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Our latest Housatonic Recommended Mating features the recent acquisition Rockport Dancer, a precocious and hard-knocking mare from a deep and talented female family, who will visit the Eclipse Champion 2-year-old and leading veteran sire Macho Uno in Kentucky this spring.
As a young black-type runner just beginning her breeding career, we were anxious to send Rockport Dancer to a proven stallion that could help her kick off her reproductive career with a successful start — although a breeder might lower the prospective foal’s commercial ceiling by choosing an older, proven stallion rather than a first-year sire (ironic though that sounds), one would hope to be rewarded in the long-term with a better chance of producing a successful racehorse that will make the mare’s future foals worth that much more down the road.
Macho Uno fits the “proven” tag to a T. As a racehorse, Macho Uno was the Eclipse Champion 2-year-old when his victories that season st included the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile-G1 over Point Given. Unfortunately, he missed the Triple Crown at 3 but returned to win the Pennsylvania Derby-G3 that fall, and at 4 he captured the historic Mass Cap-G2 before retiring to stud at Adena Springs South (because his half-brother Awesome Again had recently retired to their Kentucky property; Macho Uno relocated to join Awesome Again in Kentucky after his first crop included Grade 1-winning 2-year-old Wicked Style).
At stud, Macho Uno has sired 38 stakes winners so far, good for 5% of his foals of racing age, and this number includes 14 Graded stakes winners — four of them the North American Grade 1 winners Private Zone, Mucho Macho Man, Macho Again, and the aforementioned Wicked Style. Macho Uno’s runners have compiled average earnings per starter of $91,385 (79% of his foals have made the races, and 76% of those are winners), and his 1.60 AEI is well above his 1.38 CI, meaning he moves his mares way up.
Rockport Dancer is a granddaughter of Unbridled’s Song, who is the broodmare sire of Macho Uno’s stakes winner Decision Day (from just six foals of racing age sired by Macho Uno from daughters of Unbridled’s Song or his sons), while Macho Uno’s sire, the brilliant Horse of the Year Holy Bull, sired 2018 New Jersey-bred Horse of the Year Sunny Ridge from a granddaughter of Unbridled’s Song, as well. Macho Uno also has stakes winners Hampstead Heath and Picco Uno from Gone West-line mares (he being the sire of Rockport Dancer’s own dam, Andtheliviniseasy), while Rockport Dancer’s second damsire is Alydeed, a grandson of Nijinsky — and Nijinsky appears in the female family such as Grade 1 winners Mucho Macho Man (by Macho Uno) and Confessional (by Holy Bull), plus other Graded winners Overheard and Macho Macho (both by Macho Uno), Mucho Gusto (by Macho Uno’s son Mucho Macho Man), and Woke Up Dreamin, Turnofthecentury, Crash Course, Hull and City of Weston (all by Holy Bull) — so there are plenty of reasons to like this particular match beyond just the success of Macho Uno himself.
In addition, we would note that Rockport Dancer was multiple stakes-placed on dirt at two before going on to victories on dirt, turf and all-weather while racing through her 7-year-old season, while despite his own precocity — not to mention the speed of his parents — Macho Uno’s best offspring have tended to improve with age and distance (the sprinters Private Zone and Bobby Abu Dhabi, and juvenile Wicked Style being obvious exceptions to that blanket statement), and they have also been able to handle turf/all-weather, meaning he should compliment Rockport Dancer’s versatility very well.
Physically, Macho Uno is a bit leggier and scopier than Rockport Dancer, so hopefully he will stretch out her foal just a bit.
Macho Uno wins the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile
Macho Uno wins the G2 Mass Cap
Macho Uno’s son, Mucho Macho Man, wins the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic
Rockport Dancer wins her career finale at Turfway
Rockport Dancer’s sire, Rockport Harbor, wins the G2 Remsen
Rockport Dancer’s sire, Rockport Harbor, wins the G3 Nashua