Niarchos family to offer regally bred American Pharoah filly at Saratoga

Just hours after Alan Cooper, bloodstock manager for the Niarchos family's global Flaxman Holdings, flew into New York on Sunday for the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale, he found himself savouring winner's circle celebrations for the $1 million Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes.

Flaxman-bred A Thread of Blue galloped home to secure the big prize, which is just one of a string of pearls gathered this season by graduates of the Niarchos's breeding juggernaut, including a first-ever Group win in South Africa and the crowning jewel, War Of Will's Classic triumph in the Preakness Stakes.

There could not be a much better prelude to Flaxman and partners offering a yearling filly by Triple Crown winner American Pharoah out of a half-sister to War Of Will, who will enter the Saratoga sale ring as Hip 151 during the concluding session on Tuesday.

"It's all very exciting when the farm produces top-class winners," said Cooper. "Let's hope this filly appeals to the market. American Pharoah is getting winners on the turf and on the dirt, in Europe and America, which is a big plus."

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The fifth foal produced by the Kingmambo mare Visual Mind and a half-sister to Godolphin's multiple French stakes-placed Medaglia D'Oro colt Mind Mapping, the filly is the result of a collaboration between Flaxman and the Seitz family's Brookdale Farm and partners.

Flaxman offered Visual Mind as a three-year-old at the 2012 Tattersalls December Sale, where she was listed as purchased by Brookdale for 220,000gns. Cooper related that "we asked Fred Seitz if we could buy back in and he kindly let us do so."

American Pharoah, who the Niarchos family has supported in each of his seasons at stud, was chosen as Visual Mind's mate in 2017 and the filly was born on March 30 the following year. Other co-breeders are Ted Folkerth, Double K LLC, Jack Swain III and Fred Seitz.

"She was foaled and raised at Brookdale and she has been nice all along," said Joe Seitz, Brookdale director of sales. "She's really come into herself this summer. She has a huge walk, which is nice as she gets to showcase that up here at Saratoga where there is plenty of time and space for buyers to see her.

"We were always pretty excited about her," he added. "Now with the way the American Pharoahs are running, it's even better. The world is her oyster. Who knows where she'll end up, but I'm hoping she appeals to every culture, every continent, and we're very excited to have her up here."

The filly's catalogue page could not be much deeper with Flaxman luminaries. War Of Will's dam, the stakes-winning Sadler's Wells mare Visions Of Clarity, also has produced Group 1 winner Pathfork, who now is enjoying success at stud in South Africa, and stakes winner Tacticus, as well as the dam of European stakes winners Buying Trouble and Nucifera.

Under the filly's third dam, Cheveley Park Stakes runner-up Imperfect Circle, are the Group and Grade 1 winners Chimes of Freedom, Aldebaran, Good Journey, Denon and Spinning World in addition to five-time leading Peruvian sire Privately Held.

The filly's pedigree epitomises the Niarchos family's involvement in racing and breeding around the world. Cooper said Flaxman is active in America, Europe, Australia, South Africa and Japan, but he indicated that the family does not wish to disclose how many horses they maintain.

What they do enjoy discussing, however, is the ongoing achievements, which include the first stakes winner notched by homebred freshman sire Karakontie, whose daughter Karak, a $365,000 Ocala sale juvenile, won the Tyro Stakes at Monmouth Park on Saturday for trainer Wesley Ward.

By Bernstein and out of the Sunday Silence mare Sun Is Up, a granddaughter of the great Miesque, Karakontie won the Breeders' Cup Mile and the Poule d'Essai des Poulains and stands at Gainesway Farm in Lexington.

Flaxman also bred and is racing a future stallion star in 2018 Prix du Jockey Club winner Study Of Man, a son of the recently deceased top international sire Deep Impact and Second Happiness, a daughter of Storm Cat and Miesque. Study Of Man has finished second in two French Group 1 races this year, the Prix Ganay and the Prix d'Ispahan.

Meanwhile, the Niarchos family celebrated its initial Group winner in South Africa with Dynasty's Blossom in the Group 3 Gold Cup at Greyville racecourse on July 27. Raced in partnership with Susan Magnier and Andreas Jacobs' Maine Chance Farms, Dynasty's Blossom is a daughter of Dynasty and from the family of Darshaan and the great Group 1-winning broodmare Darara, dam of five Group 1 winners.

Cooper said the Niarchos family decides annually which of its homebreds to race and which to offer at auction.

Among those sold was A Thread Of Blue, a son of Hard Spun out of Lowther Stakes winner Enthused, and thus a grandson of Coronation Stakes winner Magic Of Life, who brought $150,000 as a yearling at Keeneland. He was later resold as a juvenile for $430,000.

War Of Will was also selected to be sold as a yearling, and although the Kentucky-bred son of War Front did not meet his reserve on a bid of $175,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September Sale, he was sold privately to agent Norman Williamson.

Williamson pinhooked the colt to the 2018 Arqana Breeze-Up Sale, where he was sold for €250,000 to agent Justin Casse, who acquired the eventual Classic winner for his brother, trainer Mark Casse, and owner Gary Barber.

War Of Will's subsequent success has provided a new jolt of vitality to his family. Visions Of Clarity, now 19, "is a beautiful mare," Cooper said, recalling that she, like Spinning World, was trained by Jonathan Pease.

Visions Of Clarity, who won the 2003 Prix de Bagatelle while carrying the Niarchos colours, has a juvenile colt by Tapit who was sold for $130,000 as a yearling and then resold for $260,000 to buyer L & N Racing at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale.

Barren for 2019, Visions Of Clarity produced an American Pharoah filly in February and has been bred back to War Front for 2020.
Visual Mind, whose son Mind Mapping was a $400,000 yearling, was bred to Uncle Mo this spring after not producing a foal for 2019. Her juvenile colt by Bernardini, named Tiger Kingdom, is unraced to date.

Flaxman continues to selectively add breeding stock to its portfolio, with some of its intriguing purchases including Ama Dablam, a Scat Daddy full-sister to Caravaggio acquired as a yearling at Keeneland for $550,000 in 2017, and English and American stakes winner and multiple Grade 1-placed Pachattack, a daughter of Pulpit purchased for $1.2 million in 2011.

Pachattack has produced Irish Group 3 winner Liquid Amber, a daughter of Kitten's Joy, for Flaxman, and Cooper said her juvenile American Pharoah filly, named Land Of Maybe, is training in France for a possible debut in September.

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New chapter for Summer Wind's Tapit tale via $1 million Saratoga sales-topper

Read the Racing Post's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale supplement