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Blofeld is a young Maryland stallion that we have used repeatedly in his first few seasons at stud. Through the first two months of 2022, he’s had 12 of his first-crop 3YOs race and 11 of those have won — an outstanding statistic that tracks his overall winners/runners ratio of 12 from 13 (out of just 24 foals in his first crop). With these first runners suggesting that Blofeld might be a sire on the rise, we recently acquired the stakes-placed winner Faze the Nation privately with the specific intent of breeding her to Blofeld.
Blofeld was an unbeaten graded stakes winner at 2YO, the first graded winner for his sire Quality Road, who is now among the elite stallions in the country. Quality Road has had great success with mares by Faze the Nation’s broodmare sire Malibu Moon (including G1 winner Bellafina and stakes winner Diamond King), and with AP Indy-line mares more generally, he also has additional G1 winners Emblem Road and Dunbar Road, as well as stakes winners Gingham, Abounding Joy, Top Quality and 2022 classic hopeful Blackadder.
Quality Road’s success with the AP Indy-line is especially noteworthy here, as Faze the Nation herself is inbred 3×3 to that former Horse of the Year and leading sire. Quality Road is also the sire of G2 winner Core Beliefs out of a Forty Niner-line mare (Faze the Nation’s sire, Cal Nation, being a grandson of Forty Niner). So there is a lot to like about this cross on paper.
Additionally, Faze the Nation’s stakes-placed dam Sunday in Malibu is a half-sister to the stakes winner Retaliation, by Fly So Free. Fly So Free, in turn, is a son of Time For a Change, who traces in tail female to the Wheatley scion Grey Flight — and Blofeld carries two crosses of Grey Flight through his dam (and with one of his most promising winners so far — Royal Spy — carrying two more crosses of Grey Flight, we think that influence is relevant despite it being relatively removed in his pedigree). Also interesting is that both Blofeld and Faze the Nation carry the closely-related Nijinsky and The Minstrel in their pedigrees (The Minstrel will appear in this foal’s pedigree “sex-balanced” through both a son and a daughter), and their close relative Storm Bird is also in Faze the Nation’s pedigree.
Although Blofeld himself was a relatively early 2YO and had most of his success at 2, he’s proving that he might be a bit more of a later-developing influence based on these first crop results. So the fact that Faze the Nation was a 2YO winner, after running twice in May that season, will hopefully blend well with Blofeld’s tendencies and produce a slightly earlier maturing foal. And as a close-coupled, chunky mare, she should benefit from the infusion of leg and length that Blofeld brings to the match, as well.