All Equine All The Time

With 12 categories and 31 horses, it's to be expected that there's some overlap in the bloodlines found when the Eclipse Award finalists are named in early January. This year was no different with some stallions making their marks in more than one category. From Mr. Prospector to A.P. Indy, here are some of the more interesting things you’ll find when digging into Eclipse award pedigrees this winter. Mr. Prospector (WikiMedia Commons/Pawneese photo) Mr. Prospector – It’s never a big surprise to find Mr. Prospector (Raise a Native) in pedigrees but it may be a surprise to see how dominate he is when it comes to this year's Eclipse awards. Of the 31 finalists, Mr. Prospector is found in the sire or damsire line of 18 (58 percent) of the horses, including all three of the Horse of the Year candidates. Horse of the Year and 3-year-old Male finalist Arrogate (Unbridled’s Song) and female sprinter finalist Finest City (City Zip) both have Mr. Prospector in their sire and...

The pensioned A.P. Indy A.P. Indy (Seattle Slew) hasn’t stepped into a breeding shed in five years but this Kentucky Oaks, open only to 3-year-old fillies, has the 27-year-old stallion’s mark all over it. The oversubscribed Oaks field has 15 entries with 14 fillies automatically in the gate and one waiting on the outside looking in. Some of the top stallions in the sport are seen in the first two or three generations on the fillies’ pedigrees in both the sire and broodmare sire lines but none more than the 1992 Belmont Stakes winner.  While A.P. Indy isn’t the sire or broodmare sire of any runner in the race, he is the grandsire or great-grandsire of nine of the runners with seven sired by his sons or in two cases, grandson. In the two other cases, he is seen on the bottom side of the pedigree with his sons’ daughters producing the runners. As far as his representation with sires go, Bernardini and Tapit are responsible for four of those runners with two each including the ...

Tale of the Cat in 2014 A Grade 2 winner at seven furlongs and Grade 1 placed at nine furlongs, Tale of the Cat (Storm Cat) was more than useful as a racehorse. His successful racing career turned out to be a foreshadowing of his stud career when he joined the stallion ranks in 1999, retiring to Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky for $25,000.  By a top sire in Storm Cat and from a strong female family that includes champion Johannesburg (Hennessy) (out of Tale of the Cat’s half-sister) and Pulpit (A.P. Indy), Tale of the Cat has constantly ranked in the top 30 on the General Sires list since graduating from the crop-specific lists (where he was ranked in the top five on the first, second and third crop sires lists). While never a leading General Sire, Tale of the Cat is more often than not seen in the top 15 with his best ranking on that list being a seventh. The stallion has also done well enough with his 2-year-olds to lead the Two-Year-Old Sires list in 2003 and to rank seco...