Pedigree Insights

Andrew Caulfield, March 16, 2004–Preachinatthebar P EDIGREE INSIGHTS Silver Buck. What's more, none of the sires of his first three dams--Poker, Wise Margin and Faultless--had BY ANDREW CAULFIELD excelled as stallions (although Poker will always be remembered as the broodmare sire of Seattle Slew). Sunday, Santa Anita I have commented before that stallions with this type SAN FELIPE S.-GII, $250,000, SAX, 3-14, 3yo, of background--where the horse's performance 1 1/16m, 1:42 4/5, ft. outshines his pedigree--tend to be less prolific sources 1--@#PREACHINATTHEBAR, 116, c, 3, by Silver Charm of top performers than their blue-blooded rivals. 1st Dam: Holy Nola (SW, $216,812), by Silver Deputy Fortunately, there are occasional exceptions to this rule, 2nd Dam: Shrewd Vixen, by Spectacular Bid which prompts the question of whether Silver Charm 3rd Dam: Theia (Fr), by Caro (Ire) will prove to be one of them. O/B-Michael Pegram (KY); T-Bob Baffert; J-J I think it's fair to say that buyers didn't give him the Santiago; $150,000. Lifetime Record: 7-2-0-2, benefit of the doubt when his first yearlings came on $201,588. the market in 2002. With a median no higher than Click for the free brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree, $48,500, Silver Charm had only one youngster sold for the brisnet.com chart or the RaceReplays.com replay. $300,000 or more. Forestry, on the other hand, achieved a median of $160,000, with 10 individuals The story goes that last October, on the day after the selling for prices between $300,000 and $800,000. Breeders' Cup, Bob Baffert predicted that "a son of Although Silver Charm failed to come up with a Silver Charm is going to win the [2004 Kentucky] stakes winner with his first runners last year, there was Derby; I just don't know who he is." Over four months still plenty of cause for optimism. As many as 16 of his later, Baffert ran Odds On and Preachinatthebar--two of 31 runners were successful, with Deb's Charm, his four Triple Crown entries by his former star--in Charming Jim and Consecrate all proving worthy of Sunday's San Felipe S., with the latter keeping his inclusion in the Experimental Free Handicap, while High handler's hopes alive with a game win over the rather Silver was also stakes placed. unlucky St Averil. The total of winners is continuing to rise this year, as Silver Charm, of course, failed by only three-parts of has his number of stakes performers, most notably a length to complete the Triple Crown in 1997 and thanks to Consecrate and Preachinatthebar. Consecrate eventually retired with earnings amounting to the has twice finished a creditable third behind Imperialism staggering sum of nearly $7 million. In the process, he in graded company, running like a horse with a future had shown himself to be a model of class and over longer distances in the GII San Rafael S. Preachin- consistency, finishing either first or second in 18 of his atthebar then showed the benefit of his recent third in 19 starts at the ages of two, three and four (before the Sham S. by becoming his sire's first stakes winner losing a bit of his zest at five). in the San Felipe. Notwithstanding his outstanding record on the track, The chances are that there will be plenty more to it was impossible to overlook the fact that Silver Charm come. Buyers showed Silver Charm more respect at last had changed hands for only $16,500 as a yearling. year's yearling sales, paying a median price of $68,500, Consequently, his fee on his retirement to Three with four colts selling for sums between $300,000 and Chimneys Farm was set no higher than $25,000--only $675,000. No wonder his 2004 book filled quickly. half the amount asked for the services of Forestry, that Sixteen juvenile winners was an impressive total for a year's highest-priced freshman sire. Whereas the horse like Silver Charm. Admittedly, he matured quickly Grade I-winning Forestry is by Storm Cat out of a enough to race three times during August and Grade I winner from the family of Mr. Prospector, Silver September of his juvenile season, notably landing a Charm is one of only three Grade I winners among the head win in the GII Del Mar Futurity over seven sizeable number of foals sired by the Florida-based furlongs, but he was rated eight pounds inferior to www.coolmore.com Boston Harbor. He clearly improved between the ages of two and three, as might be expected of a horse of his imposing physique. He stands 16.2 hands, as did his sire Silver Buck, and his grandsire Buckpasser was taller still, at 16.3. Silver Charm, while possessing the speed to run very well over seven furlongs as a three-year-old, was ideally suited by a mile and a quarter, as he showed with his victories in the Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup and his close second in the Breeders' Cup Classic. It's going to be interesting to see whether Preachinatthebar can follow suit, especially as he is out of a mare by Silver Deputy. Even though Silver Deputy enjoyed mile-and-a-quarter success with Silverbulletday and Archers Bay, I tend to associate his name more with speed than stamina. Preachinatthebar's dam, Holy Nola, inherited Silver Deputy's speed and precocity, but her tough sister Bare Necessities has done very well at around a mile and an eighth, scoring twice at the Grade III level. It is also encouraging that, as a daughter of Spectacular Bid and Theia, his second dam Shrewd Vixen was bred to stay at least a mile and a quarter. Theia was France's champion juvenile filly of 1975, when she won the G1 Criterium des Pouliches, and she was also very effective at three, when she scored at group level at up to 1 5/16 miles and ran creditably in Group 1 company over a mile and a half..

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