Weekend Pedigree Perspectives

Alan Porter, June 2, 2004–Pico Central (Brz) WEEKEND PEDIGREE Hard Buck, who took the GI Gulfstream Park Breeders’ Cup H., and Pico Central, are both members PERSPECTIVES of Spend a Buck’s 1999 Southern Hemisphere crop. by Alan Porter Pico Central, a winner of four of eight starts in his native land, established himself as champion sprinter in Monday, Belmont Park Brazil, winning the G1 Gran Premio Major Suckow and GI Gran Premio Estado do Rio de Janeiro. In the U.S., METROPOLITAN H.-GI, $750,000, BEL, 5-31, 3yo/up, 1m, 1:35 2/5, ft. he’s now taken his first four starts, and after claiming 1--PICO CENTRAL (BRZ), 119, h, 5, by Spend a Buck Grade I honors with a win in the GI Carter H. in April, he 1st Dam: Sheila Purple (Brz), by Purple Mountain defeated what was almost certainly the strongest field 2nd Dam: Ecoute (Brz), by Tumble Lark gathered in the U.S. this year to capture Monday’s GI 3rd Dam: Mystere (Arg), by Imbroglio (Arg) Metropolitan H. O-Gary Tanaka; B-Haras Fronteira Pap (BRZ); T-Paulo Pico Central is the third known foal of his dam, Sheila H Lobo; J-A O Solis; $450,000. Lifetime Record: Purple. She was a daughter of the Grey Dawn II horse, MG1SW-Brz, 12-8-0-1, $830,145. Purple Mountain, a tough sprinter whose best victory Click for the brisnet.com chart or the brisnet.com came in the GII Fall Highweight H. A half-sister to catalogue-style pedigree. Brazilian Group 3 winner Real Balafre, Sheila Purple is out of Ecoute, a mare by another U.S. bred stallion, In recent years we’ve become accustomed to T. V. Lark’s stakes placed son, Tumble Lark. Ecoute’s Kentucky Derby winners sired by relatively inexpensive stallions. Back in the 80’s and early 90’s, however, sister, Damascus Blade, is granddam of another Brazilian the race was more frequently the province of horse to makes his name as a sprinter in the U.S. Her Thoroughbred royalty, with victories for the offspring of Grade I winning daughter Met Blade is the dam of Blade such as Alydar (twice), Fappiano, Halo, Caro, Seattle Prospector, who in 2001 won the GIII Berkeley H., and Slew and Nijinsky II. Even then, however, there was the finished second in the GI San Carlos H., a race won occasional interloper, such as the 1985 hero Spend a earlier this year (as a Grade II) by Pico Central. Buck, who went on to become champion three-year-old Pico Central’s pedigree is quite an outcross one. His and Horse of the Year. nearest duplication is War Admiral 5x5, and he also has He was a son of GII Saranac S. and GIII Peter Pan S. Nasrullah 5x6x6 (two of the Nasrullah strains are via victor Buckaroo (by Buckpasser), a horse now best Nasrullah/Man o’ War crosses, which appear in Spend a know as sire of the leader of the Florida stallion Buck’s granddam, Battle Dress, and in Tumble Lark, sire community, Montbrook, but never a stallion at the forefront of fashion. At stud, Spend a Buck threw more of Pico Central’s second dam). Further back there is a to his pedigree, which was more adequate than large build up of Man o’ War and two of his spectacular, than his race record. He began his stud grandparents, Fairy Gold (dam of Man o’ War’s sire, Fair career at Lane’s End Farm, in Lexington, Kentucky, but Play) and Rock Sand (sire of Man o’ War’s dam, after standing at Red River Farms, Louisiana, in 2001, Mahubah), through three related strains--War Admiral, he was exported to Brazil, a country to which he had War Relic and Eight Thirty. War Relic, a son of Man o’ been shuttling for several seasons. He died of War was out of a mare by Friar Rock (by Rock Sand out anaphylactic shock in that country in November 2002. of Fairy Gold), and inbred 3x3 to both Rock Sand and Fairy Gold. Eight Thirty was by Rock Sand with a Top Buck.. second dam by Man o’ War and so also inbred to Rock The best of Spend a Buck’s U.S.-sired runners was Sand and Fairy Gold. Antespend, a three time Grade I winner, who is also the Eight Thirty’s Man o’ War strain came through dam of this year’s GI Florida Derby hero Friends Lake. Seaplane, who was half-sister to the granddam of War Spend a Buck sired seven other U.S. graded stakes Admiral, himself of course, a son of Man o’ War. winners--No Spend No Glow, Adhocracy, Pie In Your Eye, Dust Bucket, Cheerful Spree, Table Limit and Worth Avenue--and has a lifetime total of 32 stakes winners. Antespend was out of an Argentinean-bred mare, and as it turns out, this was a signpost to Spend a Buck’s suitability for the environment in South America, and from his Brazilian crops he sired at least eight Grade I winners, including two--Hard Buck and Pico Central--who have captured Grade I events in the U.S. in 2004..

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