Flameaway cool, calm as Derby Day approaches

The apple often doesn’t fall far from the tree, but it did with Flameaway. Trainer Mark Casse said that despite having some famously high-strung relatives, Flameaway is a laid-back horse whom he feels confident about leading through the Kentucky Derby hoopla.

Flameaway’s broodmare sire is 2000 Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus, whose antics were notorious, and his sire is Scat Daddy, whose offspring “can get a little excited sometimes, too,” Casse said.

“What’s interesting about Flameaway is if you look at his family you would think that he would have tendencies to be a little on the hyper side, but he’s far from it,” Casse said. “He doesn’t really give a hoot about anything, which is not a bad thing to have on Saturday.”

Fusaichi Pegasus, now 21, stands at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky, where Scat Daddy was also based until his death in 2015. Fusaichi Pegasus is the broodmare sire of five champions worldwide, led by Australian champion Capitalist.

“He had such a great pedigree, and sometimes it skips a generation,” Casse said. “He wasn’t a great sire, but he’s turning out to be a good broodmare sire.”