us triple crown Photography courtesy of NYRA
The youth movement
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Melissa Bauer-Herzog reviews a US Triple Crown series that saw a number of the younger stallions dominate
F THERE WAS EVER any doubt of the ability of the younger stallions in North American stallion ranks, that doubt was quickly put to rest during this season’s American Triple Crown series – two legs of the Triple Crown were won by progeny of first-crop sires. Rich Strike was the longest shot of the race going into May’s Kentucky Derby (G1) after taking his place in the field at the 11th-hour as a reserve. One of just 53 foals from Grade 1 winner Keen Ice’s first crop, Rich Strike was over 17l behind the pacesetter at one point before closing strongly to win by three-quarters of a length at odds of 80-1. He was the second-longest priced winner in Kentucky Derby history behind 1913 winner Donerail Court. The colt was followed home by runners from the second crops of Not This Time and Upstart. In an era where close inbreeding hasn’t been taboo amongst big race winners, the Calumet Farm-bred Rich Strike joined the crowd with a 3x2 cross to the late Smart Strike. The colt is by a grandson of that stallion and out of Smart Strike’s Canadian champion Gold Strike. She was already a Grade 2 producer before her Derby winner
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....the horses to cross the finish line first in the last two Kentucky Derbys have come from foal crops of 53 and 35 courtesy of Llanarmon, but that didn’t keep her from selling at the 2019 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale for just $1,700 in 2019. Her appearance in the ring came one year after Calumet sold the subsequent 2,000 Guineas (G1) winner Kameko’s dam Sweeter Still for only $1,500 at the same sale. In addition to being the breeder of Rich Strike, the farm also raced him in his early starts. Calumet dropped Rich Strike into a claiming race for his second start where his current connections claimed him for
$30,000 on the same day he broke his maiden by over 17l at Churchill Downs. Interestingly, with the increasingly larger books for American stallions, the horses to cross the finish line first in the last two Kentucky Derbys have come from foal crops of just 53 and 35. That followed up 2019 when the “first” to cross the line came from a crop of 56 with the “official” winner from a crop of 86. Rich Strike’s Kentucky Derby victory comes only months after a proposed stallion cap that would see stallions born in 2020 or later restricted to book sizes of 140 mares, rescinded by The Jockey Club. It’s not a Triple Crown season without a little drama and that drama came less than a week after the Kentucky Derby when Rich Strike’s connections decided not to target the Preakness Stakes (G1) due to distance limitations. But other young sires were there to fly the flag for their generation. Of the nine runners in the second Classic, five were by stallions who have just first or second crop three-year-olds. The record-breaking first-crop sire Gun Runner had had two in the Kentucky Derby and neither hit the board, but it was set to be different in the Preakness. Early Voting had qualified for the main
