It is far more difficult nowadays for a regional stallion to make the leap to Kentucky than in the long-ago days of, say, Mr. Prospector. Sheer numbers work strongly against such a shift. In 2017, for example, 231 Kentucky stallions bred 17,368 mares, an average of 75.2 mares per stallion. That is 55.4 percent of all mares bred nationwide last year, and you may rest assured that the vast majority of stakes-winning mares - the most likely mares to produce more stakes winners - were covered in Kentucky. Occasionally a speedy sire of 2-year-olds like Kantharos makes the jump, but it has been almost 15 years since Malibu Moon successfully transitioned from regional star to national sensation and top-10 sire. First Dude, the sire of Saturday’s Grade 2 Raven Run Stakes winner Shamrock Rose, is unlikely to make that transition, but he is a good example of what a regional horse can do when he has the opportunity to cover a well-bred mare. Bred in Florida by his owner, Donald Dizney, First Dude was probably the second-best son (behind champion 2-year-old male Stevie Wonderboy) among 38 black-type winners sired by A.P. Indy’s Grade 1-winning son Stephen Got Even. Trained at 2 and 3 by Dale Romans, First Dude ran second in both his starts at 2, but quickly ascended the class ladder over the longer distances available to him at 3. He won only one of his 10 starts at 3, a mile maiden in his 3-year-old debut, but progressed rapidly from fifth in the Florida Derby to third in the Blue Grass Stakes to a game second, beaten only three-quarters of a length by champion Lookin At Lucky, in the Preakness after leading most of the way. A big, beautiful colt with an exceptionally long stride, he tried to make all the running again in the Belmont, but was outstayed by Drosselmeyer and Fly Down. Third again in the Haskell and Travers, he ran second, beaten a neck by Morning Line, in the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby before finishing his season eighth behind Blame and Zenyatta in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Despite his obvious class, First Dude still had not won a stakes race, and he failed again as odds-on favorite in his 4-year-old debut in the Sunshine Millions Classic. Transferred to Bob Baffert, he closed his career with a flourish, following a sixth in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap with an allowance win and nose victories in both the Grade 3 Alysheba Handicap and the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup. He rallied from well off the pace in those three victories after being an habitual front-runner for most of his career.  First Dude strained a tendon in the Gold Cup and did not have the profile Kentucky breeders want, so he retired to his birthplace at Dizney’s Double Diamond Farm near Ocala, Fla. He has sired 277 foals in three crops age 3 and up, a healthy 92 foals a year, and 10 of them have become black-type winners, led by Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes winner Skye Diamonds (out of Exonerated, by Johannesburg), who has also won two other graded stakes. First Dude’s progeny Mom’s On Strike (Mom’s Deputy, by War Chant) and Sticksstatelydude (Placerita, by Gilded Time) had also won graded stakes before Shamrock Rose’s triumph in the Raven Run. Bred in Pennsylvania by Tommy and Lori Fackler’s Best a Luck Farm, Shamrock Rose is the sixth foal and second black-type horse out of the unraced Elusive Quality mare Slew’s Quality. Her fifth foal, Bet On Mike, by Biondetti, ran second in the King Corrie Stakes last year. Slew’s Quality has since produced an unraced 2-year-old colt by Bandbox named Quality Pitch and a yearling colt by Stay Thirsty. Slew’s Quality is half-sister to multiple French Grade 3 winner Slew the Red, by Red Ransom, and to stakes-placed Rich City Girl, by Carson City, and Grenadia, by Thunder Gulch. Another half-sister, Marple, by Diesis, is the granddam of South African champion Mahbooba, by Galileo. Mahbooba is the dam of Irish Group 3 winner Mootasadir, by Dansili. Shamrock Rose’s second dam, Great Lady Slew, by Seattle Slew, is half-sister to stakes winner Baldy’s Dream, by Green Dancer, out of Great Lady Sharon, by Alydar. Great Lady Sharon is a half-sister to Horse of the Year and Hall of Famer Lady’s Secret, by Secretariat. Since First Dude is a third-generation male-line descendant of Seattle Slew, that cross of Seattle Slew along Shamrock Rose’s female line means that she is inbred 4x3 to the 1977 Triple Crown winner and 1984 leading sire. The recent burgeoning success of the male line of Seattle Slew’s best son A.P. Indy has made that an increasingly common pattern. There have been 186 black-type winners worldwide inbred to Seattle Slew, including 23 Grade 1 or Group 1 winners, led by current 3-year-old filly leader Monomoy Girl and Met Mile winner Frosted.