When Senor Buscador won Saturday’s $20 000 000 Saudi Cup, he not only picked up the first Gr1 victory of his career, but he also shone the spotlight on his sire Mineshaft (A.P. Indy).
The latter, who challenges Bernardini as his sire’s most talented son on the racetrack, has consistently enjoyed success at stud but Saturday’s Saudi Cup was his biggest win, in terms of prize money, as a sire to date.
Senor Buscador and Junior Alvarado win the Gr1 Saudi Cup on Saturday (Pic – Mathea Kelley-Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia)
An outstanding racehorse, Mineshaft was named Horse Of The Year and Champion Older Male in the USA in 2003.
Having begun his career in Britain (where he won once in seven starts), Mineshaft came into his own when transferred to the States. He won seven of nine starts during his championship campaign at four, headed by wins in all of the Gr1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, Gr1 Pimlico Special, Gr1 Woodward Stakes, and Gr1 Suburban Handicap in 2003.
The impeccably bred Mineshaft retired to Lane’s End having won 10 of eighteen starts and a reputation as one of his champion sire’s very best sons.
While Mineshaft has had his fee steadily reduced from the $100 000 which he began his stud career, the champion has, nonetheless, enjoyed a steady stream of success at stud.
Senor Buscador is one of more than 60 stakes winners for his sire, with Mineshaft having been responsible for eight Gr1 winners thus far. He is also the sire of Hoist The Gold, who won the 2023 Cigar Mile Handicap a race which from 1990 until 2022 was given Gr1 status.
Hoist The Gold and his paternal half-brother Senor Buscador, runner-up to Hoist The Gold in the Cigar Mile, also finished fourth and second respectively in the recent Gr1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes.
Saudi Cup winning sire, Mineshaft (A.P. Indy ex Prospectors Delite) – (Pic – Lane’s End)
Senor Buscador aside, Mineshaft’s other top-level winners are It’s Tricky, Effinex, Weep No More, Discreetly Mine, True Timber, Bond Holder, and Dialed In. Another son, Nehro, ran second in the 2011 Gr1 Kentucky Derby.
Mineshaft has also come up with a successful sire son in the form of 2011 Gr1 Florida Derby winner Dialed In, with the latter’s more than 20 stakes winners headed by the Gr1 winners Defunded (Awesome Again Stakes, Hollywood Gold Cup), Super Stock (Arkansas Derby) and Get Her Number (American Pharoah Stakes). Another son, 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint Stakes winner Hightail, sired 2019 Gr1 Awesome Again Stakes winner Mongolian Groom.
The champion, almost inevitably given his pedigree and the quality of mares he has covered, has also become a successful broodmare sire. To date, broodmare daughters of Mineshaft have produced more than 50 stakes winners including Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winning champion Vequist (Nyquist) and Gr1 Kentucky Oaks winner Cathryn Sophia (Street Boss), while promising young sire Enticed (Medaglia D’Oro) is out of the Mineshaft sired triple Gr1 winner It’s Tricky.
Incidentally, Mineshaft, who is directly descended in female line from the mighty La Troienne (Teddy), has a South African connection. His Gr1 Ashland Stakes/Gr1 Acorn Stakes winning dam Prospectors Delite was a half-sister to the former South African-based Allied Flag (Danzig) -sire of, among others, former Horse Of The Year and July winning sire Classic Flag.
Mineshaft is bred on the successful A.P. Indy/Mr Prospector cross, which has also produced top-class sire Pulpit and the likes of Gr1 winners Little Belle, Girolamo, Tomisue’s Delight, and Tempera.
The late, high-class stallion Malibu Moon, whose 130-plus stakes winners included 2013 Gr1 Kentucky Derby winner Orb, was a son of A.P. Indy and the Gr1-winning Mr Prospector mare Macoumba.
