Karakontie Growing Into His Family as a Sire

Seeing a grade 1 win added to the progeny accomplishments of Karakontie   seemed a matter of time with two of his five graded/group stakes winners already having made strong showings against elite company.

Spendarella , Gainesway's homebred 3-year-old filly out of the Unusual Heat mare Spanish Bunny, grabbed the brass ring Aug. 20 when she won the Del Mar Oaks (G1T) by 4 1/2 lengths. Her top-shelf victory followed a second in the Coronation Stakes (G1) during Royal Ascot and wins in the Appalachian Stakes Presented by Japan Racing Association (G2T) at Keeneland and Herecomesthebride Stakes (G3T) at Gulfstream Park.

Spanish Bunny was a savvy purchase by Gainesway at the 2015 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, where she was purchased for $130,000 out of the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment. The mare, who had a single win on her race record, had already produced a grade 1 winner with her first foal Spanish Queen  (Tribal Rule ), and she was not in foal when she went through the sale, so she could be mated early to Gainesway's new sire of 2016 Karakontie.

The combination of a Northern Dancer line sire with a mare by a Northern Dancer line broodmare sire proved to be a potent one.

For his career to date, Karakontie has sired 80 winners, nine black-type winners, and seven other black-type performers. His foals out of mares by Northern Dancer line sires account for 10 (62%) winners from 16 starters and four (25%) black-type winners. Spanish Bunny is responsible for two of the stakes winners—Spendarella, and her 4-year-old graded-placed, multiple stakes-winning sister Spanish Loveaffair . Northern Dancer inbreeding also has produced multiple stakes winner Karak , a daughter of Down The Well (IRE) by Mujadil; and, Tournesol , who is out of the Galileo (IRE) stakes-placed winner Magic of Reality (FR).

Bred and raced by Flaxman Holdings, Karakontie is by Bernstein, who was a multiple graded stakes winner by Storm Cat (a Northern Dancer grandson). Karakontie's dam, Sun Is Up (JPN), is a daughter of Sunday Silence out of the Flaxman homebred group 3 winner Moon Is Up (Woodman), who is out of Flaxman's six-time champion and multi-millionaire Miesque.

Unplaced as a racehorse, Flaxman offered Sun Is Up at the 2001 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, where she was bought back on a final bid of $700,000. Flaxman did well to keep her in the broodmare band. She has produced six winners that include Karakontie and stakes winners Sunday Sunrise  (Lemon Drop Kid) and Bottega (Mineshaft  ).

Miesque is an influence in the pedigrees of three stakes winners sired by Karakontie: Sole Volante , winner of the Sam F. Davis Stakes (G3); Kenzai Warrior , who won the Heath Court Hotel Horris Hill Stakes (G3) at Newmarket; and, Irish listed stakes winner Cigamia .

Sole Volante is out of the winner Light Blow, a daughter of Kingmambo, who is a son of Miesque, which makes Sole Volante inbred 3x4 to the champion mare.

Kenzai Warrior and Cigamia are both out of mares by Lemon Drop Kid, who is a son of Kingmambo. Both of these stakes winners are inbred 4x4 to Miesque. This cross also includes 3x4 inbreeding to Storm Cat and 4x5x5x5 inbreeding to Mr. Prospector (the sire of Kingmambo).

Spendarella is not inbred to Miesque but she is inbred to 3x5 to Miesque's sire Nureyev. Her broodmare sire Unusual Heat is a son of Nureyev and a six-time leading sire in California. As a broodmare sire, Unusual Heat has been represented to date by 25 black-type winners, which include 11 graded/group winners. Spanish Bunny is inbred 3x3 to Northern Dancer through his sons Nureyev and El Gran Senor, who is Spanish Bunny's broodmare sire, so the mating to Karakontie produced 4x4x5 Northern Dancer inbreeding.

Inbreeding to Sunday Silence also appears to be a potentially successful strategy with Karakontie as indicated by Princess Grace , a five-time graded stakes winner by the Gainesway stallion who was most recently second in the Beverly D. Stakes (G1T) by half a length Aug. 13 at Churchill Downs and last year ran third in the Matriarch Stakes (G1T). A homebred for John and Susan Moore, Princess Grace is out of the stakes-placed winner Masquerade, who is a daughter Silent Name (JPN), a son of Sunday Silence. The Moore's 5-year-old stakes winners is inbred 3x3 to Sunday Silence.