Sir Taurus--An Underrated Son of Speedy Crown

Evaluating stallions and their performance, we often are preoccupied with the earnings of two and three-year-old performers, or the performance of the older get of some of our most popular and productive horses. It is easy to overlook a stallion that gets little attention due to the fact that he has limited opportunities. Through the last five years, there is one horse that has performed admirably despite the fact that he averages only 30 foals a year.

Sir Taurus, a son of Speedy Crown, and the Hickory Pride mare, Vanessa Hill, has quietly built a reputation as a horse that can produce a top quality colt or filly. Yet, he has never had the opportunity to service a large, blue ribbon group of mares, or be patronized by the sport’s leading breeders. He is, in the opinion of this writer, an underrated sire, and a huge breeding value.

A few leading breeders have purchased Sir Taurus fillies as breeding prospects. Hanover Shoe Farms owns one such mare, the fast Monet Blue Chip 3,1:56 2-5h; $303,828. Hanover bought Monet Blue Chip at auction a few years ago for six figures, bred her to Valley Victory, and this past fall, sold a $300,000 filly from her. Perretti Farms owns another high-profile Sir Taurus mare in Vernon Blue Chip 2, 1:55 4-05; $553,866, purchased at auction for $255,000. In November of 1998, at Harrisburg, Tolstoy Blue Chip 3,1:55 3-5; $310,459, was sold as a breeding prospect for $190,000 to Stormont Meadows of Canada.

These sales never got the attention they deserved at the time, and were seen merely as blips on the trotting radar. However, they reveal a respect and appreciation of what Sir Taurus has done with very limited opportunity. Sir Taurus began stud duty in 1988 at Blue Chip Farms in New York. In the 12 breeding seasons that have come and gone since that time, Sir Taurus has averaged a book of less than 60 mares/year, and fewer than 36 foals/year. Not only has he had a small book, but also his book is not that of one of the more elite trotting stallions. To say that his book is modest is to overstate the case. In a quiet and useful manner, Sir Taurus has earned our respect as a sire.. He has not produced a superstar. There has not been a Sir Taurus colt or filly able to dominate a division. Still, his numbers compare favorably with other stallions of this era if we consider his limited opportunities.

SIR TAURUS HAS MORE THAN 50 2:00 CREDITS

According to the latest figures available from the United States Trotting Association, Sir Taurus has had a total of 324 foals of racing age, including the 1999 two-year-olds. From those 324 foals, he has 246 starters, a percentage of better than 75 per cent. That is an outstanding number for any stallion. His foals of racing age have earned a little more than $9.3 million, or an average of nearly $29,000/foal. From the 246 starters, he has average earnings of nearly $40,000/starter. These are excellent numbers for any stallion.

Sir Taurus has 56 in 2:00 and has seven sub-1:56 trotters, with three in 1:55. He added 16 new 2:00 performers in 1999, 13 of them as three-year-olds. The aforementioned Vernon Blue Chip is his richest performer at $553,866 and the fast mare, Frosty’s Damsel 1:54 4-5 is his fastest performer. Sir Taurus has always been known as a filly sire. Seven of ten fastest performers, and six of his ten richest, are females. Throughout his career, Sir Taurus has clearly demonstrated an ability to sire a good filly. Vernon Blue Chip was trained by Ronnie Gurfein and driven by Mike Lachance. At two, the brilliant filly won more than $350,000, winning the Merrie Annabelle, the Matron, the Castleton/Hayes Memorial, American-National and a New York Sire Stakes. Tolstoy Blue Chip, a full sister to Vernon Blue Chip, followed her famous sister with $271,000 stakes dollars to her credit, including a win in the $150,000 New York Sires Stakes final at two. Another good filly in New York was the rugged and durable Financial Paige 3,1:55 1-5; $433,139. Another good female was the Merrie Annabelle winner, Missy Will Do It 2,1:57 2-5; $170,986.

SIR TAURUS HAS NOT HAD MANY GOOD MALE PERFORMERS

One area where Sir Taurus has lagged, and this is one area which has no doubt kept him from the forefront of trotting breeders, has been his inability to consistently produce good colt performers. We have seen here that he is an excellent filly sire, but he has never been able to regularly produce good colts. His best colt to date is the fast Bye Tsem 3,1:55; $411,840, good enough at three to win the Canadian Trotting Classic and be third in a heat of the 1994 Hambletonian, beaten only by Victory Dream and Mr. Lavec. Sir Taurus’ next best colt performer is the New York Sires Stakes star, Lotto S. Collins 4,1:55 4-5; $376,023.

Producing good horses from small, foal crops is a big task for any stallion. Sir Taurus’ achievements are even more remarkable if we consider that Vernon Blue Chip was one of only 30 foals in her crop, and that Tolstoy Blue Chip, her good sister, was one of only 18 foals of the crop of 1995. Sir Taurus has had only one year when his foal count was above 42 foals.

Last week in this space I talked about Speedy Crown’s achievement of being one of only four Standardbred stallions to have produced the winners of more than $100 million. All the rest, of course, are pacing stallions. Speedy Crown, however, has not been known as a sire of sires, although it should be acknowledged it is Speedy Crown’s male line that has led us directly to Valley Victory and his sons. Speedy Crown is the sire of Speedy Somolli, who got Baltic Speed, the sire of Valley Victory. Most historians, however, give the credit for Valley Victory to Speedy Somolli, one of Speedy Crown’s best sons. No other son of Speedy Crown has stepped forward, at least to this point in time. King Conch, a son of Speedy Crown, is showing some real firepower in the Ontario Sire Stakes and on the Ontario Jockey Club circuit, but no King Conch has yet stepped away from Canada and found fame and fortune in trotting’s tough, open ranks.

If Sir Taurus has not done a lot, what makes his fillies the subject of such successful sales at the big, mixed sales each year? Four of his daughters have brought very high prices at the sales in the last half of the 1990’s. For one, these Sir Taurus fillies provide a way for the breeder to return Speedy Crown line blood to one of the many, successful sons of Valley Victory. A Sir Taurus filly could also go to Malabar Man or any other horse in the Super Bowl line—or to Pine Chip or any of his sons, such as Enjoy Lavec. The only problem that may surface with these Sir Taurus fillies is that not many of them possess high-powered maternal pedigrees. Whether this lack of classic, maternal strength will haunt these fillies as broodmares remains to be seen.

Another factor that has contributed to an excellent showing for Sir Taurus fillies is the very strong condition of the trotting market. The market conditions for trotting females with good records and conformation were excellent in the 1990’s and those same market conditions continue unabated. It is very difficult to say what a trotting mare may be worth in this market. It simply depends on how much the leading breeders are willing to give at auction on any given day. Still, a good return is possible, as Hanover Shoe Farms clearly showed with Monet Blue Chip’s $300,000 filly this past fall.

But then, why wouldn’t a breeder want an accomplished Speedy Crown line filly. Speedy Crown is one of our leading broodmare sires. It is an easy leap of faith that the fillies that have Speedy Crown as their grandsire may fare very well in the breeding shed in the first decade of this new century.

WHO IS SIR TAURUS AND WHAT KIND OF HORSE WAS HE?

Sir Taurus is a foal of 1984, and thus was the same age as Mack Lobell and Napoletano. Of course, this fact restricted his ability to win a lot of races, but he was a factor throughout his two and three-year-old campaign. At two, under the tutelage of Team Nordin, he won in 1:56 2-5 at Syracuse, and also won the Hanover Stake, and an elimination of the Peter Haughton Memorial. He won four of nine at two, taking home $142,947. At three, racing for Jimmy Takter, he added more than $340,000 to his bankroll, winning seven races, including a repeat in the Hanover Stake. He also won three New York Sire Stakes, was second (in stakes record time) in the Yonkers Trot to Mack Lobell, and third in an elimination of the Kentucky Futurity. In winning a New York Sire Stake in 1:57 2-5h at three, he set a world record for colt trotters. Mack Lobell and Napoletano of course, largely overshadowed him in that 3-year-old crop. Another colt that was buried by that same pair in 1987 was Waikiki Beach, a fast son of Speedy Somolli, and now sire of the heralded Prix d’Amerique favorite, Varenne.

The well-known Antonacci family of New York and Connecticut bred Sir Taurus. His dam, the Hickory Pride mare, Vanessa Hill, actually had a pacing mark of p,3,2:00 4-5, winning more than $100,000. However, the mare, who is entirely trotting bred, has produced nothing but trotters when bred to a trotting stallion. In addition to Sir Taurus, the mare is the dam of the very fast Prakas horse, Capital Idea 4,1:54 2-5; $102,178 and the good mare, Oh Viola 3,1:58, who is by Lindy’s Crown. The second dam is the B.F. Coaltown mare, Viola Hill. The third dam is the Victory Song mare, Vickie Hill, also the third dam of Hambletonian winner Victory Dream 3,1:53 2-5 and the world champion trotting colt, Cornstalk 3,1:53 4-5.

Maternally, this is the Minnehaha foundation maternal family. Sir Taurus is, interestingly enough, from the same branch of the family that produced Speedy Somolli, Speedy Crown’s best male offspring. Sir Taurus’ fourth dam, Scotch Hill, is a half-sister to the fourth dam of Speedy Somolli. Sir Taurus is not intensely inbred, since the earliest common cross in his pedigree is a linebred 4 x 4 to Victory Song. He is also 4 x 5 to Rodney and 5 x 4 to both Worthy Boy and Dean Hanover. In this day and age when the breed is dominated by close up crosses of contemporary horses, it is pretty rare in 2000 to find a productive horse whose nearest common ancestors were born nearly 60 years ago.

Sir Taurus may possess an aging pedigree, but that fact has not diminished his siring ability. His basic cross is Speedy Crown on a male line Star’s Pride mare, the same kind of cross that produced Speedy Somolli, Prakas and Armbro Goal, among others. Speedy Crown has always done well with Star’s Pride line mares. Even Moni Maker, his richest offspring, is from a mare by Bonefish, a grandson of Star’s Pride.

SIR TAURUS’ BEST CROSS HAS BEEN TO RETURN STAR’S PRIDE BLOOD TO HIM

Given his basic Speedy Crown x Hickory Pride dam cross, Sir Taurus is an interesting study because most of his success has come with mares from the Star’s Pride line. Vernon Blue Chip is from a mare by Texas, a son of Super Bowl and grandson of Star's Pride. Financial Paige is from a mare by Jurgy Hanover, another son of Super Bowl. Bye Tsem is also from a Texas mare, as is Lotto S Collins, who is a full brother to Monet Blue Chip. What appears to be at work in these horses is a simple 4 x 4 to Star’s Pride (since Hickory Pride and Super Bowl are sons of Star’s Pride) but there is more intrigue than meets the eye.

In the case of his fastest performer, Vernon Blue Chip, Sir Taurus has been inbred pretty intensely. Not only is Vernon Blue Chip from a Texas mare, but her second dam is the Torrence Hanover mare, Tara Collins. What is so intriguing about that mating is that Torrence Hanover and Texas are very closely related maternally. Texas’ dam is the international star, Elma, by Hickory Smoke. Elma’s dam is the well known Cassin Hanover. Torrence Hanover is a full brother to Cassin Hanover. By breeding a Torrence Hanover mare to Texas, a 3 x 2 cross to the siblings Torrence Hanover and Cassin Hanover was accomplished. A similar 3 x 2 cross to siblings is in the modern pedigree of the accomplished brother-sister act of CR Kay Suzie and CR Renegade. This intense inbreeding to a mare of Cassin Hanover’s quality is certainly fascinating in light of the fact that there is very little other strength in these pedigrees.

Sir Taurus stands for a modest fee of $4,000 at Blue Chip Farms. In 1998, his 13 yearlings sold at public auction averaged nearly $30,000. In 1999 at Harrisburg, Sir Taurus yearlings averaged nearly $25,000, although only five were offered. Despite his excellent record, Sir Taurus is not one of the sires that breeders have flocked to. The perspective from this Corner is that more breeders could take advantage of an excellent selling environment by booking to this 16-year-old son of Speedy Crown.