Puca is looking to make Kentucky Derby history when her son Dornoch starts in next Saturday’s spring classic. In a century and a half, no broodmare has ever produced multiple winners of the race. Puca, the dam of 2023 Kentucky Derby winner Mage, makes the attempt with that colt’s full brother. “We’re talking against the odds here,” said Robert Clay, who bred both Mage and Dornoch in the name of Grandview Equine before selling Puca to John Stewart’s Resolute Farm last fall. “It would just be unbelievable. It would be incredible. It would be a great thrill for us.” Since 1999, three broodmares, in addition to Puca, have produced a Derby winner and then another starter in the race. Bali Babe, dam of 1999 dual classic winner Charismatic, had Blue Grass winner Millennium Wind in the Derby two years later; he finished 11th. Set Them Free produced 2005 upset Derby winner Giacomo, who was third in the Preakness and seventh in the Belmont. His younger half-brother Tiago, winner of the 2007 Santa Anita Derby, finished seventh in Kentucky and third in the Belmont. Most recently, Mining My Own came closest to the double. Mine That Bird upset the 2009 Derby, was second in the Preakness, and was third in the Belmont. Half-brother Dullahan was a creditable third in the 2009 Derby before finishing seventh in the Belmont. :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2024: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more Since 1990, two mares have produced multiple American classic winners. Weekend Surprise was the dam of 1990 Preakness winner Summer Squall and 1992 Belmont winner A.P. Indy. Better Than Honour produced back-to-back Belmont Stakes winners, with 2006 victor Jazil followed by the filly Rags to Riches. Owning a mare who could join that company would be a major coup for Stewart, who has emerged as a major player in the bloodstock marketplace starting last fall, as he seeks to build a full-scale racing and breeding operation. Stewart will have two rooting interests in this year’s Kentucky Derby – watching his mare Puca’s son run against Just a Touch, who he owns in partnership with Qatar Racing and Marc Detampel. “We’re thrilled to be a part of the Derby this year,” Resolute’s breeding director Chelsey Stone said. “It’s kind of crazy to think this quickly we’d be sitting where we are now.” Puca, by Big Brown, was bred on a foal share by Jerry Crawford and Big Brown’s late co-owner Paul Pompa Jr., and was raced by Crawford’s Donegal Racing. The mare, whose name is Gaelic for “ghost,” finished second in the Grade 2 Gazelle Stakes before running 12th in the 2015 Kentucky Oaks. She later won the 2017 Steve Pini Memorial Stakes at Suffolk Downs, and retired with four wins from 17 starts. Grandview Equine, an investment portfolio group launched by Three Chimneys Farm founder Clay, purchased Puca for $475,000, carrying her first foal, by Gun Runner, at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale. She was intended for the first book of classic-placed champion Good Magic, entering stud in 2019 at Hill ‘n’ Dale, as Grandview had multiple shares in the young horse. “She’s a lovely, big, strong mare – she fit a lot of horses,” Clay said. “She fit [Good Magic] well physically – she fit him on the pedigree side.” After delivering her Gun Runner filly in the spring of 2018, Puca was bred to Good Magic in back-to-back years, delivering a pair of colts at Runnymede Farm in Paris, Ky., where she was boarded. Gunning, that Gun Runner filly, began to elevate the family, as she was stakes-placed at Ellis Park in 2022, and Oaklawn Park in early 2023. Then Mage, the first of the Good Magic colts, broke through. Sold for $235,000 by Grandview as a yearling before he was selected for $290,000 by his racing connections, OGMA Investments, Commonwealth, Sterling Racing, and Ramiro Restrepo at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old sale, Mage finished second to champion Forte in the Florida Derby in just his third career start. He then won the Kentucky Derby, was third in the Preakness, and finished second in the Haskell Invitational. Dornoch was purchased for $325,000 as a Keeneland September yearling before Mage had ever started. Running for West Paces Racing, R. A. Hill Stable, Belmar Racing, Two Eight Racing, and Pine Racing, he won the Remsen last fall to add another graded stakes winner to Puca’s résumé. He won the Fountain of Youth to open this year before finishing fourth in the Blue Grass in his final Derby prep. Illustrating the dramatic rise of Puca’s stock, last September – while Dornoch was stakes-placed, but still a maiden – her next foal in the pipeline, a colt from the first crop of McKinzie, sold for $1.2 million at the Keeneland September yearling sale – more than twice Mage and Dornoch’s yearling sale prices combined. Both Clay and the team at Runnymede, which raised each of Puca’s first four foals, said the mare’s foals tend to be quite different physically. Her Derby colts illustrate this. Mage is a compact, blaze-faced chestnut, resembling Good Magic, while Dornoch is a leggy bay who looks more like Puca. “If you see Mage and his full brother, they are completely different individuals,” Runnymede president Romain Malhouitre said at Keeneland September. “Mage would be a little bit closer to his dad – way more compact, and way more like Good Magic is conformation-wise. [Puca’s other foals] are a bit bigger, bit scopier, and that’s what we saw with Dornoch, his full brother – he was a bigger, longer horse.” Clay made the business decision to strike while the iron was hot with Puca, who is 14, likely with many years still ahead of her as a broodmare, this year. He entered the mare, who was back in foal to Good Magic, in last fall’s Keeneland November breeding stock sale, consigned by his son Case Clay. “It was bittersweet, for sure,” Robert Clay said. “We figured she was never going to be worth more than she was then, because of her age. It was a tough call, but that’s the bottom line – we took the money.” Puca drew a high bid of $2.8 million in the ring, which initially failed to meet her reserve. Stewart and Stone went to see her back at the barn and brokered a private deal with the Clays, acquiring her for $2.9 million. Puca now resides at Resolute Farm in Midway. Stewart acquired the 839-acre property, the former Shadayid Stud satellite of Shadwell Farm, late last year. She delivered a full brother to Mage and Dornoch on April 4. “She’s doing great,” Stone said. “She has one of the best personalities for a broodmare you could ask for. She is a complete sweetheart. We got very lucky in that regard. She is very inquisitive, she notices everything. She is an in-your-pocket mare, quite literally.” Puca is booked to leading sire Into Mischief for this year. In the meantime, while Dornoch runs for the Kentucky Derby, she’ll be living a life of peace at Resolute – perhaps while raising her next stakes horse. “He’s great,” Stone said of the chestnut Good Magic foal currently alongside Puca. “He has so much personality. He came out looking two weeks old, and he has no fear.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.