Corniche
When the votes were tallied for the 2021 Eclipse Award for 2-year-old male, Corniche was declared a runaway winner, with 214 votes compared to 12 for his nearest rival. This wide margin of success reflected the impressive nature of Corniche’s first season. His potential was so obvious when he breezed a furlong in :10 flat at the Ocala Breeders’ sale in April that his price soared to a sale-topping $1,500,000.
Corniche was to repay most of that outlay in winning his three two-year-old starts, commencing with an easy win over 5½ furlongs at Del Mar in September. Less than four weeks later Corniche had earned Gr.1-winner status, with a dominant display in the American Pharoah Stakes. Drawn 11 of 11 in the Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Corniche was fast enough to clear the field by the first turn and he maintained his speed to remain unbeaten.
Although Corniche excelled on dirt, he has a pedigree which should allow him to sire smart winners on all surfaces. 20 of his dam Wasted Tears’ 22 starts were on turf, on which she won 12 times, including 5 times at Graded Stakes level. His sire Quality Road did even better. Out of the first two only twice in a 13-race career, Quality Road was versatile enough to set a track record over 6½ furlongs and two more over a mile and an eighth. He has done so well, with 15 Gr.1 winners in his early crops, that he is now one of Kentucky’s most in-demand stallions.
The chances are that Quality Road will found a flourishing male line, as City of Light, another of his best sons, has already sired Fierceness, winner of the 2023 Eclipse Award for 2YO males before going on to land the Gr.1 Florida Derby by 13½ lengths, the Gr.1 Travers Stakes from Thorpeda Anna and ran second in the Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Bearing in mind that recent winners of the Eclipse Award for 2-year-old male include Uncle Mo, American Pharoah, Nyquist and Good Magic, Corniche can be expected to pass on his considerable ability. His pedigree allows him endless options. For example, his pedigree is free of such as A.P. INDY, TAPIT, CANDY RIDE, SMART STRIKE, CURLIN, DANZIG, WAR FRONT, STORM CAT, GIANT’S CAUSEWAY, MEDAGLIA D'ORO, INDIAN CHARLIE, AWESOME AGAIN and DISTORTED HUMOR, and he has only one line of MR PROSPECTOR, who will be in the fifth generation of his foals’ pedigrees.
His sire Quality Road has enjoyed marked success with STORM CAT blood, siring Graded winners from daughters of STORM CAT, HENNESSY (3), TABASCO CAT, GIANT’S CAUSEWAY, SCAT DADDY and INTO MISCHIEF.
He has also thrived with daughters of DIXIE UNION, broodmare sire of three of his Gr.1 winners, including KLIMT (whose second dam is by STORM CAT).
Quality Road has Gr.1 winners out of grand-daughters of A.P. INDY, including two out of mares by BERNARDINI and another out of a MALIBU MOON mare.
DEPUTY MINISTER mares had two Gr.1 winners, including champion Abel Tasman, among their small number of foals by Quality Road, who also sired the top-class City of Light from a mare by Deputy Minister’s son DEHERE. Quality Road also owes two of his Gr.1 winners to grand-daughters of DANZIG, with Bleecker Street having a dam by EXCHANGE RATE and Illuminant being out of a POLISH NUMBERS mare. The SADLER’S WELLS line must also be considered for Corniche. Quality Road’s 2023 Preakness Stakes winner National Treasure has a dam by MEDAGLIA D’ORO, and Quality Road’s first 17 starters out of mares by GALILEO include two Graded/Group winners. Quality Road has also had Gr.2 success with Road To Success (out of a TIZNOW mare) and Agate Road (out of a mare by Tiznow’s son GEMOLOGIST).