Andrew Caulfield, November 9, 2010-Awesome Feather And now the Juvenile Fillies has fallen to Awesome PEDIGREE INSIGHTS Feather, an unbeaten daughter of Awesome of Course, BY ANDREW CAULFIELD who was advertised as standing the 2010 season at a fee of $1,750 at Legend Farm near Coleman. Awesome Friday, Churchill Downs of Course was reported to have covered nine mares in GREY GOOSE BREEDERS' CUP JUVENILE FILLIES-GI, 2009, the last of his six years in Florida. In those six $1,818,000, CDX, 11-5, 2yo, f, 1 1/16m, 1:45, ft. years, he is credited with having been bred to a total of 1--@sAWESOME FEATHER, 122, f, 2, by Awesome of Course only 70 mares, for 46 lives foals. 1st Dam: Precious Feather (MSW & MGSP, $257,441), The scenario of the Awesome Feather story started by Gone West to sound even more far-fetched when she topped the 2nd Dam: Last Feather, by *Vaguely Noble Fasig-Tipton November Sale at a price of $2.3 million, 3rd Dam: Quill, by *Princequillo falling to the bid of Frank Stronach=s Adena Springs. O/B-Jacks or Better Farm Inc (FL); T-Stanley I Gold; If this prompts the question of why Stronach, winner J-Jeffrey Sanchez; $1,080,000. Lifetime Record: of numerous Eclipse Awards as a breeder, would want 6-6-0-0, $1,495,746. Werk Nick Rating: A. a daughter of Awesome of Course, the quick answer Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. could be that she is a granddaughter of Awesome Click for the brisnet.com chart, the brisnet.com PPs or the free Again. This Adena Springs stallion won the Breeders= brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. Video, sponsored by Taylor Made. Cup Classic before becoming one of the strictly limited It takes quite a serious flight of fancy to imagine a number of stallions to have sired four or more Grade I Breeders= Cup event falling to the offspring of an winners at the Breeders= Cup. Those winners, of inexpensive stallion based in Oklahoma, but sometimes course, were Wilko (2004 Juvenile), Ghostzapper (2004 truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Classic), Round Pond (2006 Distaff) and Ginger Punch Kip Deville=s victory in the 2007 Mile came just (2007 Distaff). months after his sire Kipling stood the 2007 season at a fee of $2,500 at Mighty Acres, near Pryor. J Watch Out for “TDN Rising Stars” J All horses in TDN Headline News and TDN American edition Stars of tomorrow grabbing the spotlight today... are bred in North America, unless otherwise indicated www.coolmore.com Pedigree Insights Cont. Next came Riboquill, a smart performer in France, As a winner of three ungraded sprint stakes at the who finished sixth in the 1974 Prix de l=Arc de ages of two and three in Florida, Awesome of Course Triomphe; then came the 1975 Irish St Leger winner wasn=t in the same class as this quartet, but there was Caucasus, who subsequently became one of the best absolutely nothing wrong with his bloodlines. His dam grass performers in the USA. After producing eight Mais Oui was a very useful granddaughter of Straight foals in 10 years, Quill=s age and exertions finally Deal, a champion older mare from the La Troienne seemed to be catching up with her--she produced only family. two foals, both unraced fillies in the next six seasons-- The reality is that Awesome Feather has a far more but her final produce, the appropriately named Last impressive pedigree than might reasonably have been Feather, looks likely to improve Quill=s highly impressive expected of a daughter of Awesome of Course. record by becoming one of the leading middle-distance For a start, her third dam is Princequillo=s high- fillies in 1982. achieving daughter Quill. Way back in 1981, in my days AQuill=s achievement in producing such a good filly at as a writer at Timeform, I penned the following essay the age of 23 is amazing. Of the 1,056 horses listed in on Quill, with regards to her Vaguely Noble filly Last that useful reference book Pedigrees of Leading Feather, who now ranks as the second dam of Winners 1960-1980, only Aggravate, Arctic Storm, Awesome Feather: Batitu, Chamour, Fighting Charlie, Kauai King, La AFew mares have had so long or so spectacular a Bamba, Lagunette and YelIow God were foaled when career as Last Feather=s dam Quill,@ I wrote. ABorn back their dam was aged 20 or more and of those dams, in 1956, she became the champion juvenile filly in the only Chamour=s was as old as 23. Incidentally, the USA, winning six of her eight starts from five-and-a-half 1980 Oaks winner Bireme was foaled when her dam to eight-and-a-half furlongs; at three, she won two was 18 and the1981 winner Blue Wind was produced important races, the Acorn S. over a mile and the by a 21-year-old mare, so if Last Feather improves Mother Goose S. over nine furlongs, before finishing a enough to win the 1982 Oaks, which is by no means close second in the CCA Oaks; and at four she was out of the question, she'll extend a sequence which will rated the second-best older filly after winning the be well-nigh impossible to stretch further.@ valuable Delaware H. over a mile and a quarter by nine Last Feather didn=t win the Oaks, but she didn=t miss lengths. After failing to add to her stakes victories at by far. Having won Britain=s main Oaks trial, the five she retired the winner of 14 of her 26 starts which, Musidora S., the daughter of Vaguely Noble finished together with four seconds and two thirds, earned third in what proved to be a vintage edition of the $382,041. Her stud career proved similarly Epsom fillies= Classic. The winner, Time Charter, went outstanding. Her foal of 1963, First Feather, became on to defeat the males in the Champion S., Coronation the dam of Run the Gantlet, successful in the Cup and the King George; the second, Slightly Washington International and the sire in 1981 of those Dangerous, became a Broodmare of the Year; and the top winners April Run, Ardross and Providential; her fourth, the future Arc third Awaasif, became the dam foal of 1966, the champion Canadian grass horse One of an Oaks winner who in turn produced a winner of For All, won 13 times at up to two miles and has sired the Derby, King George and Arc. one of the handful of mares to win over $1,000,000, To update the Quill family history, it has added a few The Very One; her 1970 foal, Shill, bred a champion more Group 1 winners to its collection since 1981, two-year-old colt in Japan. thanks to Vettori, a French 2000 Guineas winner out of Quill=s Group 3-winning grand-daughter Air Distingue, AWESOME FEATHER and to the brother-and-sister team of Fragrant Mix and Vice Regent Alpine Rose. Deputy Minister Mint Copy Awesome Feather is the latest family member to Awesome Again Blushing Groom score at the highest level. Her dam, Precious Feather, Primal Force Awesome of Prime Prospect was bred by John R. Gaines Thoroughbreds but did Course Northern Dancer well for Jacks or Better Farm, winning several small Lyphard Goofed stakes at Calder, in addition to finishing second in a Mais Oui Affirmed couple of Grade III events--on one occasion finishing Affirmatively Straight Deal ahead of Spain in the Turfway Breeders= Cup S. Raise a Native In keeping with the Breeders= Cup theme, Precious Mr. Prospector Gold Digger Feather is a daughter of Gone West. In common with Gone West Secretariat Awesome Again, the other grandsire of Awesome Secrettame Precious Feather Tamarett Feather, Gone West is responsible for the winners of MSW & MGSP Vienna (GB) four Grade I races at the Breeders= Cup championships, 6Fls, 1GSW *Vaguely Noble Last Feather Noble Lassie (GB) thanks to Da Hoss, twice a winner of the Mile, Johar, 11Fls, 2SW Quill *Princequillo who dead-heated in the 2003 Turf, and Speightstown, 1Ch., 4GSW Quick Touch winner of the 2004 Sprint. Caulfield cont. Precious Feather is by no means the first daughter of Gone West to have done well with a stallion from the Deputy Minister line, as others have produced graded winners to Forest Camp, Dehere and Touch Gold..