Quality Road Bridging the Gap Cont
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 2018 LETTER FROM ASCOT: THE CARRIAGE QUALITY ROAD by Dave Johnson BRIDGING THE GAP It was when I saw the carriage. It was GI Preakness S. morning this year, and I was throwing stuff I needed for my Sirius XM show into a bag. And then, I saw it again, out of the corner of my eye. Every television station had it on. You couldn't miss it. Live coverage of the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. It was when I saw that gleaming ancient Landau carriage, one of five made for the Royal Family in 1863. The very one that carries the Queen to the races every day for the Royal Meeting at Ascot was now carrying Meghan and Harry to the cheers and waves of thousands. The whole world was watching the overflowing small town of Windsor. Only eight miles from Ascot racetrack. It was then I started to mentally list my early wagers for the upcoming meet. Cont. p9 (click here) Quality Road | Lane’s End photo by Chris McGrath IN TDN EUROPE TODAY Here's a Road that really is paved with good intentions. That, of course, is what they say about the one leading to hell-- SET FAIR FOR A THRILLING WEEK familiar, it might be said, to many who have tried to get a young Tom Frary takes gives us a taste of what to expect on the racing front at Royal Ascot today. Click or tap here to go stallion started. But Quality Road is taking his connections in straight to TDN Europe. entirely the opposite direction; to the breeding stratosphere, in fact. And the marvelous thing is that those connections include the charitable foundation which, still more than his equine dynasties, must qualify as the greatest bequest of the late Edward P. “Ned” Evans. As a result, a sensational run for the Lane's End stallion means that the philanthropist's twin legacies- -his passion for Thoroughbreds and the Edward P. Evans Foundation's dedication to finding a cure for Myelodysplastic Syndromes--are dovetailing in the most uplifting fashion. For while the final leg of the Triple Crown required top billing on the Belmont card, Quality Road's third and fourth Grade I winners of 2018 volunteered a valid contender to fill the void left by the premature loss of Justify's sire Scat Daddy. Five stakes winners in 24 hours--crowned by Abel Tasman in the GI Ogden Phipps S., Spring Quality in the GI Manhattan S., and Paved in the GII Honeymoon S. at Santa Anita--attested not only to Quality Road's potency but also to his versatility. They ranged from coast to coast; and from a turf sprinter at Woodbine to the dirt Classic model represented by Abel Tasman, winner of the Kentucky Oaks last year. Cont. p3 107 BEYER Fastest 2YO at a mile in over 20 years. Faster Champagne (G1) than Leading Sires: Uncle Mo Scat Daddy Union Rags DARE TO DREAM with his first yearlings this summer 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 Tuesday, June 19, 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] On June 19, 1867, the inaugural Belmont Stakes was run at Jerome Park in the Bronx and was won by the filly Ruthless. A picture of Jerome Park above shows a "false start" Social Media Strategist in front of the judge's stand. | Getty Images Justina Severni Director of Customer Service Vicki Forbes SMITH: WE HAVEN’T SEEN THE BEST OF JUSTIFY YET [email protected] 7 In this week’s edition of The Week in Review, Bill Finley talks to Marketing Manager Mike Smith, who says there may be even bigger things to come Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen from Justify now that trainer Bob Baffert can pick his spots. Director of Information Technology Ray Villa [email protected] WILD EVENT DIES 10 The Grade I winner and influential South American stallion died Bookkeeper Terry May at Haras Santa Maria de Araras Satuday. He was 25. [email protected] WORLDWIDE INFORMATION International Editor TODAY’S GRADED STAKES Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN EST Race Click for TV [email protected] 9:30a Queen Anne S.-G1, ASC -------------- NBCSN/TVG European Editor Emma Berry 10:05a Coventry S.-G2, ASC -------------- NBCSN/TVG [email protected] 10:40a King’s Stand S.-G1, ASC -------------- NBCSN/TVG Associate International Editor 11:20a St James’s Palace S.-G1, ASC -------------- NBCSN/TVG 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 11 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • JUNE 19, 2018 Quality Road Bridging the Gap cont. from p1 winners from that pipeline: just a couple of days ago he had first This kind of diversity, equally associated with his late sire and second in a maiden race at Belmont. Here at Lane's End, Elusive Quality, qualifies Quality Road to become a sire of truly with A.P. Indy and Smart Strike and Kingmambo, we've seen international stature. how our best stallions have all had that moment when there Even as it stands, halfway through was a bit of doubt. And then they the campaign he already peers came on like crazy, so it's fun to see down on the established supersires. Quality Road doing the same thing. His four individual Grade I winners It's unbelievable. He's not only up in 2018, taking him to eight from his with those [top] horses, in many first four crops, at least double the respects he's surpassing them. tally of any sire in North America or “There's nothing more fun, for Europe; and he also leads all North those of us that do this, than when American stallions both by Black you've got a sire with his first Type winners and graded stakes 2-year-olds, and they start winning. winners. On the transatlantic table But then when a horse starts doing of fifth-crop sires, a strong group, what he's doing, and really takes it he is naturally leader on nearly to the next level, that really is so every index; not least with prize exciting. And we're enjoying it Bill Farish | Keeneland photo money already exceeding immensely.” $6 million. Spectacular as his returns have been this year, Quality Road is “It's particularly exciting because his 3-year-old crop was only only consolidating the breakthrough he made with two Eclipse 81 foals,” noted Bill Farish of Lane's End. “So he's doing all this Champions in 2017. His fee had duly doubled to $70,000; and with a relatively small book, by today's standards. He has 117 you can be sure he will pretty soon be enrolled into the 2-year-olds coming along, and we're already starting to see six-figure club. TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 11 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • JUNE 19, 2018 In fact, for all the fluctuation in book sizes so common among young sires, he has scarcely missed a beat. The larger group of 2016 foals noted by Farish, for instance, reflects the fact that Quality Road's debut crop not only made him leading rookie by gross receipts at the Keeneland September Sale, but followed through and made him champion freshman of 2014 as well. (Yes, he basically had to ride out 2015--but Klimt helped him bounce straight back to be leading third-crop sire.) The trailblazer of his first crop was the Royal Ascot and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Hootenanny (Quality Road). That precocious dasher might not have been the kind of horse expected from a sire who himself failed to meet his reserve as a yearling and made his only juvenile start in November. But while it augurs well for the continued progress of his racing stock that Quality Road himself thrived as a 4-year-old--it was at that age, for instance, that Illuminant became the second Grade I winner in his first crop in the Gamely S.--the fact remains that he was precocious enough not only to post a triple-digit Beyer in that single start at two, but then to break track records in both the GII Fountain of Youth S. and GI Florida Derby. Abel Tasman | Sarah K. Andrew Derailed from the Kentucky Derby by a quarter-crack, he resurfaced at Saratoga (in the Pletcher barn; previously with Jimmy Jerkens) and promptly collected his next track record in the GII Amsterdam S. over 6 1/2 furlongs. Admittedly there was a debacle that fall when he refused to load for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, but Farish stresses how out of character that was. “I think a number of unfortunate things happened that day,” he said. “He was being rushed, he was the last to be loaded, they went right to the whip to get him in and it just blew his mind. It's understandable when you watch a tape of it, but he's not that way at all.