Mineshaft could be forgiven if he’s starting to develop a complex.
The stallion is the only Horse of the Year by the great stallion A.P. Indy and now stands directly across the aisle from his pensioned sire in the Lane’s End stallion barn.
Yet one rarely hears the 2003 Horse of the Year discussed when the topic turns to A.P. Indy’s sons at stud. Most of the headline attention goes to veteran classic sire Malibu Moon or to the commercially popular champion Bernardini.
Ken Ramsey has never hesitated to support his homebred pride and joy, turf champion and leading sire Kitten’s Joy, with the lion’s share of the mares from his own broodmare band, and he has been rewarded for his faith with many high-end runners. Still, one target remains elusive. He’s brought three homebred colts by the stallion to the Kentucky Derby, with all of them running unplaced.
There is very little Giant’s Causeway hasn’t done while fashioning one of the most complete racing and breeding careers in the last two decades.
On an anecdotal basis, few things seem to get a stallion’s foals hot like sending him overseas.
Such is the case with Eskendereya, who will be represented by his first Kentucky Derby starter in Mor Spirit about eight months after being sold to the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders’ Association and exported to that country to continue his stud career.
:: Sires of the 2016 Kentucky Derby | Download the Derby Sire Guide
Exaggerator was part of a career year last year for young sire Curlin, as he ran with a maturity beyond his years to become a well-traveled multiple graded stakes winner. However, the best was yet to come, as the colt romped in the slop in the Santa Anita Derby to establish himself as a serious threat in the Kentucky Derby.
The best could be yet to come for Curlin, as well, thinks Steve Asmussen, who trained him to Horse of the Year honors in 2007 and 2008.
In September 2002, longtime Thoroughbred owner and breeder Verne Winchell picked out the last horse he would ever buy – a $625,000 son of Pulpit at the Keeneland September yearling sale. Winchell sent the horse to Keith Asmussen in Texas for his early lessons on being a racehorse. Two months later, Winchell died of a heart attack.
More than 13 years later, that horse, Tapit, has continued to pay dividends for Winchell Thoroughbreds, now led by Verne’s wife, Joan Winchell, and her son Ron.
Bernardini won one of the most tragic runnings of the Preakness ever, but he has confirmed that triumph – and year-end champion 3-year-old male title – by becoming a top sire and source of high-quality runners who can get two turns, a number of which have been successful at the 10-furlong distance of the Kentucky Derby.
When it comes to credentials for siring a Kentucky Derby winner, Street Cry stands alone among sires of 2016 Derby hopefuls. The late son of Machiavellian is the only one to have sired a Derby winner, that being Street Sense in 2007.
Street Cry, who stood at Darley in Lexington, Ky., from 2003 until his death in December 2015 at the age of 17, is the sire of the maiden Trojan Nation, who earned enough points to qualify to start in the Churchill classic with a second-place finish to Outwork in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial.
The modern-day gold standard for developing a homebred stallion is how Ken and Sarah Ramsey did it with champion and leading sire Kitten’s Joy, the sire of Kentucky Derby contender Oscar Nominated. But the Ramseys aren’t the only ones with a homebred stallion represented at this year’s Derby.
Fred and Jane Brei’s Jacks or Better Farm has already seen national success with foals by their homegrown sire Awesome of Course, led by Awesome Feather, the champion 2-year-old female of 2010 who won that year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies under the Breis’ colors.
