Sharp Cat, Critikola Foals Well
Deliveries of A.P. Indy, Bluegrass Cat Colts Cost Lives of Dams
Jun 21, 2008
Surrogate mares are caring for foals born recently to Sharp Cat, successful 14-year-old mare by Storm Cat, and Critikola, a Tough Critic mare. Sharp Cat died April 21 after giving birth to her A.P. Indy colt. Critikola suffered a ruptured cecum and died subsequently following the April 2 foaling of her Bluegrass Cat colt.
Both colts are doing well.
Successful Racer Sharp Cat
One of Storm Cat's best daughters, 14-year-old Sharp Cat was a strong racer, champion of twelve stakes contests, and had produced two winners in Saywaan and La Dolce.
In Neon, Sharp Cat's dam, by Ack Ack, was named 1998 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year. John Franks bred Sharp Cat in Kentucky. Royal Anthem, a North American and European champion, and Star Recruit, a graded stakes winner, were half brothers to Sharp Cat.
In each of her three years of racing, Sharp Cat won multiple graded stakes. Her trainer was D.Wayne Lukas, and she was raced out of The Thoroughbred Corp. of Prince Ahmed Salman. Sharp Cat's original purchase price was $900,000, and her daddy, Storm Cat, recently pensioned from stud service, was the all-time stud fee leader, collecting as much as $500,000 per live cover.
- Sharp Cat at 2: wins -- Matron, grade I; Hollywood Starlet, grade I; Del Mar Debutante, grade III; (unplaced in BC Juvenile Fillies, grade I)
- Sharp Cat at 3: wins -- Santa Anita, grade I; Hollywood Oaks, grade II; Acorn, grade I; and Las Virgenes stakes, grade I; (2nd to Ajina in BC Distaff, grade I)
- Sharp Cat at 4: ran undefeated in 4 starts including Beldame Stakes, grade I; Ruffian Handicap, grade I; (missed BC Distaff with severe case of muscle cramps)
Sharp Cat's inability to corral a seasonal championship award didn't lower her expectations for the breeding shed. With 15 wins from 22 starts and earnings of $2,032,575, she was a hot prospect for top stallions at the age of five.
Offspring of Sharp Cat
After Prince Salman died (2002), Sharp Cat was purchased by John Ferguson Bloodstock for Sheikh Mohammed's Darley Stud farm at Gainsborough. The price was $3.1 million at the 2003 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. Sharp Cat was then in foal to Gone West.
Saywaan, a six-year-old foaled by Sharp Cat and sired by Fusaichi Pegasus, brought a yearling sale price of $1.5 million at Keeneland in September of 2003. Sharp Cat foaled six racing offspring, two of which are winners.
A four-year-old daughter, La Dolce, by Gone West, stands as a broodmare at Sheikh Mohammed's Dalham Hall Stud in England. La Dolce is booked to Authorized, a Dalham Hall stallion.
Argentine Mare Critikola Dies
On April 2, Critikola, an Argentine mare, birthed a foal sired by Bluegrass Cat. She later died of a ruptured cecum on the Farfellows Farm of Kip and Suzanne Knelman, Paris, Kentucky.
Dam to the grade I winner Lemons Forever, Critikola was a broodmare trained in her racing career by William Spawr. She had shipped to America in 2000 and placed in the 2001 Santa Margarita Invitational and the Santa Maria handicaps, both grade I.
Lemons Forever was sired by Lemon Drop Kid, 1999 Belmont Stakes winner. Lemons Forever, Critikola's first foal, scored in the Kentucky Oaks and placed in the Alabama Stakes. Critikola's colt, Overbid, is a three-year-old winner.
Critikal Reason, Critikola's filly, is a breeding mate for Lemon Drop Kid. Bred by San Rafael Del Reparo in 1995, Critikola was out of the mare Hola Keats, by Keats.
