VERSATILE MIZZEN MAST FAVOURABLE WITH SADLER'S WELLS MARES

Taken from the TDN, Pedigree Insights by Andrew Caulfield

Surely any breeders wish-list must include owning a daughter of the great Sadler’s Wells. After all, this magnificent stallion has been Britain and Ireland’s champion sire of broodmares in each of the last four years, and his daughters have already produced roughly 80 group/graded winners.

Last year alone, they were represented by Henrythenavigator (2000 Guineas, Irish 2000 Guineas, St James’s Palace Stakes, Sussex Stakes), Music Note (Mother Goose Stakes, CCA Oaks, Gazelle Handicap), Conduit (St Leger, Breeders’ Cup Turf), Grand Couturier (Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, Sword Dancer Invitational Stakes), Creachadoir (Juddmonte Lockinge Stakes) and Youmzain (Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud).

But anyone with a Sadler’s Wells mare at this current time will need to be a bit adventurous in their choice of stallion. They can no longer rely on many of the stallions who helped lay the foundations of Sadler’s Wells’s success as a sire of broodmares.
Danehill, Darshaan, Indian Ridge, Nashwan and Warning all achieved at least 15 percent stakes winners with daughters of the 14-time champion sire, but they are no longer with us. And Kingmambo, with only 19 mares covered in 2008, can no longer be the automatic choice for owners of Sadler’s Wells mares with the necessary wealth.

So where else can these breeders go with any degree of confidence, especially in the U.S.?

One American stallion who will have to be considered as a mate for Sadler’s Wells mares is MIZZEN MAST. This very versatile horse has only two foals aged three or more out of Sadler’s Wells mares and both raced last week.

The first, an Irish three-year-old called Signal Fire (MIZZEN MAST), won an all-weather race in a style that suggests he could graduate to stakes class. And the second, the four-year-old Midships (MIZZEN MAST), turned in a thoroughly admirable display to lead throughout in the Grade 2 San Luis Rey Stakes on turf.

MIZZEN MAST is a grandson of the influential Caro, and so is In Excess, whose only foal out of a Sadler’s Wells mare is the Classic-winning French filly Musical Chimes (also winner of the Grade 1 John C. Mabee Handicap in the U.S.).

MIZZEN MAST appealed as a mate for Midship’s dam Interim on the basis that he had the size and bone to suit this pretty, feminine mare. He also had the speed and precocity to help a mare who was at her most successful as a four-year-old, when she landed the Grade 2 La Prevoyante Handicap over a mile and a half.

Interim’s best effort prior to Midships (MIZZEN MAST) was her Pleasant Colony colt Staging Post, runner-up in the Grade 1 San Juan Capistrano Handicap over a mile and three-quarters.

Another incentive for sending Interim to MIZZEN MAST was that she created 4x4 to Prince John and 5x6x5 to Princequillo. MIZZEN MAST’s sire Cozzene thrived with extra Princequillo blood.

Midships' (MIZZEN MAST) San Luis Rey success means that his sire now has five graded/group winners in his first two crops, each sired at a fee of $15,000, the others being Mast Track, Jibboom, Tropical Light and Madeo.
MIZZEN MAST has also been ably represented by the likes of Barrier Reef, the fast French colt Stern Opinion and the demoted Grade three first-place finisher Seaspeak.

This very encouraging record suggests that MIZZEN MAST, with his outcross pedigree, has the ability to step into Cozzene’s shoes in the Kentucky industry. His bright start brought him 149 mares in 2008, and that crop should allow him to show exactly how good he is.

Date: 24 March 2009