Harlan’s Holiday sire line producing speed, precocity

The late Harlan’s Holiday sired a pair of standout juveniles in Eclipse Award divisional champion Shanghai Bobby and Grade 1 winner Into Mischief. Both continued on to produce precocity and speed, carrying on their sire’s line. Both had a solid weekend, as Shanghai Bobby’s son Shancelot dazzled winning the Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga, while leading sire Into Mischief was represented by promising juvenile debut winners on both coasts.

Shancelot stayed unbeaten in three career starts with his 12 1/2-length victory in the Amsterdam, leading at every point of call in his graded stakes debut. He earned a staggering 121 Beyer Speed Figure while running the 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:14.01 – just 0.27 of a second off the track record of 1:13.74 established by Quality Road in the Amsterdam a decade ago. Shancelot hit the six-furlong point of the race in 1:07.63. One day prior, the older Imperial Hint ran the six furlongs in a track-record 1:07.92 in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Stakes.

Shanghai Bobby, the Eclipse champion 2-year-old male of 2012, was sold to stand at Arrow Stud in Japan beginning this season, continuing a stud career in which he has passed on his precocity internationally. His top runners include Uruguayan champion juvenile Aero Trem; Brazilian champion juvenile Inforcer; Shang Shang Shang, winner of the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot; and Chilean Group 1-winning juvenile Coconut Bobby.

Meanwhile, Into Mischief is again atop the juvenile sire earnings list – which he led last season – after Shoplifted and Immediate Impact won their debuts at Saratoga and Del Mar, respectively. Shoplifted, who was an $800,000 purchase at the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale of 2-year-olds in training, rallied to win by 4 1/2 lengths Saturday at Saratoga with a Beyer of 75. A day later, Immediate Impact, a half-sister to champion and North America’s all-time leading money winner Arrogate, rolled by 6 3/4 lengths, posting a 76 Beyer.

Into Mischief stands at Spendthrift Farm, where he was joined by his son Goldencents. Goldencents was among the leading freshman sires of 2018, continuing this sire line’s traits on to another generation.

Enable gives Nathaniel a boost

When it comes to sons of international titan Galileo at stud, much of the discussion naturally turns to Frankel. The unbeaten two-time European Horse of the Year is off to a stellar start in his stallion career, with 45 stakes winners to date from his first four crops.

Yet one of Frankel’s old rivals and another son of Galileo, Nathaniel, has given European racing one of its most dazzling stars since Frankel in his daughter Enable, who added another major victory Saturday in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, a race her sire won in 2011.

Nathaniel finished second to Frankel by a half-length as both made their career debuts in August 2010 at Newmarket. The following year, he led home Workforce and St Nicholas Abbey in the King George. In 2012, Nathaniel won the Group 1 Coral-Eclipse Stakes, finished second by a nose to Danedream in the King George, was second in the Group 1 Irish Champion, and was third behind Frankel and Cirrus des Aigles in the Group 1 Champion Stakes. That was the career finale for both Frankel, who retired to Juddmonte’s Banstead Manor Stud, and Nathaniel, who took up residence at Newsells Park Stud.

Nathaniel was the leading sire in France in both 2017 and 2018, powered by Enable’s wins in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe both years. The mare is the only horse to win both the Arc and the Breeders’ Cup Turf in the same year, winning the latter in 2018 at Churchill Downs.

Enable won Saturday’s King George after winning the same race in 2017. Her other Group 1 victories are the 2017 Epsom Oaks, Irish Oaks, and Yorkshire Oaks, and this year’s Coral-Eclipse. She has won 12 of 13 career starts, earning more than $12.1 million.

Nathaniel’s 18 other stakes winners include Channel, winner of this year’s Group 1 Prix de Diane, and Italian Group 1 winner God Given.

Magical World has perfect pair

It would be enough for a broodmare to have one undefeated stakes winner in training, but Magical World has two. The mare’s juvenile daughter Magic Dance could start in the Grade 2 Adirondack this Sunday at Saratoga, attempting to join older half-sister Guarana as a graded winner at the meeting. Both race as homebreds for Three Chimneys Farm.

Guarana, by Ghostzapper, has emerged as the nation’s leading 3-year-old filly by winning all three of her starts, including a pair of Grade 1 events. After defeating Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress in the Acorn Stakes, Guarana won the Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga. Meanwhile, Magic Dance, by More Than Ready, won her first two starts, including the Debutante Stakes at Churchill Downs.

The winning Magical World, by leading broodmare sire Distorted Humor, is out of Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Pleasant Home, from a deep family that includes champion Sky Beauty and, more recently, Grade 1 winners Pine Island and Point of Entry. Magical World, who was privately acquired from the Phipps stable by Three Chimneys, is in foal to Horse of the Year Gun Runner.

Roaring Lion has colic surgery

Roaring Lion, the Kentuckybred who was the 2018 European Horse of the Year, underwent emergency colic surgery Saturday in New Zealand and will miss the Southern Hemisphere breeding season.

In a press release posted the day after the surgery, Cambridge Stud, which was expected to stand the shuttle stallion, reported that Roaring Lion had made a “favorable recovery in the first 24 hours post-surgery.”

Roaring Lion, a son of leading sire Kitten’s Joy out of the Street Sense mare Vionnet, was bred in Kentucky by RanJan Racing. Running for Qatar Racing, he captured four consecutive Group 1 events in the second half of last year to lock up championship honors, despite finishing last in the Breeders’ Cup Classic in his career finale.

Roaring Lion retired to Tweenhills Stud in England, and completed his first season successfully before traveling to New Zealand for the Southern Hemisphere season. He had just been released from mandatory post-travel quarantine on Saturday morning and, according to Cambridge, had been turned out in a paddock for a short time when colic symptoms were observed. The stallion was immediately sent to Cambridge Equine Hospital and underwent surgery.