Arabian Knight, Cyberknife, and Underrated Broodmare Sires

A discussion of pedigree factors that may contribute to a good broodmare sire

Today, I want to talk about a few stallions who were considered underachievers in the breeding shed by commercial standards, but whose daughters have recently been producing fantastic racehorses. With recent horses like Arabian Knight, Cyberknife, and Wonder Wheel from broodmare sires who were unable to make it as Kentucky stallions, I thought it would be interesting to look at these pedigrees and discuss what they all have in common.

First off, let's talk about one of the most obvious reasons that certain middle- or lower-tier stallions can sometimes end up as equal or better broodmare sires statistically than some of their more popular contemporaries: for the most part, only their best daughters are being bred. In all of the examples below, we are looking at the offspring of mares who were stakes winners or siblings to stakes winners. If you have a daughter of War Front, you might decide to breed her even if she wasn't a good racehorse, since War Front is a fantastic stallion with high commercial appeal. However, despite being the broodmare sire of 19 (4.3%) stakes winners, War Front has an AEI of only 1.01 as a broodmare sire. On the other hand, if you have a mediocre daughter of a stallion like Astrology, you're unlikely to breed her unless - as in the case of Borealis Night, the dam of Arabian Knight - there's a lot of black type in her immediate family.

Astrology produces a respectable 62.9% winners, but has had only six (2.2%) stakes winners as a stallion, for an AEI of .78. However, six out of the seven (85.7%) foals to race out of his daughters are winners, including the brilliant Southwest Stakes winner Arabian Knight. His AEI as a broodmare sire is .9, which is still below average but better than his stats as a sire. Looking at his pedigree, it's possible to hypothesize why this particular stallion's daughters may continue to produce better racehorses than he did.

Astrology is by A.P. Indy out of the Quiet American mare Quiet Eclipse. We already know that this combination can produce a stellar broodmare sire - the leading broodmare sire of 2022, Bernardini, was bred on the exact same cross. Quiet American was inbred 4x3 to his third dam, Cequillo, via his sire and his dam, and it's this pattern of inbreeding or linebreeding to superior broodmares that I believe helps make a great broodmare sire.

Cequillo's 2nd dam was the Man O' War mare Hostility, who was herself the granddaughter of the blue hen Plucky Liege. Hostility is the 7th dam of Astrology, and he has a total of 14 crosses of Plucky Liege in his first nine generations - combining all four of her sire sons as well as her daughter Marguerite de Valois, his eighth dam. With such a concentration of varying sources of a stalwart mare, particularly in the bottom half of his pedigree, it seems reasonable that Astrology's daughters will have more success in the breeding shed than he did.

Another example of this can be found in the damsire of last year’s Haskell Stakes winner Cyberknife, Flower Alley. Unlike Astrology, Flower Alley was actually quite a strong stallion on numbers, producing 69.2% winners and 5.1% stakes winners, with an AEI of 1.26. He was the sire of Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner I'll Have Another, who would have been favored to take down the Triple Crown had he not been injured prior to the Belmont. Despite this, Flower Alley was never highly respected by American breeders, and was sold to South Africa two years after his best son won the Derby. His numbers as a broodmare sire are inferior to his sire stats - producing only 60.3% winners and 2.7% stakes winners, but the success of horses such as Cyberknife, G1 winner Smooth Like Strait, and 2017 Japanese Champion Two-Year-Old Lucky Lilac have his AEI as a broodmare sire at 1.71.

Flower Alley, like Astrology, is inbred to his tail-female line. His fifth dam, the Court Martial mare Goofed, is also the dam of his damsire Lycius' damsire Lyphard. This is even more notable when considering the combination with Cyberknife's sire Gun Runner, as Gun Runner comes from this same female family 17b via a distant common ancestor, the 1887 French mare Livie.

The Eclipse Champion Two-Year-Old Filly of 2022 was Wonder Wheel, a daughter of Into Mischief out of a mare by Tiz Wonderful. Tiz Wonderful was a graded stakes winner at two, but was injured in his three-year-old season and retired to stud at Spendthrift Farm for a $12,500 listed fee. He got stakes winner My Happy Face in his first crop, but was the eighth-leading first-crop sire of 2012 and the sixth-leading second-crop sire of 2013, prompting a drop in fee to $7,500 for 2014. He did get G1 winner Condo Commando in 2014, and was second only to Curlin on the third-crop sire list that year, but was sold to South Korea in October of 2014 for the 2015 breeding season. Subsequently, his daughter Wonder Gal, the dam of Wonder Wheel who had won the NY-bred Lynbrook Stakes on debut and finished second in the G1 Frizette, was third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

According to Equibase, Tiz Wonderful has gotten 71.4% winners and 5.7% stakes winners, with an AEI of 1.21. As a broodmare sire, Tiz Wonderful produces 67.1% winners, 5.3% stakes winners, and an AEI of 1.43.

Tiz Wonderful is another stallion that seemed to have been given up on too soon by American breeders, as he would get two more G1 winners in the years following his sale. His damsire Hennessy also follows this pattern of linebreeding to the tail-female line, as Hennessy and his sire Storm Cat were both members of family 8c. Their family 8c is also the same mitochondrial haplotype “L3a1b” as Tiz Wonderful’s family 16h. Interestingly, Wonder Gal’s second damsire Dixie Union was also from the same female family 4m as his sire Dixieland Band, which is also the family of Into Mischief’s sire Harlan’s Holiday, and her third damsire, Irgun, is from the same family 16h as Tiz Wonderful, making this combination of sire and dam particularly intriguing.

Of course, in all of these examples, there’s significant quality coming from the sires, and it could be convincingly asserted that these horses simply take after their sires and their damsires are not playing a significant role in their success. You couldn’t ask for a stronger trio of stallions in the industry right now than Uncle Mo, Gun Runner, and Into Mischief. All of these horses also sold at public auction for six figures as yearlings, so clearly they were exceptional individuals by top-class stallions.

These are also horses out of the upper tier of their damsire’s progeny, a point noted in the beginning. In the case of Flower Alley and Tiz Wonderful, their designation as underachievers is really more a reflection of the market than their statistics as a stallion - both actually put up higher numbers as a sire than a broodmare sire. Nevertheless, I thought it would be interesting to discuss the pedigree pattern shared by Astrology, Quiet American, Flower Alley, and Hennessy, and worth speculating whether a strong female family influence might perhaps play a role in whether daughters of a stallion are likely to pass on their own ability.

What do you think? Might pedigree play a role in a stallion’s production as a broodmare sire? Is it simply a result of some stallions getting the right mares? Or do good stallions just make good broodmare sires, regardless of how the commercial market receives them? Leave a comment and let me know what you think!