Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Kingsbarns

Kingsbarns

Uncle Mo – Lady Tapit, by Tapit

Bred in Kentucky by Parks Investment Group ($250,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling purchase by Tom McCrocklin; $800,000 Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream 2-year-old purchase by Spendthrift Farm)

Trainer Todd Pletcher’s Kentucky Derby hopefuls have all gathered at Churchill Downs this week. Among his major prep winners, along with the previously analyzed Forte and Tapit Trice, is unbeaten Louisiana Derby winner Kingsbarns. The colt’s sale history, with his price more than tripling from a yearling to a juvenile, suggests he developed well as he grew up. His rapid progression through the racing ranks, from an unraced juvenile to an unbeaten Derby candidate, suggests that development has continued. And his pedigree, combining two classic sires, suggests that additional progression and distance is within his wheelhouse.

Eclipse Award champion juvenile Uncle Mo has gotten off to a flying start as a classic sire in the first decade of his stud career. His first crop was led by champion Nyquist, the 2016 Kentucky Derby winner. Last year, his son Mo Donegal bounced back from a troubled Derby trip to win the Belmont Stakes. Uncle Mo and Mo Donegal were both trained by Pletcher, as is Kingsbarns.

:: DRF Kentucky Derby Package: Save on PPs, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more.

Tapit is the sire of four Belmont Stakes winners, the most in the modern era of the longest American classic. As a broodmare sire, his daughters have produced 93 stakes winners through April 15. Those include U.S. Grade 1 winners Cody’s Wish, Halladay, Harvey’s Lil Goil, Lexitonian, Society, and Tripoli.

Kingsbarns is the first winner from two starters out of Lady Tapit, who got her only win at a mile on dirt. She crossed the line fourth in a series of graded stakes routes on dirt in California; among those efforts, she was promoted to third in the Grade 3 Adoration on a disqualification.

The mare is a half-sister to Grade 1-winning turf router Gozzip Girl.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.