PEDIGREE HANDICAPPING
March 28, 2009
Emerging Broodmare Sire Dehere
by Tim Holland
When Buddy’s Humor (Distorted Humor) splashed through the mud to take the
off-the-turf Pan American S. (G3) on Saturday, it moved his broodmare sire Dehere
into third place behind his sire, Deputy Minister, and Seeking the Gold in the
2009 Leading Broodmare Sires By Earnings list. This victory came a week after Friesan Fire (A.P. Indy), out of the Dehere mare Bollinger (Aus), took the
Louisiana Derby (G2).
A sensational two-year-old campaigned by Due Process Stable and trainer
Reynaldo Nobles, Dehere won his first four races including a sweep of the
Saratoga Special S. (G2), the Sanford S. (G3) and the Hopeful S. (G1). Overturned as
the very short-priced favorite by Holy Bull in his next start, the Futurity S.
(G1), in which he suffered a slightly wide trip over a sloppy Belmont strip, Dehere rebounded with a smashing win in the Champagne S. (G1). That victory
ensured his status as favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) but he threw
in a dull effort fading to finish eighth. However, despite this blemish and his
Futurity loss, Dehere had done enough to secure two-year-old championship
honors.
As a three-year-old Dehere raced only twice. He started the year with a
second-place finish in an allowance event, but indicated in his next start
that he would be a serious Kentucky Derby (G1) contender when winning the
Fountain of Youth S. (G2). The colt’s Derby hopes were soon ended when he
fractured a hind leg in training and Go for Gin, who had finished second in the
Fountain of Youth, would go on to win the Run for the Roses.
Dehere was retired and stood his first season at Coolmore in Kentucky in 1995
from where he was shuttled to Australia for each Southern Hemisphere breeding
seasons until he was sold to Japan in 1999. In 2005 Coolmore reacquired Dehere,
and his first two-year-olds from his second stint shuttling between America and
Australia will be seen in their respective countries this year.
The best runner from Dehere’s first crop of North American foals born in 1996
was Millions, who won the Laurel Futurity (G3) and was second in the Remsen S.
(G2), while his initial group of Australian foals included Captain Test, winner
of the Tattersall’s Cup (Aus-G3). Dehere’s second year at stud resulted in his
first Group 1 winners in Australia, the champion Belle Du Jour and Defier, as
well as the millionaire Graeme Hall, whose biggest score was the Arkansas Derby
(G2), But his best North American runner, Take Charge Lady, came from his fourth
crop.
Trained by Ken McPeek, Take Charge Lady won three of her five juvenile starts
and her first three races at three including the Ashland S. (G1) before running
second in the Kentucky Oaks (G1). The bay filly added the Dogwood S. (G3) and
Spinster S. (G1) to her resume that season to help Dehere finish second in the
2002 Leading Sires by Earnings list.
Other graded winners by Dehere have included Soto, who won the Kentucky Jockey
Club S. (G2); Jamaica H. (G2) winner Finality; and Belle of Perintown, whose
victories included the Silverbulletday S. (G2). However, it is through his
daughters, such as Bollinger, herself a Group 1 winner via the Coolmore
Classic in Australia, that Dehere’s lasting influence maybe most powerful.
Dehere’s sire, Deputy Minister has proved himself as a sire of male runners
through the likes of, in addition to Dehere, major winners Awesome Again, Deputy
Commander and Touch Gold, but his fillies have been even more successful with
Open Mind, Go for Wand and Keeper Hill the most famous, which is reflected in his
higher SPI for fillies (3.5 for fillies versus 3.42 for colts). Deputy Minister,
as well as being a top sire of runners is also excelling as a broodmare sire
having ranked in the top five in the Leading Broodmare Sires by Earnings list
for each of his last seven years. His daughters have produced major winners
Curlin (Smart Strike), Jazil (Seeking the Gold), Rags To Riches (A.P. Indy) and Halfbridled (Unbridled) to name four, and a high ten percent of their starters
have earned black-type.
Being by Deputy Minister gives one enough reason to believe that Dehere will
also be a useful broodmare sire, but this is magnified when one considers that he
is out of a mare by Secretariat. While relatively successful as a sire of
runners such as Risen Star, Lady’s Secret, General Assembly and Pancho Villa, Secretariat is
more famous for being the broodmare sire of notable influences such as Storm
Cat, Chief’s Crown, Gone West, Summer Squall and A.P. Indy.
From Dehere’s first crop in 1996 no less than 14 of his fillies have already
produced black-type earners. These include four grade/group winners — Oratory
(Pulpit) who won the Peter Pan S. (G2); Illinois Derby (G2) winner Recapturetheglory
(Cherokee Run); Fravashi (Falbrav [Ire]), whose biggest success came in
Australia’s Q.T.C. Sires Produce S. (Aus-G2); and champion Midnight Lute, winner of the
last two Breeders’ Cup Sprints (G1). Eleven of the offspring of the fillies from Dehere’s second year at stud have earned black-type so far including Buddy’s
Humor and Rebel Raider (Reset), who won the Victoria Derby (Aus-G1), while Friesan Fire
hails from a mare from the 1999 crop along with Forensics (Flying Spur), winner of the Golden
Slipper S. (Aus-G1).