Fashionably Late
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drf.com/breeding DAILY RACING FORM Sunday, February 9, 2014 PAGE 11 fashionably late JOHN P. SPARKMAN As the stud career of the late, great Storm Cat began to wind down in the early 2000s, the Kentucky breeding indus- try needed a successor as the designated young sire of sires. The obvious choice seemed to be Unbridled’s Song, who had begun his stud career brilliantly, with Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Unbridled Elaine, Grade 1 winner Songandaprayer, and multiple Grade 2 winner Even the Score in his first crop and Grade 1 winner Buddha in his second. As recently as the middle of last year, however, the investment the breeding industry made in sons of Unbridled’s Song looked like an expensive wager gone very wrong, since Even the Score, the sire of Dullahan and Take the Points, was his only son to have sired a Grade 1 winner. That lackluster record began to improve dramatically in the last half of the year, as Unbridled’s Song’s sons First Defence, Benoit & AssociAtes Dunkirk, and Rockport Harbor all added Fashion Plate wins the Las Virgenes Stakes on Feb. 1, becoming the first Grade 1 Grade 1 winners to their stud records. winner for Unbridled’s Song’s son Old Fashioned. After last Saturday’s Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita, another Honest Man, both by Unbridled’s Song, with similar disdain in the 1 1/8-mile, name can be added to that list, a name that were only a few months away from their Grade 2 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct a could turn out to be the most promising maiden victories. month later, again leading throughout to of all. Las Virgenes winner Fashion Plate McGreevey and Porter also purchased win geared down by 7 1/4 lengths. is the first Grade 1 winner by Unbridled’s eventual Grade 3 winner Winslow Homer, That was about as visually impres- Song’s son Old Fashioned, but if other yet another Unbridled’s Song progeny, the sive a performance as any 2-year-old of promising runners in his first crop are any following year. 2008 managed, and he ranked fifth on indication of his potential as a stallion, she Old Fashioned may well have been the the Experimental Free Handicap at 121 will not be his last. most talented of those five Fox Hill runners, pounds, five below champion and Breed- Bred in Kentucky by Rod and Lorraine although like many Unbridled’s Songs, he ers’ Cup Juvenile winner Midshipman, Rodriguez, Old Fashioned was one of an did not last very long. He made his debut another son of Unbridled’s Song. impressive series of high-class offspring for trainer Larry Jones at Delaware Park Old Fashioned began his second season of Unbridled’s Song selected for Rick in October 2008 and just got up at the wire in training in similar fashion at Oaklawn Porter’s Fox Hill Farms by agent Tom for a nose victory at six furlongs. Park, rating just off the pace in the Grade McGreevey. At the time McGreevey paid A month later, he was much fitter and 3 Southwest Stakes before drawing away $800,000 for Old Fashioned at the 2007 much better suited for a longer distance, for a 3 1/4-length win. Favored at 2-5 in the Keene-land September yearling sale, Fox drawing off effortlessly after leading all Grade 2 Rebel Stakes a month later, the Hill already had raced Grade 2 winner the way to win a one-mile allowance race gray colt readily took the lead on the final Rockport Harbor, and Fox Hill’s future by 15 1/2 lengths at the same track. Old graded stakes winners Eight Belles and Fashioned treated tougher competition Continued on page 12 PAGE 12 Sunday, February 9, 2014 DAILY RACING FORM drf.com/breeding Continued from page 11 Fappiano 77 Unbridled 87 turn but had no answer when Win Willy Gana Facil 81 charged past in the final yards to win by Unbridled’s Song 93 2 1/4 lengths, with Old Fashioned eight Caro 67 Trolley Song 83 lengths ahead of the rest. Lucky Spell 71 Old Fashioned had pulled hard behind Old Fashioned 06 fast early fractions on an off track in the Hold Your Peace 69 Meadowlake 83 Rebel, but he had no visible excuse in the Suspicious Native 72 Grade 2 Arkansas Derby. Allowed to set Collect Call 98 his own pace under a firm hold, he fought Alleged 74 Negative Pledge 89 back gamely when challenged by Papa FASHION PLATE Laredo Lass 71 Clem at the top of the stretch but finished Dark Bay or Brown Filly second, a half-length behind. Days later, Foaled April 15, 2011 Northern Dancer 61 Lomond 80 it was announced that Old Fashioned had My Charmer 69 suffered a non-displaced slab fracture of Citidancer 86 his right knee. He was retired to Taylor Tribal Chief 67 Mrs. McArdy 74 Made Farm in Nicholasville, Ky., but did Hanina 65 not serve any mares that year. Miss Puzzle 98 As a son of Unbridled’s Song out of Halo 69 Oregon 88 the Grade 3-winning Meadowlake mare Three Troikas 76 Collect Call, from the family of success- Miss Tree 92 ful sire French Deputy, Old Fashioned had Truly Vain 79 Miss Kiwitea 85 plenty of pedigree for a Kentucky stallion. Banda Bird 79 In conformation, he is a very well-made horse – big but not as big as many Unbri- dled’s Songs, and perhaps a bit more short- sold for $75,000 on her first trip through the Group 1 Phoenix Champion Stakes, coupled and compact. the auction ring as a weanling at the 2011 Citidancer sired 16 stakes winners in the By the time of his retirement, Old Fash- Keeneland November breeding stock sale. Antipodes but really could not be called a ioned’s race record was seen as all too typi- At the Keeneland September yearling sale success. cal of the Unbridled’s Songs – brilliant but 10 months later, however, agent Nick de Oregon, the sire of Fashion Plate’s Group brief. As successful as Unbridled’s Song Meric was able to buy her for only $35,000. 3-placed second dam, Miss Tree, also was had become, his progeny average only De Meric’s judgment proved prescient. beautifully bred, by Halo out of Prix de 9.3 starts per foal, even lower than the After she zipped a furlong in 9.80 seconds l’Arc de Triomphe winner Three Troikas, disturbingly low national average. That at the under-tack show for the 2013 Ocala and sired 20 stakes winners in Australia, statistic, plus the failures of some of Unbri- Breeders’ Sales Co. spring sale of 2-year- New Zealand, and Singapore after placing dled’s Song’s previous sons at stud, meant olds in training, agent Simon Callaghan in the Grade 3 Nashua in his brief racing that there was not a lot of industry buzz paid $340,000 for the big, dark bay or career. Truly Vain, the next sire along the when Old Fashioned’s first progeny came brown filly on behalf of Arnold Zetcher bottom line, was a top-class Australian to the races last year. and Michael Tabor. sprinter but made little lasting impression His daughter Sweet Whiskey (out of She showed little in her first start at as a sire. Baby Betty, by El Corredor) showed Del Mar last summer but ran much better New Zealand Horse of the Year Tit for considerable promise at 2, however, with a when third at Hollywood Park’s final Taat, by Faltaat, is a son of Fashion Plate’s good second in the Grade 2 Matron Stakes, meeting in December four months later. third dam, but there is little else of inter- and his son Hi Fashioned (Zamsweet, by Fashion Plate continued her improvement est in the first six generations along Fash- Zamindar) annexed the Barretts Juvenile with a 6 1/2-length win on Dec. 29 at Santa ion Plate’s female line. Given her origins, Stakes to become Old Fashioned’s first Anita and showed that was no fluke with it is no surprise that her pedigree is an stakes winner. her game victory over Grade 1 winner outcross, with 6x6 duplications of Nasrul- Since the calendar year turned, the Streaming and stakes winner Arethusa in lah, Nothirdchance, and Native Dancer Old Fashioneds have started to improve. the Las Virgenes. her closest inbreeding. Sweet Whiskey scored in the Grade 3 Old Fashion Plate’s dam, Miss Puzzle, The declining reputation of Unbridled’s Hat Stakes at Gulfstream Park, and Fash- placed in stakes at 3 in New Zealand and Song as a sire of sires and the long hiatus ion Plate followed up on her impressive won one of six starts in the United States. between his racing career and his first maiden win with her victory in the Las Her fourth foal, the Candy Ride gelding season at stud did Old Fashioned no favors Virgenes. Mr. Candy Bar, captured the 2011 Robert as a stallion. In an era where popular Fashion Plate is the sixth foal and the Dupret Derby at Santa Rosa. young sires regularly father three-figure second stakes winner out of the stakes- Most of the names in Miss Puzzle’s foal crops, Old Fashioned has “only” 81 placed Australian-bred mare Miss Puzzle, pedigree will be unfamiliar to American foals in his first crop, 76 in his second, and, by Citidancer (the Irish-bred Citidancer, readers.