Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Brief Bliss: it would have been good to mind the catalogue

Brief Bliss is the dam of a 3-year-old I am very interested in now named Hierro. Hierro showed ability in defeat in his first two races before breaking his maiden with disdainful ease at Churchill. He disappointed on Saturday in the Sham at Santa Anita, finishing 5th as the second choice. He made a sharp move going into the turn but flattened out, perhaps compromised by early rankness.

Brief Bliss has shown in her career so far that her horses have to be watched, and are candidates to be stars. The only one who ever rivaled Hierro as a prospect was Cherokee Triangle, a colt who took an open $200,000 turf stake at 2 on the Super Derby undercard by more than 10 lengths, and then started as the 4th choice in the first Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. He disappointed in the BC Juvenile Turf, and never matched his first stakes win, but he did win a couple more stakes the next year, and run 2nd in the grade III Hawthorne Derby as well.

Where Brief Bliss has really excelled has been as a producer of precocity. In addition to Cherokee Triangle and Hierro, True Bliss, Beautiful Bliss, and Sam's Bliss were all maiden special winners at 2 (and at Keeneland, Arlington, and Fair Grounds, respectively, all good tracks). The only Brief Bliss not to take a maiden special weight at 2 was the Montbrook Montamore.

What gets me about Brief Bliss is that her success as a broodmare was in a way so logical. She finished 2nd in the grade III Arlington-Washington Lassie at 2. Ohio-bred Joanies Bella wasn't one of the all-time great winners of the race, but she only beat Brief Bliss by a neck, and Brief Bliss beat seven others that day.

There would be nothing so interesting about this accomplishment or Brief Bliss's broodmare success, except a little over 10 months later, Brief Bliss wrapped up her career in a $40,000 claiming race, finishing last. No one claimed her. Only three races separated the Lassie and the claiming race. A short-sighted person might have thought Brief Bliss a solid claim with her graded stakes placing, but insiders knew better. And yet the surface picture was the accurate one: Hierro's success will determine just how good of a claim Brief Bliss would have been, but she's had a stakes winner, plenty of real winners, and auction ring success, with Hierro generating a $350,000 bid as a 2-year-old.

Should we then take more than the surface view, and trace the entire racing career of a future successful broodmare? You know I like doing this sort of thing, so surely you will indulge me.

Brief Bliss was plagued by problems at the gate her whole career: her first start was one of those times, yet she still was 2nd by a length and a quarter. The date of this race was May 11 of her 2-year-old year, so the future precocity of her foals makes corresponding sense. The class of the race was not as impressive, however: it was at Churchill Downs, but for just $25,000. Being a daughter of Navarone, a claim was not the most likely of occurrences, and so the level of the race should not be held too strongly against her.

Brief Bliss was elevated to $50,000 next out. She ran 2nd again, with the winner of the race attaining some future significance: it was You, who would annex four grade I wins at 3, and five overall. You wasn't the equal of Rachel Alexandra, but Dolphus Morrison and company made a much worse sale soon letting go of her for many times less than he made selling the 2009 Horse of the Year. I don't want to give the idea that Brief Bliss was competitive with You; I wouldn't characterize a 4 1/2 length loss in a 5f race that way.

An interesting side note to this race is that, while neither You nor Brief Bliss was claimed, another filly in the race was: Premier Account, who hailed from a half sister of Hansel's, Accountess. Premier Account brought up the rear in this June maiden claimer and never would win through a 14-start career. Nor has she been a significant broodmare.

It doesn't seem so far-fetched to me that Michael Divitto and Rick Hiles, the owner and trainer who took Premier Account, might have nabbed You or Brief Bliss instead. I think owners and trainers do focus on certain races to make their claims. I'm not saying that passing a real isn't a real option, but I know that some owners do say, "O.k., I'm going to claim within the next couple of weeks to replace x in my stable." If someone were focused on a 2-year-old at Churchill in a short timespan, and more specifically on a 2-year-old filly, how many races could he target? On the flip side, Premier Account does seem to have been a claim at least partially motivated by pedigree, and Brief Bliss and You (by You and I) were no match for her in that regard.

Brief Bliss had now run well twice in maiden claimers, and the third time she was exposed, she not only won resoundingly, but she was claimed, moving from Dale Romans to Michael Stidham for $50,000. It had been an eventful spring and summer Churchill meet for the filly.

Maiden claiming winners can be in limbo land, particularly when they are 2-year-olds, and particularly 10 years ago, when restricted starter races were not as prevalent as they are now. Brief Bliss did not show signs she would be able to bridge the gap when she finish a well-beaten 5th at Arlington in a late July allowance.

Her next start, however, would again connect her with one of the best fillies in her crop, the brilliant Take Charge Lady. The venue was an allowance at Turfway. Just as Brief Bliss had been 2nd to You, she was 2nd to Take Charge Lady, but came within only 3/4 of a length of the upset, pressing the McPeek runner from 2nd at every call.

This effort of Brief Bliss's was notable beyond just the apparent improvement, for it was a mile event. The case for Brief Bliss as a race horse must include that not only did she run and win early, but she demonstrated two-turn ability. This was not surprising, given that her sire Navarone won the grade I Oak Tree Invitational at a mile and a half.

I don't know what her speed figures say, but it would seem that Brief Bliss ran her two best races in succession. After the Take Charge Lady matchup was the Lassie, where the less impressive name beat her, but the black type was the reward.

Who knows with what hope Michael Stidham exited the Lassie? It would be hard to accept that Brief Bliss would never manage better than 5th again, all in non stakes competition, no less, but trainers sometimes see their horses' likely career arcs before fans do, with their complete understanding of the horse. In any event, Brief Bliss did absolutely nothing else in one more start that fall and in three more atarts the next spring and summer to either augment her official resume or my fine-grained analysis of her. If you had to make an excuse for her, problems at the gate could at least be cited in two of the four races.

So my chronicle of Brief Bliss comes to a screeching halt. It's more than I can realistically hope that anyone read this blog, but if a probability trailing Hierro's chance of winning the Derby occurs, and anyone who was involved with Brief Bliss reads this blog, perhaps the person can shed light on some of the mysteries of her past performances. In any event, I don't need to be an insider to see that this filly did have some real redeeming characteristics. Not least of which was the old standby: class.

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