Shuttle sirelines: Scat Daddy has a strong hand

The late Scat Daddy (USA) (Johannesburg {USA}) provided one of the most notable international stallion success stories of recent years.

Having covered at Ashford Stud in Kentucky for as little as US$10,000 in 2011, the 2007 G1 Florida Derby winner began to enjoy such prolific worldwide success that his fee was set at US$100,000 for the 2016 season after a banner year in 2015, when he was represented by no fewer than 36 individual stakes winners.

Sadly, he never got to cover the stellar collection of mares booked in to him as he suffered a fatal heart attack on 14 December 2015.

Since then, Scat Daddy’s success has continued posthumously to expand and the spotlight is now on his several sons who are bidding to step into their father’s shoes. No Nay Never (USA) gave plenty of encouragement for breeders placing their faith in Scat Daddy’s sons when he topped the first-season sires’ rankings in Europe last year; this year, Australian breeders keen to tap into this exciting sire-line will be spoilt for choice.

Coolmore leading the way

Scat Daddy spent his whole stud career on the Coolmore roster at Ashford, interspersed by shuttling stints to South America where he stood at Haras Paso Nevado in Chile in 2009, ’10 and ’11, siring numerous South American champions including the terrific mare Dacita (Chi), winner of three Grade 1 races in her homeland in 2014 followed by the G1 Diana S. at Saratoga in 2016 and the G1 Beverly D S. at Arlington Park in 2017.

It is only natural that Coolmore are now leading the way in standing sons of Scat Daddy, with the Coolmore roster in New South Wales this season set to contain four of the great horse’s best sons.

Topping the bill is the 2018 US Triple Crown winner Justify (USA), who ranks as the only Triple Crown winner to retire undefeated in American racing history. He is currently concluding his first season at Ashford Stud at a fee of US$150,000 and is assured of a hero’s welcome when he arrives at Jerrys Plains later this year.

Justify covered 35 Group 1 winners during his first season at Ashford Stud (including Found (Ire), Clemmie (Ire), Together Forever (Ire), Misty For Me (Ire), Havre de Grace (USA), Quarter Moon (Ire), and Turbulent Descent (USA)). He also covered the dams of 40 Group 1 winners (including Lady Aurelia (USA), Harry Angel (Ire), Arrogate (USA), Runhappy (USA), Bodemeister (USA), Classic Empire (USA), and Improbable (USA)).

Previously a winner of the G1 Santa Anita Derby, Justify was a strong favourite in the Kentucky Derby, with the punters’ second choice in that also being a son of Scat Daddy: the impeccably-bred Aidan O’Brien-trained Mendelssohn (USA) who had previously registered impressive victories in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and the G2 UAE Derby. Furthermore, two other sons of Scat Daddy had also done enough to earn their place in that Kentucky Derby line-up, Flameaway (USA) and Combatant (USA).

Like Justify, Mendelssohn is also winding up his first season at Ashford (where he has been covering for US$35,000) and he too is bound to be popular with Australian breeders, having shown ability commensurate with his top-drawer pedigree: a former US$3,000,000 yearling, he is a half-brother to outstanding US-based stallion Into Mischief (USA) (Harlan’s Holiday {USA}) and to the 11-time Grade One-winning racemare Beholder (USA) (Henny Hughes {USA}).

The form-book shows that Mendelssohn was equally effective on both turf and dirt. Over and above his BC Juvenile Turf and his UAE Derby victories on the different surfaces, he also finished second in the G1 Dewhurst S. at Newmarket on turf and the G1 Travers S. at Saratoga on dirt. Therein lies the key to the international appeal of Scat Daddy and (hopefully!) his sons.

A sire of dirt and turf success

The key to the long-term shuttling success of the erstwhile outstanding Vinery shuttler More Than Ready (USA) (Southern Halo {USA}) was that, having raced exclusively on dirt, he turned out to be equally proficient at siring high-class runners on both dirt and turf. Scat Daddy, another who raced solely on dirt, likewise proved at least as effective at producing turf champions as top-liners on dirt, and there is every reason to believe that Scat Daddy’s sons will follow suit.

It is encouraging that Scat Daddy’s sire Johannesburg (USA) (Hennessy {USA}) was also fully effective on both surfaces: in 2001 he was the champion two-year-old of both Europe and the USA, where his preparation culminated in a superb triumph in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on the dirt at Belmont Park.

Scat Daddy’s excellence as a turf stallion is best summed up by his Royal Ascot record. Starting with the victory of No Nay Never in the G2 Norfolk S. as a two-year-old in June 2013, Scat Daddy put together a splendid run of success at the Royal Meeting on the hallowed turf of arguably the most iconic racecourse in the world, his progeny winning eight black-type contests in merely five Royal Ascots.

Watch: No Nay Never winning the G2 Norfolk S. on turf

No Nay Never (subsequently winner of the G1 Prix Morny at Deauville and runner-up in the following year’s G1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint) was brilliant that day. Similarly scintillating were the subsequent Royal Ascot-winning juveniles Acapulco (USA), Caravaggio (USA) and Lady Aurelia (USA), dominant winners of the G2 Queen Mary S. in 2015, the G2 Coventry S. in 2016 and the G2 Queen Mary S. in 2016 respectively.

Any thoughts that Scat Daddy’s stock might be ‘merely’ outstandingly precocious juveniles were dispelled when both Caravaggio and Lady Aurelia returned to Royal Ascot as three-year-olds in 2017 to record equally excellent victories, the former beating Harry Angel (Ire) and Blue Point (Ire) in the G1 Commonwealth Cup and Lady Aurelia landing a stunning three-length victory in the G1 King’s Stand S.

Remarkably, those two Group 1 victories formed merely half of a notable black-type four-timer for Scat Daddy at the Royal Ascot in 2017, when he also struck with Sioux Nation (USA) in the G2 Norfolk S. and Con Te Partiro (USA) in the Sandringham S.

Southern Hemisphere sons

Two of Scat Daddy’s Royal Ascot heroes, No Nay Never and Caravaggio, will stand alongside their paternal half-brothers Justify and Mendelssohn on the Coolmore roster this season, shuttling from Coolmore in Ireland.

No Nay Never is already proven as an excellent stallion thanks to his European first-season sires’ championship in 2018, echoing Scat Daddy’s first-season sires’ title in the USA in 2011. No Nay Never’s winners to date are headed by last season’s G1 Middle Park S. hero Ten Sovereigns, one of several high-class juveniles who collectively ensured that No Nay Never has been standing this season in Ireland at a fee of 100,000 euros.

Hopes are high that Caravaggio, who is currently concluding his first Irish season, might make a similar impact when he has his first runners in 2021.

Gallery: Two sons of Scat Daddy to stand at Coolmore Australia in 2019

Another of Scat Daddy’s Royal Ascot stars will be readily accessible to Victorian breeders with Sioux Nation set to stand at Swettenham Stud near Nagambie. The links between the Sangster family and Coolmore and Ballydoyle go back to the early 1970s and Sioux Nation will be one of two former Ballydoyle inmates on the Swettenham roster, alongside the mighty Highland Reel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}).

While Highland Reel ranks as one of the most durable gallopers ever trained by Aidan O’Brien, Sioux Nation proved himself one of the most precocious. In action very early in the 2017 season, Sioux Nation had already run four times by the time that he headed to Royal Ascot, where he slammed his 16 rivals to win the G2 Norfolk S. over 1000m.

That was not the full extent of his achievements, either: he won the G1 Phoenix S. over 1200m at the Curragh on his next start before going on to take the G3 Goffs Lacken S. over 1200m at Naas as a three-year-old.

There are plenty more chapters still to be written in the story of Scat Daddy. With his high-class sons now shuttling, there is every chance that several of these chapters will be written in Australia.