DEL MAR DEBUTANTE S.-GI, $300,750, DMR, 8-31,
2yo, f, 7f (AWT), 1:22 3/5, ft.
1–s@SHE’S A TIGER, 122, f, 2, by Tale of the Cat
1st Dam: Shandra Smiles, by Cahill Road
2nd Dam: Beyond the Storm, by Great Above
3rd Dam: Brenda’s Storm, by Medieval Man
($150,000 yrl ’12 KEESEP). O-Mark DeDomenico
LLC, Allen J Aldrich, Lisa Hernandez & Stuart
Downey; B-Dr Rodney Orr (KY); T-Jeff Bonde; J-Gary
L Stevens. $180,000. Lifetime Record: 4-3-1-0,
$315,650. *3/4 to Smiling Tiger (Hold That Tiger),
MGISW, $1,480,704. Werk Nick Rating: A

The loss of any race in the stewards’ room is hard to take. But losing a race of the importance (and value) of the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies must be heart-breaking, all the more so when the demoted winner–the front-running She’s a Tiger–had shown such determination to repel Ria Antonia.

Judging by the voting for the Eclipse Award for top juvenile filly, the vast majority didn’t agree with the stewards’ decision and She’s a Tiger monopolized 212 of the votes, with third-placed Ria Antonia receiving only 10. This seems to confirm that the first across the line in the Juvenile Fillies has every chance of adding the relevant Eclipse Award. She’s a Tiger is the 14th consecutive filly to do so since Chilukki spoilt the sequence in 1999. Chilukki had appeared to be beaten fair and square by Cash Run on that occasion, but Cash Run was gaining her first stakes victory, whereas Chilukki had blazed her way to six consecutive wins, including a pair of Grade Is, and had set or equalled a couple of track records.

Perhaps She’s a Tiger also owed her Eclipse Award to her greater consistency. The daughter of Tale of the Cat had been defeated in only two of her six starts, those defeats being by the narrow margins of half a length and a head.

From a pedigree viewpoint, she is an appropriate winner of the award. Her grandsire Storm Cat was responsible for Sweet Catomine and Storm Flag Flying, winners, respectively, in 2004 and 2002, and he also sired the dam of Folklore (2005). She’s a Tiger’s broodmare sire Cahill Road was a brother to Unbridled, the stallion responsible for the 2003 winner Halfbridled.

She’s a Tiger’s dam Shandra Smiles must also take a sizeable share of the credit, as she also produced a son, Smiling Tiger, who was good enough to win three Grade Is and to finish third in two editions of the GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint. The mare’s owner, Dr Rodney Orr, must be mightily thankful that Shandra Smiles RNA’d at $150,000 when she went through the Keeneland sales ring in November 2010, while carrying She’s a Tiger.

Like She’s a Tiger, Smiling Tiger was sired by a son of Storm Cat, but this son–Hold That Tiger–wasn’t one of his most renowned stallion sons. Smiling Tiger and the 2013 Grade II scorer Withgreatpleasure are among only a handful of graded winners sired by this winner of the G1 Grand Criterium.

Unsurprisingly, Shandra Smiles’ connections are sticking with this winning formula. Her 2013 filly is by Tale of the Cat’s son Gio Ponti and she was bred to Giant’s Causeway, another son of Storm Cat, in 2013. She also has a non-winning 5-year-old daughter Pure Smiles by another Storm Cat stallion in Pure Prize.
She’s a Tiger isn’t the first Eclipse Award winner by Tale of the Cat, as Gio Ponti took the 2009 and 2010 awards for top turf male. His second to Zenyatta in the 2009 GI Breeders’ Cup Classic on all-weather was also enough to earn this tough horse the Eclipse Award for older male.
It is going to be interesting to see how important Tale of the Cat proves to be in extending the influence of the Storm Cat male line. His high-class son Lion Heart left such talented performers as Dangerous Midge (GI Breeders’ Cup Turf), Line of David (GI Arkansas Derby) and kantharos before being sold to Turkey. In addition to Gio Ponti, Tale of the Cat is represented in Kentucky by the very well-related Wood Memorial and Cigar Mile winner Tale of Ekati, whose first 2-year-olds race this year.

Then there’s his speedy dual Grade II winner Forty Tales, who starts his new career this year at Sequel Stallions New York, and the undefeated 2011 2-year-old Overdriven, who covered 110 mares in his first season in Florida last year.

Tale of the Cat’s daughter Layreebelle also got into the act over the weekend, when her Bernardini filly Spellbound won the GII La Canada S. It is worth remembering that the best previous winner out of a Tale of the Cat mare, the GI Acorn S. and GI CCA Oaks winner It’s Tricky, was also sired by a son of A.P. Indy in Mineshaft.
Tale of the Cat is now a relative veteran at the age of 20 and I note he covered “only” 69 mares last year, after a comparatively quiet time with his 2012 runners (the best of whom were the Canadian Grade III winner Stars to Shine and the Japanese Group 2 winner A Shin Top). I’m sure he will be much more in demand this year, following a good 2013, which saw him finish as high as 13th on the general sires’ list and second among the juvenile sires. In addition to She’s a Tiger, he was ably represented at graded level by such as Forty Tales (two Grade IIs and a Grade III), A Shin Top (Group 2 and Group 3 successes in Japan), Stopchargingmaria (GII Demoiselle S. and GIII Tempted S.) and Tale of a Champion (GII Charles Whittingham Memorial).

As She’s a Tiger’s broodmare sire Cahill Road was a brother to Unbridled, it is worth mentioning that Tale of the Cat has a pleasing record with daughters of Unbridled’s Song, with this partnership producing the Grade II winners Alpha Kitten and A Shin Top. He also sired the Grade II winner Spellbinder from another Fappiano line mare.

Cahill Road raised hopes that he might follow in the illustrious footsteps of his year-older brother Unbridled early in his 3-year-old campaign, when he quickly built a record of four wins from six starts. That sixth start saw him win the GI Wood Memorial by three lengths, but he unfortunately came out of the race with a pulled suspensory in his left-fore ankle and this signalled the end of his career. The 17-hands son of Fappiano retired to stand alongside his brother at Gainesway Farm, but he struggled to make his mark, to the extent that he ended up in Washington state.

Coincidentally, it was at Emerald Downs in Washington that She’s a Tiger’s dam, the Kentucky-bred Shandra Smiles, gained her only stakes victory, over 6 1/2 furlongs. Bearing in mind the speed that She’s a Tiger showed in the Juvenile Fillies, a mile and a sixteenth could well prove her limit–especially when her three-parts brother Smiling Tiger gained two of his Grade I victories over six furlongs and the other over seven. But then there will still be plenty of opportunities for a high-class filly of her type in America–especially as she has shown she acts on dirt and synthetic. Courtsey of theTDN