THIS year will see the 150th running of the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby, and it could be special for more reasons than just that.

Last year’s 149th running of the $3 million classic attracted an international field, with a couple of Japanese-trained horses. However, they came up short against an American runner, as more than 150,000 racegoers watched Mage (Good Magic), ridden by Venezuelan-born Javier Castellano and trained by fellow countryman Gustavo Delgado, swoop to victory from Two Phil’s and the favourite, Angel Of Empire.

Late last year, Mage’s full-brother Dornoch (Good Magic), rounded off his four-run juvenile year with victory in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes. At the start of this year, his trainer Danny Gargan said that the plan was to run the colt in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park, and then either the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland or the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct in his final prep before attempting to match the Kentucky Derby achievement of Mage.

Well, at the weekend, Dornoch achieved the first leg of that plan, and his victory in the Coolmore Fountain of Youth Stakes took his race record to three wins and two runner-up finishes in five starts, and pushed his earnings just north of $500,000. He has also done something that Mage failed to do, and that is to be a two-year-old winner. Mage did not race as a juvenile, and he has now commenced stallion duties at Airdrie Stud at a fee of $25,000.

Mage is a first crop son of Good Magic (Curlin) who stands at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms for $125,000, a big jump from his $50,000 fee last year. Mage made up for a shortcoming in his own sire’s race record. Good Magic, the champion two-year-old colt of 2017, was second in the Kentucky Derby. A million dollar yearling buy, Good Magic was rated the best at two after he won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar. While he came up short in the Kentucky Derby, by two and a half lengths to Justify, he did win the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational and the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes.

Good Magic made a dream start at stud and his first crop of juvenile runners was headed by the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes winner Blazing Sevens. Mage doubled that tally with his classic success, and Good Magic’s second crop includes the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes winner and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up Muth among its numbers. Muth is another classic hopeful. Now Good Magic’s first two crops number three Grade 1 winners, nine graded stakes winners and 17 stakes horses in total.

Mage sold twice at public auction, for $235,000 as a yearling at Keeneland, and at Fasig-Tipton as a breezer for $290,000. He retired to stud with earnings of $2.95 million. Mage and Dornoch, who sold for $325,000 as a yearling at Keeneland, were bred in Kentucky by Grandview Equine. They are among three winners, the first three foals and runners, out of the Big Brown (Boundary) mare Puca, and that stakes winner and Grade 2 runner-up cost Grandview Equine $475,000, carrying the stakes-placed, three-time winner Gunning (Gun Runner). Puca won four times, from two to five, including a minor stakes, and has a two-year-old colt by McKinzie (Street Sense). He sold for $1.2 million last September, while John Stewart paid $2.9 million in November, also at Keeneland, to acquire Puca. She was in foal to Good Magic again.

Big sales

Puca is one of five winners from the stakes-placed, winning two-year-old Boat’s Ghost (Silver Ghost). By some way the best of that quintet was Finnegans Wake (Powerscourt). He won eight races and $1.6 million from the age of three until seven, the highlight of his racing career coming with success in the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby. Other wins included the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup in a record time, the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes and the Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes. Last year he stood in California for a fee of $2,500, and has had just a handful of foals of racing age, and five winners.