BREEDING FORUM

Posted: **Tue Jun 05, 2012 15:13 pm**

Here is John Osborne's current thoughts on Classic performances The Flat season is fantastic. While the Ballydoyle story has been told, a few things strike, most particularly that the four Classic wins include two long shot winners. The presence of another superstar on the racing stage can only be beneficial, but can we overlook the rated 72 –to-Classic winning rise of Homecoming Queen or the sales-topping Was adding even more glitter to the Lodge Park Stud legend. Seamus Burns is a great salesman but his admiration for this filly was obviously greater than the usual TITBIT (This Is The Best, I’m Tellingye). For all the great horses sold by Lodge Park over the years, it is the fillies they have retained which have built the empire and therein lies a lesson for us all.

Neither long shot Classic winner could be considered a rags-to-riches tale considering the outstanding pedigrees. One remarkable thing about Lagrion is that her chronic underperformance as a race mare (0 for 14 and a rating of 70) belied her ability to produce Queen’s Logic, Dylan Thomas and Homecoming Queen. A quick scan of the pedigrees of the Classic contenders this year again shows that to produce a horse rated over 100 it is best to start from a mare rated over 100. It is not linear and exceptions abound. But it does tilt the advantage quite a bit.

Would two Derby winners make a stallion hot? With a name like Chichicastenango maybe not but he looks to have been a capable sire at a fee of €3,500 before his export to Japan and untimely death. The reassuring thing is that topflight success is still available to everybody and even Big Bad Bob might someday prove the statistics were right all along. He had a long shot debutant winner on Friday to continue the rise. Named “Brendan Brackan” after the man from Republican Tipperary stock who became wartime “Minister for Information” and Churchill’s closest confidante. His life story is worth a look. Let’s hope his (almost) namesake can rise to similar prominence.