THE FUTURE’S SO BRIGHT
Article taken from TDN
Pedigree Insight - by Andrew Caulfield
I’ve mentioned in this column before that the Argentine import Lord at War has a remarkable record as a broodmare sire, especially considering that he was never very fashionable during his lifetime.
His daughters’ runners this year include 10 stakes winners, headed by the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Classic hero Raven’s Pass and the recent Grade I Cashcall Futurity winner Pioneerof the Nile. Their career totals stand at 40 stakes winners from 708 foals, with arguably the most relevant of these 40 being War Emblem, who was transformed from minor juvenile winner into the hero of the 2002 Kentucky Derby and Preakness. War Emblem and Pioneerof The Nile are both by Mr. Prospector-line stallions (as indeed are Raven’s Pass and Citronnade, another of the Grade I winners out of Lord at War mares).
War Emblem’s dam Sweetest Thing was a stakes performer and so too was Star of Goshen, the dam of Pioneerof the Nile. For a while it looked as though Star of Goshen had a tremendous future. Unraced at two, the $175,000 daughter of Lord at War coasted home well clear in a Santa Anita maiden before defeating allowance company by six lengths.
These highly encouraging displays earned her a tilt at stakes company. Her connections considered throwing her in at the deep end in the Kentucky Oaks, but caution prevailed and Star of Goshen lined up instead for the La Troienne Stakes over seven furlongs. Her performance left everyone wondering what might have happened had she been pitched in against the likes of Blushing K.D., Tomisue’s Delight, Sharp Cat and Storm Song in the main event. Producing stunning acceleration, she strolled home 11 lengths clear of Hennessy’s half-sister Pearl City, who was later to become a Grade I winner.
Unfortunately, Star of Goshen’s promise went largely unfulfilled. Sent off at odds of 1-20 in the Edgewood Stakes later in May, she failed to reel in the front-running Snowy Apparition. Worse was to follow in the Grade II Hollywood Oaks. Eased before the finish, Star of Goshen then underwent surgery for a displaced palate and she never raced again.
Star of Goshen couldn’t be described as a blue-blooded individual, as Lord at War commanded a fee no higher than $7,500 at the time of her conception. Neither of her first two dams had earned black type, and her second dam Her Native was by Kanumera, a minor stakes winner who spent some of his stallion career in Louisiana. On the other hand, Star of Goshen’s dam Castle Eight had already produced Powis Castle, winner of the Grade II Malibu Stakes, so Star of Goshen deserved every chance as a broodmare.
Those chances included visits to such as A.P. Indy and Storm Cat, but her colts by these champion sires never raced. She fared much better with Gone West, sire of her talented son Forefathers, and now she has finally fulfilled her potential by producing Pioneerof the Nile to EMPIRE MAKER.
EMPIRE MAKER was the last of the four Grade I winners produced by the exceptional Toussaud. Chester House, the eldest of the four, tended to be thought of as EMPIRE MAKER’S half-brother at the time of his death in 2003, but he has since emerged from the shadow cast by his younger sibling, in much the same way that Fairy King earned his own identity after starting out as Sadler’s Wells’s brother.
Chester House’s sensational statistics in 2008 include 18 stakes winners from 103 runners, and among those 18 are two Breeders’ Cup winners in Ventura and Muhannak, the Met Mile winner Divine Park and the group/graded winners Spring House, Phoenix Tower, Hostess and Warning Zone. This represents a tremendous achievement for a stallion who stood his three seasons at Juddmonte Farms at fees of $25,000 or $20,000.
One aspect of Chester House’s stallion career which may have gone largely unnoticed is that only four of his numerous stakes winners enjoyed stakes success at two and only one of the four Warning Zone won at graded level at that age.
EMPIRE MAKER has already comfortably beaten Chester House’s figures with his first two crops, each of which contain three juvenile stakes winners. Although he was no more precocious than Chester House, the 2003 Belmont Stakes winner has shown himself capable of coming up with the occasional high-class juvenile, starting with Country Star and Mushka last year. Country Star scored a Grade I double in the Alcibiades Stakes and Hollywood Starlet Stakes, while Mushka took the Grade II Demoiselle. At the same time, there are signs that other talented performers by EMPIRE MAKER are going to follow the Chester House route, making greater-than-normal improvement as they reach maturity, and it could pay to watch EMPIRE MAKER’S first-crop four-year-olds in 2009.
Pioneerof the Nile has a lot to live up to as a winner of Hollywood’s Futurity. Bearing in mind that previous winners of the Futurity include such as Snow Chief, A.P. Indy, Real Quiet, Captain Steve, Point Given, Lion Heart and Brother Derek, there is every reason to expect Pioneerof the Nile a May 5 foal, to develop into formidable three-year-old.
His owner-breeder, Ahmed Zayat, understandably has Kentucky Derby ambitions, and there is no reason why his colt shouldn’t be suited by a mile and a quarter. EMPIRE MAKER had stamina to spare and Pioneerof the Nile’s broodmare sire Lord at War won the Santa Anita Handicap Icon Project, another very useful performer by EMPIRE MAKER out of an excellent Lord at War mare, has shown she stays a mile and a half in Europe.
Date: 23 December 2008