S2E11: OTTB on Tap Evaluates Vol 3 - Flowers Apriority, Cowboy Swagger and Mr. Cellular

OTTB Evaluates #33
[00:00:00] Hi everyone and welcome back to OTTB ONTAP. I'm Niamh. And I'm Emily. Hey Niamh, what's ONTAP today? We're back with another episode of OTTB ONTAP Evaluates. We hope you all enjoy this series as much as we have enjoyed prepping for it. Please remember, this is only for fun.
These are our opinions that we have gathered from our experience and research. A lot of people say you don't ride the bloodlines or the confirmation, and there are always exceptions to every rule, especially with OTTBs. This is intended to be educational and entertaining.
We formatted this series in a way that we hope translates well to a podcast format, but we'll be sure to include confirmation pics, details, and links to information we've gathered, as well as on our website under the corresponding episode.
Yes, so you can go there and take a look and see the actual photos of the horses that we are comparing, their pedigrees, all that. So we started this by asking listeners to send in photo, a photo of their horse, confirmation photo, and their pedigree, and then we evaluate them based on just that information.
We are going to mention the horse's jockey club name, talk about their race history and breeding. And then Niamh and I will each give our own unique thoughts about their confirmation. And we have not shared this with each other, by the way. We do this all blind. And that's it. We're going to tell you what you think, and hopefully the owners will write in and let us know how right we are.
Let's get going. So Emily, today we're going to talk about flowers, a priority, a six year old Bay mare from Louisiana. I've been looking through her records and pedigree, and I have to say there's a lot to unpack here.
Let's start with her racing career. She made 10 starts with one win, three seconds and one third. earning a little over 30, 000. What do you make of her race record? So I think that Flowers of Priorities record does have some question marks for me that I'd ask some questions about if I were going to look at her personally.
I think we've mentioned this before that sometimes there are, gaps in a horse's race record. And there can be so many reasons for them. So just because you see a space that's between two races, it's larger than normal. And by normal, we mean once a month or once every two months or something like that.
That's where you start to maybe think, okay, what happened? Why didn't the horse keep racing? This can also be due to changing owners, changing tracks, money issues, weather, COVID, all sorts of things. Anyway, with her, it looks like she raced over 3 seasons, but only had 10 starts as you mentioned.
So she raised four times in 2021, three times in 22, and three times in 2023. She's a 2018 baby. So that means she was three, four and five when she raced. Sometimes I like to keep in mind that you will see a two year old and sometimes a three year old, they'll race a few times and have a decent size gap in their record.
That's pretty common because it's also very common that they buck their shins and they'll need some time off. If you see a horse that has pin firing on its shins, that is an indication that happened, but you don't always see that. Nearly a year off between races. It could mean injury. It could mean the tracks racing season, like I was saying.
So it's not always bad, usually explainable, but I would take a note of that. And the fairly significant gaps in there. And then put that on my list of questions. I will also say she raced in Louisiana. I am not personally familiar with the. season in Louisiana, but it does look like she raced over the summer every year.
Yeah. And it's just something to take note of too, because I think some trainers will also see if their horse likes running on the dirt versus turf and things like that too. So there's lots to take into account, but it's certainly something that you can ask the trainer about and see if you can get any information from that.
And you can look up the racing notes on each race and take a note. So it's like you're a detective. It doesn't always mean you'll find anything. But just gives you some info to go on and moving on to her pedigree. She's by a priority who's by Grand Slam and out of Midway Squall and she's out of 40 Sunflowers who's by 41 by 49er and out of Sunflower Night who goes back to Devil's Bag.
Before we dive into all the nitty gritty of her pedigree, what do you think by looking at this right off the bat? What I find really interesting is that she has a lot of older blood up close, such as the Grand Slam, Gone Westline, and on the bottom, 49er, Ack, and Devil's Bag are some older, but really great sport horse names.
Without looking at this horse, I think I don't think I'd even looked at her confirmation photo before I looked at her pedigree, I would guess that she's not a huge horse. I would think she's sturdy, like a leg in each corner. I also think she might have a tough streak in her, but also have those great thoroughbred qualities of brave and athletic.
Does anything stand out to you? I just think the Grand Slam gone Westline is generally going to be a pretty nice quality horse. So for me, those are always, nice lines to see. So yeah, I was excited to see what she looked like. Interesting too. We only have a little bit of inbreeding in her.
So she's another one as we go through these. I just always like to comment on that. It looks like she has some Prospector in there and Northern Dancer, but that's a very common thing to have. All right. So let's dig in to her pedigree. So let's start with her sire, a priority.
He's a Florida bred graded stakes winner who earned over 50, half a million dollars in 36 starts. Can you tell me more about his race record and what we can expect from him in terms of breeding? Yes, A Priority was a really classy racehorse.
He competed in graded stakes races and performed consistently throughout his [00:06:00] career. His speed figures were high, and he was definitely competitive against other black type thoroughbreds. He ran for quite a long time, from three to seven, which is a really good indication of his own durability and his class.
He also proved himself to be a strong sire. And had some successful progeny. He has a full brother named in the paint, and that's a notable example. And he comes from a strong family overall. So several winners and graded stakes winners in his family. And a priority's pedigree is pretty impressive as well, right?
He's by Grand Slam, who's by Gone West. Yeah. I find that Grand Slam is really a standout in any pedigree. Grand Slam was a 300,000 yearling went on to be a very successful stallion. His progeny tend to be solidly built for sport, so horses with great bone, a strong shoulder. and powerful hindquarters.
Gone West, who is Grand Slam's sire, is one of the most influential sires in modern thoroughbred breeding. His sons include Spatetown, Elusive Quality, and Munnings, all of whom are major sires themselves. Gone West passed on distinct physical type, medium sized horses with great quality and strong athletic builds.
This is something you definitely expect to see in our horse here, Flowers a Priority. I think that this horse would be well constructed and athletic, both in terms of movement and strength. Just a little shout out to my former horse, Scout, whose Jockey Club name was Set Out. He was by Hanesfield, who is by Spite's Town.
And very much a typical gone west, nice athletic type. And that kind of got me started on my whole gone west love affair. Of course, he was quite large. He was quite large, yeah. Yeah. But I think Haynesfield contributed to big fancy horses, yeah. I can already see how flowers of priority might inherit some of those physical qualities, but what about temperament?
We've heard horses from that time, line tend to be wonderful to handle. Generally speaking, horses from the Gone West line are often described as having good temperaments and easy to handle, which is a huge plus for anyone working with them on or off the track. It's a nice bonus when you have a horse that combines both athleticism, but also is the best.
Yeah, and actually I was going to say scout would also be described as that, athletic, but also just kind and nice to work with. Looking at flowers, a priority dam line, she's out of a mare named 40 sunflowers who's by 41 and 41 is by 49er. Tell me a little bit about the damn side of her pedigree.
You have to say 40, 40 times fast in order to continue. Okay, here we go. We really like that. No, it's a very strong damn line. 41 was a multiple graded stakes winner himself and 40 Niner really, We'll say needs no introduction, but that's the purpose of us being here. So he earned nearly 2.
7 million on the track and is a super influential sire in thoroughbred history. He produced a lot of outstanding progeny, including the legendary Distorted Humor, who is a major sire in his own right. And I feel like one of our popular guests, Jessica Redman, Has often said that she likes the distorted humor line, for herself.
Yeah. Sometimes you need a little humor to work with them. Yeah, I think that's really interesting. What's the significance of 49er here? My goodness, you've got so many questions for me today. I know. 49er is known for passing down a combination of speed and stamina and also a great work ethic. His progeny tend to be durable, mentally tough, and highly competitive.
So great traits for racing and also breeding. Keep in mind, we want horses that are sound to be passed along and the good work ethic, which is something that we've talked about in the past. And then we have 40 Sunflowers, who is by 41, who was a great racehorse. And so in the dam line, we're seeing a lot of the good, same quality, stamina, grit, and a really good work ethic slash performance.
It sounds like the combination of 49er and Gone West gives Flowers of Priority a really strong competitive background. It also should be noted that 40 sunflowers doesn't have any inbreeding through the fifth cross. How important is that? It's funny. We've mentioned this before, how I personally tend to be drawn to horses that don't have inbreeding through the fifth cross tech, not always, but oftentimes if I pick out a horse and I look at him and I really like him, you'll laugh and look up the pedigree and tell me Yep.
Here's one of yours. So I do think it's a good sign. But as far as breeding goes, it also means that this horse would have a genetically diverse background. And hopefully that would help avoid concentration of any undesirable traits, genetic weaknesses, and those sorts of things.
So just adds to that genetic diversity and hopefully would be more physically and mentally sound. It is something that I like to note. I certainly wouldn't turn down a horse that has a lot of inbreeding, one of those little things, away in the back of your mind. Yeah, absolutely.
And you already talked about the physical traits that you might have guessed about flyer as a priority, but after looking at pedigree a little bit closer. Do you have any additional thoughts? Yeah, I think that solid athletic type a leg in each corner, good bone. Would definitely expect to have some power in the hind quarters.
Don't think that she'd be overly large, probably medium size, but a nice chest, strong shoulder and that powerful hind end. I'd expect her to have a really overall. athletic frame, [00:12:00] but more of that catty type than that big rangy type. Yeah. That makes sense. Now onto our assessments. Let me pull mine up and Let's see her photo. What did you think? Overall balance. I said, in this photo, it's a little tricky to determine the overall balance. She's standing with her hip closer to the camera than her shoulders.
However, I get the sense that she actually has nice overall balance from front to back and probably has equal thirds to split her body into. She's in great weight and her coats glossy. Yeah. I also commented on her condition. She's got a really beautiful coat. She looks nicely muscled throughout.
Wow. She looks like she's in great shape. Again, it's tricky with getting listeners submitted photos where she's not standing perfectly square. And she is facing a little bit away from the camera in front. Makes her legs look a little bit disproportionately short to me, the front end, the front legs, little corgi legs.
But I have a feeling that if she was stood up square, she overall would produce a very well balanced picture. Yeah, totally. And, when we make these comments about the horses not being or not standing square and things like that, we actually don't really care that much. Yeah, obviously it's easier to determine more information off of a horse that's standing up properly, but when you're looking at horses at the track or even from a reseller's page or something like that, this might be the best photo you get and the only photo you get. So a lot of what we've done in the past is making these observations and determinations based off of all the information that we're using for this. Yeah. Yeah, you've got a Figure out a way to turn the photo in your brain.
So yeah, you have to have a good imagination, but that's part of why we're doing this, right? Yeah, exactly. Moving on to her head and neck. I said she's got a lovely refined head, a large eye and a curious expression. She looks alert and aware of her surroundings. She's got a strong neck with a nice top line, but she also has a strong under neck muscle and a thick throat latch, which She could be a gribber or she could have been strong to train at the track to develop this.
Yeah, I think I'm fairly similar to you. It's a cute face, a bit thick through the jowl. Her face is very typey and looks a little bit dished from this angle, but she has a nice alert expression. From this angle, I feel like her neck looks a bit short and upright. I wish it came out a Of her shoulder a bit higher and she has quite an under neck muscle.
It looks like she might either go that way, with her head up a bit. I'm not sure how far off the track she is when this photo was taken, obviously. So sometimes that's just how they're shaped when you get them. Hello, my new RRP hopeful. Yes. He was literally, like his periscope has been up his entire life.
Yeah, no, this reminds me quite a bit of how his neck is actually. What do you think about her shoulder? So I think that she has a lovely angle to her shoulder, which I think is something we just talked about, in our little assessment beforehand in terms of what her horses with her. Pedigree, should have. I do however wish that her shoulder, her wither was a bit more prominent and I wish that her scapula was a bit longer. So I think that would help her have a longer stride. It just feels a bit tight to me there, but the angle is very good. I love the angle between the scapula and humerus.
I think that it's overall good, but it could be a little bit better. Yeah, no I basically went the same thing. Yeah. I can see it's almost like abrupt or something. Yeah. Moving on to her front legs and her feet. Again, camera angles a little bit tricky, but from what I can tell, she looks like she's got good, strong legs.
She's got And it's a little distorted, but I think she's got a nice radius to cannon ratio paired with her big shoulder. I'd expect her to be pretty tidy up front and have a nice sweeping stride. It's hard to tell about her feet. Because she's standing in sand footing and I can't really speak to the angles, but nothing glaring there.
She does look to have a couple of little scars on her legs. Yeah I'm a little bit different. I think that her legs look correct. I'm curious. She's not really putting all her weight on her right front the way she's standing. It almost looks like maybe she has an old injury on that leg to the tendon, but it's hard to say obviously.
off of just one photograph, but it's something that I would take a look at. I also think, it's hard to tell, but I think she might have a little bit of a higher heel on her right front than her left front. She might have a little bit of high low going on with her feet which is very typical of, all horses, but a lot of off track thoroughbreds.
Due to that left front looks a little bit longer in the toe than the right front, but her pastern angles match quite nicely. So really it's not that big of a concern, more of, something to note down. But overall they look, like she has good solid legs. Yeah. Moving on to her back. I thought she's got a strong top line.
She might be a touch downhill. The angle of the. The way she's standing does make it a little bit challenging to see that, but she looks like she could be a touch downhill. But I think you would still feel like there was enough horse in front and behind you. Yeah. I put that she has a lovely strong back with a nice coupling to her hind end.
I agree with you about that kind of top line over her back and how it attaches to her hind quarter. I think it is really lovely. I don't think she's downhill. I think it's more of the. Of the angle [00:18:00] and the impression because when we get to her hindquarters quite impressive. Yeah. I think that she's got great angles through her hip.
It is a bit hard to judge once we go down the back leg. How her hawk placement really is. We love that really long gask and I think it looks pretty nice. But just a really beautiful hindquarter. I love the angles and the muscling there. Yeah. I said it's almost like an absolutely perfect triangle, in terms of the ideal triangle that you want to see, my one comment was, again, could be the angle, but I was curious to know if the hind end overpowers the front end of her. Yeah, I could see that. I said she does have some marks on a few of her legs and it makes me wonder if she has an old cosmetic injury.
She did have a few breaks in her race record, one of which began in 2022 and lasted for a year, which would be something to inquire about. If this were a horse that I was looking at the track and I saw that it had some old scars, maybe a questionable looking tendon or something like that, and I did see a break, then I would certainly.
ask more specific questions. But again, it sounds if it was like a small tendon issue or something like that, a year off, it should be enough to resolve anything like that without a long lasting problem generally. And she came back and raced on it too. Exactly. Yeah. Usually that's a good sign.
I'm not sure if that's mud or if those are scars. I know. We'll leave that up to our listeners and maybe the owner can write in. Yeah. There's some filling in the legs though, regardless. Overall, I just said, there's a lot to like about this mare.
She looks like she might be in a transition stage of her post track life with her breeding and build. I think she'd be A nice all around type that would be suitable for a lot of different disciplines. I get the impression that she'd be a great barrel horse. Yeah. I bet she is quick and catty with a lot of power, whatever she does.
Kind of like you. I think she would be a really lovely all around type. I can see her having a lot of power in that hind end for jumping, but something about her just makes me think barrels. Yeah. I'm going to guess. Yeah. I'm excited to know how. Close we are on this and I'm, I know, yeah, because sometimes I will say occasionally we've either had a mutual friend or a Facebook friend and we've seen the horse or we've seen its name before.
I don't think these three horses we have any connection to whatsoever. No, not at all. Yeah. So these are beyond totally blind. All right. On to our next. Okay. cowboy swagger and we have two really unique photos of this horse. So this is another study of If you get one photo and then you get another photo, he looks like two totally different horses.
Oh my gosh, I know. . So let's start though with his pedigree.
All right. Diving into the pedigree of Cowboy Swagger, that's his name a 10 year old bay gelding fold in Oregon. His racing career was fairly brief, he had 16 starts, he made a little over 20, 000 in earnings, but his record looks pretty consistent. What are your initial thoughts on him?
Yes, his record is pretty solid. , I thought he had one gap. I'd investigate a bit more. It's not major. It's from January. 2018 to June of 2018. So that's long enough that I would just like to ask a couple of questions and know why, like we said, maybe he changed hands, maybe he just needed a break, whatever, but the more knowledge you can go into and the better questions you can ask, I always think otherwise it looks good.
He did come back and race after that. Didn't earn a whole lot of money, but hopefully he at least paid the bills. Getting into his pedigree, cause that's where it's really gets interesting. His sire is Grindstone who won the 96 Kentucky Derby. Grindstone is by unbridled out of buzz, my bill. And then he's out of one fast cow girl who goes back to some names like 49er who we just talked about and also buck passer who I really love for sport.
And then even Nijinsky too, who you do see him, but usually he's further back. Yeah. Yeah. So looking at this pedigree overall, I would expect a very athletic horse. And I'm really interested, especially after seeing these photos, what we're going to find out. Yeah. Grindstone, I did know that name was familiar.
I knew he won the Kentucky Derby, but can you tell me more about him and what makes his pedigree stand out? Sure. Unfortunately, Grindstone's career was very short lived. He only made six starts before being retired due to a bone chip in his knee. But despite that he owned earned over 1. 2 million, which is pretty impressive.
He's by unbridled who won the 1990 Kentucky Derby. He also won the Breeders Cup Classic and made nearly 4. 5 million in earnings over 24 starts. Unbridled's progeny are highly regarded, including Empire Maker, who won the 2003 Belmont Stakes, and Unbridled Song. Grindstone's own progeny have been successful too, notably Birdstone and Ikolu.
Both of whom were graded stakes winners and earned over a million dollars. Interestingly, Grindstone is also the grand sire of Mind That Bird and Summer Bird, both of whom are famous for their roles in the Triple Crown. So a lot of very impressive names there. Yeah, that's a real who's who of thoroughbred racing history right there.
What kind of physical traits does he pass off to his offspring? So Grindstone was a pretty compact horse. He was only 15 three hands, which is on the smaller side as we all know, but he was strong and blocky with a great head and solid bone. What's really remarkable is how his trainer and connections described him.
His longtime veterinarian said he knew he was cool. He acted like he was cool. I like that. Yeah, he had a strong presence. I think a lot of times the great horses, there's a quote going around. I don't know if it's by Jimmy Wofford about [00:24:00] how great horses have an ego. Yeah. And I think that is true.
We often have an ego. He had a strong presence and that came through in his progeny too. Many of them had that same kind of strength and self assuredness. He also passed on a lot of class. So that's something we could expect to see in cowboy swagger as well. With a name like Cowboy Swagger, you should hope that he thinks he's cool, right?
I'm just thinking about Rip from Yellowstone. Oh, yeah. Walking into the bar, right? Yeah. That's Cowboy Swagger right there. It sounds like it's a really special horse to have around. And Unbridled being the sire of multiple stakes winners certainly adds a lot of value to the pedigree.
Did Grindstone pass on any of his traits to Cowboy Swagger? I would definitely hope so. His influence would likely have passed down a lot of strength and durability as well as I guess we'll find out if he has that cool factor that his bet described. He could have inherited some of that natural confidence though in athleticism.
We'd expect him to be well built. So probably not the largest horse in the world, but strong and sturdy like our last tour. A leg at each corner type is how I often describe them. So I think he'd be fairly compact, but powerful. Another notable name in grindstones pedigree is turned to, which is a really good name. I always like seeing that in a pedigree. Again, it's way back at this point, but just something to look for. Yeah. Now let's talk about Cowboy Swagger's dam, One Fast Cowgirl.
I didn't know much about her line before looking into it, but her breeding is actually quite interesting. Will you tell me a little bit more about her background? So One Fast Cowgirl was actually a pretty good racehorse. She had 35 starts and she wasn't a stakes winner, but she did win several races and earned a respectable amount of money.
What's interesting is her sire, Banquero, was a 500, 000 yearling and had a decent career with 19 starts earning over 123, 000. Banquero is by 49er, which is one of the great sires of the late 20th century and brings a lot of class in the cowboy swagger's dam line. It's impressive when you see a sire like 49er in the dam line.
What's the significance of his influence here? It's a huge name as we were talking about earlier. He earned almost 3 million on the track. He was an influential sire. Progeny includes horses like Distorted Humor. And so really, I feel like the name 49er boosts the pedigree quite a bit. Even more interesting is the fact that Banquero's dam fit for a queen was a 1.
2 million earner. So she's actually the only progeny. by a millionaire mayor. Wow. This is a pretty unique family. It speaks really for the high level of quality on the dam side. Yeah. So a lot of Royal breeding on the dam side as well. So given all of this information with all of these heavy hitters, would you expect Cowboy Swagger to be a very athletic type?
I certainly would. Again, wouldn't think he'd be overly huge, but he should be super athletic. I think he would have power, speed, and that overall athleticism. I think that the bloodlines point to a horse that would have good bone and confirmation and probably have a bit of class to him. I do think that the short racing careers from some of his family members might raise some questions about longevity.
I think overall he'd be a very solid athlete. It's really cool to see how these lines come together to produce a horse like Cowboy Swagger.
Thanks Emily, for helping me break down his pedigree and race history. Let's get into our personal assessment of him. All right. Now we already did talk about, that looks like two different horses in each photo. Very interesting one for us to evaluate here. I know, when this submission came in, I was like, oh, I cannot wait to get into this horse.
I think too, she only submitted what we're using as the second photo in the beginning. Yeah, and then I looked up his breeding and I was like, wow, he's really well bred. And you'll have to go to the website and take a look at the photo because he's got a heavy decorated leather halter on. That's photo two.
Photo one, he actually, I think he has the same halter on, but he's in the sunlight. It's a much more pleasant photo. Unfortunately, he is resting a hind leg in photo one tied to the trailer. But I think as we were talking about, it helps to build your eye to look at horses that are not standing up a hundred percent perfectly.
Yeah so I think it's really cool to see both of these photos because you can tell a lot about looking at the structure of how a horse is put together no matter what condition or, how, or rough the photo is rather. But I put a little note in here to say that using your imagination is one of the key components of being able to assess confirmation, literally understanding how the muscles will lay over the bones as they develop.
And this horse is a Perfect example of a hoof in each corner. The photo indoors looks like it's a little bit distorted and maybe taken from a high angle, but overall I thought that he looks decently balanced over a short coupled stature. In the outdoor photo I said I really like the balance of this horse.
He looks even over his top line and is maybe a more, of a rectangular shape than a square. I agree. He is definitely more rectangular. And I also agree, I think he is well balanced, particularly in the outdoor photo. The indoor photo, I agree, I think the photo was taken a bit from above and also from a perspective of someone standing slightly in front of his center of balance.
Yeah. So it makes his hindquarters and his shoulder look weaker than I think that they really are. If I were going to guess, I would say that photo is older, the indoor photo [00:30:00] because he looks so much more muscled and in good condition in the outdoor photo. Yeah, agree. And I wrote, and you'll see it when you guys look at the pictures, but I said, these photos could be of two different horses.
However, there's lots of things to consider. The indoor photo I would assume was taken during the early stages of post track life. It's possible he was turned out for a while and lost his track condition. That's just a guess. To me, he looks reminiscent of a horse that's had a little downtime.
And just lost it's racing muscles. He's got a decent hair coat and long guard hairs on his face, which is why I maybe guessed that. But he also could be in a a cold climate. I said his eye looks a little bit worried, but still genuine. And the outdoor photo, he looks pretty relaxed and happy about life.
The worry is not present and he's got a much cleaner looking profile. I really liked how his neck is tied into his body in the outdoor photo. And you can see that a lot of work's been done to improve the balance between the head and neck over his top line. Yeah, I think that's all really accurate. Looking at the outdoor photo, I said he has a very pleasant workman like head, but then I looked at the indoor photo and it looks very blocky.
Blocky, he almost looks more like a mustang or a quarter horse or a draft cross to me. in that photo. Yeah. And I don't know if that's being influenced by that heavy kind of Western decorated halter that he's wearing. That might add to that as well, but it's definitely a blocky head.
But what I do see is an evenly proportioned horse, a length of neck that matches his back and hindquarter. I may be jumping ahead here to talk about his shoulder, but go to the shoulder. Yeah, I think he has decent shoulder angles, particularly in the outdoor photo. I really like his shoulder. Again, like our last horse though, I think personally I would prefer a little bit of a longer scapula.
So the area between the wither and the point of the shoulder could be longer on him and a more prominent wither that set back a bit more, I think would just give him more reach in his stride. And if he were to be a jumping horse the ability to really snap those front legs up out of the way and.
have a bigger, longer stride and gallop. Yeah, much like the first horse, I said that I felt like the connection to the radius was a little abrupt. And I said that his shoulder protrudes, a little bit of ahead of his foreleg, which makes me suspect he could be a little bit on his forehand.
But I would guess that he's got a Daisy Cutter style of moving. Yeah, I would say that's pretty accurate. I think also what probably contributes to the, Thinking you might be on his forehand is that giant head.
In the second photo, you'll see. Yeah. I think though, I do. I'm so interested to see what this horse turns out to be and what he looks like in real life. I like him so much. I do. There's something really endearing about him. And when you look at all of his parts, they all work together.
Yeah. What did you think about his front legs and hooves? I agree that in the outdoor photo, he's standing a bit over his shoulder, which I think you just mentioned. But I think that might just be how he's standing. I think his legs look straight in the indoor photo. He might be just a titch back at the knee.
I'd have to see a third photo to really determine if that's true or not, or if it's just the angle. But overall, I think his legs look straight. The pasterns are a good length and they match his hooves. How about you? Yeah. I basically just said, his pastern angles looked good. It looks like he's got good balance on his feet though.
I can't really see enough to make a judgment call on. What the quality's and I said similar about him being, he stands over his shoulder a little bit, but I liked his front legs. I think overall they look pretty good. Yeah. How about the back and moving on to the hindquarter?
I said that in both photos, , He does actually look to have a well muscled back even in the indoor photo where he's lost some condition. It looks even better, obviously in the outdoor photo. And then it's short, but it goes actually really well with his confirmation.
It's a type that I would enjoy riding. And then as far as his hindquarters go I thought they were developed pretty well and looks like They're going to provide good push for the job that he's doing. What did you say? Yeah, I said, unfortunately it is slightly difficult to do a clinical assessment of his hindquarter angles in the top photo since he is resting a hind leg, but I think we use that for practice And look at that and see if we can figure it out.
I do get the impression of power. I do think that they are powerful hang quarters and well angled and well nestled specifically in the top photo. In the bottom photo with the angle being a little front to back, he looks a lot weaker and under muscled, but I agree with you. Maybe he's had some time off.
Maybe he was turned out for a while post track and just needed to get that muscle back. But I don't think see anything structurally that would be a problem. And then moving on to his hind legs and his feet behind I said I really like this horse's hind leg. He's got a really nice long gaskin, good bone quality.
You can see that he's developed some nice muscle over his stifle to help support his body. And his front or his hind feet look like they're in good balance with, again, it's hard to tell because of where he's standing. Yeah, it's hard to tell when they're standing either on grass or in the dirt like that.
But overall, I agree. I think he has a good hind leg. I think overall, he's a very pleasant, balanced horse. I'm very interested to see him move. like our first horse, get the feeling he'd be a good barrel horse. We're all round type. Yeah. I said, I think this horse is a shining example of how, if you look past the condition of the horse, you can see that all the right [00:36:00] parts are there.
Time, good work, and imagination are the best tools you can have when developing an OTTB. And I said, perhaps I'm cheating a little based on his name, or maybe the fact that he's got a long mane. All braided that he would suit a lot of Western disciplines and be a sure footed and sturdy partner. And then I was actually thinking about him last night and he could be the type also that would make a nice endurance horse.
He's just got that he looks like he could go all day. Yeah. Yeah. He looks like tough. He looks like he's got tough feet, solid body. Yeah. I feel like he could just go all day. Like you could work cows off him or you could, so yeah, really nice horse. Yeah, really interesting though to look at such a royally bred pedigree and get something that's maybe not as refined and elegant looking as you might expect.
Yeah, absolutely. All right. Let's move on to our third horse. We've got Mr. Cellular. What can you tell me about Mr. Cellular? Mr. Cellular is a five year old chestnut gelding. He raced 13 times and earned 30, 000. He has a couple of gaps in his records as well. One early on, that is about eight months long and then later he also had an eight month break in his career, which might be explained by his move from Florida to West Virginia.
Track change like that can often impact a horse's training and racing schedule. Oh, you know what I'll say though, dive deep into the race notes and ask questions. I'm splitting this next one cause I'd put my own little prediction in here. What do you think about his breeding? Pedigree is quite notable. There's minimal inbreeding with just one crossed Northern Dancer in the fifth generation. He's by Nyquist, a son of Uncle Mo, which brings in a strong sire line. Off the bat, what are your thoughts about his breeding?
I think it's really interesting to see the Nyquist, the Uncle Moe, Nyquist Dam is also by Forestry, and there are some great names in there, like Stormcat, Seeking the Gold, who we've discussed a couple of times, and on the dam side, Mr. Cellular is by Kitten's Dancer, which to me, immediately stands out to me being by Kitten's Joy who I'm sure we'll talk about in a moment, but in my experience, they, tend to have good temperaments and great movement.
And then there's also honor and glory on the damn side, which is another stand out to me. What do you think? Just a quick pause here. I just wanted to say that the racing industry was very sad to lose uncle Mo this week. So just a little shout out to him and his influence in the thoroughbred world in general.
He's going to be sorely missed. Yeah. We've seen several of his babies, at our farm and they've always been really lovely. Yeah. Yeah, same about Kitten's Joy. I love them. I actually had a virtual stable filled with lots of Kitten Joy offering for a while. They can be hard to find.
They are very sought after. Yes. Exactly. So the virtual stable that I'm talking about is on Equibase. You can create and a virtual stable, which allows you to follow horses throughout their racing careers. And you can find out when they're running and things like that, and just keep tabs on them.
All right. So there are so many good names in there. I am betting that this is a fancy athletic horse, but I also feel like there may be some opinions and how he should be trained. I think he's going to maybe test his owners a bit. Just from my, that's my overall kind of feeling about that. Let's talk about Nyquist.
. Let's talk about Nyquist, though. What do you find is significant about him? He had an excellent racing career.
He made 11 starts, earned over 5 million, and won major races like the 2015 Breeders Cup Juvenile and the 2016 Kentucky Derby. He's now a sought after stallion with a stud fee of 175, 000. Wow. Over the past five years, he's produced nine juvenile grade one winners, a milestone only matched by Danzig. Wow.
How about Nyquist Dam Seeking Gabrielle? She's by forestry a stallion known for contributing scope and leg length through the storm cat line. Her lineage includes storm cat and seeking the goal, which are strong influences in pedigree. And I know you just mentioned this, but what about Uncle Moe?
Uncle Mo is a significant figure in breeding. In eight career starts, he earned over 1. 6 million, and as a sire, he has produced over 100 stakes winners. He's known for passing on athleticism and good looks, though there's occasionally a tendency for front leg conformation issues in his progeny.
That's interesting. Let's move on to the dance side. What's notable about Kitten's Dancer? Kitten's Dancer is by Kitten's Joy, who was successfully, was highly successful on the turf, earning over 2 million and winning several graded stakes races. She herself was a black type winner with 65, 544 in earnings over 16 starts.
And tell me about Kitten's Joy influence on his offspring. Kitten's Joy is known for producing sound, tough minded horses with good bone structure. However, when paired with El Prado, his sire, there's occasionally a tendency for flat feet, which could impact performance. Oh, interesting. I'd Niamher heard that.
El Prado, of course, is in the pedigree too, one of my favorites. What should we know about him? He's a foundational sire known for producing versatile and athletic horses like Kitten's [00:42:00] Joy and McDaglio D'Oro. His influence is valued in both racing and sport horse pedigrees. However, he passed on flat feet, as I mentioned, to some of his progeny, which can be a performance consideration.
And then what about Kitten's Dancer's Dam? She's by Glory Dancer by Honor and Glory, a stallion descending from Relaunch. Relaunch was an influential in the 1980s and 1990s, known for improving size and scope in his progeny, though he occasionally passed on front limb defects. What do you think that this pedigree indicates about Mr.
Cellular? I think based on his breeding, Mr. Cellular likely has athletic potential. He might be short coupled with some front end confirmation considerations. He would probably perform better on firmer footing compared to deep tracks. And while his race record doesn't particularly stand out, Do you think his pedigree suggests a strong foundation?
Yeah, I think his pedigree, his breeding really reflects significant athleticism and versatility, which could serve him well in a second career beyond racing. All right. Why don't we do our little bit of confirmation assessment? All right. Let me pull him up. There he is. This might be our first chestnut that we have evaluated, I think.
Yeah, I think it, I think you're right, actually. Okay. I am doing mine on the fly by the way. So you'll get my first take confirmation evaluation of this guy. Okay. I said overall, this guy looks to be a bit immature and his overall balance, but he's quite cute. My first impression of him was finally a chestnut.
Looks like he's freshly body clipped. And oh my gosh, he reminds me so much of your first off the track thoroughbred, Riley. Yes. And it's funny because I don't really, think it's so much in his build. It's just a vibe. It just reminds me of him so much. It's his eye and his bell boots.
I just realized that when you were talking about flat feet. I was like, maybe it's the bell boots. Oh my gosh. I said this horse has a cute face with an alert expression. He looks a little cheeky to me. I like the way his neck is set into his body, but I think it might be a little short for his. build.
Because of the way he's standing, he's leaning forward a little bit. And this might be distorting because there's a shadow, but he's got a thick throat latch. So I'm curious to see if this is just how he's built or maybe he's a cribber. I think he has He's very cute. He's got a little bit of a blocky head and that I said, I think he has a knowing look in his eye.
And this kind of goes back to when I said, I think that he will tell you how he wants to be written. I just get a little impression that he has, I bet he's tremendously athletic, but I bet he has, he's a little bit. Duburn, potentially, but maybe I'm just projecting, but I do think in terms of like his overall balance, I'm going to disagree on the neck a little bit because I think if you picture him, if you look at the length from his ears all the way down his main to his wither.
What wither? He doesn't have much of a wither. I think that, I think it's because of the way he's standing and you can again, see that kind of under neck muscling. I think that his length of neck is actually appropriate for his body. Okay.
Emily hates it when I just say, okay, that's neat being like as far as his shoulder goes, what did you think? So I feel like I would have expected from his breeding to have a little bit more of a clearly defined more impressive shoulder, if that makes sense. Yeah, I wonder if it's a little bit tricky to tell because of his fresh body clip.
Yeah, I think with the coloring and the light, it's a little bit tough to tell, but his shoulder feels a bit like restricted to me. Now, if I'm going to look at the angle, I think he's got a nice angle. I think it's a bit like the other two horses, a little bit short from wither to point of shoulder.
I would like a longer. reach there. And he, as you mentioned, he could use a more pronounced wither. Now he's five, I think in the photo. So that could still develop more. I think as this would be a really interesting horse to see in a year with proper work and muscling. Yeah. How about you? Yeah. I said it's a little bit tricky to tell.
It's just hard to see how the bones connect to one another, and it's especially, a little bit , like distorting or something to like, since he doesn't have a super defined wither, it's just a little bit tricky to, like it looks fine. It feels a bit heavy and I'm going to draw some lines on it, which I think will help illustrate.
But it does, it's not the most free shoulder that we've ever. As far as his front legs and hooves go, I'm really curious to see what you think about this, but I said, he's standing a little over his shoulder and it looks like he could be a touch over at the knee. His legs look nice and tight. I found his
pastern angles to be a little bit upright and it's maybe he's in the early stages of his hoof rehabilitation. Yeah he has bell boots on so that's a little bit of a challenge. If you look closely I feel like his right front toe's out. Quite a bit, a little bit because we're looking at him from the left side, but I feel like that right front might tow out.
And I do [00:48:00] feel like he's a bit long and upright in his past turns, which I am not generally a super fan of the longer past turn. But it does, it would be interesting to see this horse move and see if that kind of carries through. I don't necessarily get the feeling that he's over his knee.
I think maybe he's just standing a little bit over his shoulder. Yeah. His front feet are positioned back underneath his shoulder. Yeah. So a little bit out front. Yeah. I also said I bet he's a cute mover, maybe a little flat kneed I feel like sometimes the upright pasterns, like they can just Look very light on their toes.
Yeah, I do think that there's nothing here to indicate that he would not be a nice mover. Yeah. Long term would be interesting to follow him and see Yeah. How he does. Yeah. And especially given what we were mentioned about the pedigree, where they kept bringing up like some of the things with the front limbs and things like that, like genetics obviously do play a factor in the long term outlook of a horse, but they're not the only thing. So it's nice to know that, oh, okay maybe I can support my horse a little bit differently because I have all of this information. What do you think about his back and his hindquarter?
You're probably going to disagree with me. I said the angle of this photo gives an impression of him having a slightly long back for his frame with possibly a teeny roach. I said I love his deep heart girth and well sprung rib cage. He looks like you might feel a little bit perched up there due to his lack of withers, but his neck comes up nicely in front of you, so it's probably not a big deal.
Yeah, I don't think he necessarily has a long back. I think he's lightly perched. on muscle and top line. Yeah. And I think that will all change with time off the track. Yeah. His hind quarter to me, I really like the angle of it though. It feels a bit light again in the muscling department. I think he just needs some more time off the track to help develop that.
I said his hind end looks a little under, underdeveloped to me, but it's got good angles to develop. Yeah. I think overall, and like getting to his hind leg, before I get to the overall nice length between his stifle and his hawk. He's got a nice gaskin. His, however, when you look at where his knees are and where his Hawks are still a bit high.
Ideally, you'd like his Hawks to really be a bit lower. And that's also, he's got a lot of white on his legs. So I think that kind of highlights that even a bit more. Yeah, I feel like he is hind end gives the impression to me that it'll trail out behind him maybe a little bit. Oh, interesting. Yeah, I said his hind leg might be a little longer than his fronts in terms of balance, but I bet he can step under himself.
And his hoof angles behind look pretty solid. He does have short, shortish past runs behind for what that's worth. Yeah, we can agree to disagree. We'll have to see how he actually made it. I know. I'm curious for your final impressions, cause I think I, I went into some I know we picked this horse apart.
That's our job. I think personally, he's probably the horse that I would choose of the three in terms of if I was looking for a nice all round horse to do some dressage or eventing with. Since that's where I tend to lean I would be interested to hear what his attitude is like. He could be completely pleasant and it's just that look in his eye that makes me think that he might be a little bit stubborn.
Yeah, I'm dying to find out though. I just wrote I have a feeling I'm going to be all wrong about this horse. I said, on paper, I'd buy him based on his breeding alone. I think he's probably a solid dude with good movement. I wouldn't expect him to have the biggest stride or overtrack that much. But if he jumps, I bet he's tidy with his front end and has a better than average hind end over the jump.
Like he cracks his back. He looks like an athletic type that might have a naughty side. Mr. Cellular's owner, please chime in and let us know how wrong we were about your cute boy. He's adorable. So of the three, I think I would choose Mr. Cellular for myself. Who would you choose? I think I would choose Cowboy Swagger.
Interesting.
No, I like that. And we, again, have no connection to these sources and are just dying to hear how they really are. So please let us know. Yeah. All that wraps up our third episode of OTTB ONTAP Evaluates. If you like what you heard today, please leave us a five star review on Apple podcasts.
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