WHAT a pleasant guy Kenny McPeek comes across as, and he reached a career hight at the weekend when he became just the third trainer in history to win both the Kentucky Oaks and Derby in the same year.

He has won all three legs of the Triple Crown, but with different horses, Mystik Dan won the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby at the weekend, Swiss Skydiver landed the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes four years ago, while in 2002 Savara enjoyed success in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes. Prior to the weekend his best effort in the Kentucky Derby was when Tejano Run was runner-up in 1995.

With more than 2,000 career wins to his credit, McPeek looks well set to beat his previous best season which was only last year. He really burst on the scene in 2002 when Harlan’s Holiday won the Florida Derby and Blue Grass Stakes, Take Charge Lady was successful in both the Ashland Stakes (a race he has won three times) and the Spinster Stakes, and Sarava was his first winner of a leg of the Triple Crown.

Given that McPeek won both classics at the weekend with horses who were relatively inexpensive to breed, one wonders what he could achieve with more bluebloods? Mystic Dan is from the sixth crop of the dual Breeders’ Cup winner Goldencents (Into Mischief) who stands for $10,000 at Spendthrift Farm, while the Kentucky Oaks winner Thorpedo Anna is by Fast Anna (Medaglia D’Oro) who stood for the same fee at Three Chimneys in the year that the Oaks winner was conceived, but he was euthanized the following February.

No inbreeding

Unusually in today’s world, Mystik Dan has no inbreeding whatsoever in five generations. He is a homebred for Lance Gasaway, Daniel Hamby, and 4G Racing, and his share of the spoils in the $5 million Derby has taken Mystik Dan’s winnings to $3.74 million from three career wins. One of those was this year’s Grade 3 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn, and he ran third in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby there.

Mystik Dan’s sire Goldencents won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby prior to capturing the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile twice at that same venue. He was runner-up six times in Grade 1 company, and at his current fee he surely represents incredible value. Mystik Dan was conceived when Goldencents’ fee hit a high of $25,000, the sole season he commanded such a price. He is the sire of two Grade 1 winners, the dual Rodeo Drive Stakes winner and $1.5 million mare Going To Vegas being the other, and his tally of stakes winners among his first six crops stands at 27.

Mystik Dan is the first foal out of the four-time winner Ma’am (Colonel John). He is followed by a two-year-old filly Yes Ma’am (Unified) and a yearling filly Ford’s Ma’am (Knicks Go). This spring Ma’am was covered by the Grade 2 winner Wells Bayou (Lookin At Lucky).

Champion

Ma’am is a half-sister to a champion, though not one you will recognise. Revamp (Tapizar) has been a star on the racing circuit in Greece, and has now amassed a total of 19 wins, two of which were in France where he raced before heading to his present home. Ma’am five winning siblings also include Renaissance Art (More Than Ready), a winner for Jim Bolger who then sold to Hong Kong and ran second to the high-class Helene Happy Star in the Listed Queen Mother Memorial Cup, but failed to build on that.

Renaissance Art and Ma’am are out of the winning two-year-old Lady Siphonica (Siphon), a full-sister to the Grade 1 Hollywood Futurity winner Siphonic (Siphon) who was third in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Their unraced half-sister Rose Of Summer (El Prado) bred another Grade 1 winning juvenile in Laragh (Tapit).

Twenty-four hours before Mystik Dan won the most famous race in the USA, McPeek saddled the $40,000 Fasig-Tipton yearling purchase Thorpedo Anna to win for the fourth time in five starts. Her sole defeat came at two when she was runner-up at Churchill Downs in the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes. On her only other outing this year she prepped for her Oaks victory with a win in the Grade 2 Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park. She has more than repaid her purchase price, her winnings to date already nudging towards $1.5 million.

Thorpedo Anna is the second foal, runner and winner for the unraced Sataves (Uncle Mo). That mare has five winning siblings, none of whom earned any blacktype, but that is in sharp contrast with the Oaks winner’s third dam, Aldebaran Light (Seattle Slew). She had five winners, two of them at the top level in racing. Eskendereya (Giant’s Causeway) won the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes at two, and the following year went higher and landed the Grade 1 Wood Memorial Stakes.

Balmont

At stud Eskendereya sired the Eclipse champion sprinter in the USA, Mitole, and the dual Grade 1 winner and Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby runner-up Mor Spirit. His older half-brother Balmont (Stravinsky) was one of the best juveniles of his year, his four victories including the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes and the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes. In subsequent seasons he was placed in both the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes and July Cup. Balmont stood for a few seasons in Tara Stud before moving to North America. He had a son and daughter who both came within a length of winning a Group 1.

Thorpedo Anna is the first of the 14 stakes winners by Fast Anna (Medaglia D’Oro) to win at graded stakes level. Those winners come from just five crops left by the three-time winner who failed to win at stakes level, but was runner-up in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop Stakes at Saratoga.

A quick mention of another Grade 1 winner at Churchill Downs. Program Trading, a son of Ballylinch Stud’s Lope De Vega (Shamardal) won on his first start of the year when taking the Grade 1 Turf Classic, his third stakes win in six starts. Unraced at two, he won four of his five starts at three last year, including the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes and the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby. He suffered his only reversal in the Grade 3 Virginia Derby when a fast-finishing second. The ridgling is set to be one of this year’s stars on the American turf.

Program Trading

Bred and sold by Luca and Sara Cumani’s Fittocks Stud in partnership with Arrow Farm and Stud, Program Trading was bought by the Irish-born bloodstock agent, Mike Ryan, for 250,000gns.

A son of the two-year-old winner Dreamlike (Oasis Dream), Program Trading is that mare’s second winner from three starters. Fittocks Stud purchased Dreamlike’s dam, So Silk (Rainbow Quest), as an unraced four-year-old for 480,000gns 16 years ago. She has gone on to breed five winners for them. The best has been Silk Sari (Dalakhani), successful in the Group 2 Park Hill Stakes and runner-up in the Group 1 British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes. Silk Dari’s granddaughter Zardozi (Kingman) won the Group 1 Victoria Oaks at Flemington last year.

So Silk is out of Gossamer (Sadler’s Wells), and she had seven successful offspring, the best of which was the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy winner Ibn Khaldun (Dubai Destination). So Silk’s unraced half-sister Veil Of Silence (Elusive Quality) bred Mischief Magic (Exceed And Excel) who won the 2022 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. Gossamer’s full-brother Barathea (Sadler’s Wells) won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile three decades ago before enjoying a successful stud career at Rathbarry Stud.