Secret Savings was bred by renowned US breeder Ogden Mills Phipps and brought to Australia by His Excellency Nasser Lootah for a tilt at some of Australia’s best races. In 1997, Secret Savings faced the starter in Australia on only four occasions, winning three races in the Group 1 AJC Doncaster, the Group 3 Newcastle Newmarket and the Group 3 Frederick Clissold Handicap. His only defeat here came in the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes where he finished third behind Octagonal’s full brother, Mouawad.
Secret Savings Race Record
Previously in the US, Secret Savings had won six of his fifteen starts, commencing as a 2yo where he won his first and only start at that age in a Maiden Stakes at Aqueduct over 1200m. As a 3yo, Secret Savings won two of his five starts in Allowance races, while at four and five he went on to win a further three races. His best result in the US though was a fourth in the Grade 2 Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont over 1800m. In all the stallion had seventeen starts in the US, and four in Australia for nine wins and a total of almost $1.2 million in prize money.
Sire
Secret Savings was by Seeking The Gold, a stakes winning son of Mr Prospector who was also bred by Ogden Phipps. Seeking The Gold had won eight of his sixteen starts and over US$2 million in prizemoney. His wins included the Grade 1 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs. He also won the Peter Pan and Dwyer Stakes at Grade 2 level, although he can probably be considered an unlucky runner in that he was placed second in another four Grade 1 races including the Breeder’s Cup Classic, Travers Stakes, Wood Memorial and the Haskell Invitational. Seeking The Gold sired over 450 winners and almost 90 stakes winners to date including the likes of Heavenly Prize, Seeking The Pearl, Cash Run and Gold Tiara.
Secret Savings Female Family
The dam of Secret Savings was the unraced daughter of Damascus in Jurisdictional. She was a full sister to Time For A Change, a Grade 1 winner who had a solid stud career siring the good stallion, and Champion 2yo, Fly So Free. Jurisdictional produced five winners including the Grade 1 placed Law Of The Sea by Polish Navy. Secret Saving’s second dam is Resolver, a stakes winning daughter of Reviewer. Resolver also produced the full siblings Dispute and Adjudicating by Danzig. Dispute was a multiple Grade 1 winning filly, being successful in the Kentucky Oaks, Gazelle Handicap and Spinster Stakes as well as running second in the Mother Goose and Ruffian Handicap. Adjudicating won the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes and Cowdin Stakes before going on to be a successful sire in Japan. The female line of Secret Savings traces to the wonderful mares Grey Flight and her daughter, Misty Morn. Grey Flight produced 14 winners from 15 runners including Bold Princess, Misty Day and What A Pleasure, who was a Champion stallion in the US. Misty Day is best known in Australia as the sire of the mare, Scampering who produced Easy Date, the dam of four stakes winners including rather topically, Snippets, an early winner of what is now the Magic Millions. Misty Morn went on to become a Champion US broodmare producing stakes winners and sires, Successor and Bold Lad.
Pedigree
The pedigree of Secret Savings is dominated by a 3x4 duplication of the mare, Broadway who was the dam of Reviewer. She also produced Con Game who was the dam of Seeking The Gold. The only other duplication within five generations of the stallion’s pedigree is Nasrullah, 5x5. Blue Larkspur, Discovery and Pharamond are present in multiple lines in the sixth generation of the pedigree.
Secret Savings At Stud
At stud, Secret Savings outperformed his opportunity in many ways. In eleven crops, he sired only 754 live foals with his fertility never rising much over 90%. His fee started at a rather modest $10,000 for a Group 1 winner from such an influential family, although no doubt Australian breeders had some reservations about many US bloodlines at that time. His progeny have earned in excess of $20 million and include fifteen stakes winners. To date he has had 235 winners from 378 individual runners at a rate of 62.2% winners to runners. His most noted would be the multiple Group 1 winning mare, Shamekha who won the TJ Smith, All Aged Stakes and Coolmore Classic at Group 1 level. Among the other stakes winners for Secret Savings are the emerging stallion, Dash For Cash, promising 3yo Caymans, Swiss Ace, Acorns and Bikkie Tin Blues.
Ross Prowd - Ross Prowd is a freelance racing journalist in Australia, as well as being a renowned pedigree expert. He writes weekly for Australia's ...
