Royal Delta's family tree continues to grow

Three-time Eclipse Award champion Royal Delta, who will be inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame on Friday in Saratoga, had a star-crossed career as a broodmare, producing just one foal, on Feb. 1, 2017, before dying due to complications from that delivery. That Galileo filly, raised by a nurse mare, has been named Delta’s Royalty and is currently an unraced juvenile.

Regardless of the accomplishments for Delta’s Royalty on the racetrack or in the breeding shed, this active family tree will not end with Royal Delta. The mare was produced by the late multiple graded stakes winner Delta Princess, who produced seven winners – including five stakes horses and three Grade 1 winners – from as many starters. The group includes two sons who are ably performing in regional stallion markets, as well as another hot prospect.

Royal Delta’s half-brother Khozan, standing at Journeyman Stud in Florida, is among this year’s current leading freshman sires in his competitive class. The son of Distorted Humor is the sire of eight individual winners to date, six of those in maiden special weight company. His progeny bankroll trails only Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.

Khozan won his debut going seven furlongs at Gulfstream Park by 3 3/4 lengths, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 102. He followed up with a 12 3/4-length optional-claiming win going a mile, with an 88 Beyer. Those proved to be his only career starts.

Grade 2-placed Empire Way is by Empire Maker, making him a full brother to Royal Delta. Standing at Heinz and Michelle Steinmann Farms in California, he is the sire of 45 winners to date, led by Loving Lynda, who won last year’s Melair Stakes at Santa Anita. The stallion’s current juveniles include Cholula Lips, who finished second in the Debutante Stakes in June at Churchill Downs. Empire Way’s other notable runners include the multiple stakes-placed Coco Kisses, Empirical Data, and West Princess, and stakes-placed Fire When Ready and Takahiro’s Dream.

The next standout stallion for the family could be Delta Princess’s final foal, Delta Prince, who races as a homebred for Adena Springs and will presumably stand for that operation upon his eventual retirement. The son of Street Cry earned a signature victory earlier this year in the Grade 1 Maker’s 46 Mile at Keeneland.

Royal Delta also has two Grade 1-performing half-sisters – Crown Queen, winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, and Carnival Court, third in the Alabama Stakes. Crown Queen’s first foal is an unraced Empire Maker juvenile colt named Queens Empire, and she has a yearling colt by Galileo.

Carnival Court’s three foals of racing age include Carnival Colors, second in the Grade 3 Mazarine Stakes last year at Woodbine. She delivered an Into Mischief colt this year.