PAST PERFORMANCES
HAIL THE CHIEF
3yo b.c. Be My
Chief-Jade Pet (Petong)
Date
Track Dist going PP Class Wt Fin
Comment
Beyer
29Nov00Wol 1m1/6
fst 2/11 Hcp 123 1-0.5 led till hdd 4f out, led 2f out, rdn, r.o.
well 109
25Nov00Wol 1m1/16
fst 7/13 Hcp 123 1-2 Chs ldr: ridden to ld over 1f out: ran on
well 95
7Nov00Lin 1m fst
7/12 Hcp 135 1-no lost pos after 2f, rallied and up late driving
85
11Oct00Lin 1m fst
8/12 Hcp 129 2-no headway 3f out: ran on inside final fulong
83
24Sep00Bri 7f T sft
5/16 Hcp 123 6-5.8 a.p: rdn 2f out: ev ch ovr 1f out: one pace
75
6Sep00Eps 7f T gd
3/12 Hcp 119 2-1.3 a.p: rdn ovr 3f out: r.o. one pace final f
51*
10Aug00Bri 7f T g-f
4/9 Alw 121 1-0.8 a.p: led ovr 1f out: hrd rdn, edgd lft: r.o.wl
77
31Jul00Fol 7f T str
g-f 4/8 Hcp 121 1-0.8 dwlt: hdwy, swtchd rt 2f out: ld 1f out:
drvg 87
20Jly00Eps 7f T gd
3/17 Hcp 133 12-12.8 prom: led ovr 2f out till ovr 1f out: sn
wknd 63
10Jul00Wind 1m T
sft 4/16 Hcp 126 6-14 prominent till weakened 2f out
63
30Jun00Fol 7f T str
frm 3/8 MSW 119 2-2.5 lost pl 3f out: rallied & impeded 1f
out: r.o. 65
16Jun00Goo 1m T g-f
4/5 MSW 126 4-8.3 Held up: ridden over 2f out: soon beaten
55
24Jun99Sal 7f T frm
2/15 MSW 126 10-9.8 off slow: hdwy 3f out: edgd lft, wknd
27
*slow early pace
ANALYSIS
In Britain, dirt or
All Weather horses only seem able to reproduce their best on
turf when the going is firm. In fact most also need to run at
Epsom, Brighton or Yarmouth, the three fastest turf tracks and
the ones which most closely resemble dirt (due to their loose
chalk/lime-based surfaces).
Looked at in this
regard, Hail The Chief has done pretty well when he’s
encountered the right surface. Toss out his first two starts (I
assume he was unfit) and he’s won five of his seven tries on
good to firm or firm turf or the All Weather. The two losses
both looked really unlucky. He got outpaced over seven furlongs
and then was impeded as he tried to get to the winner. Then he
got outpaced again over the lightning fast equitrack at a mile
before finishing like a whirlwind.
If this horse had
raced solely in America he might well now be on a seven race
winning streak.
One thing is for
sure; Hail The Chief is very smart indeed. He just keeps running
faster and faster with every run. Last time out he beat a very
useful dirt horse in Sir Ferbet. Third was Mellow Jazz who’d
just won a valuable fillies race on the All Weather. Fourth by
ten lengths was Baron De Pichon, a 3YO who has won eight times
on the AW.
I rated Hail The
Chief’s effort as being equal to a 109 Beyer.
From the way he
runs and his pedigree, it looks likely that Hail The Chief found
7f and the fast mile at Lingfield a bit too short. He has
progressed tremendously over the 1m 100 yards trip on the very
deep and slow Wolverhampton surface. I can’t see there being
any doubt that he’d get a mile and an eighth. It also seems
likely he will stay a mile and a quarter, just like his half
brother, Just Wiz.
Hail The Chief is
rather reminiscent of Hal’s Pal, one of the best AW horses to
race in Britain. He has a similar style of racing and distance
preference and has run similar speed ratings. He looks likely to
be a solid Graded stakes class performer in America. My ratings
suggest he has already run fast enough to win a G2. He is
clearly very progressive and could well run a bit faster,
particularly over slightly longer distances.
QUOTES FROM
OWNER/TRAINER etc
29Nov 2,000
“He's in great
form and this is his best performance yet. The boss has always
thought a fair bit of him, and I believe he has a £50,000 race
at Lingfield in January in mind for him”. - Taffy Williams (R
Hannon's traveling head-lad)
24 Nov 2,000
"Hail The
Chief likes Lingfield and it seems he also handles the different
surface here," Taffy Williams representing Richard Hannon.
SIRE
BE MY CHIEF
Be My Chief was
champion European two year old in 1989. His best win came in the
1 mile G1 Racing Post Trophy. He is best known in America for
siring Donna Viola, the top filly on turf a few years back. In
fact, in Britain, where most of his progeny race, he has done
exceptionally well with his runners on the AW (dirt) tracks.
All told, 32 of Be
My Chief’s 136 UK winners have been on dirt. This is an
unusually high percentage. On average a sire with that many
winners would have just 16 on dirt for that represents the
percentage of dirt or AW races run in Britain during the time Be
My Chief has been active as a sire. In other words, Be My Chief
has had twice as many dirt winners as you’d expect if his
progeny were equally effective on both turf and dirt.
To date, Be My
Chief’s progeny have won 32 times in 264 runs on dirt.
That’s a strike rate of 12.12%. On turf they’ve won 113
times out of 1315 in Britain and elsewhere. That’s a strike
rate of 8.59%. In other words, Be My Chief’s progeny have won
1.41 times as often in their dirt starts as their turf outings.
Given Be My
Chief’s very much dirt-oriented US pedigree, his progeny’s
seeming preference for dirt is hardly surprising.
It is also
interesting to note that the progeny of Be My Chief have an
atrocious record on off turf. On yielding or heavy turf they
have won just 8 times out of 157 or 5.1%. On good to firm or
firmer turf they’ve won 60 times out of 568 or 10.56% of the
time - more than twice as often. Again, this is very much in
line with how the progeny of a predominantly dirt sire perform
when racing on grass.
As for distance
preference, Be My Chief’s do seem to exhibit a strong bias.
His older runners in better class contests have only succeeded
very rarely at trips less than a mile or longer than a mile and
a quarter. About 75% of his best runners seem to be effective at
8-10f.
DAM
Jade Pet was a good
sprint handicapper in Britain. Her best effort was probably when
third in the valuable Coral Sprint Cup at three. As a 2YO she
only lost in a photo to the decent pattern racer Rohita. Most
fillies as fast as Jade Pet would have earned at least a bit of
black type. She was a bit unlucky not to.
So far, Jade Pet
has had just one other foal besides Hail The Chief. This is Just
Wiz.
Just Wiz has
blanked in 20 turf starts but has won four of his twelve runs on
the All Weather (dirt). He’s actually a pretty decent
performer on the dirt, having earned speed figures as high as 99
Beyer from me.
Despite being by
the pretty speedy sire Efisio, Just Wiz has shown his best form
at a mile and a quarter.
Efisio has sired
the winners of 37 Group and Listed races, not one succeeded
beyond a mile. Clearly therefore, Jade Pet somehow seems to be a
source of stamina despite her speedy pedigree and great record
in sprints.
EXTENDED PEDIGREE
HAIL THE CHIEF C,
1997 DP = 2-6-8-0-0 (16) DI = 3.00 CD = 0.63
NORTHERN
