 2008, The Blood-Horse immediately began refusing my company’s advertising without advance notice after having solicited my business during the previous two decades. Why? Well, it’s The Blood-Horse’s policy not to accept advertising from companies that compete with their products (in view of this policy, one wonders how they would explain the full-page ad that appears in the April 11, 2009 issue of The Blood-Horse, p. 1334). To me, this makes The Blood-Horse nick rating system exactly that–a product of The Blood-Horse.
They can refuse my company’s advertising, but they can’t prevent it from making news. Fortunately for me–and I have to give them credit for this much–it’s still the business of The Blood-Horse to report news. You won’t find more convincing evidence of that than the March 14, 2009 issue of The Blood-Horse (p. 1008), in which Steve Haskin, reporting on I Want Revenge’s Gotham win, quotes the horse’s breeder and owner David Lanzman (now co-owner with IEAH Stable) on his decision to breed his mare Meguial to Stephen Got Even: “I’m not in the breeding business; this was my first broodmare. I spent hours on eNicks looking for a mating, and Stephen Got Even is who came up on the screen with the most quality points.” That’s better advertising than money can buy, especially mine.