Andrew Caulfield, October 21, 2003 –Milk It Mick (GB) P EDIGREE INSIGHTS his breeder, Mrs. Yvette Dixon, offered him at Doncaster Bloodstock's October Yearling Sale. The colt BY ANDREW CAULFIELD was bought in for 14,000 guineas, but his visit to the sales qualified him for auction races, in which the DARLEY DEWHURST S.-G1, £245,000, Newmarket, weights are based on sales prices, and he duly won 10-18, 2yo, c/f, 7fT, 1:25.22, gd/fm. three of them in May and June. 1--sMILK IT MICK (GB), 126, c, 2, by Millkom (GB) He has been kept busy ever since and the Dewhurst 1st Dam: Lunar Music (GB), by Komaite was his 12th race--a remarkable total for a European 2nd Dam: Lucky Candy (GB), by Lucky Wednesday (GB) two-year-old of Milk It Mick's talents. As he finished no 3rd Dam: Be My Sweet (GB), by Galivanter (GB) closer than second in any of his first six starts in stakes (14,000gns yrl ‘02 DONOCT). O-Paul J Dixon; B-Mrs company, he will give the handicappers a few problems Yvette Dixon; T-Jamie Osborne; J-Pat Eddery; when they try to decide the year-end juvenile rankings. £142,100. Lifetime Record: 12-5-1-2, £214,565. However, exaggerated waiting tactics have helped bring *First G1SW for sire (by Cyrano de Bergerac {Ire}). out the best in this admirably tough colt on his last two Click for the racingpost.co.uk chart or the free starts. brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. Milk It Mick has one unlikely distinction for a Group 1 winner: none of his four grandparents, Cyrano de As you'd expect, there were some very well- Bergerac, Good Game, Komaite and Lucky Candy, ever connected youngsters among the 12 candidates for managed to win a stakes race. What's more, Good Saturday's G1 Darley Dewhurst S., such as Antonius Game's sire Mummy's Game won nothing more Pius, a $1.5-million Danzig colt out of a Group 1 important than a Group 3 event before embarking on a winner, and Haafhd, a colt sired by a champion moderate stallion career which ended in Italy. And two-year-old from a Classic-winning mare. Lucky Candy's sire, the unfashionably-bred Lucky Unfortunately for the pedigree purists, the eventual Wednesday, cost less than 2,000 guineas as a yearling winner, Milk It Mick, wasn't one of them. This colt's before developing into a leading 10-furlong performer in plebeian background was no doubt one of the reasons 1977. why he was sent off at 33-1, even though he had won So why is Milk It Mick as good as he is? a Group 3 contest over the same course and distance To me, the most obvious place to start looking is his only 16 days earlier. sire, Millkom, who will be remembered in America for In fact, Milk It Mick's immediate pedigree is far his very impressive victory over Kaldounevees in the removed from the aristocratic bloodlines you hope to 1995 Man o'War S. find in a winner of Britain's most prestigious This son of Cyrano de Bergerac started his racing two-year-old contest--a race won in the past 40 years career in the French Provinces as a two-year-old in by such notables as Nijinsky, Mill Reef, Grundy, The 1993, when he won all five of his starts, including a Minstrel, Storm Bird, Diesis, El Gran Senor, Generous, couple of Listed races. The question he then had to Dr Devious, Zafonic, Grand Lodge, Pennekamp and answer was whether he could graduate to group Rock of Gibraltar. company, because none of Cyrano de Bergerac's first Milk It Mick was conceived in 2000, when his sire 196 foals of racing age had managed to win or be Millkom covered the grand total of four mares at an placed in a group race up to that point. advertised fee of £3,500. It was a somewhat similar Millkom answered this question with a highly story with the Dewhurst hero's dam Lunar Music, who emphatic "Yes" as a three-year-old. Firstly, he won the was conceived in 1993, when her sire Komaite G1 Prix Jean Prat and then he used his considerable attracted 26 mares at a fee of £1,500. powers of acceleration to take the G1 Grand Prix de In view of his background, it was hardly surprising Paris. He was gaining his fourth group success of the that Milk It Mick failed to attract much attention when year when he took the G3 Prix du Prince d'Orange, in www.coolmore.com the process extending his unbeaten record to 10. By this stage, I was beginning to think that Millkom was a throwback to Cyrano de Bergerac's extraordinary broodmare sire Brigadier Gerard, who remained unbeaten in 15 starts, but Millkom was beaten into ninth place next time out, when he stepped up to a mile and a half in the Arc. Millkom was very much an enigma. Not only was he a lot better than he had a right to be, but he also stayed very much better than might have been expected. Cyrano de Bergerac never tackled more than six furlongs and Millkom's dam, Good Game, made nine of her 10 starts over five furlongs. Good Game's sire, Mummy's Game, never tackled more than 7.2 furlongs, while her broodmare sire, Deep Diver, was an exceptionally fast sprinter. One thing we did know for sure was that Millkom was a very good colt at his best. However, his chances of becoming a successful stallion were compromised by several factors. After suffering a tendon injury in winning the Man o'War, he was unable to race at five and managed only one start at six. Consequently, he was pretty much a forgotten name by the time he retired to stud in England in 1998--especially as he had never raced in Britain. Add in his less-than-impressive parentage and he was bound to struggle, which he did. Perhaps he will enjoy greater support now that he has returned to France. Ordinary breeds Extraordinary.. Milk It Mick's dam Lunar Music won three times over five furlongs, but she was only ordinary, as you can guess from her best annual Timeform rating of 67. Her sire, Komaite, didn't run until he was four, when he won a maiden race in Ireland, and he has never been represented by a group winner during a lengthy career. He is a very well-bred individual, though, by Nureyev out of that outstanding broodmare Brown Berry. When Komaite was mated to Sugar Token, a half-sister to Milk It Mick's second dam Lucky Candy, the result was Lunar Mist, a filly who won six of her eight starts as a juvenile in 1995. Timeform summed up Lunar Mist as "tough and genuine; held up and has a good turn of foot," so history has repeated itself with Milk It Mick. Toughness was also the hallmark of Gunner B, a half-brother to Milk It Mick's third dam, Be My Sweet. As a winner of the G1 Eclipse S., Gunner B ranked as the most distinguished member of this family until Milk It Mick came along. This very successful sire of hurdlers and steeplechasers died early this year at the age of 30, having covered over 20 mares at the age of 29..