Salt Lake (5560)
Another son of Deputy Minister finds his way to the Breeding Corner. You may see me talk on the message boards about mid tier sires. Salt Lake is one of those mid tier sires, where the sire is a little overlooked in the sim but his real life production and sim production are very solid. These mid tier sires offer the solid production for a very reasonable cost.
Real Life- Salt Lake is by Deputy Minister. His dam sire is Queen City Lad (Olden Times) and his dam’s dam sire is Take Away. The dam sire of the pedigree could be accurately labeled obscure. His dosage index is 3.00 so a solid mix of speed and stamina. As a runner Salt Lake was a sprinter. He ran nine times as a two year old taking three graded stakes in dominating fashion. He would go on to race twelve times at age three racking up three more stakes wins. In all he five graded stakes in his twenty-one race career.
He has sired forty-eight stakes winners world wide. He has produced six grade I winners world wide, sixteen graded stakes winners. His son Ordway won the Champagne at two and finished third in the Breeder’s Cup Juvenile. Salt Champ was an Argentine star and came to America and won the G1 Santa Monica last year. He produces graded stakes performers in real life and he can do the same in the sim.
There has not really been a pattern to which sire lines do well with Salt Lake. He is most often crossed with Raise a Native lines sires including Affirmed, Alydar and Majestic Light. In limited chances he has done well with the Buckpasser line. The one thing you do not see much of is inbreeding back to the Northern Dancer line. You do see different lines like Sharpen Up, Meadowlake, and Smarten. Ribot lines have also blended well through different sires.
Sim Life – Salt Lake has almost one hundred and forty sim runners. He has six active sim stakes winners one of which is a graded stakes winner. The Damascus line has produced two of those stakes winners one through Timeless Moment and another through a son of Timeless Moment, Gilded Time. He had another by Gone West, one by A.P Jet (Mr. P line) one by Topsider and one by Caerleon.
Mostly his runners run fastest in sprints on the dirt. He has produced a couple of very solid turf runners that sprint well. He gets a fair number of runners that prefer to route again mostly on the dirt. His turf production may be a little under rated. Not many of his runners are bred for the turf or with the turf in mind. Plus there are not a bunch of turf sprints in any given week so if your Salt Lake runner is a sprinter he may not get a chance on the turf.
Breeding Suggestions – You have to like the way the Damascus line has blended with Salt Lake. There are several good solid Damascus line dam sires to be used. Crusader Sword, Cutass, Desert Wine, Eastern Echo, Ogygian, Private Account, and Timeless Moment are all solid dam sire choices.
Mr. Prospector line sires will fit nice but I do like other Raise a Native line sires. I like Majestic Prince as a dam’s dam sire and two of his sons are interesting. Sensitive Prince and Coastal both offer great value. Other lines to consider are the Ribot, Bold Ruler, Buckpasser, and Northern Dancer lines.
I like the thought of using some lesser used sire lines like Meadowlake, some In Reality line sires like Relaunch, Known Fact or Valid Appeal, Cure the Blues, Clever Trick, Phone Trick, and Lord at War (ARG). I like some turf influence dam sires as well like Diesis (GB), Shirley Heights (GB), Darshaan (ENG). Here is also where I think Northern Dancer inbreeding could work well with Nureyev, or Sadler’s Wells sons.
Salt Lake (5560) X Meadowlake (3901) X Majestic Prince (3743)
Salt Lake (5560) X Private Account (4964) X Bold Ruler (735)
Salt Lake (5560) X Silver Buck (5835) X Secreto (5684)
Salt Lake (5560) X Stravinsky (11609) X Shirley Heights (GB) (5784)
Bargain Bred – Salt Lake does not get cheap enough to really breed a good bargain bred. You may be able to catch him in the early months of the year for a low enough price to get a decent bargain but that still might be a stretch.
What to Expect – Salt Lake ran well as a two year old, he is producing good two year olds in real life, and he has a two year old stakes winner and stakes placer currently in the sim. I would expect his better offspring to show some talent at two. A well managed runner could easily carry good form on into a runner’s four year old season and maybe longer if for some reason the runner is lightly raced.
His runners probably will be best on the dirt. Deputy Minister is a solid source of stamina so do not be afraid to try a route race with your Salt Lake runner you might be surprised. Also give them a run on the turf he can produce a solid turf runner or two.
As always if you have any questions, comments, or sire requests please drop me a line at mcbwildcat@aol.com. Be sure to reference the Breeding Corner. Good luck and good breeding!