I HAVE been championing him for some time, suggesting that it was only a matter of time before he won a Grade 1, and now he has done so. Well done to all connected with Carl Spackler, the four-year-old son of Ballylinch Stud’s flagbearer Lope De Vega (Shamardal).

What a treasure the dual French classic winner Lope De Vega has been since he retired to Ballylinch in 2011. John O’Connor and Ballylinch owner John Malone have ensured that they will have a high-class son of the 2010 Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby to carry on the line, and this year’s winner of that same classic, Look De Vega, will join his sire in Co Kilkenny in due course.

Carl Spackler is the 22nd son or daughter of Lope De Vega to win at racing’s highest level, and he is one of the best of 134 stakes winners by the sire.

Bred by Fifth Avenue Bloodstock, Carl Spackler was offered for sale, but he was valued more highly by his breeders than the market did, and he was retained for 350,000gns in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. Unraced at two, he won three of his five outings at three, and they included a pair of Saratoga stakes races, the Grade 2 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes, and the Grade 3 Saranac Stakes.

This year, at the age of four, he has posted three stakes wins in four starts, and shown his love again for Saratoga when winning the Grade 3 Kelso Stakes on his way to annexing one of the weekend’s features there, the Grade 1 Fourstardave Stakes. One more decent run will push Carl Spackler’s total winnings past a million dollars.

Carl Spackler is one of a pair of winners for Zindaya (More Than Ready), the other being Tribal Wisdom (Frankel). The latter, a 280,000gns yearling buy by Godolphin, made racing headlines at two when, at odds of 1/8 in a two-runner contest, he was beaten a neck. He was runner-up on three of his four juvenile starts for Charlie Appleby, and was sold off for 35,000gns the following March. Ian Williams bought him, and for a long time it seemed the gelding was disimproving.

450,000gns twice

A corner was turned earlier this year, and Tribal Wisdom finally found his way to winning a pair of races on the all-weather. Tribal Wisdom’s full-sister Regal Gallery (Frankel) was bought by Godolphin for 450,000gns as a yearling and she has been placed a couple of times this year at three. Carl Spackler’s two-year-old full-sister Sandtrap (Lope De Vega) sold for 450,000gns as a yearling last year.

All of these progeny are out of the Grade 2 Goldikova Stakes winner Zindaya, and she sold as a four-year-old for $550,000. At the time she had won five times, three of them stakes races, but another year racing saw her add the graded stakes victory., This is a family that is very much in the news in 2024.

Zindaya is a half-sister to Western Aristocrat (Mr Greeley) and he won the Grade 1 Jamaica Handicap at Belmont, and placed in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby. Perhaps more significantly is the fact that Zindaya’s stakes-placed full-sister Noble Ready (More Than Ready) is the dam of this year’s Japanese Group 3 winner Noble Roger (Palace Malice). Zindaya et al are out of Aristocratic Lady (Kris S), and she won at three in France and the USA.

American Dynasty

Aristocratic Lady is a daughter of, and one of six winners for, American Dynasty (Quiet American). Three of her eight wins were in minor stakes races, and she was, in turn, one of 14 winners from the once-raced Northern Dynasty (Northen Jove). Stakes winners abound in the family, but few of the names would be that familiar, even in the USA.

Four of the 14 winners won at least one blacktype race, with the restricted Grade 3 winner Digital Dan (Ogygian) being the best. Five of American Dynasty’s daughters bred stakes winners, a number of them more than once. The unraced Reigning Dynasty (Thunder Gulch) and the once-raced Northern Destiny (Crafty Prospector) each produced three stakes winners, but none at higher than Grade 3 level.

The stakes-placed Lady Dynasty (Richter Scale) was responsible for two stakes winners, but credit to Northern Dynasty’s daughter Dynasty (Time For A Change). That Saratoga stakes winner bred Harissa (Afleet Alex), and she ascended to the heights of a Grade 2 victory in the Barbara Fritchie Handicap.

More Than Ready

While we know plenty about Lope De Vega, what about More Than Ready (Southern Halo)? This hugely influential shuttle sire was euthanised due to the effects of old age in recent years, and he spent 19 seasons traversing the world between WinStar Farm in Kentucky and Vinery Stud in Australia.

He still has more to come, but to date he has made his mark with more than 220 stakes winners worldwide. He has sired champions in both hemispheres, such as More Joyous, Samaready and Sebring down under, while the multiple Breeders’ Cup champion Roy H, Uni and the Grade 1 Travers Stakes winner Catholic Boy are some of his US stars.

Not unexpectedly, More Than Ready continues to grow his reputation as a broodmare sire, and his tally of stakes winners out of his daughters is now galloping towards the 200 mark.