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The Grade 1 winning 2YO Fog of War is a young stallion that we believe has a big future in New York, and the G2-placed Dynaformer mare Cable should make a perfect match for him in his first book.
Trained by Chad Brown, Fog of War won first time out sprinting on turf at Saratoga over a field that included the subsequent graded stakes winner Current, and then he overcame greenness to run down subsequent Preakness winner War of Will in his second start in the Grade 1 Summer Stakes when stretched to a mile. Though never able to get back to those heights during five starts at 3 and 4YO (he did finish 2nd in Belmont Park’s Manila Stakes going a mile on turf at 3, splitting eventual G1W Win Win Win and eventual G2W Casa Creed), those early accomplishments make Fog of War a fascinating stud prospect given his looks and pedigree — especially in the lucrative New York-bred program.
His sire, War Front, is one of the elite sires in the USA over the last decade, and War Front’s successful sons at stud include the likes of The Factor and Declaration of War. Fog of War is bred on the proven War Front/Galileo cross, and his Group 3-winning dam (herself a daughter of Grade 1 winner Riskaverse, who traces in tail-female to the Blue Hen mare Toll Booth) has already produced a pair of stakes-winning full brothers to Fog of War in Naval Intelligence and Invader.
War Front is a son of Danzig, and Cable is a half-sister to the Grade 2 winner and consistent sire Exchange Rate, by Danzig — which makes this pairing look pretty solid on paper. Not to mention that from 28 starters by War Front and his sons out of Dynaformer mares, there are already 3 stakes winners (including a G3 winner), good for an “A” rating from TrueNicks.
Additionally, because Fog of War’s aforementioned G3-winning dam Say is out of a Dynaformer daughter herself, the foal from this cross will be inbred to that hard-knocking, classical influence 4×2 in a pattern that has produced just one foal of racing age so far, which happens to be a stakes winner of $379,363 (and inbreeding to Dynaformer in the 2nd-4th generations more broadly has produced two stakes winners from 36 foals of racing age, good for a better-than-5% strike rate). And in fact, both Cable and Say’s dam Riskaverse are bred on the identical Dynaformer/Seeking the Gold cross, which produced 6 stakes winners from just 39 foals, including 3 Grade 1 winners.
Physically, Fog of War is an incredibly well-balanced and good-bodied horse of medium height, who should complement nicely the bigger, slightly coarser Cable and produce a good-looking foal capable of competing on the New York turf courses for years to come!
TDN video on Fog of War entering stud
Fog of War wins the Summer Stakes-G1