Quality Road (pictured) plays a big part in the Kentucky Derby (G1) as a sire and sire-of-sires.
We’re only two days away from the first Saturday in May and the Triple Crown is set to kick off in just over 48 hours with the Kentucky Derby (G1). As of Wednesday night, there are 21 horses entered in the year’s Kentucky Derby with one on the also-eligible (AE) list (meaning if someone scratches out of the main body of the field, that horse has a chance at getting into the race).
Keeping up with my yearly Derby week tradition, I dug into the stats on each horse (main field and AE) in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) and Derby to learn more about the bloodstock side of the entries with information on stallions, dams, and sales. Find it all below.
Successful Broodmares
This year, there are quite a few mares who are making a big impact on both the Kentucky Derby and Oaks.
Darling My Darling (Deputy Minister) was a successful racemare with multiple stakes wins and Grade 1 placings. She went on produced a Grade 1 winner in Heavenly Love (Malibu Moon) and Grade 2 winner in Forever Darling (Congrats) among her seven winners from seven to race after her retirement from the track. Both those daughters have followed her lead with Heavenly Love the dam of Grade 1 winner Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), who leads the Road to the Kentucky Derby leaderboard, and Forever Darling is the dam of Grade 2 winner Forever Young (Real Steel), one of two Japanese representatives in the race.
Wildwood Flower (Langfuhr) is another stakes winner who produced successful runners with the group including Florida Derby (G1) winner and 2016 Kentucky Derby runner Materiality (Afleet Alex) and Grade 2 winner and 2015 Kentucky Oaks third My Miss Sophia (Unbridled’s Song). The mare is set to have another exciting weekend at Churchill Downs thanks to two other daughters with Giant’s Causeway mare Lilies So Fair the dam of Kentucky Derby runner and Grade 1-placed Grand Mo The First (Uncle Mo) and Wildwood Rose (Galileo) the dam of Grade 1 winner and Kentucky Oaks runner Leslie’s Rose (Into Mischief).
The Australian-bred Irish Lights (Fastnet Rock) is a truly international mare. She was a Group 1 winner in Australia, where she also produced Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed Omei Sword (High Chaparral). Sent to the U.S. a few years later, she produced British stakes winner Lipizzaner (Uncle Mo) and stakes winner Just Steel (Justify), who is also a runner in this year’s Kentucky Derby.
Of course, talking about successful broodmares wouldn’t be complete without discussing Puca (Big Brown).
Puca was a stakes winner and graded stakes placed mare on the track and ran in the 2015 Kentucky Oaks. In retirement, she is proving to be an exceptional broodmare. The mare’s first foal in 2019 was the stakes placed Gunning (Gun Runner) and it just gets better from there. She produced last year’s Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) the following season and has her name in the program again this year as the dam of Grade 2 winner Dornoch (Good Magic) – who lines up in this year’s Kentucky Derby. She’s only produced colts since Gunning with a McKinzie juvenile half-brother and a foal full brother to the Derby runners to come as well.
Dam Accomplishments
It’s no secret that until they prove themselves in the breeding shed, the most accomplished racemares usually sell for the most in the sales ring. It’s easy to see why when looking at the accomplishments of the Derby runners’ dams.
In the Kentucky Derby, only three of the dams went unraced and one other raced once. Of those that did race, all but three won at least one race with four winning races but not earning blacktype. In all, of the 18 who raced, 10 (55.56%) were at least stakes placed and eight (44.44%) won stakes with the six graded stakes winners led by two Grade/Group 1 winners.
The Oaks shows a slightly different picture with five of the 16 dams never hitting the track and one other racing but not placing (combining for 37.5% of the entrants’ dams). Four of the 11 who did race won at least one race with the most accomplished mares winning multiple stakes races. Six overall have blacktype on their resume (3.75%) and five (31.25%) won at least one stakes.
Homebreds
In 2017, Klaravich Stables made its walk over to the Kentucky Derby with Practical Joke. That runner finished fifth in the race and has become a successful young sire in the industry. This year, Practical Joke takes Klaravich to the races in another way – as the sire of the stable’s homebreds. Practical Joke is the sire of both Klaravich’s homebred Oaks runner Ways and Means and its homebred Kentucky Derby runner Domestic Product.
Klaravich isn’t the only one with homebreds in the races either. In the Kentucky Oaks, there are six homebreds set to run solely for their breeders. Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) sold for $40,000 as a yearling but her breeder bought back into her racing ownership as well.
In the Kentucky Derby, four horses see the same name in both their breeder and owner boxes. Mystik Dan (Goldencents) never went through the ring but had another owner join his breeders in his racing career. Breeze Easy sold Track Phantom (Quality Road) for $500,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale but bought back into that colt before he even raced.
Sales Ring Visits
Yearling sales are the most popular venue to sell Thoroughbreds and that trend is clear here. Thirteen of the 21 Derby entrants sold at yearlings sales with nine going through the ring at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale and two each going through the ring at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga and Fasig-Tipton October (one of the Keeneland horses RNAed at Keeneland and came back in October).
The horses to publicly sell sold for a combined $5,362,603 with a median of $135,000 and average of $412,508. Sierra Leone was the most expensive at a sale topping $2.3 million while West Saratoga (Exaggerator) was sold for only $11,000.
📽️ ICYMI: Watch Hip 202 c. GUN RUNNER o/o Heavenly Love sell for $2,300,000 to top The 101st Saratoga Sale!
#FasigSaratoga pic.twitter.com/IJ5EFPLyse— Fasig-Tipton (@FasigTiptonCo) August 10, 2022
In the Kentucky Oaks, nine of the fillies entered sold as yearlings with seven selling at Keeneland September, one at Fasig-Tipton July, and one at Fasig-Tipton October. Those horses sold for a combined $2,960,000 with an average of $328,889 and median of $165,000. The $1.15 million paid for Leslie’s Rose was the most expensive with Lemon Muffin (Collected) rounding out the group at $20,000.
Sires and Damsires
The Kentucky Derby could be a huge one for Quality Road. The stallion not only is the sire of Track Phantom but is also the grandsire of Mugatu (Blofeld) and Fierceness (City of Light). It’s a big coup for Quality Road, who saw his first real group of stallion sons retire in 2018 (making their first crop 5-year-olds this year).
Quality Road is one of only two stallions who both has a runner in the race and at least one son with a runner. He’s joined by Into Mischief, who is the sire of Resilience and grandsire of Mystik Dan and Domestic Product. Into Mischief is also the damsire of Quality Road’s Track Phantom.
Curlin doesn’t have a runner in the Kentucky Derby but sees sons Exaggerator and Good Magic combine for three runners in the race (West Saratoga, Dornoch, and Society Man). Good Magic and Justify are again proving how strong the 2019 stallion class was with those two the only ones to have more than one Derby runner. Curlin’s sire Smart Strike is one of two stallions who sees two daughters with Kentucky Derby runners as the damsire of Honor Marie (Honor Code) and Resilience. Colonel John is the other with Mystik Dan and Society Man.
Tapit is in a similar situation to Curlin as the grandsire of Catching Freedom through Constitution’s Catching Freedom and the broodmare sire of Just a Touch (Justify). Uncle Mo is another in a unique position as the sire of Grand Mo The First and damsire of West Saratoga.
In the Kentucky Oaks, Into Mischief holds the distinction of being the only stallion with more than one runner with Leslie’s Rose and Into Champagne both lining up for the race. Into Mischief is also the grandsire of Ways and Means as one of only two stallions to have both an entry in the race and a son with an entry in the race. The other is Medaglia d’Oro, who is the sire of Our Pretty Woman and grandsire of Thorpedo Anna.
Tapit is again at the forefront of pedigrees in the Oaks as the sire of Tapit Jenallie (who is reportedly scratching from the race) and broodmare sire of Everland (Arrogate) and Where’s My Ring (Twirling Candy).
Union Rag’s’ first crop was born in 2014, but the stallion is making a huge impact in both the Derby and the Oaks. His son Catalina Cruiser is the sire of Kentucky Derby runner Catalytic and his daughter is the dam of Mugatu in the same race. In the Kentucky Oaks, he is the sire of Power Squeeze. That filly comes into the race off four straight victories, including the Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2).
No stallion has more than one son with runners in the Oaks, but War Front is the grandsire of both Regulatory Risk (Omaha Beach) and damsire of Tapit Jenallie. Multiple stallions have more than one daughter with entries in the race with Awesome Again (Tarifa and Power Squeeze), Speightstown (Our Pretty Woman and Into Champagne), and Tapit all having two each.
Into Mischief, Justify, Practical Joke are all sires with both Oaks and Derby runners with Tapit and Uncle Mo having runners in both races as broodmare sires. A.P. Indy (through sons Honor Code and Bernardini), Candy Ride (Gun Runner and Twirling Candy), and Into Mischief (Goldencents and Practical Joke) are the sires who have multiple sons with entries between the two races.
Birthdays
The debate rages on in racing circles about how much of a disadvantage horses born later in the year have when it comes to racing. Looking at the recent statistics though, it’s hard to debate there’s a huge disadvantage in this race.
Each of the last five horses to cross the line first in the Kentucky Derby were born in April or May with three of them foaled in late April or May (Medina Spirit – 4/5, Mage – 4/18, Rich Strike – 4/25, Authentic – 5/5, and Maximum Security – 5/14). Last year, it was a later foaling year with most of the runners conceived (and foaled) late in the breeding season. Nine of the entries were foaled on April 18 or later (with three others born in early April) with two born in May.
KENTUCKY DERBY DREAMING 😉
HONOR MARIE sweeps around the field to take the G2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes 🏆
10 points on the road to the @KentuckyDerby 🌹
🎥 @TwinSpires
pic.twitter.com/d5EvBST4yj— World Horse Racing (@WHR) November 25, 2023
This year, there’s a similar trend with seven Derby entrants born on April 17 or later. Most of the field was born in March with nine born in that month, February and May are tied with four birthdays each while only one was born in January. That one is Santa Anita Derby (G1) winner Stronghold (Ghostzapper), who was born on January 24 (His sire is also the oldest stallion with an entry at 20 years old when this horse was conceived). Just a Touch, Epic Ride (Blame), and T O Password (Copano Rickey) will be running in the Kentucky Derby before their third birthday, while Honor Marie will be running in the Kentucky Derby on his birthday.
In the Kentucky Oaks, the field trends older with two of the entrants born in January (Thorpedo Anna on 1/28 and Into Champagne on 1/30). February is responsible for four entrants with March sitting at four as well. April leads the months with five and May rounds out the group with one entrant. That one runner – Regulatory Risk – won’t celebrate her birthday until two days after the Oaks is run.
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