Fern - A Star Spangled Pedigree

Fern, the Sierra Kosmos filly who was so impressive winning the Hambletonian Oaks, has a pedigree that traces to the very roots of one of the breed's most historic families. The ghosts of many champions lay in the foundation of the lineage that produced one of our most impressive filly champions in recent years.

First, the basics. Fern is by Sierra Kosmos, from his second crop and she is his first Oaks winner. It should be remembered that he also sired the brilliant No Nonsense Woman in his first crop, and she was a narrow second last year in the Oaks to Must Be Victory. Sierra Kosmos is a horse who plainly has a lot to offer to breeders. He was a very fast horse (his 1:53.4 record taken at The Red Mile was the fastest trotting mile of that season) and he is showing us some real power as a stallion.

According to USTA statistics (through August 11) he is the leading money-winning sire of 3-year-olds, with nearly $1.5 million earned already this season, and that puts him some $300,000 ahead of his nearest competitor, Balanced Image. Sierra Kosmos is also the third leading sire of 2-year-old money winners, behind Balanced Image and Garland Lobell. He is also third on the all-age list to Balanced Image and Speedy Crown. He is in pretty good company.

Earlier this year, in the profile of the pedigree of No Nonsense Woman, I made the point that Sierra Kosmos could be a "made horse" if he could produce a good crop of current 3-year-olds, following up on the success of No Nonsense Woman a year ago. Well, he has done that. His son, Silver Pine impressively won an elimination of the Hambletonian, and another, Kick Tail, raced gamely to be third to Muscles Yankee and David Raymond in the final. Kick Tail also defeated Muscles Yankee earlier this season at The Meadowlands, the lone defeat thus far for the Hambletonian winner.

In winning the Hambletonian Oaks, Fern clearly cemented her growing reputation as the best filly in her division, as her Oaks triumph was her sixth straight victory, and her eighth in ten starts. She has now earned nearly $500,000 lifetime, with nearly all of that coming this season in her meteoric rise through the ranks. Fern won only once as a 2-year-old, getting a mark of 2:02.4f at The Meadows, earning $14,154, but she is now queen of this division heading into the late summer and fall classics.

Fern was a $30,000 yearling at Harrisburg in the fall of 1996 and was overlooked by the legions of trotting buyers who descend on the sales each fall, driving the price for the top trotting yearlings through the roof.

Her low sales price can be attributed to a couple of things. First, there had been a great deal of skepticism visited upon the ability of Sierra Kosmos to be a top sire. And in his first crop, he failed to capture anyone's attention. Although not a spectacular-looking filly, Fern had a good, long, body, excellent conformation and showed well on videotape.

Florican   Songcan   Ami Song by Victory Song   Nearly Perfect   Super Bowl by Stars Pride   Exciting   Gypsy Slipper by Speedy Scot   Sierra Kosmos   Victory Song   Noble Victory   Emily's Pride by Star's Pride   Sunkiss Bel   B F Coaltown   Sunday Hill   Starlette Hill by Star's Pride FERN     Speedster by Rodney   Speedy Scot   Scotch Love by Victory Song   Speedy Crown   Florican   Missile Toe   Worth a Plenty   Hildy Hanover   Star's Pride   Super Bowl   Pillow Talk by Rodney   Honeybee Hanover   Florican   Honeysuckle Rose   Rose Queen

Fern is the fifth foal of the Speedy Crown mare Hildy Hanover, a non-record Speedy Crown mare who previously had produced the good Balanced Image mare Casurina 3,1:55.4; $285,483 and the respectable Meadow Road gelding Edinboro Road 3,1:58.4; $75,394. She also had a Supergill filly, Hildy Gildy, who was exported at two and is a stakes winner in Italy. Hildy Hanover is a half-sister to Huggie Hanover 3,1:55, a Florida Pro colt who took his record winning the 1988 Kentucky Futurity before his export to Sweden.

Fern's second dam is the Super Bowl mare Honey Bee Hanover 3,1:59.2; $76,731, a winner of the Zweig Filly Stake. The third dam is the brilliant Florican mare Honeysuckle Rose 3,2:00.3; $196,093. Honeysuckle Rose was a foal of 1970 and a contemporary of the world champion filly and her arch-rival Colonial Charm 4,1:56.1.

I saw Honeysuckle Rose a great deal at three because I was then in the employ of The Horseman & Fair World magazine, and she was one of the most attractive fillies to have ever raced on the Grand Circuit. She was small, but very good-gaited and quick, racing for Vernon Dancer. She was a world champion at three, and was entered, and raced creditably in the 1973 Hambletonian open division. In fact, she had terrific gate speed, and actually cut the miles in both heats for eventual winner Flirth and Ralph Baldwin while Colonial Charm was content to race against the fillies in the Hambletonian filly division. Honeysuckle Rose was one of my all-time favorites simply because she had such an appealing appearance, had a great gait and was extremely gritty for such a small mare. She was really tiny, but she was all trot!

I was, honestly, expecting great things from her as a broodmare, especially when she was purchased for that purpose by Hanover Shoe Farms. Bred primarily to Super Bowl and Texas, Honeysuckle Rose did little with these opportunities, and Honey Bee Hanover, the second dam of Fern, was her best offspring.

Honeysuckle Rose is a daughter of Rose Queen 3,2:02.4, a Worthy Boy mare whose own dam was the Dean Hanover matron Rose Dean 3,T2:04. Rose Queen was a Castleton Farm mare who produced Honeysuckle Rose, but little else of quality among her 12 foals.

The exception was that one of her daughters was the Florican mare Rose Point, a full sister to Honeysuckle Rose, who, when bred to Noble Victory, produced Whims And Wishes, the dam of l985 Kentucky Futurity winner Flak Bait 3,1:55.2, and the exceptional filly Peach Pit 3,1:55.3, both by Speedy Somolli.

The rest of Fern's maternal trail back into history is fascinating.

The maternal lineage goes back to Fern's fifth dam, the Dean Hanover mare Rose Dean 3,T2:04 3/4. Rose Dean was not a great broodmare. She had 13 foals between 1947 and 1963, and none of them had 2:00 marks or earned a lot of money. Rose Dean is only of interest to us because her dam, and Fern's sixth dam, is the legendary champion trotting mare Rosalind T1:56 3/4, whose world record was established at the celebrated 1938 Grand Circuit meeting at The Red Mile. This was the same meeting during which Greyhound trotted in 1:55 1/4 and the pacer Billy Direct paced in T1:55. Rosalind's world record of 1:56 3/4 for an aged trotting mare stood for 38 years! It was finally broken by Colonial Charm in 1974, also at Lexington.

Rosalind was truly one of the finest trotting fillies and mares in the history of the breed. She was undefeated as a three-year-old amongst her division, winning the Hambletonian and Kentucky Futurity in a virtual jog. She was by Scotland, and from Alma Lee, a daughter of the little-known, and under-appreciated Lee Worthy. Alma Lee assured a lasting place in history, as she not only produced Rosalind, but her daughter Warwell Worthy is the dam of Worthy Boy.

Rosalind was, in every respect, a product of the genius of her breeder-trainer-driver Ben White, one of the most celebrated trotting trainers in history. Ben White won four Hambletonians in his day, and Rosalind was the culmination of White's 30-year reign as the sport's leading trainer of trotters. White had driven her sire, Scotland 1:59 1/4 to his record and had both bred and driven Rosalind's dam, Alma Lee 4,2:04 3/4 while back of her he had trained and raced Lee Worthy 4,2:02 1/2, the sire of Rosalind's dam. White also had given a mark of 2:06 3/4 to Jane Revere, Rosalind's second dam. White had also trained and raced the world champion Lee Axworthy 1:58 1/4, who is the maternal grandsire of Rosalind, and her third dam, the undefeated, legendary Volga E. 3,2:04 1/2.

This is the most fundamental, historic pedigree that has surfaced in many years in a winner of a major trotting stake. This family tree runs to the one of the most important maternal foundations of the breed. Rosalind's dam was Alma Lee, a foal of 1925 who was in turn a daughter of the noted Jane Revere, a Guy Axworthy mare well known to Standardbred historians.

Jane Revere is singly responsible for the female line that leads to such trotting stars as Rosalind, Worthy Boy, Lowe Hanover, Supergrit, Garland Lobell, Jef's Spice, Cumin, Scott Frost, and TV Yankee, to name just a few of the stars from this tribe.

Jane Revere is a daughter of Volga E., a foal of 1913 who is a full sister to Peter Volo. Yes--Peter Volo! A full sister! Another full sister, the Peter The Great mare The Miss Morris, is the sixth dam of international trotting star Napoletano 3,1:53.2; $2.3 million.

Fern's quality, in ample evidence through the past month of action, should not really surprise us, then, when such a spectacular pedigree is joined with a sire who clearly can jet the job done.

Fern is not a big filly, but she is of good physical quality, and is a very handy and reliable race horse. One of the supposed knocks on the Sierra Kosmos offspring was their inherent tendency to be aggressive horses. Sierra Kosmos was himself a very aggressive horse. However, Fern and her predecessor, No Nonsense Woman, have had very handy racing personalities. Fern has excellent gate speed, can be relaxed on the lead, and then has responded to the late challenges vigorously. She can also race in a hole, as she did in her Oaks elimination. While she won the Oaks off by herself, Fern's earlier win in the Delvin Miller final came when she was under serious attack from Feel The Motion, and would not surrender. Fern's immediate pedigree is full of common crosses to the breed's best trotting sires. She has several linebred crosses to such horses as Speedy Scot, Super Bowl, Star's Pride, Victory Song and Rodney. This is a pretty profound, powerful pedigree on paper. Sierra Kosmos is linebred to Star's Pride and Hildy Hanover, Fern's dam, is linebred to Florican, Rodney and Worthy Boy.

For starters, the Sierra Kosmos x Speedy Crown cross is going to work, as Kosmo Girl, the Sierra Kosmos filly who was such a good second in the Oaks final, is also from a Speedy Crown mare. Back of that, what we see in succession are dams by Super Bowl, Florican, Worthy Boy, Dean Hanover and Scotland.

It doesn't get any better than that.

NEXT WEEK, AN EARLY TAKE ON THE FIRST CROP OF PINE CHIP.