Young Guns - Issue One

[Ripley]

Young Guns

~Issue 1~

We have finally turned the chapter on Year Fourteen and the last speck of dust from that sensational year will finally settle with the announcement of awards. Everyone has so very much looked forward to Year Fifteen for a new year of very competitive racing where every barn has at least one stellar blue blood baby in their juvenile string. For those looking for a review of the debuts of recent two year olds, this is not that article. This is an article geared toward the future. While everyone else is eager for Year Fifteen, I look toward Year Sixteen. The yearling prospect races are not truly races, more like shows that develop excitement for future years at age two and beyond. Recently, these prospect races have fallen to the back burner, yet they still qualify for major awards at the end of the season.

This five part article will occur during January, February, May, August and December and will highlight some of the most notable names.

We have not quite seen every prospect as Stride of Perfection, Intrepid Racing and Witch Creek typically keep a low profile until later in the season, if they enter at all. With the major barns out of the way, the newcomers have come to play.

Horses In The Turf Sprint Prospects: The first prospect race of the year, the first in the GHF's Next Top Racehorse series, was contested over a hypothetical six furlongs over the turf. With a lot of new horses to keep an eye on, the big standout and winner was Wings of Jayde. Word has it Stride of Perfection is closing their prolific breeding doors, but they did release this unbelievable well-bred filly to Valkyrie. Wings Of Jayde, a daughter of Hall Of Fame stallion Pegasus Wings, and daughter of Sugar Jayde, is a pretty individual with big hopes ahead of her. Her half-siblings on her paternal side, Winged Pegasus, Athena's Desires and Daring Vision, have set the bar high. Winged Pegasus dominated the turf sprint division for most of the Year Fourteen season, but relinquished the title late to Athena's Desires who won the Breeder's Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. Sugar Jayde is a more recent runner than Pegasus Wings. A dominant turf sprinter, Sugar Jayde took major races such as: the Sunset Stakes, Magic Million Fillies Turf Sprint, Azalea Cup Fillies and Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf Sprint. For the moment, until other turf sprinters debut, Wings of Jayde is likely to dominate.

Second pace finisher, Spirit of An Angel, may deserve a couple looks herself. Spirit Of Joy is a brand new sire, with a couple young horses in Unbridled Soul and Monstrosity. The key horse in this breeding match up is Blood of The Angel. She's been knocking at the door as one of the best producers in recent times with Tears Of A Blood, Tears Of An Angel, Siren Call and Hellfire. Tears Of An Angel shocked the world when she took the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf Sprint over Innocent Passion. Word has it that Tears Of An Angel wasn't even supposed to be entered into the race. Grayson Meadows will be looking to post future upsets with the like of Spirit Of An Angel. Siren Call was no slouch in her third behind Sun King and Lilith Wind in the Breeders' Cup Sprint and Tears Of Blood practically drove Forbidden To Fly all the way to the line in the Breeders' Cup Sprint. With Spirit Of Joy tangled in there, this youngster could definitely lean toward the turf. Her half-sister, Hellfire, looks to show that this family is far from producing high-quality results with her grade five win this week.

The third and fourth place finishers, Ruling Restraint and Sophie's Harmony, are both not nearly as proven in terms of family background. Ruling Restraint has an intriguing sire line through Passionate Ruler. Passionate Ruler, a stallion for Nature Blue, has seen the light finally click on with daughters Passion Heart and Rules Of Passion. Passion Heart rocketed to grade two this season, narrowly missing in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Ruling Restraint and Spirit Of An Angel share a sibling in the unstarted Unbridled Soul. While Ruling Restraint's other half-sister, Rules Of Passion, put up an impressive showing in the Breeders' Cup Sprint, Ruling Restraint will have to demonstrate her precociousness in notching victories at this short of a difference. She could be more precocious than Passion Heart and more like Rules of Passion, who also took time to mature.

Sophie's Harmony offers an intriguing cross of sprinter lines being a daughter of hard-trying Gamble On Peace and Sophie Might. Sophie Might has produced some renowned babies including, grade one and potential Hall Of Famer Lynara's Kingdom, G2 Sophie's Voice, who managed to beat Cross My Heart. Arachne and Lynara's Kingdom, and grade two Mighty News, winner of the Highway Stakes. Sophie's Harmony is the first offspring of Gamble On Peace. While Sophie's Harmony is a sprinter, her family line suggests that she most definitely is geared toward dirt. Lynara's Kingdom was best over the dirt, Sophie's Voice topped Cross My Heart in the Test Stakes over the dirt. If she moves to the dirt prospects, Nature Blue is likely to have a top dirt sprint candidate for those races.

Horses in the Middle Distances: The nine furlong races held here at The Wire brought together two fields, totaling to 15 horses, over two separate surfaces. In the nine furlong turf race, we saw seven horses meet and in the nine furlong dirt race, we saw eight. While there were horses ranging from the shortest to the longest distances, this could only be called a middle distance race. Which young horse is precocious enough to knock out nine furlongs, fast enough to hold off the distance horses and quick enough to outrun the sprinters and milers.

We had two winners:

Roses Rampant The Janvier Prospect winner, she's said to be a 9-12 horse and has the family geared toward distance. The daughter of Man O' War and Rosalind will find her family extremely relevant in current times despite the old lines. Among the names in her background are: Admiral's Revenge, Admirable, Hokum, Acantha, Requiem and Bucephalus. Talk about an extremely important family, key to the recent success of both Intrepid Racing and Witch Creek Stable. Valkyrie is tapping into the fountain of success with this chestnut filly, who is one of the final Rosalind finals. Notice... I said one. Roses Rampant is a twin. The other twin belongs to Intrepid, who will again look to continue their success with her brother, Ensignia. This filly is definitely a stand out and one to watch from 9-12 furlongs based on pedigree and potential.

Patriot The January Prospect winner belongs to another key family, though a lot more recent. Son of Hall of Famer Everyday Hero and grade one winner and producer, The True Fallen For. Everyday Hero has sired G1 winners Vindictive Fury, Wish Upon A Star, up and comer Majestic Hero and Taboo and Wishing For A Heroine, winner of a Triple Tiara prep and a leg of the Triple Sprinter Turf Tiara, among others. The True Fallen For is dam to grade one sprinting mare Loud And Clear and maiden debut winner Scintilla. A very relevant family and one that has the potential to start out at the top or end there.


The True Enough dynasty One of the key sires or grandsires of note was True Enough. Nature Blue is really campaigning this stud as still relevant to the modern times. The Hall of Fame stallion has sired a Hall of Fame horse himself and will be looking to continue his success at stud. There were three True Enough offspring in the Janvier Prospect, they were: Bona Fide, Rough Boy and Tuff E' Nuff. Though they finished out of the top three, all of them probably did each other in, being so similar. The stand out was Tuff E'Nuff, but the other two, one of which is a direct twin, will likely step up to the plate as they head through the series.

Touch Up & Admiral's Revenge: A Grandsire's Legacy All Touch Up relations have proven to be exciting and they are becoming harder to come by due to Witch Creek's monopoly on the direct foals. As a grand sire, Touch Up has proven just as great siring Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner The Devil's Hourglass and Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Saintly Touch. He has Incognito debuting this year for Stride of Perfection and two yearling grand-foals in Lawless and Winning Fire. Winning Fire is a daughter of Winning Touch, by Catching Fire, a sire seeing his first offspring debut. She took second behind Roses Rampant with her combination of old and new lines. A grand-daugther of Admiral's Revenge, Winning Fire could prove to be a great two year old down the road.

Akita Roses Anyone? While most of the pedigrees are combinations of Nature Blue and Intrepid, we had two horses in the dirt prospect featuring the rarer Akita Rose lines. Proletariat, one of the last known son's of successful sire Crooked Fire, and Arctic Fox, a son of Silver Foot and half-brother to Red Mile champion Supernatural. Grayson Meadows and Firestone Racing are in possession of some rare horses and will be looking to take every ounce of the prestige that comes with these lines.

An Odd One: For the new members, it might be hard to recall a horse by the name of Oddside. He is a maiden racehorse and son of the sensational runners Spotted By A Star and Storm Wing. However, more importantly, out of four foals he has sired: two are grade one winners, one is a Dubai World Cup Champion and the other beat The Wire Champion Frozen Motion and Y14 Breeders' Cup Turf Marathon winner, Infinite Warcry, in the Breeders' Cup Turf Marathon two years back. Oddside's third baby, Coincidence, broke his maiden first time out and now we have reached The Oddity, a bay roan daughter of The Prize. She could be a turf contender down the line with the pedigree to be a stellar producer in the far future..


These are just some of the horses that debuted in January Week One. Many more will come along and pop up in the next article in February.

Please see below list for the major Prospect Races:

Green Horse Fields

Race - Winner

GHF's Next Top Racehorse- R1*: Wings Of Jayde
UNICORN HORN PROSPECT TURF SPRINT*:
UNICORN HORN PROSPECT DIRT SPRINT*:
UNICORN HORN PROSPECT TURF *:
UNICORN HORN PROSPECT DIRT*:
GHF's Next Top Racehorse - R2*:
GHF's Next Top Racehorse - R3*:
GHF Stable Faceoff Prospect Turf Sprint
GHF Stable Faceoff Prospect Dirt Sprint
GHF Stable Faceoff Prospect Turf
GHF Stable Faceoff Prospect Dirt
GHF's Next Top Racehorse - R4*
GHF's Next Top Racehorse - R5*
GHF's Next Top Racehorse - R6*
GHF's Next Top Racehorse - R7*
GHF's Next Top Racehorse - R8*
GHF's Next Top Racehorse - R9*
GHF's Next Top Racehorse - R10*
Prospect Challenge Cup*
Prospect Challenge Stakes*
Prospect Challenge Final*

The Wire

-has less HOTY races, but undercard prospect races could potentially be reviewed-

Latourre Prospect Race 1
Bagarre Prospect Race 1
Latourre Prospect Race 2
Bagarre Prospect Race 2
Latourre Prospect Race 3
Bagarre Prospect Race 3
Latourre Prospect Race 4
Bagarre Prospect Race 4
Latourre Prospect Race 5
Bagarre Prospect Race 5
Latourre Prospect Race 6
Bagarre Prospect Race 6
Latourre Prospect Race 7
Bagarre Prospect Race 7

Breeders' Cup Yearling Show

Prospects Held Away From TW/GHF

Best Bred Tournament - Held by SOPS, Weanlings & Yearlings Can Participate