Uncle Mo Shadow Will Not Cast Over Stay Thirsty Stud Career

In what might be the greatest revenge in the stallion community since the success of Alydar over Affirmed, Stay Thirsty appears destined to do the same to Uncle Mo. The Uncle Mo/Stay Thirsty rivalry on the track does not compare to the battle tested years Affirmed and Alydar went at each other. Alydar and Affirmed (photo right) met five times as 2-year-olds and four more times at age three. Affirmed won seven times including the epic Triple Crown of 1978; and Alydar won two, including their last meeting in the 1978 Travers when he won through the disqualification of Affirmed.

At stud, Alydar was a major success producing Belmont winner Easy Goer and Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Alysheba among his get. He was the leading sire in North America in 1990, sire of 10 champions and his runners earned more than $24 million. Affirmed became known more as a producer of turf runners, with perhaps his best runners being the multiple grass champion filly Flawlessly; and Arlington Million winner The Tin Man. Affirmed had similar numbers as Alydar with 9 champions, but Alydar’s stallion career ended at the peak of his productivity when he mysteriously suffered a shattered leg while in his stall and had to be euthanized.

Stay Thirsty and Uncle Mo met only twice on the track, both in Breeders’ Cup races at Churchill Downs. Last year, Stay Thirsty was fifth to Uncle Mo’s victory in the Juvenile. This year Uncle Mo and Stay Thirsty finished 10th and 11th respectively in the Classic. So they really didn’t have much of a rivalry on the track.

But there was a rivalry for recognition between the two, especially since both came from the same shed row of trainer Todd Pletcher and raced for outgoing owner Mike Repole. And no matter what he did, Stay Thirsty seem to ever remain in the shadow of his stable mate Uncle Mo.

Uncle Mo was everybody’s all-everything from the time he broke his maiden by 14-1/2 lengths at Saratoga through his undefeated championship season and being the winter racebook favorite to win the Kentucky Derby. Meanwhile, during his 2-year-old seaso, Stay Thirsty had finished second to Boys At Toscanova in the Hopeful Stakes after breaking also breaking his maiden at Saratoga, but only by five lengths. Stay Thirsty went into the Juvenile as an anonymous 13-to-1 shot and came out as a fifth-place whatchmacallit.

Things looked up for Stay Thirsty (photo left) after winning the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct in early March, but after a seventh-place finish in the Florida Derby and a 12th in the Kentucky Derby, Stay Thirsty was moving ever closer to staying home. A second-place finish to Ruler on Ice in the Belmont Stakes awoke some, but not enough to make Stay Thirsty the favorite in his next start, the grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes. Stay Thirsty won the Jim Dandy impressively by four lengths and went to the Travers as the favorite, but only by one dime to the dollar more popular. Stay Thirsty was 2.5-to-1 in the Jim Dandy and the 2.4-to-1 favorite in the Travers.

As if aware of the slight, Stay Thirsty galloped around the Saratoga oval and won the Travers nearly gate-to-wire and suddenly he was atop the 3-year-old class looking down. In his first test against older horses in the grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, Stay Thirsty was a good third behind eventual Classic winner Drosselmeyer and Classic favorite Flat Out. He looked primed to be competitive and possibly be among the favorites for the Classic.

But earlier that same day at Belmont, Uncle Mo had turned heads by winning the grade 1 Kelso Mile in only his second race after being sidelined and missing the Triple Crown. And during the weeks leading up to the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Uncle Mo again took the spotlight from Stay Thirsty.

Owner Mike Repole decided to run Uncle Mo in the Classic instead of the Dirt Mile and before the Classic, Uncle Mo would go off at 5-to-1 odds compared to Stay Thirsty back in double digits at 11-to-1.

Uncle Mo will have a year to get the jump on Stay Thirsty in the breeding shed, but I doubt it will make much of a difference.

Uncle Mo begins his stallion career as the grandson of In Excess (Ire), one of the top stallions in California before being pensioned in July. Stay Thirsty, who will race at age four according to his Facebook page, will begin his stallion career next year as the grandson of A.P. Indy, one of the top stallions of his generation.

Uncle Mo is by Indian Charlie, whose first runners hit the track in 2002 and who stood last year at Airdrie Stud in Midway, Kentucky for $70,000. On the track, Indian Charlie’s biggest win came in the 1-1/8 mile Santa Anita Derby. As one might expect from his racing career, Indian Charlie has had a difficult time producing any runners that could go to the next level at 1-1/4 miles.

Stay Thirsty is by Bernardini, winner of the Preakness, Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup - two of which are at the classic distance of 1-1/4 miles. After his first crop hit the track this year as 3-year-olds with Stay Thirsty and To Honor and Serve among them, Bernardini’s fee has been raised to $150,000 by Darley Stud in Lexington, Kentucky.

Uncle Mo has the 2-year-old championship but in the end, Stay Thirsty has something much more important to breeders’, a grade 1 win at 10 furlongs (1-1/4 miles). In fact, Uncle Mo never won at 1-1/8 miles, finishing third in the Wood Memorial in his only attempt at that distance. Stay Thirsty won the 9 furlong Jim Dandy and 1-1/4 mile Travers.

Americans are known to breed for speed and Uncle Mo is well armed with pedigree and past performances to produce that in his runners.

But Americans still pay for distance. And Stay Thirsty will be much more likely to produce winners who can compete at the Classic distance. And likely to some day emerge from the Shadow of Uncle Mo and shine as if he was Alydar himself.

My Jon White Horse of the Year Rankings

While perusing through the Paulick Report yesterday, I happened upon Bill Christine’s Horse Race Insider blog entitled A Poll For What Ails You. In the blog, Christine wrote about another blog posted by Jon White on XpressBet.com ranking every Horse of the Year since the Eclipse Awards were established in 1971. White then asked 31 other turf writers to do the same and came up with a concensus. That consensus is in Christine’s blog, but don’t look yet.

Christine provided all 33 horses in alphabetical order that have been honored with the golden Eclipse Award statuette. Some of them have won the title more than once.

What a great exercise, I thought. Just the kind of task that one looks for when freezing rain, ice and snow are dominating the news here in Arlington, Texas, despite the fact we’re hosting a pretty big football game here Sunday. That game has been preceded by multiple events and parties located throughout the massive metroplex in the weeks leading up to Super Bowl XLV. Needless-to-say, most of those events and parties do not fall within my financial nor my emotional budget, but those that might, have fallen down on the need-to-do list as a consequence of the local weather.

And just as Christine wrote in his blog, “But in the spirit of the thing, why not do your own rankings, then compare them with the rest of us? No peeking at the consensus, though. I'll list the 33 horses (some of them were champions more than once) in the next paragraph, then stop reading for a time and go do your assignment: Rank them from 1 through 33, in order of greatness. A deal? OK, here's goes:

Ack Ack, Affirmed, All Along, Alysheba, A.P. Indy, Azeri, Black Tie Affair, Charismatic, Cigar, Conquistador Cielo, Criminal Type, Curlin, Favorite Trick, Ferdinand, Forego, Ghostzapper, Holy Bull, Invasor, John Henry, Kotashaan, Lady's Secret, Mineshaft, Point Given, Rachel Alexandra, Saint Liam, Seattle Slew, Secretariat, Skip Away, Spectacular Bid, Spend a Buck, Sunday Silence, Tiznow, Zenyatta.”

Use any criteria you like. I did not cloud my judgement by looking up specific past performances or any other research. I went by memory and instinct alone. But that doesn’t mean you have restrict yourself from looking up races and information. Heck, that might be half the fun for you.

Hope you enjoy a little winter puzzle and let me know your rankings. My rankings are below. Don’t peak until you're finished with your list though…


Consenus Poll, Christine Rankings, White Rankings


Jon White XpressBet.com blog


The Brock Talk HOY rankings.
1. Secretariat
2. Seattle Slew
3. Forego
4. Affirmed
5. Cigar
6. John Henry
7. Spectacular Bid
8. Zenyatta
9. Ack Ack
10. Tiznow
11. Curlin
12. Lady’s Secret
13. Skip Away
14. Azeri
15. Rachel Alexandra
16. Ferdinand
17. Alysheba
18. Sunday Silence
19. A.P. Indy
20. Point Given
21. All Along
22. Kotashan
23. Holy Bull
24. Ghostzapper
25. Invasor
26. St. Liam
27. Mineshaft
27. Charasmatic
29. Conquistado Cielo
30. Black Tie Affair
31. Criminal Type
32. Spend A Buck
33. Favorite Trick

I matched the consensus with #1 Secretariat, #4 Affirmed, #6 John Henry, #27 Mineshaft and number #33 Favorite Trick. The horses on which I differed the most with the consensus were, ironically, among my favorite horses, Alysheba, who I hand ranked #17 while he was #10 on the consensus; and Sunday Silence. I had Sunday Silence ranked #18 and he was also a top ten among the consensus pollsters at #8.

I ranked both Lady's Secret and Azeri much higher than the consensus poll, missing on them by eight and nine slots respectively. Although, two more recent female stars in Zenyatta (my rank #8, consensus #9) and Rachel Alexandra (my rank #15, consensus #19) I ranked a little low, but not far from the consensus.

Horses on which I missed the consensus by just one slot were Seattle Slew, Tiznow, Curlin, Skip Away,

History Continues In Hollywood Gold Cup

While this, perhaps the final edition of the TVG/Betfair $700,000 Hollywood Gold Cup may not feature any iconic runners, it is packed with plenty of story lines of interest and a full and evenly matched field of 13. The two favorites alone provide plenty of fan fodder with the 6-year-old gelding Parading shipping in from New York and the 4-year-old filly Life is Sweet moving out of the distaff division to take on the older boys.

Life is Sweet, who is trained by John Sherriffs and is a stablemate of the undefeated Zenyatta, is trying to become only the fourth female to win the Gold Cup which will be run for the 70th time Saturday. Princessnesian became the third female to win the Gold Cup in 1968, joining Happy Issue (1944) and Two Lea (1952). Not many have tried in the last three decades. Life Is Sweet, who will be ridden by two-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Garrett Gomez, will be the first to start in the Gold Cup since Kilijaro finished seventh in 1981.

But the sentimental favorite may be Mast Track trained by Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, who has been recovering from an undisclosed illness at his home near Los Angeles and is one of the more popular trainers in horse racing. Mast Track is also the defending champion in the Hollywood Gold Cup having won the race last year for Frankel. Frankel will be going for his third Gold Cup havig first won with Marquetry in 1991 and Aptitude in 2001.

Trainer Doug O'Neill will be trying to win his fifth Gold Cup since 2002 when he won with Sky Jack. He then took three consecutive Gold Cup from 2005-07 with Lava Man and has Informed for this year's edition. Informed. who was racing at the $25,000 claiming level a year ago, won the grade 2 Californian at 14-1 at Hollywood Park June 14 over Rail Trip, who also comes back in the Gold Cup.

O'Neill is still far from trainer Charlie Whittingham's record of eight wins in the prestigious 1-1/4 mile event. His list of Gold Cup victors reads like a Thoroughbred racing history book after winning with Ack Ack (1971), Quack ('72), Kennedy Road ('73), Tree of Knowledge ('74), Exceller ('78), Perrault ('82), Grienton ('85) and Ferdinand in 1987.

Seabiscuit and jockey George Woolf won the first Hollywood Gold Cup in 1938. Since then winner have included Citation in 1951, Swaps ('56), Round Table ('57), Gallant Man ('58), Native Diver won three times from 1965-'67, Affirmed ('79), Best Pal ('93) and Cigar in 1995.

Jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. has won the race nine times and Bill Shoemaker eight times.

Affirmed vs. Alydar in the Belmont Stakes

Authors Note: The 1978 Belmont Stakes is another installment in our series of great Belmonts in History.

One of the greatest rivalries in Thoroughbred racing began on June 15, 1977 when a 2-year Affirmed made his second start in the Youthful Stakes at Belmont Park. He was fit and sharp coming off a four-length victory in his first start over maidens. He would win the Youthful by a neck over Wood Native. A green and immature Alydar was making his first start and finished five lengths back in fifth.

The two met again just three weeks later at Belmont again in the Great American Stakes. The lean and fit Affirmed had trained up to the Great American, but trainer John Veitch sent Alydar back into the maiden ranks to instill confidence. Alydar came out of that six-length win with a victory and a whole different attitude. He came out of the Great American the same way, defeating Affirmed by three and a half lengths.

Affirmed would win the Hopeful and Belmont Futurity over Alydar who came back to win the Champagne. At the end of their 2-year-old year, the score was Affirmed 3, Alydar 2.

Fast forward to the first Saturday of May, 1978 and Affirmed again won over Alydar in second in the Kentucky Derby and then again in the Preakness. When the Belmont came three weeks later, nobody was ready for what they were about to see.

What Secretariat's Belmont was in defining dominence the 1978 Belmont defines determination. By the time the Belmont came, Affirmed looked tired and less charasmatic in the morning. While Alydar seemed to be improving.

After just a half-mile, just one-third the distance of the Belmont, Affirmed and 18-year-old sensation Steve Cauthen found themselves in an apparent suicidal speed dual with Alydar in one of the fastest half-miles in the race's storied history. As they turned for home, Affirmed appeared to find another bit of energy and began to pull away from Alydar and jockey Angel Cordero Jr. But the long campaign seemed to be eroding away at Affirmed on the inside as Alydar quickly ranged up along side as they approach the top of the stretch. What remains has been called one of the greatest stretch runs in the history of the Triple Crown.