Kentucky Derby pedigree analysis: Game Winner

Game WinnerCandy Ride-Indyan Giving, by A.P. Indy

Bred in Kentucky by Summer Wind Farm ($110,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Ben Glass, agent)

Game Winner is the fifth Eclipse Award champion 2-year-old male trained by Bob Baffert, joining Vindication (2002), Midshipman (2008), Lookin At Lucky (2009), and American Pharoah (2014). American Pharoah, of course, went on to sweep the 2015 Triple Crown, while Lookin At Lucky won the 2010 Preakness. Game Winner has the genetics to back him up in his own quest to pick up some additional accolades, as champions with proven classic distance abilities are seen on both sides of his pedigree.

Game Winner is the latest champion sired by Candy Ride, who set a Del Mar track record going 1 1/4 miles in the Pacific Classic, and who has passed distance ability on to his offspring. Horse of the Year Gun Runner and Eclipse Award champion Shared Belief were both Grade 1 winners at 1 1/4 miles, as was Santa Anita Handicap winner Misremembered.

Game Winner is out of the unraced A.P. Indy mare Indyan Giving, whose dam is champion older female Fleet Indian. Fleet Indian won the Delaware Handicap, then a Grade 2 event, at 1 1/4 miles, and won six other stakes at 1 1/8 miles, including Grade 1 triumphs in the Personal Ensign and Beldame stakes. Fleet Indian produced only four foals before her death, but those included stakes-placed Fleet of Gold, a winner at a mile.

The legendary A.P. Indy, a stamina influence and a prominent broodmare sire, is well represented on the Triple Crown trail. The 10 nominees out of his daughters also include Baffert’s unbeaten Grade 1 winner Improbable, impressive recent optional-claiming winner Global Campaign, and Grade 1-placed Standard Deviation, who was second to Global Campaign last out.