Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Dornoch

Dornoch

Colt by Good Magic – Puca, by Big Brown

Bred in Kentucky by Grandview Equine ($325,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Oracle Bloodstock)

Success by Dornoch, a full brother to 2023 Kentucky Derby winner Mage, in this spring’s historic 150th Derby would make history. Officially, Into Mischief, one of 20 stallions to sire multiple Derby winners, is the first sire to win the classic back-to-back, with Authentic (2020) followed by Mandaloun (2021), who was promoted via disqualification. However, Good Magic would be the first stallion to sire back-to-back, outright winners who crossed the wire first. Additionally, Puca would be the first mare ever to produce two Derby winners. The closest one has come in recent years was when Mining My Own produced winner Mine That Bird (2009) and third-place Dullahan (2012).

Both Good Magic and Puca were active on the road to American spring classics. Good Magic, the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and divisional Eclipse Award champion, won the 2018 Blue Grass Stakes to make himself one of the favorites for the Kentucky Derby. After finishing a strong second to Triple Crown winner Justify, he added another Grade 1 to his résumé in that summer’s Haskell Invitational.

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Good Magic, by two-time Horse of the Year and prominent stamina source Curlin, is the sire of 17 stakes winners to date from his first two crops. In addition to Mage, he has sired Grade 1 winner Blazing Sevens, a close second in last year’s Preakness Stakes; Grade 1 winner Muth; and graded stakes winners Curly Jack, Dubyuhnell, How Did He Do That, and Reincarnate.

Puca finished second in the Grade 2 Gazelle Stakes before running 12th in the 2015 Kentucky Oaks. She was a stakes winner at Suffolk Downs later in her career and retired with four wins from 17 starts. As a broodmare, she has been quick out of the gate. Her first foal was the multiple stakes-placed Gunning; her second was Mage, who, in addition to his Kentucky Derby win, was second in the Florida Derby and third in both the Preakness and Haskell; and her third foal is Dornoch, who won the Grade 2 Remsen in his 2-year-old finale.

Puca is out of stakes-placed Boat’s Ghost, also the dam of turf Grade 1 winner Finnegans Wake.

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