Nadal adds another Grade 1 tally for sire Blame

Blame was foaled on May 2, 2006. Exactly 14 years later – and a decade after Blame’s championship season – his son Nadal became his fifth Grade 1/Group 1 winner when capturing a division of the Arkansas Derby.

Blame, bred by Claiborne Farm and longtime partner Adele B. Dilschneider, is a product of Claiborne through and through, as he is by the farm’s late sire Arch and out of the Seeking the Gold mare Liable. Nadal also has deep Claiborne ties on both sides of his pedigree, as he is out of Ascending Angel, by the late Claiborne colorbearer Pulpit.

Now standing back home at the Hancock family’s historic farm, Blame, the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and Eclipse Award champion older male of 2010, is represented by top-level winners at a variety of distances and surfaces. His Eclipse finalist daughter Marley’s Freedom scored her biggest win in the Grade 1 Ballerina Stakes at seven furlongs, and was a multiple graded winner from six furlongs to a mile. Fault won the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on dirt, and also was a graded stakes winner on turf. Blame’s runners have indeed found a good deal of success on turf, as he also is represented by French Oaks winner Senga and Grade 1 Natalma Stakes winner Abscond.

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Nadal, bred by Sierra Farm, was a $700,000 Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream juvenile purchase and races for George Bolton, Arthur Hoyeau, Barry Lipman, and Mark Mathiesen. He has won all four of his starts and added the Arkansas Derby to Grade 2 victories in the San Vicente and the Rebel stakes.

In addition to Blame’s connection to the May 2 date of the Arkansas Derby, he has another fortuitous tie to the race. Arch’s great-granddam, champion juvenile filly Althea, set the stakes record in the 1984 edition of the race, going in 1:46 4/5.