Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Sole Volante

Sole Volante

Karakontie – Light Blow, by Kingmambo

Bred in Kentucky by Flaxman Holdings ($6,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by New Hope AB; $20,000 OBS April juvenile purchase by Patrick Biancone, agent)

There are always surprises along the Kentucky Derby trail – and this year’s Derby Watch coverage kicks off fresh with one of those. Sole Volante, whose pedigree is full of stamina and class, but little obvious dirt form, earned his way onto the initial top 20 list with a $13.60 upset in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

Sole Volante is from the first crop of French classic winner and Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Karakontie, whose other two first-crop stakes winners have come on turf. Karakontie is by the late Storm Cat horse Bernstein, whose best runner was two-time champion turf mare Tepin. Bernstein, from the immediate family of versatile sire Sky Mesa, sired prominent performers on dirt, turf, and synthetic.

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Karakontie is out of Sun Is Up, who has both dirt and turf in her pedigree, as a daughter of dual American classic winner and breed-shaping Japanese sire Sunday Silence. She is a granddaughter, through direct female line, of two-time Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Miesque, who went on to be an influential broodmare.

Miesque appears close in the pedigree of Sole Volante’s dam, Light Blow, who is by Miesque’s classic-winning son Kingmambo. He was the sire of top-flight performers worldwide, with his most prominent runner on dirt the classic winner and champion Lemon Drop Kid.

Light Blow, a winner at 1 7/8 miles on turf, is the dam of dirt stakes winner Explode and British stakes performer Light of Joy. Explode was elevated to first by a disqualification in the Grade 3 Canadian Derby at 1 1/4 miles on dirt.

Light Blow is a full sister to Epsom Oaks winner Light Shift, dam of multiple Group 1 winner Ulysses. Light Blow and Light Shift are half-sisters to Irish Group 1 winner and stakes producer Shiva and to French Group 2 winner Limnos. This is the extended family of champion turf male Main Sequence and French Oaks winner Northern Trick.

You have to go under Light Blow’s third dam, Trick Chick, in order to find high-class dirt ability. Trick Chick was a half-sister to Kentucky Oaks winner White Star Line and produced Jockey Club Gold Cup winner On the Sly.