When news was announced that Zenyatta would reside at Lane’s End following her retirement, speculation followed that she would be bred to A.P. Indy. Seemed a very logical choice to me. A.P. Indy has proven himself year after year as a top class and classic distance sire. In fact, he led the North American Sire List twice and owns a Horse of the Year title himself. (Takes one to know one, right?!)
So, when the news came yesterday that Bernardini (a son of A.P. Indy) had been chosen, I was reminded of the old English proverb, ‘Why go to the oily rag when you can go to the oil well?’ But after researching this further, it started to make more sense to me. As great a sire as A.P. Indy is, I was surprised to find him ranked 22nd on the list of 2010 Leading Sires by North American Earnings. (Malibu Moon, a son of A.P. Indy, tops the list, and would have made nice choice for Zenyatta also.)
Now 22 years old, A.P. Indy has two young sons who have done extremely well at stud as first crop sires in 2010. Congrats tops the 2010 Freshman Sire list by earnings, and Bernardini (who is third on this list) is represented by more stakes winners (four) than any other first-crop sire.
I think Darley has done a great job managing their sire Bernardini, who is off to a great start. His auction yearling average is $285,690, which has helped make him an attractive sire. His racing resume adds to the package – he was a classic winner whose accomplishments that year led to an Eclipse Award as Champion 3-Year-Old Male. He also has a remarkable resemblance to his sire, when you compare them physically.
Bernardini arrived on the scene as a stallion last year and immediately made an impression. He became the first freshman sire to produce juvenile G1 winners on dirt and turf (A Z Warrior and Biondetti), and so far has been represented equally as well with colts as he has with fillies.
I’m pretty certain the Moss’s acknowledged that TrueNicks rate the cross of A.P. Indy and sons with Machiavellian line mares A++. What may have also weighed in to their decision is that Zenyatta’s half-sister Balance produced a son of A.P. Indy that sold in the 2010 Keeneland September Sale (hip #0014) as a yearling for $4.2 million to Besilu Stables. He was an outstanding individual physically and bred along the same family lines as the future “Baby Z.”
Zenyatta has a license to be bred to any sire of the Moss’s choice, and the more I researched and thought about their choice of Bernardini, the more it made sense!
