By: Blood Horse

Photo Credit: Coady Photography

Two Emmys Gives English Channel Another Top-Level Score – BloodHorse

Given that middle-to-long distance turf runners are generally not the kind of horse that most commercial breeders aim to produce, English Channel   doesn’t make a lot of headlines. There are, however, few more reliable sires of class in that arena, and the point was underscored again when Two Emmys  cantered through the opening stages of what may well be the final edition of the race previously known as the Arlington Million, but run this year as the Mr. D Stakes (G1T), before producing a final quarter of :22.72 to defy odds-on favorite, Domestic Spending .

Two Emmys is one of eight North American stakes winners this year for English Channel, seven of them graded (a total bettered only by Curlin   and Into Mischief   this term), with the Man o’ War Stakes (G1T) victor, Channel Cat , preceding Two Emmys as scoring at the highest level. And even before Two Emmys win, he led all U.S. stallions by turf earnings in 2021.

Two Emmys recorded his first win at a level far removed from grade 1 company. Having finished off the board on his only start at 2, he opened his 3-year-old season with a win in a $20,000 maiden claimer at Arlington International Racecourse. Last year, although he won just once—an allowance at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots—he showed steadily improving form. He kicked of this year with an optional claiming score, then on his stakes debut took second, beaten 1 1/2 lengths to Colonel Liam , in the Muniz Memorial Classic Stakes (G2T). Second to Bizzee Channel  in an Arlington optional claimer, Two Emmys prepped for the Mr. D Stakes by going down by a neck to the same horse after attempting to go wire-to-wire in the Arlington Stakes (G3T).

In showing consistent improvement with age, Two Emmys follows a course charted by English Channel, albeit at a somewhat higher trajectory. English Channel won his only start at 2, and added a trio of stakes, including the Virginia Derby (G3T), and took second in a pair of grade 1 events the following year. He added four more black-type events at 4, including the United Nations Stakes (G1T), Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational Stakes (G1T), and Woodford Reserve Turf Classic Stakes (G1T), but reached a peak at 5, when after repeat wins in the United Nations and Joe Hirsch, he nailed down an Eclipse Award as champion turf male, romping by seven lengths in the John Deere Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1T) at a rain-soaked Monmouth Park.

The diminutive English Channel also took to stud a strong pedigree. A son of two-time leading sire Smart Strike, he is out of Belva, a daughter of another champion turf male—Theatrical, subsequently a very good sire in his own right—and out of European champion sprinter, Committed. With this background, and even though his advertised stud fee was fixed at $25,000 for his first 11 years at stud (it rose to $35,000 last year, and dropped back to $27,500 for 2021), it’s no surprise that English Channel has been a consistent purveyor of high-class performers. Starting with 14 individual stakes winners in his first crop, he has now been responsible for 59 black-type scorers, 32 of them graded, and 11 grade 1, including a previous Arlington Million scorer in The Pizza Man .

Two Emmys is one of three winners produced by his dam, the unraced Buddha mare, Miss Emmy. She is a half sister to the stakes-winning and grade 1-placed Don’t Read My Lips, herself dam of three stakes winners, including the graded scorers Hotstufanthensome  and Silver Charades . More relevantly as far as Two Emmys is concerned, Miss Emmy is also half sister to the Deputy Minister mare California Sunshine. California Sunshine also visited English Channel, and produced one of the sire’s rare offspring to star on the dirt. That was V. E. Day  , who completed a run of four straight wins when reaching the wire a nose to the good of Wicked Strong   in the 2014 Travers Stakes (G1).

Two Emmys’ second dam is Our Dear Sue. She was unraced, but was by Roberto out of the Graustark mare, Outward Sunshine, and her granddam is Golden Trail. As such she is a result of a John W. Galbreath/Darby Dan Farm formula—the cross of Roberto and Graustark and his brother His Majesty, over mares descending from Golden Trail (Hasty Road—Sunny Vale by Eight Thirty), an acquisition from the estate of Brookemeade Stable’s Isobel Dodge Sloan.

Our Dear Sue is herself a sister to Roberto’s champion turf male, Sunshine Forever, and extremely closely related to both Brian’s Time, winner of the Florida Derby (G1) and Pegasus Handicap (G1) and a standout sire in Japan, and Dynaformer, whose dam, Andover Way, was a grade 1 winner by His Majesty, and who began his career at a very modest fee, but became a stallion of international importance. Kelley’s Day, the dam of Brian’s Time, also produced stakes winner Ellie’s Moment, the dam of grade 1 scorer Time and Motion , to Roberto son, Kris S. Andover Way is ancestress of a string of other notable performers, including the grade/group 1 winners Offlee Wild, Homesman , Lines of Battle , War Flag , and Civil Union  (the last four all by War Front  , whose fifth dam, Secret Valley, just happens to be a half sister to Golden Trail, and all with Roberto in the dam). Coincidentally, Dynaformer and War Front were both bred by Joe Allen, although the branches of the family arrived in his broodmare band via different sources.

Of others bred on the Roberto, Graustark/His Majesty, Golden Trail formula we can also note graded stakes winner Java Moon (Graustark), the second dam of Memories of Silver (by Silver Hawk, a son of Roberto), and also ancestress of grade 1 winners Rahy’s Attorney, To Honor and Serve , Mozu Ascot , and Angela Renee ; grade 1-placed Autumn Glory (by Graustark), granddam of champion Ryafan (by Roberto son, Lear Fan), a group/grade 1 winner in Europe and the U.S.; graded winner and sire Darby Creek Road (by Roberto); and stakes winner Regal Road (whose Roberto daughter Regal Roberta appears as granddam of the 2001 Kentucky Derby (G1) captor, Monarchos, and the fourth dam of this year’s Hill ‘n’ Dale Metropolitan Handicap (G1) victor, Silver State ).

It’s probably not coincidence that Golden Trail is from the I2a1 mitochondrial haplotype, as is Roberto’s sire, Hail to Reason, and both Ribot and Flower Bowl, the sire and dam of Graustark and His Majesty. More surprising, in view of their differences in physique and usual surface preference is the success of the cross of English Channel with Unbridled line mares, which has produced Two Emmys, grade 1 winner Voodoo Song , and graded winners Cross Border  and Tide of the Sea , from only nine starters.