Andrew Caulfield, September 6, 2005–Mass Media P EDIGREE INSIGHTS ’s pedigree could be interpreted to support the view that he would be at home over a mile and a BY ANDREW CAULFIELD half. For a start, he is a half-brother to , a winner of the Canadian Triple Crown. Their dam FOREGO S.-GI, $250,000, SAR, 9-3, 3yo/up, 7f, Passing Mood is by , a winner of the Jockey 1:22 2/5, ft. Club Gold Cup in its two-mile days and also of the 1--sMASS MEDIA, 117, c, 4, by Touch Gold Lawrence Realization over 1 5/8 miles. Then there’s the 1st Dam: Sultry Allure, by Forty Niner fact that Touch Gold is inbred 3x3 to , 2nd Dam: Sultry Sun, by Buckfinder a horse who numbered two major 10-furlong events-- 3rd Dam: Sunny Dame, by the Derby and Queen’s Plate--among his ($65,000 yrl '02 KEESEP). O-Gary & Mary West victories. Stables Inc; B-Live Oak Stud (KY); T-Robert J Frankel; Even though Touch Gold’s sire is J-J Castellano; $150,000. Lifetime Record: 15-6-1-2, associated more with speed than stamina, he failed by $394,420. *Third GISW for sire (by Deputy Minister). only a neck to land the GI Meadowlands Cup over a Click for the brisnet.com chart or the free brisnet.com mile and a quarter. catalogue-style pedigree or the Video, sponsored by On the other hand, Touch Gold could just as easily Taylor Made. have been a sprinter-miler. Deputy Minister had been In an American industry which has seen the distance fast enough to eight of his nine starts as a juvenile of the Jockey Club Gold Cup slashed from two miles to and to collect the GII S. and the Gulfstream a mile and a half in 1976 and then to a mile and a Sprint Championship over seven furlongs at four. Add quarter in 1990, the Belmont S. arguably represents in the fact that Passing Mood gained her only stakes one of the nation’s sternest tests of stamina. So how success in the Shady Well S. over 5 ½ furlongs as a come Touch Gold, the 1997 Belmont winner, is proving two-year-old and it is clear that Touch Gold’s parents a highly effective sire of sprinters? weren’t short of precocious speed. Their first mating The bare facts are that the stallion has produced that fast Canadian filly Daijin, winner as a sired 10 stakes winners from the 229 named foals aged three-year-old of the Star Shoot S. over six furlongs three and up in his first three crops. None of the 10 has and the Selene S. over 8½. Touch Gold himself gained so far won over a distance longer than 1 1/16 miles allowance wins over six furlongs at three and a mile at four. and his five graded winners include Midas Eyes and Moving on to Buckpasser and Northern Dancer, it’s Mass Media, both winners of the GI Forego H. over certainly possible to argue that Buckpasser owed his seven furlongs, and Medallist, who lowered the track long-distance successes more to his tremendous class record in winning the GIII Deputy Minister S. over six- than to sheer staying power. As a two-year-old he had and-a-half furlongs. gained eight of his nine victories over distances from There was no suggestion at the time of Touch Gold’s five to seven furlongs and he continued to show plenty Belmont victory that he was anything but a true stayer. of speed at three. Indeed, his next start after his Indeed he rallied strongly to wear down Jockey Club Gold Cup victory came in the Malibu S. and in a final quarter clocked at :24.80, over seven furlongs and he won again. after leading through the first quarter in :23.74 and the Versatility was also the theme of Northern Dancer’s half mile in :49.22. stallion career. In addition to siring several winners of A devastated Gary Stevens, who had been bidding the Derby and/or Irish Derby, his muscular frame for Triple Crown honors on Silver Charm, paid tribute to allowed him to sire top two-year-olds and sprinters. Touch Gold’s effort. Two of his best winners out of Buckpasser were “I’ve never seen a horse make the pace, drop back, the brothers (sire of the champion and then come home going a mile and a half in :24 sprinter Lit de Justice) and Try My Best (sire of the top 4/5,” he said. “They’re not supposed to be able to do sprinter-miler Last Tycoon and plenty of other fast that. It’s just amazing.” performers).

www.coolmore.com It is perhaps significant that Northern Dancer’s sire, MASS MEDIA , set or equalled numerous track records at five, Northern Dancer six, six-and-a-half, eight and eight-and-a-half furlongs. Victoria Regina Deputy Minister Another factor to take into account in Touch Gold’s Bunty’s Flight Mint Copy stallion career is that his status as a Belmont S. winner Shakney will have encouraged breeders to send him mares with Touch Gold ‘94 Tom Fool plenty of speed in their pedigrees. Buckpasser For example, the broodmare sire of Midas Eyes--a Passing Mood Northern Dancer horse who will make his debut at Mill Ridge in 2006--is Cool Mood Happy Mood Bayou Hebert, whose only stakes success came over Raise a Native seven furlongs at four, while Medallist--destined to Mr. Prospector Gold Digger stand at Three Chimneys--is out of a daughter of the Forty Niner Tom Rolfe champion sprinter Star de Naskra. Sultry Allure File Predictably, the Mr. Prospector line is also working ‘94 Continue Buckpasser with Touch Gold and Buzzy’s Gold, winner of the Buckfinder 3Fls, 1GSW Sultry Sun Shenanigans Gilded Time S. over five furlongs, is out of a daughter GSW of Mr Prospector. Sons of Mr. Prospector figure as the 15 Fls, 3GSW Sunny Dame 12Fls, Damascus broodmare sires of three of the nine other stakes 1GSW, 1SW Sunny Morn winners, with Region of Merit (GIII Tampa Bay Derby) being out of a Gone West and Mass Media out of a Forty Niner mare. It would suit my argument if this Forty Niner mare - the Live Oak-bred Sultry Allure--had a background packed with speed, but that isn’t strictly true. Certainly her grandsires are those fast horses Mr. Prospector and Buckfinder (who filled the place spot in the Fall Highweight H. and Metropolitan H.), but her dam, the Molly Pitcher winner Sultry Sun, also produced Solar Splendor (Turf Classic and Man o’War S.) and Sultry Song (Hollywood Gold Cup). When bred to Mr. Prospector, Sultry Sun produced the very useful miler Strategic Mission. There is stamina in this female line, though, with Mass Media’s third and fourth dams, the Damascus mare Sunny Dame and Princequillo’s daughter Sunny Morn, both being by three-year-old winners of the two-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup. Which reminds me that Mass Media is inbred 3x4 to Buckpasser, winner of the Cup in 1966. Little of this stamina has been transmitted to Mass Media judging by his record, which includes a six-furlong win in 1:08.8, a Grade III seven-furlong success in 1:20.10 and now a Grade I victory in a race formerly won by the likes of Aldebaran, Rubiano, Housebuster, and Fappiano. Of course, Mass Media may now have earned himself a prime place at stud, to add to America’s growing team of fast grandsons of Deputy Minister which also features another Frankel star, .