Good Reward has the best pedigree of any horse going to stud in 2007. He's a son of one of the world's premier sires and sires-of-sires, Storm Cat, out of the champion race filly Heavenly Prize, a daughter of the leading sire and broodmare sire Seeking The Gold. To add to the glamour, Good Reward's full brother, Pure Prize, was one of the leading freshman sires of 2006.
A winner at two on the dirt, and multiple Grade 1 winner at three and four over the American classic distance of a mile and a quarter, albeit on grass, Good Reward was also Grade 1-placed on dirt at the same distance. This gives him a similar profile to the outstanding young sire Giant's Causeway, also a son of Storm Cat with G1 performances on grass and dirt at ten furlongs. With the rise of artificial racing surfaces, Good Reward's offspring should be able to handle anything put under their feet dirt, turf, or artificial, and he's been well received by both American and European breeders.
Good Reward is a son of Storm Cat, which means he should cross very well with many of the same bloodlines that his sire does. Storm Cat's top nicks include Mr. Prospector (especially Seeking the Gold and Fappiano), Alydar, Seattle Slew, Pleasant Colony, Private Account, Rahy, and Affirmed.
Since Good Reward is out of a mare by Seeking the Gold, more of that line is too risky as far as inbreeding is concerned, but other Mr. Prospector-line mares should be appropriate within reason, since doubling up on Mr. Prospector is proving successful. Good Reward's donation of Mr. Prospector will be in the fourth generation of his offspring, so mated with a daughter of any Mr. Prospector son, the inbreeding would be 4x3 at the closest. That said, we don't recommend own daughters of Mr. Prospector, which would created a 4x2 inbreeding scenario, or using a mare who is already inbred to Mr. Prospector.
Good Reward's full brother, Pure Prize has sired 3 stakes winners to date, and 2 of them are out of Mr. Prospector-line mares and so inbred to that sire (4x3 and 4x4), a formula that is obviously working with this kind of pedigree background. Pure Prize's other stakes winner, his leading earner Birdbirdistheword, is out of a mare by Rocky Mountain, a son of Alydar, which is another good Storm Cat nick. Like Mr. Prospector, Alydar is also sired by Raise a Native, so this male line is obviously a top target for Good Reward.
Mares carrying strains of Woodman and Miswaki, who are both bred on the same Mr. Prospector/Buckpasser cross as Seeking the Gold, might have superior results with Good Reward. Another Mr. Prospector son, Gone West, would provide inbreeding to Secretariat, a formula that is working with Storm Cat as a sire and broodmare sire. Speightstown is by Gone West out of a Storm Cat mare. Gone West's son Mr. Greeley would be particularly clever since not only is he inbred to Bold Ruler, he's out of a mare by Reviewer, a Bold Ruler half-brother to the dam of Seeking the Gold. Reviewer is also the dam's sire of Time For A Change, who, along with his son Fly So Free, could also be potential nicks for Good Reward. Conquistador Cielo presents a similar Mr. Prospector/Bold Ruler cross, which should also be effective.
Other non-Mr. Prospector sources of Raise a Native would be desirable, particularly Alydar and Affirmed. Alydar's son Saratoga Six is out of a Bold Ruler line mare, so should be doubly useful here. Alysheba is bred on an Alydar/Nasrullah cross. Alydar's son Turkoman (dam bred on a Round Table/Nasrullah cross) is the dam's sire of Point Given, who should work well here. There are a lot of good Raise a Native/Nasrullah crosses out there to take advantage of this scenario.
Good Reward already has Northern Dancer inbreeding (3x4) through his closely-related sons Storm Bird and Nijinsky II, both out of mares from the Bull Page sireline. Pure Prize's Grade 3 winning filly, Birdbirdistheword, is linebred 4x5 to Nijinsky II and has 3 crosses of Northern Dancer, so look for more Nijinsky II or his close relatives The Minstrel and Far North, both out of a daughter of Nijinsky II's dam Flaming Page by Bull Page. Mares with the Northern Dancer/Secretariat nick (Chief's Crown, Secreto) or Northern Dancer/Buckpasser nick (El Gran Senor) should be dynamic.
Mares by Thunder Gulch would add a daughter strain of Storm Bird, which could be a positive move, doubling that horse 3x4. Thunder Gulch's son Point Given is out of a mare by Turkoman (by Alydar), so Point Given daughters might work very well with Good Reward.
Mares carrying Seattle Slew should do well here since he's been a good cross for Storm Cat (Raging Fever, Stormy Atlantic), and an especially good one for Seeking The Gold. Seeking the Gold's dam was by Buckpasser, one of Seattle Slew's best nicks. Seattle Slew's son A.P. Indy has crossed quite successfully with Storm Cat (and doubling up on Secretariat). In fact, A.P. Indy got two of his most precocious descendants, Jump Start and Sky Mesa, from this cross. Keep in mind that the many sons and daughters of A.P. Indy out of Mr. Prospector mares should work well with Good Reward's son strain through Seeking the Gold. These include Pulpit, Malibu Moon and Mineshaft to name just a few.
Silver Deputy, by Deputy Minister, is also out of a Mr. Prospector mare and might work well here. His sons and daughters have had a lot of success with matings involving inbreeding to Mr. Prospector.
Tiznow is out of a mare by Seattle Slew, and his two best runners to date, Folklore and Tiz Wonderful, are both out of mares by Storm Cat. This might be a good place to try daughters of Tiznow or any of the other good young sires out of Seattle Slew-line mares, like Officer, Dixie Union, and Lemon Drop Kid.
Storm Cat has developed a strong nick with Blushing Groom and his son Rahy in particular, whose daughters have produced Giant's Causeway and Grand Reward. Consolidator is another good Storm Cat from a Blushing Groom-line mare. This cross, along with Seattle Slew, and doubling Secretariat with Gone West and A.P. Indy, shows that Storm Cat throws back strongly to his cross of Secretariat, by Bold Ruler, by Nasrullah (also male line ancestor of Seattle Slew and Blushing Groom). Blushing Groom has a special affinity for Nijinsky II, who appears in Good Reward's second dam, so there's a very hopeful cross in the making there.
Storm Cat has shown a partiality to mares with Blushing Groom's broodmare sire Wild Risk, who also appears in the pedigree of Unbridled, so keep an eye out for that cross, especially since Fappiano is already a good nick for Storm Cat.
Damascus has worked with Storm Cat, and might go especially well here, since Good Reward's fourth dam is Lady Pitt, a champion daughter of Damascus's sire Sword Dancer. Damascus's son Private Account looks particularly useful, being out of a Buckpasser mare, which duplicates the same strain found in Seeking the Gold. The speedier Damascus strains like Gilded Time (out of a Bold Ruler-line mare), Eastern Echo (Northern Dancer mare), and Fly So Free should also be tried.
Storm Cat has an historic nick with Ribot-line mares, especially Pleasant Colony, so look for more of His Majesty, or other Ribot strains such as Graustark and his son Key to the Mint; or Tom Rolfe and his son Hoist the Flag, and grandson Alleged. Majestic Light was out of a daughter of Ribot and worked well with Buckpasser.
Storm Cat is also finding a new superior cross with Roberto, so mares by Red Ransom (dam by Damascus), Dynaformer and Kris S. become desirable commodities. Look for other sources of Roberto's sire Hail to Reason, such as Halo (dam's sire of Rahy, noted above), Mr. Leader, and Proud Clarion, too.
We've peripherally touched on the value of Buckpasser, who appears in Good Reward's pedigree though his dam by Seeking Gold, who was out of Con Game, by Buckpasser. Doubling Buckpasser generally is a good thing, so look for stallions carrying him up close such as Woodman, Miswaki, El Gran Senor and Private Account who have all previously been mentioned, and others not noted.
Buckpasser was a son of Tom Fool, who was by Menow, and Menow lurks quite a bit in the background of Good Reward's pedigree, enough to tag him as a significant ancestor. Storm Cat's fourth dam, First Rose was by Menow out of Rare Blood by Sir Gallahad III. Tom Fool himself was by Menow out of Gaga by Bull Dog (a full brother to Sir Gallahad III). Nijinsky's third dam Flaring Top was by Menow out of a great granddaughter of Sir Gallahad III.
This suggests that Good Reward might do well with mares by El Prado, whose dam was linebred cleverly to a package of bloodlines that included Menow and a three-quarter sister, as well as Sir Gallahad III. El Prado brings in another cross of Northern Dancer (4x5x4 in the prospective foal) and El Prado's dam was by Sir Ivor, a son of Sir Gaylord, which immediately signals a good potential cross to Secretariat, a la Good Reward's sire, Storm Cat.
To summarize, Good Reward looks like a good bet with a lot of the prominent bloodlines available, which is a highly desirable quality in a stallion prospect. He should love additional Mr. Prospector (Gone West, Mr. Greeley, Woodman, Miswaki, and Unbridled look best) and additional Northern Dancer (Nijinsky II, Chief's Crown, El Gran Senor and El Prado look best). He should love Seattle Slew (A.P. Indy especially) and Roberto and Blushing Groom (especially Rahy). He looks like a good bet with daughters of a lot of young, up-and-coming sires and broodmare sires out there like Point Given, Tiznow, Dixie Union and Lemon Drop Kid. Hopefully, he'll become yet another highly successful son of the mighty Storm Cat to stand in Kentucky.
By Anne Peters