Expecting fireworks
‘Pyromania’ hit America’s tracks during this colt’s career and now Pyro is a bright new light among theJapanese stallion ranks
High-class and tough American racehorses have a tremendous record as stallions in Japan – Sunday Silence being an obvious example – and Darley Japan’s new recruit Pyro looks a very interesting candidate to continue this trend.
The Triple Crown trail down which most of America’s most talented colts set out is a very tough one indeed and is one to which many are called but few are chosen. The attrition rate among the leading juveniles is high enough (as is shown by the fact that Street Sense remains the only Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner ever to land the following year’s Kentucky Derby) and the preparation which three-year-old colts undergo the following spring is even more arduous. It thus takes a very special horse to thrive in America’s top two-year-old races and in the lead-up to the Kentucky Derby – and still to have the resilience to win a Grade One as a four-year-old. Pyro is such a horse.
Pyro made a winning debut in a six-furlong two-year-old maiden at Churchill Downs on 7 July 2007, beating his 11 rivals in a time of 1:09.6. Thereafter, he spent the remainder of his two-year-old career in a series of battles with champion juvenile War Pass. The pair first met at Saratoga the following month, with Pyro running third to War Pass after stumbling coming out of the stalls. More orthodox starts to his next two races saw him finish closer to War Pass on each of his next two starts as he ran second to him in what are arguably America’s two best juvenile races: the Grade One Champagne Stakes at Belmont and the Grade One Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, run in 2007 at Monmouth Park.
A juvenile record of a win, two Grade One seconds and an unlucky third place from only four starts proved that Pyro was one of the best and most consistent colts of his year. He then started his three-year-old season even more promisingly, as his victories in his first two starts of 2008 were sensational. Starting the odds-on favourite each time, he landed the Grade Three Risen Star Stakes by two lengths and the Grade Two Louisiana Derby by three lengths, showing blistering acceleration each time to shoot past his rivals in the final furlong. He was still last turning into the straight on his resumption in the Risen Star Stakes, but when his jockey pulled him into the clear the response was electrifying, as the commentary of the closing stages suggests: “PYRO – Pyro’s coming at them like a ROCKET – he was last a moment ago – Pyro comes back FULL OF FIRE!”. After these two wins, many pundits were predicting that ‘Pyro-mania’ take hold on the first Saturday in May with ‘Pyro-technics’ hitting Churchill Downs.
For whatever reason, though, the Kentucky Derby, for which Pyro was sent off third favourite, proved not to be Pyro’s day as he could only finish eighth of the 20 runners behind Big Brown and the ill-fated Eight Belles. However, he wasted no time in putting that disappointment behind him, taking the following month’s Grade Three Northern Dancer Stakes at Churchill Downs on his next outing. During the remainder of the season, he continued to emphasise his merit with a series of placings in top company, including posting two second spots in Grade Two contests and a very creditable third place in the Grade One Travers Stakes at Saratoga in August.
As a four-year-old, Pyro proved his worth with a third consecutive season of honest endeavour in the highest class. The highlight of his third season in training came at Saratoga when he won the Grade One Forego Stakes, coming with his usual flying finish to go from last to first in a 12-runner field, hitting the front in the dying strides to post a half-length victory over the triple Grade One winner Kodiak Kowboy.
Pyro thus retires to stud having proved his class, his soundness and his durability through three seasons of consistent achievement, with an honourable record of five wins and seven places from 17 starts. He offers breeders not only his record of achievement, but also his pedigree, coming from a ‘live’ branch of the line of Secretariat’s sire, the multiple champion stallion Bold Ruler. Pyro descends from Bold Ruler via the great Seattle Slew and his champion son A P Indy, being by A P Indy’s son Pulpit. Now established as one of America’s leading sires, Pulpit has already proved himself as a sire of sires, courtesy of Tapit (America’s champion first-season sire of 2008 and responsible for the likes of the champion filly Stardom Bound) and Sky Mesa (sire of the Grade One winners Sky Diva and General Quarters). Pyro’s dam, the Wild Again mare Wild Vision, is a winning full-sister to the Grade Two winner Wild Wonder, and Pyro was just one of two Stakes winners to represent her in 2009, the other being Pyro’s very close relative War Echo, a Grade Three-winning daughter of Tapit. Other distinguished gallopers in the immediate family are the Grade One winners Olympio and Cuvee, winners of the Hollywood Derby and the Futurity Stakes respectively.
A talented racehorse of proven toughness, Pyro thus offers an interesting outcross for mares from many of the more omnipresent sire-lines, most notably those of Sunday Silence and Northern Dancer. He is clearly a very welcome addition to the Darley Japan stallion roster for 2010.
18 January 2010