2022 Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Rattle N Roll

Rattle N Roll

Connect – Jazz Tune, by Johannesburg

Bred in Kentucky by St. Simon Place ($55,000 Keeneland November weanling purchase by Rexy Bloodstock; $210,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Ken McPeek)

Rattle N Roll, a Grade 1 winner as a juvenile for trainer Ken McPeek, looks to stamp his Kentucky Derby ticket in this Saturday’s Grade 2 Louisiana Derby. The colt sports a noteworthy pedigree on both sides of the page. He is by a promising young sire from a prolific classic line, and is from one of the female families skillfully cultivated by the late Edward P. Evans.

Connect is by two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, a consistent source of stamina represented by 2013 Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice, 2016 Preakness Stakes winner Exaggerator, and five other colts to place in American classic races. Curlin himself was one of two Preakness Stakes winners sired by the late leading sire Smart Strike. The other is fellow champion Lookin At Lucky, who went on to sire Country House, elevated to victory in the 2019 Kentucky Derby.

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Connect came to hand in the summer and fall of his 3-year-old season and broke through with a victory in the 2016 Pennsylvania Derby, then a Grade 2, over Gun Runner, who would go on to be the 2017 Horse of the Year. The salty field also included Derby winner Nyquist, Exaggerator, and eventual Grade 1 winners Cupid and Discreet Lover. Connect cut back in distance to end his campaign with a victory in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile.

Connect finished third on the 2021 freshman sire list. From his first crop, in addition to Rattle N Roll, he is the sire of Grade 3 Pocahontas Stakes winner Hidden Connection, who is entered in Saturday’s Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks.

Rattle N Roll is the first winner out of Jazz Tune. Bred by Evans in Virginia, her only win came in a one-mile maiden race at Parx. Her dam, the stakes-placed Pleasant Tap mare Rap and Dance, also produced Rap Tale, winner of the Brookmeade Stakes at a mile on turf.

Rap and Dance was produced by the stellar broodmare Dance Review. Her 13 winners from as many starters include Grade 1 winners Another Review and No Review and Grade 2 winner Dance Colony.

Dance Review’s daughter Promenade Colony produced Grade 2 winner Promenade Girl. She, in turn, is the dam of multiple Grade 1 winner Cavorting, whose first two starters are Grade 1 winner Clairiere and stakes winner La Crete, making that an extremely active branch of the family.

Other noteworthy performers in the extended family include Grade 1 winner and classic sire Flower Alley.