Two longtime Pennsylvania breeding programs notched victories on Saturday’s star-studded Belmont card, with Spring Quality winning the Grade 1 Manhattan Stakes and Prince Lucky taking the Easy Goer Stakes.

Spring Quality races as a homebred for George Strawbridge Jr.’s Augustin Stable, and he was making his first start against Grade 1 company in the Manhattan. The son of Quality Road had just two horses beaten at the quarter pole, came eight wide into the lane, and rallied furiously to be up by a neck in a blanket finish.

With the eyes of the racing world on Belmont Park for a three-day run of 18 stakes races, capped by Justify’s successful bid for the Triple Crown, both New York’s breeding program and its perennial leading sire showcased themselves well.

New York-bred Fourstar Crook won the Grade 2 New York Stakes on Friday, and the following afternoon, fellow statebred Disco Partner scored a repeat victory in the Grade 2 Jaipur Stakes. Last year in the Jaipur, Disco Partner set a North American record for six furlongs on turf.

How do you breed a Triple Crown winner? Short answer: breed the dam of at least two high-quality stakes winners to a leading sire.

That description, of course, could be applied to hundreds of foals born every year, but only 13 out of the thousands of foals matching those qualifications born in America in the 102 years since Sir Barton was foaled at Hamburg Place in 1916 have won the Triple Crown. Still, that is the best summary description available of the average short pedigree of the 13 Triple Crown winners.

A mile and a half around the biggest dirt track in America, with the whole world watching, carrying the weight of a century and a half of history.

“The supreme test is the Belmont Stakes, run over ‘Big Sandy,’ Belmont Park,” said Michael Hernon, director of sales for Gainesway Farm. “There’s nowhere to hide out there. The best horse, I think, consistently wins.”

Dixie Moon
Curlin–Dixie Chicken, by Rahy
(Bred in Ontario by Sean and Dorothy Fitzhenry)

Two-time Horse of the Year Curlin has been a prolific sire in the American Triple Crown series. He looks to extend his reputation as a classic sire north of the border with the likes of Queen’s Plate hopeful Dixie Moon. In addition to getting a boost from her stamina-producing sire, the filly is a half-sister to a horse who played a role on last year’s Canadian classics trail.

Classic sire Northern Afleet, who showed his versatility with three diverse Eclipse Award champions, was euthanized Friday at Taylor Made Farm in Nicholasville, Ky., after the sudden onset of a gastrointestinal problem. The son of Afleet was 25.

Should Justify complete a Triple Crown sweep Saturday, the Belmont Park winner’s circle will be filled to overflowing with members of his various ownership groups, media, and other entities.

But a similarly raucous winner’s circle celebration could take place some hours earlier, should the Churchill Downs Racing Club’s Warrior’s Club continue a solid season with a victory in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, which would be a blockbuster score for a colt from humble beginnings.

The Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap has a history of being a stallion-making race because it showcases the brilliance that is so desired in the American market. Solid sires have continued to emerge from the race in recent years – including Ghostzapper and Quality Road, who are positioned to showcase themselves on Belmont’s major week of racing.

Nine of the 12 entries in the 2018 Epsom Derby carried a cross of the top-class racemare and all-time great broodmare Urban Sea in their pedigrees. Only one of them, however, carried two crosses of Urban Sea - the most influential broodmare of the 21^st century - and that horses, Masar, won comfortably, giving Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum a rather ironic first Derby victory in his Godolphin blue colors.

Less than a decade after he was a classic winner himself, Lookin At Lucky hopes to get lucky in next week’s Belmont Stakes as the broodmare sire of the enigmatic Gronkowski – and is looking ahead to a big summer after closing May with a bang.