2023 Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Practical Move

Practical Move

Practical Joke – Ack Naughty, by Afleet Alex

Bred in Kentucky by Chad Brown and Head of Plains Partners ($230,000 OBS April 2-year-old purchase by Pierre Amestoy, Leslie Amestoy, and Roger Beasley)

Practical Move is the biggest mover on this week’s Derby Watch Top 20, climbing up the list with his victory in the Grade 2 San Felipe last Saturday. He was part of a strong day for Practical Joke, a son of record-setting leading sire and classic sire Into Mischief.

Practical Joke was a multiple Grade 1 winner around one turn, with the heart to carry his abilities to creditable placings in two-turn events. He won the Grade 1 Hopeful and Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial at seven furlongs, and the Grade 1 Champagne and Grade 3 Dwyer at a one-turn mile. His five graded stakes placings included a third, beaten less than a length, in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational in his closest finish around two turns.

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Practical Joke has emerged as a solid member of his sire class, finishing second to the record-setting Gun Runner on both the 2021 freshman list and 2022 second-crop list. He is a very close second to Gun Runner after a strong Saturday, led by Practical Move, who scored his second Grade 2 win around two turns. Practical Joke also was represented by Shidabhuti, who remained unbeaten with a win in the one-mile Busher, a Kentucky Oaks points race, and Little Vic, who captured the Grade 3 Tom Fool at six furlongs.

Overall, Practical Joke is the sire of 19 stakes winners. His first Grade 1 winner in the United States was Chocolate Gelato, who won last fall’s Grade 1 Frizette. Wit, a multiple graded stakes-winning dirt sprinter, is a stakes winner at a mile on turf and was third, beaten less than a length, in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at 1 1/8 miles.

Practical Move is the second foal, and first starter, out of Ack Naughty, who was multiple stakes-placed on turf in New York at up to 1 1/8 miles. Ack Naughty is out of Dash for Money, who was Grade 3-placed at seven furlongs.

Dash for Money is the dam of stakes winners So Lonesome and No Spin. This is the extended family of 2019 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and champion Vino Rosso, as well as multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Commissioner, who was a close second in the 2014 Belmont Stakes.

Dual classic winner Afleet Alex is the broodmare sire of 25 stakes winners, including 2019 Belmont winner Sir Winston and 2021 Wood Memorial winner Bourbonic.

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