Dennis Albaugh, whose family owns Brody’s Cause, has announced the winner’s share will be donated to the Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) Foundation if the colt prevails Saturday in the 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
Although there are a vast number of considerations in handicapping the Kentucky Derby, one key element is determining which horses are the fastest. So let’s take a look at the probable Derby competitors by their Beyer Speed Figures, and the figure patterns they exhibit coming into the race.
Sire of horses running in the 2016 Kentucky Derby.
What do Strike the Gold, Sea Hero, and Pleasantly Perfect have in common? They all have been at stud in Turkey. While Kentucky Derby winner Strike Gold died in that country in 2011, Derby winner Sea Hero is still at stud there, as is Pleasantly Perfect.
A fair number of stallions shuttle between the Northern and Southern hemispheres during their respective breeding seasons, but few if any have done it to the degree of success achieved by More Than Ready.
Mineshaft could be forgiven if he’s starting to develop a complex. The stallion is the only Horse of the Year by the great stallion A.P. Indy and now stands directly across the aisle from his pensioned sire in the Lane’s End stallion barn. Yet one rarely hears the 2003 Horse of the Year discussed when the topic turns to A.P. Indy’s sons at stud. Most of the headline attention goes to veteran classic sire Malibu Moon or to the commercially popular champion Bernardini.
Ken Ramsey has never hesitated to support his homebred pride and joy, turf champion and leading sire Kitten’s Joy, with the lion’s share of the mares from his own broodmare band, and he has been rewarded for his faith with many high-end runners. Still, one target remains elusive. He’s brought three homebred colts by the stallion to the Kentucky Derby, with all of them running unplaced.
There is very little Giant’s Causeway hasn’t done while fashioning one of the most complete racing and breeding careers in the last two decades.
On an anecdotal basis, few things seem to get a stallion’s foals hot like sending him overseas. Such is the case with Eskendereya, who will be represented by his first Kentucky Derby starter in Mor Spirit about eight months after being sold to the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders’ Association and exported to that country to continue his stud career.
Exaggerator was part of a career year last year for young sire Curlin, as he ran with a maturity beyond his years to become a well-traveled multiple graded stakes winner. However, the best was yet to come, as the colt romped in the slop in the Santa Anita Derby to establish himself as a serious threat in the Kentucky Derby.
