MIDWAY, Ky. – Less than a day old, the dark gray filly tottered beside her mother on stilt-like legs, a near carbon copy of her half-brother Zandon at that age in these paddocks at Airdrie Stud. Looking at Memories Prevail and her newest foal on an April morning less than three weeks before Zandon’s Kentucky Derby run, Airdrie vice president Bret Jones couldn’t help reminiscing. “I remember when Memories Prevail herself was born – she was the first Creative Cause foal born, and I’ve got a great picture of dad in the stall with her,” he recalled. “And you just have a big smile on your face when you think of those memories and what a great morning that was, and you start thinking of the promise – it doesn’t always pay off right away, the filly never made it to the racetrack, but she’s sure paying it off now. And I know how proud dad is to see this family doing what it’s doing and getting the recognition, because he always had a great belief in what that page could turn into.” The unwavering belief in the long game has brought former Kentucky Gov. Brereton C. Jones, 82, to the brink of breeding a Kentucky Derby winner, at last. Not only was Zandon – one of the Derby favorites off his win in the Blue Grass Stakes – bred, foaled, and raised at Airdrie, so too was Derby hopeful Summer Is Tomorrow. Both are by young farm stallions in Upstart and Summer Front, respectively. Upstart also is the sire of multiple graded stakes winner Kathleen O., one of the leading contenders for the Kentucky Oaks. “We’ve been lucky, over the years, to have stood some stallions that have been really important to the farm,” said Bret Jones, 41 and an official member of the Airdrie team since 2006. “But it’s been a while – since Indian Charlie and Harlan’s Holiday – that we’ve had one knocking on the door at this national level. Cairo Prince, Creative Cause, they’ve both been very good sires for us – but a Derby horse can change everything.” Brereton and Libby Jones founded Airdrie Stud in 1972 on land that once included part of the Woodburn Stud, home of the immortal Lexington. Their Airdrie colors have been carried by three Kentucky Oaks winners – Proud Spell (2008), Believe You Can (2012), and Lovely Maria (2015) – all by farm stallions, and all but Lovely Maria homebreds. But Brereton Jones has never bred a Kentucky Derby winner. His closest call came in 1983, when the farm co-bred runner-up Desert Wine with Warnerton Hall. Since then, Airdrie bred Dansil, fourth in 1989, and My Boy Jack, fifth in 2018. The farm co-bred Harry’s Holiday, 16th in 2014, with B. Ned Jones. A victory would validate the life’s work of not just the Jones family, but everyone on the farm, who will still be hard at work Kentucky Derby week, handling stallion bookings and the activity in the breeding shed, foaling out mares, caring for this spring’s arrivals, and the other meticulous tasks that are part of the day to day on a working farm. The road that led to Zandon began more than two decades ago, when Brereton Jones purchased unraced Witness Post for $15,500 out of the 2001 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, based on advice from the late Bill Graves of Fasig-Tipton. “Dad and Bill always had a great relationship, and Bill had pushed Dad to buy this mare, because what didn’t show in the catalog page was that she had a lot of talent – she was a talented filly, but she got hurt and never got to show it,” Bret Jones said. “And so dad didn’t pay a lot of money for her at the time, but he bought her with a lot of optimism because of what Bill Graves had told him.” Witness Post went on to produce Grade 2 winner Hello Liberty and stakes winner Pious Ashley, and her daughters and granddaughters are responsible for graded stakes winners Cairo Memories, Hay Dakota, and Significant Form and stakes winners Cariba, Hello Beautiful, and Hello Hot Rod. Her daughter Incarnate Memories, the dam of Cairo Memories and Cariba, also produced the unraced Memories Prevail, dam of Zandon. :: Kentucky Derby Headquarters: Get the latest news, info on contenders, past performances, picks, and more  While developing this female family, Airdrie also was continuing to build its stallion roster. Among those stallions were multiple graded stakes-winning millionaires Summer Front, by War Front, and Upstart, by A.P. Indy’s son Flatter. They entered stud in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Upstart won the Grade 2 Holy Bull Stakes at 3 and the Grade 3 Razorback Handicap at 4, and was multiple Grade 1-placed all three seasons he raced. Bret Jones said the “biggest attraction” was how late trainer Rick Violette talked about the horse. “He would tell us how much talent he had, he would tell us this is a really special horse – and you knew Rick wasn’t one to BS you for half a second, so if he said it, he meant it,” Jones said. “So that was a really important part of us continuing to pursue the horse as a stallion, even though he never did have that [Grade 1] win.” Upstart’s first crop includes Grade 3 Ohio Derby winner Masqueparade and Grade 1-placed Reinvestment Risk. His second crop includes Kathleen O. and Zandon. Zandon was foaled at Airdrie in March 2019. “He’s easy to remember, because he was always a total character around the farm,” general manager Ben Henley said. “I remember getting a phone call from one of the guys, he might have been a month, eight weeks, old, and they were worried because he was giving his mother such a hard time in the stall, jumping up on her and carrying on. So he was always a character, easy to remember. . . . And he was always one we were having to spend a little extra time on when we were hand-walking [during sale prep] because all he wanted to do was play. He was a rambunctious kind of horse that was always just up to mischief the whole time.” Some of that mischief may come honestly, as stallion manager Guy Mogge said Upstart has a strong personality. “Some days stronger than others,” Mogge said. “He’s got tons of personality.” Zandon was purchased by bloodstock agent Mike Ryan, on behalf of owner Jeff Drown, for $170,000 out of the 2020 Keeneland September yearling sale. Just more than a year later, Airdrie began getting calls from trainer Chad Brown about the colt’s potential. “Of course, you start thinking about [the future] then, but you have been down the road enough times that you also know there’s 10,000 things that can go wrong in the meantime,” Bret Jones said. “And there’s still about 4,000 of those in play before the first Saturday in May. So we’re knocking on wood and whatever else is around us.” A few stalls down from Upstart resides Summer Front. The four-time turf graded stakes winner was quietly observing as his stablemate rattled his shank in the barn aisle on an April morning. “Summer Front is probably one of the kindest stallions I’ve ever been around,” Mogge said. “He’s easy to handle – just really quiet, really kind. He’s outstanding in all aspects, in my opinion.” Summer Front is the sire of graded stakes winners Ete Indien, Fighting Seabee, and Speaktomeofsummer. Summer Is Tomorrow is out of the winning Badge of Silver mare Always Tomorrow, who was a $20,000 Keeneland January purchase by Airdrie in 2015. Summer Is Tomorrow was a $25,000 Keeneland November weanling, sold to Magna Carta Bloodstock. He was eventually purchased in France as a juvenile by current owners Michael Hilary and Negar Burke, and was most recently runner-up in the Group 2 U.A.E. Derby. “It’s an ambitious spot, but stranger things have happened,” Bret Jones said of the Derby. “If he could jump up and pull this off, it would be absolutely stratospheric for Summer Front.” Zandon and Summer Is Tomorrow are now at Churchill Downs. A thousand more right moves, plus a healthy dose of luck, will put Airdrie Stud in the record books. One wrong move means disappointment. “It’s the best time of the year because of the promise it brings, having the foals on the ground – there’s never a time in Central Kentucky more beautiful than April and May,” Bret Jones said. “You just think every day how lucky you are to be in the business.” Appreciating it more than anyone will be Airdrie patriarch Brereton Jones. “It’s already been a great success story – winning the Blue Grass was as great a Saturday as we’ve had in a very long time,” Bret Jones said. “I called him right after they crossed the finish line, and he was dancing with joy. “To me, [the Derby] would be such an incredible exclamation point on dad’s legacy in this business. He’s done it for 50 years, he’s done it the right way, and he’s done it with more passion than anybody I’ve ever known.”