Showing posts with label silver deputy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label silver deputy. Show all posts

Saturday, August 3, 2013

After the Auction: Our Amazing Rose

As an avid fan of sales with possible aspirations to become an adviser/bloodstock agent, auctions are one of my favorite topics to write about on Past the Grandstand. “After the Auctions” feature horses I selected in sales that have found success after the sale. *Note: If an “After the Auction” features a two-year-old, it will also be listed as a “Juvenile Spotlight.”

Each year at Saratoga, Todd Pletcher unveils a multitude of brilliant two-year-olds – juveniles that display scintillating speed as they coast to dominant victories. This year has been no different, but perhaps his most impressive two-year-old maiden winner at the Spa this year is a filly named Our Amazing Rose.

One of my selections from this year’s OBS March Sale, the filly 
– consigned as hip 296 by Top Line Sales, LLC – was purchased by Repole Stables for $325,000, ranking her among the fifteen most expensive horses sold. Now, as an impressive debut winner at Saratoga for Mike Repole and Todd Pletcher, she has joined the likes of champion Uncle Mo and grade one winner Overanalyze.

Sent off as the heavy favorite in a five-furlong maiden special weight over Saratoga’s dirt oval, Our Amazing Rose raced in second as the only filly with racing experience, Zip On, took a clear, early lead. With that pair several lengths clear of the other runners, Our Amazing Rose overtook Zip On with ease around the far turn, galloping past that rival as if she was standing still. In a breathtakingly effortless manner, she coasted to the front, lengthening her advantage on the field as she turned for home. With great power and grace, she finished 7 ¾ lengths clear of the rest.

Our Amazing Rose will try to join a long, star-studded list of open-length maiden winners at Saratoga that have gone on to be elite athletes. Only time will tell if she can become the next Indian Blessing, but she has certainly looked the part thus far.

Pedigree Analysis
Yes It's True
Photo by Terri Cage

Our Amazing Rose is among the talented army of Yes It’s True juveniles that have accumulated a large amount of wins this year, leaving him as the leading sire of two-year-olds in North America and the second-leading sire of juveniles on an international scale. Our Amazing Rose shares her sire with the graded stakes winners Actin Good, Aikenite, Chantrue, Off Duty, Nordic Truce, Proud Accolade, Yesbyjimminy, and Yes He’s the Man.

The pedigree of Yes It’s True is rather understated, but also lined with indicators that he would become the successful sire he is. His sire, Is It True, only produced a pair of grade one winners – including Yes It’s True himself – but is by Raja Baba, the leading North American sire of 1980. Raja Baba was a fairly productive sire of sires, producing not only Is It True, but Royal Ski and Well Decorated.

The dam of Yes It’s True, Clever Monique, was a profitable producer, also yielding the multiple stakes-winning Honest Deceiver. Intriguingly, Yes It’s True’s seventh dam is Dancing Date, the dam of Terrang, who captured a record ten stakes events at Santa Anita. Yes It’s True is a descendant of American family one, the same female family that has yielded the grade one victors Gato Del Sol, Germany, and Tizway.

Yes It’s True’s broodmare sire is Clever Trick, who was also the damsire of such grade one winners as Came Home, Elegant Fashion, Nothingtolose, and Victors Cry. Clever Trick’s sire is Icecapade, a half-brother to the great Ruffian. Interestingly, Yes It’s True only has one trace of Native Dancer in his pedigree, which comes through Shenanigans – the dam of Icecapade and Ruffian.

The dam of Our Amazing Rose, Just For You, is a daughter of Silver Deputy – a terrific broodmare sire. The son of Deputy Minister – a champion racehorse and broodmare sire – is the maternal grandsire of the likes of champion Groupie Doll, as well as the grade one-winning sires El Corredor and Roman Ruler and the additional graded stakes winners Miraculous Miss, Preachinatthebar, and Quiet Temper.


Just For You is a half-sister to the graded stakes-winning Minister’s Melody, who yielded the grade one-winning Bob and John. She is a granddaughter of the great broodmare Too Bald, a stakes-winning Reine De Course mare that was honored as Broodmare of the Year in 1986. Dam of five stakes winners, Too Bald’s most notable foals were the ill-fated, eleven-time grade/group one winner Exceller and champion Capote. Our Amazing Rose’s fourth and fifth dams – Hidden Talent and Dangerous Dame, respectively – are also Reine De Course mares.

Some paragraphs were drawn from my article "Stallion Feature: Yes It's True" from July 5, 2012

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Groupie Doll: All She Does is Win


March 17, 2012 marks the last time Groupie Doll did not visit the winner's circle. Since then, the filly has been unbeatable, forming a winning streak that has prevented her from losing for the rest of 2012.

Groupie Doll
Photo by Terri Cage
Despite being sidlelined for a minor injury, Groupie Doll dominated the female sprint division this year, capturing four graded stakes races - including two grade ones - prior to the Breeders' Cup by a total of 20 1/2 lengths. As the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (GI) approached, Groupie Doll appeared to be as close to a lock as any horse competing in a 2012 Breeders' Cup event.

Breaking from the ninth post in a field of ten, Groupie Doll was asked for speed in the early stages, racing on the far outside alongside the front-running contingent, though she was galloping along in sixth. As Teddy's Promise lengthened her lead, setting brisk fractions, Groupie Doll remained widest of all as the field began to gallop into the turn. 

In spite of her wide trip, Groupie Doll gained ground on the leaders as the Thoroughbreds rounded the curve, looming large on the outside as the field turned for home. In impressive fashion, the chestnut filly kicked clear, passing Dust and Diamonds as soon as the fillies and mares reached the top of the stretch. With absolute ease, the brilliant filly coasted to a 4 1/2-length triumph (the greatest winning margin of this year's Breeders' Cup), posting a final time for seven furlongs that was just one second more than the track record.

Bred, co-owned, and trained by Buff Bradley, Groupie Doll may not have the most breathtaking of bloodlines at first glance, but after a more efficient study, there is a piece of the cause for her success found in her ancestry.

Groupie Doll is sired by Bowman's Band, a grade one-winning son of Dixieland Band responsible for producing such stakes winners as Baltimore Belle, Roadhog, Ruby's Big Band, Seychelles, and Son of a Bear. Though Bowman's Band's stud career has been rather undistinguished, the success he has found is likely due in large part to his sire, Dixieland Band.  A son of the influential Northern Dancer, Dixieland Band sired more than 100 stakes winners.

Groupie Doll's dam, Deputy Doll, didn't have much success outside of Groupie Doll, but her own dam, Slick Turn, produced two black-type horses, including the black-type-winning Russellthemussell. Interestingly, Groupie Doll's fifth dam is the Reine de Course mare Flower Bed, the dam of multiple stakes-winning Flower Bowl who went on to become a powerful Reine de Course mare. 

Groupie Doll's broodmare sire is Silver Deputy, who won a graded stakes race in his brief, undefeated career before siring several millionaires, including the grade one winners Pool Play, Silverbulletday, and Spring At Last. As a broodmare sire, Silver Deputy has produced the dams of the likes of the multiple graded stakes winners Miraculous Miss, Preachinatthebar, Quiet Temper, and Roman Ruler. Silver Deputy is a son of champion Deputy Minister, a highly successful broodmare sire who sired the dams of such champions as Curlin, Halfbridled, and Rags to Riches.

Without a doubt, Groupie Doll was one of the true superstars of 2012 and certainly offered one of the best performances of this year's rendition of the Breeders' Cup. Her victory in the Filly & Mare Sprint will likely be looked upon fondly for years to come, as in her win, this filly - from the same family as Flower Bowl - showed her true class, putting on a show for racing fans as the blood of a regal Thoroughbred, descended from a line of quality horses of the breed, ran through her veins.

Groupie Doll winning the Filly & Mare Sprint
Photo by Terri Cage