Stately Victor- 2010 Derby Contender
Stately Victor
Pedigree: Ghostzapper - Collect The Cash (Dynaformer)
Owner: F. Thomas Conway and Jack Conway
Trainer: Mike Maker
Side: Silks
Back: Ghostzapper - Collect The Cash
$20.95 SALE 12.95
Stately Victor: a Blue Grass Surprise
It is admittedly some ways
removed from its original context, but the biblical assertion that “to whom much is given, much will be required” certainly
applies to exceptional racehorses and their stud careers. High profile
performers are under the spotlight from the start, and woe betide those
bestowed with great gifts who do not quickly match market requirements
and expectations.
Few runners in recent years have been as gifted as Ghostzapper . Although
he was raced sparingly – 11 starts in four seasons – and
managed carefully, the form book and speed figures suggest that Ghostzapper
is worthy of a place alongside the all-time greats. Indeed, a record
that includes wins in the 6½-furlong Vosburgh Stakes (gr. I);
the seven-furlong Tom Fool Handicap (gr. II), which he captured in 1:20.42;
the one mile Metropolitan Handicap (gr. I), which he took by 6¼ lengths;
the nine-furlong Woodward Stakes (gr. I); and the 10-furlong Breeders’ Cup
Classic (gr. I), which he took by three lengths in a new track record,
demonstrates a versatility that harkens back to an earlier era.
As we said, such brilliance carries with it both the weight of great
expectations and the prospect of swift condemnation, and Ghostzapper
has been as good an illustration as one might wish to find. He retired
to stud at a fee $200,000 – at a time when his sire, the very
successful Awesome Again , stood at $125,000 – which made it hard
for him to build momentum, and there never was quite the buzz about
his young stock one might have expected. So, when he ended 2009 in 21st
place on the first-crop sires list with just eight winners and one minor
stakes winner, the verdict of the market was swiftly delivered. Some
promising winter maiden special weight winners could have helped the
cause, but, by-and-large, they failed to materialize, and after initially
being offered at $50,000 for the current breeding season, Ghostzapper’s
fee was dropped to $30,000.
In the current climate, one can understand breeders’ being unwilling
to take a risk on an unproven commodity, but looking at the race records
of Ghostzapper and his sire Awesome Again, it was always on the cards
that it was going to prove a little early to give up on the champion.
Awesome Again was unraced at 2 and although he captured the Queen’s
Plate in June of his 3-year-old campaign, he didn’t land his first
graded win until taking the Jim Dandy Stakes (gr. II) at Saratoga, and
his first grade I wasn’t achieved until he took the Whitney Handicap
(gr. I) at 4. Ghostzapper did break his maiden in the first of two starts
at 2, but again didn’t really come to the the fore until Saratoga,
at 3, where he took a seven-furlong allowance race and was third, flying
at the finish, in the King’s Bishop Stakes (gr. I). He captured
the Vosburgh Stakes (gr. I) later that year but he was definitely better
the following season when he went four-for-four. An interesting note
is that Ghostzapper’s dam, Baby Zip, also produced four-time juvenile
graded winner (and now a successful sire in his own right) City Zip,
but he was by speed and precocity influence Carson City – perhaps
indicating that Baby Zip tended to throw to the stallion to which she
was bred.
While the possibility of Ghostzapper coming up with a major winner as
his first crop matured was not one that could be dismissed, few thought
that the 2010 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I) would provide the occasion.
His representative there, Stately Victor, did win a juvenile maiden
at Saratoga, but he was a last-minute entry to the Keeneland stakes
and was coming off five consecutive unplaced efforts. Sent off as a
40-1 longshot – a price that appeared none too generous under
the circumstances – Stately Victor powered clear in the stretch
for a 4¼-lengths tally. Though he is the longest-priced winner
in the history of the Blue Grass, Stately Victor’s connections
might take comfort from the fact that the previous owner of this dubious
distinction, Dust Commander, followed up his Blue Grass win with a victory
in the 1970 Kentucky Derby.
Despite his starting price, Stately Victor – a $110,000 Keeneland
September yearling RNA and $250,000 purchase at the Adena Springs March
2-year-olds in training sale – did make a promising start to his
career. He impressed some knowledgeable observers in his first two starts
at Saratoga at 2, finishing second to the highly-regarded Winslow Homer
on his debut, then switching to the turf to take an 8½-furlong
maiden by 4½ lengths.
Stately Victor is out of the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes
(gr. IT) victress Collect the Cash. She is a daughter of the Roberto
stallion Dynaformer, a horse who is emerging as a promising broodmare
sire, especially considering that his early daughters were conceived
at a modest stud fee. Collect the Cash has produced four winners from
her first five starters, including the stakes-placed Red Bullet filly
Money My Honey. Collect the Cash’s dam, the Valid Appeal daughter
Worldly Possession, won the West Long Branch Stakes and was graded-placed,
and is half sister to three other stakes winners. Stately Victor’s
third dam is Cricket Club, a stakes-winning daughter of Dr. Fager – whose
range and talents are something of a parallel to Ghostzapper’s – out
of the Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes heroine Clover Lane.
Stately Victor is the product
of the Deputy Minister/Roberto cross, not a pairing that subjectively
impresses as being particularly outstanding,
so it came as something of a surprise to find that Stately Victor is TrueNicks-rated
A++. This discrepancy between perception and reality is explained by some
notably success of the nick. The first is the cross of Deputy Minister-line
stallions specifically with Dynaformer mares, which has produced seven
stakes winners from 43 starters (16% stakes winners to starters). In addition
to Stately Victor, they include previous grade I winner Spring At Last.
He is a son of Silver Deputy, a Deputy Minister horse who sired seven
stakes winners out of mares by sons of Roberto. Overall, the cross of
sons of Deputy Minister – Ghostzapper is a grandson of course – with
mares by sons of Roberto produced 21 stakes winners, but 11 of those feature
Silver Deputy and/or Dynaformer, and 13 Silver Deputy and/or Silver Hawk.
It might be relevant that Silver Deputy is out of a mare by Mr. Prospector
(who also appears in the pedigree of Aweseome Again, and whose dam is
a genetic relative to the dam of Roberto) and that his second dam is by
Road At Sea (reverse cross to Roberto).
The mating of Ghostzapper and Collect the Cash introduces a couple of
points to consider. One is that his dam is by Relaunch, who has enjoyed
some success under Roberto, most notably grade I winner Starrer, a daughter
of Dynaformer. Another point to note is that Stately Victor is inbred
4 x 4 to Relaunch’s sire, In Reality, himself a very inbred horse,
and that Dr. Fager, the sire of the third dam, is by In Reality’s
broodmare sire, Rough’n Tumble. One challenge that Ghostzapper
faces as a stallion is that he is an outcrossed son of a relatively
outcrossed sire, which can mean that important genes are widely dissipated
through the genome. Is it significant that his first grade I winner
is inbred to the most inbred horse in his pedigree? In closing, we’d
be remiss if we did not also note that Stately Victor’s fourth
dam, Clover Lane, is a half sister to the granddam of Deputy Minister
(grandsire of Ghostzapper). The background of this female line is another
with intense inbreeding, including via Pilate, a genetic relative to
War Relic (an intensely-inbred individual, who is 3x3 in the pedigree
of In Reality, himself the most closely duplicated relative in the pedigree
of Stately Victor).
