WHAT joy there was in the press following the running of the final leg of the US Triple Crown, won by Arcangelo. This was the first time that the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes winner was trained by a female, Jena Antonucci being the heroine of the hour.

This was a first Grade 1 winner of any kind for Antonucci, and the first start for Arcangelo in a Grade 1 contest. This was a dream win, and for a few days at least quelled the generally negative press which racing is having to endure in the USA.

Bred in Kentucky by Don Alberto Corporation, Arcangelo is a rig, no doubt contributing to the fact that he sold as a yearling for just $35,000 at Keeneland, purchased by Jon Ebbert. Placed on his sole outing last year, he has won three of his four starts this year, and warmed up for his classic tilt with victory in the Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes, also at Belmont.

Victory on Saturday saw him boost his earning to more than $1 million, and Arcangelo was also keeping up a family tradition with his win in this race. His dam is out of a half-sister to two winners of the race, Rags To Riches (A.P. Indy) who won in 2007, a year after her half-brother Jazil (Seeking The Gold) was triumphant.

Arcangelo is one of a pair of winners out of Modeling, an unraced daughter of Tapit (Pulpit). The Don Alberto Corporation will not want to be reminded that they paid $2,850,000 for Modeling as a two-year-old at Keeneland, a year after her half-sister Streaming (Smart Strike) won the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet Stakes at the age of two. Subsequently, Streaming’s full-sister Treasuring (Smart Strike) won a listed race at Woodbine in Canada, the same track at which another sibling, Cascading (A.P. Indy) was a stakes winner.

Achieving

Modeling is a half-sister to seven winners in all, and her sibling Achieving (Bernardini), a winner in Canada where many of the family raced, has become a very prolific stakes-producer. Her son Cezanne (Curlin) is a Grade 2 winner, not the outcome M.V. Magnier hoped he would produce after his acquisition for $3.65 million as a two-year-old four years ago, while another son, Counterforce (Smart Strike) was a stakes winner in the USA.

Meanwhile, Achieving’s daughter Arabian Hope (Distorted Humor) won a listed race at York, stepped up a level to win a Group 3 in Turkey, and was placed in the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes.

Which brings us to the Belmont Stakes winner’s third dam, Better Than Honour (Deputy Minister). Winner of the Grade 2 Demoiselle Stakes at two, on a disqualification, and second in the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes, she had five winning offspring, and her daughter Teeming was the only one of them who failed to win a stakes race of some kind.

Sold to Coolmore, through the BBA Ireland, for $2 million in 2004 at Keeneland, Better Than Honour, as previously mentioned, went on to produce two Grade 1 Belmont Stakes winners in successive years, leading to her resale, this time in 2008, for a staggering $14,000,000 at Fasig-Tipton, a world record price, after which she failed to breed another winner.

In addition to the champion Rags To Riches and Shadwell’s Jazil, a disappointing sire who died following an accident, Better Than Honour bred the US Grade 2 winner Casino Drive (Mineshaft), who went on to run second in the Group 1 February Stakes in Japan, and the Listed Breeders’ Cup Marathon winner Man Of Iron (Giant’s Causeway).

Kentucky Oaks

A full-sister to the Group 3 Beresford Stakes winner Turnberry Isle (Deputy Minister), Better Than Honour was among nine winners from the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks winner Blush With Pride (Blushing Groom). Also winner of a second Grade 1, the Santa Susana Stakes, Blush With Pride bred a couple of Group 1 performers. Her daughter Smolensk (Danzig) won the Group 2 Prix d’Astarte and was runner-up in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes, and she is the dam of a couple of stakes winners in the USA.

As good as Smolensk was, she cannot match the breeding record of her half-sister Maryinsky (Sadler’s Wells). A two-year-old winner who was runner-up in the Group 1 Fillies; Mile while still a maiden, Maryinsky was disappointing subsequently on the track, but made up for that by breeding two Group 1 winners, Thewayyouare (Kingmambo), and the champion Peeping Fawn (Danehill). The latter mare, successful four times in Group 1 company and a classic winner in the Irish Oaks at the Curragh, she is the dam of the Listed Chesham Stakes winner and Group 1 Fillies’ Mile second September (Deep Impact).

Sadly, Arcangelo’s sire, Arrogate (Unbridled’s Song), died after just three years at stud. Champion at three in the USA when he won a leg of the Triple Crown, the Grade 1 Travers Stakes in a record time and on his stakes debut, Arrogate ended that year with victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita. The following spring, he added the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes, and the Group 1 Dubai World Cup, but failed to win again in three further starts. Given the value of his final two victories, he went to stud as the all-time money winner in the USA.

Early death

Bought as a yearling by Juddmonte, Arrogate’s early death robbed the breeding industry of a stallion of great quality. The Belmont Stakes winner is from his second crop, and is his third Grade 1 winner born in 2020. He joins dual Grade 1 winner Cave Rock and the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante Stakes winner And Tell Me Nolies on that roster. Arrogate’s first crop included a pair of Grade 1-winning fillies, Secret Oath and Fun To Dream. Secret Oath won the Kentucky Oaks.

These five Grade 1 winners are among eight stakes winners to date for Arrogate, a phenomenal strike rate at the top level. He is also responsible for two others who are grades stakes-placed.