Microphone

Pedigree notes

Microphone is Australia’s Champion Two-Year-Old, by the leading early maturing speed influence Exceed And Excel, from the family of Champion Sire Written Tycoon. This is a CV for stud success.

Microphone was head of a particularly strong crop of two-year-olds which included Bivouac, Exceedance and Yes Yes Yes. After being the first colt home as runner-up in the G1 Golden Slipper, he won the G1 ATC Sires Produce emulating successful sires such as Choisir, Sebring, Pierro and General Nediym who are just a few of the horses with similar form profiles.

His yearlings have sold to the leading industry judges for up to $750,000, with 9/43 selling for $200,000 or more off his initial under $44,000 (including GST) fee.

Microphone’s sire Exceed And Excel has left 18 individual G1 winners to date which are by 17 different broodmare sires, two being out of Elusive Quality mares.

• 7/18 have a return of Mr Prospector in the mare.
• 4/18 have a return of Sadler’s Wells in the mare.

Exceed And Excel has sired multiple G1 winners with returns of Star Kingdom, Sir Tristram and Danehill.

Versatility is Exceed And Excel’s strong suit and we could reasonably expect the same from his son Microphone.

Best Nicks
The best guide to a young stallion’s future nicks is the nicking pattern of his sire and sire line. This turns out to be accurate in a majority of cases, but be aware, not always. 
Microphone’s sire Exceed And Excel has already left 210 Stakes winners and has more than 16 runners out of daughters of over 30 different broodmare sires so there is plenty of evidence to hang your hat on.

For Exceed And Excel, the most individual Stakes winners are out of mares by Elusive Quality (11), Encosta de Lago (7), Lonhro (7), Snippets (6),  Singspiel (5).

The highest percentages of Stakes winners to runners are with mares by: Gone West (21%), Snippets (20%), Elusive Quality (18%), Dehere (17%), Singspiel (13%), Encosta de Lago (12%).

The Exceed And Excel nicks with both Elusive Quality and Encosta de Lago are based on over 50 runners each so are very reliable figures.
Both the biggest number of individual Stakes winners and the best score on percentages are with Mr Prospector-line broodmares.
The “Darley” nicks involving Exceed And Excel/Lonhro mares and Exceed And Excel/Street Cry mares are both very successful and are represented by two of the star two-year-olds of the 2022/23 season, Barber and Cylinder respectively.

The absence of Danehill-line mares on these lists is significant, although he will be a generation further back in future matings with Microphone.
Microphone’s dam is by Danzig’s son Anabaa whose daughters have a spectacular nick with Galileo and Montjeu, the two outstanding sire sons of Sadler’s Wells. There are 16 Stakes winners bred on those two crosses alone.

Inbreeding / Linebreeding options
Microphone carries two lines of the great mare La Troienne from his sire Exceed And Excel via Buckpasser and Poker and this looks to be a promising area for linebreeding. More Than Ready and his son Sebring (and their sons in turn) carry additional lines of La Troienne as does Seattle Slew. Overachieving young sire Rebel Dane is highly inbred to La Troienne, and although his daughters will be scarce due to small initial books, they could prove interesting.
The other worthwhile option will be to introduce lines of Nijinsky in the mare. Microphone has a second dam by a son of Storm Bird who has strong pedigree similarities to Nijinsky. They are both by Northern Dancer out of Bull Page-line mares and have already crossed successfully with 227 G1 winners bred on this mix, including Snitzel, Victor Ludorum, Private Eye, Think It Over and unbeaten Flightline.
Microphone’s fourth dam Miss Entertainer (by Vain) is also the third dam of Champion Sire Written Tycoon, offering a quality source of material for inbreeding.

Strategy One
Mr Prospector-line mares should suit Microphone with sources via Street Cry, Street Boss, Street Sense, Hallowed Crown, Dubawi, Makfi, Poet’s Voice, Elusive Quality, Secret Savings or Swiss Ace being among the leading candidates. Mares with those sires anywhere in their makeup could also be included in this strategy.

Strategy Two
Both Microphone’s Danehill sire line and his Anabaa broodmare sire line have some of their strongest nicks with Sadler’s Wells-line sires.
There are numerous sources of Sadler’s Wells blood in Australia through his many successful branches. Among them are Galileo and sons, High Chaparral and sons such as So You Think, also Montjeu, Singspiel, Medaglia d’Oro, Barathea and Scenic just to name a few. Mares by any of those sires or their sons would be fine choices for Microphone.
Champion Broodmare Sire Encosta de Lago is by Sadler’s Wells’ brother Fairy King, and he has already nicked well with Microphone’s s sire. 

Strategy Three
More La Troienne. Reinforcing La Troienne (Teddy – Helene De Troie by Helicon) has been one of the most successful strategies used to produce elite thoroughbreds over the past half century and shows no sign of waning. Introducing Buckpasser, whose third dam is La Troienne, can be achieved by using mares sired by Galileo, Dubawi, Seattle Slew, Last Tycoon or their sons. Those are some of the leading quality sources of Buckpasser blood, but La Troienne can also be accessed through stallions carrying a strain of her other descendants such as Poker, Belong To Me, Noble Bijou, Caerleon, Allez France, Boucher, Priceless Gem and Polish Navy.

Strategy Four
Another worthwhile option would be to introduce lines of Nijinsky in the mare. Microphone has a second dam by a son of Storm Bird who has strong pedigree similarities to Nijinsky. They are both by Northern Dancer out of Bull Page-line mares and have already crossed successfully with 227 G1 winners bred on this mix, including Snitzel, Victor Ludorum, Private Eye, Think It Over and unbeaten Flightline.

Strategy Five
Inbreeding to a stallion’s female family has long been one of the most successful methods of breeding a good horse. The Vain mare Miss Entertainer is close up in the direct female line of both Microphone and Champion Sire Written Tycoon. Daughters or granddaughters of Written Tycoon would create the desired result, with the first four runners featuring this pattern, using other sires, all being winners.