State-Bred Yearlings at OBS Winter Mixed

Highlighting some pedigree selections at the OBS Winter Mixed Sale

Tomorrow is the first day of the OBS Winter Mixed Sale, and the first 122 hips of the day will comprise the “consignor preferred” section of the sale. I browsed the catalog and decided to highlight some interesting state-bred yearlings from this portion of the sale. These are horses with pedigrees that might not necessarily jump off the page in some cases, but that I believe will be useful runners in the future. As always, this is not a recommendation to buy a horse but merely an evaluation of pedigree. These selections are listed in order by hip number.

Hip 24 - f. Curlin’s Honor x Liza’s Ready (More Than Ready)

This Florida-bred is from the second crop of Curlin’s Honor, a nice racehorse who had the versatility to win on dirt, turf, and synthetic. He was a $1.5 million two-year-old purchase who won two stakes - Woodbine’s Woodstock Stakes and Aqueduct’s Artie Schiller Stakes - and placed in six different graded stakes races at Woodbine, and was precocious enough to win sprinting on debut as a two-year-old. He showed tenacity in his career as well, winning his debut and the Artie Schiller Stakes by a neck after an extended stretch duel in both races. This is a trait that is hard to quantify but does seem to have some degree of heritability.

Curlin’s Honor is a half brother to two other stakes winners and traces tail-female to the blue hen Cequillo, whose sire descendants include Ogygian (out of Curlin’s Honor’s third dam, Gonfalon), Honour and Glory (out of a daughter of Gonfalon), Fappiano (out of a half-sister to Gonfalon), and Quiet American (a son of Fappiano whose third dam was Cequillo). Curlin’s Honor is, of course, by Curlin, who has four different G1-producing sons at stud. Physically, Curlin’s Honor is built quite similarly to his sire, with a bit of his dam’s Storm Cat influence showing in the hindquarters, and, after the pensioning of Jess’s Dream, is the only son of Curlin at stud in Florida.

This filly is the first foal out of Liza’s Ready, a More Than Ready mare who won her only start, leading throughout in a five furlong turf maiden special weight for two-year-olds at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Liza’s Ready is a half sister to stakes winner Long Weekend, who was a winner every year from ages two through five and banked $376,136 in 22 starts. This is also the immediate family of G1 winners Paulassilverlining and Dad’s Caps, who were both out of this filly’s third dam.

The Curlin/More Than Ready cross is one that doesn’t have a huge sample size, but has already seen plenty of success, with six stakes winners, including a G1 winner, in 34 starters (17.6% stakes winners). Additionally, there is plenty of intriguing linebreeding going on in this cross. Both Curlin’s Honor and Liza’s Ready are out of mares by stallions from family 9f, with Curlin’s Honor being out of a Stormin Fever mare and Liza’s Ready being out of a daughter of Olmodavor. Both of those stallions go back to the excellent mare Bourtai as their sixth dam. Curlin’s Honor also carries a second source of this family via Curlin’s second damsire Bates Motel, who is related more distantly - his seventh dam, One I Love, is the third dam of Bourtai. Crossing these members of family 9f has not been tried in any starters since 2011.

Although distant, there are also multiple sources of family 1x in this pedigree, with Francis S as Curlin’s Honor’s third damsire crossed over More Than Ready, who comes from family 1x and is out of a mare by that family’s Woodman. The cross of stallions carrying Francis S over mares carrying More Than Ready has produced six stakes winners, including G1 winner Aspen Grove, in 96 starters (6.3%), an improvement on the 4.1% stakes winners from all starters with stallions carrying Francis S, and on the 4.4% stakes winners from all starters with More Than Ready on the dam’s side.

Finally, while this linebreeding has not had as much success as the 1x cross discussed above, there are two sources of family 16g represented here, via Curlin’s Honor’s second damsire Miswaki and More Than Ready’s sire Southern Halo, who both trace to the mare Lea Lark as their fourth dam. The cross of Miswaki over Southern Halo has produced sixteen stakes winners, including four G1 winners, in 348 starters (4.6%). While this is a decrease on the 5.6% stakes winners from all starters by stallions carrying Miswaki and the 5% stakes winners from all starters out of mares carrying Southern Halo, it is still a solid success rate, especially at the G1 level, with over 1% G1 winners.