Nashoba's Key and My Girls!

Here is a photo of Nashoba's Key ridden to victory by Garrett Gomez, March 9, 2008, in the Santa Margarita Handicap. It's an AP Photo by Benoit. In the other photo, she is resting in her stall at Del Mar. This mare was born on March 26, 2003, the same month as Violet, but she didn't begin her racing career until she was four years old because her owner and trainer thought she needed the time to grow into her big old self. They knew she would be special.

So, when she first raced in January 2007, she proved their wisdom. She won 7 of her first 7 starts. She won really important California graded stakes under a 17 year old jockey, Joseph Talamo. After terrific wins, she came in 4th in the Breeders Cup when she got trapped on the rail in 6-inch deep wet turf and then in January 2008, she came in second to Quite a Bride in the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf. Since then, she was returned to Garrett Gomez to ride and that's when she just polished off the competition in the Santa Margarita Handicap earlier in March. She now has a record of 10: 8-1-0. Last year, she lost the Female Turf Eclipse Award to Lahudood, but she pulled a hat trick, by winning the California-Bred Champion Turf Horse, Older Female, and Horse of the Year! She's great on synthetic and turf tracks!

They've decided to give her a small vacation to give her a rest for her second chance at the Breeders Cup. Her trainer, Carla Gaines, says, "She hasn't had a day off the track since her first start on January 13, 2007. Any horse that's doing well, it's tempting to keep going and going, but I want to have a horse that has had some time off and is ready to strike at the Breeders' Cup. The NTRA notes of her that she has "determination to match talent."

And that determination must be a part of her larger personality. In an interview with Larry Stumes for the San Francisco Chronicle, Carla Gaines noted, "She's not really crazy about us. She could do without humans except at feed time. She's just a viper. She's reached out and grabbed a few people and tried to remove one of their appendages. I think a lot of really good filies have the same attitude. She's got a ton of class, loves what she does, and is very, very competitive."

Her parents are Silver Hawk out of Nashoba by Caerleon. Her dad is turning out to be a tremendous sire of turf ladies! And her mom only raced 5 times, but won 4 -- so mother and daughter are true champions at ending up out front! In her pedigree, she has Nijinsky, Nashua, Round Table, and Northern Dancer. My girls are most immediately related to her through Hail To Reason, so they share many relatives, including Nasrullah, Princequillo, and Nearctic.

You can read more about this resting, but getting ready girl at the following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashoba's_Key

El Gato Malo

Here is the handsome boy, El Gato Malo, son of El Corredor and One Bad Cat by Mountain Cat. He is registered for the Kentucky Derby and has a race before that one! He has many famous relatives, including Secretariat, Reviewer, Mr. Prospector, and Nashua. He was born on February 6, 2005 and has a record of 4: 3-1-0. The "buzz" is that he'll have to "outrun his pedigree" if he wants to win the Derby because his super-fast, lightning hot sire won lots, but not at the Derby distance! But good luck you macho little gelding boy!

Shuvee and My Girls!

These photos are from Braulio Baeza's webpage. He was very lucky to have ridden some of the best horses in history, including Shuvee, a 1966 filly who rocked out in racing! Her parents were Nashua and Levee by Hill Prince. Much of what I'll write about her here is from the Blood Horse's Top 100 Thoroughbreds of the 20th Century series. She earned #70 for her impressive deeds.

Here are the first words written about her in this history book, "She looked like a stallion, ate like a stallion, and trained like a stallion. Best of all, Shuvee could race like a stallion too." Nice, real nice. I bet she'd be annoyed because she probably thought of herself as a sweet ol' big girl! She grew to 16.1 hands and was a monster-sized girl!

Anyway, she won amazing races by huge margins. She liked to swing from behind and then just leap into the lead. She won the Filly Triple Tiara -- the Triple Crown for girls in 1969, and then was voted Champion Older Mare in 1970 and 1971. Ron Turcotte rode her to a second straight victory in the Jockey Club Gold Cup -- no other filly or mare has won that race ever, let alone twice! Her big competitors at the time were Gallant Bloom and Process Shot.

Her trainer, W.C. "Mike" Freeman, said of her, "Boy, she was tough. You couldn't make her back off the feed tub or anything. She'd eat anything you put in front of her. And she needed more training than any filly I saw!" Her owner dad said, "She never took a bad step in her life and never had any physical problems at all through her racing career. Real extraordinary mare -- for a big filly, particularly. Never bucked her shins. Just a real freak!" This strange praise was indeed remarkable because she had a long 4-year racing career (1968-1971) and was a big horse, so it would have been easy for her to hurt those long legs! Her final record was 44: 16(15), 10(6), 6(4)! She was such a talented girl that she could run great at any distance -- 8 furlongs to 2 miles!

When she retired, she died fairly young in 1986 due to complications in foaling. She died a champion! She was inducted into the National Racing Hall of Fame in 1975, the Aiken Training Center Hall of Fame upon its opening in 1977, earned 2 Eclipse Awards for Champion Older Mare in 1970 and 1971, and the Filly Triple Crown! No wonder she's #70 of the top 100 racehorses of the 20th century!

My girls are related to Shuvee most immediately through Nasrullah, Princequillo, Ultimus, and Sir Gallahad!

You can read more about this champion mare at the following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuvee
or
http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=136
or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuvee_Handicap

Kentucky 2007: Nasrullah's Grave

Here is the grave of a very important stud to thoroughbreds and to my sweet Violet. Nasrullah was born in 1940 and passed at Claiborne Farms in 1959. His race record was 10 : 5-1-1 and he sired 105 stakeswinners out of 425 foals for a total percentage of 25%! He was a leading sire in England in 1951 and then a led the sire list in the United States 5 times (1955, 1956, 1959, 1960, and 1962).

But he was a nasty old goofball as a race horse, and people still speculate about whether that was because of his wicked temper or his strange British training . Phil Bull, a famed handicapper who wrote about Nasrullah in the Best Horses of 1943 said, "Last year, I regarded Nasrullah as head and shoulders above the other colts of his age. I gave him a long and rather enthusiastic write up, and I fear that, in spite of his having failed in each of his classic ventures, in spite of his bad temper, his mulish antics, in spite of his exasperating unwillingness to do the job, etc., etc., I fear that I am going to give him another write up. I know he doesn't deserve it, but I can't help it." And then he praised him some more, though he said that if Nasrullah's daddy, Nearco, found out how bad his kid was, it would really impact his fertility!

His habit was to fight with his jockey in the saddling area, fight afterwards, run swiftly, but then pull up and fling his head when he would pull into the lead. Some thought that it was because he had been trained by the British method of letting him follow a lead horse for his workouts, so he would be relaxed and feel like he was in a herd -- So, he didn't like to be out front! Anyway, he was a total nasty pistol about fighting his jockeys and quitting a race once he took the lead, as you can see in his final record.

There's a funny story about an exchange between a gentleman and Nasrullah's trainer, Frank Butters, at the Newmarket Heath. It was during World War II, and Nasrullah's jockey had joined the Army. The gentleman said to Butters, "Have you heard that Charley Smirke has been decorated with the Victoria Cross." "Really?" said the dignified Butters. "What was he decorated for?" "Charley stopped a German tank." "I am not surprised," observed Butters. "When he was riding for me, he could stop anything!"

Nasrullah was a big old tank of a horse, 16 1 1/2 hands and strong and sound. He came from the "best sire line in England and the fastest female line." And he produced some amazing babies over his lifetime, including Bold Ruler, Noor, Nashua, Jaipur, Red God, and On-and-On. I am sure you recognize some of those names from Violet's family tree!

Anyway, A. B. Hancock purchased him for his syndicate and brought him to Claiborne in 1951. Some of the best horses ever were by crossings of Nasrullah's sons and Princequillo's daughters! But that crossing ended up with a sort of nasty limerick about Nasrullah: "Match Nasrullah through a son, and Nasrullah though a daughter, To make it really blister, match Nasrullah through his sister."

Ummm, now that I think on it, Violet has both Nasrullah and Nasrullah's half-sister, Sun Princess who produced Royal Charger, a very successful sire by Nearco and also a member of Violet's family tree! So...I guess Violet is part of the history of this dirty little limerick!! Yay!

So, you can bet that on that August morning, I was proud to be standing before this gravestone!
I used the following sources for this blog entry: Abram S. Hewitt's (2006) Sire Lines and Horse Racing's Top 100 Moments (2006), both by Eclipse Press in Lexington.