SUNDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2018 KENTUCKY SIRES 2019 BROWN ADDS ANOTHER GRADE I FOR GOOD MEASURE PART V: FIRST SOPHOMORES Klaravich Stables Inc.’s Competitionofideas (Speighstown) didn’t enter Saturday’s GI American Oaks at Santa Anita with quite the profile of a typical Chad Brown trainee competing at the highest level, but the result was what it usually is as the 5-1 shot inhaled her competition to give her conditioner his 20th Grade I win of 2018. The $325,000 KEESEP yearling dropped back to last and tucked in for a ground-saving trip as huge longshot K P Pergoliscious (Ire) (Declaration of War) showed the way through splits of :24.02, :47.86 and 1:11.95 with stablemate Amandine (GB) (Shamardal) in closest pursuit. Given her cue to quicken out wide heading for home, Competitionofideas leveled off powerfully in midstretch and blew away the embattled frontrunners late to air by 2 3/4 lengths. K P Pergoliscious fended off her much more heralded stablemate for second. Cont. p9 (Click Here) Fed Biz | Louise Reinagel by Chris McGrath IN TDN EUROPE TODAY At long last, today we get to consider some stallions who have RAFHA’S INFLUENCE STILL GOING STRONG actually undergone some kind of examination on the track. After John Berry looks at the influence of the excellent mare surveying four subsequent intakes--collectively the medium for Rafha, the dam of Invincible Spirit and Kodiac who will have staggering investment, on what in most cases will turn out to two new descendants going to stud in 2019. have been the flimsiest grounds--we finally encounter the first Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. group to have had half a chance (and still no more than that) to demonstrate whether or not they can produce a runner. Even by this stage some are already facing an uphill struggle as victims of a wholly unreliable consensus in the sales ring. Stallions find themselves left out in the cold either by breeders anticipating the market, who have sent their mares to the next crop of unproven sires, or by the market itself. And the poor creatures then depend on a bright show from their first crop to stop the rot--even though those most vulnerable to a premature cooling are precisely those whose stock tend to need a little longer to mature. So these are all guys at a crossroads. One or two come rushing through at full pelt; many more are walking up and down, anxiously looking at their watches. But all are under pressure of some kind or other. Those whose foals and yearlings were well received need to start coming up with the goods--albeit some of these, too, will show their real merit only with maturing stock round two turns. Those who failed to build momentum at the sales, meanwhile, desperately need an early flagbearer after books and fees have plunged steeply through their third and fourth years. Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] V.P., INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Sunday, December 30, 2018 Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN News and Features Editor Ben Massam @BMassamTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN COLUMNIST Chris McGrath ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistants Alexa Reisfield Rachel McCaffrey Photo Editor/Dir. of Distribution Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] Social Media Strategist Justina Severni Director of Customer Service Vicki Forbes Looking back: February 28, 2018. “The only thing this weather is good for is [email protected] Christmas cards,” said trainer Ed Vaughan of 2018's “Beast from the East” late Marketing Manager February weather system, and his string proved his point in the Warren Hill woods. Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen Despite the inclement weather in England, The Jockey Club in Newmarket kept the Director of Information Technology training facilities open. | Emma Berry Ray Villa [email protected] FAHAN MURA MAKES THE GRADE 10 Speedy Fahan Mura (English Channel) capped a very productive Bookkeeper Terry May year with a run-off victory in the GIII Robert J. Frankel S. [email protected] WORLDWIDE INFORMATION ACCELERATE WORKS TOWARDS PEGASUS 11 International Editor Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN Hronis Racing's Horse of the Year candidate and GI Breeders' Cup [email protected] Classic hero Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky) breezed over the Santa Anita European Editor main track Saturday morning as he continues his preparations for the Emma Berry GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. at Gulfstream Park Jan. 26. [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 11 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • DECEMBER 1, 2018 Kentucky Sires Part V cont. from p1 GI Whitney next time. He is out of a dual Grade I winner and if So let's take a look at how things are playing out for some of the rest of the family hardly provides the most familiar seeding, the leading members of this intake. then clearly we are looking at an invigorating brand of diversity. The laurels go to Spendthrift: home to the top performers The one caveat is that he will have to ride out a dip after both by prizemoney, in ‘TDN Rising Stars’ CROSS TRAFFIC covering 60 mares this year, compared with the 123 who (Unbridled's Song); and by number of winners, in GOLDENCENTS produced this opening crop. (Into Mischief). Jaywalk's big success came too Cross Traffic, headlined by late to spare Cross Traffic the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies customary dip in sales yield by winner Jaywalk, has achieved an his second crop of yearlings. off-the-charts ratio of black-type Goldencents, in contrast, was action: five out of 18 winners able to maintain a virtually (from 46 starters) scoring at identical average ($47,956 for black-type level. 56 sold out of 84), having had Understandably, that has earned numbers on his side all year. Of him a big hike to $25,000 from 70 runners already, 28 have won $7,500. through Friday--between them Though a late starter on the putting him behind only his track himself, Cross Traffic is studmate in the prizemoney quickly suggesting that he can table. He, in turn, has been transfer the inborn running hoisted to $20,000 from ability that enabled him to be Cross Traffic’s Jaywalk | Horsephotos $12,500. nailed only on the line after blazing clear in the GI Met Mile on just his fourth start; and to win the Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 11 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • DECEMBER 1, 2018 McGrath cont. The contrastingly truncated career of Cross Traffic is consistent True, only a couple have managed black-type success and with a frequent caricature of their sire's stock. It augurs well for none a graded-stakes podium, but the conveyor belt is securely WILL TAKE CHARGE (Unbridled’s Song), then, that he was equal in gear now. After a dip to 135 mares last year, he had 190 this to 11 starts as a 3-year-old, and was tough enough to bounce time round--the same number back from a nose defeat in the as in 2016. It's another offbeat Breeders' Cup Classic to win the bottom line (damsire ended up GI Clark H. in Cyprus), but again that can That persuasive body of work bring its benefits. And everyone is, of course, backed up by his knows that daddy's genes dam Take Charge Lady (Dehere): nowadays command a dizzy herself a triple Grade I winner premium at the same farm. and since responsible for Grade I What augurs particularly well for Goldencents is the hardiness winner Take Charge Indy (A.P. with which he carried his speed. Indy) and the dam of champion You have to love a horse that 2-year-old filly Take Charge can drop from a Grade I win at Brandi (Giant's Causeway). nine furlongs in the Santa Anita Sure enough, Will Take Charge Derby and regroup, after once again topped the intake's disappointing in the first two yearling sales in 2018 after his first runners did well enough-- legs of the Triple Crown, to be Goldencents | Louise Reinagel beaten only a head in the given that their scope and GI Bing Crosby H. over six panels. Back-to-back wins in the profile (he's a lot of horse) commend them as likely to improve GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile speak very well for the constitution of with maturity--to protect a $30,000 fee at Three Chimneys. a horse who started so brightly at two. Cont. p5 COMPETITIONOFIDEAS BECAME HER SIRE’S 15TH GRADE 1 WINNER, DISPLAYING AN EXPLOSIVE TURN OF FOOT TO WIN SATURDAY’S $300,000 AMERICAN OAKS (G1) AT SANTA ANITA BY 2 3/4 LENGTHS IN HER GRADED STAKES DEBUT. WATCH RACE OWNER KLARAVICH STABLES, INC. CONGRATULATIONS TO BREEDERS JOHN D. GUNTHER, TONY CHEDRAOUI & EUROWEST BLOODSTOCK SERVICES FOR EARNING $80,000 WITH A Taylor Made / WinStar 859-873-1717 Venture, standing at www.winstarfarm.com Gone West - Silken Cat, by Storm Cat | $80,000 S&N TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 5 OF 11 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • DECEMBER 1, 2018 First Sophomores cont.