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We always advocate for starting a maiden mare out with a proven stallion when it otherwise makes sense in a breeder’s program, as that will give the breeder a better gauge on the mare’s potential as a producer than breeding her to an unproven stallion that might ultimately fail (as most of them do). With the statistics that he has put up from his first three crops of racing age, Blofeld is now firmly ensconced in “proven” territory in Maryland, and he’ll make a perfect choice for our own maiden mare Star of Shanghai in 2024.
Those three crops sired by Blofeld total 74 foals, of which he has 41 winners from 54 to race, including 4 black-type winners (5.4% to foals, 7.4% to runners) and another 6 black-type placed offspring (for a total of 13.5% black-type earners/foals, and an astronomical 18.5% black-type earners/runners – the best percentage of any stallion standing outside of Kentucky!). His average starter earns north of $77,000, and he sports a fantastic 1.43 AEI/1.13 CI ratio – meaning he’s achieving these stats without significant help from his mates. After his son Johnyz From Albany and daughter Chickieness swept the 2022 Maryland Million 2YO races, Blofeld picked up back-to-back winners of the Maryland Million Lassie when Miss Harriett scored a gutsy win in that race in ‘23.
Chickieness (on the board in 10 of 13 career starts while earning over a quarter-million dollars) is out of a mare by Harlan’s Holiday, the sire of Star of Shanghai’s own sire Shanghai Bobby, and a grandson of Storm Cat. Blofeld himself is out of a Storm Cat mare, and he has had incredible success when mated back to mares from this sire-line: from seven runners, he has six winners and a trio of stakes winners (two black-type) bred this way.
In addition to the nick working well, Star of Shanghai’s female family has succeeded with stallions from the Gone West sire-line like Blofeld. She is a half-sister to a winner by the Gone West grandson Munnings, while Munnings’s Maryland-bred champion Never Enough Time appears under Star of Shanghai’s second dam, and further back are the black-type winners Great Soul, Valued Notion, Doing Great, Niclie, etc.
The average winning distance of Blofeld’s foals is a relatively stout 6.90 furlongs, which tracks nicely with Star of Shanghai’s own win at a mile (and her dam won at 6-1/2, 7 furlongs (twice), a mile, and 1-1/16 miles (twice)). Physically, Star of Shanghai is a medium-sized, stout and well-made filly who will complement the leggy and lengthy Blofeld well — and hopefully they produce a Maryland-bred foal that runs and wins early and often in the years to come!