2024 Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Hades

Hades
Gelding by Awesome Slew – The Shady Lady, by Quality Road
Bred in Florida by Ocala Stud, Joseph M. O’Farrell III, David O’Farrell, et al ($130,000 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. spring 2-year-old purchase by D. J. Stable)

The Kentucky Derby, which celebrates its 150th running this year, has produced its share of surprises over the decades. Hades delivered one of the first big surprises of this season, upsetting divisional champion Fierceness in the Grade 3 Holy Bull. The Florida-bred gelding – whose sire and dam were both also bred in the Sunshine State – is 30-1 as the Daily Racing Form Derby Watch Top 20 debuts.

Awesome Slew is by classic sire Awesome Again, whose sons at stud include the successful Ghostzapper. Racing as a homebred for Charlotte Weber’s Live Oak, Awesome Slew earned more than $1.2 million while making 23 starts over four seasons, doing his best work at elongated sprints and middle distances. He earned his first graded stakes win in the Grade 3 Smarty Jones at Parx Racing going 1 1/16 miles as a 3-year-old; the following year, he won the Grade 3 Commonwealth at seven furlongs and Grade 3 Ack Ack at a mile. He earned 10 career stakes placings, including runner-up efforts in the Grade 1 Forego and Grade 1 Carter, both at seven furlongs, and a third in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.

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Awesome Slew was a solid second on the 2022 Florida freshman sire list to the breakout Girvin, who has since moved to Kentucky. Along with Hades, who is now unbeaten in three starts, each increasing in distance to the 1 1/16 miles of the Holy Bull, his top runner is Awesome Strong, who swept three Florida Sire Series stakes in 2022 at distances from six furlongs to 1 1/16 miles.

Unraced The Shady Lady, by classic sire Quality Road, is the dam of four winners from as many starters, also including Devious Dame, a stakes-winning sprinter at 2. The Shady Lady is a half-sister to Chary and Courtesan, both stakes-winning routers on turf.

The Shady Lady’s granddam is Grade 1 Alabama winner Pretty Discreet, dam of Grade 1 Cigar Mile winner Discreet Cat and Grade 1 King’s Bishop winner Discreetly Mine. Standouts in the family include Grade 1-winning router Awesome Maria.

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