Andrew Caulfield, March 11, 2008–Nashoba’s Key & Ariege P EDIGREE INSIGHTS With the inflationary impact of racing=s superpowers, such as Robert Sangster and the Maktoums, still to BY ANDREW CAULFIELD come, a small owner-breeder could race a top-class filly without being inundated with those too-good-to-refuse offers which are now par for the course. Sunday, Santa Anita SANTA MARGARITA INVITATIONAL H.-GI, $300,000, SAX, 3-9, 4yo/up, f/m, 1 1/8m (AWT), 1:48 4/5, ft. NASHOBA’S KEY, f, 2003 *Turn-to 1--NASHOBA'S KEY, 122, m, 5, by Silver Hawk Hail to Reason Nothirdchance 1st Dam: Nashoba (Ire), by Caerleon Roberto Nashua 2nd Dam: Grise Mine (Fr), by Crystal Palace (Fr) Bramalea Rarelea 3rd Dam: Katie May (GB), by Busted (GB) Silver Hawk *Nearco O-Warren B Williamson; B-Williamson Racing, LLC Amerigo Sanlinea (GB) (CA); T-Carla Gaines; J-Garrett K Gomez; $180,000. Gris Vitesse Mat de Cocagne (Fr) Lifetime Record: 10-8-1-0, $1,252,090. Werk Nick Matchiche (Fr) Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report and 5-cross Chimere Fabuleuse Northern Dancer pedigree. Click for the brisnet.com chart, the Nijinsky II Flaming Page brisnet.com PPs or the free brisnet.com catalogue-style Caerleon Round Table pedigree. Video, sponsored by Taylor Made. Foreseer Nashoba (Ire) Regal Gleam 6-3-1-1, $97,200 I=m loath to admit it, but the weekend=s Grade I Santa Caro (Ire) 4Fls, 1G1SW Crystal Palace (Fr) Anita victories by Ariege and Nashoba=s Key brought Grise Mine (Fr) Hermieres (Fr) back vivid memories of Cawston=s Pride, a filly born G1SW-Fr 10Fls, 1GSP, 1SP Katie May (GB) Busted (GB) exactly 40 years ago in England. Of course the world of 10Fls, 2G1SW Cawston’s Pride (GB) 1968 was a totally different place--America was chuckling along to Rowan & Martin=s Laugh-In and watching AHair@ on Broadway--and the racing world was a much simpler place, too. Caulfield cont. www.coolmore.com Cawston=s Pride was bred on a limited budget by Len The first, Cawston=s Clown, won the G2 Coventry S., Hall, owner of a small farm in the British midlands. while the second, Solinus, developed into a champion Hall=s father bought Cawston=s Pride=s third dam, the sprinter for Robert Sangster. tastily named Salmonella, for as little as 90 guineas. Cawston=s Pride=s last son, Man of Vision, was Cawston=s Pride was the product of a mating between conceived when his sire Never Say Die was 24 years two very different animals. Her sire Con Brio, a old and seemingly well past his prime. Even so, Man of handsome but disappointing Ribot colt, won the Vision was good enough to contest the Derby and Brighton Derby Trial over a mile and a half, whereas her earned a Timeform rating of 119. dam, Cawston Tower, excelled over five furlongs. However, it has been Cawston=s Pride=s only Breeders often arrange this type of mating in the daughter, Katie May, who has proved her main legacy. hope that the offspring will fall somewhere in the Although her sire Busted was a noted source of middle of the distance scale, but, as often as not, the stamina, Katie May was at her best at around a mile foal inherits either one parent=s speed or the other=s and ran creditably in the 1976 1000 Guineas. Katie stamina. In Cawston=s Pride=s case, she inherited all of May was sold for 20,000gns at the end of her racing her dam=s speed--and then some. Racing entirely over career and, needless to say, proved a bargain. Four of Britian=s minimum distance of five furlongs, she was her nine foals became stakes winners, headed by the unbeaten in eight juvenile starts. The 1970 Free top French filly Grise Mine and the excellent American Handicap provides a good idea of her brilliance. The turf mare Kostroma. Grise Mine now ranks as the two-year-old colts of 1970 were a phenomenal second dam of Nashoba=s Key (her dam Nashoba collection, headed by My Swallow (the first horse ever sharing the same sire, Caerleon, as Kostroma), while to win France=s big four juvenile events), Mill Reef and Kostroma is the dam of Ariege. Another of Katie May=s Brigadier Gerard. The last two were to become legends daughters, Miss Profile, is the second dam of Carry On of the British turf, yet Cawston=s Pride was rated Katie, one of the best British juvenile fillies of 2003. virtually their equal--or superior if you add in a 3lb sex allowance to her Free Handicap assignment of 130lb. Saturday, Santa Anita She was weighted just 3lb below My Swallow, 2lb SANTA ANITA OAKS-GI, $300,000, SAX, 3-8, 3yo, f, below Mill Reef and 1lb below Brigadier Gerard. No 1 1/16m (AWT), 1:42 3/5, ft. wonder this seemingly invincible filly was compared to 1--#@sARIEGE, 122, f, 3, by Doneraile Court the legendary Mumtaz Mahal. 1st Dam: Kostroma (Ire) (Hwt. Older Mare-Ire at 7-9.5f, Unfortunately, Cawston=s Pride did prove to have an MGISW-US, GSW & G1SP-Ire, $1,205,813), by Caerleon Achilles heel--her temperament. After extending her 2nd Dam: Katie May (GB), by Busted (GB) winning sequence to nine on her reappearance at three, 3rd Dam: Cawston's Pride (GB), by *Con Brio II she was reluctant to go to the start when favorite for ($75,000 yrl '06 KEESEP). O-IEAH Stables & Pegasus the 1000 Guineas and suffered her first defeat. Holding Group Stables; B-Calumet Farm (KY); Dropped back to five furlongs, she dug her toes in at T-Robert J Frankel; J-Corey S Nakatani; $180,000. the start of the King=s Stand S. and was retired. It Lifetime Record: 6-2-1-1, $232,531. *1/2 to Ballet seems she inherited more than just her exceptional Pacifica (Minardi), SW & GSP-Fr, GSP-US, $120,123. ability from her grandsire, Ribot, whose stock could be Werk Nick Rating: D+. Click for the eNicks report and quirky. 5-cross pedigree. Click for the brisnet.com chart, the Nowadays, as I hinted earlier, a filly of Cawston=s brisnet.com PPs or the free brisnet.com catalogue-style Pride=s extraordinary talent would almost certainly have pedigree. Video, sponsored by Taylor Made. started her broodmare career in the ownership of one of breeding=s superpowers. But not in 1971. Len Hall It seems odd that Kostroma has seemingly been maintained ownership of his star filly, whose earnings saving the best >til last. Her first stakes winner, the weren=t enormous, and, as a consequence, the filly=s French filly Ballet Pacifica, was produced at the age of breeding career took a somewhat unconventional path. 17 and now Kostroma has finally lived up to By the time Cawston=s Pride died of a twisted gut in expectations with Ariege, whom she foaled as a 1978, at the age of 10, she had produced only four 19-year-old. What makes this late success all the more foals, three of them colts. The stallion selected for her unexpected is the fact that Ballet Pacifica=s sire Minardi in 1973 and =74, in her second and third seasons was stood at $12,500, while Ariege=s sire, the Grade II Comedy Star. I have a sneaking suspicion that Comedy winner Doneraile Court, was priced at $15,000 in Star was chosen partly because of his location, about 2004. Among their less successful predecessors were 40 miles away from Mr. Hall=s farm, as there was no foals by Forty Niner, Storm Cat, Danzig and A.P. Indy. other obvious reason for picking this handsome son of Perhaps Hail to Reason has something to do with Tom Fool for so good a racemare. Ariege=s talent. Doneraile Court is himself inbred 4x3 to Although Comedy Star enjoyed a lot of success in this champion juvenile and there=s a third line in Ariege=s handicaps, he wasn=t quite up to beating the best milers pedigree via Caerleon=s excellent second dam, Regal at stakes level. The fact that he ended his days in Gleam. Doneraile Court=s Grade II-winning son Ruler=s South Africa tells us that he wasn=t an outstanding Court also has three lines of Hail to Reason (and so success as a stallion, but both his sons out of does his recent UAE 1000 Guineas and Oaks winner Cawston=s Pride became group winners. Cocoa Beach, although the third line is quite distant). It isn=t as hard to establish the source of Nashoba=s Key=s ability, which has enabled her to become a stakes winner on turf, synthetic and dirt. She is Silver Hawk=s third Grade/Group I winner from only 13 foals out of Caerleon mares, following the St Leger winner Mutafaweq and the good French filly Germance. Or perhaps she is just another example of the way Cawston=s Pride=s extraordinary ability resurfaces every now and then. ARIEGE, f, 2005 Boldnesian Bold Reasoning Reason to Earn Seattle Slew Poker My Charmer Fair Charmer Doneraile Court Hail to Reason Stop the Music Bebopper Sophisticated Girl Dunce Close Control Self Control Northern Dancer Nijinsky II Kostroma (Ire) Flaming Page Caerleon Hwt. Older Mare-Ire Round Table Foreseer at 7-9.5f, MGISW- Regal Gleam US, GSW & GISP- Crepello (GB) Ire, $1,200,088 Katie May (GB) Busted (GB) 11Fls, 1GSW, GSP-GB Sans le Sou (GB) 1SW 10Fls, 2GISW Cawston’s Pride (GB) Con Brio II (GB) 2SW 4Fls, 2GSW, 2SW Cawston Tower (GB).