Feb 24, 2009

LUHUK-ED

Our last posting discussed some successes we had in making breeding recommendations.
It will not surprise you to learn that we take our lumps, too, just like everybody else in this wacky enterprise.

My infatuation with Luhuk began when I was in Argentina. The purpose of the trip was to purchase a pretty nice filly named Flager. While visiting La Quebrada stud we were shown two dozen yearlings by Luhuk (by Forty Niner) and every one looked the part of a runner. In addition, Luhuk had a tremendous strike rate when bred to mares by Southern Halo, who also stood at La Quebrada.

I spread the word to my clients upon my return and four or five of us sent mares to Luhuk when he arrived at Gainesway. None of us did much good with Luhuk except J.C. Davis, a client who had been raising some nice horses in Henderson, KY. We persuaded him to send his Southern Halo mare Dance Alexa to Luhuk in pursuit of the obvious.

The resultant filly was well made but quite small and she brought but $l2,000 at Keeneland. This turn of events was a burr under the saddle of her owner and he showed us his heels on the way out the door, vowing that he was out to find greener pastures.

Naturally, the Luhuk filly in question goes on to win a stakes at Santa Anita recently, racing under the name Mission Viejo Halo. In the great poker movie "The Cincinnati Kid", Edward G. Robinson busts out "The Kid" when he draws to an improbable hand and tells an incredulous Steve McQueen that "sometimes, kid, you have to be right for the wrong reason". The rest of us threw snake eyes.

I guess we were wrong for the right reason in this case.

With that confessional out of the way, let's resume patting ourself on the back.
Some "nicks" are slam dunks, such as Bold Ruckus and anything with Nearctic or Vice Regent blood. Canada is saturated with this blood and pairing them up seemed the only way to go for two decades.

Thus it was automatic to send Ruby Park (Bold Ruckus) to Silver Deputy. We had bought Ruby Park as a Keeneland yearling and she distinguished herself as a SW of $287,000. Her first foal by Silver Deputy is named Lucas Street and her earnings are $300,000 plus.

Archers Bay was the best son of Silver Deputy. I was assigned to recruit mares for his first book. First order of business was to round up as many Bold Ruckus mares as I could find. Got the right ones, too, and Archers Bay was off to a great start at stud. His untimely death the following year was a devastating blow to Canadian racing and breeding. He sired 8% stakes-winners and had an Average Earnings Index of 2.04 against a Comparable Index of 1.36. Those numbers indicate total domination of his region.