Observations from the European 2-Year-Old Classifications

Giant's Causeway's family had a big impact on
the ratings.

On Wednesday the British Horse Racing Authority published the 2019 European 2-Year-Old Classifications with 40 of last year’s 2-year-olds appearing on the list at a mark of 110 or higher.

From the highest rated horse in 25 years to a sire finishing off his banner year with a bang and a Champion 2-Year-Old Filly seeing her first foal find success on the track, there’s a bit of everything in this year’s ratings.

By The Numbers- Forty horses were rated on the European Two-Year-Old Classification with all but eight of those colts or geldings. Four of the 2-year-olds were bred in France, 11 in England, two in Germany, 20 in Ireland, and three in the United States.

Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) leads all sires with four rated on the list followed by Shamardal (Giant’s Causway) with three – including the two highest rated horses. That pair is joined in the two or more club by Areion (Big Shuffle), Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), Footstepsinthesand (Giant’s Causeway), Gleneagles (Galileo), Lope de Vega (Shamardal) and No Nay Never (Scat Daddy).

On the damsire side, stalwarts and top broodmare sires Pivotal (Polar Falcon) and Danehill Dancer (Danehill) lead all damsires with three runners each out of their daughters. Dalakhani (Darshaan), Dansili (Danehill), Galileo, Oasis Dream (Green Desert), and Lomitas (Niniski) are the others with more than one runner out of their daughters.

Pinatubo – Given a rating of 128, Cartier Champion 2-Year-Old Pinatubo (Shamardal) became the highest rated 2-year-old not only of this year but of the last 25 years when given a rating of 128. Undefeated in six starts, the Grade I winner has the highest rating since Celtic Swing (Damister) earned a 130 rating in 1994.

“Pinatubo looked a potentially outstanding two-year-old when thrashing a competitive field in the Vintage Stakes and his next performance in the National Stakes was breathtaking – the kind you rarely see in top company – as he powered nine lengths clear of Armory and Arizona in a top-class time,” said BHA’s Lead Two-Year-Old Handicapper Graeme Smith. “This was one of the great two-year-old performances, and the best by any two-year-old in the last 25 years.”

 

Millisle – Grade I winner Millisle (Starspangledbanner) was the highest rated filly of all the 2-year-olds with a 115 – one point higher than Cartier Champion Quadrilateral (Frankel), Albigna (Zoffany), and Raffle Prize (Slade Power).The filly won three of her five starts, never finishing worse than second, and taking home two stakes races. She concluded her career with a 1 ¾ length victory in the Group I Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes over Raffle Prize and Tropbeau (Showcasing).

Undefeated – Seven of the 2-year-olds ended their season undefeated, led by Pinatubo’s six-for-six season and followed closely by Earthlight (Shamardal) with five-from-five. Of those who went undefeated, five were Group I winners, one was a Group II winner, and the third was a Group III winner. All seven who were undefeated made at least two starts with the majority making three or more.

Shamardal's top two rated horses were also undefeated. (Darley Photo)

Race Records – Undefeated Military March (New Approach), rated 113, made the least amount of starts at two. The Ballydoyle five of Arizona (No Nay Never), Armory (Galileo), Royal Dornoch (Gleneagles), Love (Galileo) and Year of the Tiger (Galileo) made the most starts of any horse at seven each. Armory is the only horse from those five to hit the board in every single one of his starts.

As a whole, 19 of the 40 horse ranked hit the board in all of their starts as 2-year-olds.

Eleven of those rated over 110 are Group I winners. Two horses, Monarch Of Egypt (American Pharoah) and Year of the Tiger, didn’t win any stakes but were Grade I-placed during their juvenile season. Nine Group I placed horses also won Group IIs with seven winning at the Group II level but not earning Group I placings. Six of the rated juveniles won Group IIIs with one of those Group I placed and another Group II placed. Five didn’t win any stakes with the aforementioned Group I placers joined by Group III-placed Al Suhail (Dubawi) and Group II-placed Royal Crusade (Shamardal) while impressive 11 length winner Mums Tipple (Footstepsinthesand) didn’t win or place in any stakes but was rated 115.

Birthdays – The oldest horse is January 7^th birthday boy Armory. He is joined in the January Club by five other horses – most notably Group I winner Mkfancy (Makfi). Most of the rated horses were born in February, with 15 born during the second month of the year, followed by April and March with nine each. The only foal born in May, Group I winning Millisle, was born on May 11.

Giant’s Causeway – Giant’s Causeway’s Shamardal had a breakout year in 2019, with four 2-year-olds rated. Leading that trio was Pinatubo, who was rated 10 points above second highest Earthlight. Shamardal gelding Victor Ludorum was also a Group l winning juvenile for Shamardal with Royal Crusade placing in a Group 2. Shamardal’s son Lope de Vega also helped keep his sireline in the news with a pair of Group III winners rated at 110 in Max Vega and Ecrivain.

Shamardal was joined by fellow Giant’s Causeway son Footstepsinthesand as those with more than one horse on the list. In addition to Mums Tipple talked about above, Footstepsinthesand was also the sire of Grade II Gimcrack Stakes winner Threat. Both Mums Tipple and Threat are trained by Richard Hannon.

It is also worth noting that Gleneagles, who has two horses in the ratings, is out of a full sister to Giant's Causeway. So all-in-all it was a big year for bluehen Mariah's Storm (Rahy).

Gleneagles is a grandson of Giant's Causeway's dam.

Sales Prices – Twenty-one of the 2-year-olds rated went through the sales ring at least once in their lives. The average price of their last time through the ring was $461,833 with Max Vega the least expensive when purchased for $28,945 at the Goffs Orby sale and Mogul (Galileo) the most expensive at $4,674,201 when purchased by Coolmore from the first book of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

Most of the 2-year-olds were sold for under $100,000 with nine under that price point, five bringing between $100,000 and $250,000, with three from $250,000 to $1 million and two above $1 million.

Inbreeding – Most of the 2-year-olds are inbred to at least one horse in their first five generations with 28 having at least two crosses of Northern Dancer or sons. Four horses only have inbreeding in their fifth generation while seven have at least one cross of the inbreeding in their third generation.

One such horse is Victor Ludorum, who is bred 3 x 3 to Helen Street (Troy) through daughters Helsinki (Machiavellian) and Historian (Pennekamp). He is joined by a juvenile with an even closer cross in Armory, who is bred 2 x 5 to Sadler’s Wells through Galileo and the colt's second dam.

Two others with at least one inbreeding cross in their third generation is Galileo’s Group I winning duo of Innisfree and Love, who are both bred 3 x 5 x 5 to Northern Dancer and 4 x 5 to bluehen mare Special. Both also have Danehill in their pedigree, with Innisfree’s coming through his damsire Fastnet Rock (Danehill) and Love’s through her second dam Gleam Of Light.

Fairly rare in today’s world is a horse devoid of any inbreeding in its first five generations. But in these ratings, four horses have that distinction. While none are total outcrosses and have Northern Dancer and/or Mr. Prospector somewhere in their pedigrees, they don’t have a double cross of any one horse. Those horses are Monarch of Egypt (by Mr. Prospector-lined American Pharoah and out of a Galileo mare), Millisle (by Northern Dancer-lined Starspangledbanner and out of and Indian Ridge mare), Mkfancy (by Mr. Prospector-lined Makfi and out of a Muhtathir mare), and Slade Power (bred on the Mr. Prospector x Northern Dancer cross).

American Pharoah's Monarch of Egypt is one of the horses with no inbreeding.

Northern Dancer Sons – While it would be expected that Sadler’s Wells was the main conduit through which the sirelines trace back to Northern Dancer on their sire side (and he does have 11 from his sire line rated), Danzig also made a big impact with seven – most of those being through Danehill. Thanks in large part to Shamardal, Storm Bird also gets to join the major Northern Dancer club here with the Northern Dancer sireline running through him in 11 horses – six being from Shamardal and son.

Danzig is the King of the Damsires this time though … 13 damsires trace their sireline back to the stallion. No other Northern Dancer son has more than four tracing back to them. (That stallion being Sadler’s Well).

First Crop Sires – American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile), Cappella Sansevero (Showcasing) and Gleneagles (Galileo) are all first-crop sires with juveniles rated at 110 or above. Champion Freshman in the United States, American Pharoah’s Monarch of Egypt knocked on the Group I winning door when second by three quarters of a length in the Group I Phoenix Stakes in August. Third in the same race, Gleneagles’s Royal Lytham became a Group II winner in the July Stakes. Harry Angel’s half-brother Pierre Lapin flew the flag for Cappella Sansevero in only his second start when he won the Group II Mill Reef Stakes by 1 ½ lengths over 110-rated Mystery Power (No Nay Never).

Mare Race Records – All but one dam of the rated horses raced at least once in their careers. Thirteen of the mares won at least one race with two of those Group I placed, two Group III placed, and the fifth Listed placed. Overall, 16 dams won or placed in at least one stakes, led by Champion Tiggy Wiggy (Kodiac) and Group I winner Punctilious (Danehill) with two winning Group IIs and three winning Group IIIs.

Mare Produce Records – Four of the rated horses are the first foals out of their dams with 15 dams of rated horses having 100% producers from runners. Nineteen of the dams have produced at least one stakes horse outside of the 2-year-old with two producing Group I winners (Beatrix Potter & Shastye). All but two mares with more than two runners have also seen the majority of their runners go to the winner’s circle.

Did you know Melissa offers research services to the racing industry? Visit www.PyroisMedia.com for more information about her research and other services or send her an email at Melissa@PyroisMedia.com for more information.

2019 European 2-Year-Old Classifications

Rating	Horse	Best Level	Sire	Dam
128	Pinatubo	G1	Shamardal	Lava Flow
118	Kameko	G1	Kitten's Joy	Sweeter Still
118	Earthlight	G1	Shamardal	Winters Moon
116	Arizona	G2/G1P	No Nay Never	Lady Ederle
115	Mums Tipple	No stakes	Footstepsinthesand	Colomone Cross
115	Millisle	G1	Starspangledbanner	Green Castle
114	Siskin	G1	First Defence	Bird Flown
114	Threat	G2	Footstepsinthesand	Flare of Firelight
114	Quadrilateral	G1	Frankel	Nimble Thimble
114	Golden Horde	G2/G1P	Lethal Force	Entreat
114	Victor Ludorum	G1	Shamardal	Antiquities
114	Albigna	G1	Zoffany	Freedonia
114	Raffle Prize	G2/G1P	Slade Power	Summer Fete
114	Wichita	G3/G1P	No Nay Never	Lumiere Noire
113	Military March	G3	New Approach	Punctilious
113	Powerful Breeze	G2/G1P	Iffraaj	Power of Light
113	Positive	G3/G2P	Dutch Art	Osipova
112	King's Command	G3	Dubawi	O'Giselle
112	Wonderful Moon	G3	Sea The Moon	Wonderful Filly
112	Rubaiyat	G2	Areion	Representera
112	Mkfancy	G1	Makfi	Fancy Green
112	A'Ali	G2	Society Rock	Motion Lass
112	Al Suhail	G3P	Dubawi	Shirocco Star
111	Alson	G1	Areion	Assisi
111	Love	G1	Galileo	Pikaboo
111	Innisfree	G2/G1P	Galileo	Palace
111	Monarch of Egypt	G1P	American Pharoah	Up
111	Royal Lytham	G2/G1P	Gleneagles	Gotlandia
111	Tropbeau	G2/G1P	Showcasing	Frangipanni
110	Pierre Lapin	G2	Cappella Sansevero	Beatrix Potter
110	Mogul	G2	Galileo	Shastye
110	Royal Dornoch	G2	Gleneagles	Bridal Dance
110	Mystery Power	G2	No Nay Never	Gems
110	Max Vega	G3	Lope de Vega	Paraphernalia
110	Ecrivain	G3	Lope de Vega	Sapphire Pendant
110	Armory	G2/G1P	Galileo	After
110	Royal Crusade	G2P	Shamardal	Zibelina
110	Daahyeh	G2/G1P	Bated Breath	Affluent
110	Cayenne Pepper	G3	Australia	Muwakaba
110	Year of the Tiger	G1P	Galileo	Tiggy Wiggy