Pedigree Insights
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Andrew Caulfield, March 18, 2003 –Empire Maker P EDIGREE INSIGHTS of his second dam, Image of Reality. The mare’s price of $500,000 reflected Image of Reality’s achievements BY ANDREW CAULFIELD on the track, which included a victory over the champion filly It’s In The Air in the GII Milady H. over 1 FLORIDA DERBY-GI, $1,000,000, GPX, 3-15, 3yo, 1/16 miles. Image of Reality’s solid record as a 1 1/8m, 1:49, ft. four-year-old earned her a weight of 118 on the @#sEMPIRE MAKER, 122, c, 3, by Unbridled Blood-Horse Free Handicap for older females, just eight 1st Dam: Toussaud (GISW-US & GSW-GB, pounds below Glorious Song, the top dirt mare. $552,751), by El Gran Senor As a daughter of In Reality and a Cornish Prince 2nd Dam: Image of Reality, by In Reality mare, Image of Reality also had the attraction of having 3rd Dam: Edee's Image, by Cornish Prince a pedigree free of some of the major sire lines, such as O/B-Juddmonte Farms Inc (KY); T-Robert Frankel; Northern Dancer and Raise A Native, and she had a J-J D Bailey; $600,000. Lifetime Record: 4-2-1-1, good bottom line, too, tracing to the Aga Khan’s $665,800. *1/2 to Chester House (Mr. Prospector), high-class staying filly Teresina. GISW-US, GSW & MG1SP-GB, $1,944,314; Honest Image of Reality was in foal to El Gran Senor at the Lady (Seattle Slew), GISW, $894,168; Decarchy time of her purchase and she was returned to him in (Distant View), MGSW-US, $590,474; and Chiselling 1988, after foaling a filly later named Navarra. But for (Woodman), GISW, $405,760. the fertility problems which dogged El Gran Senor’s Click for the free brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. career, this brilliant racehorse--a Grade 1 winner from seven furlongs to 1 1/2 miles--would probably have As a member of the Juddmonte team I may not be proved every bit as exceptional as a stallion. Although totally impartial, but is there a better broodmare in some breeders considered him too big a risk for their America (or anywhere else, for that matter) than Prince best mares, El Gran Senor achieved 14-percent stakes Khalid’s extraordinary Toussaud? winners among his foals, with a magnificent eight- When Empire Maker marched to the forefront of the percent winning at group or graded level to the end of Kentucky Derby betting with his highly impressive last year. Few stallions ever match that sort of strike display in the Florida Derby, he improved Toussaud’s rate. record with her six foals of racing age to four Grade I winners (Chester House, Honest Lady, Chiselling and Second Time the Charm.. Empire Maker) and a Grade II winner (Decarchy). Her Image of Reality’s second mating to El Gran Senor record is all the more remarkable because each of her resulted in Toussaud. Unfortunately, the mare was to five graded winners is by a different sire, as are her produce only two more live foals, including the next two foals--a yearling filly by Seeking the Gold and talented English colt Projection (by Topsider), but she a filly foal by Kingmambo, which arrived on the day of had already done more than enough to justify her Empire Maker’s victory. purchase. Navarra won the GIII Vineland H. over a Rise of an Empire.. mile and an eighth after being sold, and has since Empire Maker’s family was introduced to the produced Grade III winner Indygo Shiner to A.P. Indy, Juddmonte broodmare band with the purchase in 1987 who is scheduled to cover Toussaud later this spring. Toussaud began her career with John Gosden in stakes winners that In Reality mares had produced England. Her potential was pretty obvious from the among their 20 foals by Fappiano, plus the 1998 moment she finished second of 21 in a maiden race Kentucky Derby success of Real Quiet, who was on her only start at two and she duly developed into sired by a son of Fappiano from a grand-daughter of a Group 3 winner at three, when she beat the colts in In Reality. the Criterion S. over seven furlongs, before returning Empire Maker was a very attractive and very to race nine times on turf in her native America. athletic from the moment he was born, but he didn’t Bobby Frankel sent her out to win the GII Wilshire H., start to develop into the star of Juddmonte’s 2000 GI Gamely H. and GII American H., and she was also American crop until the second half of 2001. He than a creditable fourth to Lure after a troubled passage in progressed to such an extent that he went into the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Mile. Her chart underlined training with Bobby Frankel with high hopes that his that she possessed that extremely valuable asset of ambitious name would prove to be entirely justified. being able to quicken significantly. “Finished well,” Judging by the ease with which he travelled “strong late rally,” “strong finish,” “closed with throughout the Florida Derby, he could well become rush,” and “quick gain between horses” were just an empire maker now that blinkers are helping him to some of the assessments of her performances. concentrate better. The extra furlong of the Derby The other notable aspect of Toussaud as a will be no problem to him and he must have every racehorse was that--in common with many other very chance of going one better than Juddmonte’s last talented performers--she showed plenty of Kentucky Derby challenger, the 2000 runner-up temperament, especially during her morning works Aptitude. and at the starting gate. This quirkiness sometimes But, as everyone knows, the road to Churchill shows up in her progeny, and Empire Maker wasn’t Downs can be packed with pitfalls and the next too keen to enter the gate at Gulfstream. Remember, seven weeks are going to be enjoyably nerve-racking though, that this feistiness can be a plus rather than for everyone involved with this exciting colt. a minus, as the Storm Cat clan has demonstrated. Toussaud is a medium-sized, lengthy mare, with lengthy pasterns and powerful, broad quarters. She shares these attributes with her outstanding sire, who was probably also the source of her powers of acceleration. She has even inherited El Gran Senor’s troublesome feet, but fortunately hasn’t passed this on to any of her progeny. Constructing a Champion.. Toussaud stands 16 hands, and her first foal, Arlington Million hero Chester House, is a little taller, with plenty of scope. However, the fact that both her grandsires, Northern Dancer and In Reality, stood only 15.2 hands made it likely that some of Toussaud’s offspring would lack size. Sure enough, the excellent Honest Lady stands only 15.2 hands, despite being by Seattle Slew, and she was followed by Decarchy and the Gone West colt Civilisation, both of whom were small as yearlings. Size therefore became an important consideration in selecting Toussaud’s 1999 mate and Unbridled, a 16.3-hands son of a 16.3-hands stallion, became first choice. Unbridled also appealed strongly on several other scores. His pasterns were rather upright, which was a bonus for a mare who had passed on her weak pasterns to several of her foals, with the exception of the well-conformed Chester House (who is by Unbridled’s grandsire Mr. Prospector). Another incentive was the fact that mating Toussaud to Unbridled created the same 4x3 inbreeding to In Reality which appeared in the pedigree of Unbridled’s outstanding daughter Banshee Breeze, a triple Grade I winner in 1998. Supporting this was the 30-percent.