“THE fundamental things apply” is an extract from a song made famous by Dooley Wilson, and it is one that anyone over the age of 40 will know the entire lyrics to. The opening lines are “you must remember this, a kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh”.

The song is called As time goes by, and this review is for a five-year-old mare who glories in the name, As Time Goes By. She is from the first crop of the US Triple Crown winner, Horse of the Year and $8.65 million earner American Pharoah, Ashford Stud’s son of Pioneerof The Nile (Empire Maker).

The fundamental principle when it comes to mating thoroughbreds is to breed the best to the best, and hope for the best. As Time Goes By is a perfect example. She is by a multiple Grade 1 winner, out of a multiple Grade 1 winner, is her dam’s third Grade 1 winner, and she is half-sister to a mare who has already produced a pair of Grade 1 winners. It’s that easy!

A daughter of champion two-year-old colt Dehere (Deputy Minister), the latest Grade 1 winner’s dam Take Charge Lady enjoyed outstanding success as a racemare and, subsequently, as an influential producer. She won 11 of her 22 career starts, including the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes and back-to-back renewals of the Grade 1 Overbrook Spinster Stakes, all run at Keeneland.

Additional victories were gained in the Grade 2 Walmac International Alcibiades Stakes, the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks and three other graded events. Take Charge Lady’s unraced dam Felicita (Rubiano) produced five winners and they were led by Commendation (Capote) and Eventail (Lear Fan), both stakes winners and graded stakes-placed.

Eventail later bred the multiple graded stakes winner and Grade 1 Jamaica Handicap runner-up Straight Story (Giant’s Causeway) and the Japanese blacktype winner Strong Souther (Heart’s Cry). Felicita’s half-sister She’s Got Class (Trempolino) is the dam of the 2010 Grade 2 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winning gelding Chamberlain Bridge (War Chant).

Foaling complications

Back now to Take Charge Lady. She was purchased, carrying her first foal, for $4.2 million by Eaton Sales, and they are listed as the breeders of eight of her nine offspring. The only one they didn’t breed was As Time Goes By, her final produce. She was bred by John Magnier and partners, officially Orpendale and Chelston. Take Charge Lady died at age 19 following foaling complications, at Ashford Stud in Kentucky.

In addition to As Time Goes By, Take Charge Lady bred Take Charge Indy (A.P. Indy) who was successful in the Grade 1 Florida Derby a decade ago, and he was born a year before Will Take Charge (Unbridled’s Song). He was the champion three-year-old colt of 2013, and that feat earned his dam Take Charge Lady a broodmare of the year title in the USA.

Take Charge Lady had an almost perfect breeding record. Ten foals produced nine runners (one of her offspring was never named) and eight won, three of them now at Grade 1 level. In addition, her daughter Charming (Seeking The Gold), a $3.2 million purchase at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, won a maiden and finished second in an allowance on her first two starts before suffering a career-ending injury in a stakes race.

Champion filly

Charming is the dam of Take Charge Brandi (Giant’s Causeway), the champion two-year-old filly of 2014 and winner of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes. Her three-year-old son Courvoisier (Tapit) won the Listed Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct in January.

Take Charge Brandi was followed four years later by her sibling Omaha Beach (War Front). The now Spendthrift Farm stallion won half of his 10 lifetime starts, three of his victories coming at Grade 1 level, and he was never out of the first three. He won the $1 million Grade 1 Arkansas Derby and was runner-up in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.

Three of American Pharoah’s quartet of Grade 1 winners are from his first crop, the others including last month’s Group 1 February Stakes winner in Japan, Café Pharoah, and this was his second success in that feature.

American Pharoah’s 2022 fee at Ashford Stud is $80,000.