There were four graded stakes offering Road to the Kentucky Derby (G1) qualifying points Saturday, Feb. 3. The most impressive winner of the quartet of contests was Nysos , who because of the ongoing and well-documented situation between his trainer, Bob Baffert, and CDI won’t be seen at Churchill Downs.
By champion 2-year-old male and Kentucky Derby victor Nyquist out of a Bernardini mare, whose second dam, Unbridled Elaine , won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1), Nysos has a very commercial pedigree. That, however, can’t be said for the pedigrees of the weekend’s other three Derby points race winners. In fact, in the year they were conceived, the stud fees for their sires—Goldencents , Awesome Slew , and Social Inclusion —combined would have been less than the $40,000 asked for Nyquist that season.
Goldencents was represented by Mystik Dan , who appeared to relish the muddy track when taking the $800,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) by eight lengths for his second win in five starts. Goldencents himself earned a crack at the Kentucky Derby after taking the Santa Anta Derby (G1). He finished only 17th at Churchill Downs and subsequently proved better at shorter distances, notably taking back-to-back editions of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1). From the first crop of Into Mischief , Goldencents was represented by millionaires By My Standards and Mr. Money in his own first crop, and his 27 stakes winners also include the grade 1-winning filly Going to Vegas.
Mystik Dan is out of the durable Colonel John mare Ma’am, a winner of 4 of 23 starts, and nearly $170,000. Her dam, Lady Siphonica, is a sister to Siphonic, one of the best of his crop at 2 in 2001, when he took the Hollywood Futurity (G1) and Breeders’ Futurity (G2), and finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1). Siphonica is also half sister to Rose of Summer, dam of the Hollywood Starlet (G1) captress Laragh , and millionaire and sire Summer Front . The family goes back to Mystik Dan’s sixth dam, Prides Profile, ancestress of more than 40 stakes winners, eight grade 1, including Danger’s Hour, Smooth Like Strait, Moonshine Mullin, Teddy’s Promise, and Let Faith Arise, with other descendants including noted speed sire Carson City.
Mystik Dan is the product of the Into Mischief/Tiznow cross that has produced six stakes winners, including Mr. Money for Goldencents, and champion 2-year-old filly Wonder Wheel , grade 1 winner Played Hard , and graded stakes winner Comical (out of a sister to Mystik Dan’s broodmare sire, Colonel John) for Into Mischief.
Awesome Slew’s scorer was Hades , who took his record to 3-for-3 in the Holy Bull Stakes (G3) with a front-end win. He turned back a challenge from last year’s champion 2-year-old male, Fierceness , who eventually dropped back to third, and drew off to score by two lengths.
Hades won the Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park
A son of the Deputy Minister horse Awesome Again, Awesome Slew won the Smarty Jones Stakes (G3) at 3, and was a high-class sprinter/miler at 4 and 5 when he won or placed in 11 more black-type events, 10 of them graded. The wins came in the Commonwealth (G3) and Ack Ack (G3) stakes, and among the places were seconds in the Forego Stakes (G1) and Carter Handicap (G1). Retired to Ocala Stud Farm for the 2019 breeding season. Hades is from Awesome Slew’s second crop, and he is also sire of multiple stakes winner Awesome Strong in his first crop.
Hades’ dam, the unraced Quality Road mare The Shady Lady, is dam of four winners from her first four foals, including the Astoria Stakes scorer Devious Dame . She is half sister to stakes winner Chary, the stakes winning and graded placed Courtesan, and to Lady Carlotta (dam of stakes winner Broadway Run). Third dam Pretty Discreet went wire-to-wire to take a sloppy renewal of the Alabama Stakes (G1) by eight lengths, at odds of 42.75-1. She went on to become an extremely successful broodmare, producing three stakes winners, including the brilliant Discreet Cat, who took the Cigar Mile (G1), and the King’s Bishop Stakes (G1) scorer Discreetly Mine. She is also dam of the unraced Discreetly Awesome (by Hades’ grandsire, Awesome Again), the dam of the Ogden Phipps Handicap (G1) winner Awesome Maria, and granddam of Cairo Consort , champion 2-year-old filly in Canada in 2022.
Hades is the second stakes winner from just four starters by sons of Awesome Again out of mares by Quality Road. The broader Awesome Again/Gone West cross has been represented by champion 2-year-old Filly Awesome Feather.
Third of the relatively inexpensively sired Derby trial winners is Uncle Heavy , whose late charge saw him take the Withers Stakes (G3) by a nose. His sire, Social Inclusion, came from the first crop of Pioneerof the Nile. He never won a black-type race, but in a career limited by injury to nine starts (with three different trainers) over two seasons, there was a sprinkling of brilliant performance. He broke his maiden at Gulfstream Park by 7 1/2 lengths, and returned to win a 1 1/16-mile allowance event at the same venue, scoring by 10 lengths from Honor Code , setting a track record and running a 110 Beyer Speed Figure. Third in the Preakness Stakes (G1) and Woody Stephens Stakes (G1), Social Inclusion won only one more race, an allowance at Parx Racing that he took by 11 3/4 lengths while earning a 106 Beyer.
Retired to Woodford Thoroughbreds, Florida, in 2017, Social Inclusion moved to Diamond B Farm, near Mohrsville, Penn., for 2019, and is now standing privately at Briardale Farm, near Belleview, Fla. He has 126 foals from his first four crops, 83 starters, and five stakes winners. Out of the winning Tiz Wonderful mare Expect Wonderful, Uncle Heavy is the only black-type winner under his first three dams. The sixth dam, Prodana Neviesta, won the Diana Handicap (G2) and is ancestress of 45 stakes winners, including the grade 1-winning Magnificent Song.
Uncle Heavy is the second stakes winner for his sire out of a mare by a son of Tiznow. The fourth generation of his pedigree features Empire Maker and Quiet American, sons of Fappiano with significant pedigree similarities.
