Freshman sires sweep trifecta

Four of the five entries in the $98,000 Rockville Centre Stakes last Saturday at Belmont Park hailed from the first crops of their sires, and three filled out the trifecta.

The six-furlong race for New York-bred juveniles was led at every point of call by What a Catch, a colt from the first crop of Grade 1 winner Justin Phillip, making him the first stakes winner for the sire.

Justin Phillip, a 9-year-old son of First Samurai, stands at Castleton Lyons in Lexington, Ky., for an advertised fee of $5,000 and has 71 foals in his first crop. He sits fourth in earnings on North America’s freshman sire list with $179,234, having gotten three winners from 13 starters.

What a Catch is the second black-type earner for Justin Phillip, following Upset Brewing, who finished second in the Debutante Stakes last month at Churchill Downs.

Justin Phillip’s most notable wins came in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap, Grade 2 Woody Stephens Stakes, and Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap.

Finishing second by a length Saturday was Morning Breez, a son of Lane’s End resident Morning Line.

Grade 1 winner Morning Line is a 10-year-old Tiznow horse who retired to the Versailles, Ky., farm and stood the most recent season for $10,000. He ranks fifth on the freshman sire earnings list, with two winners from seven runners netting a combined $170,400.

Leading the way among Morning Line’s runners is Surrender Now, a filly whose two wins from as many starts include the Landaluce Stakes at Santa Anita on July 2.

Morning Line won the Grade 1 Carter Handicap, Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby, and Grade 2 Mervyn LeRoy Handicap. He also finished second in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.

Rounding out the top three Saturday was Analyze the Odds, a colt by leading first-crop sire Overanalyze. The sire was also represented by fifth-place Over Salty.

Analyze the Odds is the first black-type earner for the 7-year-old son of Dixie Union, who resides at WinStar Farm in Versailles for an advertised fee of $10,000.

Grade 1 winner Overanalyze leads his contemporaries by starters (18), winners (eight), and progeny earnings ($301,798). He holds a solid lead in the earnings category over second-place Violence ($185,432) and thirdplace Jimmy Creed ($182,519).

Martini Glass completes sire’s story

Songbird’s challengers last Saturday in the Grade 1 Delaware Handicap were unremarkable in ontrack accomplishment, but the runner-up effort by Martini Glass did produce a long-awaited payoff to a globetrotting story.

Martini Glass is a 4-year-old filly from the last crop of Kitalpha, a full brother to French classic winner and top sire Kingmambo whose journey took him from the U.S. to Europe, Africa, and back to his native country. Kitalpha had sired high-level runners in Zimbabwe and South Africa, but the Delaware Handicap was his first Grade 1 black type earned in the U.S.

Kitalpha, a son of Mr. Prospector, was a Kentucky-bred product of the Niarchos family’s Flaxman Holdings Ltd., out of global champion Miesque, who became a pivot-point broodmare for the internationally renowned program over the past three decades.

He was exported to France as a yearling, but knee surgery kept him from racing. The horse sold at auction as a 4-year-old to an African syndicate and stood at Rumbavu Park Stud in Zimbabwe, where be became a force at stud. He was the country’s leading sire in 2008 and 2009, his progeny led by twotime Zimbabwean Horse of the Year Rebecca’s Fleet. He also sired a handful of group stakescaliber horses in South Africa.

Back in the U.S., Gerry and Dana Aschinger of Lexington, Ky.-based War Horse Place grew tired of buying shares in stallions and made it known in 2007 that they were in the market to buy a stallion of their own.

At the same time, Zimbabwe’s government began seizing control of the country’s horse farms, and the Aschingers were contacted on short notice, with Kitalpha’s local connections fearing what might happen to the horse if he stayed any longer.

The Aschingers bought Kitalpha off a handful of pictures, essentially sight unseen, and the horse was moved in the middle of the night to safer confines in South Africa, then to the island of Mauritius to quarantine for export. He made stops in the Netherlands and France on his journey west, with another layover in New York before arriving at War Horse Place about 120 days after his journey began.

Kitalpha debuted in the U.S. in 2008 and stood just five seasons at War Horse Place before he died in his paddock of cancer in 2012. He was 13.

Sidney’s Candy to stand in Turkey

Grade 1 winner Sidney’s Candy has been sold to stand in Turkey, less than a year after being announced as a full-time resident of Argentina.

The 10-year-old son of Candy Ride will in the coming weeks leave Haras La Pasion, where he had been a regular shuttle stallion from his Northern Hemisphere base at WinStar Farm in Versailles, Ky. Ricardo Benedicto, owner of Haras La Pasion, purchased a significant interest in Sidney’s Candy in 2011, and plans for the horse to remain in the Southern Hemisphere were announced last October.

Sidney’s Candy has sired three crops of racing age, with 102 winners and progeny earnings in excess of $4.4 million.