More Than Ready to run

By Elaine Belval

It’s September, and the 2-year-old racing season is really in full swing. Saratoga and Del Mar showcased a number of high-class stakes and maiden races and every handicapper is sure they know who the next Derby winner is. Recently, More Than Ready has made his presence felt in the division: the long running Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Futurity on September 11 was won by Major Gain, a son of More than Ready; and yesterday (September 18), the Grade 3 Summer Stakes at Woodbine on turf was taken by Pluck, another son of the Vinery-based sire while the Grade 3 Natalma runner-up at the same track was the filly More Than Real.

More than Ready was an incredibly brilliant 2-year-old, winning five of seven starts, including the WHAS-11 S. at Churchill Downs when it was run on the Kentucky Derby undercard. More than Ready returned to next year to compete in the 2000 Kentucky Derby. While the Derby distance proved too far for him, More than Ready did win the G1 King’s Bishop at seven furlongs. More than Ready proved a sound and durable runner, with 17 starts in two years of racing and over $1 million in earnings.

He retired to stud and proceeded to stand in both the US and shuttle to Australia. Australia is under the “Danehill influence.” Their leading sire is Redoute’s Choice, a son of Danehill. The winner of the 2010 Golden Slipper (the world’s most expensive two-year-old race) was a filly named Crystal Lily, by Stratum – a freshman sire by Redoute’s Choice. But in 2009 and 2008 the winners were both by More than Ready (Phelan Ready and Sebring). Both were named champion 2-year-old in Australia. More than Ready is has proved to be one of the best sires for Danehill-line mares, with five SWs already from the cross (three being G1 winners). More than Ready is now one of the most expensive sires in Australia. He stands at Vinery in New South Wales in Australia and his 2010 fee is $121,000.

More than Ready has been no slouch here in the US, either, with more than 30 unrestricted SWs in North America from six crops of racing age. He had 10 SWs from his first crop of 61 foals (16% SWs to foals). They included the GSW Ready’s Gal and SWs Ready to Live and Ready Ruler. He ranked sixth on the Freshman Sire List (behind such sires as Successful Appeal, Giant’s Causeway and Fusaichi Pegasus).

More than Ready had $2.5 million in progeny earnings in 2005 and since 2006 has had over $5 million. More than Ready currently has $4.5 million in progeny earnings in 2010. Equally impressive, his leading earner (SW Custom for Carlos) is responsible for only $170,000 of that. More than Ready has 10 SWs in 2010, with five GSWs. One of those GSWs is the aforementioned recent winner Major Gain. In his second lifetime start, Major Gain won the 8 furlong (on Polytrack) G3 Arlington-Washington Futurity for owner-breeder Gary and Mary West and trainer Wayne Catalano. Also this weekend, the 2-year-old Pluck, stakes placed in his last start at Monmouth, became a Graded SW in Canada on turf. In Australia, recent SWs include the 3-year-old filly More Strawberries, who won a G2 yesterday (September 18) and 4-year-old filly More Joyous,who won a G2 on September 11.

In other words, More than Ready’s best runners win on dirt, turf, and the artificial surface. They run at 2 and continue to progress, winning at 3 and 4. Though his progeny are best at 9 furlongs or less, he has had a handful of runners at classic distances. More than Ready has proven to be a consistent source of versatile, tough and durable runners.

More than Ready stood at Vinery in Kentucky in 2010 for $30,000 live foal.

(Elaine Belval is senior pedigree analyst at WTC.)

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Bring the Heat does!

By Elaine Belval

It’s not very often that a horse based in the United States that did not earn a least a listed stakes win makes it as a stallion. In fact, going back 100 years of thoroughbred racing history, most pedigree pundits would be hard-pressed to name 10 successful stallions that met that criteria.

And in today’s markets, with most major stallions routinely covering over 70+ mares a year (and the bigger named stallions covering 100+ mares), it’s almost impossible for a small-time stallion, covering a limited book (less than 25 mares a year) to get any type of publicity at all.

These factors haven’t stopped the Florida-based Bring the Heat from making some noise.

Bring the Heat won three of seven starts, his only black type a third-place finish in the Real Good Deal S. at Del Mar. His sire is a leading California sire, In Excess, the sire also of the major Kentucky stallion Indian Charlie. His dam is the stakes-placed One Hot Mama. But trainer Wesley Ward thought enough of Bring the Heat to take the high risk of standing him at stud.

Bring the Heat had eight foals (yes, that’s not a typo) in his first crop, which raced in 2006. But, one of those eight was the brilliant filly One Hot Wish, who set a new world record in winning an April Keeneland maiden race going 4.5 furlongs.

From only 41 foals (not including 2-year-olds of 2010), Bring the Heat has sired 29 starters (70%) and 22 winners (53%). His progeny average over $50,000 in earnings. What is particularly outstanding, he has an average earnings index of 1.45 and a comparable index of 0.88. Yes folks, Bring the Heat improves his mares by 60%.

Bring the Heat sired his first Graded stakes winner (his fourth stakes winner) when Madman Diaries won the six furlong G3 Sapling S. at Monmouth recently. Madman Diaries had earlier set a track record himself at 4.5 furlongs breaking his maiden at Woodbine. He also won the Victoria S. at five furlongs at Woodbine in June. Bring the Heat was bred by Robert Teel and Wesley Ward and is trained by Ward.

Bring the Heat sires 44% 2-year-old starters and 25% 2-year-old winners. All four of his lifetime stakes winners won black type at 2. The average winning distance of his progeny is a quick five furlongs.

Bring the Heat is unlikely to sire a winner of the Belmont Stakes. But, what he is doing is siring very quick, very precocious, very smart runners from very bad mares. Here is a stallion that is working very hard to make a name for himself. And that name is just darn good.

Bring the Heat stands at Ward Ranch in Florida and his 2010 stud fee was a downright cheap $2,000.

(Elaine Belval is senior pedigree analyst at WTC.)

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Officer has his Boy

By Sid Fernando

Officer stands at Taylor Made Stallions for $10,000 and was entering that stage of his career when he needed a nice runner to keep enough interest in him at a level to justify standing at one of the premier farms in Kentucky. Enter stage right: 2-year-old Boys at Tosconova, winner of the Grade 1 Three Chimneys Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga yesterday.

Truth be told, Boys at Tosconova was not a well-kept secret but a “talking horse” from the moment he made his debut in the Grade 3 Kentucky Juvenile Stakes at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Oaks day for trainer Bob Hess Jr. Read about that here in the blog of North American Trainer editor and writer Frances J. Karon. After a majority interest in the colt was sold after his second-place debut in a Graded stakes race, he was transferred to trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. in New York, where word of his talent continued to grow. The colt made his debut for Dutrow a smashing one on July 2 at Belmont, destroying a maiden special field by open lengths. See that race here: Boys at Tosconova wins maiden at Belmont.

Thoroughbred Times writer Jeff Lowe wrote a piece on Aug.17 that included a huge reference to Boys at Tosconova that fueled the buzz around the colt even more after one subject of that story, undefeated 3-year-old colt Trickmeister, destroyed a field in the Pleasant Colony Stakes at Saratoga Aug.27. Click here to read the story, which said “the three-year-old stakes winner was no match for a two-year-old stablemate as they worked six furlongs in company on Tuesday at Saratoga Race Course.” See Trickmeister’s race here: Trickmeister wins the Pleasant Colony Stakes at Saratoga. Now extrapolate!

By the time Boys at Tosconova entered the starting gates for the Hopeful against two other very impressive maiden special winners, Stay Thirsty (from the streaking Bernardini’s first crop) and Wine Police, he’d pretty much inherited the mantle of leading 2-year-old colt in the country, especially after the retirement of pro-tem divisional leader Kantharos. Here’s the chart of the Hopeful, and here’s the video: Boys at Tosconova wins Hopeful at Saratoga. The colt won in a hand ride without feeling the whip, and he handled rather easily two colts that are sure to win stakes races in the future. His main competition in upcoming stakes races figures to come from the impressive Saratoga maiden special winner Uncle Mo, a son of Indian Charlie. Click here to read about Uncle Mo.

Indian Charlie, like Officer, was a Californian trained by Bob Baffert who went to stud in Kentucky. For Officer, not as accomplished as Indian Charlie, Boys at Tosconova is the Grade 1 winner that he really needed.

Officer, like his son, was a precocious 2-year-old colt who won 5 of 8 starts at 2, including the Grade 1 Champagne over 1 1/16 miles. He’d started off in California, where, among other races, he won the Grade 2 Del Mar Futurity over 7 furlongs. He won his lone start at 3 in a sprint, got hurt, and was retired, so he wasn’t a proven classic colt.

His sire, Bertrando, is a stalwart in California who’ll stand the 2011 season at Ballena Vista Farm in Ramona, California, for $8,000. The champion older horse in 1993, as a 4-year-old, Bertrando also was a precocious 2-year-old like Boys at Tosconova and Officer. He won 3 of 4 starts at 2, including the Grade 1 Norfolk Stakes over 1 1/16 miles by 9 lengths, and his lone loss that season was a second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs—the target for Boys at Tosconova at the same track. Like Officer, he didn’t do much at 3, winning the Grade 2 San Felipe early in the year. After a second in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, he, too, was done, but he was brought back late in the year and ran third in the Grade 2 Malibu. At 4, he won the Grade 1 Pacific Classic over 10 furlongs and the Grade 1 Woodward, so it’s possible that Officer may have stayed on had he remained sound.

This is, after all, In Reality’s staying line, through Relaunch (also the line of Tiznow) and his son, Skywalker, who won the Breeders’ Cup Classic at 4 in 1986. Relaunch also sired the staying Waquoit, who earned $2.2 million like Skywalker and won over 12 furlongs. Tiznow, a dual Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, is by the Relaunch horse Cee’s Tizzy, a stakes-placed colt who was third in the Grade 1 Super Derby over 10 furlongs.

To date, Officer has sired 15 unrestricted stakes winners and 17 stakes winners total. Eight of the 15 are fillies, and five are Graded stakes winners. Boys at Tosconova is his first Grade 1 winner. Click here to see his page from the Thoroughbred Times “Stallion Directory.”

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Boys at Tosconova was a Werk Thoroughbred Consultants “Best of Sale” recommendation. Out of the Coronado’s Quest mare Little Bonnet, he sold for only $35,000 as a Keeneland September yearling. Click here to see his Werk Nick Rating. Click here to read Roger Lyon’s latest post about the pedigree of Boys at Tosconova.

Boys at Tosconova at Churchill Downs. (Frances J. Karon Photo)

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Webb-Carter in Europe

By Sid Fernando

It’s been almost eight months since Werk Thoroughbred Consultants (WTC) founder and my friend Jack Werk passed away, but this blog—which Jack took great pleasure in writing—remains alive in his memory, with Elaine Belval, senior pedigree analyst at WTC, doing most of the heavy lifting these days.

Jack was very careful in this space to devote it to the accomplishments of horses and people, instead of using it as a place to bang his and the company’s drum, and we have followed the example he’s set. However, I’d like to acknowledge Jack and WTC and introduce the company to an international audience through a piece published recently at the Australian site www.stallions.com.au that backgrounds the rise of WTC and explains how it succeeded and why the company remains relevant today, because more than ever WTC is committed to servicing a growing international clientele in addition to it strong domestic base.

The article begins like this:

Established practices in any field can almost always be traced back to small, innovative enterprises that took on a big job and executed it well. Werk Thoroughbred consultants, based in Fremont, California, a quiet, East Bay suburb of silicon valley, certainly fits that profile.

“Jack Werk, who passed away early this year, founded the company in the late 1980s, initially running the operation in an office he rented in the rear of a Fremont hairdresser’s salon. The company quickly outgrew that modest beginning, however, and it did so by breaking the mold that had been cast for thoroughbred pedigree consulting services.

“Rather than seeking patronage for his services among the major commercial operations, Werk tailored his consulting to the small breeding operation and to new entrants to the game. Werk’s offer of an independent perspective caught on among clients wary of established practices of the time, and, with the introduction of the Werk Nick Rating, which provided an objective measure of the effectiveness of sire-line crosses, the business really took off.”

Please click here to read the entire story, which also explains new company features, such as MareMatch.

Part and parcel of international presence is having respected representatives in foreign countries, such as Andrew Reichard of Bluebloods in Australia. Australian breeders will remember Jack and Andrew traipsing through the countryside visiting farms Down Under last year, for example.

Before Jack passed, he was contacted by young Clive Webb-Carter, of Clive Webb-Carter Bloodstock Services, with an offer to represent WTC in Europe. Jack did his due diligence and was tremendously impressed by Clive, whose website information can be viewed here. Clive, like Jack, was also a blogger, a fact that Jack liked. Read Clive’s blog here.

I’m pleased to announce—and did just that in a press release this week—that Clive will represent the company in Europe, starting immediately. Clive can be contacted by phone at 44-07860158645 or by email at cwc@wcbloodstock.co.uk.

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