The Travers Stakes card at Saratoga served to highlight the lasting impact made on US racing and breeding by legendary horseman John Nerud’s Tartan Farms operation – 35 years after the farm’s dispersal sale and seven years after the Hall of Fame trainer’s death. Nancy Sexton traces the richest of histories
USA: Decades have passed since Tartan Farms wound up its racing affairs. The key characters, namely owner William McKnight, his son-in-law James Binger and trainer and manager John Nerud, are no longer with us and any influence that its legendary four-time champion Dr. Fager may have exerted is now receding for the most part well beyond the fifth generation.
For many, knowledge of Dr. Fager and his high-flying half-sister Ta Wee has been gleaned from black-and-white photos and grainy race videos. Their championship runs of the late 1960s belong to a different era, far removed from today.
It says plenty for the regard held for Tartan Farms and Nerud that the dispersal of their stock grossed approximately $33.3 million when offered at Fasig-Tipton in 1987; 55 yearlings realised a total of $5,634,500 while 194 head, belonging to both Tartan and Nerud, grossed $25,634,000 that November.
It was a fitting arena with which to bring the curtain down on the farm’s illustrious history, and further championship laurels were forthcoming when one of the weanlings sold turned out to be the 1990 Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Unbridled. Another offering, Quiet American, won the 1990 G1 NYRA Mile. As such, Tartan ended 1990 as North America’s leading breeder.
It is now 35 years since the Tartan dispersal while Nerud himself died aged 102 in 2015 yet a flavour of his influence still resonates across the breed. Kentucky Oaks heroine Secret Oath is one such infused animal as is top turf runner Colonel Liam and the brilliant Jack Christopher.
The famed Tartan family of Aspidistra also sits behind young sire sensation Not This Time and his older half-brother Liam’s Map, while it is interesting to note that Gun Runner, another young sire carrying all before him in the US, possesses two lines of the Tartan giant Fappiano, one of them flowing through Quiet American.
Indeed, rarely does a weekend pass nowadays when the G1 action doesn’t contain some kind of tribute to John Nerud. Take Travers Stakes day at Saratoga as an example, when the G1 showpiece was won by Not This Time’s son Epicenter and the G1 H. Allen Jerkens by Jack Christopher.
Nerud the man
So who exactly was this man who still wields such a presence over the breed? John Nerud was born in Nebraska in 1913. It is said that by the time he turned five, he was an accomplished cowboy and was a rodeo regular not long after. Nerud served in the Navy during World War II and when he returned, became assistant to Herbert Woolf, trainer of Bull Lea.
By the late 1940s, he was training in his own right and come 1957, had an outstanding three-year-old on his hands in Gallant Man. The Aga Khan-bred is remembered for his infamous defeat in the Kentucky Derby, when Bill Shoemaker misjudged the wire and eased off on his mount to allow Iron Liege to hang on. But the colt was able to prove his brilliance later when the record-setting winner of the Belmont Stakes.
At the same time, William McKnight, chairman of the board at Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, was looking to deepen his involvement in racing. It was suggested that Nerud might be the man to develop his burgeoning enterprise, Tartan Farms, and Nerud took on the challenge with zest. Under his eye, Tartan was to develop into a powerhouse among owner-breeders, its land in Ocala becoming the source of over 100 stakes winners.
The first stallion Nerud invested in on McKnight’s behalf was the 1959 champion sprinter Intentionally, acquired for the considerable sum of $750,000 and the sire of the top Tartan-bred runners In Reality (himself sire of Known Fact) and Ta Wee in return.
Around the same time, Nerud also bought shares in Ocala Stud’s Santa Anita Derby winner Rough’n Tumble, a decision which yielded mighty rewards for the farm when the horse sired Dr. Fager, Man O’War Stakes winner Ruffled Feathers and the influential sire Minnesota Mac – all born in 1964 at Tartan.
Dr. Fager the legend
Dr. Fager, whose dam, Aspidistra, had been a gift to McKnight from his workforce, was named for the neurosurgeon who had saved Nerud from a life-threatening blood clot, so it highly appropriate that he was to become the horse who set the seal on his training career.
Short, long, dirt or turf, Dr. Fager could do it all, quite often shrugging off the burden of large weights in demonstrations of speed, tenacity and versatility.
It is worth recapping just how good this horse was. Over the course of 18 wins, Dr. Fager set a world-record mark of 1:32 1/5 for a mile in the Washington Park Handicap at Arlington Park under 134 pounds, a new track record of 1:20 1/2 for 7f in the Vosburgh Stakes at Aqueduct under 139 pounds and a new stakes record of 1:33 4/5 in the Gotham Stakes, also at Aqueduct.
He won over 5 1/2 furlongs yet could carry his speed over a mile-and-a-quarter – although there were occasions when his raw pace and headstrong nature played into the hands of his rivals, notably in the 1967 Woodward Stakes when the ‘rabbit’ Hedevar took on ‘The Doctor’ for the lead, softening him up for the late challenge of the eventual winner Damascus in the process.
Dr. Fager was retired to stand at Tartan Farm in Florida, where he was syndicated at a value of $3.2m. He was a slow-burner at stud to the point that Nerud was forced to drop his fee from $25,000 to $20,000 but Dr. Fager did ultimately come up with the goods, notably champion sprinter Dr. Patches and champion two-year-old Dearly Precious. He was North America’s champion sire of 1977 but sadly by that stage, he was dead, having succumbed to colic in August 1976.
John Nerud and Dr. Fager remain synonymous with each other, so much so that it is easy to disregard the fact that Nerud also trained Ta Wee during the first part of her championship career (she later foaled the influential sire Great Above) and oversaw Tartan as it produced Preakness Stakes winner Codex, three-time G1 winner Ogygian and G1 Metropolitan Handicap winner Fappiano alongside its final hurrahs, Unbridled and Quiet American.
Named after the New York Times turf writer Joe Nichols (otherwise known as Giuseppe Carmine Fappiano), Fappiano represented the essence of Tartan as the son of a mare, Killaloe, who was a Dr. Fager granddaughter of Tartan’s excellent producer Cequillo. And it was Killaloe’s close relation, Demure (another Dr. Fager granddaughter of Cequillo), who produced Quiet American when sent to Fappiano; as such, Quiet American was inbred 3x2 to Dr. Fager and 4x3 to Cequillo.
Standing tall
Both stand tall over today’s breed. Fappiano, an atypical product of his sire Mr. Prospector who was said bear a resemblance to Dr. Fager, has become an increasingly powerful conduit of his sire’s line, notably through Unbridled and Cryptoclearance. As such, it is the Fappiano line that sits today behind the likes of American Pharoah, Arrogate, Liam’s Map, Candy Ride, Gun Runner and Twirling Candy.
Quiet American was a successful stallion for the Maktoum family who hit the Classic crossbar as sire of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes hero Real Quiet.
However, it is as a broodmare sire that he has really flourished. He has long been particularly relevant in that role through Bernardini, a former stalwart of Darley America’s stallion operation, and this year there have been further reminders of the power of his daughters through the G1 achievements of Secret Oath (bred by Briland Farm, Robert Mitchell & Stacy Mitchell out of Absinthe Minded) and globe-trotter State Of Rest (bred by Tinnakill Bloodstock out of Repose). He is also the sire of Andujar, whose granddaughter Nest recently defeated Secret Oath to win the G1 Coaching Club American Oaks and G1 Alabama Stakes.
The Kentucky Oaks heroine Secret Oath in particular bears the Nerud mark, not only as a first-crop daughter of the brilliant and ill-fated Arrogate, the best son of Unbridled’s Song and therefore a direct descendant of Fappiano, but in light of the fact that her dam Absinthe Minded contains three crosses of Aspidistra (two via Quiet American and one through her damsire Great Above).
Therefore, you could say that it is fitting she is trained by D. Wayne Lukas, whose his first Classic winner, 1980 Preakness Stakes hero Codex, was Tartan-owned and bred.
Secret Oath is one of 32 G1 winners inbred to Fappiano – and counting. Aside from the Kentucky Oaks winner, it is a powerful group that also includes last year’s top American three-year-old Essential Quality, this year’s G1 Acorn Stakes winner Matareya and current sire sensation Gun Runner.
The latter, a $16m earner and multiple G1 winner himself, has burst on to the scene for Three Chimneys Farm as one of the best young sires in North America; at the time of writing, his first crop is headed by five G1 winners in Early Voting, Echo Zulu, Gunite, Cyberknife and Taiba. Victory for Early Voting in Preakness Stakes in particular underlined Gun Runner as a serious sire of the future – but that colt wasn’t the only runner that day to bear some sort of Tartan stamp, with racing writer Steve Haskin noting that horses associated with Nerud appeared no fewer than 85 times in the background of the top six finishers.
Not This Time
With the earners of close to $9m already on his record, Gun Runner might be the talk of the Kentucky bloodstock scene, but so too is Ta Wee’s descendant Not This Time.
The Taylor Made stallion currently holds third on the leading North American sires’ list (by North American earnings) despite having fewer than 270 foals of racing age on the ground, compared to almost 1,400 for leader Into Mischief. Added to that, his success has been achieved off fees no higher than $15,000.
As all that suggests, the son of Giant’s Causeway has been a relentless force this season, his eight stakes winners including Travers Stakes winner Epicenter alongside G1 Madison winner Just One Time.
There’s no doubt that Not This Time, himself runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile during his sole season of racing, is a significant sire of the future, with his ability to throw good winners on all surfaces poised to enhance his international appeal. As it is, he is already well regarded by trainers and agents alike for his consistent ability to upgrade mares and throw genuine and durable stock.
Not This Time is out of a mare, Miss Macy Sue, who possess three crosses of Intentionally. In addition, his granddam, Yada Yada, is Tartan top to bottom as a daughter of Great Above (by Minnesota Mac and out of Ta Wee) and Stem, a Damascus granddaughter of Ta Wee who sold for $105,000 in the Tartan dispersal. As such, Yada Yada is inbred 2x3 to Ta Wee.
While Not This Time is currently the most accomplished American-based sire son of Giant’s Causeway, his half-brother Liam’s Map is fulfilling a similar role for his sire Unbridled’s Song. Unbridled’s Song legacy has been dampened by an array of bad sire sons but Liam’s Map, a gifted miler who stands at Lane’s End Farm, is proving to be one of the exceptions, aided by the presence of four G1 winners in three crops.
Perhaps its no coincidence that both these horses are supported by Tartan’s Aspidistra family – and in the case of Liam’s Map, there is further Tartan via his great-grandsire Fappiano. Interestingly, one of his best horses, Pegasus World Cup Turf dual winner Colonel Liam, is out of a Bernardini mare, thereby giving him multiple strains of Aspidistra (inbred six times), Dr. Fager, Intentionally, In Reality and Cequillo.
And what about the multiple G1 winner Jack Christopher? Although not the direct product of a Tartan family, the first four generations of his family are sprinkled with Great Above, Unbridled and Ogygian.
The beauty of the Thoroughbred is that the prints of successful owner-breeders will always be intertwined over history. Tartan Farms has an assured place within the pantheon of renowned breeders thanks to Dr. Fager but as illustrated on numerous occasions this year, its influence is also never far away.
And in Gun Runner and Not This Time, not to mention the likes of Secret Oath and Jack Christopher, there are now several further reasons to pay tribute to the vision and skill of John Nerud.
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