Breeders' Cup preview: Pedigree pointers

It's the season finale in North America and a Breeders’ Cup trophy is truly the most coveted prize of all?

The importance the American racing industry and public place on results on the first weekend of November cannot be underestimated. WinStar’s newest recruit to their 2023 Stallion roster Life Is Good’s fee is listed as $100,000*.

The asterisk indicates his fee may change pending the Breeders’ Cup Classic. With Flightline to conquer, it will likely remain unchanged, but this is a four time Grade 1 winner we’re talking about. Beaten twice from eleven starts with each win more impressive than the next, yet one race at the end of a lucrative three season campaign earning $4,361,700, can determine his opening fee.

A scintillating weekend of the best in the world taking on each other it may be, but this weekend is so much more. It can define a season and dictate the future for colts, fillies, mares and stallions alike, and here are some examples of the biggest possible results.

Frankel to add a Breeders’ Cup winner to his growing list of achievements?

With Dubawi wrestling the Champion Sire crown off Frankel after just one year on the throne, claiming a first Breeders’ Cup winner would be a timely boost for the stallion. He has a while to go before he can match Dubawi’s historic treble of 2021 (Modern Games, Space Blues and Yibir) but in Nashwa he has a very formidable contender to provide him with his first.

The Prix de Diane winner, who backed up her Classic win in the Nassau Stakes, has been one of her sire's leading ladies this season, sharing the spotlight with Arc winner Alpinista and crack miler Inspiral.

Testing ground was a viable excuse for her first defeat of the season in the Prix de l’Opera last time out. Her strongest challenge looks set to come from closer to home with her Oaks conqueror Tuesday and Prix St Alary winner Above The Curve next in the betting. Both high class G1 winners in their own right, on their most recent encounter Nashwa got the better of the pair, the latter by just a short head. Given the rate at which Frankel is siring top class runners, it’s only a matter of time before he strikes at the World Championships. There’s every reason to believe that Nashwa at her best will only need luck to get the ball rolling for him.

Golden Pal – a future stallion but at what cost?

Adding another Classic winner to his burgeoning record in Mo Donegal, Uncle Mo unsurprisingly tops the Ashford Stud roster at $150,000. New recruit and son of the headline act Uncle Mo, electric sprinter Golden Pal’s fee remains undisclosed pending the Breeders’ Cup.

Already a two time winner at the meeting, he bids for a historic third success in the Turf Sprint. A win will catapult him into the history books alongside the best of the best with only two horses ever completing the feat. Two mares who will live long in the memory – Goldikova who won the Turf Mile three times and Beholder, who like Golden Pal won her first as a juvenile, before taking the Distaff twice.

Golden Pal’s raw speed is a sight to behold, but a sight that unfortunately has failed to shine on European shores. Those misfires will be forgotten instantaneously if he can reproduce the brilliant speed we have come to expect on his home turf. Take his European ventures out of the equation and he arrives with a foot perfect preparation, his most recent win an effortless one over course and distance.

A win here would give the team at Ashford plenty to mull over regarding Golden Pal’s opening fee and give breeders intending to use him a much tougher time gaining access.

His importance to the breed is immeasurable. Uncle Mo has been a constant source of Grade 1 winners ever since retiring to the breeding ranks. A history making turf sprinting son of a proven stallion from a sire line with very little representation in Europe or America could present a very interesting prospect on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Being a descendant of Indian Charlie out of the tough, classy mare Lady Shipman (Midshipman), Golden Pal is an ideal outcross for our broodmare population which is becoming so saturated with Northern Dancer and Mr. Prospector. Regardless of the outcome, he’s an exciting prospect but a record third Breeders’ Cup win would render him one of the most intriguing and exciting retirements in recent memory.

The Curlin Fillies

As a $225,000 stallion, Curlin is expected to be well represented on such a monumental weekend. But to have two exceptionally high class multiple Grade 1 winning fillies from the same stable vying for favouritism in the Distaff is unimaginable.

In one corner is Kentucky Oaks winner Malathaat, an impeccably bred five time Grade 1 winner who appears to have reignited the spark we knew her to possess on her last two starts. A $1.05 million Keeneland September purchase, she is of immense importance to the reinvented Shadwell operation following the sad passing of Sheikh Hamdan and will be instrumental in the operation’s prosperity in the future.

But for now, we can enjoy her typically relaxed way of going as she travels into contention followed by her customary grit and determination to the wire, a riveting battle is surely on the cards. Coming from within her own barn, new kid on the block Nest fluffed her lines in the Kentucky Oaks when second to reopposing Secret Oath (Arrogate).

She then stumbled leaving the gates but still ran a gallant second to Mo Donegal in the Belmont Stakes, the final jewel in the American Triple Crown. However she is a perfect three for three since then including a pair of Grade 1s and goes for her fourth career G1 here. Nest is a daughter of Listed winner Marion Ravenwood and a full sister to G1 Santa Anita Handicap winner Idol who kindly waited to win his Grade 1 until after Eclipse Thoroughbreds and Repole Stable paid $350,000 to secure her at Keeneland September - a figure that would have undoubtedly risen had the pedigree received such a boost.

As if two superstar fillies aren’t enough, the next closest rival to the pair is Clairiere, another distinguished daughter of Curlin. A dual Grade 1 winner in her own right, she claimed the scalp of Malathaat in the G1 Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont in June.

Form analysts will tell us that Malathaat put in a rare below par performance though and the betting suggests the same. Apart from these three fillies all scoring at the highest level and being daughters of Curlin, what else do they have in common? Remarkably all three are bred on the lucrative Curlin x A P Indy cross.

Breeding the best to the best increases your chances of producing a star, but the odds appear much shorter when following this cross. Malathaat is a daughter of G1 winning juvenile Dreaming of Julia who is by the former Champion broodmare sire himself. Similarly, Marion Ravenwood is also by A P Indy whilst Clairiere is out of three time G1 winner Cavorting who is by A P Indy’s late son Bernardini. Bernardini was a premature loss to the breeding ranks but looks set to feature in the headlines for the near future given his prowess as a broodmare sire to date. He became the youngest sire to reach fifty stakes winners in this role in May 2021 and has only gone from strength to strength since.

This race is all about Curlin fillies and whilst Curlin’s name is already in the record books as the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, a trifecta on the biggest stage of all would deservedly ensure his place in the record books amongst the greatest of the greats.

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