With every passing month, the loss of champion Arrogate early in his stallion career becomes starker. It was apparent again Saturday evening, as Arcangelo won the Belmont Stakes, conferring classic sire status on Arrogate posthumously.
With every passing month, the loss of champion Arrogate early in his stallion career becomes starker. It was apparent again Saturday evening, as Arcangelo won the Belmont Stakes, conferring classic sire status on Arrogate posthumously.
It was like mother, like daughter in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes on Saturday at Belmont Park. Cavorting, a three-time Grade 1 winner in New York, captured the race in 2016. Her first foal, Clairiere, is now a two-time Phipps winner after claiming Saturday’s edition.
“I am very proud, and of course her mother won this race, too,” said owner Barbara Banke of Stonestreet Farm. “It’s been a family tradition.”
There are few names better to find in the pedigree of a Belmont Stakes candidate than Tapit – and he has an outsized mark on Saturday’s renewal. Tapit, who is seeking to claim outright the record he co-holds with the great Lexington as the Belmont’s leading sire, is the sire of entrants Tapit Trice and Tapit Shoes. He is also the broodmare sire of four other entrants in the nine-horse field, in Arcangelo, Hit Show, Il Miracolo, and Red Route One.
Tapit, the most successful sire in the modern history of the Belmont Stakes and looking to secure the race’s sire record outright this weekend, wouldn’t be here without him. Neither would Quality Road, sire of Preakness Stakes winner National Treasure. And nor would four-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief, who will have Kentucky Oaks winner Pretty Mischievous in action this weekend at Belmont Park.
Dorth Vader, who upset the Grade 2 Davona Dale at odds of 45-1 earlier this winter at Gulfstream Park and most recently finished a game fifth after being hung wide pressing the early pace in the Kentucky Oaks, has been transferred from trainer Michael Yates to George Weaver in preparation for her upcoming start a week from Friday at Belmont Park in the Grade 1 Acorn.
American Rascal was born to international royalty, as his sire and first two dams are champions. He’ll look to begin growing into that legacy when, off an impressive debut victory, he targets the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes on June 22 at the Royal Ascot meeting.
Kentucky Derby winner Mage tested the capacity limits of the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs, as he is owned by the four-pronged partnership of OGMA Investments, Ramiro Restrepo, Sterling Racing, and Commonwealth, the latter involving several hundred partners. But, improbably, the winner's stand for the Preakness Stakes two weeks later looked even more likely to overflow as the owners of National Treasure took their turn with the Woodlawn Vase.
Mage, a graduate of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale, returned to Maryland a year after that auction as the Kentucky Derby winner.
Less than 48 hours after he was expected to start in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, horsemen will head to the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, some 15 minutes away, for this year’s Midlantic May sale. The auction has steadily grown in prominence from a solid regional sale into one of the leading auctions in the nation, buoyed by a constant stream of graded stakes-winning graduates.
This is the second in a three-part series examining Secretariat’s influence on the Thoroughbred bloodstock industry as we mark the 50-year anniversary of his historic Triple Crown triumphs. This week, learn about Big Red’s record as a sire, with his breakthrough performer in the American classics being Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner Risen Star, 35 years ago.
National Treasure is considered one of the primary challengers to Kentucky Derby winner Mage in the Preakness Stakes. Passing on the Kentucky Derby worked out well for one of the most prominent names deep in National Treasure’s family. His female line traces directly to Masda, full sister to the great Man o’ War, who skipped the 1920 Kentucky Derby before dominating the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.