Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Maximum Security

Maximum Security

New Year’s Day – Lil Indy, by Anasheed

Bred in Kentucky by Gary and Mary West

With the Kentucky Derby less than five weeks away, the final round of major prep races are essentially Win and You’re In events, awarding 100 qualifying points to the winners. A newcomer to the Derby Watch list this week is undefeated Maximum Security, who was risked for a $16,000 claiming tag in his debut, but has now punched his Kentucky Derby ticket with a victory in the Grade 1 Florida Derby. Neither the sire nor dam of Gary and Mary West’s homebred, who is from the immediate family of multiple Grade 1 winner Flat Out, resides in this country, with both having been sold within the year.

New Year’s Day, by Street Cry and out of multiple graded stakes winner and producer Justwhistledixie, was purchased as a yearling by the Wests. He won 2 of 3 starts, including the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in what turned out to be his final start, with his career ending prematurely due to injury. He entered stud at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm for the 2014 season.

Maximum Security, from his second crop of racing age, is his sixth stakes winner and first graded winner. His other top horses include Day Raider, a stakes winner at Hastings who was second in the Grade 3 Canadian Derby last year, and the winning filly Yesterday’s News, second in the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes in 2017. New Year’s Day was purchased last fall by Brazilian owner and breeder Luis Felipe Brandão dos Santos, who owns Stud Eternamente Rio, and relocated to South America.

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The Wests purchased Lil Indy, who won at distances up to a mile, for $80,000 at the 2014 Keeneland January horses of all ages sale. The mare has produced three winners from four starters. Both Coastal Highway, by New Year’s Day, and Prime Tito, by Pioneerof the Nile, have won at a mile, while Maximum Security stretched out to 1 1/8 miles to win the Florida Derby.

Lil Indy produced a colt sired by former West colorbearer Flashback in 2018 before the owners sold her for $11,000 at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale to Korean interests, carrying a full sibling to Maximum Security.

Lil Indy is out of the stakes-winning Cresta Rider mare Cresta Lil, dam of 10 winners from 11 starters, led by Flat Out, winner of two editions of the 1 1/4-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup. Flat Out was brilliant and tough enough to turn back in distance and win the Cigar Mile. Flat Out, who earned more than $3.6 million, is by the A.P. Indy horse Flatter. Anasheed, the sire of Lil Indy, also is by A.P. Indy, meaning Lil Indy is bred on the same cross.

In addition to Flat Out, Cresta Lil also produced stakes winner Our Best Man, who won at distances up to 1 1/16 miles while making 117 starts. This is the extended family of Grade 1 winners Got Koko and Tarlow.

– Nicole Russo