BARGAIN BRED RACING SERIES & BREEDING CORNER

Intikhab (IRE)  (11696)

This week I bring you an inexpensive sire with an awesome pedigree. He was a European champion miler. He went to stud in 2000 so his first crop of runners are now four years old and doing pretty well in real life. That could mean he is a sire on the rise and now would be a good time to use him in the sim.

Real Life- Intikhab (IRE) is by Red Ransom. His dam sire is Crafty Prospector and his dam’s dam sire is Danzig. Go one more dam’s dam’s sire and you find Buckpasser. An incredible pedigree to say the least. He won eight of fourteen lifetime starts and finished second another five times. He was only off the board one race in his career.

Being based in Ireland you can imagine he is producing mostly turf runners IRL. Three year old Paita has won a group I race at 2000 meters this year and he has another group III winner as well. He also has several listed stakes winners so with solid real life production this will be a sire on the rise in the sim. The use of many Northern Dancer line dam sires has produced a majority of his good real life runners. His real life runners seem to have a solid amount of stamina in some and a good deal of speed in others.

Sim Life – Intikhab (IRE) has just nineteen sim runners but does have two stakes winners. Both on turf and both at long distances. #35968 Ruby Crown (IRE) is still racing well at five finishing second in a longer turf stakes recently. She won a couple of 16f stakes on the turf last year. #19707 Set me at Ease ran a couple of monster 107 speed figures at 10.5 furlongs last year. Both of these runners were bred back to the Northern Dancer line and with pretty good dam sires. He has just three two year olds this year with one winner.

It is incredible to see that simmers have passed on this guy quite a bit over the last few years. Starting with 2001 he has produced sim crops of 9, 9, 6, 6, and 2 this year.

Breeding Suggestions – No question here, I would shoot for a turf runner. I would start looking for grandsons or even great grandsons of Northern Dancer. Storm Cat, Deputy Minister and Danehill are great choices for grandsons. Other lines to look for might be Seattle Slew. He can throw some turf influence with some of his runners. The Blushing Groom line would be an excellent choice to pair with Intikahab. Caro (IRE) or one of his sons like Cozzene or With Approval would seem to fit well. Deisis (GB) is a solid choice as would any of the Never Bend line.

Breeding him back to Mr. Prospector would be interesting. There I think you are more likely to get a dirt runner and may be playing to the lesser strength of Intikhab. Even so Mr. Prospector has some turf influence and using a grandson of his would work best.

Intikhab (IRE) (11696) X Deputy Minister (1600) X Caro (IRE) (999)

Intikhab (IRE) (11696) X Hennessy (2753) X Affirmed (83)

Intikhab (IRE) (11696) X With Approval (7163) X The Minstrel (6552)

Bargain Bred – Intikhab (IRE) is a solid bargain bred sire getting down to just under 40 BPs by weeks end. I would look of cheaper versions of the above selections.

Intikhab (IRE) X Manzotti (3799) X Minnesota Mac (3994)

What to Expect – His runners thus far have been pretty solid at several ages. His stakes winners peaked at four but both got late starts to their careers. He will produce some solid two year olds from time to time and but I think most of his runners will get better with a little age. I think he will continue to produce better turf runners than dirt but be sure to try the dirt. He seems to pass along a solid amount of stamina so his runners will more than likely prefer a route of ground.