Kentucky Derby pedigree profiles: Carpe Diem

Carpe Diem
Giant’s Causeway – Rebridled Dreams, by Unbridled’s Song
(Bred in Kentucky by Coffee Pot Stable; $1.6 million purchase by Stonestreet Stables at 2014 OBS March sale of 2-year-olds in training)

Blue Grass Stakes heavy favorite Carpe Diem brings a strong résumé into his final prep for the Kentucky Derby, having never finished worse than second and sporting a pair of graded stakes victories around two turns. Continued success would be no surprise for WinStar Farm’s and Stonestreet Stables’s colt, who gets high-class routing ability from the top half of his pedigree and dirt ability from the bottom.

Carpe Diem is out of the Unbridled’s Song mare Rebridled Dreams, who finished third in the Grade 2 Silverbulletday Stakes as a 3-year-old and later that season won the Money Penny Stakes, both at 1 1/16 miles. The mare is the dam of five winners from six starters, but only two of those have won around two turns – Carpe Diem and J. B.’s Thunder, who won the 2010 Breeders’ Futurity. Of her other foals, multiple stakes winner Doncaster Rover had a maximum winning distance of seven furlongs, while Dreamwriter and Moojab won at six furlongs.

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Rebridled Dreams could cover a route of ground on dirt herself, so the difference maker in her produce record may come from the stallion. J. B.’s Thunder is by classic winner and sire Thunder Gulch. Carpe Diem is by perennial leading sire Giant’s Causeway, who has yet to sire an American classic winner, with his best finish in the Triple Crown series a third by Creative Cause in the 2012 Preakness Stakes. However, that may be just a matter of time, as his top runners have shown the distance aptitude needed – albeit, with some of that success coming on turf. Giant’s Causeway is the sire of European classic winner Shamardal and Canadian classic winner Irish Mission. More recently, his first Eclipse Award champion, Take Charge Brandi, won four consecutive stakes at a mile or longer to establish herself atop her class before being sidelined by injury.

Rebridled Dreams is out of the Corridor Key mare Key Cents, who won going a mile but posted her biggest victory in the Iroquois Handicap at seven furlongs. She is the dam of five winners from seven starters, including the stakes-placed sprinter Stormin Brigade.

Broodmare sire Unbridled’s Song is well represented on this year’s Triple Crown trail; in addition to Carpe Diem, Wood Memorial contender El Kabeir is out of the late sire’s unraced daughter Great Venue. Nicking Giant’s Causeway over an Unbridled’s Song mare has proven productive in the past, as it is also responsible for Hold Me Back, a graded stakes winner up to 1 1/4 miles on synthetic, and Bow Bells, a stakes winner at 1 1/8 miles on turf.