Uncaptured tops freshman sire list with four winners

Canadian champion Uncaptured got his own racing career off to a swift start, with a stellar season as a juvenile. Now a young stallion at Ocala Stud, he is rapidly earning a reputation for passing that precociousness on to his progeny.

Uncaptured, by Lion Heart, has recorded four individual winners through June 24, the most of any freshman sire thus far. Fellow Florida stallion Cajun Breeze and two-time Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Goldencents have each recorded three winners, and Uncaptured narrowly trails Cajun Breeze, $181,120 to $174,850, on the current freshman earnings list.

Uncaptured’s four winners, Bye Bye J, Capture Your Dream, Catherinethegreat, and Harry’s Ontheloose, have all come at Gulfstream Park. Catherinethegreat earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 80 for her 10 1/4-length victory last Saturday in her second career start, the third-highest number this season for a 2-year-old. Tales of Chaucer, by second-crop sire Forty Tales, leads that list with an 84, while Tijori, by champion and freshman sire Will Take Charge, posted an 82 on debut.

Uncaptured was Canada’s Horse of the Year at 2, when he won 6 of 7 starts during the 2012 season. A three-time stakes winner at Woodbine, he shipped to Kentucky that fall to take the Grade 3 Iroquois and the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs. He went on to become a Canadian classic winner, taking the 2013 Prince of Wales Stakes, the middle leg of the Triple Crown, and was graded stakes placed at ages 3 and 4. Overall, he won 7 of 18 starts and attained millionaire status.

Vyjack retired at age 8

Multiple graded stakeswinning millionaire Vyjack has been retired from racing and has returned to breeders Craig and Carrie Brogden at Machmer Hall in Paris, Ky. – at least, for now. Carrie Brogden says the gelding could be re-homed for a second career following some time off.

Vyjack, by Into Mischief, is out of the Stravinsky mare Life Happened, making him a halfbrother to champion Tepin. He was offered by the Brogdens, via Select Sales, at the 2011 FasigTipton Kentucky July yearling sale and sold for $45,000 to Pike Racing. The latter outfit then pinhooked him for $100,000 at the following spring’s FasigTipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale to David Wilkenfeld’s Pick Six Racing.

Racing for Wilkenfeld, Vyjack put together a career mark of 8-7-3 from 31 starts with earnings of $1,427,600. After winning the Grade 2 Jerome Stakes, Grade 2 Kelso Stakes, and Grade 3 Gotham Stakes, all on dirt in New York, Vyjack spent the latter part of his career on the opposite coast and showed his versatility with a victory in the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile, establishing a course record of 1:31.69 on the Santa Anita turf. He also was multiple Grade 1-placed and was a familiar face on the 2013 Triple Crown trail, finishing 18th in the Kentucky Derby and eighth in the Belmont Stakes.

Vyjack last raced when second by a head in the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile in August. Craig Brogden credited Wilkenfeld for sending the 8-year-old gelding to Kentucky in “great shape” and shared photos on his Twitter account of Vyjack enjoying time in the paddock with another Machmer Hall-bred graded stakes winner, Vinceremos. The latter returned to his birthplace earlier this year after a career in which he won the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes and finished 14th in the 2014 Kentucky Derby.

‘Bobby’ building reputation

Juvenile champion Shanghai Bobby, who stands for the international Coolmore operation, is already developing a reputation as an international sire for that outfit.

Shanghai Bobby, who is based at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky, was represented by a second-crop winner at the renowned Royal Ascot meeting last week in England, as his daughter Shang Shang Shang defeated males in the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes.

Shanghai Bobby also shuttles to Brazil, where, from his first Southern Hemisphere crop, he is represented by Group 1 winners Habile Bobby and Inforcer, as well as recent Group 2 winner Aero Trem.

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Shanghai Bobby, by Harlan’s Holiday, also is the sire of stakes winners Gotta Go, March X Press, Mr. Pete, and Seducao de Birigui. He is prominently represented in the pair of juvenile stakes on the upcoming closing-night card at Churchill Downs, with Shanghaied Roo in the Grade 3 Bashford Manor and Shanghai Rain in the Debutante.