My Dinner with Nasser

By Jack Werk

My apologies for not posting on here for a while, but as many of you know, I took a trip Down Under to Oz – that’s Australia, mate! – and I was on the road for most of the trip, without internet access. But what a trip it was! If you haven’t been, get there ASAP. You won’t be disappointed. It’s one of the most beautiful places on earth, and horse racing is in the Aussies’ blood.

My host was Andrew Reichard, publisher of Bluebloods, Australia’s leading thoroughbred magazine, and a dear friend. Andrew, who hosted me several times in the 1990s, took me on a tour of the Hunter Valley this time, where we hit as many stud farms as we could in the limited time that I had – a week!

The horsemen in Australia are among the most sophisticated on the planet, and one of the sharpest I met was His Excellency Nasser Lootah, owner of the successful Emirates Park Stud. The stud has two divisions, in New South Wales and Victoria. I toured the Hunter Valley (NSW) farm where he stands 6 stallions and keeps most of his 300+ mares.

Among his stallions is the promising Danehill Group 1 winner Al Maher, the sire of 7 winners from his first crop of 2-year-olds, including 2 SWs. Al Maher has every right to become a top-notch stallion. His dam is a half-sister to Shantha’s Choice – the dam of champion racehorse and sire Redoute’s Choice, who is also by Danehill! What a pedigree! (If you didn’t know it, the Aussies pronounce it Reedoot’s Choice.)

His Excellency Lootah is a businessman from Dubai who has been breeding and racing in Australia since the mid-1980s. When he heard I was coming to Australia, he invited Andrew and me to lunch at his Sydney digs across from the Randwick racecourse. It was an afternoon I will not soon forget.

His Excellency has a personal chef that travels with him wherever he goes. And, what a chef he is! It was described as lunch. I’d describe it a feast. I can’t remember the last time I had a meal that good. His Excellency’s chef prepared five main courses, 3 fish dishes made from 3 different types of fish, plus chicken and a lamb curry to die for.

His Excellency Lootah was a gracious host and is – and I say this as a compliment – a pedigree guru in his own right! Listening to him rattle off pedigrees, the SWs he’s bred, the races they’ve won, nicks that work, the Rasmussen Factor, etc. I was about to offer him a job on the spot! We got along so well that he invited us back for dinner the following night! (Mama Mia, I was worried whether or not I’d be able to buckle my seat belt on the return flight if I accepted, but stomach said Yes!)

Dr. Shalabh Sahu

His Excellency Lootah’s operation is run by Dr. Shalabh Sahu, a native of India and a good friend of Andrew’s. Dr. Sahu was with us at both our lunch and dinner. I can tell you that he is as sharp as a tack himself. His job, besides overseeing the operation, is to make His Excellency Lootah’s vision a reality. Dr. Sahu handles all purchases, and he has the trust of his boss, who spends a lot of his time studying pedigrees and watching the racing channel.

During my visits, I discovered that His Excellency is a heavy user of eNicks.com and an avid reader of this blog! In fact, during dinner, he disappeared from the table and we discovered him at the computer running eNicks!

For sure – it’s a small world. The last thing I had expected when I departed for Australia would be dining with His Excellency and discussing my story about Recoleta (Click here to read). But that’s exactly what we did over long-grain basmati rice and savory lamb curry!

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Hit the Road, Jack!

This is my first visit to Sydney since the 1990′s when I made several trips there as well as one to New Zealand. Sydney is truly one of the great cities in the world and in many ways it reminds me of San Francisco.

A Much Younger Jack in Sydney circa 1994

eNicks has taken off like gangbusters in Australia so I thought it was an excellent time to make a return visit. Andrew and I are going to spend next week visiting the stallion farms of the Hunter Valley of New South Wales and then go racing on Saturday. The Hunter Valley is 6th most popular tourist attraction in Australia, famous for its thoroughbred horse farms and wine vineyards. Life is good!

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An Offlee Wild Story!

Hope springs eternal in the stallion game! One of my favorite pastimes this time of year is to follow the “newbies” – the first-crop sires. Last month I did a blog on Wildcat Heir, who leads all first-crop sires with 9 winners (click here to read that post). Perhaps surprising to some, Darley Stud’s Offlee Wild is in second place with 5 winners according to the Thoroughbred Times Freshman Sire List (to July 9), and progeny earnings of $204,678 to Wildcat Heir’s $273,424. What Offlee Wild has that Wildcat Heir does not yet is a stakes winner. Offlee Wild’s colt Heavenville (click here for the pedigree) won a restricted stakes race recently – the D.S. Shine Young Memorial Futurity – and the stallion also has 2 stakes-placed runners! It’s a pretty good early start for Offlee Wild, considering that the horse only won a maiden race at 2, then got better with age, winning a G3 at 3 (was also G1-placed), a G2 at 4, and finally a G1 at 5 – the 10-furlong Suburban Handicap!

DARLEY'S OFFLEE WILD

Offlee Wild’s distance capabilities aren’t really surprising, given his stout Darby Dan pedigree and the fact that his sire, Wild Again, won the Breeders’ Cup Classic at 10 furlongs. But let’s look at this family, which is one of my favorites (if you’ve read my posts on Dynaformer, you’ll know this!).

Offlee Wild’s dam is the Seattle Slew mare Alvear, who’s also the dam of the G2 SW Sangrita. Alvear’s dam is none other than G1 winner and “Blue Hen” Andover Way (by His Majesty). Andover Way is, of course, the dam of Dynaformer! ‘Nuff said there!

Offlee Wild has all the credentials to make it as a sire based on pedigree and race record, but his pedigree and race record (plus the Dynaformer link) all point to having success as a sire of 3-year-olds who stay. The fact that he’s showing precocity as a sire is gravy! I’d say, based on what we’ve seen so far, Offlee Wild is a good bet to make it as a sire!

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And now, the rest of the story!

Offlee Wild has a full sister named Recoleta (click here to view her catalog-style pedigree) who has also shown the ability to produce precocious runners, so you could say that Offlee Wild’s precocious start at stud is not entirely surprising! Recoleta is the dam of two 2-year-old SWs to date, and I’d bet that she’ll have a third in the near future!

Why do I say this, you ask? Well, Recoleta and I go way back! I actually recommended the purchase of Recoleta for a European client of mine. She was entered in a European sale in 2003, and my client had me looking for mares specifically to purchase and ship back to Kentucky to breed. When I ran across Recoleta in the sales catalog – a Wild Again mare out of Alvear, who was a full sister to then G3 winner Offlee Wild, and herself a half sister to Dynaformer – I said to my client “What’s this mare doing in Europe? She belongs in the U.S. and you’ve gotta buy her!” He did and for just 21,000 euros! To me, she was the perfect mare to get the job done! We purchased her inexpensively because she already had two unimpressive foals on the ground plus a third who hadn’t yet run, and was in foal to Indian Danehill. He foaled the Indian Danehill colt in Ireland, bred her back to Rock of Gibraltar at Coolmore, and then shipped her to Kentucky. By the time the Rock of Gibraltar was foaled, her 2-year-old by Danehill Dancer, named Silent Times, (Click here to view pedigree) had won the G2 Champagne Stakes in England!

After losing her in-utero Lion Heart, my client decided to sell the mare. I liked Recoleta so much, I convinced another client to buy her before word got out that she was for sale. Recoleta’s new owner was particularly pleased when the Rock of Gibraltar – named Rock of Rochelle (Click here to view pedigree) – became a SW at 2 and won a G3 later!

Now, Recoleta’s current 2-year-old by Perfect Soul (Ire) is in training with Barclay Tagg, who says that the colt is one of his best 2-year-olds!

The colt’s name, you ask? It’s Jack’s Work!

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Another Dynaformer Weekend!

Well, after several blog posts on Dynaformer (Is the G1 Epsom Oaks the Next Stop on the Dynaformer Express? and Dynaformer Scores Trifecta at Belmont! and Dynaformer – The underrated Overachiever!) earlier this year, I said I was done writing about him for the rest of the year.

Well, as my father also told me, never say never! The grand old man at Three Chimneys has made a liar of me. There’s no way to ignore the weekend Dynaformer had!

Three Chimneys' Dynaformer

Before I proceed, many of you knew that I made a bold prediction that Dynaformer would get the Epsom Oaks winner in Rainbow View. I was wrong. I had the right idea but the wrong Oaks!

Dynaformer’s Gozzip Girl won the 1¼-mile G1 American Oaks on turf at Hollywood Park on Sunday by 3¼ lengths to become her sire’s 15th G1 winner! (Click here to view pedigree)

And if that wasn’t enough for the son of Epsom Derby winner Roberto, his German-bred son Wiener Walzer won the G1 German Derby at Hamburg over 1½ miles on turf on the same day, giving Dynaformer a unique Derby/Oaks double! (Click here to view pedigree)

Wiener Walzer is now G1 winner number 16 for Dynaformer!

Gozzip Girl and Wiener Walzer have something more in common than each being by Dynaformer and winning a G1 race on the same day. They each have a Werk Nick Rating of A++. And, it’s no wonder. They are BOTH out of Kingmambo mares. Quite extraordinary!

Dynaformer now has another Derby winner to join his G1 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, who, if you recall, also won on turf. (Click here to read Sid Fernando’s blog on Wiener Walzer).

This is what I wrote in an earlier post on Dynaformer, before Wiener Walzer and Gozzip Girl:

“To date, Dynaformer is the sire of 14 G1 winners and 93 SWs, and lately the best of them are coming from Europe. This year he actually had a heavy 1000 Guineas favorite in Rainbow View, who last year was a G1 winner in Europe. In fact, if you can recall it, last year Dynaformer got three G1-winning fillies in the span of a few weeks. Rainbow View at 2 won the G1 Meon Valley Stud Fillies’ Mile at Ascot on Sept. 27, the same day that Dynaforce won the 1¼-mile G1 Flower Bowl on turf at Belmont. Two weeks earlier, on Sept. 14 at Longchamp, Michita had won the 1½-mile G1 Qatar Prix Vermeille!”

Granted, Dynaformer’s had such great dirt horses like Barbaro and Perfect Drift, but it makes you wonder what he would have done if breeders had figured out earlier his amazing ability to get classic-type European runners. Now, as he heads into the final furlong of his truly outstanding career at stud, Dynaformer is getting the attention of not only top American breeders who appreciate 1½-mile turf horses – George Strawbridge, owner of Rainbow View is one such owner/breeder – but also the attention of savvy European breeders.

The breeder and owner of Wiener Walzer is the leading German stud farm Gestut Schlenderhan, the same farm that stands the great European stallion Monsun. It looks like they now have another very attractive stallion prospect in Wiener Walzer.

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Rahy – Pensioned but going stronger than ever!

It was announced yesterday that Rahy, “the little train that could,” has been pensioned.

RAHY

Without much fanfare, Rahy entered stud at Three Chimneys Farm in 1991 for $15,000. At 15.1 hands and a turf specialist, Rahy had much to overcome in Kentucky’s commercial environment. Yet, over the years Rahy has proven himself very good sire as well as getting a bit of a reputation as a filly sire. But this actually has had more to do with the exploits of his progeny in the breeding shed than it has with his runners. The reality is that of Rahy’s 72 unrestricted SWs to date, 38 are colts and 34 are fillies. Of his 13 G1 winners, 6 are colts and 7 are fillies.

As a sire of sires, Rahy has been fairly unimpressive to date. His two best offshore sons are Noverre and Fantastic Light, both of whom stood for Darley in Europe before moving to India and Japan, respectively. Both stallions have 2 group winners in Europe this year, including Noverre’s La Havre, winner of the 2009 G1 Prix du Jockey Club. Rahy’s best hope in America is Lewis Michael, who entered stud this year at Three Chimneys.

Where Rahy really shines is as a broodmare sire. To date, his daughters have produced 65 unrestricted SWs, including 7 G1 winners with Giant’s Causeway being his star of stars. (Click here to view pedigrees and stakes wins of these 65 SWs).

Rahy is currently North America’s leading broodmare sire of unrestricted SWs with 12, as well as NA’s leading broodmare sire of first-time SWs with 7. (Click here to view chart). In 2008, daughters of Rahy produced 18 SWs, with 15 of them FTSWs.

Rahy is 24 years old and has quite a few years left as a broodmare sire. I expect this little stallion to continue to be a big player in the pedigrees of top-class runners for years to come.

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