Derby Watch pedigree profile: Mor Spirit

Mor Spirit

Eskendereya – Im a Dixie Girl, by Dixie Union

($650,000 purchase by Bernard Schiappa and M. Petersen at 2015 Fasig-Tipton Florida sale of 2-year-olds in training)

Mor Spirit will attempt to stretch his winning streak to three graded stakes in California on Saturday in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita. A Grade 1-winning juvenile who has won three times at a mile or longer, the Pennsylvania-bred ridgling has already outrun most of his immediate family in terms of class and distance.

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Mor Spirit is out of the Dixie Union mare Im a Dixie Girl, who was a multiple stakes winner as a juvenile but never won beyond six furlongs. She is the dam of five winners from six starters. Mor Spirit is her only stakes horse, and the average winning distance of her other four winners is 6.4 furlongs. Her only other winner beyond a mile is Sheikinator, by Curlin.

Im a Dixie Girl, out of the stakes-winning Allen’s Prospect mare Im Out First, is a half-sister to stakes winner First Ascent. Im Out First is a half-sister to Evening Star, the dam of last year’s champion 3-year-old filly, Stellar Wind. Im Out First is also a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Zenith, the dam of Grade 1-winning juvenile Great Hunter, who also won the Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis.

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Mor Spirit is by Eskendereya, the 2010 Wood Memorial winner who suffered a career-ending soft-tissue injury while preparing for the Kentucky Derby, where he likely would have been favored. Mor Spirit is from the Giant’s Causeway stallion’s second crop. Eskendereya’s only other graded stakes winner is Isabella Sings, the winner of the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere Stakes on turf.