Birdstone

CLASSIC ASPIRATIONS
When I was first lucky enough to visit Gainesway Farm in the late 1980s, it was rather like worshipping at the heart of the thoroughbred world. In 1986 there were more than 40 stallions in residence and it was a magnificent opportunity for me, as a European, to renew acquaintance with such stars as Lyphard, Riverman, Vaguely Noble, Blushing Groom, Sharpen Up, Irish River, Lear Fan and Green Dancer. And for the American aficionados there were such as Broad Brush, Cozzene, Mt. Livermore, Afleet, Icecapade and In Reality, plus winners of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness S. and Belmont S.

Of course, the thoroughbred industry has undergone enormous change since then, but Gainesway remains one of the must-see farms for any visitor to Kentucky. The stallion team is down to 10 these days, following the death of the veteran Cozzene in October, but the last few months have been exciting times for Gainesway, thanks to the two stallions which joined the team at the end of 2004. One of them, the Wood Memorial winner Tapit (Pulpit), has done so well with his first runners that his fee has been raised from $12,500 to $35,000, at a time when many fees are heading in the opposite direction. His aptly-named daughter Stardom Bound was in the headlines again at the weekend when she changed hands for $5.7-million at Fasig-Tipton.

The other Gainesway first-crop sire in the news is Birdstone (Grindstone), who is up to seventh on the
freshman sires’ table. This Marylou Whitney color-bearer has three stakes winners among his first 22 runners and he became only the third, following Lion Heart and Candy Ride, to be represented by two graded winners when Livin Lovin took the GIII Tempted S. two days ago. Birdstone had earlier been represented by Mine That Bird, whose collection of prestigious Canadian stakes races includes the GIII Grey S.

When Birdstone retired to Gainesway, his advertisements claimed that “no colt of his generation can match his record.” He had become only the second horse ever to take the Champagne S. at two and both the Belmont S. and Travers S. at three, and he had ended Smarty Jones’s gallant bid for Triple Crown honors in the Belmont. In the process, Birdstone pushed his earnings past the $1.5-million mark, yet his fee was set no higher than $10,000--just 1/10th of the price charged for Smarty Jones. At two, Birdstone ranked fourth among the colts on the Experimental Free Handicap, on 124, and only two American colts--Smarty Jones and Kitten’s Joy--were weighted above him on the World Rankings for three-year-old.

So why was Birdstone so cheap? My guess is that his connections were keen to compensate for the fact that he is a son of Grindstone. The fee for this winner of the 1996 Kentucky Derby has been as low as $3,500 for the last two years, with Birdstone having the unwanted distinction of being the only offspring of Grindstone to have won a race above Grade III level.

Grindstone may have failed to live up to expectations but there can be few complaints about his branch of the Mr. Prospector male line. Birdstone is the most recent of seven individual Triple Crown event winners from the Fappiano line. Indeed, he was the third generation from this line to win either the Kentucky Derby, Preakness or Belmont, following Unbridled and Grindstone. It’s interesting that both of Gainesway’s successful new sires have Unbridled in their pedigree, Tapit being out of an Unbridled mare.

Tapit

Birdstone certainly merits the description classically bred. His dam, the Storm Bird mare Dear Birdie, made a slow start to her broodmare career, but then produced the champion filly Bird Town and Birdstone in consecutive years, to take the title of Broodmare of the Year. Bird Town owed her championship to victories in the Kentucky Oaks and Acorn S.

Birdstone’s second dam, Hush Dear, notched no fewer than five Grade II victories at up to a mile and a half during three years on the track, so Birdstone had every right to flourish over 10 and 12 furlongs at three. Indeed it was his stamina which helped him end Smarty Jones’s Triple Crown aspirations.

He also possessed a measure of speed though, as he showed when he demolished the opposition in a six-furlong maiden at Saratoga. And--as its roll of honor shows--you need a pretty fast horse to win the Champagne S.

All this is good news for the connections of Birdstone’s juvenile stakes winners, as they can be expected to continue improving. Livin Lovin’s first three dams were sired by Captain Bodgit (Florida Derby and second in the Kentucky Derby), Hostage (Arkansas Derby) and Secretariat (Triple Crown), so she should have the necessary stamina for such races as the CCA Oaks and Alabama S., should she prove good enough.