Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Art Collector
Art Collector
Bernardini – Distorted Legacy, by Distorted Humor
Bred in Kentucky by W. Bruce Lunsford
Blue Grass Stakes winner Art Collector had more than enough skill to paint himself into this year’s classics picture, as his pedigree is rife with stamina influences on both sides of the frame.
Champion Bernardini, a son of stamina influence A.P. Indy, won five graded stakes beyond a mile in 2006, highlighted by a classic score in the Preakness Stakes and additional Grade 1 victories in the Travers Stakes and Jockey Club Gold Cup, both at 1 1/4 miles. He has continued to pass along that stamina. His best sons include fellow Travers winners Stay Thirsty and Alpha. Stay Thirsty also was second in the 2011 Belmont Stakes.
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Distorted Legacy won the Sky Beauty Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on dirt and was multiple graded stakes-placed routing on turf, highlighted by a runner-up effort to champion Stacelita in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational at 1 1/4 miles. She was subsequently beaten less than a length when fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
Distorted Legacy, out of 1994 Ashland Stakes runner-up Bunting, is a half-sister to millionaire Vision and Verse, who won the Grade 2 Illinois Derby before finishing a close second to Lemon Drop Kid in the 1999 Belmont and Travers Stakes. This is the extended family of Eclipse Award champion Yanks Music, Canadian champion Ginger Brew, Grade 1 winner Hatchet Man, and speedy graded stakes winner and sire Stop the Music.
Distorted Humor has emerged as one of the nation’s leading active broodmare sires, with his daughters producing Eclipse Award champion and leading money winner Arrogate; multiple Grade 1 winner and young classic sire Constitution; New Money Honey, winner of the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and 2017 Belmont Oaks; and additional Grade 1 winners Book Review, Carrick, Elate, Guarana, Molly Morgan, Practical Joke, and Takaful.