By Sid Fernando

Indeed, 2011 has been a watershed year for Galileo. His undefeated three-year-old son Frankel scaled even greater heights last week with a thumping of five-time consecutive Group 1 winner Canford Cliffs (since retired to Coolmore) in the QIPCO Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood to cement his status in Timeform as one of the greatest milers of the ages, in the vaunted league of such as Brigadier Gerard and Tudor Minstrel. Moreover, Frankel’s devastating QIPCO 2000 Guineas win was one of four European Guineas titles for Galileo in 2011, along with Roderic O’Connor’s Abu Dhabi Irish 2000 Guineas; Misty for Me’s Etihad Airlines Irish 1000 Guineas; and Golden Lilac’s Poule d’Essai des Pouliches. The latter also won the Prix de Diane Longines, the French Oaks equivalent.

This post was excerpted from eMatings.com’s Stallion of the Week. Click here to read full article.

By Elaine Belval

The 2011 group of second-crop sires seems to be absolutely top class. War Front, Bernardini, Congrats, and Flower Alley (sire of G1 Ashland S. at Keeneland) are all off to outstanding starts. Perhaps the most surprising is Bellamy Road. Earlier this year, his son Toby’s Corner defeated 2010 two-year-old champion Uncle Mo in the G1 Wood Memorial S.

This past weekend, Georgie’s Angel became his first SW from his second crop (and his seventh overall) when she won the G3 Schuylerville S. at Saratoga. Bred by Scott E. and Carol M. Ricker, owned by Sheffer Racing Stable, Ronald Stocks and Betsy Wells, and trained by Todd Pletcher, the filly won a maiden race at Churchill Downs earlier in July.

Bellamy Road’s sire is the leading Florida-based Danzig-line sire Concerto. Concerto is a long-time resident of Ocala Stud Farm and has done nothing wrong in a long career, except make a big name for himself outside of Florida. But, an argument could be made that he is the best son of champion Chief’s Crown at stud.

Bellamy Road’s female family traces to a very good Phipps family—that of Ten Cents a Dance (family of G1 winner Versailles Treaty, etc.).

Bellamy Road was sold to George Steinbrenner for $87,000 at the 2004 OBS April sale (well above Concerto’s two-year-old average of $29,000). He won a maiden race at Delaware and the G3 Cradle S. at two. At three, however, he stunned everyone with a massive romp in the G1 Wood Memorial, which led to favoritism in the G1 Kentucky Derby. He ran unplaced in the Derby but did return to finish second in the G1 Travers S. to Flower Alley.

Bellamy Road retired to stud Ben P. Walden’s Hurricane Hall. He was later moved to Walden’s new farm, Pauls Mill in Versailles. Bellamy Road was well-priced at $10,000 and proved very popular with 90 named foals in that first crop. When his first crop raced, he had two SWs by the end of August, including Position Limit in the prestigious G2 Adirondack S. at Saratoga.

Bellamy Road now  has 34 winners from that first crop, seven SWs and four GSWs (two at the prestigious Saratoga meet). I saw Bellamy Road in October of 2010. He is a very imposing individual. And Pauls Mill is a beautiful farm (if a little bit off the beaten path).  It may be that 2011 will see the resurgence of the Danzig-line in the United States with such others as War Front, Pomeroy, and Hard Spun—off to a quick start with his two-year-olds.

Bellamy Road stands at Pauls Mill and his 2011 fee was $10,000.

By Elaine Belval

Bear It’s Time won the Bison City S. at Woodbine last weekend for owner Bear Stables, breeder Gardiner Farms and trainer Reade Baker. The Bison City is the second leg of the Canadian Triple Tiara, and it was an impressive third victory for Bear It’s Time following a maiden score and a victory in the Lady Angela S. before running into the super filly Inglorious in the Canadian Oaks (first leg of the Triple Tiara).

That same day at Woodbine, Phil’s Dream won a maiden race. Even more impressive, sons Hippolytus and Pender Harbour finished second and third, respectively, behind Inglorious in the Queen’s Plate. And this is only Philanthropist’s first crop of three-year-olds.

Philanthropist was part of the famous Phipps dynasty, bred by Ogden Mills Phipps. He is by leading sire Kris S. and out of the graded stakes-placed Mr. Prospector mare Hidden Reserve. He is a half-brother to the GSW Defer. His fourth dam is the elite mare Grey Flight— this the family of What a Pleasure, Sovereign Dancer, and Time for a Change. Philanthropist was unraced at two, but at three won a maiden at Belmont and an allowance at Saratoga. At four, he won the G3 Queens County H. He retired with six wins and about $266,430 in earnings.

The Kris S. line in general is later-maturing, and it was expected that the offspring of Philanthropist would be better at three than two. His first crop of two-year-olds did show quality and promise as he had the SW Medabuck, winner of the Victorian Queen S. at Woodbine, and the stakes-placed Wonder Phil, third in the Vandal S. at Woodbine.

Philanthropist has 35 foals in his first crop, and he now has three SWs, including three offspring capable of competing at the top levels in Canada. He has 30 named foals in his second-crop and will have approximately 30 in his third. With the success of his first crop, Philanthropist will soon be one of the most popular stallions in Canada.

Philanthropist stands at Gardiner Farms in Ontario Canada and his 2011 fee was $5,000 (Canadian).

Juddmonte’s UK-based Dansili has never shuttled to Australia but he’s represented by several runners there conceived on SH time. His first winner is the filly Soft Sand. The following is a conversation with Danny Power of @thethoroughbred.

Click here to read this story about Dansili, which was collected and written for Twitter by Sid Fernando.

By Sid Fernando

Dutch Art, Dark Angel, and Red Clubs lead a contentious group of freshman sires in the principal European nations of Great Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, and Italy with, respectively, 11, 10, and 10 winners through Tuesday, June 28. Click here to see the European leading sires list, courtesy of Alan Mosley at Weatherbys. The stats don’t reflect Dutch Art’s 12th winner today or Dark Angel’s Czech winner, No. 11, Alan noted.

Compared to five winners for US-based Hard Spun, who leads all sires here by winners, the Europeans are well ahead of us, especially in Great Britain and Ireland where two-year-old racing is a major part of the game and the offspring of precocious sires inevitably dominate the first part of the season.

Dutch Art stands at Cheveley Park in Great Britain while Dark Angel stands at Morristown Lattin in Ireland. Red Clubs died earlier this year but also stood in Ireland, at Tally Ho Stud. All three were top two-year-olds and sprinters.

Dutch Art is by the Machiavellian (by Mr. Prospector) horse Medicean, who won up to 10f in top company.  Dutch Art, though, was best at 5-6f and at two, when he won the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes and the Group 1 Prix Morny.

Dark Angel, by Acclamation (descending to Northern Dancer through Try My Best), also won the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes over 6f and only raced at two, when he won four of nine starts. This branch of Northern Dancer has been speed oriented and  precocious from Try My Best (champion at 2, winner of the G1 Dewhurst) down, and other notable sires in tail-male include G1 Middle park winner Royal Applause, the sire of Acclamation—winner of the G2 Diadem Stakes over 6f.

Deceased Red Clubs also won the G2 Diadem Stakes, as well as the G1 Sprint Cup at Haydock Park. Altogether he won six races from two to four at distances of 5-7f, including the G2 Coventry Stakes at two. A week ago Sunday, on June 19, Red Clubs was represented by his first Group winner when Vedelago won a G3 in Italy over 6f.

On Saturday, June 25, Dark Angel was represented by stakes winner Lily’s Angel, winner of the Listed Empress Stakes at Newmarket for her fourth win from six starts, while on Sunday his Tough as Nails was second in the G2 Railway Stakes at the Curragh.

Dutch Art is represented by the undefeated Listed winner Miss Work of Art and two other stakes-placed runners.

By Sid Fernando

Elaine Belval wrote about Flashy Bull, his sire line, and his first Graded stakes winner, Flashy Lassie, in the post below this. He is one of several freshman sires out of the box quick, with three individual winners to date.

Flashy Bull’s first winner was the filly Princesa Caramelo, who won in Mexico at the end of March. Flashy Lassie, his second winner, won the  Grade 3 Debutante Stakes at Churchill Downs Saturday. And the Airdrie sire’s third winner came Friday at Belmont in a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special when Born Bullish, yet another filly, won impressively by nine lengths. She looks the part of a future stakes horse, as a reader of Elaine’s column commented.

Born Bullish was a $20,000 yearling but a $185,000 2-year-old—his most expensive—but the other two Flashy Bulls were cheap yearlings: Princesa Caramelo sold for only $2,500 and the Graded stakes winner Flashy Lassie sold for only $4,000.  There are several more expensive and well thought of Flashy Bulls in the pipeline, including several for West Point Thoroughbreds, who are bullish on Holy Bull stallions, so Flashy Bull is sitting pretty at the moment. And at the moment he’s the leading freshman sire by progeny earnings, but it’s early days yet.

The leading freshman sire by winners through Monday is Darley’s Danzig horse Hard Spun, with five winners to date. Not surprisingly, three of his five winners have come on turf in Britain, where the Danzig branch of Northern Dancer through Green Desert and Danehill competes for supremacy with the Sadler’s Wells branch. To date, the leading sires of 2011 unrestricted stakes winners in Europe are Danehill’s Dansili (13 SWs), Danehill’s Danehill Dancer (8), Danehill’s Rock of Gibralter (8), and Sadler’s Wells’ Galileo (8) and Montjeu (8).  The German-bred Monsun (8) ranks with this group, directly followed by Green Desert’s Oasis Dream (7).

Earlier this year I wrote a column in Thoroughbred Times picking freshman sires for the magazine’s annual freshman sire contest. The stallions were partitioned into groups, based on stud fee. Here’s part of what I wrote about the two young sires leading the way as of today:

I’m picking Hard Spun from Group 1 because he was a top runner, a Grade 1 winner at 7 furlongs at 3 and good enough to stay 10 furlongs on class when second in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby. Hard Spun also placed in the Preakness and altogether won 7 of 13 starts. He also was undefeated in three starts, two stakes, against moderate company at 2. His 142 registered 2-year-olds will give him every opportunity; he’s owned by Darley—on fire lately with young sires across the globe; and he’ll have opportunities in Europe, where his progeny, as a son of Danzig, will be extremely well suited. Mind you, the Danzig line has had a mini revival here lately on dirt as well through War Front and Pomeroy. Physically, he’s not in the mold of Danzig as War Front is, but neither was Nijinsky built like Northern Dancer.

From Group 2, the choice here is Holy Bull’s son Flashy Bull, who fits the profile of Congrats as better late than early. Flashy Bull did make 6 starts at 2, won only once though he was stakes-placed in the Grade 2 Remsen, but came into his own at 4 when he took the Grade 1 Stephen Foster.  He was winless at 3 though he did place twice in Graded races. He’s an exceptionally attractive horse from Airdrie Stud, an outfit that has a knack for getting sires off the mark.

By Elaine Belval

Sires and sire lines ebb and flow in this game. The dominant sire of one generation can vanish in the next. But, every once in a while, a sire line continues through one son, and many times through the son no one expected. The great American sire line of Himyar fits that description. Once upon a time, this sire dominated American racing (a grandson of the great Eclipse out of a daughter of the great sire Lexington). He sired the great American racehorse Domino, for example. But, over time, the European branch of Cyllene through Phalaris came to dominate the breed, and Himyar found himself in the “hinterlands.”

But one son, Kentucky Derby winner Plaudit, survived, siring onwards the sequence of King James/Spur/Sting and Questionnaire, the sire of Free for All. That sire had Rough’n Tumble, one of the better two and three year olds of his generation and the sire of the racing great Dr. Fager—whose male line has all but disappeared. Rough’n Tumble, however, sired Minnesota Mac, who in turn sired Great Above out of Dr. Fager’s half-sister, the great sprint filly Ta Wee.

Great Above was a GSW and a leading perennial sire for High Mark Farm and others in Florida. But, it seemed that was all he was meant to be—a good regional sire. But he got one horse much better than the rest of his produce when he sired Horse of the Year Holy Bull, winner of 11 stakes including six G1 races. Holy Bull retired to then Jonabell Farm in Kentucky and has been a very useful sire for Jonabell and now Darley’s American branch. It is hard to knock Holy Bull, who stood the 2011 season for the very reasonable price of $10,000 and has Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo among other G1 winners to his credit.  Again, it didn’t seem likely he would continue the great American sire line of Himyar, but  Holy Bull somehow has so far. His Champion son Macho Uno (standing at Adena Springs Kentucky) has 14 SWs in his first four crops of racing age (not including two-year-olds of 2011). And now comes Holy Bull’s son Flashy Bull, with his first crop of two-year-olds in 2011.

It is still very early in the racing season for two-year-olds, but  the two-year-old quality black-type races are starting and the first Graded stakes race for two-year-olds in the US was run at Churchill Downs last weekend.

The winner of that race was the filly Flashy Lassie, owned by Barry King, bred by Mr. and Mrs. Hugh King and trained by Garry Simms. She is, as her name indicates, by Flashy Bull.

Flashy Bull won a maiden race at Belmont as a two-year-old and finished second in the G2 Remsen to Bluegrass Cat. At three, he finished second in the G2 Fountain of Youth (to First Samurai, but defeating Corinthian and Jazil). At four, he won four of six races including the prestigious G1 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs. His dam is the winning Mt. Livermore mare Iridescence. This is the female family of the elite mare Queen Louie.

Flashy Bull proved popular when he retired to Airdrie Stud, as he has 90+ named two-year-olds in his first crop. He already has three winners. With Flashy Lassie’s victory in the G3 Debutante, he is now the current leading Freshman Sire.

Flashy Bull stood at Airdrie Stud in 2011, for a fee of $6,000. Can this line continue another generation? Stay tuned.

By Elaine Belval

I had the privilege of working for Juddmonte Farms for several years and for that reason I am hesitant to write about Juddmonte stallions (bias, you know?). But, Tuesday, at Royal Ascot, was clearly Juddmonte’s day. First, Juddmonte’s outstanding three-year-old colt Frankel won the G1 St. James’s Palace S. Finishing an impressive second was Zoffany, by Juddmonte’s stallion Dansili.

But, it was Juddmonte’s supersire Oasis Dream that had the best day. First, Oasis Dream’s son Prohibit won the prestigious G1 King’s Stand S. at five furlongs. Later that day, his two-year-old Power won the G2 Coventry S.

A great deal was expected from Oasis Dream from the very beginning. After winning his maiden race, Oasis Dream won the G1 Middle Park S. at Newmarket, setting a new course record for six furlongs. And while Europeans don’t obsess over time the way Americans do, most took notice of his 1:09.61 time for the race—the first horse to ever run six furlongs over that course in under 1:10. That shocking performance earned him champion two-year-old honors.

Early in his three-year-old season, the champion two-year-old was considered a classics contender. But trainer John Gosden decided that the major sprint races would better suit. Oasis Dream finished third to Australian superstar Choisir in his first race at three, the G2 King’s Stand S.  Oasis Dream reversed that finish with an impressive victory in the G1 July Cup. He then put up an even more impressive performance in the five furlong G1 Nunthorpe S., running just 0.04 seconds off the track record. He finished second in the G1 Sprint Cup at Haydock, compromised by rain-softened ground. An unsuccessful trip  in the Breeders’ Cup Mile did not deter British handicappers, who named him champion three-year-old and champion sprinter.

Oasis Dream is by Green Desert. This venerable son of Danzig is also the sire of Cape Cross (G1 winners Sea the Stars and Ouija Board) and leading young sire Invincible Spirit. Oasis Dream’s dam is a daughter of Dancing Brave named Hope. The year Oasis Dream was champion two-year-old,  Hope’s daughter Zenda won the French 1,000 Guineas (Poule d’Essai des Pouliches).

Great things were expected of Oasis Dream when he retired to stud, and he has not disappointed. His first GSW was Visit, winner of the Princess Margaret S. in July of her two-year-old season. Oasis Dream would have another three GSWs with his first two-year-olds. His first G1 winner in that crop was Aqlaam (G1 Prix du Moulin at Longchamp).

One of the more surprising things about Oasis Dream is the versatility of his performers. His sire Green Desert is best known for siring milers. But Oasis Dream is proving capable of siring anything from Group-winning two-year-old sprinters to 12 furlong performers. This versatility no doubt stems from the fact that Oasis Dream’s first three dams were sired by the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. winners Dancing Brave, Mill Reef and Busted.

Prohibit is now Oasis Dream’s eighth G1 winner. And with Power’s impressive victory in the Coventry, a G1 victory seems certain in his future.

Oasis Dream stands at Juddmonte’s Banstead Manordivision  in England and his 2011 fee was £85,000.