Pioneerof the Nile sired eight individual winners between May 2 and June 6, according to Daily Racing Form’s SirePowered Results. However, there’s a particular one of those who will be remembered forever. American Pharoah, a second-crop son of the WinStar Farm sire, raced into history as the 12th Triple Crown winner and first since 1978 with a victory in the Belmont Stakes on June 6 at Belmont Park.
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DRF Past Performances
American Pharoah will be ushered into life at stud with monumental expectations when he retires from the track, whether or not he wins the Triple Crown.
If the colt sweeps the U.S. classics, he will become the 12th member of the exclusive club, the first 11 members of which reside in the Hall of Fame. However, their records at stud are not as uniformly praised, ranging from breed-shapers to near sterile.
While many of the Triple Crown winners made at least a dent at stud with their first generations, their names can still be found in the pedigrees of today’s notable runners – some of them front and center, and others buried deep within the bloodlines.
As the Mr. Prospector male line has expanded rapaciously over the last 30 years or so, it has remained an almost entirely American phenomenon in the eyes of the international breeding community. Although scions of Mr. Prospector account for almost as many American graded stakes winners each year as those of Northern Dancer, his male-line descendants are far less prolific in Europe, the Antipodes, South America, and Japan.
DRF sales editor Joe Nevills analyzes the Belmont Stakes field, in post position order, in the form of Haiku, a Japanese poem of 17 syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five.
Mubtaahij
Bred for the distance
But his Derby was so-so
Can’t get excited
Tale of Verve
Shocking Preakness run
But we’ve seen this play before
It ends off the board
Madefromlucky
Peter Pan winner
Takes a third swipe at Pharoah
On a track he likes
Charlie Boden will leave his position at Darley as head of sales at the operation’s U.S. base, Jonabell Farm in Lexington, Ky., on July 1.
Boden has held the position since 2006, and was instrumental in managing the careers of notable stallions including Street Cry, Medaglia d’Oro, and Bernardini. Darley also led all North American farms by number of mares bred twice during his tenure.
Escena, the champion older mare of 1998, died Tuesday at Diamond A Farms in Versailles, Ky., from the infirmities of old age, BloodHorse reported. The 22-year-old daughter of Strawberry Road had been living as a pensioner at Diamond A Farms, producing her last foal, a Shackleford filly, in 2014.
Bred in Kentucky, campaigned by Allen Paulson, and trained by Bill Mott, Escena won 11 of 29 career starts for earnings of $2,962,639.
European champion Dubawi got off to a flying start as a sire, and has quickly established himself as a worldwide presence. The exciting young stallion will get a chance to conquer a new frontier with Mubtaahij, seeking to become his sire’s first American classic winner in the Belmont Stakes.
Vertigineux, the 2008 Broodmare of the Year and dam of 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, died last year of colic, the Coolmore Stud Facebook page announced Tuesday.
According to the international breeding and racing operation’s post, the daughter of Kris S. was sent to Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, Ky., but efforts to save the mare were unsuccessful. She was 20 years old.