Bayern’s impressive win in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational Stakes two weekends back not only gave trainer Bob Baffert his seventh win in the Monmouth Park fixture, it also extended a rather incredible streak for Dr. William Solomon’s Pin Oak Lane Farm in New Freedom, Pennsylvania.
Stallions that stand or stood at Pin Oak Lane Farm have now sired the winners of the first three Breeders’ Cup Classic ‘Win and You’re In’ races.
Moonshine Mullin, by Albert the Great, took the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap June 14. Two weeks later Majestic Harbor, a son of the late Rockport Harbor, dominated the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita and now comes Bayern, a son of Offlee Wild.
Albert the Great previously stood at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky while Rockport Harbor and Offlee Wild are both graduates of the Darley USA stud barn. Rockport Harbor sadly lost a battle with laminitis during the first week of August last year but Albert the Great and Offlee Wild still anchor the roster at Pin Oak Lane along 2014 leading Pennsylvania sire Any Given Saturday.
Offlee Wild is a son of Wild Again out of a Seattle Slew half-sister to Dynaformer, so he’s certainly eligible to sire a good one. Bayern is, in fact, his second Grade 1 winner after She Be Wild, winner of the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. The dams of both these top runners are bred along similar lines. Bayern is the third Grade 1 winner out of a mare by the Mr. Prospector (by Raise A Native) grandson Thunder Gulch and his second dam is by another great son of Raise a Native, Alydar. She Be Wild is out of a mare bred Seeking the Gold (by Mr. Prospector) over Affirmed, a Raise A Native grandson.
Bayern wasn’t the only stakes winner for Offlee Wild July 28 either. The 2-year-old filly Ethan’s Baby found the winner’s circle in the Angie C. Stakes at Emerald Downs. She’s the second stakes winner out of a mare by the Unbridled stallion Broken Vow.
A.P. Indy, Giant’s Causeway and Ghostzapper were also represented by a pair of stakes winners the last weekend of July.
A P. Indy is enjoying retirement at Lane’s End Farm, but that doesn’t mean his progeny are taking it easy.
Grade 2 Molly Pitcher Stakes winner Majestic River and Grade 3 Shuvee Handicap winner Antipathy are his two latest graded stakes winners, giving him 82 for his illustrious career.
Majestic River is A.P. Indy’s only starter out of mare by the Caro grandson (and fellow Breeders’ Cup Classic winner) Alphabet Soup. It looks like she’s also his only stakes winner of any kind with the larger Caro broodmare line. Antipathy is a result of the much more ubiquitous and successful A. P. Indy-Mr. Prospector cross. She’s the 22nd black-type winner from the 103 starters by A.P. Indy out of daughters of Mr. Prospector. That’s an incredible 21% strike rate and this sample doesn’t even include the top sire Malibu Moon.
The royally-bred Irish Surf is the 84th worldwide group or graded stakes winner for Giant’s Causeway after roaring home in the Grade 3 Cougar II Handicap at Del Mar. The 4-year-old colt is out of the champion mare Surfside (by Seattle Slew), herself a daughter of champion Flanders (by Seeking the Gold). Both were bred by the late William T. Young’s Overbrook Farm. Fed Biz has been among those 84 graded winners since annexing the Grade 2 San Fernando Stakes in early 2013 and he added the Grade 3 San Diego Handicap to his ledger July 26. Out of a mare by Wild Again, he too hails from a big female line. His dam is a stakes-winning half-sister to Tale of the Cat and to the dam of champion Johannesburg. His second dam is also the grandam of Pulpit.
With a trio of stakes winners literally across the country since July 18, Adena Springs’ Ghostzapper once again finds himself among the leading North American sires of stakes winners with nine.
Ghostzapper’s juvenile daughter My Fiona kicked off the streak in the California Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association Stakes for Cal-breds on the first Friday of the Del Mar meet. She’s Ghostzapper’s second black-type winner from four starters out of mares by the Maryland sire Two Punch.
Ghostzapper has also sired a pair of stakes winners out of a mare by the Two Punch son Smoke Glacken.
Better Lucky, a Grade 1 winner on grass, returned to the main track and ran down a pair of Grade 1-winning millionaires in the July 21 Shine Again Stakes at Saratoga. Five days later in Iowa, Serendip scored in the Prairie Meadows Handicap. The 4-year-old is out of the multiple Grade 1 winner Spoken Fur, a daughter of Notebook, and is Ghostzapper’s 40th lifetime stakes winner.