Making Connections

   At this point along the derby trail there are so many new names and new stories to follow. As I try to absorb as many of the names as possible from this new crop of three year-olds, I look for familiar connections to help me sort out who is who. I look for familiar trainers, trainer-jockey combos and Canadian connections. I also look at bloodlines - not because I’m a pedigree analyst, but because these names are familiar to me from years following the sport of horse racing. I definitely have my favourite sires and I’m always excited to see their newest progeny competing and carrying on the bloodline.

   This year I’m quite taken with the number of Bernardini offspring appearing in the earliest of the Kentucky Derby preps. In my last blog entry I mentioned a horse called Hansen who was heavily favoured to win the Holy Bull. As it turns out he was beaten quite handily by Algorithms, a son of Bernardini. Algorithms certainly looked the part and likely turned many heads when he appeared in the post parade. The Holy Bull was run in the slop so perhaps it’s still too early to write off the chances of Hansen (maybe his fadder wasn’t a mudder). Then yesterday the Withers Stakes were run at Aqueduct and I was intrigued to see Alpha (another son of Bernardini) competing. In 2006 the Withers Stakes was won by Bernardini himself and this year his offspring won with ease. After watching this race I looked at the nominations for the Triple Crown and there are seven Bernardini offspring entered this year.

   This is only Bernardini’s second crop of three year-olds to compete on the derby trail. Will his offspring continue to do well in their derby preps and will they be able to handle the one and a quarter mile distance of the Derby? Bernardini himself never made it to the big race. A lung infection set him back in his training and he simply wasn’t ready to compete on the first Saturday in May. He did go on to win the Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown, and at the end of the season he took the Eclipse Award for Top Three Year-Old Male. Worth more as a sire than as a racehorse (a sad reality in this industry), he was retired at the end of his three year-old season and he now commands a stud fee of $150 000. He’s become the hottest sire out there with 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta expecting his foal in March. Now the connections of both Rachel Alexandra (2009 Horse of the Year) and Blind Luck (2010 Champion Three Year-Old Filly) have decided to match up their champions with Bernardini in this year’s breeding season. As an interesting side note, with only five fillies ever having won this race, the match up of Rachel Alexandra and Bernardini will likely be the first mating of two Preakness winners.

   So this year I will be following the Bernardinis as they continue in their training but I’m also taken with a horse called Battle Hardened. Once again it’s the sire connection grabbing my attention. This maiden horse won yesterday’s Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. I loved watching Giant’s Causeway run in his racedays and I would love to see one of his progeny go on to win the Kentucky Derby. Creative Cause is another exciting derby hopeful sired by Giant’s Causeway. In closing, I can’t miss mention of my favourite sire with a Canadian connection: Langfuhr. Checking the list of this year’s nominees I must admit I got a wee bit excited by the number sired by Langfuhr and the even greater number sired by his son Lawyer Ron. Maybe next week I’ll have a derby trail breakthrough story with a Langfuhr connection to share?

Giant's Causeway