Sun King Breeding Analysis
By Alan Porter
A multiple graded stakes winner of over $2,200,000, Sun King was a grade one performer from two to five years. He is by a dual classic winning Horse of the Year from the Storm Bird line, out of a mare who is dam or granddam of six graded stakes winners and two grade one winners.
Sun King is a Northern Dancer line stallion who is free of Mr Prospector. The Mr. Prospector line has worked well under Sun King’s grandsire, Summer Squall, through Fappiano (there are graded stakes winners by Fappiano’s sons Cryptoclearance and Quiet American under the first dam of Sun King), Gulch, Carson City, Gone West, and Miswaki and Mining (both bred on the Mr. Prospector/Buckpasser cross, as are Seeking the Gold and Woodman). Summer Squall line stallions have also sired stakes winners out of Mr. Prospector’s fellow Raise a Native son, Alydar, and his son, Strike the Gold. There is also a graded stakes winner by Summer Squall out of a mare descending from Raise a Native through Wavering Monarch (by Majestic Prince).
There are two stakes winners by Summer Squall out of mares by Blushing Groom, one graded, and also stakes winners out of mares from this line by Rahy and Mt. Livermore. Blushing Groom is a Nasrullah line stallion, and the Nasrullah line particularly through Nasrullah/Princequillo crosses, and through Bold Ruler (with Bold Lad being very promising). Summer Squall has also sired stakes winners who descend from Nasrullah through Naskra/Star de Naskra and Never Bend/Riverman.
Both Sun King’s sire and grandsire have been responsible for stakes winners out of mares by Pleasant Colony, and it could also be worth trying other mares descending from that horse’s sire, His Majesty, His Majesty’s brother, Graustark (whose grandson, Sauce Boat – by Key to the Mint – is sire of a Summer Squall Stakes winner), and from the Hoist the Flag/Tom Rolfe branch of their sire line, that of Ribot.
The strain of Damascus, particularly through Private Account, has done well for the Storm Bird line through Storm Cat, and there is also a graded stakes winner by Summer Squall out of a mare by Personal Flag, a son of Private Account.
Sun King is a Northern Dancer line horse, but that strain will be in the fifth generation of his offspring, so crossing him back over Northern Dancer line mares is a possibility. Two branches of Northern Dancer which have already provided stakes winners for the Summer Squall line are Nijinsky II (a genetic relative to Sun King’s male line ancestor, Storm Bird, and a good combination for him) and Danzig. It could also be worth experimenting with mares from the male line of Storm Cat, a three-quarters genetic relative to Storm Bird. From the Nearctic line, it could also be worth trying mares by Phone Trick, the leading son of Sun King’s broodmare sire, Clever Trick, and himself broodmare sire of a Summer Squall line stakes winner.
Summer Squall is half-brother to
A.P. Indy. A son of
A.P. Indy sired Champion Two-Year-Old Stevie Wonderboy out of a mare by Summer Squall, and breeding Sun King to
A.P. Indy line mares would reverse that cross.