Digging into the Data: Summer 2-Year-Old Racing

Into Mischief had multiple winners at both tracks.
Known as the traditional unveiling places of some of the best 2-year-olds in the nation, Del Mar and Saratoga’s 2-year-old races are closely watched every July and August as people try to find the next rising stars of the sport. But there’s more to the racing than just the names of the winners and the times they win in. Keep reading to find out 15 facts about this year’s 2-year-old races at the premiere summer tracks in North America.
  • Del Mar ran 73 2-year-old races with Saratoga running 80 2-year-old races.
  • At Del Mar, five 2-year-olds won two races each. They include Klimt (Quality Road), who won both the Best Pal Stakes and Del Mar Futurity and With Honors (War Front), who broke her maiden in late July at the track before winning the Del Mar Juvenile fillies Turf on closing day.
  • In Saratoga, four 2-year-olds won two races each. Coasted (Tizway) broke her maiden on turf on Aug. 7 then won the P.G. Johnson on Sept. 1. Practical Joke (Into Mischief) broke his maiden on Aug. 6 then won the Hopeful on Sept. 5 while Sweet Loretta (Tapit) won the Schuylerville on July 22 before dead-heating in the Spinaway on Sept. 3. New York-bred Syndergaard (Majesticperfection) took the New York-bred stakes route after breaking his maiden early in the meet, winning the Funny Cide on Aug. 26.
  • Fifteen sires had two or more 2-year-old victories at Del Mar. They were led by Into Mischief with four combined wins by three different horses. Minister’s Wild Cat and Pioneerof the Nile both had their runners win three 2-year-old races at the meet.
  • Eighteen sires had two or more 2-year-old victories at Saratoga. A.P. Indy’s son Bernardini and grandson Tapit led all sires with four victories each. Freshman sire Dialed In, New York sire Freud, Into Mischief, Majestic Warrior and the late Scat Daddy all had three wins each.
    Bernardini
  • Ten broodmare sires had at least two 2-year-old victories during the Del Mar meet. Of those former Lane’s End stallions A.P. Indy (3), Dixie Union (4) and Smart Strike (3) all had more than two victories with Dixie Union leading all of them with four.
  • Saratoga saw 16 broodmare sires represented in the winner’s circle twice or more after 2-year-old races. Unbridled’s Song led all broodmare sires with five while Carson City and Distorted Humor both had three victories each as broodmare sires.
  • Seven freshmen sires had 2-year-old winners at Del Mar with eight freshman sires having 2-year-old winners at Saratoga. Dialed In had three winners at Saratoga while Gemologist has three combined winners between the two tracks (one at Del Mar, two at Saratoga).
  • Forty-four Del Mar 2-year-old winners went through the ring at least once. Of those, five RNAed in that sale. Twenty of the winners went through at least two sales with six going through three sales. Sixteen of the winners were bought out of a 2-year-old sale this year while one went through but was a $275,000 RNA at Barrett’s May Sale (Speightown’s Big League).
  • Fifty-eight Saratoga 2-year-old winners went through the ring at least once with six RNAing in that sale. Of those 58, 24 went through the ring in at least two sales (six RNAed in the second sale) and three went through the ring a third time with one of them RNAing then. Twenty-two of the winners sold at 2-year-old breeze sales earlier this year, including Fact Finding (The Factor), who sold at Tattersall’s Breeze-Up Sale for $524,606 before coming back to the United States.
The Factor
  • The most expensive winner at Del Mar was the $500,000 Keeneland September grad Plum Dandy (Medaglia d’Oro) while the cheapest was Slew’s Tiznow’s Red Apple, who was bought for only $2,200. The average purchase price (at the last sale they were bought at) for a Del Mar winner at auction was $141,407.
  • The most expensive Saratoga winner was Spinster dead-heat winner Pretty City Dancer (Tapit), who sold for $825,000. The filly she deadheated with, Sweet Loretta, was a $750,000 yearling. The cheapest winner was Kissin Cassie (High Cotton), who sold at the OBS April Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training sale for $5,000. The average purchase price at the last sale the winners were bought at is $231,687.
  • Keeneland’s September Yearling sale leads all sales with the number of Del Mar and Saratoga 2-year-old winners with 29 between the two meets. They are followed by OBS’ April sale with 11 and OBS’ March sale with 10.
  • Twelve trainers had two or more 2-year-old wins at Del Mar, led by Bob Baffert with nine victories. Baffert was followed by Doug O’Neill with six wins and Keith Desormeaux with five.
    • Bob Baffert with American Pharoah
  • Fourteen Saratoga trainers won at least two Saratoga 2-year-old races during the meet. Todd Pletcher led all trainers with 15 2-year-old victories with Mark Casse tallying a second best eight wins and Chad Brown rounding out the top three with five.
  • Twenty-nine colts, 33 fillies and six geldings won 2-year-old races at Del Mar. Thirty-six colts, 35 fillies and two geldings won 2-year-old races at Saratoga.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bargain Sire: Tale of the Cat

Image
Tale of the Cat in 2014 A Grade 2 winner at seven furlongs and Grade 1 placed at nine furlongs, Tale of the Cat (Storm Cat) was more than useful as a racehorse. His successful racing career turned out to be a foreshadowing of his stud career when he joined the stallion ranks in 1999, retiring to Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky for $25,000.  By a top sire in Storm Cat and from a strong female family that includes champion Johannesburg (Hennessy) (out of Tale of the Cat’s half-sister) and Pulpit (A.P. Indy), Tale of the Cat has constantly ranked in the top 30 on the General Sires list since graduating from the crop-specific lists (where he was ranked in the top five on the first, second and third crop sires lists). While never a leading General Sire, Tale of the Cat is more often than not seen in the top 15 with his best ranking on that list being a seventh. The stallion has also done well enough with his 2-year-olds to lead the Two-Year-Old Sires list in 2003 and to rank second o
Read more

The Impact of El Prado

Image
When El Prado (Sadler’s Wells) was imported to the United States after being purchased from Coolmore by Frank Stronach in the early 1990s, very few breeders were willing to give El Prado a shot.  "No one wanted a son of Sadler’s Wells in America,” Dermot Carty, who bought the horse for Stronach, told Blood-Horse when the stallion died. “Everyone saw him as just a grass horse, but now he’s a broodmare sire, a sire of sires, and he’s made history. It was a gamble … to buy a son of Sadler’s Wells was a major move, but it paid off." But over 20 years later, El Prado has made a major impact on the breed in North America. El Prado started his breeding career at Airdrie Stud in Kentucky for Stronach, who didn’t have a stallion operation at the time. Within a few years, Stronach’s opened up Adena Springs stallion facility and El Prado became one of the cornerstones of the operation.   Video courtesy of Thoroughbred Horses in Kentucky "He put us on the map,&q
Read more

North America's Champion Second-Crop Sire: Munnings

Image
Munnings When Coolmore’s Demi O’Byrne paid $1.7-million for Munnings as an early 2-year-old, expectation were high for the chestnut son of Speightstown. After winning three graded stakes races and finishing on the board in six others, Munnings retired to Coolmore’s Ashford Stud for $12,500 (approx. €11,523/£8,792) in 2011. That crop produced 109 live foals with 53 of those making it to the track as 2-year-olds. Twenty-seven of those first 2-year-olds went to the winner’s circle with three stakes winners and one graded stakes winner in 2014, allowing Munnings to finish fourth by earnings behind Quality Road (Elusive Quality) on the Leading First-Crop Sires list.  Munnings also finished second behind fellow Ashford Stud Lookin at Lucky (Smart Strike) by winners and stakes winners (Super Saver (Maria’s Mon) tied with Lookin at Lucky at the top of the stakes winners list). But with 108 runners representing the stallion in 2015, the odds swung in his favor. Munnings had 32
Read more