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2021 Kentucky Oaks/Derby Trivia Challenge

4/30/2021

Welcome to the special 2021 Kentucky Oaks/Derby trivia challenge! Can you come up with the answers to all ten questions---five related to the Oaks and five to the Derby---before post time for the Kentucky Derby? All answers can be found on the American Classic Pedigrees website.

Kentucky Oaks

1) Who was the first Kentucky Oaks winner to win the Breeders' Cup Distaff (USA-G1) in the same year as her Oaks win?

2) What Kentucky Oaks renewal had the smallest field, and who was the winner?

3) What Kentucky Oaks winner won her Classic in the colors of a famous rap star?

4) What Kentucky Oaks winner was named for a fictional character in a novel written by her owner's spouse?

5) Who was the first Florida-bred filly to win the Kentucky Oaks?

Kentucky Derby

1) Five Kentucky Derby winners are buried on the grounds of the Kentucky Derby Museum. Name them.

2) Who was the last Kentucky Derby winner to be ridden to victory by an African-American jockey, and who was the jockey?

3) Who was the first Kentucky Derby starter to be owned by a woman?

4) This Kentucky Derby winner not only worked the full Derby distance in time faster than he later won the race in but did it twice. Name him.

5) What Kentucky Derby winner had a dislike for halters and a marked taste for bananas?

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Mares on Monday: A Lady With a Royal Legacy

4/26/2021

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On April 23, the durable Village King (a 6-year-old by Southern Hemisphere standards) added the fourth group stakes win of his career in the Group 3 Premio Porteño at San Isidro. Following up on a February 6 win in the Gran Premio Miguel Martínez de Hoz (ARG-G1), the Campanologist horse appeared to idle after striking the lead easily in the upper stretch but dug in when he saw Winter Guest coming to him and held that rival safe by a measured half-length.

An Argentine Classic winner at 3, Village King did not fare particularly well during an American foray in 2018-2019 (he won the 2018 Red Smith Handicap, a listed race, and was third in the 2019 Pan American Handicap, USA-G2) but has been a solid competitor in his native country. He is one of the many good horses descended from Lady Be Good, who was among a number of fine Wheatley Stable horses that Ogden Phipps used in building up his own racing and breeding enterprise.

A narrow and crooked-legged but speedy daughter of Better Self (a good contemporary of Citation and Coaltown), Lady Be Good won two stakes races as a juvenile and placed in three more. At stud, she founded a family that tended to reproduce her own speed and precocity. The dam of four stakes winners, she is the ancestress of such standouts as the champion European milers Zilzal and Polish Precedent, the European champion juvenile filly Culture Vulture (who trained on to win the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches/French One Thousand Guineas, FR-G1, at 3), and the brilliant sprinter Mining.

In spite of its predilection for speed, Lady Be Good's family has shown the ability to produce Classic runners at up to 12 furlongs when repeatedly crossed with more stamina-oriented mates, its scions of this type including 2005 Vodafone Derby Stakes (ENG-G1) winner Motivator, 2004 Oaks d'Italia winner Menhoubah, and 1988 Kentucky Oaks (USA-G1) and Coaching Club American Oaks (USA-G1) winner Goodbye Halo. Village King fits in neatly with this group, and the infusion of stamina into his pedigree begins with his fourth dam, Lady Be Good's daughter Discipline. Sired by the staying Princequillo (whose victories included the Jockey Club Gold Cup when it was run over 2 miles), Discipline was a juvenile stakes winner but stayed well enough to win the Molly Pitcher Handicap over 8.5 furlongs as a 4-year-old.

Bred to Buckpasser (who stayed up to 2 miles), Discpline produced Squander, a Grade 1 winner over 6 furlongs as a 2-year-old but the second dam of Goodbye Halo (whose pedigree contained two more crosses to horses that could stay as she was sired by Halo out of a daughter of Sir Ivor). Discipline's other stakes-winning daughter is Duty Dance, who was sired by Nijinsky II. Of all the sons of Northern Dancer, Nijinsky II---the last winner of the English Triple Crown---was the most reliable source of stamina, and Duty Dance lived up to that heritage by winning the 1986 Diana Handicap (USA-G2) over 9 furlongs on grass.

Duty Dance's only stakes winner was Party Manners, who in 1995 won the 9-furlong Widener Handicap (USA-G3)---a race that his sire Private Account had won when it was a Grade 1 event over 10 furlongs. His year-younger half sister Bugaloo (by 1988 Travers Stakes, USA-G1, winner Forty Niner) was an unknown quantity with regard to stamina as she never raced.

Sold for US$300,000 at the 1996 Keeneland November mixed sale when covered by Dixieland Band, Bugaloo's performance as a broodmare may be gauged by the fact that she sold for US$38,000 at the same sale nine years later, in foal to Lion Heart. Her last foal before her change of hands was Villard, whose sire Pleasant Tap showed Grade 1-winning form over 7 furlongs but stayed well enough at age 5 to win two Grade 1 events over 10 furlongs before running second to 1992 American Horse of the Year A.P. Indy in the Breeders' Cup Classic (USA-G1). (For his efforts, Pleasant Tap was voted the Eclipse Award as the American champion older male of 1992.) Villard never raced and was exported to Argentina, where she was put to the Kingmambo horse Campanologist---a multiple Group 1 winner at up to 2400 meters---to produce Village King, a two-time Group 1 winner at 2000 meters and a Group 3 winner at 2400 meters.

While the typical North American breeding formula for producing the ideal Classic horse has involved putting a stallion with speed to a mare from stouter bloodlines, European breeders have often done the reverse---taking a female family with a proven ability to transmit speed and crossing its members with staying stallions until the desired balance is reached---and this is the pattern that yielded Village King. Whether it has also yielded a good stallion remains to be seen, but Village King has done enough already to show the value of the multigenerational planning that has characterized some of the best breeding programs from around the world as well as the long-term value of a lady who was good indeed.

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Weekly Trivia Challenge for 4/23/2021

4/23/2021

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In spite of its name, the Derby Trial (now the Pat Day Mile Stakes) was never a major prep for Kentucky Derby winners, in part because of its temporal proximity to the main event (as little as four days in many years). Nonetheless, the race has been a springboard for a number of nice colts to the Triple Crown events, and so it gets a special three-part trivia challenge this week:

1) Who was the last Preakness Stakes winner to win the Derby Trial/Pat Day Mile Stakes?

2) Who was the last Belmont Stakes winner to win the Derby Trial/Pat Day Mile Stakes?

3) Only once have the one-two finishers in the Kentucky Derby (in either order) been the one-two finishers in the Derby Trial (in either order). Who were the colts involved in this Derby double and in what year did they stage their duels?

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Mares on Monday: In Letruska, the Dream Is Still Alive

4/19/2021

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The Apple Blossom Handicap (USA-G1) on April 17 appeared to set up as a duel between two-time American champion Monomoy Girl and 2020 American champion 3-year-old filly Swiss Skydiver. Instead, another champion---2019 Mexican champion 3-year-old filly Letruska---upset the applecart. After a thrilling stretch duel in which Monomoy Girl appeared to have the upper hand, Letruska found just enough to drop her nose in front on the wire, with Swiss Skydiver (who simply seemed not to fire) a distant third after failing to take advantage of an opening on the rail.

While Letruska did have a 6-pound break in the weights, she had previously shown quality on American tracks after moving north from Mexico. She won three stakes races while racing at Saratoga and Gulfstream Park in 2020, including two Grade 3 events, and added another Grade 3 in her 2021 debut, the Houston Ladies Classic Stakes. She then got in a race over the Oaklawn Park surface with a second to 2020 Longines Kentucky Oaks (USA-G1) winner Shedaresthedevil in the Azeri Stakes (USA-G2) and was both seasoned and razor sharp going into the Apple Blossom.

Letruska is descended from the Sir Gallahad III mare Double Time, whose descendants through her Blue Larkspur daughter Alablue (winner of the 1948 Test Stakes) include Grade or Group 1 winners Cryptoclearance, Duke of Marmalade, Gabina, Galetto, George Navonod, Goldmark, Harlan's Holiday, Latin American, Trapp Mountain, Veedor, and Vigliotto. Letruska, however, descends from a different branch that springs from the Diavolo mare Duplication. While not as glittering as the Alablue branch of the family, Duplication's has had its moments, most recently through the descendants of her great-great-granddaughter Dream Harder.

A 1975 daughter of 1969 Breeders' Futurity winner Hard Work, Dream Harder was a useful but not outstanding racer who ran second in four stakes races. A prolific broodmare, she produced 14 named foals. of which 12 started and eight won. Her best was 1989 Santa Anita Oaks (USA-G1) winner Imaginary Lady (by Marfa), and though she produced no other stakes winners, four of her daughters became stakes producers.

Malibu Magic, a winning daughter of the Nijinsky II horse Encino, has proven the most important of the quartet with two Grade 1-producing daughters among her progeny. The first to come up with a top-tier horse was the winning Langfuhr mare Pacific Spell, whose daughter Proud Spell (by Proud Citizen) was the American champion 3-year-old filly of 2008 thanks to wins in the Kentucky Oaks and the Alabama Stakes (USA-G1). Pacific Spell is also the dam of listed stakes winner No Distortion (by Distorted Humor) and two stakes-placed runners.

Call Her Magic (by Caller I. D.) outdid Pacific Spell on the track, winning the listed Walkin In Da Sun Stakes at Delaware Park and taking down another black-type event at Monmouth Park, but was slower to come up with her best runner. This was J. P's Gusto, a 2008 son of Successful Appeal who won the 2010 Del Mar Futurity (USA-G1) and two other graded events as a juvenile. His stakes-placed half sister Kid Majic (by Lemon Drop Kid) is the dam of Miss Mischief (by Into Mischief), the Canadian champion older female and champion female sprinter of 2015. Another half sister to J P's Gusto, Magical Mist (by Congaree), is the dam of multiple stakes winner Swagger Jagger (by Crown of Thorns).

Letruska is out of Magic Appeal, a full sister to J P's Gusto who ran third in the 2009 Adirondack Stakes (USA-G2) as a juvenile and placed second in another black-type event for 2-year-olds. Prior to Letruska, she had produced Grade 1-placed listed stakes winner Trigger Warning (by Candy Ride) and listed stakes-placed American Doll (by Tiznow). Magic Appeal's most recent foals are the unraced Hard Spun colt Ocotzingo (a 2-year-old) and a 2020 colt by Arrogate, and she was bred to Malibu Moon for 2021.

Letruska came along too late to provide a boost to the stud career of 2010 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (USA-G1) winner Super Saver, who was exported to Turkey in the same deal that also sent Swiss Skydiver's sire Daredevil there in 2019. Nonetheless, she should be an interesting player in this year's older female division and has every prospect for fulfilling the dream of producing another fine runner when she takes her place in the paddocks, and that is as much as anyone can reasonably ask.

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Mares on Monday: Laughter Is Always on Her Mind

4/11/2021

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After running third in the Grande Premio Polla de Potrancas (Argentine One Thousand Guineas, ARG-G1) and the Grande Premio Selección (Argentine Oaks, ARG-G1) earlier this year, Siempre en Mi Mente broke through to the ranks of Group winners by just hanging on to defeat Joy Velika in the Premio Paseana (ARG-G2) on April 10 at San Isidro. The filly, whose name translates to "Always on My Mind" in English, showed a fine turn of foot to defeat a group of older females and enhance the reputation of a South American branch of a top North American family.

Sired by 2020 Argentine champion sire Equal Stripes (whose sire Candy Stripes is also the sire of Argentine champion miler Candy Ride, a Grade 1 winner and successful sire in the United States), Siempre en Mi Mente is a fifth-generation descendant of Laughter. A daughter of Bold Ruler, Laughter is out of the Native Dancer mare Shenanigans and so is closely related to the great Ruffian, who was sired on Shenanigans by Bold Ruler's fine son Reviewer. Laughter is also a half sister to Grade 2 winners Buckfinder (by Buckpasser) and Icecapade (by Nearctic), the latter an important sire whose best sire son was 1984 Breeders' Cup Classic (USA-G1) winner Wild Again.

A foal of 1970, Laughter won four of her 12 starts but earned no black type on the track. She earned plenty as a producer, though, birthing five stakes winners. The best of the group was 1988 Wood Memorial Invitational Stakes (USA-G1) winner Private Terms (by Private Account), and Laughter also had two Grade 3 winners in Blue Ensign (by Hoist the Flag) and Light Spirits (by Majestic Light). In addition, she produced Laughing Look (by Damascus), dam of multiple Grade 1 winner Coronado's Quest (by Forty Niner), Grade 3 winner Warning Glance (by Caveat), and multiple restricted stakes winner Military Look (by Assault Landing). Laughing Look is also the second dam of multiple Grade 2 winner Air Support.

Laughing Look never raced, but her full sister Steel Maiden had some talent, winning two stakes races (one of them listed) and running second in the 1986 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (USA-G2). She was a successful broodmare as well, producing 1996 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes winner Mesabi Maiden (by Cox's Ridge). Mesabi Maiden, in turn, is the second dam of 2013 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (USA-G1) winner Orb and the third dam of 2019/2020 Uruguayan champion 3-year-old filly Algecira Fever.

Women's Rights, an unraced daughter of Steel Maiden by Unbridled, failed to produce any stakes winners, but she introduced the family to Argentina through her daughters Wild Girl Power (by Wild Again's Grade 1-winning son Offlee Wild) and Suffrage (by by 1998/1999 South African Horse of the Year Horse Chestnut). The former is the dam of Argentine Group 3 winner Wilds Dreams who is a closely inbred mare as her sire Suggestive Boy (a two-time champion in Argentina) is by the Storm Cat horse Easing Along out of Suffrage. Suffrage is also the dam of multiple Argentine Group 3 winner Subtlety (by Easing Along) and of Santa Emiliana (by Easing Along), who won her only start and produced Siempre en Mi Mente as her first foal.

Quality apparently travels well, for Laughter's family has been a source of class for the breeding program of the Janney family and now seems well established at Haras Futuro and Haras Pozo de Luna. With careful stewardship and a bit of luck, the sons and daughters of this line should be bringing laughter to their owners for years to come.

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Weekend Trivia Challenge for 4/9/2021

4/9/2021

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What filly holds the record for margin of victory in the historic Alabama Stakes, which has been contested since 1872?

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Mares on Monday: Rock Your World a Real Charmer

4/5/2021

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On April 3, previously unheralded Rock Your World vaulted into contention for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (USA-G1) with a facile win in the Runhappy Santa Anita Derby (USA-G1). Pressured through a quick early pace by Parnelli, the Candy Ride colt had plenty left and had no difficulty in turning back favored Robert B. Lewis Stakes (USA-G3) winner Medina Spirit in the stretch.

While this was not a very strong renewal of the Santa Anita Derby, Rock Your World was making only his third lifetime start and appears to be a colt with a lot of potential for further development. Stamina should not be any issue for him with Empire Maker and Giant's Causeway as the sires of his first two dams, and he comes from a female line that has

Rock Your World's fifth dam is Like a Charm, a filly that Hall of Fame trainer Jimmy Croll paid US$6,500 for at the 1965 Timonium yearling sale. Raced in the colors of Croll's wife Bobbi, the bargain filly made only three starts but won all three including the Sorority Stakes (a Grade 1 race when the North American grading system was instituted in 1973). She won US$79,914 and paid further dividends when she produced four stakes winners headed by Grade 3 winner Herecomesthebride (by Al Hattab) and became the second dam of four more.

Light a Charm was not one of Like a Charm's stakes winners; in fact, the Majestic Light filly never made it to the track. She produced only four foals but made good on those opportunities as her third foal was the Olympio filly Olympic Charmer. A winner on both dirt and turf, she showed some of the versatility displayed by Olympio, winner of the 1991 Hollywood Derby (USA-G1) on the turf and victor in multiple Grade 2 events on dirt. (For good measure, Majestic Light was even better as a dual-surface horse, winning Grade 1 events on both.) Olympic Charmer also showed a fair measure of the talent displayed by her sire and broodmare sire, winning the Railbird Stakes (USA-G2) at 3; and the El Encino Stakes (USA-G2) at 4; in addition, she was second in the 1999 La Brea Stakes (USA-G1).

Olympic Charmer kicked off her producing career with another good race mare. This was Charm the Giant, a daughter of Giant's Causeway whose record included the 2007 Wilshire Handicap (USA-G3) and two other stakes wins as a 5-year-old. Charm the Giant, in turn has two stakes winners to her credit: multiple Grade 1-placed listed stakes winner Charm the Maker (by Empire Maker), dam of Rock Your World, and Liam the Charmer (by Smart Strike), who won the 2018 John Henry Turf Championship Stakes (USA-G2) as a 5-year-old.

Rock Your World has already proven his versatility, having come into the Santa Anita Derby off a grass win in the listed Pasadena Stakes, and in spite of Like a Charm's prowess at 2, the overall trend of this family has been toward improvement with maturity. That bodes well for a colt who made his third time out the charm with a Grade 1 win and now has his sights set on an even bigger prize.

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Weekend Trivia Challenge for 4/3/2021

4/3/2021

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Two stallions profiled at American Classic Pedigrees are specifically mentioned as having sired dead-heat winners of Grade or Group 1 races. Can you name them both?

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