12 Pedigree fun facts: Kingsbarns

Here are 12 pedigree fun facts for Kingsbarns, who is a Todd Pletcher trainee like his sire:

1. Uncle Mo was scratched from the 2011 Kentucky Derby.

Uncle Mo had been the leading Derby contender of his generation after going undefeated at two, with sensational wins in the 2010 Champagne (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1). Unfortunately, he lost his perfect record when third in the Wood Memorial (G1). Subsequently found to have a gastrointestinal issue, he still wasn’t right by Derby week. Pletcher, and owner Mike Repole, accordingly withdrew the colt and focused on getting him back healthy. Uncle Mo returned in good form later in the season, just missing in his comeback in the King’s Bishop (now the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial) (G1) and defeating elders in the Kelso H. (G2).

2. Uncle Mo’s son Nyquist achieved the Breeders’ Cup/Derby double.

Uncle Mo ranks as an outstanding sire with offspring of widely varying aptitudes. Nyquist, who emulated his sire as an unbeaten champion at two, maintained his form through the spring of 2016 and captured the Kentucky Derby. In the process, he became only the second horse to turn the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile/Derby double, after Street Sense. Uncle Mo is also responsible for a winner of the third jewel of the Triple Crown, as Mo Donegal rolled in last year’s Belmont (G1). 

Another accomplished son, the brilliant sprinter Golden Pal, excelled at a fraction of that distance on turf. Accomplishing the rare feat of winning two different Breeders’ Cup races, Golden Pal blasted to victory in the 2020 Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2) and 2021 Turf Sprint (G1). Uncle Mo is exerting his influence as a grandsire too, with successful stallion sons, and his daughters are producing such important runners as Instant Coffee, Geaux Rocket Ride, and Southlawn.

3. Uncle Mo’s sire was the beaten favorite in the 1998 Kentucky Derby.

Uncle Mo is by Indian Charlie, who brought a perfect 4-for-4 mark into the 1998 Kentucky Derby. In light of his romp in the Santa Anita Derby (G1) over stablemate Real Quiet, Indian Charlie was dispatched as the 2.70-1 favorite at Churchill Downs. But he ended up finishing third to Real Quiet and never raced again.

Indian Charlie transmitted his quality speed to his progeny, including two-time Eclipse Award winner Indian Blessing. Another champion daughter, Fleet Indian, stayed a lot farther, and became the ancestress of champion Game Winner. Indeed, Indian Charlie has emerged as a notable sire of broodmares. His daughter Indian Miss is responsible for both champion Mitole and $3 million-earner Hot Rod Charlie, who placed in the 2021 Kentucky Derby and Belmont.

4. Kingsbarns is bred on a cross that’s the mirror image of Flightline’s pedigree.

Another Indian Charlie mare, Grade 3 winner Feathered, is famous as the dam of unbeaten Horse of the Year Flightline. The 19 1/4-length hero of the 2022 Pacific Classic (G1), Flightline was also a runaway winner of last season’s Metropolitan H. (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1). 

Flightline is by leading sire Tapit. Kingsbarns is himself out of a mare by Tapit; thus his pedigree is a mirror image of Flightline’s. While Flightline is bred on the cross of Tapit over Indian Charlie, Kingsbarns sports the cross of Indian Charlie over Tapit.

Moreover, the two share another angle in common. Uncle Mo and Flightline’s dam, Feathered, are themselves bred along a broadly similar pattern. Both are by Indian Charlie and out of mares from the sire line of 1972 Epsom Derby victor Roberto. 

5. Indian Charlie’s sire set a 1 1/4-mile track record that still stands at Belmont Park.

Indian Charlie is by the versatile Irish-bred millionaire In Excess. A classy operator on turf, as you’d expect from his pedigree, In Excess was surprisingly even better on dirt. He won four straight Grade 1 races on the New York circuit in 1991 – the Met Mile, the 1 1/4-mile Suburban H. (G1) in a dazzling 1:58.33, the Whitney H. (G1), and the Woodward (G1). His Suburban time remains the track record for the distance at Belmont Park.

While In Excess’s greatest legacy is through Indian Charlie, he also sired the dams of Always Dreaming, the 2017 Kentucky Derby winner; champion sprinter Amazombie; and Canadian Horse of the Year Lexie Lou. Always Dreaming is out of Grade 3 scorer Above Perfection, an In Excess mare who also produced 2009 Spinaway (G1) victress Hot Dixie Chick (herself the dam of Grade 1 queen Pauline’s Pearl).

In Excess’s sire, Siberian Express, was a smart performer in France. The winner of the 1983 Prix Morny (G1) at two, he placed third to superstar El Gran Senor and future champion older horse Rainbow Quest in that fall’s Dewhurst (G1). Siberian Express went on to capture the 1984 Poule d’Essai des Poulains (French 2000 Guineas) (G1), and he was third in the Prix Jacques le Marois (G1) to the impressive Lear Fan and Palace Music (later the sire of Hall of Famer Cigar).

7. Kingsbarns hails from the male line of Caro, sire of Derby queen Winning Colors.

Siberian Express is by Caro, himself a classic winner of the Poulains in 1970. The next year, Caro reigned as France’s champion older horse after three major wins, and a second to the all-time great Mill Reef in the Eclipse (G1). 

Imported to Kentucky after a sparkling beginning to his stud career in France, Caro continued to sire a stream of top performers. His Hall of Fame daughter Winning Colors made history as only the third (and most recent) filly to win the Kentucky Derby in 1988. 

Caro had a number of highly-qualified sons at stud, including Canadian Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year With Approval and champion turf horse Cozzene. Although successful sires, they have not propagated a line of assured duration. It’s one of the curiosities of breeding that Siberian Express, who wouldn’t have been the obvious choice at all, turned out to be the one to safeguard Caro’s male line – in hindsight.

8. Kingsbarns is out of a half-sister to a Grade 1 winner on turf.

Kingsbarns is out of Grade 3-placed Lady Tapit, who is a half-sister to Grade 1 vixen Gozzip Girl. Victorious in four turf stakes in 2009, Gozzip Girl passed successive class tests in the Coconut Grove S. and Herecomesthebride (G3) at Gulfstream Park, the Sands Point (G2) at Belmont, and the American Oaks (G1) at old Hollywood Park. Her only loss came in the middle of that sequence, a near-miss in the Ashland (G1) during Keeneland’s Polytrack era. 

9. Kingsbarns is one of several contenders with Tapit in his pedigree.

Lady Tapit is just one of the Tapit mares with offspring on the 2023 Triple Crown trail. Tapit has also sired the dams of Withers (G3) winner Hit Show, who missed by a nose in the Wood Memorial (G2); Rocket Can, the Holy Bull (G3) hero who placed second in the Fountain of Youth (G2) and fourth in the Arkansas Derby (G1): Disarm, runner-up to Kingsbarns in the Louisiana Derby (G2) in an exacta of Tapit grandsons; and frequent placegetter Red Route One, who came closest when second in the Rebel (G2).

Tapit is himself the sire of a prime contender in Tapit Trice, who will try to give him a first Kentucky Derby winner. He is also the paternal grandsire of Sunland Park Derby (G3) shocker Wild on Ice, by Tapit’s son Tapizar.

Lady Tapit and Gozzip Girl are out of Temperence Gift, by the renowned blueblood Kingmambo. The first foal from two-time Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) legend and Hall of Famer Miesque, Kingmambo lived up to his pedigree on the racecourse. The son of Mr. Prospector became a multiple Group 1-winning miler with tallies in the 1993 Poulains, St James’s Palace (G1) at Royal Ascot, and Prix du Moulin (G1). 

Kingmambo’s record at stud is vast, extending Miesque’s heritage throughout the world. He’s sired such Japanese champions as King Kamehameha (himself the sire of Lord Kanaloa and Duramente); U.S. champion Lemon Drop Kid, the 1999 Belmont and Travers (G1) winner; a galaxy of European stars including 2007 Epsom Oaks (G1) heroine Light Shift, dam of Ulysses; and the dams of triple classic king Camelot, Duke of Marmalade, globetrotters Midday and Addeybb, and the sublime Baaeed. 

11. This is the family of Brocco, fourth in the 1994 Kentucky Derby. 

Temperence Gift was produced by Shapiro’s Mistress, the winner of two minor stakes in California including the 1988 Bay Meadows Lassie. Several years later, she would acquire new significance as the older half-sister of Brocco. Hero of the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Brocco added the 1994 Santa Anita Derby and finished fourth to Go for Gin in the Kentucky Derby.

Shapiro’s Mistress was more blue-collar than blueblood. Her sire, Unpredictable, is a Grade 3-winning son of Fred Hooper’s noted Tri Jet, but he fell into obscurity as a stallion. Her dam, Anytime Ms., is a Washington-bred by Argentine import *Aurelius II, whose biggest win came in the 1966 Longacres Mile. 

12. The female line traces from Washington State to King Ranch.

Anytime Ms. is herself a full sister to Any Time Girl, winner of the 1976 Oak Leaf (G2) whose stakes placings include the Hollywood Lassie (G2) and Santa Ynez (G3). Their half-sister Table Hands captured the 1979 Del Mar Debutante (G2) and Hollywood Lassie along with the 1980 Santa Ynez. Table Hands also finished third in the Santa Susana (G1), now the Santa Anita Oaks.

Any Time Girl and Table Hands were the headliners among five stakes winners produced by the remarkable Washington State matron Hold Hands. Three more of her foals placed in stakes, for an amazing total of eight stakes performers. 

How did Hold Hands, by the well-bred but obscure stallion Anyoldtime, become such a prolific broodmare? Her pedigree features close inbreeding to Hall of Famer Eight Thirty, and a more distant triplicate of Man o’ War. 

Moreover, Hold Hands’s dam, the multiple stakes-placed Cold Hands, originated from historic King Ranch. Cold Hands hails from the immediate family of champion filly Dawn Play. Bred by Morton Schwartz but campaigned by King Ranch, Dawn Play landed the 1937 Acorn and Coaching Club American Oaks and beat the boys in the American Derby.