Hovdey: Kentuckian late to the party

American Pharoah need not run another yard in the afternoon to secure his place in history. That story has been gloriously told, and the buzz of his Triple Crown triumph still lingers.

Then again, the greedy devils among us demand to see more and more American Pharoah. If it happens, fabulous, but until then, we must be content with drumming up support for any opposition that would at least make Pharoah’s life a little more interesting.

On Saturday at Belmont Park, one of the highlights of the Independence Day program will be the return of Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Texas Red in the $500,000 Dwyer Stakes. Texas Red – named for a gunfighter in “Big Iron” by Marty Robbins – lost the 2-year-old championship by 15 votes, 126-111, to American Pharoah. The Dwyer, at a one-turn mile, will tell us if he’s got any shot to eventually settle that score.

Out West, all eyes will turn to the $350,000 Los Alamitos Derby and the appearance of Fox Hill Farm’s Kentuckian, the impressive winner of the seven-furlong Lazaro Barrera Stakes last time out.

Fans of a certain age (mine) will recall an earlier Kentuckian who had a good year on the California turf in 1973, when he won the San Gabriel and the American and was placed first on a disqualification in the Carleton F. Burke. Since Kentuckian was not a champion and sired nothing of note, his name went back into circulation and was available when it came time for owner Rick Porter to name his $610,000 yearling purchase. The Los Alamitos Derby will be Kentuckian’s fourth start for Jerry Hollendorfer.

“He had a problem early in his 2-year-old year, and then earlier this year his feet were bothering him,” Hollendorfer said. “We took him up to Golden Gate to see if we could work on that a little, and he responded.”

Kentuckian won his first start by 11 lengths at Golden Gate Fields on the same afternoon that Hollendorfer was down south winning the Santa Anita Handicap with Shared Belief.

“When he came back to Santa Anita, he never got the same problem,” Hollendorfer said. “So, we’ve been pointing for this race for some time, and we’re anxious to see how he does.”

In years past, there have been a few 3-year-olds who arrived late on the scene and ended up stealing the show. By Jimminy skirted the 1944 classics and won the title. Ditto Kelso, who didn’t even begin work at age 3 until June 1960. Wajima missed the 1975 Triple Crown but later beat Foolish Pleasure and Forego twice each, and that was enough to make him a champion.

Then there was Tiznow, the sire of Kentuckian, who missed all the excitement in the spring of 2000. He went on to make plenty of his own by winning the Super Derby and beating all comers in the Goodwood and the Breeders’ Cup Classic. For his trouble, he was voted Horse of the Year.

Of course, none of the above had a Triple Crown winner roaming the land, which made a path to a championship considerably smoother. By the time Tiznow was ready to make his fourth start for trainer Jay Robbins on July 1, 2000, in the Affirmed Handicap at Hollywood Park, the Triple Crown races had gone to three different horses. Tiznow won the Affirmed by a neck, beating subsequent Haskell Invitational winner Dixie Union.

The good folks at Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings – that’s you, Barbara Banke – could have been trying for nothing less than the second coming of Tiznow when they concocted the parentage of Kentuckian. This was not as easy as it sounds.

Cee’s Song, the dam of Tiznow, died in 2011 at the age of 25, while Cee’s Tizzy, Tiznow’s sire, was pensioned from his stallion duties in 2010. Now 28, he lives a life of crotchety leisure in a paddock at Harris Farms in central California.

To manufacture an updated version of Tiznow, Stonestreet started with Tiznow himself. He was available at WinStar Farm in Kentucky, where he has stood since his retirement at the end of 2001.

After that, they had to get creative. Cee’s Song was by Seattle Song, a standout from Seattle Slew’s second crop who was good enough to win the seven-furlong Prix de la Salamandre in France as a 2-year-old and the 1 1/2-mile Washington, D.C. International in the U.S. one year later.

Seattle Song’s dam was Incantation, by Prince Blessed, who was 16 at the time of his birth. Ten years earlier, in 1971, Incantation had delivered a foal by Lucky Mel, eventually named Lucky Spell and trained to great success by Henry Moreno. Lucky Spell followed Incantation into the broodmare business, and in 1983, she foaled a Caro filly named Trolley Song, who in turn became the dam of Unbridled’s Song, the champion U.S. 2-year-old of 1995.

For the purposes of this discussion, though, it is more significant that Unbridled’s Song went to stud and sired Forest Music, and that Forest Music is the dam of Kentuckian. Or, to put it bluntly, to get Kentuckian, they bred Tiznow to the great-great-granddaughter of his own great-grandmother. But don’t fret. In the Thoroughbred gene pool, it’s all Hatfields and McCoys.

“I’ve got another Tiznow who’s a big, dark bay,” Hollendorfer said. “Kentuckian is gray and not as big as my other Tiznow but bigger than medium size.”

At this point, the trainer grew tired of facile comparisons. Kentuckian is on his own hook as a racehorse, whatever his heritage.

“All I know is he can run,” Hollendorfer said.