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PEDIGREE HANDICAPPING OCTOBER 13, 2007 Transduction Gold by Tim Holland The upset victory of TRANSDUCTION GOLD (Formal Gold) in last Friday's Sycamore S. (G3) on opening day at Keeneland exemplified the advantage that trainers can gain from the learning experience of being involved with other runners from the same female family, just as trainers of large stables may learn the idiosyncrasies, likes and dislikes, of particular sire lines. Such was the case with Transduction Gold since he is the sixth foal out of Moondust Mink to be bred and campaigned by John Glenney, and handicappers who follow trainer patterns should have been handsomely rewarded. Glenney purchased Moondust Mink for $45,000 at the 1996 Keeneland November Sale in foal to the Group 1 turf winner and grass stamina influential sire Green Dancer. Moondust Mink, who won two of her 28 lifetime starts and finished in the money on nine other occasions, is by Great Above, best known as the sire of the outstanding Holy Bull, but who is also remembered for being the broodmare sire of dual champion sprinter Housebuster as well as the very fast runners Kelly's Landing (Patton) and Friendly Lover. The first foal resulting from this purchase was Kim Loves Bucky, who made his racecourse debut at Keeneland in the fall of his juvenile year. Dispatched at more than 58-1, Kim Loves Bucky made little impact in this initial race sprinting on the main track and needed the benefit of racing experience and added maturity, conditions that suit the patient training methods employed by Glenney, before breaking his maiden on the grass in his sixth start the following September at Del Mar. Glenney, primarily based at Keeneland, spends the summers in California before returning to Keeneland in the fall where Kim Loves Bucky quickly added to his resume by taking a 1 1/2-mile allowance (despite skipping a condition) before putting up a bold show to be third in his stakes debut, the Sycamore, a race that would elude him on two more occasions. Kim Loves Bucky continued to improve. His first stakes win came via Keeneland's Elkhorn S. (G3) in 2002, and later that year, he finished a close fourth in the Turf Classic Invitational (G1) at Belmont Park. His best season came as a six-year-old when he won the Louisville H. (G3) at Churchill Downs along with his second Elkhorn S. He was retired the following year having earned just shy of $500,000, with three of his victories being over 12 furlongs and achieved by rating from off the early pace. Kim Loves Bucky was almost always overlooked by the public, with five of his six triumphs generating mutuels of more than $20.00, and he never started as the favorite. Similar to Kim Loves Bucky, the next foal out of Moondust Mink, Caveolin, also needed time and distance before he was able to show his best. By the Triple Crown winner Affirmed, who proved himself as a top turf sire through the likes of Grade 1 grass runners Flawlessly, Bint Pasha and, more recently, The Tin Man, the bay colt showed promise without winning in several competitive maidens on the turf won by future stakes winners such as Startac and Chiselling. Entered out of his conditions against winners in an optional claiming event over 1 1/2 miles at Hollywood Park, Caveolin broke his maiden leading from start to finish returning $23.60 in his 11th attempt. Caveolin raced eight more times for Glenney, winning once more when rated just off the pace and finishing in the frame on three other occasions. The next two foals produced by Moondust Mink were the colts More Daylight and Black Jack Attack that were by slightly more speed influence sires, Mt. Livermore and Carson City, respectively. The pair were similar to their older siblings in their need for racing experience -- More Daylight broke his maiden in his 12th start and Black Jack Attack in his 11th, but they were both happiest running on the front end and subsequent efforts to rate them produced poor results. This unfavorable running style for the turf may have been a large factor in them both being somewhat frustrating for Glenney as, while they often performed well at long odds, they were more often than not passed by one or two others and before being claimed, they won just two races but finished in the money 16 more times between them. In 2002 Moondust Mink foaled her first filly for Glenney. By El Prado (Ire), Mi Luna Nueva raced eight times, winning once over 1 1/8 miles at Churchill Downs and was shrewdly placed to gain valuable black-type via a third-place finish in her second lifetime start in the Arizona Oaks. She was bred in 2006 and has this year foaled a colt by the leading young sire Johannesburg. By the time Transduction Gold was foaled in 2003, one might imagine Glenney had a good idea how he hoped the son of Formal Gold's career might unfold. Indeed, after two starts on the dirt (and showing promise in his debut with a third-place finish behind Bob and John in a Del Mar maiden), Transduction Gold was switched to the turf last summer over which surface he made three more starts before breaking his maiden at Del Mar as a three-year-old, leading all the way returning $70.80. Mirroring the schedule successfully carried out by Kim Loves Bucky six years earlier, the gelding was returned to Keeneland to contest an allowance over 12 furlongs. Unfortunately, Transduction Gold's attempt to wire the field was not helped by the rain-softened turf and he was caught in the closing stages by Bee Charmer (Ire) (Anabaa) at unfancied odds of 26.50-1. Transduction Gold spent last winter at the Fair Grounds where he won two allowance races employing come from behind tactics but reverted to his front-running style to finish a game fourth in the Mervin H. Muniz Jr. Memorial H. (G2). These tactics were again used in his next start, the Elkhorn, but once again, while running a good race, he could just hold on for fourth place. Transduction Gold followed this effort with an uncharacteristically poor showing in the Louisville H., so far below his best that something may have been amiss, a view that is backed up by the fact that while the rest of the stable headed west for the summer, the dark bay gelding remained in Kentucky without racing. He returned this fall in an optional claimer over the Polytrack at Turfway Park, finishing a decent fourth, which served as a perfect prep for the Sycamore. Handicappers should have been enticed by the near 16-1 odds on offer for Transduction Gold's bid for the Sycamore partly because of the close similarities to his older brother's Elkhorn victories. Indeed, Transduction Gold had already proven his ability over the distance and had shown his liking for the Keeneland turf and, just as Kim Loves Bucky had in 2002, he was fresh, making just his second start off a four-month layoff. The final touch, and one that was known maybe only to Glenney and jockey James Graham before the race, was that Transduction Gold was going to rate from just off the pace, the style that has served this family best.
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