Despite being a very well-bred Eclipse award winner, English Channel was never going to be a major commercial sire. Sold for just $50,000 as a yearling, the son of Smart Strike was a diminutive individual who peaked at the age of five, and who recorded his most prestigious victory over 1 1/2 miles on the grass.
What he did turn out to be, however, was an exceptionally good sire of turf horses, something we were reminded of again when his sons, Far Bridge and El Rezeen ran one-two in the Bowling Green Stakes (G2T) July 12.
One of the highest earners for his sire, the 5-year-old Far Bridge is the same age that his sire was when he claimed an Eclipse Award as champion turf horse by storming home seven lengths clear in the 2007 Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T). That was the third grade 1 win that year for the chestnut, who'd earlier taken the United Nations Handicap (G1T) and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational (G1T). He also won three stakes, including the Virginia Derby (G3), at 3, and another four the following year, the United Nations Stakes, Woodford Reserve Turf Classic (G1T), and a first Joe Hirsch Turf Classic (G1T) among them. In addition, he very narrowly missed the world record for nine furlongs on turf in an allowance race at Gulfstream Park, early in his 5-year-old season.
Sold to Brad M. Kelley after the Breeders' Cup, English Channel began his stud career at Ben Walden Jr.'s Hurricane Hall Farm, then moved to Lane's End, and finally to Kelley's Calumet Farm, where he passed in Nov., 2021, at the age 19. As a sire, he was a success from the start with his first crop, producing 14 stakes winners, seven graded. His lifetime totals now stand at 74 stakes winners, 39 graded, and 14 grade 1's. His best, in addition to Far Bridge, included the formidable mare, War Like Goddess, who twice defeated males in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic; a rare top dirt horse for the sire, the Travers Stakes (G1) victor V. E. Day; the Canadian champion and four-time grade 1-winner Channel Maker, and other Canadian champions Strait of Dover, Interpol, Admiralty Pier, Johnny Bear, and Heart to Heart. He was the leading sire of turf horses in North America in 2020-23.
Far Bridge has made 15 of his 18 starts in graded stakes events. He's won nine of those 18 starts, including all three outings outside of black-type company, a maiden special weight, and two allowance/optional claiming events, all at Gulfstream Park. His other successes have come in the Belmont Derby (G1T), Sword Dancer Stakes (G1T), Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Stakes (G1T), Man o' War Stakes (G2T), Bowling Green Stakes (G2T), and Pan American Stakes (G3T), and ran second in three more graded events, and third in another three. He now looms as the horse most likely to lead the home defense in this year's Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T).
Bred by Calumet Farm, Far Bridge is the third foal and second winner for his dam, the 2-year-old winner Fitpitcher. His second dam, the A.P. Indy mare, Teenage Temper, won twice, including an allowance at Churchill Downs. She is a half sister to Pleasant Song, the dam of Long Range Toddy, a millionaire whose trio of black-type victories included the 2019 Rebel Stakes (G2).
Far Bridge's third dam is the accomplished performer, Pleasant Temper, who captured seven black-type contests, including the Ballston Spa Handicap (G3T) and Jenny Wiley Stakes (G3T). She had an interesting pedigree as her second dam, Witch Dance, was by Northern Dancer out of Bold Ruler's daughter, Shama. Witch Dance was only a minor winner, but she produced two stakes winners, and is ancestress of several others, including Heart Shaped, champion 2-year-old filly in Ireland in 2008; A.P. Valentine (by A.P. Indy, and therefore closely related to Far Bridge's second dam), winner of the 2000 Champagne Stakes (G1), and runner-up in both the Belmont Stakes 2001 (G1) and Preakness Stakes (G1); and Champagne Room, winner of the 2016 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), and the champion 2-year-old filly of 2016.
Funnily enough, both Far Bridge and El Rezeen, who pursued him home in the Bowling Green, are bred on the same cross, by English Channel out of mares by Kitten's Joy, the horse whom English Channel somewhat succeeded as the dominant turf sire, although he was actually only one year younger. That specific cross has resulted in 47 foals, of which six, the grade one winners Far Bridge and Channel Cat, and the graded winners Spooky Channel, Anglophile, English Bee, and Admiralty Pier have captured black-type events.
With regard to this success, it's worth noting that English Channel is out of a mare by champion turf horse Theatrical, a son of Nureyev, and that Kitten's Joy, also a champion turf male, is by El Prado, a son of Nureyev's three-quarters brother Sadler's Wells, and out of a mare by Lear Fan, whose broodmare sire, Lt. Stevens, is a brother to Thong, third dam of Sadler's Wells and granddam of Nureyev. In addition, English Channel has also sired six other stakes winners out of Sadler's Wells line mares, five graded, including Running Bee, out of a mare by Kitten's Joy's sire, El Prado, and the grade 1-winning siblings, Channel Maker and Johnny Bear, out of a mare by Horse Chestnut.
