|
|
|
Given that the best horse appearing close-up in Paluxy Princess’s pedigree is the Grade 1-placed stakes winner Achiever’s Legacy, by City Zip, we are ecstatic that she was accepted into the first book of City Zip’s best racing son Collected for 2019, in a Housatonic Recommended Mating.
Collected is a fascinating stallion prospect for Airdrie Stud. His own sire passed in 2017 after a somewhat rags-to-riches stud career (to exaggerate it slightly) during which he moved from New York to Kentucky and got a plethora of good horses across the distance and surface spectrum. And while City Zip has a couple of sons that have done quite well with the opportunities so far presented to them (like Run Away and Hide), Collected is by far the highest-profile stallion prospect by his sire to head to stud after coming to hand once City Zip’s worth had finally been realized (though two juveniles by City Zip who scored stakes victories on this most recent Breeders’ Cup Friday — Bulletin and Improbable — could have designs on eventual stud careers, as well. Their triumphs also underlined the versatility of City Zip as a stallion).
Collected is also a drop-dead gorgeous specimen: he is medium-sized, well-balanced and masculine with a lovely neck and shoulder, plenty of bone, and a correct front end.
And he could run, showing all of the versatility for which City Zip was known — a debut winner and Grade 3-placed sprinting on turf at 2, Collected stretched out to win a trio of Triple Crown preps as a 3-year-old in the Grade 3 Sham, the Grade 3 Lexington and the Sunland Park Derby, then after a subpar effort in the Preakness he was given time off and returned at 4 to reel off smashing victories in the Santana Mile, the Grade 2 Californian, the Grade 3 Precisionist (by 14 lengths, earning a 111 Beyer) and the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at a mile-and-a-quarter over his Bob Baffert-trained stablemate Arrogate (earning a 115 Beyer). He subsequently finished 2nd in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and although his 5-year-old campaign did not stack up, he had already done plenty to assure himself a place at stud, with 8 wins in 15 starts and $2.9 million in earnings.
In addition to his top-class sire-line, Collected has a well-cultivated female family and his fourth dam is a half to the champion and leading sire Blushing Groom, to whom the foal from this mating will be inbred 5×5 (meaning that Runaway Bride will appear three times in its sixth generation) and he outran the distance limitations suggested by a pedigree containing City Zip over Johannesburg, Danehill and Lyphard — which also might have suggested more turf than dirt, in contrast with Collected’s actual race record.
All of which adds up to one of the most intriguing, if slightly under-the-radar, stallion prospects for 2019.
As mentioned above, Paluxy Princess’s dam is a half-sister to the stakes winner Achiever’s Legacy by City Zip, which recommends this pairing most obviously — but even more interestingly, Paluxy Princess is a daughter of rising broodmare sire star Ghostzapper, who is actually a half-brother to City Zip, meaning that the foal from this mating will be inbred 3×3 to the Blue Hen and Broodmare of the Year, Baby Zip, by Relaunch, a “Rasmussen Factor” pattern which hasn’t yet produced any foals of racing age, but we expect that it will in the years to come.
Physically this pairing is a nice case of like-to-like, with both Collected and Paluxy Princess being leggy, strong-bodied horses, and we look forward to an attractive foal from the match in 2020.
Achiever’s Legacy, by City Zip from the family of Paluxy Princess, wins the Desi Arnaz
Collected wins the Grade 1 Pacific Classic over Arrogate & Accelerate
Collected wins the Grade 2 Californian
Collected wins the Grade 3 Precisionist by 14 lengths, over Accelerate
Collected wins the Grade 3 Lexington