Quote:
Originally Posted by slotdirt
I took a look at Flower Alley's Stallion Register page yesterday for kicks, and aside from I'll Have Another, it's really not much.
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It's not like he's gotten the best book his first 2 or 3 years at stud. I'm skimming through the list of progeny and so far the most notable broodmare I've noticed is Regal Pennant, 2nd dam of Rockport Harbor and 1st dam of the much ballyhooed (on And They're Off) and little accomplished LeftyLenytheLegend, named after Lenny Shulman. Maybe I'm missing something but most of the rest of them don't ring a bell. "Leny" was the result of Regal Pennant's breeding with Flower Alley. I'm sure Leny's career was thwarted by the burden of his namesake.
Lilacs and Lace was sold to the Japanese right after the KY Oaks and bred to Henrythenavigator so her 3yo career basically came to a screeching halt. That needs to be taken into consideration when looking at her record. (Incidentally, the Japanese also bought Princess Olivia, dam of Flower Alley, and she produced a G2 SW in Japan who was inbred to Goofed like FA, although this time not through different progeny, just Lyphard.)
Hopefully he's seeing an improvement on the mares going to him even this year, but it'll be what, 2014 or 2015 before we see the impact of that. We haven't even gotten to see the results of what happened when Birdstone had that banner year in 2009. His first 2yos from the book he got in 2010 won't show up til next year. It takes time and while Flower Alley and Birdstone are hardly AP Indy and Storm Cat right now, or even Bernardini and Tapit, they've got promise based on what they achieved versus what they were maybe expected to achieve. Let's see what they do with better mares before we judge.