Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Un Ojo

Un Ojo
Laoban – Risk a Chance, by A.P. Indy
Bred in New York by Southern Equine Stables

Un Ojo sprang a $152.80 upset in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes last Saturday to earn his debut on the Derby Watch list. However, the New York-bred gelding is from a young sireline that has already had its share of classic success, and from a classy family that has produced several dirt route stakes winners.

Un Ojo’s grandsire, juvenile champion Uncle Mo, sired fellow juvenile champion and 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist in his first crop. He has continued to be a perennially successful sire of stakes horses, and his current crop of 3-year-olds includes Grade 2 winner Mo Donegal.

Nyquist led the 2020 freshman sire list as sons of Uncle Mo dominated those rankings. Laoban checked in second on that list, with Outwork finishing fourth. Laoban, part of Uncle Mo’s cracking first crop, won his maiden in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy. Earlier in the year, he had been a player on the classic prep trail, running third in the Grade 3 Sham and second in the Grade 3 Gotham before finishing off the board in the Preakness.

Laoban, remarkably, achieved his freshman earnings success with a crop that was much smaller than that of his peers, as he stood the first four seasons of his career in New York. Unfortunately, he died last spring, partway through his first Kentucky season. Un Ojo is the late young sire’s third graded stakes winner, all around two turns on dirt. The stallion’s first crop included a pair of standouts in Simply Ravishing, winner of the Grade 1 Alcibiades; and Keepmeinmind, who won the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club after finishing second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity and third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, both behind champion Essential Quality. Keepmeinmind crossed the wire seventh in last year’s Kentucky Derby.

Risk a Chance, by prolific sire and broodmare sire A.P. Indy, won at a mile and was stakes-placed against statebreds at a mile and 70 yards. She is the dam of two winners from three starters, with Un Ojo joined by the sprinter Risky Analysis.

:: KENTUCKY DERBY 2022: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more

Un Ojo’s second dam is Seeking the Ante, a Grade 2 winner at seven furlongs who was Grade 2-placed at a mile. She is the dam of Mineralogist, a statebred stakes winner at up to 1 1/8 miles, and in turn the dam of route stakes winner Can You Diggit. Seeking the Ante’s dam is the classy Antespend, who won the Santa Ysabel and the Grade 1 double of the Las Virgenes and Santa Anita Oaks before finishing second in the Fantasy and fourth in the Kentucky Oaks. She also was a three-time graded stakes winner on turf, including the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks. Antespend is the dam of 2004 Florida Derby winner Friends Lake, by A.P. Indy.