Kentucky Derby 2022 pedigree profile: Smile Happy

Smile Happy

Runhappy – Pleasant Smile, by Pleasant Tap

Bred in Kentucky by Moreau Bloodstock and White Bloodstock ($175,000 Keeneland November weanling purchase by Cooper Bloodstock; $185,000 Fasig-Tipton showcase yearling purchase by Lucky Seven Stable)

Smile Happy, who makes his 3-year-old debut in the Grade 2 Risen Star, has been the individual favorite in the Kentucky Derby Future Wager pools to date, and debuts as the favorite on Derby Watch. The colt has plenty of variety in his family; he is by a champion sprinter, but a closer look reveals plenty of distance runners and later-developing horses in his pedigree.

Runhappy earned a divisional Eclipse Award after taking the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. He was a later developer, scoring his first stakes victory in August of his 3-year-old campaign. Interestingly, his first crop has been similarly later-blooming, but his second crop has been much more precocious. The stallion was 15th on the freshman sire list of 2020, with no stakes horses that year. He was fourth on the 2021 second-crop sire list. In addition to the 3-year-old Following Sea, who came on in the second half of the year, Runhappy was represented by four stakes-winning 2-year-olds from his second crop in Smile Happy, Happy Soul, Run to Daylight, and Runup.

The differing development could be due to different books of mares bred to Runhappy. The precocity could also be coming through the extended sireline. Runhappy is by Super Saver, who won the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club as a juvenile before taking the Kentucky Derby – the same double Smile Happy will attempt. Super Saver is one of two Derby winners by champion juvenile Maria’s Mon, and has continued to pass on stamina as the sire of champion Letruska and others.

Pleasant Smile won three times, all in claiming company at Turfway Park, at distances from six furlongs to 1 1/16 miles. She is the dam of four winners from as many starters, including Wilko Run, Group 2-placed at seven furlongs in Puerto Rico and a winner at up to 1 1/16 miles.

Pleasant Smile’s dam, Relax and Smile, produced Miracle Mets, winner of the Tempe Handicap at a mile on turf, and Proud Sunset, stakes-placed at five furlongs on turf. This is the extended family of 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner and champion Funny Cide.

Broodmare sire Pleasant Tap is another late-blooming runner in this family. He was third in the 1990 Kentucky Derby but did his best work as a 5-year-old, with Grade 1 wins in the Suburban and Jockey Club Gold Cup before finishing second to A.P. Indy in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.