Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
A heavy dose of Storm Cat in Ky. Derby field pedigrees
The influence of the late, great Storm Cat can’t be overstated. Five of this year’s Kentucky Derby entrants carry his blood via direct male line. One of those is Resilience, by leading sire Into Mischief, a great-grandson of Storm Cat.
The other Storm Cat line Derby horses are Domestic Product, Mystik Dan, Just a Touch, and Just Steel.
“I don’t care how far down the line you go with the Storm Cat influence, I take a great deal of pride in that,” Resilience’s co-owner Ric Waldman said. “Probably more pride because I had even something remotely to do with that. I get a great deal of pride.”
Waldman served as syndicate manager for Storm Cat from 1990 until his pensioning in 2008 at Overbrook Farm. Waldman, who also worked with stallions such as Carson City, Deputy Minister, The Minstrel, and Silver Deputy, got to know the late Marty Wygod when the owner was keen on breeding some of his mares to Storm Cat.
“Storm Cat, we were very selective – we didn’t breed stallions then like we breed them today,” Waldman said.
Waldman recalled that he was skeptical about one of Wygod’s mares, the turf stakes winner Sweet Life, when the owner first lobbied to get her in Storm Cat’s book in 2001.
“Of course, she ends up producing Sweet Catomine and Life Is Sweet, so how smart am I?” Waldman said with a smile. Champion Sweet Catomine and Life Is Sweet, both by Storm Cat and out of Sweet Life, both won Breeders’ Cup races.
Over the years, Waldman began to work as a bloodstock adviser to Wygod, and a friendship evolved from there. Wygod, who never bred or owned a
Derby starter, gifted Resilience to daughter Emily Bushnell and to Waldman – and was able to watch the colt win the Wood Memorial on April 6. He died April 11 at age 84.
“We really had great discussions, especially later in life,” Waldman said. “It developed into more of a friendship than a consultant relationship as the years progressed.”
Gun Runner, Justify have reps
Gun Runner and Justify were both brilliant on the track, earning Horse of the Year honors. For those accomplishments, they will be inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame this summer. First, though, they’ll try to add another accomplishment to the brilliant start to their respective stud careers, as both have Kentucky Derby entrants this weekend.
Gun Runner, the 2017 Horse of the Year standing at Three
Chimneys Farm, is represented by Derby second choice Sierra Leone, winner of the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes. Justify, the 2018 Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year based at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky, is the sire of Blue Grass runner-up Just a Touch, as well as Just Steel.
Gun Runner, by Candy Ride, was a 10-time graded stakes winner, with four of his six Grade 1 wins coming in his 2017 championship campaign. He got off to a smashing start as a stallion, breaking the North American freshman sire earnings record with his first 2-year-olds in 2021, led by Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and champion Echo Zulu. The following year, Early Voting emerged from that crop to give Gun Runner his first classic winner in the Preakness Stakes. Gun Runner led the second- and third-crop sire lists the past two years, and was a creditable third on the overall leading sire list in 2023. Sierra Leone is one of eight individual Grade 1 winners to date.
Justify, who did not race beyond his Triple Crown sweep, is already the sire of six Grade/ Group 1 winners internationally from his first two crops. After he checked in third on the 2022 freshman sire list, he had a stunning year in 2023, leading not only the second-crop list, but also the overall 2-yearold sire list. His runners in the United States last season were led by Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and champion Just F Y I, who runs in Friday’s Kentucky Oaks.
Pair share broodmare link
It would be virtually impossible for a broodmare to have two Kentucky Derby starters in the same year; the race is, of course, only for 3-yearolds, and surviving, thriving twins are rare in horses. But the pensioned broodmare Darling My Darling has found a way to get her name into this year’s lineup twice. Two of the mare’s daughters have foals in the race, represented by Sierra Leone and Forever Young.
Darling My Darling, now 27, was purchased by John and Debby Oxley as a yearling; she was multiple Grade 1-placed as a juvenile, and a stakes winner at 3 and 4 before joining the broodmare band at Fawn Leap Farm in Midway, Ky. The Deputy Minister mare produced seven winners from as many starters, led by Grade 1 winner Heavenly Love and Grade 2 winner Forever Darling.
Heavenly Love, who the Oxleys still own, is the dam of Sierra Leone, who was sold as a yearling for $2.3 million. Forever Darling, who resides in Japan, produced Forever Young.