Unbridled Treasures

I'm not the world's biggest Unbridled fan. Partially because his son Empire Maker defeated Funny Cide to deny him the Triple Crown. However, I am a fan of a grandson of his in Rockport Harbor. It was a great weekend for the 1990 Kentucky Derby winner, his granddaughter Royal Delta (by Empire Maker) won the Black Eyed Susan. Then his grandson Shackleford (by Forestry out of one of his daughter's Oatsee) upset Animal Kingdom to win the Preakness. It was the first win for all of his connections, which include jockey Jesus Castanon, co-owner Mike Lauffer (you may have heard his name before, back in 2009 he co-owned a certin filly before selling her to Jess Jackson) and trainer Dale Romans.

It's Dale that I'm estatic for. Back in 2004, he had a great turf colt by the name of Kitten's Joy. He could have had 2 Eclipse titles to his name, if it wheren't for a gelding named Better Talk Now. BTN upset KJ to win the BC Turf. While he still won Champion Turf, had he won the race that may have had more then enough to pass Smarty Jones for Champion 3yo. BTN was trained by Graham Motion who of course trains Animal Kingdom.

Great job by the Derby winner, but it just wasn't his day. The winner reminds me quite a bit like Hard Spun. A speedy horse who a mile and quarter was probley a little bit too long for his taste, but had a heart of the champion. Now here comes the hard part. Since 2001, all the Preakness winners have gone on to be Eclipse Champions at the end of the year (this includes three HOY's, Point Given, Curlin and Rachel Alexandra). Shackleford will have to prove himself that he is the real deal in the next race (which could be the Belmont possibly, although personally I think it's a bit too long for him).

Astrology was third, I think his mini duel in the stretch with Shackleford did him in. Still, a nice effort out of him.

So once again, no Triple Crown. But you know what, I'm okay with that. There was some comments made by Barry Irwin before the race that I agreed and disagreed with (he regrets saying what he said about trainers lieing to him, but he wants the FBI involved with steroids? I do think the goverment needs to get involved, but I think Congress has the keys to that, not the FBI. And that he compared it to BALCO which was wierd, because the BALCO people got slaps on their wrists (Barry Bonds is likely not to serve any jail time because of his purjury convinction).

Subnote, it appears that the $10 mil that Lauffer and Dolph Morrison sold Rachel for is true. And one more note, HOW ABOUT THAT STORM CAT! Sure Forestry is Shack's sire, but the big guy finally gets back in the winner's circle in a TC race.

Remembering El Prado

I had planned to talk about Silverbulletday winner War Echo who starts her comeback on Weds in a listed stake at Belmont, however some sad news came over the wire within the past 2 hours. Accordig to DRF.com the Saddler's Well El Prado (IRE), passed away this morning due to an heart attack. You have to sign up to see the article which can be found here. El Prado was one of my favorite stallions siring BC Mile winner Artie Shiller, G1 winners Asi Siempre and Borrego and many other great horses. However, the two horses who made him a superstar sire are Medaglia d'Oro and Kitten's Joy. I've talked about MDO quite a bit the past few months, but I'll give you some of his stats. 2002 Jim Dandy and Travers winner, 2 time Breeder's Cup runner-up, 2003 Whitney winner, 2004 Donn Handicap winner and 2004 Dubai World Cup runner up. He's gotten off to a great start at stud with stakes winners including the one and only Rachel Alexandra, Gabby's Golden Gal (both Rach and Gabby are G1 winners), G2 winner Payton d'Oro, stakes winners C.S. Silk, Retraceable, Tasty Temptation and Al Khali, his first male stakes winner. In Europe he has the promising Al Zir.

Kitten's Joy is out of the Lear Fan mare Kitten's First, and burst onto the seen as one of the best turf males in 2004. Many thought that if he hadn't lost to Better Talk Now in the BC Turf that year, he and not Smarty Jones would have won the Champion 3yo Male that year. KJ won the 2004 Eclipse for Turf Male and came back to finish second in the Arlington Million the next year. KJ has also gotten off to a fast start being number 1 on the Freshman List (as of right now), and has 1 graded stakes winner. This past weekend, KJ had a great weekend with several winners and a second place finish in a graded stakes.

Here is one of KJ's races the 2004 Turf Classic



I couldn't find a video of any of El Prado's races, however he was the 1991 2yo Champion in Ireland with a win in the Group 2 National Stakes. He stood at Adena Springs in Kentucky and was owned during his racing career by Coolmore.

I'm defently going to miss him.