California Sires dec:SunshineMillion 44-45.qxd
12/10/13
8:58 AM
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A Heated Battle California Sires by GENE WILLIAMS Here they are, battling in their signature racing style as they head into the final days to determine who is to be California’s top stallion for 2013. One can almost imagine the words coming from Santa Anita Park’s full-throated race caller Trevor Denman: “They’re coming as one toward the finish line!” It’s that close. The equines in question are the reigning champion sire Unusual Heat and the horse that would—or could—be king, Tribal Rule. The question remains: Will it be Unusual Heat, who stands at Harris Farms in Coalinga, for the sixth consecutive year or will upstart Tribal Rule, who’s at Ballena Vista Farm in Ramona, unseat the champion? The race for stallion honors has been neck-and-neck, with the lead changing hands frequently as offspring pile up victories and earnings. Through Nov. 30, it stood this way: Unusual Heat, $4,584,389; Tribal Rule, $4,414,030. The closeness of the race was reflected in the fluctuations over a seven-day period in early November. Here’s how it progressed: Through Nov. 3, Tribal Rule led by $17,983; through Nov. 7, Unusual Heat led by $24,539; through Nov. 9, Unusual Heat led by $1,690; and through Nov. 10, Tribal Rule was back on top, but by just $806. The progeny earnings for Unusual Heat and Tribal Rule put them both in the top 50 on the general sire list. The duo were placed ahead of such superstar stallions as Bernardini, Arch, Midnight Lute, Artie Schiller and the two-time Eclipse Horse of the Year, Curlin. As for the other stallions standing in California, Eddington, who stood at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, until moving to Ballena Vista Farm this past summer, ranked a distant third with $3,564,360. His top earner for the year is the Kentucky-bred Secret Circle, winner of the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (grade I). If numbers held the answer to winning this year’s earn-
ings race, the edge would go to Tribal Rule who, as of the end of November, had 199 starters this year to Unusual Heat’s 122. The number of winners also favors Tribal Rule with 102 on the year, compared to Unusual Heat’s 62. The latter holds an edge in stakes winners, nine to seven, but Tribal Rule has two graded stakes winners to none for Unusual Heat. Even though the numbers favor Tribal Rule over the long haul, many of Unusual Heat’s sons and daughters have placed in a number of black-type races throughout the year. Harris Auerbach, a partner with Madeline Auerbach in the Unusual Heat Syndicate who passionately tracks all the sire’s progeny, acknowledges that Tribal Rule has many more runners around “and is having a great year.” It’s not unusual, so to speak, for the reigning champion’s runners to be pursuing six-figure purses on a regular basis, the main reason that the earnings pendulum seems to swing his way. Harris Auerbach said he expects Surfcup to be Unusual Heat’s major earner for the year, but he sees four other Unusual Heat runners pushing for that spot as 2013 winds down. The quartet is He Be Fire N Ice, Starspangled Heat, Unusual Way and Gervinho. Of the four, He Be Fire N Ice and Gervinho have made the biggest news. The former won Del Mar’s California Dreamin’ Handicap prior to finishing second in the Del Mar Mile Stakes and Santa Anita’s City of Hope Mile Stakes, both grade II events. Gervinho won Del Mar’s Oceanside Stakes and finished second in a division of the Del Mar Derby (grade II) and third in Santa Anita’s Twilight Derby (grade III) . The leading earner for Tribal Rule is Ethnic Dance, whose $249,500 figure includes money earned through a victory in the other division of the Del Mar Derby.
Harris Farms’ Unusual Heat
Ballena Vista Farm’s Tribal Rule
www.ctba.com
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