New stallions making a mark on Kentucky Derby trail

A solid group of stallions with high hopes entered stud in 2013, lending the possibility of some new blood on this year’s Triple Crown trail. So far, the group has delivered. Four stallions have first-crop representatives in the top 20 of the Kentucky Derby point standings, with others knocking on the door.

Three-time graded stakes winner Gunnevera, who leads the points list following his victory in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, helped power Dialed In to the top of the freshman sire list last year. The colt will now attempt to emulate his young sire by winning the Florida Derby. Meanwhile, Dialed In has another hopeful in John Battaglia Memorial Stakes winner It’s Your Nickel, who will attempt to punch his Kentucky Derby ticket in the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes next month.

Dialed In stands at Darby Dan Farm alongside classic winner Shackleford, who also has a first-crop representative on the Kentucky Derby trail in Malagacy. The colt remained unbeaten in three starts by winning the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes on Saturday.

The other stallions with firstcrop runners among the top 20 based on stakes performances are Gainesway’s To Honor and Serve, the sire of State of Honor, who finished third in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis and second in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby, and Hill ‘n’ Dale’s Maclean’s Music, the sire of Grade 3 Gotham Stakes runnerup Cloud Computing.

The promising American Anthem disappointed by going unplaced in the Rebel. However, his sire, WinStar Farm’s Bodemeister, has another hopeful in Always Dreaming, a possible starter in the Florida Derby.

Juvenile champion Hansen, who stood one season in Kentucky before being exported to Korea, has sired a handful of stakes horses in his first crop, including En Hanse, who will attempt to put his affinity for Turfway Park to good use in Saturday’s Grade 3 Spiral Stakes.

Meanwhile, Union Rags and The Factor, both standing at Lane’s End, were represented by Grade 1-winning juveniles last year with Dancing Rags and Noted and Quoted, respectively. The fillies still are among the top 14 on the Kentucky Oaks leaderboard. Stakes winner Chanel’s Legacy represents Spendthrift Farm’s young Dominus.

Siblings face off in World Cup

A pair of globetrotting halfsiblings are set to meet once again on a major world stage Saturday, as Lani and Awardee contest the $10 million Dubai World Cup.

The two previously met in the Group 1 Champions Cup, formerly the Japan Cup Dirt, in December. Sound Wave defeated the favored Awardee by a neck in the prestigious event; back in ninth was Awardee’s younger halfbrother, Lani. Awardee comes into the World Cup having not raced since December, when he was second in the Group 1 Tokyo Daishoten. Lani was unplaced in a local prep this month.

Lani and Awardee are both Kentucky-born but Japanesebased. Their dam is Japanese Group 1 winner Heavenly Romance, a daughter of 1989 Horse of the Year Sunday Silence, who went on to become a breed-shaping sire in Japan.

Heavenly Romance began her broodmare career in Japan, but due to the saturation of Sunday Silence’s bloodlines in that market, her connections struggled to find the proper cross for her. It was thus decided to send her to the U.S. to be covered by prominent Kentucky stallions, with the resulting foals sent home to Japan for international racing careers.

Heavenly Romance was sent to Kentucky in foal to Japanese Horse of the Year Jungle Pocket; the resulting foal, born in 2010, was Awardee. He is a multiple Group 3 winner and had won all four of his starts last year coming into the Champions Cup.

Heavenly Romance produced the multiple stakes winner Amour Briller, by the late Smart Strike, in 2011. In 2013, she delivered Lani, by North America’s reigning leading sire, Tapit. The famously headstrong colt won last year’s Group 2 United Arab Emirates Derby in Dubai; competed in all three legs of the American Triple Crown, finishing a close third in the Belmont Stakes; and returned to Japan to finish third in the Brazil Cup at Tokyo.

Coming up next for the family, Heavenly Romance has a pair of fillies, ages 3 and 2, by Distorted Humor. After delivering an Awesome Again colt in 2016, she was bred back to Tapit for a full sibling to Lani for 2017.