Colonel John
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Andrew Caulfield, November 20, 2007–Colonel John P EDIGREE INSIGHTS It's a fact of life that people hate being told what's good for them, especially when the person doing the BY ANDREW CAULFIELD telling is a relative outsider. Even so, I hope America's racing industry listened to some of the comments made Sunday, Hollywood Park by Michael Dickinson when he announced last week REAL QUIET S., $105,900, HOL, 11-18, 2yo, 1 1/16m that he is to give up training to concentrate on his (AWT), 1:42 4/5 (NSR), ft. Tapeta Footings business. 1--#COLONEL JOHN, 119, c, 2, by Tiznow AI have been concerned for some time about the 1st Dam: Sweet Damsel, by Turkoman welfare of horses racing on unsuitable surfaces and 2nd Dam: Grande Dame, by Zen really want to repay the horse in my own small way," 3rd Dam: Fia, by One for All said the man who has been dubbed "The Mad Genius" O/B-WinStar Farm LLC (KY); T-Eoin G Harty; J-Corey by the Racing Post. S Nakatani; $65,900. Lifetime Record: 3-2-1-0, Dickinson apparently went on to express the view $105,300. *1/2 to Caroline=s Gold (Touch Gold), that dirt horses in the U.S. need bute and Lasix to keep GSP, $156,410. them sound, adding that "horses bleed more on dirt." 2--Overextended, 117, c, 2, Monarchos--Way of Life, AThis year's Breeders' Cup was a wake-up call for by Gulch. ($20,000 wlng '05 KEENOV; $400,000 America," Dickinson rightly commented, Aand the racing 2yo >07 FTFFEB). O-J Paul Reddam. $20,000. there showed the horrific nature of sloppy tracks. With 3--Cafe Tortoni, 115, g, 2, Katahaula County--Trillia, by the switch to synthetic surfaces, these drugs won't be Regal Classic. ($16,000 yrl '06 WASSEP). as necessary. But will things change? I doubt it.@ O-Moonrunners LLC. $12,000. Dickinson, of course, can't claim to be an impartial Margins: 3, 4HF, HF. Odds: 0.70, 3.60, 42.00. observer, but he certainly has a point. While all-weather Video, sponsored by Taylor Made. surfaces aren't entirely without their own problems, they are safer and kinder to the horses, as California Ï Ò has recognized. The welfare issue seems sure to make a widespread switch to all-weather surfaces inevitable. www.coolmore.com Next year's Breeders' Cup is scheduled for Santa 2, c, COLONEL JOHN Anita's Cushion Track, but what are the chances of In Reality Relaunch other major events, such as the Triple Crown races, Foggy Note Cee’s Tizzy Lyphard being switched to synthetic surfaces? The bloodstock Tizly *Tizna industry surely needs to know how likely this is, and Tiznow Seattle Slew the timescale for any changes. For example, should Seattle Song Incantation mare owners with Triple Crown ambitions be aiming to Cee’s Song Nice Dancer produce a dirt specialist or an all-weather performer Lonely Dancer Sleep Lonely when they arrange their matings for 2008? The foals Raise a Native Alydar from those matings will not be three-year-olds until Sweet Tooth Turkoman 2012, so the goalposts may well have been moved Sweet Damsel Table Play Taba (Arg) considerably by then. 5wins, $66,469 Filipina (Arg) 4Fls, Damascus There is a good chance, of course, that some of the 1SW, 1GSP Zen Grande Dame Penny Bryn traditional dirt sire lines are going to prove equally Race Record effective as sources of top-notch all-weather 10Fls, 5W Fia (GISP) One for All 12Fls, 1SW Sticks n’ Stones performers. I was interested to see that Sunday's GIII Kennedy Road S., contested on Woodbine's Polytrack, was won Even allowing for a bit of proprietary hyperbole, by Connections, a son of Unbridled. Together with his Frankel's comments made sense, as Empire Maker is a grandsire Mr. Prospector, Unbridled is one of the son of Toussaud. This daughter of El Gran Senor raced comparatively few stallions who has managed to sire exclusively on turf and showed herself capable of winners of each of the Triple Crown events. This producing tremendous acceleration on that surface. suggests a strong penchant for dirt, as does the fact With a background like this, there was a good chance that European turf rarely seemed to bring out the best that Empire Maker would prove adept at siring good in Unbridled's descendants. performers on all types of surface. It was therefore However, the former Claiborne stallion, whose last probably no coincidence that his offspring=s first Grade I crop was born in 2002, has two talented all-weather success came on Keeneland's Polytrack, when Country performers among his dwindling number of Star won Darley=s Alcibiades S. The Hollywood Starlet representatives, the other being Mustanfar, who has S., a Grade I on the Cushion Track, is reported to be been placed at Grade II and Grade III levels on synthetic Country Star's next target. Empire Maker has already tracks. Is it just coincidence that Connections is out of had a winner on Cushion Track, as his well-connected a Danzig mare, while Mustanfar has a dam by Lyphard? daughter Unspoken Fur overcame traffic problems to Maybe a dash of Northern Dancer blood is all that will win nicely at Oak Tree. be required in many cases to help the dirt bloodlines Perhaps Northern Dancer is also one of the reasons make the transition. why Tiznow is shaping up as a stallion with a bright Another of Unbridled's alliances with a future as a sire of all-weather runners. The only horse granddaughter of Northern Dancer resulted in Empire to have achieved consecutive victories in the Breeders' Maker, who handled the slop well enough to end Funny Cup Classic, Tiznow raced exclusively on dirt. However, Cide's Triple Crown ambitions in the GI Belmont S. this son of Cee's Tizzy is inbred 4x4 to Northern You may recall that the weather prior to the 2003 Dancer and he's out of a mare who gained the bulk of Belmont S. was so bad that trainers had difficulty her earnings on turf. working their horses. Bobby Frankel apparently Under the circumstances, it perhaps isn't surprising considered sending Empire Maker for the Jersey Derby that Tiznow has now moved past A.P. Indy into second in a bid to give him a vital workout, but plans were place among this year's all-weather sires, with 33 revised when Belmont opened its inner turf course for percent of his earnings coming from his all-weather works. representatives. Empire Maker breezed five furlongs in 1:02.6 on a Among the main contributors have been Bear Now, a yielding surface. filly who has shone on Woodbine's Polytrack, who AIt was his first time on turf and I didn't want him to added a win on the conventional dirt in the GII Cotillion goof off, so I put [Midas Eyes] in front of him," Frankel H.; Slew's Tiznow, runner-up in the GI Lane's End explained. A[Jockey] Jerry [Bailey] said he felt Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland; Slew's Tizzy, winner of unbelievable on the grass. He'd probably be a champion the GII Lexington S. at Keeneland; and Tough Tiz's Sis. on the grass." Caulfield cont. Tough Tiz's Sis became a Grade II winner in the Hollywood Oaks on the Cushion Track in June and she again showed her liking for the surface when taking the GI Lady's Secret S. at Santa Anita. Tiznow's latest all-weather stakes winner is the two-year-old Colonel John, a decisive scorer in Sunday's Real Quiet S. With a Turkoman mare as his dam, Colonel John is more likely, in time, to venture onto traditional dirt than onto turf and his trainer Eoin Harty believes he could be a Derby contender..