FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 2018 BODY AND SOUL: ALL HAIL! LETTER FROM ASCOT: SHANG SHANG SHANG STARS FOR WARD by Dave Johnson In less than a London minute, Wesley Ward turned into a hero just after 2:35 in the afternoon at Royal Ascot in the G2 Norfolk S. The margin of victory was shorter than a nose, shorter than half-a-nose. It was a whisker. Because the Ward stable has been cold over the first two days, the price on Shang Shang Shang (Shanghai Bobby) climbed all morning long, up to 5-1. The fans were giving up on the 1984 Eclipse Award apprentice jockey turned conditioner, until this perfect sunny afternoon. His horse wore saddle cloth #10, and it was Royal Ascot winner #10 for Ward, the most successful trainer based outside Europe. Cont. p5 Blame | Claiborne photo by Robert D. Fierro, DataTrack IN TDN EUROPE TODAY The other day, we rolled down various leading sires lists in STRADIVARIUS ANSWERS GOLD CUP CALL search of a topic for this installment and immediately came to a Stradivarius gives Frankie Dettori his 60th Royal Ascot halt. That's because we noticed that Eclipse champion Blame winner in a thrilling finish to the G1 Gold Cup. Click or tap here had suddenly snuck up a few of those lists, to the point where to go straight to TDN Europe. he has to be considered a serious bet after what was probably a fair assessment that--echoing his racing career--he'd gotten off to a slow start as a sire. That statement was not meant to be anything other than a logical observation. One has to consider that even though he is from one of the most incredible families of the past 75 years-- that of *Rough Shod II, his fifth dam--it was always his sire, and his sire line, which was mostly greeted with a bit of hesitancy by a market oversaturated with commercial hyperventilation. But with ten stakes winners this year (four graded), headed by filly Fault (GI Santa Margarita S.) and the turf colt Maraud (GII American Turf S.), attention must be paid. But the eyebrows were arched when we continued scrolling down the list and discovered that his deceased sire, Arch, and his now exported (to Korea) speedball son, Archarcharch, were ranked among the top 50 sires in cumulative 2018 earnings. To double check, we ran the 2017 list--and they were in the Top 55 at the end of the year. That's an interesting discovery for a branch of a sire line that snuck up on a lot of people and is often overlooked by more, i.e. that of Kris S., a son of Roberto. Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] V.P., INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Friday, June 22, 2018 Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN News and Features Editor Ben Massam @BMassamTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistants Alexa Reisfield Rachel McCaffrey Amie Morosco Photo Editor/Dir. of Distribution Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] Ostilio (GB) gets a congratulatory kiss from trainer Simon Crisford en route to the winner’s circle after capturing the Britannia S. at Royal Ascot. | HorsePhotos Social Media Strategist Justina Severni FUNERAL SERVICES FOR OLIN GENTRY SET Director of Customer Service 6 Vicki Forbes The funeral service information for Olin B. Gentry has been [email protected] announced. The funeral mass will occur Friday at 12 p.m. at St. Paul Catholic Church in Lexington. Marketing Manager Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen Director of Information Technology BIG PLANS FOR KING ZACHARY 8 Ray Villa Dale Romans is eyeing some of the top 3-year-old stakes races [email protected] this summer for GIII Matt Winn S. winner King Zachary (Curlin). Bookkeeper Terry May TODAY’S GRADED STAKES [email protected] EST Race Click for TV WORLDWIDE INFORMATION 9:30a Albany S.-G3, ASC -------------- TVG/NBCSN International Editor 10:05a King Edward VII S.-G2, ASC -------------- TVG/NBCSN Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] 10:40a Commonwealth Cup-G1, ASC -------------- TVG/NBCSN European Editor 11:20a Coronation S.-G1, ASC -------------- TVG/NBCSN Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 9 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • JUNE 22, 2018 Taking a step back, we wondered how other Roberto branches were doing and discovered of course, that there's only one other which is prominent in North America, that of Dynaformer. The latter has some young sons at stud, but only Temple City and second-crop sire Point of Entry are beginning to make any noise that might compete with that of Blame. One reason is that aside from the ill-fated Barbaro (whose full brother Lentenor is now at stud), many good racing sons of Dynaformer were geldings. More interestingly, except for Darby Creek Road, Lear Fan and Silver Hawk, each of whom had successful records but never established viable branches, the sons of Roberto who left sons behind did so overseas, e.g., Brian's Time in Japan and Red Ransom in Australia. Thus, we come to Kris S. In contrast to Dynaformer, who raced more than 30 times and won graded races around two turns, Kris S., a foal of 1977, made only five starts, winning two sprints at two and the listed Bradbury S. at Santa Anita at nine furlongs at three. He was undoubtedly of high class considering the horses he ran against (e.g., Raise a Man, First Albert, The Carpenter, Rumbo). TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 9 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • JUNE 22, 2018 Surprisingly, none of his starts came on turf and along with the speed he showed at two, he set himself apart from other sons of Roberto when he went to stud. His sons who carried on his line more efficiently showed that tendency on the track and at stud. They included Prized, You and I and Rock Hard Ten, a diversified branch who, unlike Arch, did not leave any impactful sons behind. So much for first impressions. Things like this bother us because as sire lines fade, there are questions as to what factors may have affected the transitions from gangbusters to busts. We tend to look at things from three points of view, not necessarily in order of importance: Biomechanics, pedigree, and environment. The latter is a somewhat esoteric factor that includes cultural and economic issues which affect acceptance of a line, see Franco Varola's The Functional Development of the Thoroughbred, Chapter 11. Ironically, if we look at biomechanics first, we get a very powerful slap upside the head--Roberto has a profile similar to Halo's, whose line we explored in our essay in the Feb. 1 edition of TDN. We noted on our Phenotype Target that Halo and his son Southern Halo were somewhat heavier in body structure than most successful sires. Heavy or light-bodied stallions often pass that characteristic on. That can result in inconsistency for a progenitor because more energy is required to bring versatility on the racetrack. Heavier types often tend to be sprinter-milers; light-bodied horses often can handle two turns but unless blessed with good cardio systems for energy storage can run out of gas if pressed too soon. Neither type generally succeeds at stud. Even though it made little difference in the racing careers of Halo and Southern Halo, their genetics fell into a biomechanical limbo that required their mates to bring less weight to the table so as to produce efficient racing progeny, which apparently happened. When we ran the biomechanical profile of Roberto and Kris S., we hit a "holy moly" minute: Both also carried more weight than we expected. And as is the case of Halo and Southern Halo, the most successful sires in this branch had obvious biomechanical balance from their dams so that they were somewhat more balanced in terms of weight and efficiency. This is more clearly explained from a glance at the two Phenotype Targets attached, one for Halo and Southern Halo (which also appeared in the Feb. 1 article), and the other for Roberto and Kris S. Note how the proximity of Roberto and Kris S. is similar to that of Halo and Southern Halo. This is almost mystical. 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Sugar Hill Road, Woodford Co. • $2,150,000 • 55± acres, Superior Location • 3 car garage, guest apartment • Adjacent to WinStar Farm • 9 stall horse barn • Minutes from Keeneland, • SDGGRFNVODUJH¿HOGV Versailles, Lexington • 50’ round pen with dry lot • 4500± sq ft main residence • 2 bedroom guest residence 859.277.2030 1076 Wellington Way Lexington, KY 40513 Tom Biederman Broker / Auctioneerneer 859.312.0606 BiedermanRealEstate.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 5 OF 9 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • JUNE 22, 2018 However, we have another curve to throw.