Pine Chip Off To Fast Start In The Stud

It is probably not hyperbole to suggest that there was more attention, and more speculation, among trainers, owners, breeders and interested observers on the first crop of the world champion Pine Chip than any trotting stallion in history.

The first crop was well-promoted by Castleton, and their acceptance by buyers from all over the trotting world was unanimous. His first crop of yearlings averaged more than $65,000 with the colts averaging just under $60,000, with the fillies compiling an astounding $73,000 average. The median price from the first crop, which often gives us a better picture than the average, was a solid $50,000, or five times his stud fee.

Pine Chip had ten yearlings that brought bids in excess of $100,000, and 38 brought bids of at least $50,000. There were only three yearlings that brought less than $10,000 from the 74 yearlings offered at public auction. This was an auspicious reception for the young stallion. Putting aside the $125,000 average afforded to the Valley Victory yearlings, Pine Chip's $65,000 average competed very well in the yearling wars. Victory Dream's first crop averaged just under $40,000. Super Bowl had a $42,000 average. Sierra Kosmos an average of under $17,000. Balanced Image, the horse who has led the money-winning list for trotting stallions each of the last three years, had a $36,500 average.

The reception given the Pine Chip yearlings was to be expected. They were powerfully-built youngsters with great size, dimension and power. They were also very intelligent and alert-looking young horses. Because of his racetrack prowess, Pine Chip has the burden of greatness which has proven to be a tough cross to bear for a few of the breed's best race horses. If we can pause for a moment to reflect on the really great trotting horses of the past few decades, a list that includes such stars as Super Bowl, Speedy Crown, Nevele Pride, Speedy Scot, Speedy Somolli, and others. The promise, often unfulfilled, is that horses of this type are expected to produce a new super-breed of trotters, able to approach the speed of their pacing cousins. This theory, of course, we know to be folly, for what really happens is a continual refinement and improvement of the breed as Nature winds her way through the genetic minefield.

Of the preceding list, Nevele Pride is the only one of those horses whom we could even consider to have failed at the task of improving the breed. And even Nevele Pride had his moments, although in some 25 seasons at Stoner Creek Stud he failed to produce a sub-1:56 trotter. The rest of our "study group" all have achieved a considerable level of success. Speedy Crown and Super Bowl are living legends, with Speedy Crown recently passing the $100 million mark in earnings of his offspring.

Speedy Scot produced Speedy Crown and that handsome horse gave us Speedy Somolli, who in turn produced Baltic Speed, who sired Valley Victory. But Speedy Scot also produced another champion, through his son, Arnie Almahurst. "Arnie" sired the gifted but enigmatic Arndon 3,T1:54; $272,023. Arndon was a horse for whom greatness was clearly intended. He had spectacular speed, and great potential. It is forgotten generally that Arndon won ten of his first 11 starts as a 3-year-old, and was the betting favorite in his elimination heat of the 1982 Hambletonian for Delvin Miller. Coasting along on an apparently safe lead in the stretch, Arndon made a break and lost all chance of victory in the Hambletonian. Later in the fall at Lexington, even though he was wholly unsound, Arndon trotted in a world record T1:54 effort that was as much a testament to the horse's ability as that of his driver Delvin Miller. Arndon grabbed one line badly throughout the world record mile and Delvin Miller did a masterful job of coaxing enough speed without sending Arndon into a break. Arndon and Pine Chip form an interesting and historic male line legacy. Arndon is the first and only horse in the history of the breed, to have been the fastest of all time at his gait, and then produced a son who also held that same title.

Arndon's speed was unquestionable. The source of his speed, however, is a matter of some conjecture. Arndon is by Arnie Almahurst, a great-gaited but not overly fast son of Speedy Scot. Arndon's dam, the Super Bowl mare Roydon Gal also produced a couple of other 2:00 trotters, but Arndon's branch of the family tree does not give us a clue as to the source of his speed. From only six North American crops of humble backgrounds, Arndon produced more than 70 in 2:00 and the winners of nearly $10 million. His other prominent offspring included the good filly Kindava Hush 3,1:56.1f; $224,183 and the Grand Circuit star Meadow Glory 3,1:54.3; $149,885.

Arndon made a lot of breaks when he raced, and he was labeled an unreliable speed freak. I suspect that his fractious ways and difficult racing personality were the result of unsoundness. If Arndon had been a sound horse, no trotting record would have been safe.

Pine Chip is by Arndon, and a foal of 1990, Arndon's last on these shores. He was bred by KMW Farms and sold by them as a yearling in 1991 at Harrisburg for only $17,000. His dam is the Speedy Somolli mare Pine Speed 3,2:08.1h. At first glance, the pedigree looks intriguing if for no other reason than both the sire and dam trace paternally to Speedy Scot. Arndon is a grandson of the great "Castleton Cannonball" and Pine Speed's sire, Speedy Somolli, is also a grandson of Speedy Scot. In this way, Pine Chip is bred like a lot of our most successful modern day pacing horses in that he is linebred to Speedy Scot in the same way that pacing horses are often linebred to Meadow Skipper. The fact that this pedigree produced such an exceptionally fast horse is not a surprise, as there are clearly a lot of speed genes available from both Arndon and Speedy Somolli. But both horses also had reputations as being speed-freaks, and of siring aggressive, difficult horses. Yet, Pine Chip was a manageable, durable horse with a very professional racing attitude. Much of that must be attributed to Chuck Sylvester's masterful training, and to the incomparable driving talents of John Campbell. Pine Chip is an attractive, high-withered horse who very much resembled his paternal grandsire Arnie Almahurst, only in a smaller dimension. I never measured Pine Chip, but he appears to be taller at the withers than he is at the rump, a trait also possessed by Arnie Almahurst. About the only knock on him was that he was a little light through his hind quarters, but that was more than compensated for by a remarkably powerful shoulder and forearm. In full flight at top form, Pine Chip was a trotting powerhouse.

Pine Chip's racing career needs little recounting here as it still is so fresh in everyone's mind. He was unraced at two due to a knee injury, but developed quickly at three, and won 23 of 35 lifetime starts, earning just over $1.7 million. The only major losses of his 3-year-old campaign were the Hambletonian and the Zweig Memorial to his arch-rival American Winner. Pine Chip won everything else of consequence that season.

Great things were expected of him at four, but after his defeat in the memorable 1994 Eltilopp battle with Copiad, Pine Chip came down with a virus that robbed him of his top condition for much of that season. When he won the Nat Ray at The Meadowlands in early August, he was still clearly off form, and only trainer Sylvester's considerable talents readied him for an assault on the world record tables in the fall of that year. At Delaware, he trotted a remarkable 1:54h mile for Campbell that is still nearly two seconds faster than any other trotter ever raced on a half-mile track. And Pine Chip's T1:51 time trial at Lexington made him the fastest trotter in history. It can be reported that Pine Chip was clearly not the same horse at the end of his 4-year-old season than the marvelous racing tool that rampaged through the late part of the 1993 racing season. I would estimate that he was maybe only 80-90 per cent of his maximum potential. Had he returned to the same top form at four, I am convinced that he could have approached 1:50.

Put into the stud at Castleton Farm, Pine Chip attracted a book of 129 mares in his first season in the famed stallion barn along Ironworks Pike near Lexington. The USTA credits Pine Chip with 90 foals to date in that first crop. From this group, 40 have started, 16 are winners, and four are below 2:00. More importantly, his first crop has already won more than $652,000, making him the leading money-winning sire of 2-year-olds (USTA stats through 8-24-98).

The success of the first crop is really pretty astonishing, for no horse ever had to endure such pressure to perform under the very heavy weight of expectation. Pine Chip has sired the two fastest 2-year-old trotters to date in Enjoy Lavec, winner of the Peter Haughton, and Starchip Enterprise, a Harriman Cup division winner, who have 1:56.4 records. Pine Chip also has the Peter Haughton elimination winner Wired Pine 2,1:57.1 and the Review Stake winner Arbor 2,1:57.2. His fastest filly credit to date is Better Odds 2,2:00.3 and Pine For 2,2:00.4 is not far behind. Another filly with above-average ability is the attractive Chip Tease 2,Q2:00.4.

Let us briefly examine the backgrounds of some of the most successful offspring. Enjoy Lavec and Starchip Enterprise are both from mares by Speedy Crown. Enjoy Lavec is from a Speedy Crown half-sister to Mack Lobell, and Starchip Enterprise is from a Speedy Crown full sister to the $600,000 winner Crown Starlet 3,1:57.1. Speedy Crown mares comprised fully one-fourth of Pine Chip's first book. The numbers were clearly in favor of Speedy Crown mares having a big influence on this first crop.

Wired Pine, who along with Enjoy Lavec and Starchip Enterprise completed an unprecedented, and wholly impressive, one-two-three sweep of the Peter Haughton Stake at The Meadowlands, is from the Arnie Almahurst mare Flory Messenger, already the dam of major stars Express Ride, Carry The Message, Harry's Bar, et al.

Comet's Tail and Arbor, the Springfield Review winners, are both from mares by Bonefish. Remember earlier that we mentioned that Pine Chip's own pedigree had a common link to Speedy Scot through Arndon and Speedy Somolli. When a Speedy Crown mare is crossed to Pine Chip, it produces a 4 x 2 generation cross to Speedy Crown that is similar to the 4 x 2 cross to Speedy Crown that has been so effective for Valley Victory, a horse from the same male line. The only difference, of course, is that when it is done with Pine Chip, it produces a triple cross to Speedy Scot, whom I believe has never received enough credit for his overall contribution to the breed. The good production of Bonefish mares has to be considered in light of the fact that Pine Chip has a 4 x 4 linebred cross to Star's Pride, the grandsire of Bonefish. I always thought that Pine Chip's pedigree could be one of those that gives us a valuable opportunity to not only produce fast horses, but durable ones as well. The fact that he could breed mares by Speedy Crown only cemented his chances as far as I was concerned.

Pine Chip is clearly on his way in a grand way, and the only knock thus far is that his fillies do not seem to have the same willing attitude of his colts. We will reserve final judgment on that matter until much later downstream, but clearly the big horse at Castleton has staked his claim to trotting's powerful and elite circles.