TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2018 THE TDN DERBY TOP 12 PEDIGREE INSIGHTS: by T.D. Thornton MY BOY JACK This week=s GI Kentucky Derby Top 12 prognostications represent a calm stretch of water in a sea of uncertainty, but the journey only figures to become more turbulent over the next two weekends. The top end of this list has been dominated since January by contenders that have not raced since the Breeders= Cup, and although there have been several solid efforts, we have yet to see a scintillating performance in 2018 by any Derby candidate. We have to presume that such major breakthrough races are in the pipeline though, and no highly hyped horses should consider their lofty rankings safe as we approach the nine-week mark to the first leg of the Triple Crown. 1) GOOD MAGIC (c, Curlin--Glinda the Good, by Hard Spun) O-e Five Thoroughbreds & Stonestreet Stables. B-Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings (KY). T-C Brown. Sales History: $1 million yrl KEESEP >16. Lifetime Record: GISW, 3-1-2-0, $1,216,600. (Click to continue to p6) My Boy Jack | Coady photo by Andrew Caulfield The recent 50th anniversary of the birth of the great Mill Reef acted as a reminder that great sires are not always destined to establish a long-lasting male line. Despite having numerous stallion sons, Mill Reef=s influence in Europe depended heavily on his Derby winning son Shirley Heights and to a lesser extent on his 2,000 Guineas winner Doyoun. In the U.S., it was hard to imagine that the great Bold Ruler, with his eight sires= championships, would not found numerous successful branches of his widespread male line. In the end, though, his male line became reliant on just one son, the Santa Anita Derby winner Boldnesian. To be more precise, it was Boldnesian=s Jersey Derby winner Bold Reasoning who ensured that Bold Ruler=s male line would live on, when he sired the great Seattle Slew. There were times, I must admit, when I wondered whether Storm Cat would become similarly dependent on just one or two sons, even though this two-time champion sire had around a hundred stallion sons in North America in 2005. Unfortunately, several of Storm Cat=s most talented sons on the racecourse didn=t repeat their success as stallions. This included the well-qualified sons which joined him at Overbrook Farm. Cont. p3 Tiznow – Unbridled Melody, by Unbridled’s Song | $12,500 S&N WinStarFarm.com | (859) 873-1717 PRESIDENT & CO-PUBLISHER Barry Weisbord @barryweisbord [email protected] SR. V.P. & CO-PUBLISHER Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] V.P., INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Tuesday, February 27, 2018 Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN 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 Assistant Editor Bobby Klatt ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistants Alexa Reisfield Michelle Benson Photo Editor/Dir. of Distribution Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew Rainbow connection. A rainbow stretches across the sky as Godolphin colorbearer [email protected] Enticed (Medaglia d’Oro) takes to the track at Palm Meadows Training Center in Boynton Beach, FL on Monday morning. T. D. Thornton’s TDN Derby Top 12 continues Social Media Strategist Justina Severni on page 6. | Kiaran McLaughlin Director of Customer Service Vicki Forbes [email protected] FERRER WINS WOOLF AWARD 15 Veteran rider Jose Ferrer has been selected as the 2018 recipient of Marketing Manager Santa Anita’s George Woolf Memorial Award in a nationwide Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen voting of his peers. Director of Information Technology Ray Villa [email protected] BULLET DRILL FOR BOLT D’ORO 15 Bookkeeper Multiple Grade I winner Bolt d’Oro (Medaglia d’Oro) worked a Terry May bullet six furlongs at Santa Anita Monday with new jockey [email protected] Javier Castellano in the irons for the first time. The sophomore is expected to make his sophomore debut in the Mar. 10 GII San WORLDWIDE INFORMATION International Editor Felipe S. Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor 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 16 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 27, 2018 One flourishing branch descends from Storm Cat=s son Harlan, even though this winner of the 1994 GI Vosburgh S. left only 102 foals. Crucially, one of the 102 was Harlan=s Holiday, who MY BOY JACK (cont. from p1) numbered Into Mischief and Shanghai Bobby among his best sons. Storm Cat=s GI Preakness S. and GI Belmont S. Then there=s the Hennessy branch which supplied the winner Tabasco Cat was sold to Japan as a much-missed Scat Daddy, a stallion who could easily establish a 9-year-old, having failed to come up with a thriving male line in Ireland. The Tale of graded stakes winner the Cat branch cannot be discounted among the runners from either, as Gio Ponti and Tale of Ekati both his first two crops (he later made some enjoyed Grade I success last year and amends with Grade I victories from Snow Kantharos, the sire of X Y Jet, is now Ridge, Habibti and Island Sand). Then covering plenty of mares in Kentucky. there was Storm Cat=s Breeders= Cup Pride of place, though, must go to Classic winner Cat Thief, who failed to Giant=s Causeway. Having established sire a Grade I winner, and the same himself as Storm Cat=s highest-achieving applied to his GI Hollywood Futurity son on the track, with his six Group 1 winner Tactical Cat. wins, Giant Causeway has matched his Of course it hasn=t all been a tale of father by becoming a multiple champion gloom and doom. While there is still a sire. Although his own career is winding long way to go before we can draw any down--he had only 38 live foals born last firm conclusions about the long-term Giant=s Causeway | Coolmore photo year, when he covered 31 mares--the prospects of the Storm Cat male line, there are plenty of rays of 21-year-old already looks to have made a significant hope, with numerous accomplished grandsons and contribution to the longevity of the Storm Cat male line. great-grandsons. TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 16 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 27, 2018 Giant=s Causeway=s best son, the dual Classic winner Also recruited to the Giant=s Causeway team in 2017 was Shamardal, has several sons at stud throughout Europe, headed Brody=s Cause. A Breeders= Cup Juvenile third who enjoyed by Lope de Vega, another dual classic winner whose early Grade I success at two and three, Brody=s Cause is based at success has translated into a Spendthrift, a farm which has shown it 2018 fee of i60,000. can Amake@ inexpensive young Footstepsinthesand, another of stallions. He covered 101 mares in his Giant=s Causeway=s Irish sons, first year. Another to keep an eye on has carved out a solid career as a is Fed Biz, a multiple Grade II winner mid-market stallion and the whose first crop yearlings averaged same could be said of First more than $80,000, off a $12,500 fee. Samurai. With upwards of 128 mares covered As ever, there are hopes that in each of his first three years at some of the unproven sons will WinStar, this well-bred horse from the do even better. Carpe Diem, family of Pulpit and Johannesburg is winner of the GI Breeders= being given a good chance to prove Futurity and GI Blue Grass S., himself. covered 162 mares in his first The other young son of Giant=s season at WinStar and 144 in his Causeway who has been attracting second. Then there=s Not This Creative Cause | EquiSport photo plenty of attention is the GI Norfolk S. Time, who--in common with winner Creative Cause, who was Storm Cat, Hennessy and Carpe Diem--finished second in the another who reached the first three in the Breeders= Cup Juvenile. GI Breeders= Cup Juvenile. Ambitiously billed as AGiant=s Creative Cause was also third in the Preakness, whereas his Causeway=s most brilliant 2-year-old ever,@ Not This Time Grade II-winning younger brother Destin was runner-up in the covered 145 mares last year in his first season at Taylor Made. Belmont S. TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 5 OF 16 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 27, 2018 Now Creative Cause has a possible Triple Crown contender in dam Gold N Shaft for a mere $8,000 in 2016. However, Gold N his second crop, in the shape of My Boy Jack, recent winner of Shaft is a daughter of Mineshaft, a Horse of the Year who, at the the GIII Southwest S. age of 19, is showing plenty of promise as a broodmare sire. Creative Cause enjoys the Mineshaft mares have already advantage of having two Grade I- produced nine graded winners, winning parents, his dam being headed by such as Cathryn Sophia, Dream of Summer, who built a Coal Front, Enticed, Leave The Light record of 20-10-4-3 over four On and Azar. It is well worth seasons, her finest victory coming remembering that Mineshaft-- in the GI Apple Blossom H.