By Elaine Belval
Smoke Glacken had a career weekend. First, Persistently knocks off the reigning Horse of the Year in the 10-furlong G1 Personal Ensign S. and then Smokey Fire wins the 7-furlong Play the King S. (putting himself in the mix for a Canadian Sovereign Award as champion sprinter). To top of the weekend, Smoke Glacken’s son Read the Footnotes sired Rightly So, winner of the G1 Ballerina S.
Smoke Glacken won the G1 Hopeful S. at 2 and for a brief period was on the Triple Crown Trail at 3. However, Smoke Glacken proved to be a superior sprinter, capping off a year of six victories from eight starts with a win in the G2 De Francis Dash. Smoke Glacken was arguably the best racehorse produced by the great Maryland-based sire Two Punch. A veteran stallion and long a favorite of the Mid-Atlantic region, Two Punch did not have a reputation as a “sire of sires,” but Gainesway took a chance on the colt and they have been rewarded. (Gainesway, by the way, owns the G1 Travers winner this weekend, too, a son of resident sire Afleet Alex, so the farm, along with its owner, Antony Beck, recently elected to The Jockey Club, was on a roll!)
Smoke Glacken was well-received at $10,000 and had a healthy (for 1999) 66 named foals in his first crop. An impressive seven of them (11%) won stakes. And Smoke Glacken hasn’t slowed down in the 10 years since then. Including 2-year-olds of 2010, Smoke Glacken has sired 80% starters, 61% winners, and 22% 2-year-old winners. And a solid 7% of his foals win black type. To top this off, his average earnings per starter is over $70,000. Smoke Glacken is very good at what he does. Almost 50% of his stakes winners are 2-year-old SWs (led by G1 winner Irish Smoke). And until Persistently won the 10-furlong Personal Ensign, with all of his progeny’s stakes wins, only three came at nine furlongs. Persistently placed in the G1 Frizette and G2 Matron at two, clearly the influence of Smoke Glacken. The stamina to handle 10 furlongs clearly came from her female family. Persistently is a homebred for the Phipps family and her fourth dam is the Phipps’s foundation mare Blitey.
Smokey Fire, winner of seven-furlong G2 Play the King S. at Woodbine, is also a bit of an anomaly. Bred by Mel Lawson and raced by the Jim Dandy Stables, Smokey Fire is one of a handful of Smoke Glacken SWs to win on the turf. Smoke Glacken’s best turf performer is also a Canadian SW, Bachelor Blues, winner of the prestigious 2-year-old Summer S. Smoke Glacken continues to stand at Gainesway Farm in Kentucky and his 2010 stud fee was $12,500.
As a final note, Smoke Glacken’s son Read the Footnotes sired the winner of the G1, seven-furlong Ballerina S. Read the Footnotes was a fairly typical Smoke Glacken, with two stakes victories at 2 (and a win in the Fountain of Youth at 3). His first crop raced in 2008, and he was the leading freshman sire in New York. He has six lifetime SWs from his first two crops, three of them earning victories at 2. Read the Footnotes is off to a bright start to replace his grandsire Two Punch in the Mid-Atlantic region. Rightly So was bred by Sequel Stallions (who stand Read the Footnotes) and is raced by Zayat Stables LLC. Read the Footnotes stood at Sequel in 2010 for a $5,000 fee.
(Elaine Belval is senior pedigree analyst at WTC.)
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