Analyze It has asserted himself as a leader in the 3-year-old male turf division with a 5 1/4-length win in the Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes at Keeneland, and he strengthened the résumés of his young sire and dam.
Owned by William H. Lawrence, Analyze It is the standout runner from the first crop of Grade 1 winner Point of Entry, a 10-year-old son of Dynaformer who stands at Adena Springs in Paris, Ky., for $20,000.
An active weekend of prep races for the Kentucky Derby and Oaks left the late Scat Daddy at the top of the Beyer Sire Performance Standings by 3-year-old Beyer Speed Figures at the 90-plus and 100-plus levels in 2018.
Scat Daddy, whose second-to-last crop is on the classic trail this year, has had his runners notch eight Beyer efforts of 90 or more through April 8, double the four horses tied for second.
The fall of the hammer on a seven-figure auction purchase is usually where the breeder’s part in a horse’s story ends, but Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Stables doesn’t always play by that narrative.
Banke has been a frequent partner with other major owners in the auction ring and on the racetrack. When the Stonestreet-bred Good Magic sold to bloodstock agent Mike Ryan on behalf of e Five Racing Thoroughbreds for $1 million at the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale, it didn’t take long to open the lines of communication and go back in for a piece of the Curlin colt.
Betting on the Kentucky Derby could turn out to be very interesting. The undefeated Justify very likely made himself the favorite with his dazzling victory over Bolt d’Oro in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, but there are perhaps a half-dozen colts who could legitimately start at single-digit odds.
Hawkbill posted a major payday last weekend, winning the Group 1, $6 million Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan. Half-brother Free Drop Billy looks for another major score for the family – and to punch his ticket to the Kentucky Derby – in Saturday’s Grade 2, $1 million Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.
:: KEENELAND CLOCKER REPORT: Get workout grades and comments for the spring meet
Regardless of what it says on the tote board, the twins Mr. Ping and Mr. Pong will have already defied astronomical odds when they break from the gate in Friday’s fourth race at Charles Town.
The successful birth of twins is rare for horses, especially Thoroughbreds, due to the risks it can pose to both the mare and foals. About 10 percent of Thoroughbred pregnancies initially result in twins, but almost all of them are either brought down to one by a veterinarian, the mare will abort both potential foals, or complications will lead to at least one stillborn foal.
Enticed
Medaglia d’Oro-It’s Tricky, by Mineshaft
Bred in Kentucky by Godolphin
Since American breeders turned away from foreign-raced turf sires in the early 1990s after the contraction of the industry caused by the recession of the late 1980s, it has become routine to refer to some pedigrees as “dirt pedigrees” and others as “turf pedigrees.” As a veteran of the era when those same European turf stars routinely sired American dirt champions, I have never been very comfortable with such blithe dichotomies, and there could hardly be a better illustration of the reason why than the results of the two biggest races of the weekend.
Mind Your Biscuits’s victory in Saturday’s Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen will be remembered for his heart-stopping stretch drive, but will also be noted as the race that made him the highest-earning New York-bred of all time.
The win increased Mind Your Biscuits’s lifetime earnings to $3,719,286, surpassing the record of $3,529,412 held by champion Funny Cide, who kept the title for more than a decade.
Born Gold, the dam of champion Goldikova and five other group stakes winners, has died at age 27. Pierre-Yves Bureau, who manages the racing and breeding interests of the Blushing Groom mare's owner-breeders, the Wertheimer brothers, reported the mare's death via Twitter.
