Irrefutable Gave It His All

Irrefutale (left) and Amazombie in the Ancient Title
Photo:  Benoit Photo/Santa Anita

Irrefutable came agonizingly close to being a top horse.  He never stopped trying, even when the effort exceeded the apparent capabilities of his cardiovascular system.  He literally ran his heart out, and though no one knew it as he rallied along the rail in pursuit of Pacific Ocean in Saturday’s Vernon O. Underwood Stakes at Hollywood Park, Irrefutable had just run his last race.

To the shock of both fans and connections, the imposing grey colt collapsed in front of the grandstand within seconds after being unsaddled, and when a vet deemed that his body was in extreme cardiac distress, Irrefutable was helped to leave it.  But before he passed, an onsite observer reported that his rider, Mike Smith, touchingly "kissed his hand and then rubbed Irrefutable's head with it as he lay breathing heavily."  It was all he could do.

By Unbridled's Song out of the graded stakes-placed Kingmambo mare, Honestly Darling, five-year-old Irrefutable is from the high-class family of CCA Oaks winner, Cherokee Rose (his fifth dam), Beverly Hills-G1 heroine Reluctant Guest (his second dam), and Horse of the Year and Intermediate/Classic Chef-de-Race Ack Ack.

Irrefutable went through the sales ring twice, initially as a Keeneland September yearling, when he brought $450,000, and then at the Fasig-Tipton Calder Selected Two-Year-Olds-in-Training sale, where he was purchased by Eldon Farm and Gainesway Stable for $600,000, a price that was second only to the $700,000 paid for Zensational among Unbridled's Song juveniles sold in 2008.

It would be almost two years before Irrefutable would make his debut, and by then, he sported the colors of Kaleem Shah.  From the get-go, the patiently handled Bob Baffert trainee signaled he had a ton of talent.  He easily put away six-furlong maiden special weight foes at Santa Anita in his first start, two days after Christmas, 2009, in a final time of 1:08.25.

Irrefutable raced only twice in 2010 and didn't win again until New Year's Day of this year, when he captured an allowance sprint at Santa Anita under regular pilot Mike Smith in 1:07.27, coming whisper close to the track record (1:06.98) set by The Factor just six days earlier.

Stretched out to six and a half furlongs, Irrefutable came home victorious again against Santa Anita allowance company in March, and went on to win a six-furlong allowance optional claimer on the Kentucky Derby undercard at Churchill on the first Saturday in May, in what would be his last triumph.

But though Irrefutable never won another race, his best efforts were yet to come.  He was just a neck behind eventual Vosburgh victor Giant Ryan in the Grade II Smile at Calder in July, and three-quarters of a length shy of future Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Amazombie in the Grade I Ancient Title in October, while defeating Grade I winners The Factor and Square Eddie.

Overmatched in the Breeders' Cup Sprint, he rebounded just three weeks later in the Underwood, getting up for second with a determined late run.  It was because of the way he did it, with a fighting spirit and a fluid stride, that Irrefutable's subsequent collapse on the racetrack was so completely unexpected.  It was inconceivable that he could be gone, just like that.

Irrefutable exits the stage having won or placed in nine of his 13 career starts, with earnings of $286,980.  We will miss him.http://www.pedigreequery.com/irrefutable7

Irrefutable Gave It His All

Irrefutale (left) and Amazombie in the Ancient Title
Photo:  Benoit Photo/Hollywood Park

Irrefutable came agonizingly close to being a top horse.  He never stopped trying, even when the effort exceeded the apparent capabilities of his cardiovascular system.  He literally ran his heart out, and though no one knew it as he rallied along the rail in pursuit of Pacific Ocean in Saturday’s Vernon O. Underwood Stakes at Hollywood Park, Irrefutable had just run his last race.

To the shock of both fans and connections, the imposing grey colt collapsed in front of the grandstand within seconds after being unsaddled, and when a vet deemed that his body was in extreme cardiac distress, Irrefutable was helped to leave it.  But before he passed, an onsite observer reported that his rider, Mike Smith, touchingly "kissed his hand and then rubbed Irrefutable's head with it as he lay breathing heavily."  It was all he could do.

By Unbridled's Song out of the graded stakes-placed Kingmambo mare, Honestly Darling, five-year-old Irrefutable is from the high-class family of CCA Oaks winner, Cherokee Rose (his fifth dam), Beverly Hills-G1 heroine Reluctant Guest (his second dam), and Horse of the Year and Intermediate/Classic Chef-de-Race Ack Ack.

Irrefutable went through the sales ring twice, initially as a Keeneland September yearling, when he brought $450,000, and then at the Fasig-Tipton Calder Selected Two-Year-Olds-in-Training sale, where he was purchased by Eldon Farm and Gainesway Stable for $600,000, a price that was second only to the $700,000 paid for Zensational among Unbridled's Song juveniles sold in 2008.

It would be almost two years before Irrefutable would make his debut, and by then, he sported the colors of Kaleem Shah.  From the get-go, the patiently handled Bob Baffert trainee signaled he had a ton of talent.  He easily put away six-furlong maiden special weight foes at Santa Anita in his first start, two days after Christmas, 2009, in a final time of 1:08.25.

Irrefutable raced only twice in 2010 and didn't win again until New Year's Day of this year, when he captured an allowance sprint at Santa Anita under regular pilot Mike Smith in 1:07.27, coming whisper close to the track record (1:06.98) set by The Factor just six days earlier.

Stretched out to six and a half furlongs, Irrefutable came home victorious again against Santa Anita allowance company in March, and went on to win a six-furlong allowance optional claimer on the Kentucky Derby undercard at Churchill on the first Saturday in May, in what would be his last triumph.

But though Irrefutable never won another race, his best efforts were yet to come.  He was just a neck behind eventual Vosburgh victor Giant Ryan in the Grade II Smile at Calder in July, and three-quarters of a length shy of future Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Amazombie in the Grade I Ancient Title in October, while defeating Grade I winners The Factor and Square Eddie.

Overmatched in the Breeders' Cup Sprint, he rebounded just three weeks later in the Underwood, getting up for second with a determined late run.  It was because of the way he did it, with a fighting spirit and a fluid stride, that Irrefutable's subsequent collapse on the racetrack was so completely unexpected.  It was inconceivable that he could be gone, just like that.

Irrefutable exits the stage having won or placed in nine of his 13 career starts, with earnings of $286,980.  We will miss him.

A Star is Born: Disposablepleasure wins the Demoiselle

Disposablepleasure (inside) narrowly prevails over Wildcat's Smile 
in the Grade II Demoiselle at Aqueduct
Photo:  Adam Coglianese/NYRA

They didn’t make it easy for Disposablepleasure, but she overcame every disadvantage to prevail by a nodding nose over Wildcat’s Smile in Aqueduct’s nine furlong Demoiselle-G2, after having stumbled out of the gate, spotting the field more than 11 seemingly insurmountable lengths.

The two-year-old daughter of second crop sire Giacomo was battle tested to the extreme in this, her first attempt in stakes company, against nine other juvenile fillies.  As her ground-eating stride and cardiovascular engine propelled her forward, she displaced several rivals in her wake, and gutted out a grueling stretch drive in which Wildcat’s Smile proved a courageous and tenacious competitor. 

But even when the camera showed that Disposablepleasure had won the photo, her march to the winner’s circle was delayed for several minutes while the stewards considered, and then dismissed a claim of foul by David Cohen aboard third-place finisher Bourbonstreetgirl.  She’s now won or placed in three of her four career starts, banked earnings of $161,600, and won the admiration of a racing public eager to anoint a new star.

Her trainer, Todd Pletcher, is a big admirer of the Disposablepleasure, too.  “It was a very courageous effort by any horse, but especially a two-year-old filly,” he said, after the race.  “She’s got a lot of natural ability, but she showed she’s got some heart and desire to go along with it.  For any horse to win and overcome all that first time going a mile and an eighth was impressive, but you don’t see too many two-year-old fillies do that.”

With her victory in the Demoiselle, Disposablepleasure becomes Giacomo’s first American graded stakes winner, and his second stakes winner out of a mare by Canadian Champion With Approval.  His son, Jake Mo (out of Credit Approval), won the five-and-a-half furlong Prairie Gold Juvenile Stakes at Prairie Meadows in July.  The cross worked moderately well when tried with Giacomo’s sire, Holy Bull, who sired stakes-winning Sin Toro out of the graded stakes-winning With Approval mare, Withoutapproval.

The seventh foal out of My Canada, Disposablepleasure is a half-sister to three other winners, including Romantic Hideaway (by City Zip), who won the Brandywine and placed in the Cicada-G2.   My Canada is a full sister to Canadian stakes winner Patriot Love, and a half-sister to the graded stakes-winning sprinter, Riley Tucker (by Harlan’s Holiday) as well as to Deputy Country (by Silver Deputy), a hard-knocking minor stakes winner who won 13 races and earned $341,143.

Interestingly, Riley Tucker was a $375,000 short-list auction purchase for Zayat Stables by EQB, a bloodstock consultancy team that selects racing prospects based on their cardiovascular prowess and biomechanical efficiency.  It’s interesting to speculate as to whether Disposablepleasure has inherited similar genetic attributes, though in contrast to Riley Tucker, who never won beyond six-and-a-half furlongs, she seems to be improving as the distances stretch out.

Disposablepleasure’s come-from-behind run in the Demoiselle was in stark contrast to her maiden victory last month at Belmont, in which she scored a wire-to-wire triumph by 11 widening lengths over a mile and a sixteenth on the main track.

Today, she proved she doesn’t have to have it all her way, and that she has the will—and the talent--to overcome adversity.  Those priceless traits have appeared throughout generations of Disposablepleasure’s female family, which stems from the foundation mare, Reply, whose descendants include the great Fanfreluche (dam of two-time Horse of the Year L’Enjoleur and Champions La Voyageuse and Medaille D’Or).

Whether it was that distinguished female family, her physical presence, or the advice or a bloodstock agent that prompted John Greathouse, Jr. to buy Disposablepleasure for a $45,000 out of last year’s Fasig-Tipton July sale, we don’t know.  But what does seem clear is that the gray filly’s value is now far greater than her purchase price, and that her eventual place of honor in the Glencrest broodmare band is secure. 

What makes Hansen run?

In a stunner, Hansen defeated heavy favorite Union Rags
in the 2011 Breeders' Cup Juvenile
Photo:  Reed Palmer Photography/Churchill Downs

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Hansen’s four-generation catalogue-style pedigree fits neatly on just a half page, and save for the white colt’s own record, it’s virtually lacking in black type or distinguished runners.  So where did he get the class to beat the likes of proven Grade I winners such as Union Rags, Creative Cause, Crusade, Drill and Dullahan? 

It’s hard to say. 

Hansen’s dam, Stormy Sunday, by Sir Cat, broke her maiden in her first start in a lowly $5000 claimer at Turfway Park in February, 2005, stopping the timer in a pedestrian 1:14.02.  She was haltered out of that race by Hansen’s current owner, Dr. Kendall Hansen, and by June of that year, showed dramatic improvement, winning a $30,000 claiming race at Churchill in 1:10.29.  Stepped up to face allowance foes in a six-and-a-half furlong contest just three weeks later, Stormy Sunday finished a tiring third.  In what would be the fourth and final start of her career that August, she captured a five-and-a-half furlong starter allowance over a muddy strip at Mountaineer, finishing up in 1:04.34.

Bred to Tapit in 2007, Stormy Sunday produced a bay colt, Tapanna, who never started at two, but broke his maiden this year in his fifth start, in an eight-furlong maiden special weight test at Turfway last September. 

Hansen is the mare’s second foal by Tapit, and couldn’t be more different than his older brother, not only in color, but in ability.  Such are the vagaries of genetics.

Tapit has established an enviable record at stud by consistently upgrading the mares to whom he has been bred.  And he did it again with Stormy Sunday when he sired Hansen, the product of an oft-successful nick with mares by Storm Cat and his sons.  In addition to Hansen, Tapit has two other Grade I stakes winners bred on this pattern: Careless Jewel (out of Sweet and Careless, by Hennessy) and Tell A Kelly (out of Evrobi, by Tabasco Cat).  Like Hansen, both are inbred to both Northern Dancer and to Secretariat, maternal grandsire of the dams of both A. P. Indy and Storm Cat. 

The cross between Tapit’s sire, Pulpit, and Storm Cat has also produced Florida Derby winner Ice Box (out of Spice Island, by Tabasco Cat) and successful sire Sky Mesa (out of Caress, by Storm Cat), who captured the Hopeful.

Though the chartcaller noted that Hansen “lasted” to win the mile-and-a-sixteenth Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, with a final quarter in 25.37, his ability to compete at classic distances is still an open question.  There is an abundance of stamina flowing through the family of his maternal grandsire, the turf specialist Sir Cat, whose second second dam is the great Champion April Run (Ire), who won the Turf Classic and was third in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.  And Temperence Hill, the sire of Hansen’s third dam, Tescudera, won the Belmont, the Suburban, the Travers, and the Jockey Club Gold Cup. But these influences don’t appear until Hansen’s fourth generation, perhaps too far back to be of vital importance.

Based on his three races to-date, Hansen looks more like a sprinter who has been able to carry his speed up to a mile and a sixteenth than a true classic horse who has the cardiovascular and biomechanical equipment to stay a mile and a quarter.   Time will tell, of course, as it always does.

Lady Shirl's descendants may be factors in Breeders' Cup turf contests

Shkspeare Shaliyah capturing the Pilgrim-G3
Photo: Adam Coglianese, NYRA

The influence of top turf mare Lady Shirl, a tough competitor who notched 18 races, including the 1991 running of the mile-and-a-quarter Flower Bowl at Belmont, will be felt again this weekend when three of her descendants contest the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and the Filly and Mare Turf over the Churchill Downs’ Matt Winn course.

Lady Shirl is the dam of up-and-coming young sire, Shakespeare, a Grade I winning son of Theatrical (Ire) whose first foals raced this year.  Shakespeare won seven of his eight lifetime starts from three to six, including the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at 12 furlongs, in which he defeated eventual Champion Turf Horse English Channel, and the Woodbine Mile, in which he bested the ill-fated ace turf miler Kip Deville.

Shakespeare’s son, Shkspeare Shaliyah, is by far the most accomplished member of the stallion’s initial crop to-date, having won or placed in two of his three starts—all on turf-- including the mile-and-a-sixteenth Pilgrim-G3 over soft going at Belmont.  In light of the fact that Shakespeare never even raced at two, Shkspeare Shaliyah’s precocity is a promising sign of good things to come, and he could certainly grab a share of the purse in the Juvenile Turf.

And so could outlier Fantastic Song, a son of high-class grass sire Lemon Drop Kid out of Lady Shirl’s daughter Fantastic Shirl (by Fantastic Light), who won the grassy De La Rose at Saratoga.   A morning line longshot at odds of 20-1, Fantastic Song hasn’t been an object of Breeders’ Cup buzz, but perhaps that’s an oversight.  He won his first start in dramatic rallying fashion, capturing a photo finish over future Bourbon-G3 winner Animal Spirits at a mile and a sixteenth on the turf, and was only a length shy of Shkspeare Shaliyah in the Pilgrim.

Fantastic Song is one of three talented Breeders' Cup turf juveniles by Champion Older Male Lemon Drop Kid, who never even raced on the sod.  The others are Juvenile Fillies' Turf runners Somali Lemonade (out of Chic Corine, by Nureyev) and Customer Base (out of Little Cat Feet, by Tale of the Cat), who will be making her first start on the grass.

Perfect Shirl winning the Lake George-G2 at Saratoga
Photo: Adam Coglianese, NYRA

Lady Shirl’s daughter, Perfect Shirl by Champion Turf Horse Perfect Soul (Ire) will go postward in today’s mile-and-three-eighths Filly and Mare Turf over what looks to be a yielding course.  Though winless in 2011, the late-running four-year-old bay filly has placed in four of her six starts this year, but is unproven at this distance and on less-than-firm turf.  Her main claim to fame was as the heroine of last year’s Lake George-G2 at Saratoga at a mile and a sixteenth, in which she “closed in relentlessly during the run through the furlong grounds.”  She seems to have taken on a large task in this race, but could get up to get a piece of it.

A. P. Indy's influence dominates the pedigrees of Ladies' Classic runners

Malibu Moon's Ask the Moon winning the Ruffian at Saratoga
Photo: Adam Coglianese, NYRA

Look no further than the entries for the Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic for evidence of the extent to which Intermediate/Classic Chef-de-Race A. P. Indy has shaped the top echelons of American racing.  He appears in the second or third generations of no less than seven of the nine fillies and mares who will enter the starting gate of the mile-and-an-eighth world championship contest to be run at Churchill Downs on Friday, November 4th.

A. P. Indy's top son, Pulpit, is the sire of Pachattack (out of El Laoob, by Red Ransom), who captured the Grade III Arlington Matron in May and finished just a half-length behind Aruna in last month's Grade I Spinster at nine furlongs over Keeneland's synthetic surface.

Pulpit is also the grandsire of five-year-old Satans Quick Chick (by Sky Mesa, out of Dancing Devlette, by Devil's Bag), whose sole victory in graded stakes company came in the Grade II Raven Run at Keeneland two years ago.  Though she was third (by 14 lengths) in the Grade I Beldame last out, Satans Quick Chick 's ability to win at a mile and an eighth in this company remains in question.

The reigning Acorn and Coaching Club American Oaks winner It's Tricky (out of Catboat, by Tale of the Cat) is by A. P. Indy's Champion son, Mineshaft, and is his leading money-winning daughter to-date.  Interestingly, though, she merits only a C+ rating from TrueNicks, based on the success of the cross between Mineshaft and Storm Cat and his sons, even though it also produced Grade I winner Dialed In (out of Miss Doolittle, by Storm Cat).

Six-year-old Santa Margarita-G1 winner Miss Match (Arg), a daughter of A. P. Indy's son, Indygo Shiner (out of Miss Simpatia, by Southern Halo), captured the Argentine Oaks-G1 in her native country, and most recently was a creditable fourth in Game On Dude's Goodwood Handicap at Santa Anita.  Indygo Shiner's dam, Navarra (by El Gran Senor) is a graded stakes-winning full sister to the great mare Toussaud, dam of Grade I winners Empire Maker, Chester House, and Honest Lady.

Six-year-old Ask the Moon (out of Always Asking, by Valid Appeal), a former claimer who ascended into greatness in the hands of trainer Marty Wolfson to capture this year's runnings of Saratoga's Grade I Ruffian and Personal Ensign, is by A. P. Indy's son, Malibu Moon, who has become best known for his exceptional fillies and mares.  His millionaire daughter, Life At Ten, achieved notoriety during last year's Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic when she failed to extend herself due to physical ailments that are still not fully understood.

Royal Delta works at Churchill Downs on October 30th
Photo:  Reed Palmer Photography/Churchill Downs

Two of the highly regarded Ladies' Classic contenders, the three-year-olds Royal Delta (by Empire Maker) and Plum Pretty (by Medaglia d'Oro), are out of A. P. Indy mares.  With earnings of $1,296,700, Kentucky Oaks winner Plum Pretty is A. P. Indy's current leading money winner in his role as a broodmare sire.

Alabama winner Royal Delta boasts an A++ TrueNicks rating, based on the fact that Empire Maker has sired two other graded stakes winners (Soaring Empire and Charity Belle) out of A. P. Indy mares, though Royal Delta herself is by far the most accomplished offspring of this cross.