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But that could change, if the results from so far this year are any indication. Currently ranked third in earnings on the Second-Crop Sire List, with earnings (as of August 20, 2008) of $1,792,732, his standing so far is a leap above 2007's year-end first-year sire listing, where he finished twenty-first. Even so, he had a respectable 18% winners from all foals last year, double the percentage of Empire Maker, and on better footing than Mineshaft and Sky Mesa--not to mention that he is currently standing for a far cheaper fee than any of those sires. More telling, whereas last year he had no stake-winners, this year he already has three--the most notable being Ginger Brew, winner of this year's Calder Oaks and the second-place finisher (by just a head to Not Bourbon) in the Canadian G1 Queen's Plate. His stud fee is among the cheapest of this year's top twenty (so far), with only Repent ($5,000), D'Wildcat ($6,500), and Smooth Jazz ($3,000) having less expensive advertised fees, along with Yankee Gentleman's listed fee of $7,500.
When one looks at lifetime progeny earnings of second-crop sires, as Thoroughbred Times does, the statistics are just as favorable. Milwaukee Brew is ranked eleventh in lifetime earnings among his contemporaries, with (as of August 20, 2008) lifetime earnings of $2,253,013. To be fair, when one takes the progeny earnings for the top twenty in the Thoroughbred Times listing and divides it by the number of starters for each of them, Milwaukee Brew's ranking drops to thirteenth, with an average earnings per starter of $26,821.58. Still, that ranks about $500 higher than Van Nistelrooy and several others in the top twenty, all of which except Flatter command a higher stud fee.
So what is his Average Earnings Index--that other barometer of sire effectivness? Well…..not great. It is currently 1.35, with a Comparable Index of 1.55 according to the Blood-Horse listing as of August 20, 2008, ranking him at 137 on the list--barely making the cutoff of the top 150 listed. But let's try that other ranking, the APEX ranking, which is described more fully on the Thoroughbred Daily News site (link available only to subscribers of TDN). Recently, APEX creator Bill Oppenheim released his mid-year APEX ratings. (There is a link to a downloadable spreadsheet in the August 13, 2008 edition of the Thoroughbred Daily News.) Here, Milwaukee Brew rates a lowly 0.79 in his ABC index, placing him 549 out of 1096 listed. But here is what is interesting: his 2 year old APEX rating is 0.38, whereas his 3 year old rating is 1.15. Of course, much can be attributed to the success of Ginger Brew this year, but a rise in APEX ratings may just be indicative of a sire whose offspring may be late developers, a bit like himself.
Now, before you automatically jump to the conclusion that at this time of year it is only natural for a second-crop sire to have a higher rating for 3-year-olds than 2-year olds, a look at some of his contemporaries does not necessarily bear that out. Empire Maker's 2-year-olds are rated at 2.87, while his three-years have dipped to 1.89. Proud Citizen--even with the phenomenal success of Proud Spell this year--has a 2YO APEX of 1.68, and a 3YO of 1.21. Macho Uno has a 2YO rating of 1.54 and a 3YO rating of 1.17. To be sure, Harlan's Holiday, Sky Mesa, and several others have had an increase in ranking like Milwaukee Brew. However, among all the second-year sires (those with first foals arriving in 2005) who had a rating above 0.0 for 2 year-olds as well as 3 year-olds, Milwaukee Brew has the highest increase from 2YO APEX to 3YO APEX; that rating from 0.38 to 1.15 represents an increase of 302.6 percent. The next highest? Repent, whose 2YO APEX of 0.81 and 3YO APEX of 1.95 represents an increase of 240.7%. (Yankee Gentleman and Sky Mesa are next on the list, by the way.) While it's far too early to draw too many conclusions for this at the mid-year point, such ratings make perfectly good sense for a sire who himself did not really hit his best stride until he got older. (Although Milwaukee Brew won the Grade 2 Ohio Derby at age 3, his victories in the Santa Anita Handicap came at ages 5 and 6.) Could his offspring develop the same characteristics?
Milwaukee Brew certainly has an intriguing pedigree, as shown below and as created by the Tesiopower software. His most substantial inbreeding is on the male side, as he is sired by the first Breeder's Cup Classic (G1) winner Wild Again, who is inbred 3mX4f to Nearco through his sire Icecapade and 4mX3f to Hyperion. On the other hand his dam, Ask Anita, (a Grade 3 stakes winner), is a complete outcross in her first five generations.
After he won the 2002 Santa Anita Handicap, Thoroughbred Daily News pedigree expert Andrew Caulfield stated that "it would have been no surprise had Milwaukee Brew also proved to be a turf performer" [TDN, March 5, 2002, p. 4, available only to subscribers in their archive section]. Caufield points out his dam and broodmare sire (Wolf Power) were both turf performers, as well as the fact that the bottom half of Wild Again's pedigree features Epsom Derby winners Hyperion, Dante, and Mahmoud. In addition, Wild Again had sired turf performers Free at Last, Wild Event, Narita King O and Wild Zone. One can supplement Mr. Caufield's list with Gigawatt, winner of the Grade 3 Miami Mile Breeders Cup Handicap in 2006, and Aud, winner of the Grade 3 Pucker Up Stakes in 2003. Wild Again was retired from active duty at Three Chimneys Farm in 2004.
This makes a compelling argument for breeding Milwaukee Brew to some proven turf runners to, perhaps, optimize his breeding capability already inherent in his family. His most successful offspring so far, Ginger Brew, who is out of the lightly raced, non-stakes placed Coral Necklace (and whose broodmare sire was the 1982 Horse of the Year Conquistador Cielo who, however, did not win on the turf) won the Calder Oaks on the grass. This is likely courtesy of her Milwaukee Brew side of her pedigree, as her dam's side in the first few generations is notably bereft of significant turf runners. And (dosage haters may want to ignore this sentence) Milwaukee Brew's own dosage profile is more indicative of a turf runner, with a lower than average dosage index and center of distribution, thus in keeping with Roman's research that turf runners in general have lower figures.
Looking at some of Milwaukee Brew's other runners, several have won or placed on the turf: Musical Brew, Mascara, Fire Brewed, Dicey D J, and August Rush. Perhaps his lowered stud fee may attract a few more risk takers out there: he dropped from an advertised fee of $10,000 in last year’s Blood-Horse Stallion Register to his current $7,500 in this year’s. Currently ranked a rather lowly 61st (as of August 20, 2008) on the Blood-Horse listing of leading turf sires when ranked by earnings on the turf, his turf earnings percentage is a respectable 28%--the same percentage as established sires Alphabet Soup, Hennessy, and Elusive Quality. His 13 winners on the turf so far this year is also respectable--enough to rank him 38th on the same listing of sires, which lists the top 150.
Call it a wishful thinking on my part, but here’s hoping that a few more breeders with some solid grass runners in their dam’s pedigrees will consider Milwaukee Brew as an acceptable risk at $7,500. That said, this writer's hunch is that he may dip down in the overall rankings a bit the rest of this year, if only because he does not seem to be getting the graded stakes winners that tilt such rankings in the favor of those sires who manage to accomplish that task. But Milwaukee Brew is shaping up to be a “blue collar” racer who may beget blue collar offspring. As many racing fans know, late developing runners are often tried out on the turf if they fail on the dirt. And that may suit Milwaukee Brew's offspring just fine.
Note: Rankings on sire lists have already changed a bit since this article was composed; data was accurate as of August 20, 2008.
Milwaukee Brew is currently standing at Adena Springs South.
TesioPower Pedigree for Milwaukee Brew
Milwaukee Brew (1997) - M - 20-a
by Wild Again out of Ask Anita by Wolf Power to 6 generations
| Wild Again 1980 | Icecapade 1969 | Nearctic 1954 | Nearco 1935 | Pharos 1920 | Phalaris Scapa Flow | 1913 - 1-i 1914 - 13-e |
| Nogara 1928 | Havresac II Catnip | 1915 - 8-h 1910 - 4-r | ||||
| Lady Angela 1944 | Hyperion 1930 | Gainsborough Selene | 1915 - 2-n 1919 - 6-e | |||
| Sister Sarah 1930 | Abbots Trace Sarita | 1917 - 4-j 1924 - 14-c | ||||
| Shenanigans 1963 | Native Dancer 1950 | Polynesian 1942 | Unbreakable Black Polly | 1935 - 4-i 1936 - 14-a | ||
| Geisha 1943 | Discovery Miyako | 1931 - 23-b 1935 - 5-f | ||||
| Bold Irish 1948 | Fighting Fox 1935 | Sir Gallahad III Marguerite | 1920 - 16-a 1920 - 4-n | |||
| Erin 1927 | Transmute Rosie O'Grady | 1921 - 3-n 1915 - 8-c | ||||
| Bushel-N-peck 1958 | Khaled 1943 | Hyperion 1930 | Gainsborough 1915 | Bayardo Rosedrop | 1906 - 10-a 1907 - 2-n | |
| Selene 1919 | Chaucer Serenissima | 1900 - 1-g 1913 - 6-e | ||||
| Eclair 1930 | Ethnarch 1922 | The Tetrarch Karenza | 1911 - 2-o 1910 - 1-h | |||
| Black Ray 1919 | Black Jester Lady Brilliant | 1911 - 1-s 1912 - 22-d | ||||
| Dama II 1950 | Dante 1942 | Nearco 1935 | Pharos Nogara | 1920 - 13-e 1928 - 4-r | ||
| Rosy Legend 1931 | Dark Legend Rosy Cheeks | 1914 - 9-e 1919 - 3-n | ||||
| Clovelly 1938 | Mahmoud 1933 | Blenheim Mah Mahal | 1927 - 1-e 1928 - 9-c | |||
| Udaipur 1929 | Blandford Uganda | 1919 - 3-o 1921 - 3-e | ||||
| Ask Anita 1990 | Wolf Power 1978 | Flirting Around 1971 | Round Table 1954 | Princequillo 1940 | Prince Rose Cosquilla | 1928 - 10-c 1933 - 1-b |
| Knight's Daughter 1941 | Sir Cosmo Feola | 1926 - 6 1933 - 2-f | ||||
| Happy Flirt 1958 | Johns Joy 1946 | Bull Dog My Auntie | 1927 - 16-a 1933 - 9-a | |||
| Saracen Flirt 1945 | Pilate Knights Gal | 1928 - 14-f 1930 - 2-s | ||||
| Pandora 1970 | Casabianca 1961 | Never Say Die 1951 | Nasrullah Singing Grass | 1940 - 9-c 1944 - 1-n | ||
| Abelia 1955 | Abernant Queen Of Peru | 1946 - 9-c 1948 - 6-f | ||||
| Blue Siren 1962 | Open Sky 1956 | Court Martial Per Ardua | 1942 - 1-p 1941 - 2-u | |||
| Alarmist 1955 | Djask Firefighter | 1942 - 5-j 1939 - 18 | ||||
| Epanoui 1980 | Val De L'Orne 1972 | Val De Loir 1959 | Vieux Manoir 1947 | Brantome Vieille Maison | 1931 - 27-a 1936 - 10-e | |
| Vali 1954 | Sunny Boy Her Slipper | 1944 - 16-a 1936 - 5-h | ||||
| Aglae 1965 | Armistice 1959 | Worden II Commemoration | 1949 - 13-c 1953 - 9-f | |||
| Aglae Grace 1947 | Mousson Agathe | 1934 - 16-g 1936 - 11-e | ||||
| Swalthee 1975 | Sword Dancer 1956 | Sunglow 1947 | Sun Again Rosern | 1939 - 9-f 1927 - 2-n | ||
| Highland Fling 1950 | By Jimminy Swing Time | 1941 - 20 1935 - 1-o | ||||
| Amalthee 1964 | Right Royal 1958 | Owen Tudor Bastia | 1938 - 10-b 1951 - 3-f | |||
| Azulene 1956 | Ocarina Alizarine | 1947 - 14-c 1939 - 20-a |
Dosage Profile: 6-5-7-2-0 (20) DI=2.64 CD=0.75
TesioPower
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