A few days ago, while still basking in the glow of Workforce’s Derby tour de force, Juddmonte’s 3-year-old filly Kilo Alpha won a conditions race at Longchamp to go 2 for 5 and showed some promise for the future, either in Europe or the US perhaps. She, like the Derby winner, is by King’s Best from a Sadler’s Wells mare, which means that Juddmonte sent at least two Sadler’s Wells mares to the Kingmambo 2000 Guineas winner in 2006—his sixth season at stud.
Here’s why: The Juddmonte mare Anasazi was sent to King’s Best in his first year at stud in 2001, and she produced the subsequent Listed stakes winner Runaway (who has since become Group 1 placed for another owner). The same mare is the dam of Kilo Alpha.
In 2002, Juddmonte sent another daughter of Sadler’s Wells to King’s Best and got the eventual Listed stakes winner To Sender (who won the stakes in the US). The breeding of Workforce, therefore, was part of a plan that had been in place since King’s Best went to stud, and one that had been successful for the international breeder.
The precedent for sending a daughter of Sadler’s Wells to King’s Best was actually set in 1994, by a Japanese breeder, Takashi Watanabe. His mating of the Sadler’s Wells mare Saddlers Gal to Kingmambo, sire of King’s Best, resulted in the 1995 US-bred foal El Condor Pasa, who raced with aplomb in Japan at 3 by winning the Group 1 Japan Cup (but was ineligible for the Japanese classics as he was bred abroad). He then proved the value of that form by winning the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud at 4 in France. The same year, he also was second in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan, too.
El Condor Pasa’s pedigree is actually an exagerated illustration of what’s at work when Kingmambo (or his son King’s Best) is bred to a daughter of Sadler’s Wells. Click here to view it. Note that Kingmambo’s dam, the great Miesque, is by Nureyev—a three-quarter brother to Sadler’s Wells. Both Northern Dancer stallions were outstanding at stud, and combining the two in a pedigree such as El Condor Pasa’s results in duplications to Northern Dancer plus the mare Special, as well as the sire Native Dancer. However, in El Condor Pasa’s case, his third dam, Lisadell, was a sister to Special, so there’s a third line of this female family in the pedigree, too.
In Workforce’s pedigree, however, there are only two duplications to Northern Dancer and Special (through Nureyev and Sadler’s Wells), and that’s good enough because this nick with Kingmambo and his sons with the Sadler’s Wells mares or mares by sons of Sadler’s Wells has resulted in 9 Group 1 winners to date in the Northern Hemisphere:
El Condor Pasa (1995) by Kingmambo from a Sadler’s Wells mare
Divine Proportions (2002) by Kingmambo from a Sadler’s Wells mare
Virginia Waters (2002) by Kingmambo from a Sadler’s Wells mare
Creachadoir (2004) by King’s Best from a Sadler’s Wells mare
King’s Apostle (2004) by King’s Best from a Barathea mare
Henrythenavigator (2005) by Kingmambo from a Sadler’s Wells mare
Ibn Khaldun (2005) by Dubai Destination from a Sadler’s Wells mare
Thewayyouare (2005) by Kingmambo from a Sadler’s Wells mare
Workforce (2007) by King’s Best from a Sadler’s Wells mare
To date, King’s Best, who stands for Darley in France and also is the sire of the Japan Derby winner Eishin Flash, has sired 31 black type winners: 19 Group winners (6 Group 1) and 12 Listed stakes winners. Of this total, 9 are from Sadler’s Wells mares or mares by sons of Sadler’s Wells. They are:
Creachadoir (2004) from a Sadler’s Wells mare; G1 winner
King’s Apostle (2004) from a Barathea mare; G1 winner
Best Alibi (2003) from a Sadler’s Wells mare; G2 winner
Spice Route (2004) from an In the Wings mare; G2 winner
Best Name (2003) from an Old Vic mare; G3 winner
Queen’s Best (2003) from an In the Wings mare; G3 winner
Runaway (2002) from a Sadler’s Wells mare; Listed winner
To Sender (2003) from a Sadler’s Wells mare; Listed winner
It’s fairly obvious by comparing the years of birth of these horses that the success of El Condor Pasa and his fairly concentrated linebreeding led to more Sadler’s Wells mares (and Sadler’s Wells-line mares) for Kingmambo and King’s Best at around the same time. Workforce is just the latest example of this combination. More will follow.
The Kings Best stats are very interesting. However without knowing how many mares by Sadler’s Wells and how many mares by sons of Sadlers Well’s he has been bred to one can’t really make a judgement.
The fact that nearly 30% of his black type winners have come from this type of mating could point to something although without knowing what percentage of his matings fall into this category we can’t be sure.
In addition mares by Sadler’s Wells (and sons of) are likely to be of higher quality (on average) than the standard mare sent to King’s Best.
Having said that I recommended Creachadoir and Spice Route in my first published list of suggested yearling purchases. So I tend to agree with these findings all though perhaps from a slightly different perspective.
Varola, I don’t think—and you can re-read the article—that i was making any statistical assumptions. In contrast, I was just noting some observations: That the El Condor Pasa mating in ’95 has led to many more copycats. I just happened to mention some of the successful ones, but the concept is as easily applicable to the ones that didn’t produces stakes winners.
However, as a “nick,” my opinions are different than yours: I feel it’s a general barometer; that whenever a high-class performer has been produced between sire-line crosses, there exists the chance that it may be reproduced; and it’s one of many factors to consider in the overall success of the horse. Here’s a baseball analogy that I use: a hitter may only be batting .230 against a certain pitcher (low percentage), but he has, say, several home runs against him (several G1 winners), whereas another hitter may be batting .290 against him but has never hit the home run against him (sire of Listed and G3 winners). Stats may say the .290 hitter looks better on paper; analysis shows the .230 hitter, when he connects, gets better results. Depending on what I’m looking for, I may use the low-percentage/high reward hitter vs the other guy without power. Some of this may also be dictated by the field alignment (other parts of pedigree) and the type of situation (breeding for a classic winner? or winning run on 1st, bottom of 9th, 2 out, bases loaded.).
PS There are enough horses, such as Pivotal, Green Desert, Cape Cross, Danehill Dancer, Darshaan, etc., that have similar quality pedigree to those of sons of Sadler’s Wells.
Sir Michael Stoute, one of the best living conditioners, has scored his fifth Derby victory with Workforce.
Not counting Sir Percy (who sustained an injury in the Derby), Stoute’s Kris Kin and North Light were arguably the weakest Epsom Derby winners of this decade, out of arguably the two weakest (male) Anglo-Irish crops.
Given that St. Nicholas Abbey is still not more than a promise, Cape Blanco flattened out in Chantilly and Jan Vermeer couldn’t have outrun that trademark Milkmaid last Saturday (or his own pacemaker, for that matter), I wonder if Workforce really is as great as he looked – wow!- or if Stoute once again took full advantage of a sub-par vintage.
Interesting thoughts as usual, Malcer. I suppose the time is the barometer here if the winning margin is not. Or until he faces older in the King George—or loses to comtemporaries before then. Time, Malcer, will tell.
Varola
According to the Jockey Club data.
King’s Best with mares by sons of Sadler’s Wells – 46 foals, 28 (60.9%) runners, 13 (28.3%) winners, 4 (8.7%) SW
King’s Best with Sadler’s Wells mares – 109 foals, 72 (66.1%) runners, 34 (31.2%) winners, 5 (4.6%) SW.
Sid, as an englishman and former keen cricketer I loved reading your baseball analogy. It seems a sport with lots of stats and little bit more action than its english counterpart. You may not be aware that cricket in an attempt to keep up in the modern world has introduced a 3 hour version of the game, rather than 3 day,which is incredibly popular in India.
I think I’ll start looking at the baseball section of your blog.
ps point taken about you not making any statistical assumptions.
Luckily Ab Abolendam is on hand and interestingly it seems King’s Best does better with mares by sons of rather than by Sadler’s Wells.
Varola, yes, I join you in thanking Ab for the stats. Very interesting, indeed, but I’m wondering whether they include stats from the SH too. John Sparkman noted that King’s Best has 3% stakes winners from foals overall (including SH), and the sheer number of Sadler’s Wells mares and mares by sons makes me wonder about SH.
Did not know that about cricket!