Andrew Caulfield, September 7, 2004– (Ire) P EDIGREE INSIGHTS ’s name may not mean much to American readers, except that he sired the champion turf horse BY ANDREW CAULFIELD Steinlen and the Santa Anita Derby winner Habitony (who in turn sired that very fast horse Richter Scale). To STANLEYBET SPRINT CUP-G1, £225,000, Haydock, Europeans, though, Habitat will be remembered as a 9-4, 3yo/up, 6fT, 1:11.58, gd. champion miler who became a tremendously prolific 1--sTANTE ROSE (IRE), 123, f, 4, by (Ire) source of group winners and an exceptional sire of 1st Dam: My Branch (GB) (MSW & G1SP-Eng & broodmares. Unfortunately he will also be remembered G1SP-Ire, $206,524), by (Ire) as a fairly disastrous sire of sires, but more of that later. 2nd Dam: Pay The Bank (GB), by (Ire) Habitat’s racing career began with two defeats over a 3rd Dam: Zebra Grass (GB), by Run The Gantlet mile and a quarter and this son of raced only (350,000gns HIT ‘03 TATDEC). O-B E Nielsen; at a mile throughout the rest of his career. It’s a B-Addison Racing Ltd Inc; T-R Charlton; J-R Hughes; measure of Habitat’s class that he won five of his six £130,500. Lifetime Record: 13-5-0-2, £225,546. starts over that distance. His final appearance saw him Click for the free racingpost.co.uk chart or the free comprehensively account for a strong Prix du Moulin brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. field which included , the dual Guineas winner who was the only horse to beat Habitat over a As he’s a son of Sadler’s Wells, who has such an mile. exceptional record with mares from the Mill Reef male Tim Rogers then recruited Habitat to stand at his line, Breeders’ Cup Mile hero Barathea was bound to be Airlie/Grangewilliam Studs, with sensational results. Not sent mares from this line. What started as a trickle has only did Habitat become the leading freshman sire of become a substantial flow since his first runners 1973, but he also topped the list of sires of reached the track in 1998, when Mill Reef’s son Shirley two-year-olds. His son was the highest-rated English-trained juvenile colt, while his daughter Heights and Shirley Heights’ son Slip Anchor cropped up (now the third dam of Action This Day) was the co-top as the broodmare sires of Barathea’s first two group juvenile filly. winners. Since then Barathea’s partnership with the Mill Habitat was to top the two-year-old table on four Reef line has built up a sizeable collection of stakes occasions and he reached the top 12 stallions on the winners, including this year’s Group 2 winner Pongee general sires’ list in 12 consecutive years. Unfortunately and three Classic-placed performers in Barathea Guest, he never took the title of champion sire--mainly because Alasha and Hazarista. his stock generally didn’t stay well enough to contest But there could be another reliable way of breeding a the major mile-and-a-half prizes--but he finished second high-class performer from Barathea, as his daughter four times. Tante Rose has been demonstrating throughout her The strangest aspect of Habitat’s stallion career, unbeaten 2004 campaign. This filly, who got up in the which was ended by laminitis in 1987, concerned his last strides to defeat the males in the G1 Stanleybet progeny’s stamina, or lack of it. Habitat was initially Sprint Cup, is inbred 3x3 to Habitat through two of that considered to be a mile-and-a-quarter horse, which excellent stallion’s Group 1 winners. Another of seemed reasonable for a son of Sir Gaylord. But for Barathea’s group winners, the unbeaten French colt breaking down just before the race, Sir Gaylord would Apsis, combines these two approaches, as he is out of probably have started favorite for the 1962 Kentucky a grand-daughter of Mill Reef and he is inbred 3x4 to Derby on the strength of his win in the Everglades S. Habitat. Another of Barathea’s stakes winners, the over a mile and an eighth. Habitat was also a half- French filly Pampa Negra, is another inbred 3x3 to brother to Northfields, a colt who won Habitat. the Louisiana Derby over a mile and an eighth. cont.

www.coolmore.com Yet Habitat’s mature progeny collected nearly 50 Guineas and St Leger, so it was hardly surprising that it percent of their successes in Britain and Ireland in races took 350,000 guineas to buy Tante Rose at over distances between five and seven furlongs (which last December. aren’t nearly as common in Britain as they are in the U.S.). Only 25 percent of their successes came beyond a mile, even though Habitat was mated with plenty of mares with staying pedigrees. He sometimes completely negated the stamina in his mares. For example, he sired the blisteringly fast from a stoutly bred mare which had won over just short of 11 furlongs. Then there was his son , winner of the G1 Flying Childers S. over five furlongs and the G1 Middle Park S. over six, who was out of a mare which excelled beyond a mile and a half. Another example was his diminutive son Sayyaf, who was a specialist sprinter even though his first three dams were by horses which won over at least a mile and a half. I have often wondered about the source of this dominant speed. Perhaps the credit belongs to Sir Gaylord, whose record during a 14-race juvenile campaign reminds us how much times have changed over the last 50 years. He had already had three races in Florida by the time he won at Aqueduct on April 5. Kept very busy, he won three stakes races over 5 1/2 furlongs before taking the Sapling S. over six furlongs on Aug. 5. Clearly he wasn’t short of speed. I said earlier that Habitat will be remembered as a fairly disastrous sire of sires. Indeed, his male line has virtually died out in Britain and Ireland, but a few of his sons had respectable records, including Tante Rose’s broodmare sire Distant Relative. As Distant Relative belonged to Habitat’s penultimate crop, the prejudice against sons of Habitat was already well established by the time he retired to Whitsbury Manor Stud in 1991. His fee was set no higher than £6,000, even though this supremely consistent performer had emulated Habitat’s victory in the Prix du Moulin and had also won the Sussex S. By 1998 he was on his way to Turkey, but he was by no means a failure (four of his daughters--Distant Valley, Iftiraas, Islay Mist and De Puntillas--won graded races in the U.S.). If Habitat had a reputation for being a “filly sire,” Distant Relative took this to extremes. Fillies account for eight of his 10 group winners and for eight of his nine Listed winners. One of those Listed winners was Tante Rose’s dam, My Branch, who was third in the Irish 1000 Guineas after finishing fourth in the English version. My Branch clearly stayed a mile and so did Barathea, who won the Irish 2000 Guineas, but their daughter--in true Habitat fashion--failed to stay the mile in last year’s 1000 Guineas. Once again it appears that Habitat’s influence has proved the strongest, even though Tante Rose’s second dam, Pay the Bank, stayed a mile and a quarter and her third dam, the Run the Gantlet mare Zebra Grass, was bred to stay well. The fourth dam, Ash Lawn, was a half sister to , winner of the 2000 Guineas and Derby, and to Glass Slipper, who produced winners of the 1000