Pedigree fun facts: 2020 American Pharoah Stakes
Sep 25, 2020
Some fine pedigrees are on display in Saturday’s American Pharoah Stakes (G1), including offspring of Kentucky Derby (G1) and Breeders’ Cup winners.
Notable Exception is by 2007 Derby winner Street Sense, the first Breeders’ Cup Juvenile champion to wear the roses. The Calumet Farm homebred is out of a mare by Hall of Famer A. P. Indy, and thus bred along similar lines to onetime 2020 Derby hope Maxfield, likewise a son of Street Sense from an A. P. Indy-line mare.
Notable Exception’s dam, Poco Mas, has produced two stakes winners already in Argentine Group 2 heroine (and Group 1-placed) Carinosa as well as Tatters to Riches. Poco Mas is herself a half to Canadian champion Interpol. Their dam, Adel by Australian globetrotter Strawberry Road, captured the Edgewood and placed in the Del Mar Oaks (G1) in 1998. Adel was in turn a half-sister to multiple Grade 2-winning millionaire Del Mar Show, out of a mare by 1975 Kentucky Derby victor Foolish Pleasure.
Waspirant is the son of 2009 Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic (aka Distaff) (G1) star Life Is Sweet, herself a full sister to 2004 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) champion Sweet Catomine. Life Is Sweet and Sweet Catomine are both daughters of Storm Cat and Broodmare of the Year Sweet Life. Waspirant is thus a third-generation homebred for Pam and Marty Wygod.
Waspirant’s sire, Union Rags, almost was a Breeders’ Cup winner himself but came up a head shy of Hansel in the 2011 Juvenile. Seventh from a hopeless position in the 2012 Kentucky Derby, Union Rags finally prevailed in the Belmont S. (G1).
Union Rags has two contenders in the eight-horse field, with his Spielberg ranking as the 3-1 morning-line favorite. The $1 million Keeneland September yearling is out of a mare by Smart Strike from the family of 1985 Belmont hero Creme Fraiche, a seven-time Grade 1 winner of more than $4 million. More recent maternal relatives include the 2013 Hopeful (G1) victor Strong Mandate.
Weston is from the first crop of the War Front stallion Hit It a Bomb, the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) winner who hopes to add to War Front’s emergence as a sire of sires. Weston’s dam is by Dixie Union (himself the sire of Union Rags), but you have to go back to his third dam, Grade 1 vixen Trumpet’s Blare, to find anyone of note in the female line.
The maiden Dyn O Mite is by Goldencents, who scored back-to-back wins in the 2013-14 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1). Goldencents is in turn a son of leading sire Into Mischief, most recently celebrated for siring Kentucky Derby star Authentic.
Touchdown Brown hails from the same sire line as the race honoree. He’s by Cairo Prince, who like American Pharoah is a son of Pioneerof the Nile, descending from 1990 Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) champion Unbridled via Empire Maker. Touchdown Brown’s dam is by Cherokee Run, the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner, from the family of multiple Grade 1 scorer and $3-million earner Devil His Due.
Rombauer, as a son of Twirling Candy, comes from another branch further up on that sire line. Instead of Unbridled, though, his ancestry traces to another son of Fappiano, Cryptoclearance, via Candy Ride. Rombauer’s dam is a half-sister to 2009 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint conqueror California Flag and the multiple Group 3-winning Cambiocorsa, now known as a prolific producer whose descendants include European champion Roaring Lion.
Get Her Number is by Dialed In, the 2011 Florida Derby (G1) winner who was eighth as the Kentucky Derby favorite, and out of a mare by Bernstein. Thus he’s closely inbred to Storm Cat. Get Her Number’s second dam is a daughter of 2000 Kentucky Derby victor Fusaichi Pegasus, but the further female line is more associated with European turf performers like Diffident.
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