By Frances J. Karon
The sire of 103 black-type winners (7% to foals), Unbridled’s Song was Unbridled’s most successful son at stud, but he hadn’t left a clear successor when he passed away in July of 2013. There have, however, been glimmers of promise: Dullahan and Take the Points, by Even the Score; Majestic Harbor and Ria Antonia, by Rockport Harbor, who died a week after Unbridled’s Song; Fashion Plate, by Old Fashioned; Close Hatches, a five-time Grade 1 winner, by First Defence; and Havana, by Dunkirk–all Grade 1 winners by sons of Unbridled’s Song.
Of these sons of Unbridled’s Song, only First Defence was a Grade 1 winner; Dunkirk, while Grade 1-placed, wasn’t even a stakes winner. Many of Unbridled’s Song’s Grade 1-winning sons range from having first two-year-olds this year to standing their first season in 2015. Spendthrift Farm’s  Cross Traffic falls into the latter category.
A tall grey like his sire, Cross Traffic was a $300,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling from the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment. (Here is Cross Traffic’s pedigree, through a full sister not sold at the 2014 Keeneland September sale.) His dam, the multiple Grade 1-winning Cure the Blues mare Stop Traffic, was a durable racemare who made 35 starts from two to six. Cross Traffic is her best produce.
Racing for GoldMark Farm and trained by Todd Pletcher, Cross Traffic made six starts, all at four, but established his credentials right away. He won a 6 1/2-furlong maiden in January and a one-mile allowance/optional claimer, both at Gulfstream Park, by 7 1/2 in March. His winning time of 1:35.17 in his second race was particularly impressive as it mirrored that of Discreet Dancer’s in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap on the same card.
At Belmont Park, Cross Traffic was thrown straight into Graded company and was second by a head to top handicapper (and fellow Spendthrift sire) Flat Out in the one-mile Grade 3 Westchester Stakes, with 11 lengths to the third horse; and by a nose to Sahara Sky in the Metropolitan Handicap-G1, also at a mile. He got his Grade 1 win in his fifth start, in the nine-furlong Whitney Invitational Handicap, defeating Fort Larned and Mucho Macho Man, the 2012 and 2013 Breeders’ Cup Classic winners.
Cross Traffic sustained an injury in his only other start, when he was unplaced in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. It was hoped that he would return to the races in 2014, but instead he was officially retired this September to Spendthrift in Lexington, Kentucky, where he’ll stand for $12,500 stands and nurses.
First or second in five of six tries, Cross Traffic earned $687,987 and proved himself a brilliant type who could carry his speed nine furlongs against the highest level of competition.
From a pedigree standpoint for matings, one of Cross Traffic’s most attractive assets is that, unlike many of the stakes winners by Unbridled’s Song/sons, he has no Northern Dancer, and mares from various lines of Northern Dancer should blend well with him. For example, daughters of Storm Cat-line sires have produced 22 non-restricted black-type winners–10 graded–by Unbridled’s Song/sons (A eNick). Cross Traffic may have even more of an affinity, since his broodmare sire Cure the Blues has a second dam (Speedwell, by Bold Ruler out of Imperatrice) who is closely related to Storm Cat’s broodmare sire Secretariat (by Bold Ruler out of a daughter of Imperatrice). Cure the Blues and Secretariat are combined in the pedigrees of at least 46 stakes winners, 16 of them graded.
Deputy Minister (A nick) is another Northern Dancer-line horse to have done well, with nine graded winners among 14 non-restricted stakes winners. Specific branches of Deputy Minister with a good history are Dehere (dam by Secretariat; A+++ nick) and French Deputy (A+). The worldwide cross with Danzig is only C+, but that grade improves to an A in North America, via GeoNicks.
Outside of Northern Dancer, Mt. Livermore gets an A+ because mares from his sire line have produced eight stakes winners (two graded) with Unbridled’s Song/sons, and A.P. Indy (A nick) is, like Storm Cat, out of a Secretariat mare.