The URC Salutes Storm Cat!

For those who have followed my meandering thoughts about the thoroughbred breed the last couple decades you will note certain stallions hold a special place of significance in my heart. One of those most near and dear was the great Storm Cat. The impact he has had upon the modern horse cannot be understated and it is only going to continue to increase now that Coolmore started breeding Galileo to Storm Cat mares resulting in his highest percentage of graded stakes winners yet. Storm Cat, although most known as a source of American dirt speed, produced a Belmont Stakes winner, Breeder’s Cup Classic winners and English Classic winners, grade one winners from Santa Anita to Tokyo and is found in the pedigrees of both recent Triple Crown winners. In recognition of Storm Cat, the URC holds their stallion series for 2yo maidens this week sired by sons of the immortal stallion. 

In keeping with my previous format and not even attempting to guess how unraced 2yos will fare, we’ll take a look at the Storm Cat sons the URC members selected. With the passing of Giant’s Causeway, Storm Cat no longer has an ‘elite’ top end son at stud anymore. Tale of the Cat is also out of the equation because he has his own URC race later this month and it looks like no URC members doubled down on him. So how did the stallion selection breakdown? 

• Forestry – 3
• Stormy Atlantic – 2
• Cat Thief – 2
• After Market – 2
• Freud, Yankee Gentleman, Stellar Rain, Courageous Cat, Stormberg – 1

Forestry (Forest Costra, Poetisa, Scouting Report) remains a significant stallion in the SIM despite standing now in Brazil. He isn’t as good as he was in his hey day, but he still maintains a 10.2% SW rate and 2.4% GW mark. Forestry produces winners at an excellent 85.4%. All three Forestry’s in this race break from posts next to each other. Poetisa shares the co-favorite distinction at 5/1 while the odds makers have strong hopes for other two as well at 8/1 and 12/1. For low 200s, Forestry gets you a true classic American pedigree you really can’t find in other stallions with his back end of Pleasant Colony x Dr. Fager. In fact, if you enjoyed Steve Haskin’s columns on Dr. Fager last year, Forestry is the only source available of this remarkable horse. Forestry just sired a G1 winning filly last year so he still has stakes winners to throw. Any one of these three could win the race and it wouldn’t in the least be surprising, it might even be expected. 

Stormy Atlantic (Storm is Back, Shalmaneser)  is the son who I chose and my horse, Shalmaneser is the other co-favorite in the race. Storm is Back can’t be discounted either at 10/1. Stormy Atlantic, who received perhaps an unjustified downgrade this season, has sired over 100 stakes winners including Breeder’s Cup winners like Stormy Liberal. He also sired one of the most beautiful fillies I ever saw, Magnificience, was in the same class as Rags to Riches. Magnificence got wiped out in the gate in her maiden start falling behind 15 lengths then rallied to win by over 8. She set a new stakes record in her next start and unfortunately was derailed with injuries after that. Slender, athletic and they used a yellow bridle and reins with her she was sight to behold. Since the announced nerf, Stormy Atlantic can be had for upper 100s which is amazing value. He wins at a like rate to Forestry with 84.8% but he has never quite had his stakes power. Stormy Atlantic provides 6.8% SW and 1.4% graded winners. 

Cat Thief (Foxy Thief, The Green Thief), who won the Breeder’s Cup Classic, turned out to be something of a disappointment at stud. He was standing at Overbrook farm when I visited Storm Cat, and he was bred and raced by them. Despite their support he couldn’t quite make it as a stallion. Cat Thief stands in Korea now and it sort of makes me sad that Overbrook farm has been dispersed, the land sold away, the broodmare band is gone. Storm Cat has of course passed away and poor Cat Thief is all alone in a far off land. The Green Thief is considered a major contender in this race at 7/1 and while Foxy Thief is a 23/1 longshot, I like her name the best among the field. Cat Thief was highly rated years ago and produced a steady stream of graded winners. He costs 168 and for that you get 82.7% winners, 8.2% SW and 1.9% GW. He has a G3 winner in 2017. He still has his support averaging about 40 SIM runners a year.

After Market (Brush the Market, After Tambo) sends a couple well regarded runners into this race at 10/1 and 6/1 respectively. After Market was a multiple grade one winner who won 8 of his career 13 races. He was bred along the same nick as Giant’s Causeway being out of the G1 winning and producing Rahy mare Tranquility Lake. He went to stud at Lane’s End but could never really find commercial appeal. Standing in Turkey now, After Market costs 142. He only had one G1 winner in the SIM, although his numbers were above average with 80.1% winners, 5.1% SW and 1.2% GW. He hasn’t broken 30 breedings in the last 5 listed seasons so his appeal is small. 

Courageous Cat (Dania Stormcat) is the most well regarded by the odds makers for the single use Storm Cat sons. CC is a full brother to After Market. G1 winner on the turf, he also ran 2nd in the BC Turf Mile. He too stood at Lane’s End for a while but has since been sent to New York. In a SIM oddity I can’t really explain he costs more than After Market bottoming out at 184 – and his numbers are worse than After Market. He has never had a G1 winner and all his percentiles are lower, 78.6%/4.4%/0.7%. As you might expect this makes him even less used in the SIM although in 2016 when he had 26 runners 2 of them were stakes winners. Dania looks to become one of those and has solid odds of 8/1. Stellar Rain (Stellar Dragon) was not a Storm Cat son I was familiar with and when I looked him up he was unraced. He stands in New Mexico and can be had for 10. He only got 1 breeding in 2017 and 1 in 2018 so the 2 he has this year is a deluge. He has no stakes winners in the SIM and has a 50% win rate. I really don’t know why Yankee Gentleman doesn’t get used. He did here with Dam Yankees but I mean come on, this is the DS of ultra popular horse American Pharoah. No one figures oh what the heck let’s throw him a breeding? He was listed stakes winner on the track and stands in Louisiana now. He costs 113 and has never had a graded winner in the SIM. Pharoah brought no upswing to his usage as he only has gotten 10,17 and 20 the last three years. Alright, I get it, he has no stakes winners, but it hasn’t really even been tested if he received a stealth boost. Win rate is 69.9%. He is likely hindered by a sub-par bottom half in his pedigree. Stormberg (Born to Slay) is the son of famous mare Serena’s Song who won 13 G1s. I really like the name Born to Slay and I’m a bit jealous I didn’t think of it for one of my Buffy themed mares. He stands in California and costs 56. He actually gets decent support averaging 40 breeds a year, likely by fans of his mom the same way Jess’s Dream piles up covers in Florida. 73.5% winners, 1.4% SW and no GW as of yet. You can sort of see how the math in the SIM gets weird, Yankee Gentleman is twice more expensive than Stormberg yet Stormberg has better numbers. Finally, Freud sired our final runner with The Ego and the Id. I’m not smart enough to interpret that one. Oh just kidding the name of the sire is the clue. This horse has the longest odds in the race at 53/1 which is sort of puzzling since Freud is a legitimate regional sire in New York. In fact he’s been the top leading turf sire in NY for the last decade and he’s finished 1st or 2nd overall in NY for 11 straight years. He’s a full brother to Giant’s Causeway although wasn’t nearly (or even close really) as successful on the track winning only his maiden. Freud probably is a bit under-rated in the SIM so maybe that explains the long odds (and this race not being on the turf). He likely entered the SIM with a standard maiden winning son of Storm Cat rating then was never upgraded over the years. So he presents a tough dilemma for breeders, he is above average in real life but costly in the SIM, 125, for what he does. Winners are 77.5%/4.5% SW/0.5% GW. He gets 60 covers a year in the SIM so simmers are trying to make him happen, he is just resisting. 21 now, he is running out of time and still seeking his first G1 winner. 

Storm Cat is one of those sires who you will see in SIM pedigrees for as long as the game keeps running. I do a double check when I see 4×4 Storm Cat inbreeding because I remember the days of enter, backspace, enter, backspace where you tried desperately at 2:45 AM to get a Storm Cat. Storm Cat gave me a Breeder’s Bowl winner and so much of the game is tied up with memories of him. He was a giant and his legacy is long. Enjoy this tribute magnificent one.