New Stallion: Competitive Edge

Competitive Edge

A $750,000 2-year-old purchase, Competitive Edge hit the track running for trainer Todd Pletcher when he debuted at Saratoga in late July 2014. There was no question who was best that day with the bay colt winning by 10 ¼ lengths.

Competitive Edge was thrown to the top level of the sport from there when Pletcher entered him in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes. While the colt didn’t win as easily, jockey John Velazquez still didn’t have to ask him to give everything he had with Competitive Edge winning by 5 ¾ lengths.

A hairline fracture forced the colt to miss the rest of his 2-year-old season but he returned on March 27 the next year in the Tamarac Stakes.

The time off only seemed to make Competitive Edge even better and he led wire-to-wire to win in what the chart caller wrote was “the handiest of winners.” Next up was an assignment at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May but it came in the newly renamed Grade 3 Pat Day Mile instead of the Kentucky Derby. 

But like all his other tasks to that point, the Pat Day Mile was an easy one for him as he was second behind Hillbilly Royalty for the first three quarters of a mile before taking over and pulling away to win by 4 ½ lengths, taking his combined margin of victory for his four wins to 28 ¾ lengths.

Winning the Pat Day Mile

Competitive Edge seemed to lose form after that run with three off-the-board finishes and he retired to Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in mid-October. He ended his career with four wins in seven starts for $519,280 in earnings.

Competitive Edge is one of only two stallions by Super Saver to retire for 2016 and the first to retire to Kentucky.

Super Saver won the 2009 Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes before returning to Churchill Downs the following year to win the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands. In all, Super Saver won two graded stakes and hit the board in two others before retiring to WinStar Farm's breeding shed as a 4-year-old.

With only two active racing age crops, Super Saver is the sire of six graded stakes winners including Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner and champion Runhappy. Fifty-one percent of his starters have won with five graded stakes winners last year to place him second on the Second-Crop Sire list behind only fellow WinStar stallion Pioneerof the Nile (Empire Maker).

Competitive Edge’s dam is the Cape Town mare Magdalena’s Chase. A three-time stakes placed mare, Magdalena’s Chase made 32 starts with nine wins and eight other on the board placings for $205,338 in earnings with all her wins coming from five to six and a half furlongs (the majority of her races were run at those distances). Competitive Edge is the 11-year-old mare’s first foal with her next youngest being a yearling Pioneerof the Nile colt.

Competitive Edge’s second dam is a half-sister to (at the time) Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes winner Wild Syn. Another half-sister is also the dam of Grade 2 winner Pick of the Litter (Kitten’s Joy), who set a track record at Keeneland for 1 1/8 miles.

Farther back in Competitive Edge’s family is where his pedigree gets the strongest. His fourth dam is the dam of the Timeless Moment colt All Fired Up, who won the Grade 1 Arlington-Washington Futurity in 1983. Also under that dam is Cox’s Angel (Cox’s Ridge) who is the second or third dam of Grade 1 winners Awesome Humor (Distorted Humor), Emcee (Unbridled Song) and Surfer (Distorted Humor).

While it is too early in Super Saver’s career to nail down exactly what crosses work well with him, of his top 10 earners two are out of granddaughters of Mr. Prospector with multiple others going back to that stallion through their damsires including Competitive Edge. Super Saver also has one other top 10 earner whose damsire is a son of Seattle Slew while another is out of a Sky Mesa mare, who traces back to Seattle Slew.

Competitive Edge is inbred to Mr. Prospector and Seattle Slew in his fourth generation but as that will move to the fifth generation for his progeny, they are interesting crosses to pursue since they have been successful with his sire.

Competitive Edge is one of two new sires at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud this year, standing beside American Pharoah for a fee of $12,500 (approx. €10,997/£8,885).