Pedigree fun facts: Smile Happy
Dec 14, 2021
Twelve years after Super Saver turned the Kentucky Jockey Club (G2)/Kentucky Derby (G1) double at Churchill Downs, his grandson Smile Happy hopes to follow in his hoofsteps.
Smile Happy, who burst onto the Derby trail with a 3 1/4-length victory in the Nov. 27 Kentucky Jockey Club, is by Super Saver’s champion son, Runhappy. Although Runhappy’s pedigree is replete with classic influences, he excelled as a sprinter. During his Eclipse Award campaign in 2015, Runhappy reeled off six straight wins highlighted by the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), King’s Bishop (G1), and Malibu (G1).
Runhappy’s sire, Super Saver, descends from the male line of the great Native Dancer, whose only career loss came after a troubled trip in the 1953 Kentucky Derby. Subsequently the winner of the Preakness and Belmont S. in his Hall of Fame career, Native Dancer has bequeathed a terrific legacy at stud. His most influential son, Raise a Native, sired Mr. Prospector, among others.
Super Saver is a scion of Raise a Native’s Kentucky Derby-winning son, Majestic Prince. Unbeaten through the 1969 Preakness, Majestic Prince was denied the Triple Crown when runner-up in the Belmont.
Majestic Prince’s leading son was Majestic Light. A four-time Grade 1 winner effective on both dirt and turf, Majestic Light set a Monmouth Park track record in 1976 in the race we now know as the Haskell (G1). He kept the line going through his son, Wavering Monarch, who emulated his sire by capturing the 1982 Haskell.
Wavering Monarch sired Maria’s Mon, the champion two-year-old colt of 1995 after convincing scores in the Futurity (G1) and Champagne (G1). Unfortunately, Maria’s Mon never got a chance to pursue the Triple Crown trail due to injury, but he sired two Kentucky Derby winners – Monarchos (2001) and Super Saver (2010).
Super Saver is out of the blueblood mare Supercharger. She is by Hall of Famer A.P. Indy, whose sire Seattle Slew and broodmare sire Secretariat were both Triple Crown legends. Supercharger herself hails from one of the most distinguished female lines in the Stud Book, tracing to *La Troienne. Supercharger’s accomplished siblings include She’s a Winner, dam of Bluegrass Cat, the 2006 Haskell hero and runner-up in the Derby, Belmont, and Travers (G1).
Runhappy has Kentucky Derby winners on his dam’s side as well. His broodmare sire, Broken Vow, is a son of 1990 Derby champion Unbridled, and out of a mare by the last English Triple Crown winner, Nijinsky II. Since Nijinsky II is by Northern Dancer, that 1964 Derby star appears a total of three times in Runhappy’s pedigree.
Smile Happy inherits more classic heft through his dam, Pleasant Smile, who is inbred to the undefeated European legend *Ribot. Her pedigree features two of his most significant sons, His Majesty and Graustark, full brothers produced by 1956 Delaware H. queen Flower Bowl. That duplication of Flower Bowl means that Pleasant Smile has a key pedigree angle of inbreeding to a superior female – the “Rasmussen Factor.”
Pleasant Smile is by Pleasant Tap, the third-placer in Unbridled’s Kentucky Derby who developed into a champion older horse. A remarkably versatile runner-up in both the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Sprint and the 1992 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) (to A.P. Indy), Pleasant Tap racked up major wins from seven furlongs to the 1 1/4 miles of the Suburban H. (G1) and Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1).
Pleasant Tap is a half-brother to 1994 Derby upsetter Go for Gin, who was also second in the Preakness and Belmont. They were produced by Never Knock, a daughter of 1968 Belmont winner Stage Door Johnny. Pleasant Tap’s sire, 1981 Kentucky Derby and Preakness champion Pleasant Colony, is himself a son of the aforementioned His Majesty.
Pleasant Smile’s dam, Relax and Smile, is by Relaunch, who has done his part to keep the sire line of the legendary Man o’ War above water. Relax and Smile is herself out of a mare by Graustark, a major Triple Crown threat in 1966 before sustaining a career-ending injury.
This maternal line, numbered 6-d, is responsible for 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness star Funny Cide. Smile Happy and Funny Cide share the same fourth dam (great-great-granddam) – Pumpkin Patch, by the great patriarch Bold Ruler, best remembered as the sire of Secretariat.
Ironically, that same family produced Funny Cide’s archrival, Empire Maker, who beat him in the Belmont. Empire Maker and Funny Cide had a fifth dam in common, Bravura, imported in utero.
Bravura’s dam, *Teretania, was an Aga Khan homebred out of his top-class filly Teresina. Named in honor of his wife Teresa, Teresina placed in the 1923 Oaks at Epsom, Coronation S. at Royal Ascot, Eclipse S., and St. Leger. The following year, Teresina beat males in the Goodwood Cup and Jockey Club S.
Aside from her female descendants, Teresina has made a lasting mark as the dam of *Alibhai, who never made it to the races but became a successful sire. His progeny include the aforementioned Flower Bowl, so Smile Happy’s maternal pedigree is deeply indebted to Teresina.
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