Cassie Tully takes a look at the Kentucky Derby from a European bloodstock perspective and wonders whether the next cross-Atlantic sire is running in Saturday's race.
The Kentucky Derby. A race of seismic reputation in America and beyond is also known as “The Run For The Roses” or “the most exciting two minutes in sport”, and is the oldest running sporting event in the history of the USA.
We know it is massive, but what does the Kentucky Derby, a dirt race, mean to us here in Europe?
Probably a lot more than we know.
There is of course a connotation associated with dirt racing held by many on our continent. It is not positive to say the least and there is the notion that the burly types that succeed on dirt in the States, do not and will not produce similar results through their progeny on turf.
For want of some contradictory examples related solely to the Kentucky Derby, here are a few.
To start with the most momentous and obvious. Quite simply, every single one of the 48 top stallions standing at stud in Europe this year is a descendent of the 1964 Kentucky Derby winner, Northern Dancer.
It would be a never-ending task to total the amount of influential top-flight winning descendants that Northern Dancer has produced, but we will accept that it is substantial to say the least. A study on inbreeding in University College Dublin that analysed 10,000 Thoroughbreds, traced 97% of them to Northern Dancer.
He is everywhere, not only through son Sadler’s Wells, but also through son Danzig who branches into both Danehill and Green Desert prominently in Europe, as well as sons Storm Bird (Shamardal, No Nay Never, etc), Nijinsky and Nureyev.
The influence is just as strong in the jumping sphere too, in which 10 of the top 12 National Hunt sires are descendants within four generations.
Northern Dancer is of course a phenomenon in himself however, and he is not the only winner of the Kentucky Derby to flex his genetic power upon Europe.
Since his win, there have been numerous European Group One winners sired by subsequent conquerors, but just focusing on those most relevant to us today…
Affirmed was the 1978 winner of the Derby and also went on to win the Triple Crown. He sired five top-level winners in Europe, one of them being the Irish 1000 Guineas winner Trusted Partner (whose dam is also a Grade One winner on dirt).
Trusted Partner is part of what has become a phenomenal family for Moyglare Stud. She bred the blue hen Polished Gem who not only delivered the Prince of Wales’s Stakes winner and young sire Free Eagle but last year’s Irish St Leger winning filly Search For A Song, amongst six Stakes winners.
1981 Derby winner Pleasant Colony sired the Irish Derby & King George VI and Queen Elizabeth winner St Jovite who still holds the record for the fastest time in the Irish Derby today.
The crowd at the 1989 Derby could not have imagined that the winner that day would proceed to turn a breeding industry on the other side of the world on its head, effects of which would eventually filter into Europe. Sunday Silence, who also won five other Grade 1 races on dirt in America and was narrowly denied the Triple Crown, was purchased to stand in Japan.
Sticking solely to the relevance to Europe, his best son was none other than Deep Impact. One of Japan’s greatest racehorses and seven-time Champion Sire, he sired 128 Group winners and 47 Group One winners.
Five of those Group One winners were European including 2000 Guineas and Racing Post Trophy winner Saxon Warrior (first foals this year), French Derby winner Study of Man (first foals next year), and this year’s French Oaks and Nassau Stakes winner Fancy Blue. A legacy which looks ripe to grow many legs in our continent in the not so distant future.
The 1990 winner was Unbridled. Unbridled sired a son who was second in the Kentucky Derby (Empire Maker), who in turn sired a son who was also second in the race (Pioneerof The Nile).
And the latter went on to breed the 2015 Kentucky Derby winner, and also the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, American Pharoah.
The eight-time Grade One winning dirt Champion is making more of a mark on Turf than Dirt so far in his early stud career, including three Stakes winners in Europe already.
While another of Unbridled’s sons produced First Defence, the sire of unbeaten juvenile and this year’s Irish 2000 Guineas winner, Siskin.
The list goes on, not to mention the potential that 2018’s winner Justify holds for Europe with Coolmore publicly supporting him with their most regal Galileo mares.
Does this race guarantee a stallion?
Well it is certainly the pinnacle of racing in America where the winner is beating the best three-year-old opposition in all of the land, and that somewhat guarantees them at least a good start at stud with the support of some fine partners.
So who wins this Saturday?
Ordinarily staged on the first Saturday in May, the ‘C’ word has of course altered that this year, and even though it will be without the usual crowd of 150,000 spectators, one of the 18 contenders will still be the 146th Kentucky Derby winner.
The favourite to do so is Tiz The Law, one of the shortest priced favourites in recent history in fact. He was drawn on the outside in stall 17 from which no horse has ever won in the 145-year past.
Tiz The Law is by Constitution (Tapit), a leading second-crop-sire in the States. He is a Grade One winning juvenile and remains unbeaten in his four starts this year which includes three consecutive Grade One races.
Europe have yet to win the Kentucky Derby but the one to beat is owned by Sackatoga Stables and it was announced in June that he will retire to Coolmore’s American base, Ashford. In which case there is a connection already and we may well be experiencing some of his progeny this side of the Atlantic in the not too distant future with the constant search for worthy suitors for all of the Galileo daughters.
Although 4,000 miles away, the aggressive Run For The Roses is closer to us than many of us give it credit.
Is the next Northern Dancer or Sunday Silence in his box at Churchill Downs ahead of Saturday’s showdown?
