Andrew Caulfield, December 20, 2005–Brother Derek P EDIGREE INSIGHTS Even in his prime, Alydar had a reputation for being more of a filly sire, thanks largely to the magnificent BY ANDREW CAULFIELD start he made with his outstanding first-crop daughters Althea and Miss Oceana. Although he soon added Saturrday, Hollywood Park further Grade I-winning fillies to his tally in the form of HOLLYWOOD FUTURITY-GI, $407,250, HOL, 12-17, Alydar’s Best, Endear, Clabber Girl, I’m Sweets and 2yo, 1 1/16m, 1:42, ft. Cadillacing, he wasn’t long in showing that he could 1--sBROTHER DEREK, 121, c, 2, by Benchmark also get top-class sons. His second crop was headed by 1st Dam: Miss Soft Sell, by Siyah Kalem Saratoga Six and Turkoman, with Turkoman becoming 2nd Dam: Solamente Un Vez, by Relaunch the first of three sons of Alydar to take the title of 3rd Dam: Gavel Gertie, by Flit-To champion older horse. The other two, Alysheba and ($150,000 yrl '04 KEESEP; $275,000 2yo ‘05 Criminal Type, also took the Horse of the Year title, BESMAR). O-Cecil N Peacock; B-Mary H Caldwell while Easy Goer was the champion of his division at (CA); T-Dan L Hendricks; J-A O Solis; $244,350. two. With a Kentucky Derby winner, Strike the Gold, Lifetime Record: 5-3-0-1, $502,080. *Full to also among his nine American Grade I-winning sons, Don'tsellmeshort, MSW & GSP, $402,365. Alydar could have been expected to found a dynasty in much the same way as Mr. Prospector, another son of Click for the brisnet.com chart or the free brisnet.com Raise A Native, has done. catalogue-style pedigree. Video, sponsored by Taylor It wasn’t to be. Turkoman, who stood the 2005 Made. season at a fee of $3,000 in California, proved much less effective as a stallion, even though he supplied the Grade I winners Man From Wicklow and Turk Passer; By a nice coincidence, Hollywood’s Grade I juvenile Criminal Type, who got caught up in Calumet’s races both fell to youngsters with a pedigree featuring problems, was soon sold to Japan, leaving Grade II and Alydar, the outstanding son of Raise A Native who will Grade III winners behind; and Saratoga Six, although always be remembered more for his gallant Triple still plying his trade at the age of 23, has sired only one Crown defeats by Affirmed than for his six Grade I Grade I winner. victories. Alysheba--the sire of one Grade I winner--is now Of course there is nothing unusual about Alydar’s resident in Saudi Arabia, while Strike the Gold headed name appearing in the pedigree of a major winner. It is for Turkey after failing to sire a single graded winner. far more unusual, though, to see his name in the male Perhaps Easy Goer would have set the record straight line of a Grade I winner, such as the Hollywood Futurity had he lived, as his legacy included the Grade I winners winner Brother Derek, than in the broodmare sire line, My Flag, Furlough and Will’s Way, but it could be as in the pedigree of the Hollywood Starlet heroine argued that he should have done even better with the Diplomat Lady. exceptional mares he received. The unpalatable truth is that Alydar--for all his Bearing in mind some of the features of Benchmark’s achievements and excellent bloodlines--was a fairly racing career, he didn’t look a prime candidate to disastrous sire of sires. Although he had over 50 sons salvage Alydar’s record as a sire of sires. Unraced at at stud in the early 1990s, his male line is now hanging two, he was unplaced on his only appearance at three. by a thread and I think there is only one grandson--Easy By the time he turned six in 1997, he had managed Goer’s son Will’s Way--with graded winners to his only seven starts for three minor victories, but he then credit. Perhaps Benchmark, the sire of Brother Derek, made a successful stakes debut in the GII San still has time to remedy this situation, as he comes Bernadino H. The winning trainer, Ron Ellis, from Alydar’s final crop, sired before the Calumet star’s commented that “He should have been named controversial death at the age of 15 in 1990. ‘Patience’ for all we’ve been through with him.” www.coolmore.com The six-year-old continued to reward that patience, BROTHER DEREK, c, 2003 adding further Grade II successes in the Del Mar H. and Native Dancer Raise a Native Goodwood Breeders’ Cup H. Ankle surgery then put Raise You Alydar Benchmark back on the sidelines in 1998, but his debut On-and-On Sweet Tooth at stud coincided with the emergence of his very Plum Cake Benchmark talented half sister Tranquility Lake. This daughter of Northern Dancer Danzig Rahy became a Grade I winner in the Gamely Breeders’ Pas de Nom Winter’s Love Cup H. and later took the Yellow Ribbon S. Tranquility The Axe II Cold Hearted Lake hit the headlines again this year when her second Turn to North foal, by Storm Cat, fetched a jaw-dropping $9.7 million Raise a Native Mr. Prospector at Keeneland. Gold Digger Siyah Kalem That colt was obviously bought with a view to Graustark Miss Soft Sell Lady Graustark eventually becoming a major stallion, so his buyers Unraced Inyala must be encouraged by Benchmark’s achievement of 7Fls, 1GISW, 1SW, In Reality Solamente Un Vez Relaunch siring two Grade I winners. Brother Derek’s predecessor 1SP MSW, 17-6-0-1, Foggy Note is Silent Signs, who inflicted the first defeat on $126,470 Gavel Gertie Flit-To Halfbridled in winning the Santa Anita Oaks. Benchmark 10Fls, 4wnrs 10Fls, 2SW Marisa has also sired the Grade II scorer A to the Z and the Grade III winner Standard Setter, with his four graded winners coming from a total of little over 200 named foals in his first four crops--all sired at modest fees in California. His achievements have been rewarded with books of 91, 121 and108 mares in the last three years, so he is going to have enough ammunition to continue hitting the target. Perhaps he is benefitting from being out of a Danzig mare. Danzig sired nine stakes winners from Alydar mares, including Lure and this year’s successful freshman sire Bertolini. Alydar’s five foals out of Danzig mares included the graded winners Lotta Dancing and Benchmark. Benchmark is also out of a half sister to the Belmont S. winner Caveat, who sired nearly 10 percent stakes winners. Two of Benchmark’s graded winners are out of daughters of Siyah Kalem, another California stallion. As Siyah Kalem--a talented miler--is a son of Mr. Prospector, these two are inbred 3x4 to Raise A Native. Inbreeding to Raise A Native through Mr. Prospector and Alydar has been fairly extensive, its finest advertisements probably being Horse of the Year Point Given (inbred 4x4), the champion juvenile Anees (4x3) and the Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Wagon Limit (3x4). Mention of Point Given reminds me that his first two dams are by Turkoman and Relaunch, the latter also being the sire of Brother Derek’s second dam, the stakes-winning Solamente Un Vez. Brother Derek’s third dam, Gavel Gertie, is also the fourth dam of another of this year’s graded-winning juveniles, namely Deputy G, winner of the GIII Bashford Manor S. It was a son of Relaunch who sired Deputy G’s second dam. With his earnings now in excess of $500,000 (including $90,000 earned from his fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile), Brother Derek has proved a very shrewd buy at the $275,000 he cost at Barretts in March--that price reflecting the fact that his brother Don’tsellmeshort has notched up earnings of over $400,000..