Desert Warrior Analysis

A sip from a rich genetic stew at a good price

Desert Warrior is a fourth-year stallion standing at McMahon Thoroughbreds in Saratoga Springs, NY. Desert Warrior brings very strong family connections that have shown great success getting fast horses, at a reasonable fee.  He was successful enough on the track to demonstrate that he's not some genetic train-wreck, but not so successful that he we was sent off to Kentucky.  If you look beyond placing in age-restricted G3 races, Desert Warrior offers access to top-shelf genetic material at a very reasonable fee.

Desert Warrior's breeding strengths:

• Close family has delivered numerous strong sires, including Storm Cat and Royal Academy.
• Solid racing credentials, with placings in graded stakes.
• Clean conformation with an emphasis towards a muscled build, but not so much as to suggest pure sprinters.
• Average size.
• 2004-2007 stud fee at $3,000 (US).

Family of Sires

First and foremost Desert Warrior comes from the same genetic pool as top-shelf sires Storm Cat and Royal Academy.  Storm Cat (Northern Dancer line), is one of the few go-to stallions for the creme of the breed, along with A.P. Indy (Seattle Slew), Distorted Humor (Mr. Prospector), and Unbridled's Song (Mr. Prospector).  Royal Academy has been well received and has earned his success through siring top runners, and currently sits near the top if the general North American sires list. 

Desert Warrior has a bank-shot relationship to both Storm Cat and Royal Academy.  Storm Cat and Desert Warrior are out of sisters.  The older sister, Terlingua, was super fast racing for D. Wayne Lukas.  She was so precocious she defeated boys in the Hollywood Juvenile Championship Stakes.  She was from the 2nd crop of Secretariat, who at the time was getting fantastic mares.  (He later dropped off the must-have list of sires when his progeny failed to live up to his achievements, but he has been well sought after as the sire of good dams).  When retired, she was bred to top Northern Dancer sires Lyphard, Storm Bird, and Northern Dancer himself. 

Terlingua's mother, Crimson Saint, was sent to Secretariat his first two years at stud, then later in her breeding career when Terlingua showed success, then later still when Storm Cat showed the female families success.  Navajo Pass was the last produce from Secretariat, and the next to last for Crimson Saint.  While Navajo Pass was not as successful on the track as her older sister, she has much of the same genetic material to pass on. 

The relationship with Royal Academy also goes through the second dam, Crimson Saint.  Here, she was bred to Northern Dancer's son Nijinsky II, also a top-shelf stallion of his time.  Royal Academy has seen his best success on the turf, as a racehorse and as a sire.  Nijinksy II is generally considered a top turf sire, so this may be no surprise.  Certainly there's every likelihood that Desert Warrior will pass on some portion of turf running though that may be traced through the female side.

Conformation

Desert Warrior has Neutral-Muscled conformation.  The neutral portion is very positive for a value oriented stallion, in that he will have a tendency to mute the conformational flaws of mares he sees.  A more strongly typed stallion, by contrast, is more likely to throw foals that express conflicting conformational attributes like mismatched front and hind ends, light top, heavy bottom, tall and light, etc.

At this level in the market, better mares are not likely to go to a horse at this price.  There's not enough economic justification.  Other types of stallions at this price point are often similarly well-bred reflections of the top stallions in Kentucky, but often with strong characteristics which may or may not be desirable.  If you are in a situation where you have to work around the conformational challenges of your breeding stock, Desert Warrior brings the "blank slate" qualities that at least will allow you to do no harm.

Desert Warrior does have a tendency towards a more-muscled conformation, suggesting that he's more apt to get speed horses than lighter stayers. 

Along the same lines as his conformation is his average size.  To me, average sized thoroughbreds, in the 15.3 hh range, are the best bet.  They tend to handle turns better.  They are more likely to have a faster rate of stride, more important than length of stride.  Finally, they are more apt to not just be slow, like many larger horses.

Racing Cred

At this price range the bottom line is that you have to give up something, and in Desert Warrior's case it is the racing credentials.  Yes, he is a winner, and yes, he showed in good stakes at 2 and 3, but in the end, 2 G3 show results are not stellar racing credentials.

The positive from his racing credentials is that he demonstrated that enough of the pedigree elements are in place in him to be competitive at a high level.  Combined with the fact that he looks like a good horse and that he has the strong pedigree, even if you just get horses back that race to his level you could get strong horses that are competitive in the regional racing scene.

His success at 2 is also a positive indicator of his ability to get fast maturing individuals who can compete against the more limited competition in the early 2 year old races.

Final Take

Desert Warrior offers access to a top genetic pool, with lower risk of a mis-matched foal, at a very reasonable fee.  His lower fee represents a discount of that least important dimension of the sire (to the breeder, at least), of an only adequate racing career.  For this trade-off, the breeder gets a sire closely related to many other top sires, a blank-slate conformation that should work with most mares, and an average size that should also maximize the chances of a good outcome.

Comments

[sumitas]

Super analysis of Desert Warrior. I believe he stands 16.1 hands and we sent a 16.0 massive mare to him. We have a lovely yearling colt. I recommend this sire.

His first crop numbers are good. 13 to race, all placing in the top 3. 7 winners. All that's missing is black type and the price of his yearlings should continue to go up. 2008 avg is $10,000. Lifetime is about $8,000.