We took a look at some freshman sires here recently and after some reflection we cannot leave out the sophomores. There were some pretty good sire prospects to hit the sire scene last year. With a year under their belts who has lived up to the hype and who are the biggest surprises. This week I will take a look at Bestyoucanbe, and Buddha.
Bestyoucanbe – is by Danzig. His dam sire is Blushing Groom (FR) and his dam’s dam sire is Nijinsky II giving him a 2X4 inbreeding to Northern Dancer. He was not much on the track with one win and one show from nine career starts. He only earned $26,410. In real life he is standing stud in Venezuela. He appears to have a good mix of speed, stamina and solid bloodlines.
A quick look at the pedigree and Mr. Prospector line sires pop into mind. It would seem a popular fit to use Mr. Prospector line sires as dam sires. Seattle Slew or his sons would also seem to fit well with the pedigree. Other lines that have worked well with Northern Dancer sires are Damascus, Turn-To, or Ribot sire lines. For a less expensive dam sire choice Minnesota Mac has produced very well when used with Northern Dancer line sires.
He is easily the most surprising sophomore sire. He has the #6 ranked three-year-old colt #73213 Pulling Strings and the #21 ranked three-year-old filly #85160 You Can Be Crafty. With his first group of three year olds he will have a Blue Grass Derby starter and maybe a Blue Grass Oaks starter. He also has three other stakes winners besides the two mentioned. Pulling String’s Dam sire is Gone West and his dam’s dam is Storm Cat. You Can Be Crafty’s dam sire is Crafty Prospector and her dam’s dam is Summer Squall. In both cases a Mr. Prospector sire was used as dam sire and a Northern Dancer line sire was used as dam’s dam.
His other stakes winner’s dam sires were Ide, Coronado’s Quest and Danzatore. Ide and Coronado’s Quest are from the Mr. Prospector sire line and Danzatore is from the Northern Dancer line (a little too inbred for me). His fastest turf runner so far used Barkerville (Mr. Prospector) as a dam sire. His pedigree is pretty turfy but he has produced better dirt runners.
He has 18 two year olds so far this year. Four have already run 70+ speed figures with another four running 60+. He does not look as though he will slow down. He is a moderately priced sire. At weeks end he has been dropping below 120 points.
Buddha – is by Unbridled’s Song. His dam sire is Storm Cat and his dam’s dam is The Axe. He was pretty dazzling is his four career starts. He won three of them including a very good victory in the Wood Memorial over Medaglia D’Oro. Injury sidelined him just before the Derby and ultimately forced his retirement in October that year.
His pedigree has the famous Mr. Prospector X Northern Dancer cross, which could make it a little difficult to find a good match. Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer will appear in the fifth generation of Buddha’s off spring. That means a son or Mr. Prospector or Northern Dancer would create a 3X5 inbreeding and a grandson would produce a 4X5 inbreeding. So it could be very easy to create a weird or overly inbred offspring, which may work sometimes but I prefer to stay away from. Having said all that the usual suspects would seem to make good fits as dam sires. Seattle Slew, Ribot, In Reality, Nasrullah and Turn-To.
Buddha has produced only two stakes winners. In both cases Northern Dancer line dam sires were used Belong To Me and Danehill. His fastest runner to date is a three-year-old filly that posted a 102-speed figure going 9.5 furlongs. Her dam sire is Dixieland Band. Other than her his fastest runners have been sprinting. Buddha has enough stamina present to produce better route horses so simmers may not be placing his offspring correctly.
Notice horse #58593 Budfly’s Indy. A.P. Indy is the dam sire and this horse has never raced in a route? He is a front runner type in sprints but the dam won all her races in routes, A.P. Indy’s offspring prefer routes and Buddha himself has a good deal of stamina. This horse may be the exception and prefer sprinting but to never try him in a route? Also Seattle Slew was not used once as a dam sire that’s amazing. Over all he has been very disappointing so far as a sim stud.
He has nineteen two year olds this year. Four have run a 70+ another eight have run a 58+ speed figure. That is pretty good from nineteen runners. Looks like the two year olds are better bred than his three year olds so maybe he will have a good sophomore class. He stands at Hill N Dale farms and their website has hypo mating available. Despite his lack of success his is still an expensive sim sire.
