Baltic Speed Has Had Siring Career Full Of Ups And Downs

One of the best trotting fillies of the current racing season is the Baltic Speed filly Baltic Region. She has raced with distinction for the past two years on the Grand Circuit and in her most recent appearance, she was second to Moni Maker at Garden State Park just this past Saturday.

Baltic Region is a good filly, but not a great filly. She possesses almost no gate speed, but is a famed late closer. This lack of tactical speed has cost her dearly through this racing season as her style of racing mandates an aggressive front-end pace from her competitors that allows her to mount an all-out offensive late in the mile. Earlier this season, she won a Hambletonian Oaks elimination, trotting in 1:55, and her earnings are nearing $400,000.

The interesting thing about Baltic Region is not her maternal pedigree, but her sire, Baltic Speed. A foal of 1981, Baltic Speed was bred by Carl Dugan and Virginia Young of Delaware, and was owned at two by Erik Cedarqvist of Sweden who had purchased the mare Sugar Frosting in foal to Speedy Somolli. The colt was trained during his racing days by the famed Nordin Stable combination of father Sorin and driving son, Jan.

BALTIC SPEED HAD FINE RACING CAREER

During his racing career, Baltic Speed had his moments of success. At two, he won the Champlain, the George Wilkes Trot, a heat of the International Stallion Stake, the New Jersey Futurity, final of the New Jersey Sires Stakes and seven NJSS events. He won 12 of 19 at two, earning just over $200,000. He was voted Two year Old Trotter of the Year in 1983.

At three, Baltic Speed had another great season, winning more than $1 million, and earning a race mark of 1:56 At three, he won the Breeders Crown at Pompano Park, the Yonkers Trot, the World Trotting Derby (where he got his 1:56 record), the American-National, Founders Gold Cup, Battle of Saratoga, New Jersey Futurity and an elimination of the Dexter Cup. In essence, he won almost everything that year except the Hambletonian.

Baltic Speed was not a speedy horse off the gate, and won many of his races attacking on the outside, often out the entire route of the mile. For this, he earned the respect of the trotting community. In the 1984 Hambletonian, however, he was forced to race once again on the outside, uncovered, and finished fourth in his first heat, won by the longshot Delvin G. Hanover and Hakan Wallner. In the second heat, Nordin took Baltic Speed off the gate, had him way back early, and then came flying late to miss winning that heat by a length, trotting a final quarter in the :27 second vicinity.

He redeemed his 3-year-old season by winning the World Trotting Derby at Du Quoin and the Breeders Crown at Pompano Park in a world record 1:57 2-5f. And, of course, he was voted three-year-old trotter of the year after winning 13 of his 27 starts. We must judge him as a tough, sound, consistent, hard-hitting horse who made 46 career starts at two and three, earning more than $1.2 million. He was an attractive race horse, with a clean, easy gait, and like most of Nordin's champions, went with little weight and the slightest of rigging.

A STRONG MALE LINE OF TROTTING STARS

Baltic Speed represented an interesting opportunity in the stud, since he was a young son of Speedy Somolli, the rocket trotter who had been the first trotter to race in 1:55 in the opening heat of the 1978 Hambletonian. Speedy Somolli was the first trotter I remember seeing whom I thought could probably go as fast as the pacing contemporaries of his time. I would have to say that 20 years later, I would continue to rate Speedy Somolli as one of the five fastest trotters I ever saw race.

Baltic Speed was foaled in 1981 when Speedy Somolli was but six years old himself. Grandsire Speedy Crown was a foal of 1968, and thus was only 13 himself when Baltic Speed was foaled. This represented a rapid extension (and evolution) of the powerful male line that traces back through Speedy Crown's sire, Speedy Scot, then to Speedster and then to Rodney. The development of this male line continued to leapfrog through generations when, in his very first crop, Baltic Speed had a colt and a filly that will go down in history as two of the greatest trotters ever foaled.

Baltic Speed entered stud duty at Castleton Farm, and two of the mares he bred in his initial crop were a Super Bowl filly named Worth Beein, and a Bonefish mare named Valley Victoria. Both of these fillies had some credentials. Worth Beein had a mark of 3,1:58 3-5, and earned $204,078, including victories in the Coaching Club Trotting Oaks and three PaSS races. The second dam was the unmarked Noble Victory mare Aunt Hilda, and the third dam the world champion Worth Seein 3,T1:58; $286,366. All three of these dams had been trained and raced by Stanley Dancer, and Dancer shared ownership of Worth Beein when she was sold in foal to Baltic Speed to Stoner Creek Stud.

The Bonefish mare Valley Victoria had a mark of 3, 2:00 3-5f, and was stakes-placed, but she was not a remarkable filly by any measure. The mating with Baltic Speed was her first breeding. Her dam was the good Noble Victory filly Victorious Lou 3,T1:59; $48,836, a half-sister to the more noted Superlou 3,1:57 1-5; $278,465 and to the Hambletonian heat winner Formal Notice 3,1:58 2-5. What Baltic Speed did with these two mares is one of the most remarkable achievements in the history of trotting horse breeding. It also provides one of the most puzzling mysteries of the past two decades.

PEACE CORPS AND VALLEY VICTORY !!

Of course, the filly foaled from the mating of Baltic Speed and Worth Beein was the $5 million winner Peace Corps 3,1:52.1, the leading money-winning Standardbred in history; and the colt from Valley Victoria was none other than Valley Victory, the reigning king of North American trotting whose first five crops have produced three Hambletonian winners, including Victory Dream, Continentalvictory and this year's champion Muscles Yankee.

The mystery is how a horse could sire two such extraordinary champions in his first crop, but fail to provide the kind of follow-up stars that would have allowed Baltic Speed to be assessed a siring success? Many breeders here in North America now consider Baltic Speed's early promise to be only an aberration.

One of the problems with the Baltic Speed offspring is that many were very inconsistent horses of questionable physical quality. Trainers did not find them appealing and when a couple of seasons had gone by after Peace Corps and Valley Victory, without a major follow-up star, the die was cast. Baltic Speed was exported in 1994 after standing at Castleton Farm for nine seasons, and is now in Italy. It should be noted that Peace Corps herself was not a good individual, and her first two foals, both fillies, have not been good individuals, either. Valley Victory is, however, an attractive horse, and many of his trotting stars have been good-looking animals. However, many of his progeny are not all that attractive.

AN INTERESTING PEDIGREE!!

Baltic Speed's pedigree has always intrigued me, because he is by Speedy Somolli, a son of Speedy Crown and the Star's Pride mare, Somolli. Baltic Speed's dam was the Carlisle mare Sugar Frosting, a daughter of the Hickory Pride stallion Carlisle. Hickory Pride, of course, was by Star's Pride. This produced a 3 x 4 generation cross to Star's Pride in the female line of Speedy Somolli and the male line of Sugar Frosting. However, what is most interesting is that Baltic Speed would have such premier performers like Peace Corps and Valley Victory, who both have Star's Pride line dams. Peace Corps is from a Super Bowl mare, and Valley Victory is from a Bonefish mare, with Bonefish being a grandson of Star's Pride. Peace Corps also has more Star's Pride blood in her pedigree, since her second dam is by Noble Victory, a horse with a Star's Pride dam. This meant that Peace Corps had a mating cross to Star's Pride that read 4 x 5 x 3 x 5 to Star's Pride.

Valley Victory's Bonefish dam and Noble Victory second dam (just like Peace Corps) meant that his relationship to Star's Pride is 4 x 5 x 4 x 5. Strangely enough, not much of this kind of line breeding was repeated with Baltic Speed during his days at Castleton. For this cross to have produced two such extraordinary animals as Peace Corps and Valley Victory and to not have been repeated in volume is most puzzling. The aforementioned Baltic Region is from a mare by Joie De Vie, a son of Super Bowl. Another pair of stakes trotters were Baltic Bet 3,1:54 4-5 and Bosphorus 3, 1:54 4-5, who both had Bonefish dams.

There are not a great many Baltic Speed mares in production here in the US, and so there are no really prominent performers yet produced by any of them. His best broodmare credit to date is the 1997 stakes winner Chili Con Carne 2,1:59.1h. At this point, I guess we are left with the enigma of a stallion career that began with so much fluorish, and yet went out with a meek whimper.