Excessively good
by John P. Sparkman

California sires who have achieved consistent international or even national-level success are relatively few.

*Alibhai began his career in California in the 1940s, and succeeded well enough to earn syndication and renown in Kentucky in the ’50s. *Khaled, also by Hyperion, spent his entire career at his owner Rex Ellsworth’s farm in Chino, California, in the San Bernardino Valley, but like *Alibhai rose as high as second on the general sire list.

Ellsworth also stood the highly successful Olden Times in California before moving him to Kentucky mid-career. His near contemporary Fleet Nasrullah began his career in California, and before departing for Kentucky founded a true Californian sire line through his son Gummo, who passed the torch to his best son, Flying Paster.

None of Flying Paster’s sons managed to continue the Fleet Nasrullah line, but another male-line descendant of Fleet Nasrullah’s sire, *Nasrullah, has stepped into the breach. That horse is In Excess (Ire), whose most recent star, Romance Is Diane (out of Romantic Fibs, by Prized), captured the Hollywood Starlet Stakes (G1) on December 17.

Romance Is Diane is one of 46 stakes winners (6.9%), ten graded winners, and three Grade 1 winners from In Excess’s first 666 foals spread over 11 California-conceived crops.

It was Indian Charlie (Soviet Sojourn, by Leo Castelli), a colt from his second crop, who put In Excess on the map by winning the 1998 Santa Anita Derby (G1). Although Indian Charlie’s career ended abruptly after his third-place finish in stablemate Real Quiet’s ’98 Kentucky Derby (G1)win, he has established himself as a successful sire in Kentucky, giving In Excess a chance to be a dynasty founder like Fleet Nasrullah.

In Excess’s early success earned him the attention of some big Kentucky breeders, including the late Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid al Maktoum’s Gainsborough Stud, which sent the beautifully bred Sadler’s Wells mare Note Musicale (GB) to In Excess’s court at Vessels Stallion Farm in Bonsall, California. The resulting filly, Musical Chimes, provided her sire with his first major international winner in the 2003 Gainsborough Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (Fr-G1) (French One Thousand Guineas), and added a second top-level win in the ’04 John C. Mabee Handicap (G1) after her transfer to the United States.

Quite large, heavy-bodied, and rather light-boned but correct, In Excess won two Grade 3s in California as a three-year-old and developed into a top-class performer on dirt at four. In Excess traveled east to win the 1991 Metropolitan (G1), Suburban (G1), and Whitney (G1) Handicaps and Woodward Stakes (G1) in succession, but lost his chance at a championship when unplaced in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) instead of tackling a muddy track in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1).

His sire, Siberian Express, a French classic winner by Caro (Ire), sired only 11 other stakes winners, none of In Excess’s caliber. In Excess is the only stakes winner out of his dam, Kantado, by the bad sire (six stakes winners) and equally bad broodmare sire (four stakes winners) Saulingo. There has not been another top-class winner along her direct female line since Seabreeze, by Isonomy, a daughter of In Excess’s tenth dam, St Marguerite, by Hermit, won the 1888 Epsom Oaks.

St Marguerite herself won the 1882 One Thousand Guineas and founded a great family that includes *Rock Sand, Bella Paola, Hail to Reason, Gallant Fox, Generous, and, more recently, Showing Up.

In Excess is an outcross through the first five generations, and both his sire and dam are basically outcrosses, as well. To put it mildly, his success is unusual from a pedigree viewpoint.

His continued prominence, though, does serve as a welcome reminder of the value of regional markets. Even if he had earned a championship, it is doubtful In Excess would have gained as rewarding an opportunity at stud in Kentucky as came his way in California.

John P. Sparkman is bloodstock/sales editor of THOROUGHBRED TIMES. His e-mail address is ormonde1@gmail.com.