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The latest Housatonic Recommended Mating will see the multiple stakes-placed, 12-time winner Broad But Nice visit our favorite Maryland stallion, the gorgeously-bred and gorgeously-built Imagining.
Imagining’s 54 first crop foals are now 2-year-olds, and before we have even gotten into May, he already has five of his offspring on official worktabs, with several others earning rave reviews from their connections. Included among those is Dreaming of Love, who was entered in just the second baby race of the Laurel season on April 19th.
These early-season appearances are all the more noteworthy given that Imagining himself didn’t debut until his 3-year-old year, didn’t win his first stakes until 5, and scored his biggest career victory at 6.
But arguably that delayed success had more to do with the patience often exercised by trainer Shug McGaughey with the Phipps Stable runners, rather than a lack of precocity in Imagining himself, as his sire, Giant’s Causeway, was a two-time leading juvenile sire in North America (2005 and 2014), and Imagining’s dam, Daydreaming, was a 2-year-old debut winner and then Grade 1-placed that summer at Saratoga. So clearly Imagining is passing on some of the precocity inherent in his pedigree, along with his own stunning good looks (his first crop included yearling sales of $95,000, $50,000 and $25,000 (two) — all very strong numbers for locally-sired offerings at Timonium — plus a 2-year-old purchased for $55,000 at OBS April by West Point Thoroughbreds).
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These precocious tendencies in Imagining’s first foals, and in his pedigree, are complimented by Broad But Nice’s own proclivities, as she was a nine-length debut winner as a juvenile and 2nd in stakes company in her only other 2-year-old start (and her dam, Broad Dreams, was a winner of her sole career start, which came at 2). Broad But Nice eventually went on to win 12 of her 31 career races through her 7-year-old year, good for earnings of $216,300. Her first foal is a 3-year-old of 2019 who placed last year at 2 and broke her maiden in her first 3-year-old start. Named Nice n’ Broad, she is by the former West Virginia sire Global Force, who is also by Giant’s Causeway and whose 4th dam, Intriguing, is Imagining’s 5th dam — which bodes well for this particular cross.
Broad But Nice is a daughter of the Seeking the Gold stallion Seeking Daylight, and the nick of Giant’s Causeway and his sons with mares by Seeking the Gold or his sons has produced a dozen stakes winners, led by Eclipse Champion Take Charge Brandi and other Grade 1 winners Carriage Trail, Internallyflawless and Swift Temper. Broad But Nice’s own broodmare sire is Broad Brush, who is the damsire of Grade 1 winner Hot Cha Cha and nine additional stakes winners by Storm Cat-line stallions, so it is easy to see why Broad But Nice had success with a son of Giant’s Causeway already.
Although all but one of Broad But Nice’s victories came at Charles Town’s 4-1/2 furlong distance, she did stretch out to win at 7 furlongs once as well, and she was certainly bred to go further: Seeking Daylight scored in the 9-furlong Brooklyn Handicap, and Broad Brush is well-known as a classic distance influence.
By breeding her to Imagining, Broad But Nice will hopefully produce a precocious foal that will eventually stretch out with maturity, and ought to be able to handle dirt or turf with equal aplomb.
Imagining wins the G1 Man o’ War
Imagining wins the G3 Red Smith
Imagining wins the G3 Pan American
Imagining wins the Idle Rich