Alan Porter profiles of Easy Rocking

JUNE: On May 15, Sadler’s Wells’ veteran son, Barathea, was euthanized at the age of 19. The next day an appropriate tribute was paid to the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Mile Champion (G1), when his grand-daughter, Funtantes, won the Champagne Classic (G2), over several better fancied youngsters. The Champagne was the first stakes start for Funtantes, but she had won three of her five previous stakes.

Funtantes is by Easy Rocking, the best runner sired by Barathea from his shuttle crops. Extremely precocious, Easy Rocking won the Kindergarten Stakes (G2) on his second outing. However, he had to wait until the following season to gain his second victory when, on his seventh start, he took the Roman Consul Stakes (G3). Subsequently, he added wins in the Challenge Stakes (G2) and Canterbury Stakes (G2), and seconds in the T.J. Smith Stakes (G3) and Doomben 10000 (G1) to his three-year-old ledger. At four, Easy Rocking won just one of his five starts, but that win came in the Salinger-Victoria Racing Club Stakes (G1).

Retired to Wattle Brae Stud, Queensland, Easy Rocking has sired four stakes winners to date, including previous graded stakes winner Pepperwood, successful in the Doomben Classic (G3).

Bred by her trainer, Robert Heathcote, Funtantes, is out of Cantantes, a winner over 1200 and 1500m., and dam of two winners with her previous two foals. She is by Just Awesome, a son of Last Tycoon who was just a listed winner on the track, but who outsired himself at stud, getting six stakes winners from 84 starters, including the Railway Handicap (G1) victory Sound the Alarm, and group winners Pompeii, Awesome Weather, Chenar and Crown’s Gift (in Macau).

There are no previous stakes winners under the first seven dams of Funtantes’ pedigree, and one has to go all the way back to the tenth dam – the Melbourne Cup heroine Auraria – to find the first stakes winner or producer in the direct dam line. However, there are some high-class horses under the eighth dam, Maiden Air, who was grandam of Galway Pipe, winner of the 1947 renewal of the Goodwood Handicap, and third dam of Crusty Bottle, who took the South Australian Derby twelve years later. The ninth dam, Princess Aura is third dam of Glen Ian, winner of the Coronation Birthday Cup, a race of grade standard back in 1953, and fourth dam of Primavera, first home in the VRC Oaks in 1941.

All this is a matter of historical record, however, and has little to do with what makes Funtantes a good horse. However, there is a very good and predictable reason for the cross that produced Funtantes succeeding, and Funtantes is rated TrueNicks A+. Funtantes follows grade one winner The Pooka (by Tobougg out of a mare by O’Reilly) as the second graded stakes winner by a son of Barathea out of a mare by a son of Last Tycoon.

The cross that produced Funtantes and The Pooka represents a continuation of a nick that was only represented by its first in 2003, but has now produced eight other black-type winners, seven of them graded, and five group one. They include this year’s Spring Champion Stakes (G1) winner, Sousa (by Galileo), and this year’s AJC Australian Derby (G1) victor Roman Emperor. However, cross has also come up with Irish Oaks (G1) winner, Vintage Tipple (by Sadler’s Wells’ generally disappointing son Entrepreneur), and Sword Dancer Invitational Handicap (G1) scorer King’s Drama (the only grade one winner for his sire, King’s Theatre). The cross of sons of sons of Sadler’s Wells’ brother, Fairy King, out of Last Tycoon line mares, has also produced two stakes winners, one being the brilliant Alinghi.

Needless to say, the Sadler’s Wells (or Fairy King)/Last Tycoon cross gives very interesting pedigree pattern. Sadler’s Wells is by Northern Dancer out of a mare by Bold Reason, and Last Tycoon, is by a son of Northern Dancer out of a mare by Mill Reef, a son of Bold Reason’s half-brother, Never Bend. Since Bold Reason was by a grandson of Royal Charger, who in turn was three-parts-sister to Nasrullah, sire of Never Bend, Sadler’s Wells and Last Tycoon are products of what is essentially a very similar cross.

Author: First published in Stallions Daily Bulletin