Awesome of Course

This has to be one of the more interesting stallions out there. With stakes horses Honey Honey Honey and Heaven's Awesome in his first crop, I think I noticed him, but then he was kind of quiet until Awesome Feather. In fact, while this can certainly be excused given his small crops, his highest year for earnings before 2010 was just $212,918 in 2007. He was so quiet that, after noting he was the sire of 2011 Breeders' Cup starters Awesome Belle and Fort Loudon, I had to check and see who Awesome Feather was by. When I saw she was also by Awesome of Course, and that he has had only 28 starters lifetime, I was floored. There are two additional stakes winners and two more stakes horses among teh 28 starters. All of the stakes winner are legitimate -- got in through the front door.

One thing that's interesting about Awesome of Course: all of his stakes winners are out of stakes winners. Awesome Feather is out of Precious Feather, a daughter of Gone West who won $257,000. Awesome Belle, the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies starter, is out of Bayou Plans. She was an Illinois-bred who won $308,000, but with Midas Eyes and Bayou's Lassie to her credit, has been a much better producer. A super producer, really. Fort Loudon, who swept the In Reality series this year and starts in the Juvenile, is out of millionaire Lottsa Talc. I'll spare you the details on Honey Honey Honey and Redbud Road: their dams are less impressive, but still stakes winners. All of these breedings were cases of Jacks or Better Farm supporting Awesome of Course. Awesome of Course's Comparable Index is just 1.31, suggesting that his mares have had stronger race than produce records.

How much should we mark down Awesome of Course for the good mares that have produced his stakes winners? Granted, with just 28 starters, all pronouncements must be qualified, but should we still consider him a good sire? A very good sire?

I think we should absolutely consider him a very good sire. I think the choice of his mares has been judicious. I think they've been good mares for what they were worth (which would pale in comparison to the mares top stallions are bred to). But I don't care how good the mares have been. They certainly haven't been the mares sent to Bernardini. There just is no way to truly discount or explain this kind of success without giving the stallion a great deal of credit.

With three of the four wins in the 1 1/16 Florida Stallion races the last two years, the Awesome of Courses will be respected and thought capable of handling that distance for as long as he sires horses. Ironically, his five wins as a race horse were at 4.5 furlongs, 5.5 furlongs, 5.5 furlongs, 6 furlongs, and 6 furlongs. His average-winning distance as a sire actually isn't long (6.40 furlongs), and equally significantly, it's not longer than his average distance raced (6.52 furlongs). But the Awesome Again in his pedigree may be coming out for his better horses.

So this is the second Awesome Again stallion born in 2000 I've profiled. Yes, that description fits Ghostzapper as well. Awesome of Course and Ghostzapper weren't too far from crossing paths: Awesome of Course set the pace in Valid Video's Carry Back win, which that horse followed up with a win over Ghostzapper in the King's Bishop.

Even though I defended Ghostzapper, of course it will be ironic and incredibly unlikely if Awesome of Course outperforms him at stud. Not only would one not think Awesome of Course would be much of a sire with an absence of graded stakes success on the track -- not only did he not get the greatest of mares -- but his 2012 foal crop, his 8th, will probably be the first one that features a double-digit number of foals!