Page 43 - Speedhorse August 2018

Hopeful Stakes-G1 winner Sky Mesa, Metropolitan Stakes-G1 winner Honor Code, Haskell Invitational Stakes-G1 winner Bluegrass Cat, Florida Derby-G1 winner Dialed In, Florida Derby-G1 winner Ice Box, Coaching Club American Oaks-G1 winner It’s Tricky, and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint winner High Tail.
Sky Mesa, Dialed In and Hightail show a 2x2 breeding pattern to the A.P. Indy/Storm Cat cross. It’s Tricky and Ice Box have a 2x3 breeding pattern to the A.P. Indy/Storm Cat cross. Honor Code has a breeding pattern
of 1x2 to an A.P. Indy/Storm Cat cross. Bluegrass Cat has a breeding pattern of 1x2 to the Storm Cat/A.P. Indy cross. Ice Box has a 2x3 breeding pattern to the A.P. Indy/ Storm Cat cross. And, Justify is 4x4 to the Storm Cat/A.P. Indy cross.
Lady Aurelia is a daughter of Scat Daddy with an interesting pedigree with inbreeding to Storm Cat. She is the winner of $834,945 with stakes wins in races like the Prix Morny-G1 in France and Queen Mary Stakes-G2 England. Her dam is Dwildcat Speed by Forest Wildcat by Storm Cat.
This is linebreeding to Storm Cat, as Scat Daddy is a great-grandson of Storm Cat. This cross has a breeding pattern of 4x3 to Storm Cat. This mare specialized as a speed mare, as the Queen Mary Stakes was run at 5 furlongs and the Prix Morny was run at six furlongs. She broke her maiden in the U.S. at Keeneland going 4 1/2 furlongs, winning by 7 1/2-lengths and setting a track record in a time of :50.85.
The dam of Pulpit is Preach by Mr. Prospector and Preach is out of Narrate
by Honest Pleasure. Preach was a stakes winner of $304,656 with stakes win in the Bourbonette Oakes Stakes-G3. She is the dam of 12 starters/12 winners with three stakes horses. Her stakes horses include stakes winner Pulpit as well as Urban Poet, a third- place finisher in the Gordon Stakes-G3, and Tell It with a third in the Nicole Stakes.
Preach and her daughters have produced 12 horses that have earned blacktype.
These daughters include Ranter, dam of Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes-G2 winner Wild Shot; Convent, dam of Waya Stakes winner Nunnery; and Orate, dam of Summer Colony Stakes winner Endless Chatter.
The interesting part of the pedigrees of these three runners is that they are all bred on the Storm Cat/A.P. Indy nick. Wild Shot has a breeding pattern of 4x2 to the A.P. Indy/Storm Cat cross; Nunnery has a breeding pattern
of 2x2 to the Storm Cat/A.P. Indy cross; and Endless Chatter has a breeding pattern of 3x2 to the Storm Cat/A.P. Indy cross.
When we step back and look at the pedigree of Justify, we see that he is not only a cross of Storm Cat and A.P. Indy, but he
is also linebred to the full sisters Yarn and Preach. This is an example of “inbreeding
to superior females,” the breeding theory promoted by Leon Rasmussen and Rommy Faversham that highlights the role of mares in the scheme of things as an influence on the breed through inbreeding to them.
The “inbreeding to superior females” can come in many forms as a breeding pattern. This linebreeding pattern will occur within the first five generations of the pedigree. Justify has a 4x4 breeding pattern to Yarn and Preach. An added note: We must always remember that linebreeding is a form of inbreeding.
The linebreeding to Yarn and Preach involves full sisters, one of the common forms of “inbreeding to superior females.” Sainfoin, one of the great sires of the past, is an example of this breeding pattern to full siblings that is found in many pedigrees. Sainfoin has a 3x4x3 breeding pattern to Stockwell, Rataplan, and again to Stockwell. Stockwell and Rataplan are full brothers sired by The Baron and out of the great mare Pocahontas by Glencoe. This is linebreeding to the very influential Pocahontas.
Scat Daddy gives us another example of this breeding pattern through his daughter Harmonize, a winner of $827,860 winning races like the 2016 Del Mar Oaks-G1. This mare has a breeding pattern of 4x4x4 to Storm Cat/A.P. Indy/Storm Cat. This mare has a breeding pattern of 4x4 to Yarn and Preach, as her broodmare sire is Sky Mesa by Pulpit by A.P. Indy, bringing Preach into the pattern.
Tap Daddy is the winner of the 2018 James W. Murphy Stakes and was third
in this year’s Smarty Jones Stakes. He has earned $246,564. He has the 4x4 breeding pattern to Storm Cat and A.P. Indy. He is also 4x4 to Yarn and Preach. His dam is Easy Tap by Tapit by Pulpit.
The last breeding pattern we will profile here comes to the surface with Voodoo Lily, the dam of Magical Illusion, who is the second dam of Justify. Voodoo Lily is by Baldski,
a son of Nijinsky II. Thus, through Pulpit
and Voodoo Lily, we get the blood of Mr. Prospector, Narrate and Nijinsky II coming together. We see these lines coming together in Scat Daddy, as well. We see in Yarn, the dam of Myth, the Mr. Prospector cross on Narrate. Then we look at Love Style and we get another cross to Mr. Prospector, and Love Style is out of Likeable Style by Nijinsky II. Thus, through Scat Daddy and Magical Illusion, we get linebreeding to the blood of Mr. Prospector, Narrate and Nijinsky II.
The racing future of Justify was put on hold when he was diagnosed with a filling in the left front ankle earlier this summer. The immediate plan called for him to recover and return for the fall races, including the Breeders’ Cup Classic. But on July 25, it was announced that Justify was retiring due to the fact that he would not be 100% in time to prepare for the fall races and he was slated to retire at the end of 2018.So now, Justify, the 13th Triple Crown Champion will go down in history for a display of greatness for the 112 days he was on the track, leading us to ask - how much greater could he have been?
Bob Baffert has completed the Triple Crown trifecta with American Pharoah in 2015 and now Justify in 2018.
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