There is a near-total consensus that Frankel is the best racehorse that Europe, and quite possibly the rest of the world too, has ever witnessed. Undefeated in 14 starts, 10 of them group 1 events, and his utter domination as a 4-year-old was such that it brought about a recalibration of the International Classification and World Thoroughbred Rankings.
Despite his brilliance as a runner, there were some concerns for Frankel's stud career. To begin with, his pedigree, although excellent, also posed a potential challenge. He was not only a grandson of Sadler's Wells, and a son of Galileo, stallions who between them have dominated the European sire ranks for the better part of 35 years, but is also out of a mare by Danehill, a Danzig horse whose daughters have proved to be far and away the most prolific stakes-producing cross for Galileo.
Thus, unless some close inbreeding was to be embraced, Frankel would be denied the opportunity to cross with mares from Europe's premier sire line, and from the line that had proved the most prolific stakes-producing cross for his sire. Further concerns were raised when Frankel's first crop reached the marketplace, there being some disappointment that he "wasn't stamping his stock."
Of course, whether a stallion stamps his stock or not has never been much guide to his merit as a sire, and so it proved with Frankel. Any questions about him as a sire were soon swept away, and he ended 2016 as leading European first-crop sire. That first crop would go on to produce some staggering statistics: from 122 foals and 93 starters the crop yielded 23 individual stakes winners, 19 group or graded (very nearly 25% stakes winners to starters, and 20% group and graded winners to starters). They included six group or grade 1 winners, including Cracksman, officially rated the best in Europe at 3, and the best in the world at 4, as well as Japanese stars Mozu Ascot and Soul Stirring.
Since then Frankel has established himself as a prolific black-type sire, and from his first six years at stud he has been represented by no less than 98 stakes winners, 66 group or graded, and 24 group or grade 1. He's also been a remarkably international influence, and up to the end of the first six months of 2022 had been represented by group or grade 1 winners in England, Ireland, France, Japan, and Australia—and in two countries where the Galileo line had hitherto struggled to make an impact: Canada and Dubai. One country absent from that impressive list is the United States, but that anomaly was corrected when McKulick recorded a decisive success in the July 9 Belmont Oaks Invitational (G1T) at Belmont Park.
McKulick had been threatening to win a major stakes ever since making an impressive winning debut in an 8 1/2-furlong maiden special weight at Saratoga Race Course last August. She ran just once more at 2, closing well for third, beaten a length and a neck in the Miss Grillo Stakes (G2T). This year's campaign saw her kick off with a second in the Edgewood Stakes presented by Forcht Bank (G2T), followed by a second in the Regret Stakes (G3T). The key to the improved form that brought her the Belmont Oaks victory is also certainly found in the distance of the race, the 10 furlongs being the longest she has yet had the opportunity to tackle. Oddly enough, despite giving the impression that he himself would have been fast enough to win a group 1 event over six furlongs, Frankel generally seems to be an influence for stamina.
McKulick's Belmont Oaks win also credits her dam, Astrelle (IRE), with the extremely impressive record of having produced three group or graded winners by three different stallions. Her first foal, Fearless King (by Kingman , won the 2020 Mehl-Mulhens Rennen German Two Thousand Guineas (G2). Her second is the Pride of Dubai filly Just Beautiful, successful last year in the Sceptre Stakes (G3), and McKulick is the third.
Astrelle, a daughter of the Dubawi stallion Makfi, was a herself a useful performer. She won twice at 2 and was beaten just a neck in the Triconnex Oh So Sharp Stakes (G3). Astrelle is one of five stakes winners produced by the much-traveled Mr. Prospector horse Hussonet, who stood in Chile (where he was leading sire seven times), North America, and Australia. The others include group winner Porsenna and listed winner and group-placed Basileus.
Sopran Mariduff, the granddam of Astrelle, began her career in Italy, where she won a pair of listed events and finished third in the Oaks d'Italia (G1). Imported to the U.S., she captured the Black Helen Handicap (G2). She also produced a North American stakes winner in Statue, subsequently the granddam of Brazilian grade 1 scorer Tweet. Sopran Mariduff is out of Marina Duff, another who raced in Italy, earning honors as champion 2-year-old filly there in 1988. Through her Tale of the Cat daughter Snowfield, Marina Duff also features as the granddam of two other Italian group winners in Voice of Love, champion older horse in that country, and Time Chant. In addition to being a juvenile standout herself, Marina Duff is also half-sister to the dam of another 2-year-old star, Mujtahid, champion in England at that age. Via McKulick's sixth dam, the English stakes winner Turf, the family goes back to Straitlace, who took the English Oaks in 1924.
McKulick follows Australian graded winner and grade 1 performer My Whisper as the second graded-stakes winner from only three starters out of mares by sons of Dubawi, who also has five stakes winners from 26 starters. They include the Cazoo Derby (G1) and King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1) captor Adayar; the 2022 Tattersalls Irish One Thousand Guineas (G1) scorer Homeless Songs; and Dream Castle, who took the Jebel Hatta Sponsored by Emirates Airline Stakes (G1). It might well be that significant that Frankel's sire, Galileo, and Dubawi are both from the 'G' mitochondrial haplogroup. In this regard, the pedigree of McKulick's dam is interesting as her sire, her dam, and her granddam are all by stallions from the 'G' haplogroup, out of mares from Astrelle's own 'L' haplogroup.
