PEDIGREE INSIGHTS by ANDREW CAULFIELD Saturday, Belmont Park BELMONT S.-GI, $1,000,000, BEL, 6-6, 3Yo, 1 1/2M, 2:27 2/5, Ft
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Andrew Caulfield, June 9, 2009–Summer Bird PEDIGREE INSIGHTS BY ANDREW CAULFIELD Saturday, Belmont Park BELMONT S.-GI, $1,000,000, BEL, 6-6, 3yo, 1 1/2m, 2:27 2/5, ft. 1--#@sSUMMER BIRD, 126, c, 3, by Birdstone 1st Dam: Hong Kong Squall, by Summer Squall 2nd Dam: Hong Kong Jade, by Alysheba 3rd Dam: Ruby Slippers, by Nijinsky II O/B-Dr Kalarikkal K & Dr Vilasini D Jayaraman (KY); T-Tim A Ice; J-Kent J Desormeaux; $600,000. Lifetime Record: 5-2-0-1, $723,040. *Second GISW for sophomore sire (by Grindstone). Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick Rating: A+. Click for brisnet.com chart, or brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree o r brisnet.com PPs. Video, sponsored by Taylor Made. Last November, when I pointed out the promise being shown by Birdstone in a column on his daughter Livin Lovin, I had no inkling that this excellent performer was going to prove the dominant force in the 2009 Triple Crown races. Who would have thought that an unproven stallion standing at $10,000 was destined to supply the winner of the Kentucky Derby, the runner-up in the Preakness and the first and third in the Belmont S., thanks to the efforts of Mine That Bird and Summer Bird? Perhaps the idea wouldn=t have seemed so improbable in the context of the profound influence which the Fappiano branch of the Mr. Prospector male line has exerted on the Triple Crown. Mine That Bird became the fourth consecutive generation of this male line to win a Triple Crown event when he triumphed on Derby Day, following the 2004 Belmont S. victory of Birdstone and the 1996 and 1990 Kentucky Derby successes of Grindstone and Unbridled. SUMMER BIRD, c, 2006 Fappiano Unbridled Gana Facil Grindstone Drone Buzz My Bell Chateaupavia Birdstone Northern Dancer Storm Bird South Ocean Dear Birdie Silent Screen Hush Dear You All Northern Dancer Storm Bird South Ocean Summer Squall Secretariat Weekend Surprise Hong Kong Squall Lassie Dear 9-0-1-2, $11,421 Alydar 7Fls, 5Wnrs, 1GSW Hong Kong Jade Alysheba 7-1-02, $16,817 Bel Sheba 10Fls, 6Wnrs, Ruby Slippers Nijinsky II 1SP 13Fls, 1Ch, 1GSW Moon Glitter Caulfield cont. www.coolmore.com (Pedigree Insights cont.) Mine That Bird is inbred 4x4 to Northern Dancer, 5x3 And when Summer Bird pounced late to take the to Mr. Prospector and 5x5 to Nashua, whereas Summer Belmont three days ago, he followed Victory Gallop, Bird is inbred 3x3 to Storm Bird and 4x4x5 to Northern Empire Maker and Birdstone as the Fappiano line=s Dancer. Livin Lovin is inbred 4x5 to Northern Dancer, fourth Belmont S. winner in the space of 12 years. The and the inbreeding in Stone Legacy=s pedigree is 5x3 to Belmont also highlights the scale of the dominance Mr. Prospector, 4x5 to Raise A Native and 5x5 to exerted by the Mr. Prospector male line as a whole, as Nashua. no fewer than 11 of the last 15 winners have come The choice of Birdstone as a mate for Hong Kong from this line, with 13 in all. Squall no doubt owed something to the fact that Hong In my Livin Lovin article, I commented: Kong Squall=s dam Hong Kong Jade is a half-sister to AWhen Birdstone retired to Gainesway, his two stakes winners by Fappiano-line stallions. Fappiano advertisements claimed that >no colt of his generation himself sired one of them, the champion sprinter can match his record.= He had become only the second Rubiano, and Unbridled sired the other, Tap Your Heels. horse ever to take the Champagne S. at two and both Tap Your Heels, of course, has now found fame as the the Belmont S. and Travers S. at three, and he had dam of Gainesway=s other star young stallion, Tapit. ended Smarty Jones=s gallant bid for Triple Crown But the 3x3 inbreeding to Storm Bird must also have honors in the Belmont. In the process Birdstone had been a deliberate attempt to help revive the family=s pushed his earnings past the $1.5-million mark, yet his considerable ability, which had largely skipped Hong fee was set no higher than $10,000--just one-tenth of Kong Squall and Hong Kong Jade and their foals. the price charged for Smarty Jones. At two, Birdstone The strategy seems to have worked very well, but I had ranked fourth among the colts on the Experimental must admit that I would normally be wary of inbreeding Free Handicap, at 124, and only two American colts-- so closely to Storm Bird. On the plus side, he was an Smarty Jones and Kitten=s Joy--were weighted above exceptional racehorse who was undefeated in five him on the World Rankings for three-year-olds. juvenile starts, and he was also a very talented stallion, ASo why was Birdstone so cheap? My guess is that whose achievements including siring the champion sire his connections were keen to compensate for the fact Storm Cat. On a less positive note, Storm Bird=s name that he is a son of Grindstone. The fee for this winner was also sometimes linked to an aggressive nature, a of the 1996 Kentucky Derby has been as low as tendency to wind problems and, eventually, to $3,500 for the last two years, with Birdstone having questionable fertility. This lack of fertility showed in the unwanted distinction of being the only offspring of Summer Bird=s broodmare sire Summer Squall. Grindstone to have won a race above Grade III level.@ Perhaps I am wrong to doubt Storm Bird, as 3x3 With the handicap of Grindstone dragging him down, inbreeding to him also helped the very disappointing Birdstone hasn=t found things easy in his first few years stallion High Yield sire one of his best winners in Magic at stud. His first crop numbers roughly 64 named foals, America (G3 Prix Miesque and second in the G1 Prix and he is credited with only 46 live foals in his second, Morny). Storm Cat=s Irish Group 3 winner Plan is inbred of which 37 have been named. His fortunes revived 2x4 to Storm Bird, but the inbreeding may have had somewhat in his third year, but his 2008 book little to do with the colt=s talent, as he is out of the comprised 63 mares. record earner Spain. So too is the Giant=s Causeway The size of his first crop makes his achievements all filly Dreamtheimpossible, last year=s G1 Fillies= Mile third the more laudable. In addition to Mine That Bird and who is inbred 3x4 to Storm Bird. Summer Bird, the 64 named foals also include Livin It is also worth mentioning that the second and third Lovin (GIII Tempted S.), Stone Legacy (second in the generations of Summer Bird=s pedigree feature Dear GI Kentucky Oaks) and the dual stakes winner Texas Birdie and Weekend Surprise, two winners of the Birdstone. Kentucky Broodmare of the Year title. Summer Bird=s As the dams of the foals in Birdstone=s first two link to Tapit also makes him particularly interesting for a crops have a fairly run-of-the-mill Comparable Index of colt produced for a fee of $10,000 and it is going to be 1.23, it is also worth looking at the mares which fascinating to see how this progressive colt=s career produced Birdstone=s good winners. Mine That Bird=s develops. dam Mining My Own never raced and was sold for only $8,000 in January 2008, while Summer Bird=s dam Hong Kong Squall failed to win in nine attempts after selling for $22,000 as a yearling. Livin Lovin=s dam Nurse Margaret, a $28,000 yearling, won only one of her 11 starts and less than $18,000. And Texas Birdstone is out of an unraced daughter of Ray=s Pegasus. Stone Legacy is the exception, as her dam Gulch Legacy earned $145,000 (without earning black type). So Birdstone just might be one of those rare stallions capable of turning base metal into gold. But do his powers of alchemy need any help? .