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Pedigree fun facts: 2026 Kentucky Oaks

Apr 26, 2026 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Bella Ballerina trains at Churchill Downs ahead of the Kentucky Oaks

Bella Ballerina, by a Derby winner and a half-sister to an Oaks champion, is bred for success beneath the Twin Spires (Photo by Coady Media)

History will be made under the Friday night lights at Churchill Downs, when promising fillies take the stage for the $1.5 million Kentucky Oaks (G1). Beyond competing for themselves and their own connections, the Oaks contenders are also racing for their parents and their bloodlines.

Triple Crown champion American Pharoah would join an exclusive club if his daughter Zany, the early favorite, wins. Similarly, the mare Pretty City Dancer would achieve a rare historic feat if Bella Ballerina becomes her second Oaks winner.

Hall of Famer Gun Runner is loaded with four shots, including points leader Meaning, as he seeks an historic Oaks/Derby double.

Let’s explore the fascinating pedigree angles in play for the 152nd Kentucky Oaks.

A Triple Crown hero and other Derby-winning sires

Only two Triple Crown heroes, Sir Barton (1919) and Seattle Slew (1977), have sired Kentucky Oaks winners. Sir Barton’s daughter Easter Stockings captured the 1928 edition, and Seattle Slew is responsible for Seaside Attraction (1990) and Flute (2001). Zany will try to expand the club to three, by winning for sire American Pharoah.

Several other Kentucky Derby winners have had daughters take the Oaks, and 2007 Derby champion Street Sense would add his name to the list if Bella Ballerina prevails. Nyquist, the 2016 Derby star, has a theoretical chance with Nycon, but she’s on the also-eligible list. Another rival would have to scratch for her to draw into the main body of the field.

The other father/daughter tandems are Bold Forbes (1976 Derby) and his filly Tiffany Lass (1986 Oaks); breed-shaper Northern Dancer (1964 Derby), sire of White Star Line (1978 Oaks); the great Swaps (1955 Derby) and his daughter Lady Vi-E (1970 Oaks); Tim Tam (1958 Derby) and Nancy Jr. (1967 Oaks); Johnstown (1939 Derby) and First Page (1946 Oaks); Ben Brush (1896 Derby) and Lorraine (1920 Oaks); and Alan-a-Dale (1902 Derby) and his phonetically alike filly, Ellen-a-Dale (1908 Oaks).

Derby alumni with daughters in the Oaks

Gun Runner, third to Nyquist in the 2016 Derby, is armed with both quality and quantity. In addition to Meaning, who beat fellow Gun Runner filly Brooklyn Blonde in the Santa Anita Oaks (G2), he has unbeaten Always a Runner and the consistent Search Party.

Most of the field is sired by past Derby competitors. Honor A. P., fourth in the pandemic-postponed 2020 Run for the Roses, sends out Counting Stars. Percy’s Bar is by Upstart, who trailed behind American Pharoah in 2015. Girvin (13th in 2017) has Dazzling Dame, and Lovely Grey is by Vekoma (12th in 2019). Lovely Grey drew in from the also-eligible list on Sunday, following the scratch of Bottle of Rouge, a well-named daughter of Vino Rosso (ninth in 2018).

Sire lines represented

Ten of the 17 entrants are by stallions from the Mr. Prospector sire line. Along with Gun Runner, American Pharoah, Street Sense, Vino Rosso, and Vekoma, Quality Road (sire of Prom Queen) and Maclean’s Music (sire of also-eligible Resist) are represented. Quality Road is the only sire in the 2026 field who already has an Oaks winner, champion Abel Tasman (2017).

Three fillies are by sires from Seattle Slew’s male line, via his Hall of Fame son A.P. Indy. Counting Stars’ sire Honor A. P. is in this category, as his name implies, as is Percy’s Bar’s sire, Upstart. So is Pashmina, a daughter of Constitution.

Two are from the Uncle Mo line, which is reinvigorating an old branch of *Nasrullah mediated by Caro. Uncle Mo, sire of Nyquist (and grandsire of Nycon), has a contender himself – as you can guess, that’s My Miss Mo.

Dazzling Dame is the lone filly by a Northern Dancer-line sire. Girvin belongs to the Storm Cat tribe via Tale of the Cat.

Blame, who famously held off Zenyatta in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) at Churchill, is a scion of the Hail to Reason line. He’ll try to record another big win beneath the Twin Spires through his daughter, Explora.

An historic Oaks/Derby double?

Of the three stallions with the potential to sire an Oaks/Derby double this year, Gun Runner holds the strongest hand. He has just one remaining in the Derby, but that one, Further Ado, ranks among the very top contenders.

Constitution has two opportunities in the Derby, with the talented Chief Wallabee and longshot Right to Party. Nyquist, who needs Nycon to draw into the Oaks, has Litmus Test safely in the Derby.

Only four sires have turned the Oaks/Derby double in the same calendar year, and you have to go back 60 years to find the most recent – breed-shaper Native Dancer, whose Kauai King and Native Street scored in 1966. The others were Calumet patriarch Bull Lea, courtesy of Hill Gail and Real Delight (1952); *McGee, sire of the great Exterminator and Viva America (1918); and King Alfonso, with Joe Cotton and Lizzie Dwyer (1885).

Power through the maternal lines

Bella Ballerina is a half-sister to 2023 Oaks champion Pretty Mischievous. Their mother, the Tapit mare Pretty City Dancer, was a high-class juvenile who dead-heated for the win in the 2016 Spinaway (G1) at Saratoga. She failed to progress on the Oaks trail as a three-year-old herself, so it’s ironic that her daughters are making up for it.

If Pretty City Dancer furnishes another Oaks winner, she would emulate Quaze, the mother of Susan’s Girl (1972) and Quaze Quilt (1974); and Queenlike, responsible for Kings Daughter (1906) and Ellen-a-Dale (1908). Ellen-a-Dale would offer a neat parallel, since both she and Bella Ballerina are by Derby winners (Alan-a-Dale and Street Sense, respectively, as noted above). Calumet matron Blue Delight owns the record with three Oaks-winning daughters – Real Delight (1952), Bubbley (1953), and Princess Turia (1956).

Pretty City Dancer is adding to the rich legacy of the family dubbed 1-x, founded by her ancestress, *La Troienne. Other Oaks winners descending from this maternal line are Princess Rooney (1983), Lite Light (1991), and Pike Place Dancer (1996).

Explora is out of a mare by Bernardini, who is also the maternal grandfather of 2019 Oaks vixen Serengeti Empress. But Explora’s female line has even stronger Oaks connections. She descends in a direct line from the 1978 heroine, White Star Line. Her further family (labeled 4-m) has also produced Proud Spell (2008), Lemons Forever (2006), Challe Anne (1948), Come and Go (1945), Inscolassie (1940), Suntica (1932), Rose of Sharon (1929), and Audience (1904).

Zany is out of the Grade 3-winning Mo’ Green, as you might imagine, an Uncle Mo mare. Uncle Mo is also the maternal grandfather of 2024 Oaks winner and Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna.

Mo’ Green traces to the same ancestress (the female line numbered 16-h) as last year’s Oaks winner, Good Cheer. Interestingly, Mo’ Green captured the Top Flight (G3) over the same course and distance at Aqueduct as Zany’s Demoiselle (G2) victory. Mo’ Green was third in the Allaire duPont Distaff (G3), where the runner-up was Carrumba, the dam (mother) of Derby contender Golden Tempo.

Prom Queen’s mother, by Tapit, is a full sister to Actress, the winner of the 2017 Black-Eyed Susan (G2). Actress’s son, Hit Show, ran well in defeat in the 2023 Derby and Belmont (G1) and went on to upset the 2025 Dubai World Cup (G1).

Prom Queen shares the same female line, A1, as Oaks rival Always a Runner.  Also belonging to this family are the celebrated Modesty (1884), who is commemorated by a Grade 3 stakes on Oaks Day; Lemco (1903); Bronzewing (1914); and Amerivan (1965).

Always a Runner is out of Always Carina, the 2021 Mother Goose (G2) runner-up, who was likewise trained by Chad Brown. Always Carina is a half-sister (by Malibu Moon) to Structor, the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) winner for Brown.

While Always a Runner is bred on the potent cross of Gun Runner over Malibu Moon (like champion Sierra Leone), the other three Gun Runner fillies are out of Storm Cat-line mares.

Meaning and Search Party are both out of mares by Into Mischief (sire of Pretty Mischievous). Search Party descends from Canadian Hall of Famer Northernette (a full sister to Storm Bird). Meaning is out of Grade 1-placed Figure of Speech, a member of the 16-g family that produced 2004 Oaks winner and Hall of Famer Ashado.

Brooklyn Blonde’s mother, Grade 1-placed stakes winner Shenandoah Queen, is by Henny Hughes. Sire of Hall of Famer Beholder, who was runner-up in the 2013 Oaks, Henny Hughes is the maternal grandfather of 2018 Oaks champion Monomoy Girl.

Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver (2010) has two granddaughters in the field, Percy’s Bar and Pashmina. Both are bred on similar lines, being by A.P. Indy-line sires and out of Super Saver mares.

Percy’s Bar belongs to the 3-l matrilineal group including Hall of Famer Davona Dale, the 1979 Oaks heroine.

Pashmina is out of the multiple stakes-placed Panthera Onca. She traces to the maternal line numbered 8-f, whose Oaks winners include Rags to Riches (2007) and her grandmother Blush with Pride (1982) along with Bird Town (2003), and My Portrait (1961).

My Miss Mo is out of a Quality Road mare from the immediate family of Sneaky Quiet, the third-placer in the 1995 Oaks. But their extended female line, dubbed 21-a, has had four Oaks winners – Monomoy Girl, Heavenly Cause (1981), Hidden Talent (the second division in 1959), and Valdina Myth (1941). The third also-eligible, Resist, is out of a Point of Entry mare also from the 21-a line.

Counting Stars is out of a Paynter mare from the family labeled 6-e, sharing that tribe with Oaks victress Lucky Lucky Lucky (1984). Lovely Grey is out of an Unbridled’s Song mare, a member of the 10-a family like Oaks winner Summerly (2005). Dazzling Dame is out of a Corinthian mare from the A4 family, which has yet to deliver an Oaks heroine despite yielding five Derby victors including Swaps and California Chrome.

Also-eligible Nycon boasts a superb family as a great-granddaughter of Hall of Famer Personal Ensign, who concluded her undefeated career in an epic Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1).

Personal Ensign kicked off a three-generation sequence of Breeders’ Cup winners, with her daughter My Flag in the 1995 Juvenile Fillies (G1) and My Flag’s daughter, Storm Flag Flying, following suit in the 2002 edition of the same race.

Nycon is out of another daughter of My Flag, Raise the Flag, who is herself by a Breeders’ Cup star in Awesome Again (1998 Classic). She ultimately traces to the same female line, dubbed 6-a, as Oaks winners Startle (1922) and Bold ‘n Determined (1980).

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