AN Irish-foaled homebred by Craig Bernick in the name of his Glen Hill Farm, Aspen Grove (Justify) gave trainer Fozzy Stack his first Grade 1 win as a trainer when she was victorious in the Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes.

Bernick races the filly in partnership with Sue Magnier.

A winner last year when she broke her maiden in the Group 3 Flame Of Tara Stakes at the Curragh, this was the three-year-old Aspen Grove’s second success, and she could well go on to further enhance a family that generation after generation produces a top-class performer.

Aspen Grove is the first foal out of Data Dependent, a daughter of the deceased More Than Ready (Southern Halo). Herself a winner at two, and placed in the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante Stakes at Del Mar, Data Dependent was purchased by agent Mike Ryan as a yearling for $145,000. She’d been bred in partnership by Robert Clay’s Three Chimneys Farm and Sonia Rogers’ Airlie Stud.

Repatriated to the USA after foaling Aspen Grove, Data Dependent was carrying a colt, Edwardian (No Nay Never), and he made a promising debut back in April when runner-up to Son Of Corballis at Tipperary on what has been his only outing to date. He is trained by Aidan O’Brien and Bernick is still involved, this time with the Magnier, Tabor and Smith axis.

Meanwhile, the third produce of Data Dependent is a Justify (Scat Daddy) full-brother to Aspen Grove.

Bought out

Robert Clay and Sonia Rogers had raced Data Dependent’s dam Dane Street (Street Cry), a filly they failed to sell as a yearling. She was trained by Jessica Harrington and won a couple of times.

Airlie bought out their partner in 2016, when Kern Lillingston signed the docket at $260,000 in Keeneland and that was the same year Dane Street had foaled what has been her best runner to date, the 2018 Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Skitter Scatter (Scat Daddy).

This pedigree keeps improving and Aspen Grove was not the only juvenile of 2022 in the family to make an impact.

Skitter Scatter’s Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) half-brother Victory Dance, a notable 700,000gns foal sale, won twice, including the Listed Denford Stakes, and his three placed efforts in five starts include being runner-up in the Group 2 Superlative Stakes.

Dane Street is a daughter of Daneleta (Danehill), and she won for Jim Bolger and was third to Rock Of Gibraltar in the Group 3 Railway Stakes before transferring to France, where she also won and was stakes-placed for Nicolas Clement. The best of her seven winners has been Intense Focus (Giant’s Causeway), the third of Jim Bolger’s five Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes winners, alongside Teofilo, New Approach, Parish Hall and Dawn Approach. The latter is the sire of Daneleta’s grandson Dadoozdart, a listed winner in Ireland.

Zavaleta

Daneleta’s own-sister Danelissima (Danehill) was the best of the 10 winners out of the Listed Athasi Stakes winner Zavaleta (Kahyasi). Successful in the Group 3 Noblesse Stakes at Naas, Danelissima sold later that same year for 470,000gns, she has bred a number of winners at stud, and she came back into focus this year as her grandson Marhaba Ya Sanafi (Muhaarar) won the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas.

The legacy of Scat Daddy (Johannesburg) will surely continue for a long time, and Justify will likely be a big part of that continuing success story. Skitter Scatter was a member of his eighth and final crop, and she is one of the 31 Group or Grade 1 winner sired by him. That list includes Aspen Grove’s sire Justify, as well as No Nay Never.

Aspen Grove is from the first crop of Justify, and she is the second Grade 1 winner sired by the Ashford Stud Triple Crown-winning stallion. In June his son Arabian Lion won the Grade 1 Woody Stephens Stakes, and he is a coly on the upgrade. They are among nine pattern winners, and 13 stakes winners, sired by Justify, who has just completed his fifth season at stud. Retired at a fee of $150,000, this fell to $125,000 in year three, and to its present value of $100,000 for two seasons. It surely won’t be moving down any more.

Sole season

Justify did not run at two, and in his sole season to race he was undefeated in six starts. This allows Coolmore to advertise the fact that he is the only unbeaten Triple Crown winner, ever!

Justify is the best son of Scat Daddy. He is also the best winner from the Grade 3-placed miler Stage Music (Ghostzapper), Justify won his races by a cumulative 23 lengths, and earned a fraction under $3.8 million, winning from seven furlongs to a mile and a half, and on all surfaces.

Rated Horse of the Year and champion three-year-old, all his stakes runs were in Grade 1 races, starting with the Santa Anita Derby before he beat Good Magic and Audible in the Kentucky Derby, afterwards adding the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.

A couple of descriptive quotes from The Blood-Horse said of him that “it would entail a lengthy search to find a better representative of the thoroughbred breed. Justify exudes power in action; he brings the entire package - speed, stride and stamina,” while Steve Haskin in the same publication said he was “a towering, muscular, Adonis of a horse.”

Now they can be just as impressed with the start he has made at stud,

Breeders who have used him this season and last at $100,000 may have had the best deal if the start he has made at stud continues. There is no reason to believe it will not. After all, it is not only in the US and here in Ireland that he has been making waves.

His first Australian crops includes Learning To Fly, winner of the Group 2 Reisling Stakes, Group 3 Widden Stakes and a listed race, Air Assault, successful in the Group 3 Sires’ Produce Stakes, and Legacies who won the Listed MRC Anzac Day Stakes.

Yearlings

This week Fasig-Tipton published the catalogue for the Saratoga Yearling Sale next month, and it contains 10 sons and daughters of Justify. Lot 6 is a half-brother to the Grade 1 juvenile Spinaway Stakes winner Sippican Harbor, while Lot 178 is a half-brother to Princess Of Sylmar. That mare’s nine wins in 15 starts included victories in four Grade 1 races, the CCA Oaks, Longines Kentucky Oaks, Alabama Stakes and the Beldame Invitational Stakes.

All but one of the rest of the yearlings in the sale by Justify are either siblings to or out of stakes winners. It looks likely that last year’s top price for a Justify yearling, $1.1 million, could well be surpassed.

Closer to home, Arqana catalogues three yearlings by Justify next month, all fillies. First up is a full-sister to Shamwari who was runner-up in a listed race at Leopardstown recently, and they are out of a Giant’s Causeway full-sister to the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Horatio Nelson. Bookending the trio is the first foal of a winning Kingman half-sister to the Group 2 Lowther Stakes winner Silk Blossom.