21 minute read
Front runners
Front runners leading the field
Alan Porter reviews the World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, and finds that, despite the top two horses Ghaiyyaith and Authentic racing in different parts of the world, they were similar performers
WHEN GHAIYYATH – a record-breaking €1,000,000 Goffs November weanling – took the Autumn Stakes (G3) on the third of three juvenile starts, Godolphin must have felt confident that they had a star in the making.
It’s no surprise that events confirmed that hope, but it’s unlikely that his connections thought that it would take more than two and a half years for that early promise to be truly realised.
There was nothing wrong with the form that Ghaiyyath showed at three, but that form came on his sole appearance with victory in the Prix du Prince d’Orange (G3) by 3l over the useful Sacred Life.
As a four-year-old in 2019 he was more active making four starts spread over eight months. He kicked off his season in April easing home a length and a half clear in the Prix Harcourt (G2) after opening up by more than 5l at halfway.
Three weeks later in the Prix Ganay (G1), he was made to look one-paced as Waldgeist and Study Of Man pounced on him in the straight. Away for just over four months, he reemerged with a sensational performance.
Trying 1m2f for the first time in the Grosser Preis von Baden (G1), he galloped home 14l clear of the subsequent Group 1 winner Donjah.
He attempted similar front-running tactics in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1), but was found out by the very soft ground.
Wintering in Dubai, Ghaiyyath opened his 2020 campaign running the opposition off their feet in the 1m2f Dubai Millennium Stakes (G3). Back in England for the Coronation Cup (G1), Ghaiyyath’s cruising speed proved far too much for the opposition.
Returned to 1m2f, Ghaiyyath had little trouble taking the Eclipse Stakes (G1) from a ring-rusty Enable.
The race that put the seal on Ghaiyyath’s rating was the Juddmonte International Stakes (G1). Once again his cruising speed took the sting out of his rivals well before the finish, leaving him 3l clear of Magical, with Lord North, Kameko and Rose Of Kildare further back.
He couldn’t reproduce that form in his final outing in the Irish Champion Stakes (G1), when harried throughout by Magical, who extracted revenge by three-quarters of a length.
His rating of 130 has been surpassed in the last decade by Frankel (136 and 140, the latter the highest figure of all-time), Arrogate (134, twice) and American Pharoah (134), and is equal with Cracksman and Winx (joint-leaders in 2018 although that doesn’t take into account Winx’s sex allowance), the mares Treve and Black Caviar (joint-leaders in 2013) and Just A Way. He is above the 128 of Crystal Ocean, Waldgeist and Enable.
As indicated by his purchase price as a foal, Ghaiyyath is as well-bred a horse as one could imagine – he’s by one of the great sires of the era and out of a Classic-winning daughter of the other.
He stands as the highest-rated of the 195 stakes winners, 44 Group or Grade 1 by Dubawi.
Given the line’s predominance in North America, it’s interesting that the Europeanbased Dubawi holds a position as the world’s leading Mr. Prospector-line stallion.
He descends from that horse through Seeking The Gold – who lacks a top commercial representative in North America – and the tragically short-lived Dubai Millennium.
Ghaiyyath’s dam Nightime has the singular distinction of her victory in the 2006 Irish 1,000 Guineas (G1) being the first Classic score for a son or daughter of Galileo.
She’s produced another real standout in the Fastnet Rock mare Zhukova, leading European older mare at intermediate distances on the classifications in 2016, and conqueror of colts in the Man O’ War Stakes (G1) in the US.
It’s an extremely international family as the second dam, the Irish Listed winner Caumshinaun, is also grand-dam of Ondina, successful in a Listed race in Australia, and King Of Koji, who took the Meguro Kinen (G2) in Australia.
The Dubawi/Galileo cross – an inevitable one given the prominence of the two principals – has produced 43 starters and seven black-type winners, Ghaiyyath being preceded at the highest level by Night Of Thunder, with Dartmouth and Secret Advisor joining them at Group-winning level.
The cross is interesting for giving Seeking The Gold and Miswaki, both by Mr. Prospector out of Buckpasser mares, in the third and fourth generations.
The first two major sons of Dubawi to stud, Makfi and Poet’s Voice, would have to be judged disappointing overall, although Mafki did get the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (G1) winner Make Believe, sire of the 2020 Prix du Jockey-Club (G1) winner Mishriff in his first crop, as well as the winners of an Australian and a New Zealand Oaks (both G1).
Poet’s Voice sired the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1) victor Poet’s Word, who himself topped the Long category on the World Rankings.
Night Of Thunder, however, was a pleasant surprise with his first crop in 2019 and maintained his momentum in 2020, while another Dubawi son New Bay made a very promising start with his first twoyear-olds last year. Dubawi’s two-year-old champion Too Darn Hot is about to start his second season at stud.
Ghaiyyath will retire as a six-year-old, but it needs to be underlined that he was forward enough to win a Group race as a two-year-old.
We’d also note that Ghaiyyath’s frontrunning style speaks volumes for his cardiovascular, metabolic and biomechanical efficiency, something not necessarily guaranteed in performers who can produce a sharper finish of a slow pace.
With second, third and fourth dams by Indian Ridge, Bluebird and Thatching, the pedigree is not exactly short of speedy influences.
Sire power
The two principals in Ghaiyyath’s pedigree, Dubawi and Galileo were the joint-third and second best-represented horses by runners on the WBRRs with five and six horses respectively, but this term, at least, they were left trailing by the late Deep Impact, who was responsible for no less that 11 individuals.
Dubawi, Galileo and Deep Impact all went to stud with high expectations and received quality mates from the start of their careers, but the same can’t be said for Into Mischief, who is sire of both Authentic (top three-yearold, and top Dirt runner) and Gamine (top three-year-old filly, top sprint female and top female Dirt runner).
Into Mischief, a now 16-year-old son of Harlan’s Holiday, was from the first crop of his sire.
A multiple Grade 1 winner up to a 1m1f Harlan’s Holiday was turning into a very good stallion prior to his death at the age of 15. He was a son of the even shorter-lived Harlan, who was a 7f Grade 1 winner by Storm Cat out of a Halo mare.
Into Mischief’s dam Leslie’s Lady was only a minor stakes scorer, but did run speed figures equal with winners of far more prestigious stakes.
Although it wasn’t apparent when Into Mischief retired to stud, Leslie’s Lady has turned out to be a remarkable broodmare.
Her 2010 filly foal Beholder was a fourtime Eclipse Award winner, and also leader or joint-leader in her distance category for three straight years on the WBRRs.
Mendelssohn, Leslie’s Lady’s 2015 colt by Scat Daddy, won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) at two, at three was a runaway victor in the UAE Derby (G2) and was multiple Grade 1 placed on Dirt. He’s now a very popular young sire in the US, and is represented by his first crop yearlings in 2021.
Leslie’s Lady’s current three-year-old, America’s Joy, a filly by American Pharoah, realized an astonishing $8,200,000 as a yearling.
Into Mischief proved a fast and precocious individual, a 8f Grade 1 winner at two and a Grade 1 runner-up as a three-year-old in the Malibu Stakes (G1).
Retired as one of the first of the horses in the Spendthrift Farm “Share the Upside” programme in which breeders’ could convert multiple season purchases into lifetime breeding rights, Into Mischief began his career at a fee of $12,500, which is typical for horses in this price-range. His fee was dropped in successive years to $10,000, $8,500 and then $7,500. Into Mischief’s first four seasons yielded crop sizes of 45, 31, 39 and 39.
Since then it’s been nothing but onward and upward for Into Mischief. He was leading sire of two-year-olds in 2018, leading sire overall and leading sire of two-year-olds in 2019 and 2020’s leading sire overall – with record progeny earnings of more than $20 million.
He has been getting ever better quality mares and now books of over 200. In 2021 he is the most expensive stallion in the US at a fee of $225,000, and it would be no surprise he retains a lock on the stallion title for several more seasons.
Authentic: tore his way through his three-year-old year with three Grade 1 wins and confirmed that his sire Into Mischief could get Classic types in the US
Initially, Into Mischief made his name as a sire of fast two-year-olds and sprinter/ milers, but it’s worth remembering that his Grade 1 win came over eight and a half furlongs. In 2018 his son Audible took a major Kentucky Derby (G1) prep, the Florida Derby (G1), then ran third in the Derby itself.
Confirmation of Into Mischief as a potential Classic sire came as Authentic worked his way to the top of the three-year-old division with victories in the Sham Stakes (G3), San Felipe Stakes (G2) and Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1). In the Kentucky Derby – run last year in September, not May – Authentic met the top three-year-old Tiz The Law (from the first crop of Constitution, a Tapit son, who has proved something of a surprise success) and went wire-to-wire to score by over 1l. In the Preakness Stakes (G1) Authentic was narrowly upset by the three-year-old filly Swiss Skydiver, who herself had been surprisingly beaten by Shedaresthedevil in the Kentucky Oaks (G1).
On WBRRs Swiss Skydiver was rated 122, the third-best three-year-old filly behind Gamine and Love, with Shedaresthedevil on 120.
Swiss Skydiver and Shedaresthedevil are both from the first crop of the More Than Ready horse Daredevil, who became the only stallion to sire a winner of the Preakness and Kentucky Oaks in the same year.
Daredevil took a sloppy renewal of the Champagne Stakes (G1) at two, but failed to win in three subsequent starts. In his fourth season in the US, Daredevil only saw 21 mares, and so found himself in Turkey for 2020. His success started something of a chase to repatriate him, and as a result he will stand for 2021 as the property of the Turkish Jockey Club, but at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky where his fee will be $25,000. Authentic returned in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) against one of the stronger fields seen for this race, and gave an exhilarating front-running display to break the 1m2f track-record established by American Pharoah in the same race in 2014.
The runner-up Improbable (City Zip, a son of the Mr. Prospector stallion Carson City) was coming off a sequence of three straight Grade 1 victories, and ended up on a rating of 123, making him top older Dirt male and second best older over a mile.
Ghaiyyath and Authentic both produced their best performances over 1m2f, and both are dedicated front runners. This tends to aid their ratings as this often to leads to wider margins at the finish of a race than those achieved by a “sit and kick” horse, however talented.
Ghaiyyath’s efforts, particularly over the 1m2f, had the stamp of a horse who was triumphing by virtue of stamina being able to maintain a higher percentage of his maximum pace, whereas Authentic, a speedier sort – he won over 5f on his only start at two – rationed out his speed in a “catch-me-if-you-can” style.
That’s typical of the modern US Classic horse, a fast, long-striding (which was particularly in evidence in Authentic’s Breeders’ Cup) horse that runs on, or near the pace and carries its speed.
Authentic was certainly bred for speed – he’s by Into Mischief and out of Flawless, by the sprinter Mr. Greeley. He is best-known in Europe as sire of Finsceal Beo, who completed and English/Irish 1,000 Guineas (G1) double, Saoirse Abu, successful in the Phoenix Stakes (G1) and Moyglare Stud Stakes (G1) at two, and Crusader, who took the Middle Park Stakes (G1).
Sprinters and stayers rated 125
Just a point below Authentic on 125 comes a group that contains the leaders of several divisions, as well as the second top older horse Addeybb (Pivotal), who took the Dooneside Cup and Champion Stakes (G1) on his last two starts.
The 125 mark brought together the leaders of different divisions, featuring the joint-top sprinters Bivouac and Classique Legend, the top extreme distance horse Stradivarius, as well as the top milers, one three-yearold and one four-year-old, Palace Pier and Persian King. As so often the top sprinters, Bivouac and Classique Legend are Australian-bred and trained.
Bivouac, who won the VRC Newmarket Handicap (G1) and VRC Sprint Classic (G1) from eight starts, made a considerable jump from his 2019 rating of 118.
Still an entire Bivouac is by veteran speed sire Exceed and Excel. His dam Dazzler is by More Than Ready and out of Camarilla, the second top mare on the Australian two-yearold classification and also dam of Exceed and Excel’s Australian champion three-year-old filly Guelph.
The third dam Camarena was a Danehill daughter (making Bivouac 2x4 to Danehill), who defeated colts in the Queenland Derby (G1) and was a sister to Watchful. Her Elusive Quality son Sepoy won the Golden Slipper (G1) and was champion in Australia at two and three.
The female line has been in New Zealand and Australia since the late 1800s. The family also produced Canny Lad, a champion two-year-old and Golden Slipper (G1) winner in 1990, a significant sire, and a threequarters to Bivouac’s fourth dam.
Joint leading sprinter Classique Legend after winning the valuable The Everest, a race in which he beat Bivouac by two and a half lengths
Since then it’s the grafting on of European/North American strains, particularly Danehill and Elusive Quality, who rather interestingly are linked by pedigree in that Danehill is a Northern Dancer/His Majesty cross, while Elusive Quality is out of a mare by Hero’s Honor, by Northern Dancer out of a mare by Graustark (a brother to His Majesty).
Classique Legend is a 2015 gelding, who didn’t win his first black-type race until taking the Listed June Stakes in mid-2020.
He progressed fast to add the ATC Shorts Handicap (G2) and when beating Bivouac in The Everest. It isn’t a graded stakes due to its conditions, but carries a A$15,000,000 purse.
Oddly enough, Classique Legend’s pedigree is strangely interwoven with Bivouac’s.
His dam the Encosta De Lago mare Pinocchio has produced the Grade 2 winner Aethero to Bivouac’s relative Sebring.
His own sire, the multiple champion Australian sire Redoute’s Choice is by Danehill, and is out of a mare by Canny Lad, so connected to the sire line and female line of Bivouac.
Stradivarius, a six-year-old in 2020, was ranked for a fourth straight year and was at the head of the Extended category for the third consecutive year.
His rating has risen every year from 118 to 120, to 122 and then to 125. Paradoxically, this highest rating came after a year that in some ways was less successful than the previous three. He won only two of six starts, but one of those was a 10l tally in the Ascot Gold Cup (G1), his third consecutive victory in that race and his fourth at Royal Ascot, and the other was a record-breaking fourth win in the Goodwood Cup (G1).
As for his defeats, the first was when third to Ghaiyyath over 1m4f on his seasonal debut, the second came when defeated by a short-neck by Anthony Van Dyck in the Prix Foy (G2).
He wasn’t able to do better than seventh in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1), and after that effort in deep doing, it was no surprising that he showed little when asked to run on testing ground again just 13 days later in the British Champions Long Distance Cup (G2).
Stradivarius remains in training to attempt a fourth Ascot Gold Cup (G1) victory, and then one suspects it will be time for a stud career. It will be interesting to see what opportunities he gets there – as a son of Sea The Stars from a very good Wildenstein family he has the pedigree to get Flat runners, if he gets the opportunity.
His biggest rival this year might be the British Champions Long Distance Cup (G2) winner Trueshan, second-best on 118 in the Extended category. By strange coincidence, as with Bivouac and Classique Legend, there is a strong pedigree connection between the two top-rated horses in the category.
Stradivarius is a Danzig-line horse whose fourth dam is Plencia, and that description also exactly fits Planteur, the sire of Trueshan.
Kingman enjoyed a strong year thanks, in particular, to Palace Pier (above), Persian King (below) and Domestic Spending in the US
The Kingman three
The Danzig line is also the source for Palace Pier and Persian King, the leading threeyear-old and leading older horse in the Intermediate category.
This duo are from the second and first crop of Kingman, a stallion likely to be a major influence in the years to come.
A four-time Group 1 winner who won seven of his eight starts, his sole defeat came behind Night Of Thunder in the 2,000 Guineas (G1) when his normally lethal finishing burst was deployed too early. Kingman certainly has the pedigree – he is by Invincible Spirit out of the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (G1) heroine Zenda.
Kingman’s start at stud suggests that he may well threaten Frankel as “King of the Hill” at Juddmonte.
So far, he has 15 stakes winners, five group/graded, in his first crop, and 13, eight group/graded, in his second crop.
In addition to Persian King and Palace Pier he also has Domestic Spending, who took the Hollywood Derby (G1) last year.
Looking at the pedigrees of Kingman’s high-ranking duo Persian King, who just happens to come from the same Plencia family as Stradivarius and Planteur, the sire of Trueshan, he has an intriguing pedigree pattern. Invincible Spirit is by a son of Danzig out of a mare by Kris, and Persian
King’s broodmare sire Dylan Thomas is by a son of Danzig out of a mare by Diesis, the brother to Kris.
A rather similar pattern, Kingman over a mare by Danehill Dancer, has come up with Group winner Chachnak and the black-type scorer Twist ‘n’ Shake, and the cross with Danehill mares has been good in general.
Palace Pier is out of a mare by Nayef, and is a reverse Mr. Prospector/Northern Dancer cross to Kingman himself, and there are eight stakes winners for Kingman out of Mr. Prospector line mares, including Domestic Spending who is out of a Street Cry mare.
Almond Eye the top female
On 124, the top female, and leading distaff performer in the Intermediate and Long categories, Almond Eye seems to have been damned with faint praise.
Although she is divisional leader, her rating – the same as her allocation in 2018, 2019 and 2020 – hardly seems to flatter her after a year in which four starts saw her take the Victoria Mile (G1) – when she ran the 1600m in a remarkable 1:30.6s – take second in the 1600m Yasuda Kinen (G1), win the Autumn Tenno Sho-Emperor’s Cup (G1) over 2000m in 1:57.8, and take her second Japan Cup (G1) covering the 2400m in 2:23s. In the Japan Cup, she had over a length and a neck to spare over three-yearolds Contrail and Daring Tact.
That duo were previously undefeated winners of the Japanese Triple Crown and Filly Triple Crown.
Almond Eye, a five-year-old of 2020, is from the first crop of Lord Kanaloa, rated the world’s top sprinter in 2013. He is the product of a sire and dam who were imported from the US in utero. He’s by the late King Kamehameha, a former leading sire in Japan and a son of Kingmambo out of the Irish-bred Last Tycoon mare Manfath.
His dam Lady Blossom is by Storm Cat and out of the US champion three-year-old filly Saratoga. In direct female line the family goes back to a sister to Secretariat.
Lord Kanaloa has made a tremendous start with 24 stakes winners to date, and 10 apiece in each of his first two crops. He was very effective at up to a mile, but his offspring have met with high-level success over a very wide range of distances.
His progress has been helped by the fact that he’s crossed well with Sunday Silence line mares with nine of 15 of his graded winners on that cross, including Almond Eye, who is out of a mare by Sunday Silence.
Hong Kong, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, New Zealand and Czechoslovakia all represented at the top of the WBRRs
LOOKING FURTHER afield, we can note that Hong Kong’s Golden Sixty is another rated 124, just a point shy of being top in the Intermediate category.
Now a winner of 12 straight races, Golden Sixty was foaled in Australia, but has an international pedigree as he comes from a shuttle crop by Medaglia D’Oro, and he’s out of Gaudemus, a US-bred daughter of Distorted Humor, who took the Debutante Stakes (G2) in Ireland at two.
South Africa had a leading duo in Do It Again on 121 and Hawwaam on 120. Do It Again is by the Juddmonte International (G1) winner Twice Over, a son of Observatory, by the Mr. Prospector horse Distant View. His dam Sweet Virginia is a Group winner and multiple Group producer by the Sadler’s Wells horse, Casey Tibbs.
Hawwaam is by the five-time South African champion sire Silvana (Lomitas). He’s out of Halfway To Heaven, a Group winner by Jet Master (by Rakeen, a Northern Dancer half-brother to Rahy and Singspiel), who has produced two other Grade 1 winners. Seven Argentine-trained performers made the rankings the top being Tetaze, 117 in the Intermediate category. He is by Equal Stripes (a son of Candy Stripes from the Blushing Groom line) out of a mare by Danehill’s relative Orpen.
Brazil’s Pimper’s Paradise is rated 116 in both Intermediate and Long categories. He’s by Put It Back (by Honour and Glory, from the Relaunch branch of the In Reality line, which goes back to Man O’ War) out of a mare by Royal Academy.
Uruguay’s Ajuste Fiscal appears on 115 in the Long category. He is by Dynaformer (Roberto) son Ioya Bigtime, out of a mare by Storm Surge (Storm Cat).
Even Czechoslovakia had a representative – Nagano Gold (115). He is a British-bred son of Sixties Icon and is out of a Monsun mare who was beaten just a neck in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (G1) and ran third to Anthony Van Dyke and Stradivarius in the Prix Foy (G2).
Top of four German representatives was Torquator Tasso (117 in the Long category). He’s by Adlerflug (In The Wings) out of a Toylsome (Cadeaux Genereux) mare, and his fourth dam Allegretta (dam of Urban Sea) is a sister to the grand-dam of Adlerflug.
Top of six New Zealand horses was Te Akau Shark (118, Medium category), who took the Waikato Sprint (G1) in his native country and the Chipping Norton Stakes (G1) in Australia. He’s by Galileo’s son Rip Van Winkle out of a mare by the Canadian Champion Turf horse, Chief Bearhart (Chief’s Crown).
Daring Tact (119) by Epiphaneia, is the first Grade 1 winner inbred to Sunday Silence
Contrail and Daring Tact star for Japan
Contrail (rated equal with Almond Eye 124) and Daring Tact (119) are clearly also superior performers.
Contrail, the fourth-rated three-year-old, was also champion of his crop at two. He is out of an Unbridled’s Song daughter of Folklore, the champion two-year-old filly of 2005 in the US, and he might well turn out to be the heir to his late all-conquering sire, Deep Impact.
Daring Tact is from the first full crop of her sire, the promising Epiphaneia.
Epiphaneia gained his own Classic triumph in the Kikuka Sho, and the following year won the Japan Cup (G1). On the WBRRs he was rated the joint-leading threeyear-old male in the Extended Distance category, and the following year headed the Long category.
Epiphaneia is by two-time Japan Horse of the Year and successful sire Symboli Kris S., a US-foaled son of Kris S. (Roberto) and out of Cesario (by the Sunday Silence horse, Special Week), who took both the Yushin Himba-Japanese Oaks, and American Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1).
Daring Tact’s second dam is by Sunday Silence, which gives her the honour of being the first Grade 1 winner inbred to that seminal influence.
Epiphaneia has two other graded winners with that pattern one of whom, Aristotles, was joint-leading (with Galileo Chrome) three-year-old in the Extended category.
Contrail: the five-time Group 1 winner could be the heir to his late sire, the amazing Deep Impact
