With his third crop about to start their racetrack careers, John Gilmore assesses the impact U.S. Triple Crown winner American Pharoah has made so far in the stallion ranks.
When Van Gogh powered to an impressive four-length victory in the G1 Criterium International over a mile at Saint-Cloud last October, you couldn’t help but be impressed. Here was one of America’s great recent dirt runners coming up trumps as a sire with a win in completely the wrong conditions - winning a G1 on heavy ground on turf in a race aimed at unearthing potential European classic stars.
The performance, Van Gogh’s second victory from seven starts, led to the horse being named the Cartier European 2-year-old of 2020. The Classics definitely beckoned.
And sure enough, Van Gogh, who is out of 2001 Epsom Oaks and Irish 1000 Guineas winner Imagine, a daughter of Sadler’s Wells, was in the line-up for the Europe’s first Classic of 2021, the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket on Saturday.
The conditions were somewhat different from the Saint-Cloud test - the ground was super quick - and Van Gogh could finish closer than eighth of 14, seven lengths behind winner Poetic Flare, but ahead of his two better-backed stablemates.
Aidan O’Brien said, “Some of them didn’t give their running. Frankie [Dettori] just said Battleground hit a ridge and that he lost his balance after that. Ryan [Moore] said his horse (Wembley) ran a grand race and that a mile was as far as you would probably ever want to go and he wouldn’t mind coming back in trip.
“Seamus [Heffernan] said his horse [Van Gogh] ran a good race. He said he was going to be fifth but he just got ran out of it. But it was a good run.”
Judged on his Saint-Cloud run, Van Gogh looks a stayer in the making, so expect him to be part of O’Brien’s plans for either the Epsom Derby or the Prix du Jockey Club next month.
If Van Gogh could capture one of the Classics, it would certainly put the icing on the cake for Coolmore, who paid $23.5 million for American Pharoah stallion rights in 2015 before the horse went to Ashford Stud in Kentucky.
And it’s beginning to look like a shrewd investment.
Despite the $200,000 fee in his first season at stud, which many considered too high for a freshman sire, demand was strong, and 208 foals were bred in that first year.
American Pharoah won nine of his ten races on dirt, from 7 furlongs to a mile and a half. At stud he has been attracting both dirt and grass mares and also breeding horses capable of winning over sprint as well as longer distances,as the tables below show:
Record in the U.S.
The demand has been maintained over the five years of his stud career in America so far, averaging 183 foals each year.
Last year at the Fasig Tipton September showcase sales, Speedway Stables paid the top 2020 price of $1.25m dollars for an American Pharoah yearling colt, out of stakes-winning mare Swing It, whose first five offspring are all winners.
The year before Mandy Pope paid a record $8.2m at Keeneland’s September sales for an American Pharoah filly yearling out of broodmare of the year Leslie’s Lady, dam of Beholder, Into Mischief and Mendelssohn. The filly, named America’s Joy, is now 3 and has yet to race. She had two gallops, one in February and one in March.
American Pharoah has had three G1 winners on three different continents from his first two crops: Harvey’s Lil Goil (Queen Elizabeth 11 on turf at Keeneland), Van Gogh, and Cafe Pharoah (February Stakes on dirt at Tokyo - much the most valuable of all these wins).
So far his progeny have won 14 Northern Hemisphere stakes, including Four Wheel Drive in the 2019 G2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, Pista in the G2 Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster, and Merneith in the G2 Santa Monica Stakes.
He has also proved popular down under - he has shuttled to Coolmore Australia for each of the Southern Hemisphere seasons since 2017.
Record in Australia
Last year his first crop of yearlings made him the leading first-season sire by average price at Australian sales. To date, American Pharoah has been responsible for three winners in Australia - Buck Pharaoh, Head Of State and Patton, who was a AU$675,000 purchase by Spendthrift Farm at last year’s Magic Million Gold Coast yearling sale.
This season, American Pharoah yearlings have continued to sell well and, at the March Gold Coast sales, nine of the 17 sold went for AU$200,000 or more, with a colt out of Ennis Hill selling for AU$625,000 to Sheamus Mills Bloodstock.
At the recent Inglis Easter Sales, American Pharoah yearlings were also in demand, with 11 of the 16 sold going for AU$200,000 or more. A colt out of Carrignavar topped the lot at AU$650,000, bought by Chris Waller Racing/Mulcaster Bloodstock.
At the major European sales since 2018, a few American Pharoahs have regularly sold for high prices. For the two American Pharoah yearlings presented at the Arqana August 2018 sales one, out of Marbre Rose, went for €850,000 to bloodstock agent Deuce Greathouse for American owners Cindy Hudson and Robert Masterson.The other, out of Shawara, went to MV Magnier for €750,000.
Both fillies highlighted the risks involved in spending high prices for quality-bred racehorses, which is no guarantee of quality performances on the track. The Shawara filly, named Oh So True, now 4, ran just seven times to date at 3 in Ireland trained by Donnacha O’Brien, winning once and placing three times, earning just £9,928 in prize money.
The Marbre Rose filly, named Lashara, trained by Mark Casse, has fared better, running six times in 2020 and twice this year, winning twice and placing three times, earning $97,550.
Of course, both fillies are well bred and, as such, have added breeding stock value.
The jury may still be out, but there is still every chance that American Pharoah could be a major influence on the breed.