BARGAIN BRED RACING SERIES & BREEDING CORNER

Cobra King (1190)

Each year I enjoy looking through the younger sires that only have a few crops in real life and try to figure out which ones could have a break through year. I put the question out to a few people and Deltatiger brought Cobra King to my attention. He stands at a smaller farm in California and did most of his racing in California.

As a two-year-old Cobra King was wonderful. He won four if six starts with one second. Three of those wins were stakes wins. The grade III Balboa, the Grade III Hollywood Prevue over Hennessy, and the listed Sunny Slope. As a three-year-old he only had two starts. His one start of note as a three year old was a win in the grade III Holy Bull over eventual Belmont Stakes winner Editor’s Note. He looked to be on his way to making a derby appearance but I can only assume that injury ended his career. He finished his career with five wins from eight starts four of those stakes wins.

Real Life- Cobra King is by Farma Way. His dam sire is Fabled Monarch and his dam’s dam sire is Never Bend. He is from the Bold Ruler line. Grand dad is Marfa, great grand dad Foolish Pleasure. His dam side has quite a bit of stamina so even though his dosage index is 1.40 it is a good mix of speed and stamina. His best real life runner so far is probably Lunar Sovereign. Lunar Sovereign won the grade I Man O War (11f turf) last year and was third recently in the grade III Dubai City of Gold (12f turf). Lunar Sovereigns dam is Apalachee which creates a 4X5 inbreeding to Princequillo and a 5X5 inbreeding to Nasrullah.

Another solid runner Cobra King has produced is Chirimoya. Chirimoya finished second recently at Aquaduct in the grade II Distaff Breeder’s Cup handicap over seven furlongs finishing ahead of Storm Flag Flying. Chirimoya’s dam is by Turkoman. He has another stakes placed turf runner in Something Ventured whose dam is by Seattle Slew. He seems to produce better turf runners than dirt runners so far.

Sim Life – Cobra King has only nineteen sim runners. From the nineteen two are stakes winners. One of his best is #44906 Slew Kingdom (Louisiana Slew X Nijinsky II) has not raced since 2001 week 1229. She is a computer horse now. (Note to Mike. Please put her in the auction she deserves to run again) She did win a turf stakes as a two year olds which looks a little fluky but her last race as a three year old was pretty solid. Who knows what might have been? His other stakes winner is #29541 Bravo II won his stakes race on the dirt as a two-year-old. Since then he has been a decent allowance runner. Not much to talk about in his other nineteen runners.

Horse #53011 Marc’s Niners (Affirmed X Dr Fager) ran ok as a three-year-old but has not raced since then (week 1264). (Second note to Mike. Here is another that deserves to be dropped into the auction) He has a decent little three year old filly #80722 that finished sixth in a stakes run last out. He only has two, two-year-olds so far this year. Only one has started and her debut was nothing to write home about.

Breeding Suggestions – He has not been bred with very many good dam sires in the sim. At the end of the week Cobra King will only cost you about 33 bps so there is no reason not to breed him to some pricey dam sires. The Northern Dancer line, Seattle Slew, and Mr. Prospector lines will likely work best but really he should blend well with any sire lines. In all his better runners a sire from the Northern Dancer line was used. If I were going to inbreed using Cobra King I would inbreed to Pricequillo or Nasrullah who will be in the fifth generation of his off spring. Secretariat would inbreed to both Princequillo (4X5) and Nasrullah (4X5). I would love to see what he could do paired with some top-notch dam sires but he is unproven and investing significant BPs is a little risky. So I would use some good mid priced dams hopefully getting a good runner.

Cobra King (1190) X Honor Grades (2840) X Ribot (5300)  

Bargain Bred – Since he can be had for such a low cost it makes him very attractive as a bargain bred sire.

Cobra King (1190) X Outflanker (4619) X Minnesota Mac (3994)

What to Expect – In the Sim both of his stakes winners won when they were two. I would expect to have a solid runner as a two-year-old. His runners in real life have taken some time to develop with his top runners currently all five years old. He has produced two-year-old stakes winners in real life. He produces both turf and dirt runners so be sure to try his runners on both surfaces. He may be better at producing turf runners. They should also be best between 8-10 furlongs depending on with whom they are bred.

I think Cobra King has the potential to produce some good sim runners. It is probably only a matter of time before you hear about his real life progeny winning big races