Keeping It In The Family: Kentucky Derby Pedigree Facts

Improbable

The first Saturday in May is just days away and the Kentucky Derby field has been drawn as the 3-year-olds prepare for the biggest day of their lives. In what looks like a fairly open edition of the race, a group of 18 sires are looking to add a first Kentucky Derby victory to their resume.

Today we look at the pedigrees and stats behind the 20 runners currently in the race from their birthday to the success of their sires and dams and a few special horses shaping this year’s Derby.

Birthdays: The oldest 3-year-old loading into the gate in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday will be Improbable (City Zip). The chestnut was born on February 11, 2016, five days before the second oldest in Gray Magician (Graydar) who was born on February 16. There are four May-born runners in the field with Country House (Lookin At Lucky), Maximum Security (New Year’s Day), Vekoma (Candy Ride) and Code of Honor (Noble Mission) born between May 8 and May 23.

The busiest month for Derby runners' birthdays was April with six horses born in that month. February and March followed close behind with five runners each. Eighteen of the Kentucky Derby runners were born in Central Kentucky with Win Win Win (Hat Trick) born in Florida and Master Fencer (Just a Way) in Japan.

Game Winner

Sires: Two stallions have multiple Derby runners with Candy Ride (Ride the Rails) siring Game Winner and Vekoma and War Front (Danzig) siring War of Will and Omaha Beach. Bodemeister (Empire Maker) is the only stallion with a runner in this year’s Kentucky Derby to have sired a Kentucky Derby winner before. The average age of the stallions at conception of this year’s crop was 10.45 with New Year’s Day (Street Cry) the youngest at four and Arch (Kris S) the oldest at 20.

Goldencents (Into Mischief) and Noble Mission (Galileo) are both first crop sires to have a Derby runner with Graydar (Unbridled’s Song), New Year’s Day, Point of Entry (Dynaformer) and Take Charge Indy (A.P. Indy) all second crop sires.

The average stud fee in 2015 of the stallions still standing in the Northern Hemisphere this year was $47,855 with the average now at $68.183 for those same stallions. The most expensive in 2015 was Tapit (Pulpit) at $300,000 and least expensive Daaher at $5,000. Those who bred to Quality Road (Elusive Quality) in 2015 have seen their early decision pay off – he’s had the biggest fee increase of any stallion with his $35,000 fee going up to $150,000 for a 328.57 percent increase.

Location: In addition to playing a role in the lives of six of the Derby contenders either through foaling, raising, or selling them, Lane’s End also stood four of the stallions with Derby runners (Candy Ride, City Zip, Noble Mission, Quality Road) in 2015 with three of those still active. Claiborne is close behind with three Derby sires (Arch, First Samurai, War Front), and Gainesway also stood two of the Derby sires at the time of conception (Hat Trick and Tapit).

Four of the stallions with Kentucky Derby runners are standing outside the United States in 2019 with Hat Trick (Sunday Silence) and New Year’s Day in South America, Take Charge Indy in South Korea, and Just a Way (Heart’s Cry) in Japan. Of those horses standing in the United States only Daaher (Awesome Again) stands outside Kentucky – he is at Circle H in Louisiana. Two sires are no longer standing with both Arch and City Zip (Carson City) dying in the past few years.

Close Hatches

Dams: The 20 dams with runners in the Kentucky Derby were an average age of 8.65 years old when their runners were conceived. A.P. Indy is the only horse who has more than one daughter with a runner in the Derby with both Game Winner and Improbable out of A.P. Indy mares. His sons sired a further two dams of Derby runners with Anasheed siring the dam of Maximum Security and Pulpit the dam of Cutting Humor.

Dam Success: The on-track success of the dams in the race is all over the board. The most accomplished mare on the track is Tacitius’ (Tapit) dam Close Hatches (First Defence), who was Eclipse Champion Older Mare in 2014 and won or finished second in seven Grade 1 races. She’s joined by two other Grade 1 winners in Zaftig (Gone West) and Mona de Mamma (Speightstown). There are five other stakes winning mares with runners in the Derby with four of them listed winners. Fifteen of the mares won at least one race in their career, Plus Que Parfait’s (Point of Entry) dam Belvedera (Awesome Again) raced once but didn’t hit the board. The remaining four mares were all unraced.

As a whole, the mares have done better in the breeding shed than as racehorses. They have produced a combined 56 winners from 68 runners for a winners to runners strike rate of 82.35%. Outside of their Kentucky Derby contender, three have produced Grade 1 winners, four others have produced stakes winners and two others have produced stakes placed horses.

Two mares have Derby runners from their first foals (Close Hatches and Rare Event) while on the other end of the spectrum two have had daughters produce stakes winners or placers.

Noble Mission

Sadler’s Wells: A strong turf influence and sometimes-dirt influence through grandson Medaglia d’Oro (El Prado), Sadler’s Wells makes two appearances here and neither through the El Prado line.

His best grandson from the mare Kind (Danehill) on the racecourse was without a doubt Frankel (Galileo), but Frankel’s full brother Noble Mission is stepping out of his brother’s shadow here with Code Of Honor. Grade 1 placed at both two and three and this year’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth winner, Code Of Honor has the breeding to go the distance with Churchill Downs’ dirt track also known to suit turf horses.

Sadler’s Wells is also the broodmare sire of War Of Will, who started his career on turf and is Grade 1 placed on the surface. It wasn’t until breaking his maiden impressively by five lengths over this same track on the dirt that his connections decided to try stakes competition on the surface and the colt delivered. He won the first two legs of the Fair Grounds Kentucky Derby prep series before finishing ninth in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby when coming out of the race slightly injured. Already proven at Churchill, War of Will does have to overcome the dreaded one-hole.

Auctions: 11 of the 20 runners went through a public sales ring at least once in their life with the most expensive to sale being Roadster (Quality Road) for $525,000 at the Keeneland September sale with eighth others also going through the ring at that sale and 10 visiting the Keeneland ring overall.

The least expensive of the horses to sell at public auction as yearlings or two-year-olds was champion 2-year-old Game Winner (Candy Ride), who brought $110,000. Two horses RNAed as yearlings with Gray Magician bringing a final bid of $18,000 and Code of Honor a final bid of $70,0000. The average price it took to buy a Kentucky Derby horse at public auction (in their final auction appearance) was $221,474.

Though he went through the sales ring Code Of Honor still races for breeder Will Farish as one of nine horses who still have their breeders as part of (or all of) their ownership group.

Kentucky Derby Runners

Horse	Sire	Stud Fee 2019	Dam	Highest Level Raced
Bodexpress	Bodemeister	$20,000	Pied a Terre	Unraced
By My Standards	Goldencents	$20,000	A Jealous Woman	Listed Winner/G2P
Code of Honor	Noble Mission	$15,000	Reunited	G3 Winner
Country House	Lookin At Lucky	$20,000	Quake Lake	Winner
Cutting Humor	First Samurai	$15,000	Pun	Unraced
Game Winner	Candy Ride		Indyan Giving	Unraced
Gray Magician	Graydar	$7,500	Burg Berg	Listed Winner/G2P
Haikal	Daaher	$3,000	Sablah	Unraced
Improbable	City Zip	N/A	Rare Event	Winner
Long Range Toddy	Take Charge Indy	N/A	Pleasant Song	Winner
Master Fencer	Just a Way	$35,881	Sexy Zamurai	Winner
Maximum Security	New Year's Day	N/A	Lil Indy	Winner
Plus Que Parfait	Point of Entry	$20,000	Belvedera	Raced
Roadster	Quality Road	$150,000	Ghost Dancing	Listed Winner
Spinoff	Hard Spun	$40,000	Zaftig	G1 Winner
Tacitus	Tapit	$225,000	Close Hatches	Champion
Tax	Arch	N/A	Toll	Winner
Vekoma	Candy Ride	$80,000	Mona de Momma	G1 Winner
War of Will	War Front	$250,000	Visions of Clarity	Listed Winner
Win Win Win	Hat Trick	N/A	Miss Smarty Pants	Winner