Mr Prospector
Mr Prospector was a truly great sire, and a superb broodmare sire. He is also becoming recognised as a broodmare sire of such prominent sires as Malibu Moon, Pulpit, Silver Deputy and Tale of the Cat, to name but a few.
Mr Prospector is arguably best known as a legendary sire of sires. Few stallions have left such a mark as a sire of sires as did “Mr P”.
This is born out when looking back at the winners of the US’ Triple Crown – the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes.
Since 1990, there have been 10 descendants of Mr Prospector to win the Kentucky Derby. During that same period, 11 Mr P line horses have won the Preakness Stakes. Remarkably enough, given that Mr Prospector was a sprinter, the one mile and a half Belmont Stakes has fallen 14 times (since 1990) to horses directly descended from the great stallion.
Interestingly enough Mr Prospector sired individual winners of all three legs of the US Triple Crown, but none of those winners (Fusaichi Pegusus, Conquistador Cielo, Tank’s Prospect) proved among his better sire sons. While both Fusiachi Pegasus (Kentucky Derby) and Conquistador Cielo (Belmont Stakes) both achieved a degree of success at stud, neither quite reached the heights expected of them when they retired. Tank’s Prospect (Preakness Stakes) was an outright failure.
So which of Mr Prospector’s many great sire sons is his best? Is it Forty Niner or Seeking The Gold, Gulch or Gone West? With many of Mr Prospector’s top sons either dead or retired, it is a good time to review their overall performances, and see where they rank.
Mr Prospector’s most successful sires in terms of number of stakes winners (in numerical order):
Woodman: 111
Carson City: 100
Gone West: 100
Miswaki: 100
Seeking The Gold: 92
Kingmambo: 90
Crafty Prospector: 86
Placerville: 85
Smart Strike: 82
Machiavellian: 78
Lode: 72
Conquistador Cielo: 70
Not For Love: 69
Gulch: 66
Allen’s Prospect: 58
Forty Niner: 57
Numerous: 56
Two Punch: 55
Afleet: 54
Geiger Counter: 53
Choctaw Ridge: 50
Fappiano: 48
Bellotto: 45
Jade Hunter: 44
Silver Ghost: 49
Straight Strike: 41
Mr Prospector’s top leading sire sons by percentage of SW to foals:
Chester House: 13%
Fappiano: 12%
Machiavellian: 11%
Choctaw Ridge: 11%
Kingmambo: 10%
Carson City: 10%
Seeking The Gold: 10%
Not For Love: 9%
Smart Strike: 8%
Gone West: 8%
Crafty Prospector: 8%
Silver Ghost: 7%
Gulch: 7%
Geiger Counter: 6%
Forty Niner: 6%
Woodman: 6%
Some of the horses on the list should be taken with a pinch of salt. Chester House died young, and left a smaller number of horses to compete, while a horse like Choctaw Ridge saw his offspring compete in the softer arena(in comparison with the Northern Hemisphere) of Brazil.
However, as successful as many of these sires were, a number stood out as capable of siring successful sire sons.
Some of Mr P’s sons, such as Woodman, sired large number of stakes winners from big books of mares, but failed to leave successful sire sons behind, while others such as Two Punch (sire Smoke Glacken) sired fewer number of stakes winner but did leave good stallion sons – another being former Canadian Horse of the Year, Afleet, whose son Northern Afleet is currently one of the US’s most consistent sires. Mr Prospector’s outstanding sire son, Seeking The Gold, is a superb broodmare sire, but an ordinary sire of sires. However, his paternal grandson, Dubawi, is currently one of the world’s leading sires.
Sons of Mr Prospector who sired successful sires.
GONE WEST: Elusive Quality, Grand Slam, Mr Greeley, Western Winter, Zafonic, Zamindar, Speightstown
MACHIAVELLIAN: Street Cry, Kahal, Medicean
SEEKING THE GOLD: Mutakddim, Dubai Millennium
GULCH: Thunder Gulch
FAPPIANO: Unbridled, Quiet American, Roy, Cryptoclearance
FORTY NINER: Distorted Humor, Rich Man’s Gold, End Sweep, Jules, Luhuk
CARSON CITY: City Zip, Pollard’s Vision
KINGMAMBO: Lemon Drop Kid, King Kamehameha, King’s Best, El Condor Pasa
TWO PUNCH: Smoke Glacken
MISWAKI: Black Tie Affair
Remarkably no fewer than SIX of Mr Prospector’s sire sons, Miswaki (168), Conquistador Cielo (128) Crafty Prospector (101), Seeking The Gold (108), Fappiano (100) and Woodman (197) are broodmare sires of 100 SW’s plus. Another two, Gone West (88) and Carson City (90) are also likely to join the 100 SW club sooner rather than later through their daughters.
It is almost impossible to single one of Mr Prospector’s great sire sons out from the pack, but a few certainly do stand head and shoulders above the others. Seeking The Gold, Fappiano, Machiavellian and Kingmambo, on their overall achievement (particularly given the quality of opposition) probably take high ranking than the others. All of the above have left behind either an outstanding sire son or grandson, and all have superb statistics (all four getting 10% SW’s to foals plus), and all four were top broodmare sires (all are damsire of 50 SW’s plus).
Gone West was another great sire son, but only got 8% SWs to foals, which puts him just outside the top bracket.
Smart Strike is an outstanding stallion, and should he sire a top sire, he will take high stock amongst Mr Prospector’s stallion sons, but Smart Strike’s top sons are, to date, unproven. Nonetheless, he could yet prove Mr P’s finest son, and is already proving a superb broodmare sire through the likes of Mine That Bird (Kentucky Derby) and Shared Account (Breeders Cup Turf F&M).
Carson City is another outstanding sire – siring over 100 SW, getting 10% stakes winners to foals, and leaving a really good sire son (City Zip) behind.
Woodman’s statistics and lack of a successful sire son, counts against him, while Forty Niner did not sire the same number (and percentage of stakes winners) as did the top stallions.
What is also clear, however, from this study, is that while Mr Prospector was a great sire, capable of producing exceptional sire sons, it can be said that he never sired a son as successful as he himself was.
