Kentucky Oaks: Untapable’s pedigree a Winchell tapestry

Even-money favorite Untapable proved emphatically that she is the best of her class in the Kentucky Oaks on Friday, and gave the Winchell family, long a major presence in American racing, its second Kentucky Oaks win after Summerly in 2005.

Through three generations, Untapable’s pedigree is comprised of nearly undiluted Winchell stock. The 3-year-old filly is a daughter of Gainesway stallion Tapit, a Winchell-owned star of the mid-2000s who took the 2004 Wood Memorial and in recent years has become one of the most successful commercial sires in North America. Untapable’s dam, the Prized mare Fun House, was bred and campaigned by the late Verne Winchell and won the Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes at Santa Anita in 2004. Fun House is also the dam of 2010 Secretariat Stakes winner and Kentucky Derby third-place finisher Paddy O’ Prado, by El Prado, who was bred by the Winchells.

Three close relatives are graded stakes winners: 1991 Grade 1 Hollywood Derby winner Olympio, also a multiple Grade 2 winner and later a sire; 2001 Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes winner Early Flyer, and 1994 Grade 2 Del Mar Debutante winner Call Now. All three of those runners were also bred and campaigned by Verne Winchell, who founded the ubiquitous Winchell’s Donuts chain in 1948 and managed the family’s Thoroughbred operation to much success until his death in 2002. His son, Ron Winchell, now oversees the family’s horse business.

Fun House has produced two other Winchell-bred winners – her first foal Wild Chant, by War Chant; and the Tapit-sired Double Tapped – in addition to Untapable and Paddy O’ Prado, who now stands at Spendthrift Farm. The mare is also the dam of a 2-year-old Tapit filly, Time to Tap, of a yearling Tapit colt, and of a Tapit filly foaled on April 4.

David Fiske, farm manager for Winchell Thoroughbreds, said Friday that Fun House had been sent to Antony Beck’s Gainesway the morning of the Oaks to be bred back to Tapit.

Verne Winchell also bred and campaigned Untapable’s second dam, the winning Classic Go Go mare Bistra, and campaigned Untapable’s third dam, winner Carols Christmas, by Whitesburg. Verne Winchell claimed Carols Christmas during the early 1980s.

This female family tree extends to another notable recent Winchell homebred - 2012 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner and current Gainesway stallion Tapizar. Grade 1 winners Pyro and Cuvee are other prominent names in an extended pedigree full of black type.