Good Magic’s Dornoch propels Puca into elite band of broodmares

Dornoch’s apparent shock Belmont Stakes win at odds of 18/1, undoubtedly assisted by the revised distance of a mile and a quarter at Saratoga which had a notable speed bias on the day, was a remarkable success for more reason than one.

For starters, he provided sire Good Magic with a second Classic winner from as many crops. The son of Curlin stands alongside his imperious sire and if he maintains this trajectory, should have little issue fulfilling the inevitable void that will loom upon twenty-year-old Curlin’s eventual retirement at Hill ‘n’ Dale.

There are a multitude of measures employed to establish a sire’s success relative to the champions who have gone before and assess whether a sire has really made the grade. One of those is establishing a reputation as a sire of sires, and in Good Magic, Curlin can count that box as ticked. Though it would be unfair to portray Curlin as a superior sire of fillies, colts Cody’s Wish, Vino Rosso and Keen Ice among others ensure that would be foolish, his unforgettable leading ladies such as Malathaat, Stellar Wind, Clairiere, Nest and Idiomatic spring to mind a little quicker.

Of course, colts are often victim to their subsequent stallion careers overshadowing their achievements on the racetrack and Curlin’s first-crop Classic winner Palace Malice is no exception.

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Good Magic shone at two and three years but his racing career was far from perfect. The dual Grade 1 winner’s opening stud fee of $35,000 reflected that, a fee that in the aftermath of first-crop Kentucky Derby winner Mage’s success is now a thing of the past. Standing for a peak fee of $125,000 this year, Dornoch’s win will give stallion master’s Hill ‘n’ Dale a high-class problem in settling on a new fee for 2025.

Joining an elite band of broodmares, with the capable assistance of Good Magic, Puca (Big Brown) becomes reportedly the ninth broodmare to produce the winners of two American Classics. Led out unsold at $2.8 million carrying a full sibling to both the Kentucky Derby winner Mage and this year’s Belmont Stakes winner Dornoch last November, she was subsequently sold privately post sale for $2.9 million to John Stewart’s Resolute Racing establishment.

Delivering a full brother to the Classic winning pair this Spring, Puca has earned the right to marry Good Magic and with three colts on the ground, fingers will be firmly crossed for a filly in 2025. It sparked a question that possibly cannot be answered in full without a trip to the library, but how many broodmares have achieved the same on this side of the Atlantic?

Cabaret’s (Galileo) Classic-winning pair St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni) and Magna Grecia (Invincible Spirit) are two recent accomplishers though they won their relative Classics in France and Great Britain in that order. It would be remiss to mention elite broodmares without paying respect to the mother Blue Hen Urban Sea, dam of a pair of Derby winners in Galileo and Sea The Stars, neither of whom need introducing.

To be mentioned in the same breath as Urban Sea is an accolade few achieve, and another of those has to be Godolphin’s Modern Ideals (New Approach). Her daughter Mawj (Exceed And Excel) may be small in stature but that didn’t stop her showing admirable tenacity to take last year’s 1000 Guineas.

Tenacity is something Modern Ideals must impart in buckets as her older brother five time Group/Grade 1 winner Modern Games (Dubawi) showed us in his sixteen starts, eleven of those in Group Ones. A dual Breeders’ Cup winner and a G1 winner in each of the three seasons he raced, he ranks yet another hugely exciting son of Dubawi to join the Darley stallion roster.

Meanwhile, not to be outdone, Coolmore’s roster and broodmare band boasts quality of a similar ilk with active mares You’resothrilling (Storm Cat) and Lillie Langtry (Danehill Dancer) each responsible for a trio of Classic winners each.

You’resothrilling and Galileo proved a match made in heaven with her first foal Marvellous victorious in the Irish 1000 Guineas. Dual Guineas winner and Champion Two Year Old Gleneagles followed and while her next four foals were all black type earners, three Group winners and one, Vatican City, second in the Irish 2000 Guineas, it was Joan Of Arc who secured the hat trick in the Prix de Diane in 2021. You’resothrilling’s last foal to race was Toy who was just a half a length away from providing a fourth when second in the Irish Oaks.

Lillie Langtry enjoyed a similarly fruitful relationship with Galileo and though her first foal Kissed By Angels struck at Group 3 level, it was her second foal Minding who transcended her name into the history books. A record breaker in her own right, she was a Champion in each of her three seasons to race in a career that included seven Group 1 victories including her 1000 Guineas/Oaks double. Empress Josephine followed in 2021 winning the Irish 1000 Guineas and Tuesday famously won the Epsom Oaks before her third birthday at the expense of fancied and high class Emily Upjohn (Sea The Stars).

Stepping back in time, the unraced mare Doff The Derby (Master Derby) was responsible for dual Derby winner Generous (Caerleon) whose ten year junior sister Imagine (Sadler’s Wells) succeeded in both the Irish 1000 Guineas and Epsom Oaks. Prix du Jockey Club winner Study Of Man (Deep Impact) is making a splash with his first crop of three year olds, and with his illustrious bloodlines to match his ability on the track, it should come as no surprise.

He is a grandson of the Niarchos family’s own Blue Hen Miesque (Nureyev), responsible for top class sire Kingmambo (Mr Prospector), victorious in the French 2000 Guineas and Prix de Diane winner East Of The Moon (Private Account). Her daughter Alpha Lupi has bred a trio of Group 1 winners in Discoveries (Mastercraftsman), Alpine Star (Sea The Moon) and Alpha Centauri (Mastercraftsman), though the latter is the sole Classic winner having won the Irish 1000 Guineas.

Though the focus has been on brilliant European broodmares, it would be unfair not to reminisce about the Belmont winning pair Jazil and Rags To Riches who both share ties with these shores. Jazil (Seeking The Gold) wore the familiar blue and white silks of Shadwell for the late Sheikh Hamdan in 2006, and a year later his Kentucky Oaks winning half-sister Rags To Riches carried Michael Tabor’s renowned blue and orange colours to a famous victory against the colts – one of only three fillies to win the Belmont Stakes.

Their dam Better Than Honour (Deputy Minister) bred four stakes winners in all, two in Classics, and her influence is still prevalent today. She is the third dam of last year’s sensational Belmont winner Arcangelo (Arrogate), and though Rags To Riches is yet to produce a stakes winner, she has four daughters charged with the responsibility of keeping her legacy intact, at least one will surely oblige.

We could venture further back to the (reportedly) undistinguished Derby winners of 1969 and 1973 when the half-brothers Blakeney (Hethersett) and Morston (Ragusa) respectively won the Epsom Derby for their dam Windmill Girl (Hornbeam), but accessible records and my own relatively short existence will inhibit doing so accurately and there are enough esteemed mares mentioned alongside Puca to illustrate unequivocally how special she is after Dornoch’s success.

The bloodstock world is ever changing but the unwavering fact that pedigree is the best indicator of performance is one constant we can rely upon. A relatively young mare (12 years old) with just five foals on the ground, there is ample time for her to repay the investment made by her new connections and further secure her place in the history books.

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