TONALIST retired to Lane’s End Farm in 2016 and his first crop are now five-year-olds. For his first four seasons he commanded a fee of $40,000, but this has declined to the point that for this year he is available to breeders at just a quarter of that amount.

This has happened in spite of delivering his first Grade 1 winner last year when Country Grammer, in just two starts, won the Hollywood Gold Cup. The Bob Baffert-trained horse made his second start this year in the Group 1 Emirates Airline Dubai World Cup, and emerged the winner, and this was following a second-place run in the Group 1 Saudi Cup.

Tonalist (Tapit) won three times at Grade 1 level, capturing the Belmont Stakes at three and adding the Jockey Club Gold Cup and the Cigar Mile the following year.

Country Grammer has now made just 10 lifetime starts, winning four, and yet has posted earnings that are just shy of €10 million. Could he be the horse to resuscitate the stud career of Tonalist? That first crop also included the Grade 2 winner Tonalist’s Shape and three other stakes winners, while his second crop numbers three stakes winners among them. His three-years-old include Saucy Lady T who was placed in the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes last year.

Sold for $60,000 as a yearling at Keeneland by his breeders, Scott and Debbie Pierce, Country Grammer then sold as a breezer for $450,000 at Ocala. He was saddled by Chad Brown to win the Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes at three for owner Paul Pompa, but following that owner’s death he was again sold at the dispersal sale held at Keeneland in January 2021. He made just $110,000, and has now won almost 100 times that figure.

$5,000 sale

Country Grammer is the best of four winners for Arabian Song, a winning daughter of Forestry (Storm Cat), and the rest include Joyful Cadence (Runhappy) who was placed last year in the Grade 3 Miss Preakness Stakes. None of this however could save Arabian Song from being sold for $5,000 – yes, that is correct, $5,000 – at Keeneland in November 2018. She is now in Saudi Arabia.

The grandam of Country Grammer is Prima Centauri (Distant View) and just one of her four winners earned blacktype, Bodes Galaxy (Marju) being placed in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes and Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes at two. Prima Centauri is a half-sister to Juddmonte’s Group 1 Prix de la Foret winner Etoile Montante (Miswaki).

There was a second Kentucky-bred Group 1 winner at Meydan, though this one was a little more surprising. The eight-year-old gelding Switzerland, a son of Speightstown (Gone West) and the Indian Charlie (In Excess) stakes winner Czechers, gained the first Grade 1 win of his career in the Dubai Golden Shaheen.

Switzerland

Trained by Bhupat Seemar and ridden by Irishman Tadhg O’Shea, this was the eighth career success for Switzerland on his 27th start. He won a couple of Grade 3 races at four in the USA, at Laurel Park and Pimlico. His weekend success was by some way his finest performance. A $170,000 foal, $175,000 yearling and a $500,000 breezer, his career winnings now come to $1.9 million.

Czechers won a pair of minor stakes races in the USA and was placed at Grade 2 level. Switzerland is easily the best of her four winners, and last year his full-brother sold as a foal for $350,000. To find any real quality in the female line you need to go back to the Group 1 winner’s fourth dam, the unraced Cherry Willow (Pia Star). Three of her eight successful offspring were stakes winners.

Best of the octet was the Grade 1 Travers Stakes winner Willow Hour (Bold Move), while her Grade 3 winning daughter Cherry Jubilee (Coastal) was also a stakes producer.

Speightstown was champion sprinter in the USA following his victory at the Breeders’ Cup, and he has sired 128 stakes winners in his first 14 crops. Among this number are 23 who have been successful at Group/Grade 1 level, and breeders can still use the 24-year-old at WinStar where he stands for $90,000 this year. His best runners include a number who did well in Dubai.