The bold decision made by Gainesway to repatriate Empire Maker from Japan for the 2016 breeding season didn't really reap the reward the initiative shown deserved when the stallion died early in 2020.
After just four seasons at his new home, and from the three Gainesway crops he sired prior to his passing there has so far emerged just five stakes winners from 160 starters, and just one U.S. grade 1 scorer, the American Pharoah Stakes (G1) scorer Eight Rings . (La Poetisa, like Eight Rings, from Empire Maker's 2017 crop, did take the Premio Las Oaks (G1) in Chile.)
The story isn't completely written, however, as there are over 100 foals in Empire Maker's final crop—yearlings of 2021—and of his penultimate crop which numbers 94, only 21 have so far started. Of those, seven are winners, and they include the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T) third Haughty, and Messier , who followed up an eye-catching second start maiden win with a comfortable victory in the Nov. 14 Bob Hope Stakes (G3) at Del Mar.
As a racehorse and a sire, Empire Maker stands with Unbridled's Song as one of two outstanding sons of Unbridled, the champion 3-year-old colt of 1990. Empire Maker lost out to Funny Cide in the ballot for the champion 3-year-old male title but was probably the best second-season performer of his crop. He took the runner-up spot behind Funny Cide in the Kentucky Derby (G1) following an interrupted preparation, but defeated that rival in the Wood Memorial Stakes (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1), and had earlier won the Florida Derby (G1), making him the only colt of the crop to take three grade 1 events at 3.
Empire Maker retired to stand at Juddmonte Farms in Lexington in 2004, but was purchased by the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders' Association, and stood at Shizunai Stallion Station from 2011-15. One of the reasons for his sale was that he'd been far less successful for Juddmonte—who bred quite a high proportion of middle-distance turf mares to him—than for outside breeders. A disappointment during his time in Japan, Empire Maker left 11 grade 1 winners during his first spell in Kentucky, among them three-time Eclipse Award winner Royal Delta, Pioneerof the Nile (sire of Triple Crown victor American Pharoah ), and Bodemeister.
Bred in Ontario by Sam-Son Farm, Messier comes from a family that has long been associated with that famous Canadian nursery. He is the first starter from three foals of racing age out of his dam Checkered Past, a daughter of Smart Strike who twice took the Trillium Stakes at Woodbine. Checkered Past is out of the A.P. Indy mare Catch the Flag, a sister to Canadian champion 2-year-old filly Catch the Thrill, herself dam of stakes winner Curlin's Catch—by Smart Strike's son Curlin , and so closely related to Checkered Past. Curlin's Catch triumphed in the Suncoast Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs this year.
Messier's third dam, Catch the Ring, earned a title as champion 3-year-old filly in Canada. She was by Seeking the Gold out of Halo's daughter Radiant Ring, winner of nine black-type events, including the Matchmaker Stakes (G2T). That also makes Catch the Ring a sister to stakes winners Diamond Fever and Seeking the Ring, with Seeking the Ring going on to produce the Ontario Fashion Stakes (G3) and Whimsical Stakes (G3) scorer Southern Ring.
The dam of Radiant Ring, the minor stakes-placed Gleaming Stone, is a half sister Barb's Dancer, dam of the ill-fated champion sprinter Eillo, and their dam Periodista is also ancestress of grade 1 winners Gygistar and Flat Fleet Feet. A very close relative to Neapolitan Way, a graded stakes winner who took second in the 1974 Preakness Stakes (G1), Periodista is out of Swooning, a sister to Swoon's Son, a Hall of Famer and sire of Hall of Famer Chris Evert, and to the multiple stakes-winning Dogoon.
This is a rather interesting female line. In theory it is one of the branches of Bruce Lowe's #12 family going back to the Brimmer Mare foaled around 1695. However, the branch from which this family stems—the Montague Mare—was wrongly conflated with the Brimmer Mare family in the fifth edition of the first volume of the General Stud Book, something suggested by foaling dates, and confirmed by mitochondrial DNA analysis, showing the two branches are from different haplotypes (I2a2 for the Brimmer descendants and L1a from the wrongly attributed branch that goes back to The Montague Mare).
Further study reveals that Messier is from an entirely different mitochondrial line from either—the far less common A1 haplotype. It appears his distant female line ancestress, a mare by Jack of Diamonds foaled in 1765, was wrongly added to the offspring of the imported mare Diana, who descends from The Montague Mare. The branch from which Messier stems produced some notables in the relatively early days of American racing, including one of the most famous American runners and sires of all time, Lexington, as well Hall of Fame horse Luke Blackburn; 1877 Kentucky Derby captor Baden-Baden; Leonatus, who took the Kentucky Derby in 1883; the 1886 Preakness Stakes scorer The Bard; Foxford, the Belmont Stakes winner in 1891; Ildrim, successful in the Belmont Stakes in 1900; Lady Schorr, who lifted the Kentucky Oaks in 1901; Souffle, who took the Kentucky Oaks in 1896; and finally Kalitan, who won the Preakness Stakes in 1917.
There are some more recent standouts in other parts of the world, among them the great Australian horse Kingston Town, and in Europe, Ouija Board and her son Australia. The branch that leads to Messier had been bumping along at a fairly modest level until Swooning's third dam, Silk Lady, was bred to Greenock—a fairly obscure sire, but stemming also from the A1 haplotype—to produce Swooning's second dam, Sadie Greenock, and the revival in its fortunes began.
To return to more modern pedigree connections: Messier is obviously a Triple Crown trial prospect at this time, and should he prevail in a classic, it won't be the first for the combination of his sire line, Unbridled, with his broodmare sire line, Smart Strike. The 2009 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) victor, Mine Than Bird, was by Unbridled's grandson, Birdstone, out of a mare by Smart Strike, and his half brother, the multiple grade 1 winner and Kentucky Derby third Dullahan, was by another Unbridled grandson, Even the Score.
