EMPIRE MAKER ENJOYING EARLY SUCCESS AS SIRE
Article taken from the Daily Racing Forum
By FRANK MITCHELL
LEXINGTON, Ky. - This season began with unusual promise as a group
of five or six unusually good young stallions had their first foals
coming to the races in 2007. Of the premier group, Aldebaran,
Mineshaft, and Vindication all have had some moments in the
spotlight with their first-season racers, and the days are still
very early to make any sweeping judgments about their long-term
prospects as sires.
But EMPIRE MAKER is one young sire who began his year
as a member of this elite group and has already begun to show
unusual merit. And positive evidence is typically much more
important in evaluating breeding stock than the lack of evidence at
this stage.
With the success of Mushka in last weekend's Demoiselle added to
the Alcibiades victory of Country Star, EMPIRE
MAKER now has two graded stakes winners from his first
crop.
Juddmonte Farms stands EMPIRE
MAKER in Kentucky, and Juddmonte's farm manager Garrett
O'Rourke said that "without wanting to sound too high on him, this
is what we expected because we'd seen those here at the farm and at
farms of other breeders. They looked like athletes."
Although the handsome bay son of Unbridled and the El Gran Senor
mare Toussaud has had few runners to date, his offspring are
showing plenty of natural ability and it is allied with class.
O'Rourke said that having the 2-year-olds perform so well "is a
bonus."
"We weren't sure they would, but most look like they're all classic
potential," he said.
With seven winners from his first crop, most are showing
improvement as they grow into their frames and strengthen, and
horsemen concur that they should make better 3-year-olds. But the
exciting element is that EMPIRE
MAKER is having so much success from these relatively
immature athletes, with three stakes winners and the
graded-stakes-placed Turn Away.
"We had three fillies training at Keeneland this summer - lovely,
big, scopy fillies - that were very close in ability," O'Rourke
said. "Turn Away was one of those, and another is a filly called
Arboreta, out of Sleep Easy."
From the evidence of their racing, it seems that a majority of the
EMPIRE MAKERs have ability. And this makes the
results of EMPIRE MAKER's first season seem remarkably similar to
those from the first crop of his famous sire, Unbridled.
From a handful of starters and winners in his first crop, Unbridled
had a pair of major stakes winners in Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner
Unbridled's Song and the next year's Kentucky Derby winner
Grindstone.
This level of success by a Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic
winner set off a firestorm of bidding that nearly caused Unbridled
to be sold to overseas interests, but an American group purchased
the stallion and stood him at Claiborne for the rest of his stud
career.
Unbridled's best offspring included Preakness winner Red Bullet;
champion fillies Banshee Breeze, Halfbridled, and Smuggler; Grade 1
winners Anees, Manistique, and Eddington; as well as Belmont winner
EMPIRE MAKER.
Unbridled was put down following complications from colic surgery
in 2001, and a few of his youngest offspring are still on the
racetrack.
Not many of them will race much longer due to the demand for them
as breeding stock, and Unbridled's reputation as a sire of
stallions is increasing annually with the successes of Unbridled's
Song, Broken Vow, and now EMPIRE
MAKER.
EMPIRE MAKER does not have to rely solely on the
influence of his sire for excellence and impact on the breed.
Toussaud is one of the best broodmares in the world. As the dam of
four Grade 1 winners in EMPIRE
MAKER, Chester House, Chiselling, and Honest Lady, Toussaud has
made an immense impression on racing and was named Broodmare of the
Year in 2002.
And her offspring are making a mark in their stud careers. Chester
House died very young but has sired 18 stakes winners from three
crops, showing particular success as a sire of turf and all-weather
performers. Honest Lady is the dam of two talented stakes winners
in Phantom Rose and First Defence, and Grade 2 winner Decarchy is
in his early years at stud in California.
Clearly, the next generation is taking the center stage, and this
is the natural progression for Toussaud and all other horses. The
elegant bay mare is now 18 and has been pensioned.
Nor is all the story told on the offspring of Toussaud. The mare's
3-year-old and yearling are fillies by A.P. Indy, and there is the
potential for further success from them and from other young
daughters of the great mare by Seeking the Gold and Kingmambo.
Date:
03 December 2007