Multiple Grade 2 winner SUAVE (A.P. Indy) was represented by his first winner
as a sire on Friday when B G Suavecito captured the 1ST race at Lone Star Park.
The juvenile colt was making his first start in the five-furlong test, but
didn’t get much respect in his career debut. Sent off the 48-1 longest shot in
the eight-horse field, the Isai Gonzalez-trained dark bay dueled for the lead in
between horses, briefly gained command on the backstretch, was headed in the
lane but battled back and pulled off to be 2 1/4 lengths clear on the line. The
Benjamin Gonzalez colorbearer stopped the clock in :58 4/5 under jockey Alfredo
Contreras.
Suave took five tries to break his maiden, finally getting the job done at
Churchill Downs in his juvenile finale. The colt wouldn’t taste victory again
until facing allowance rivals in the spring of 2004. He then tried stakes
competition for the initial time, running third in the Illinois Derby (G2), and
finally added a first stakes triumph to his line when returning to the Twin
Spires for the Northern Dancer S. (G3). Suave followed that with runner-up
efforts in the Swaps S. (G2) and Indiana Derby (G2), and closed out his
three-year-old campaign with a nice fourth in the Clark H. (G2) back at
Churchill.
Suave’s four- and five-year-old seasons saw the Paul McGee trainee score in
the Washington Park H. (G2) in track-record time and the Saratoga H. (G2), and he also placed in the
Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) and Clark during that time. The bay wrapped up his
racing career with a unplaced run in the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) after
stumbling at the start, and headed to the breeding shed with a 27-7-6-2 line
having accumulated $1,348,423 in lifetime earnings.
Suave comes from a stellar female line, as his dam is multiple Grade 1 queen
and 1995 Kentucky Oaks (G1) runner-up Urbane (Citidancer). That one is a
daughter of Dumfries Pleasure (Pleasant Colony), who also produced 2001 Irish
Oaks (Ire-G1) third Karsavina (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells). Dumfries Pleasure is
herself a half-sister to Dance Review (Northern Dancer), who is noted as the dam
of Grade 1 winners Another Review (Buckaroo) and No Review (Nodouble) as well as
dual Grade 2 victress Dance Colony (Pleasant Colony).
Others prominent members of this family include Grade 1 winner Flower Alley
(Distorted Humor), who was second in the 2005 Breeders’ Cup Classic, in which
Suave was fifth; Grade 1 scorer Ashkal Way (Ire) (Ashkalani); multiple Group
1-winning sire Lyphard (Northern Dancer); and Grade 2 heroine Promenade Girl
(Carson City), third in the 2006 Spinster S. (G1) and 2007 Ogden Phipps H. (G1).
Worldly, third in last year’s Kentucky Jockey Club S. (G2), is a full brother to
Suave.
The nine-year-old stallion stands for a live foal fee of $12,500 at Darby Dan
Farm near Lexington, Kentucky.