Fueled by the achievements of his classic sophomore and female sprint champions Smarty Jones and Maryfield, Elusive Quality's global appeal is building. Amidst the surge of yearlings heading to the current Keeneland September Sale, 80 per cent of Elusive Quality’s 59 offspring were selected for the first four days of the sale.
Elusive Quality’s mates that produced these yearlings included 22 black-type runners, whereby 13 are graded Stakes winners. Twenty of those offered will look for the opportunity to follow the success of their sophisticated siblings, which include 23 accomplished graded winners.
Worldwide, Elusive Quality has added seven new stakes winners so far in 2008, bringing the total to 38. He has given rise to phenomenal returns and sales averages. In 2007, ten of Elusive Quality’s yearlings fetched in excess of $400,000 at auction. This time last year, the first four days of Keeneland confirmed 18 sold at a robust $303,333 average. Leading the way among his peers which serviced mares at a $100,000 fee, the first of the Elusive Quality’s two premium crops have only just been uncorked this year. In July, two-year-old Honest Quality scored her second win in three starts in England. She gamely won the Listed Keep Able Star S. which suggests elite engagements are on the horizon for the regally bred filly from the Juddmonte Farms pastures.
Raven's Pass has been the model of consistency throughout his sophomore campaign with three runner-up efforts in the G1 Sussex and G1 St James's Palace S. A dominating performance in the G2 Celebration Mile has him on course for the Sept 27, G1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot pending good ground. Raven’s Pass’s preference towards a tight course has trainer John Gosden considering an American appearance for the G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile.
First of the Elusive Qulaity yearlings to the Keeneland arena this year is Hip 2, a blossoming filly out of a Nijinsky II half-sister to $1.2m-earner Stalwars. He twice set a new record time in his seven-year crusade. The filly’s dam has produced seven winners in all; the most accomplished of which is Stakes winner Asyouwish and Group Three miler Tough Speed, who provides an obvious nick to Mr. Prospector by way of his pre-eminent sire Miswaki.
Hip 168 is a half-brother to Grade One Matron S. winner and $725,000 Keeneland September graduate Marylebone. Another with a Grade One sibling is Hip 221, half-brother to the millionaire turf specialist Request For Parole, who was a determined winner of the prestigious United Nations S.
Hip 472 is out of US Broodmare of the Year nominee Luminare (ARG) by Forlitano. Her two Grade One-winning Numerous foals, Miss Loren - an Argentinean champion, and Mr. Light hold the unique distinction for having won graded stakes on opposite US coasts over the same weekend. In a 2005 allowance race at Gulfstream Park, Mr. Light nipped the world record held by Elusive Quality himself; shaving a mere fifth of a second off the one-mile dash, he blazed into the Belmont’s Widener Turf Course (1:31.62). Luminare also produced Grade Two Milano Phone and graded-placed Mr. Lux.
Elusive Quality also etched his name in history at Gulfstream Park, holding the seven-furlong best of 1:20 on the main track. Hip 70 is a half-sister to Forest Danger, another to hold a record at Gulfstream. He ran out six-and-a-half furlongs in 1:14 2/5. The Grade One Carter H. winner and his stakes-placed half-brother Skipping Stars are out of G2 Landaluce S. winner Starry Ice, a filly who precociously made her own mark in a Santa Anita baby race when zipping two furlongs in 21 1/5 seconds.
Vinery, Ltd. is presenting a true ‘filly family’ with their strapping January lass, Hip 57. She is a daughter of the British-bred Silvester Lady, who, in just her third start, captured the eleven-furlong G1 Preis der Diana (German Oaks). Silvester Lady is sired by Group One sprinter Pivotal and quite probably pulls valor from a double dose of her aristocratic heir Nureyev, a Kentucky-bred who grasped a championship at three in France. Silvester Lady has two winners from as many starters, one of whom is sired by Red Ransom. Her granddam Queen To Conquer embarked on a stateside campaign after a third in the G1 Irish Oaks and found her forte in the ten-furlong G1 Yellow Ribbon Invitational. Queen To Conquer’s dual champion daughter Quabrada had a Singspiel yearling sell at Deauville for the US equivalent of $339,969. Vinery is also selling Hip 384, an Elusive Quality colt from the family of multi-champion, G1 Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp winner Sigy.
Hip 78, Lane’s End Farm’s highly-credentialed colt, derives his worth from unassuming circumstances. His pedigree boasts two Group One siblings, Compton Admiral and Godolphin’s Summoner. Compton Admiral gunned for glory in Sandown Park’s G1 Coral-Eclipse S. at odds of 20/1 and earned enough respect to clinch Three-Year-Old Colt Highweight honors, whereas Summoner, a rabbit for his highly esteemed stablemate Noverre (MG1SW), took the advantage in soft going to clinch the G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. trophy at Royal Ascot; the same course that their half-sister Twyla Tharp placed second in the G2 Ribblesdale S.
Another hopeful for Lane's End Farm is Hip 156, a colt from a Storm Cat mare whose dam, Now That’s Funny, is the reliable half-sister to a French juvenile champion Tropicaro. Now That’s Funny produced English and Irish champion Lucayan Prince, Stakes Winners Silver Comic (G2), Comic Strip (G3) and Akiba. Regardless of dirt or turf, Comic Strip consistently rewarded backers in 19 of 23 attempts. He was victorious in five stakes and adds nine graded notations to this colt’s page. Now That's Funny's 2000 Storm Cat weanling afforded a $1.2m final bid, a record price for a filly at public auction.
$7.6m-earner Smarty Jones emerged from Elusive Quality’s second crop to win a perfect eight-for-eight before a heroic try at the third Triple Crown jewel, the Belmont. Hip 390 reunites the champion’s female family with his sire Elusive Quality. Complimenting the staying power of Unbridled’s bloodlines by way of his brother Cahill Road - the third fastest winner of G1 Wood Memorial, this half-sister to Stakes Winner Manzottina is expected to be a draw at the Legacy Bloodstock barn.
Hip 559 derives from the very promising Elusive Quality/Seattle Slew nick found in England’s rising star Honest Quality, who is a daughter of Grade One winner Honest Lady (Seattle Slew), half-sister to Empire Maker and Chester House. Elusive Diva (Elusive Quality), out of a mare by Seattle Slew’s son Taj Alriyadh, surged to a convincing win in the G3 Railbird S. On the board in eleven of fourteen starts, she tallied $484,510 from four stakes wins and a grade one placing. Elusive Diva went on to bring $1.6 million at Keeneland November when in foal. Her weanling full sister went through the ring at the same sale for $290,000.
Elusive Quality has already sired six stakes winners from mares sired by sons of Danzig including French Highweight Elusive City. In Australia, his two-year-old daughter Camarilla emerged from his first southern hemisphere crop to charge fromlast in the AJC Sires’ Produce Stakes and pull ahead two lengths clear to give her sire his first Group One winner down-under. Camarilla’s dam, Camarena, is by Danzig’s son Danehill. Seven yearlings offered in the early days of Keeneland present the highly successful Danzig line: Hip 209 (Green Desert), Hip 272 (Danzig Connection), Hip 718 (Danzig), Hip 776 (Pine Bluff), Hip 866 (Danzig), and Hip 1103 (Belong to Me).
Out of a mare by Belmont S. winner Danzig Connection, one of the rare Danzigs that stayed 12 furlongs, Hip 272 is a half-brother to Street Cry's Grade Two Canadian bred filly Street Sounds. The nearly half-million dollar earner glides over the synthetic tracks at Keeneland and Woodbine as easily as she does the grass. Her half-sister, also a stakes winner, is Silver Highlight.
