Two impressive colts win on Saturday
Hall of Fame and Maymun show talent in maiden races and earn 94 Beyers
By Sid Fernando
Justify, the son of Scat Daddy who won the Triple Crown in 2018, was the first Kentucky Derby winner since Apollo 136 years earlier not to have raced at two, and it was only five years on from Justify that the Good Magic colt Mage pulled off the same feat. Justify won his debut on Feb. 18; Mage on Jan. 28. Both of these colts have shown us that it’s a new era, that racing at two isn’t a prerequisite for Classic success and debuts can be made in January and February to prepare for the Derby on the first Saturday in May. This type of lightly raced profile is becoming increasingly common among Classics aspirants, which is why two impressive maiden special winners from Saturday, Jan. 20 — Hall of Fame and Maymun — deserve a closer look.
Hall of Fame, who raced once at two, is from Gun Runner’s third crop and sold as a yearling in August as his sire’s blazing first crop was halfway through its three-year-old season. By this time, Gun Runner had a champion two-year-old in Echo Zulu and Early Voting had already won the Preakness, and they were two among a bunch of Grade 1 winners for their ascendant sire, who stands for $250,000 this year.
HALL OF FAME (2021 Gun Runner – Flag Day, by Giant’s Causeway)
B: Earle I. Mack LLC
O: Mrs. John Magnier, Michael B. Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg, Gandharvi LLC, and Rocketship Racing LLC
T: Steve Asmussen
Record: 2-1-1-0, $60,000
Last Auction Price: $1,400,000 yearling at Fast-Tipton Saratoga
In 2020, the year Hall of Fame was conceived, Gun Runner’s fee was $70,000; by 2021, Gun Runner’s fourth year at stud, it had dropped to $50,000. By 2022, when Hall of Fame sold as a yearling, Gun Runner was up to $125,000, and last year he was covering mares at $300,000. The stud fees mirrored the stallion’s success as his first two crops raced. The horse stands at Three Chimneys.
Earle Mack bred Hall of Fame and sold him for $1.4 million. Mack also bred Hall of Fame’s first four dams. Hall of Fame’s catalog page wasn’t particularly strong at the time he sold, but the chestnut colt was an outstanding physical specimen by the right sire and was getting plenty of attention in Saratoga. The Coolmore group that bought him is one of the sharpest in the game.
A top yearling buyer who’d been interested in the colt before the sale had contacted me about one concern he’d had about the pedigree: Hall of Fame is closely inbred, 3x2, to the late Coolmore America flagship stallion Giant’s Causeway. (It’s easy to understand why this wouldn’t have bothered Coolmore.) Broadly, there is a correlation between the generational distance of inbreeding to ancestors and success on the track; horses that are inbred at a distance of 3x3 or less are usually less likely to be as successful as those bred at a greater distance, such as 3x4 or 4x3 and higher.
Hall of Fame’s case, as I pointed out to the buyer, was an exception to this “rule.” He’s inbred to the broodmare sire of the sire — in this case, Gun Runner’s broodmare sire, Giant’s Causeway.
In other words, breeder Mack sent a Giant’s Causeway mare to Gun Runner to duplicate the nick or cross, Candy Ride/Giant’s Causeway, that was responsible for Gun Runner himself. By doing so, he knew that he’d be inbreeding to Giant’s Causeway, and it wasn’t a random occurrence but a calculated one.
Breeders throughout the ages have utilized this angle of reinforcing the nick that created the stallion. In recent times, this concept has been used to good effect with Tapit, who is by Pulpit from an Unbridled mare. Tapit horses bred on the cross include Grade 1 winners Tapit Trice, Unique Bella, and Valiance — all from Unbridled-line mares. At our day job at Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, we were one of the first to find success this way with Grade 2 winner West Coast Belle, a mating recommendation for clients Gary and Mary West. West Coast Belle was the first Tapit stakes winner bred like this, and she is 3x3 to Unbridled.
It remains to be seen whether Hall of Fame will go on to bigger things, but he won a 1 1/16-mile maiden special at Fair Grounds by 10 1/4 lengths with a 94 Beyer and appears to be a colt who will like longer distances. Plus, he’s inbred to a stallion who’s a marker for stamina and is by a Classic-distance sire who’s making a massive mark at stud with only three crops racing so far.
Getting back to Tapit, Maymun is a son of the Tapit horse Frosted from an Indian Charlie mare. As such, he’s bred on the same pattern as undefeated Horse of the Year Flightline and Grade 2 winner Charge It, both sons of Tapit out of mares by Indian Charlie. With so many sons of Tapit at stud, it’s likely this nick will continue to grow in stature through daughters of Indian’s Charlie’s prolific son Uncle Mo. Already, the Tapit sire Constitution is represented by Grade 3 winner Major General from an Uncle Mo mare, and several Uncle Mo mares have been bred to Flightline, which will result in inbreeding to Indian Charlie — the same concept behind the inbreeding to Giant’s Causeway in Hall of Fame’s pedigree.
Maymun was a $50,000 Keeneland September yearling who was pinhooked for $900,000 at two after a sizzling 9 3/5 work at OBS April. His pedigree, like Hall of Fame’s, wasn't particularly notable, but the Baffert buying team pays more attention to physique and performance than the catalog page. And Baffert, time and again, has shown a penchant for training the best offspring of a sire, and with Maymun he has a chance to do it with Frosted, who has yet to sire a Grade 1 winner through four crops. Frosted stands for $10,000 at Darley America.
MAYMUN (2021 Frosted – Handwoven, by Indian Charlie)
B: Vision Racing & Sales LLC
O: Zedan Racing Stables, Inc.
T: Bob Baffert
Record: 1-1-0-0, $39,000
Last Auction Price: $900,000 2-year-old at OBS April
Racing at Santa Anita, Maymun won his 6 1/2-fur. debut by 7 1/2 lengths and earned a 94 Beyer, the same as Hall of Fame. Baffert, who trained Justify, is once again banned by Churchill Downs Inc. from competing in the Derby this year, so what will Zedan do? In 2022, Zedan transferred Taiba to Tim Yakteen after a March 5 debut for Baffert. Yakteen won the G1 Santa Anita Derby with Taiba and from there he started the son of Gun Runner in the Kentucky Derby in only his third start. It was all too much for the inexperienced colt, who finished 12th.
It will be interesting to see if Zedan transfers Maymun to Yakteen before the Jan. 29 deadline that CDI has instituted for horses trained by Baffert to be eligible for the Derby.