Broodmare honors a difficult call

It should be Wando-mania at the Sovereign Awards presentation in downtown Toronto on Dec. 6 when the handsome chestnut 3-year-old is expected to garner awards for Horse of the Year and top 3-year-old colt or gelding.

A son of Langfuhr out of Kathie's Colleen, Wando became the seventh Canadian Triple Crown winner this summer and won 4 of 6 starts for earnings of over $1.6 million.

Wando's owner and breeder, Gus Schickedanz, and the colt's trainer, Mike Keogh, are also up for awards, which are presented to the leading point-getters from a Canada-wide vote among racing and media personnel.

Schickedanz is a virtual certainty to be named the country's outstanding breeder.

In addition to Wando, Schickedanz bred Mobil, a 3-year-old who won five stakes this year. By Langfuhr, Mobil went over the $1 million mark in career earnings in 2003.

Schickedanz is also the co-breeder of a possible 2-year-old filly champion, My Vintage Port, a daughter of his own stallion Porto Foricos.

Handicapping this year's Sovereign for outstanding broodmare, however, is not as easy a task.

The award, a lifetime achievement honor in which a mare must have produced a Canadian-bred stakes winner in the current year and a stakes winner in another year, comes down to Annasan, Biddy Mulligan, and Radiant Ring, the three nominees announced on Nov. 26.

Radiant Ring, who was recently sold by Sam-Son Farms at this month's Keeneland November breeding stock sale for $1.1 million, is a slight favorite. A 15-year-old daughter of Halo out of Gleaming Stone, Radiant Ring was a Grade 2 stakes winner of over $742,000 from 1990 through 1993, with her biggest victory coming in the Matchmaker Stakes at Monmouth as a 4-year-old.

A Sam-Son homebred, Radiant Ring has produced five foals to race, including Catch the Ring, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2000 and Seeking the Ring, a stakes-winning 3-year-old filly this year, plus stakes-placed turf runners Earth Shadow and Lucky Old Sun.

The mare, who was purchased by Jon Kelly at Keeneland in foal to Seeking the Gold, has an unraced 2-year-old Gone West colt named Follow the Sun and a weanling filly by the Seeking the Gold.

Biddy Mulligan is a strong contender for the award for owner Mike Doyle. A daughter of Geiger Counter, she is the dam of Mulligan the Great, a multiple stakes winner this year who is one of the finalists for the sprinter Sovereign, as well as Biddy's Lad, a stakes winner last year.

Annasan, owned by Les Pereira's Beclawat Stable, produced A Bit o'Gold a Sovereign Award-nominated 2-year-old colt, plus Arco's Gold, a stakes-winning juvenile last year.

Sale to have two sessions

Before attending the Sovereign Awards, some horsemen will be selling and buying at the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's winter mixed sale, which begins at 11 a.m. on Dec. 6.

Broodmares and broodmare prospects will sell at the first session, which will be followed by a session selling yearlings, weanlings, and horses of racing age on Dec. 7.

The larger consignments include Longview Farm, Agent I and II, selling several horses for the Stronach family.

John Carey offers Stormy Alexis, a Sunny's Halo mare in foal to multiple champion One Way Love. Roy's Dreamgirl, consigned by Castle Peak Farm in foal to Gold Case, should also attract attention.

Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency has cataloged Apalachee Dream, a winning Apalachee mare in foal to top Florida sire Montbrook, and the impressively bred Hansel's Beauty, by Hansel, who is in foal to a young Storm Cat stallion, Stormy Atlantic.