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Bloodlines Presented By No-No Cribbing Collar: Hit Show’s Little-Known Kentucky Derby Connection

Among the 20 colts entered for the 2023 Kentucky Derby on May 6, there is one who is unique among his peers for a tie to a Kentucky Derby winner of decades past. Hit Show has this special heritage and was bred in Kentucky by Gary and Mary West Stables Inc. and races for the Wests, like many other of their homebreds.

Hit Show's dam, also bred by the Wests, is the Tapit mare Actress, who won her maiden in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico in 2017. And the dam of Actress is Canadian champion Milwaukee Appeal (Milwaukee Brew), winner of the Woodbine Oaks and second in both the G1 Alabama and Spinster during her championship season.

After these two high-class racers, the family thins out for a couple of generations until we come to Hit Show's fifth dam, the stakes winner Here's Inez (Venetian Court). She is the connection to one of the least-known Kentucky Derby winners, at least in pedigrees.

That horse is the 1960 Derby winner Venetian Way.

Bred in Kentucky by John W. Greathouse, whose family still owns and operates Glencrest Farm near Midway, Ky., Venetian Way came from the first crop of the Eight Thirty stallion Royal Coinage, who won the 1954 Saratoga Special and Sapling and finished third behind divisional champion Nashua (Nasrullah) in the Futurity Stakes.

Injured in the Futurity and subsequently sent to stud at the Stallion Station outside Lexington, Royal Coinage sired some good-looking foals, but Venetian Way was a star among them from the first. Brought to the 1958 Keeneland summer yearling sale by his breeder, the striking chestnut colt with a blaze down his face sold for $10,500 to Isaac Blumberg's Sunny Blue Farm.

The following year, Venetian Way proved both precocious and talented. Among other races, he won the Washington Park Futurity, one of the richest events for juveniles at the time, and continued to progress into his second season of racing.

However, while unquestionably talented and ranked second behind only divisional champion Warfare (Determine) on the Experimental Free Handicap ratings of juveniles for their 3-year-old season, Venetian Way had more than his share of challenges. He was reported to have bucked shins multiple times, to have sore stifles, and eventually was found to have a splint which made him unwilling even to leave his stall.

These nagging physical woes kept Venetian Way from prospering in accord to his natural ability. He would race well, then poorly. Owner Blumberg and trainer Vic Sovinski persevered, however, and in the spring of 1960, Venetian Way ran a superb race to finish a nose second to Bally Ache (Ballydam) in the Florida Derby. That effort mattered enough that, although Venetian Way did not win a Derby prep, he still started a well-regarded third choice among 13 runners at Churchill Downs.

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In the 1960 Kentucky Derby itself, the race second-choice Bally Ache led the way until Venetian Way rallied past him in the stretch to win by 3 ½ lengths. E.P. Taylor's Victoria Park (Chop Chop) was 7 ½ lengths farther back in third, and favorite Tompion (Tom Fool) was fourth.

Venetian Way was then unplaced behind front-running Bally Ache in the Preakness before returning to finish second in the Belmont Stakes behind Celtic Ash (Sicambre). The flashy chestnut Venetian Way did not win another top race, subsequently was injured in the Arlington Classic when third, and was retired to stud.

As a sire, however, Venetian Way was woefully infertile and sired only 31 foals, then fractured a hind leg and was euthanized in 1964 at age seven. None of the stallion's foals won a stakes, but one of them, a colt by the name of Venetian Court, is the hero of his sire's star-crossed stallion career.

Racing from age two through seven, Venetian Court won only two of 17 starts, earning $5,283. That doesn't seem like a racing record to build a story on, nor a record likely to earn the horse a spot at stud. Somehow, it did.

Sent to stud in Ohio, Venetian Court sired only about half as many foals as Venetian Way, but one of those was a stakes winner. That was Here's Inez, and she is the fifth dam of Hit Show.

From the data I can summon, the family of Here's Inez is the only connection between contemporary graded stakes winners and the 1960 Kentucky Derby winner Venetian Way, a handsome colt of great talent and a powerful mix of good and ill fortune.

The romance of finding a nearly forgotten former hero of the Kentucky classic among the ancestors of a current classic entrant is an entertaining story, but the keys to the talent and potential of Hit Show lie in Candy Ride, his outstanding sire, and Actress, his graded stakes-winning dam, and her sire, Tapit, a source of classic ability without question in contemporary racing.

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Analysis: Which 2023 Kentucky Derby Horses Are Best Bred To Handle The Classic Distance?

Nobody knows how a horse is going to handle everything that comes with the Kentucky Derby.

Between the enormous sound from the grandstand that follows the field practically all the way around the track, to the lack of personal space for the horses during the walkover, to the 1 1/4-mile race distance, there is very little about what makes the Derby unique that can be practiced ahead of time under comparable conditions.

While we can't drill how a horse will handle the Derby's crush of humanity down to a single measurable, we do have a few pedigree hints as to which runners might be best bred to handle the classic distance for the first time.

Anecdotal evidence can be used to argue for or against any horse in any field, but a quantifiable way to measure just how capable a horse might be at holding their own in longer races is to examine the average progeny winning distance (AWD) for the sires and dams of each runner and compare them against each other.

AWD numbers are calculated by averaging out the distance of each race won by a horse's offspring. For example, leading sire Curlin's AWD of 7.64 furlongs means the average race distance of the 2,082 lifetime wins accumulated by his runners was a bit over 7 1/2 furlongs. The higher a sire or dam's AWD, the more likely their foals can handle a route of ground, because they've already shown they can produce it consistently.

To compile these rankings, the AWD figures for both the sire and dam's foals are ranked amongst the full field (including also-eligibles, because Rich Strike made it so we can never leave them out again), and the lower the combined score, the better the runner stacks up against his or her opponents.

Keep in mind, this analysis is not necessarily a prediction of who will win the Kentucky Derby, but whose pedigrees suggest they will best be able to have something left in the tank in the final furlong. That could mean a winning trip, or it could indicate a longer-priced horse capable of passing tired rivals to hit the board at a long price. If your Derby wagers include second to fourth place, these numbers should definitely factor into your planning.

In previous years, high-odds horses who ranked at or near the top of the AWD rankings have included Derby runner-up Golden Soul (35-1) and third-place Battle of Midway (33-1), Preakness Stakes winner Oxbow (15-1), and narrow Belmont Stakes runner-up Commissioner (28-1).

Let's see who stands out among this year's Derby contenders…

We have a tie at the top, and both horses are connected to the Winchell Thoroughbreds program: Tapit Trice, by Winchell-raced sire Tapit, and the Winchell-owned Disarm,.

Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes winner Tapit Trice is not a surprising name to see at the top of the list.

Tapit is without question the most proven North American distance sire of his generation, boasting a record four Belmont Stakes winners to his credit, and his average winning distance of 7.67 furlongs ranked him first among this year's class of Derby sires. He's still looking for his first Kentucky Derby winner, but he's gotten close with the likes of Essential Quality and Tacitus running third, and in older-aged campaigns, horses like Flightline and Cupid have had zero problem getting 1 1/4 miles at the highest levels of competition.

Tapit Trice is out of the Grade 3-placed stakes-winning Dunkirk mare Danzatrice, whose progeny AWD of 8.38 furlongs tied her for eighth among the Derby broodmares.

Tapit Trice is his dam's first winner, which is the case for nine of the 23 horses entered in this year's Derby, and 12 of the Derby mares have two or fewer starters. To reach that AWD mark the colt won a pair of races at one mile, along with wins at 1 1/16 miles and 1 1/8 miles.

Here is a look at how the Derby sires shook out by AWD:

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Sharing the top spot in this year's AWD rankings is Disarm, a son of Gun Runner whose first crop achieved historic success, including 2022 Preakness Stakes winner in Early Voting.

However, Disarm reached this lofty spot because of his dam's AWD. Out of the stakes-placed Tapit mare Easy Tap, Disarm is one of four winners from her five foals to race, with a class-best AWD of 8.68 furlongs.

The bulk of that weight was carried by Venezuelan champion stayer Tap Daddy, by Scat Daddy, whose five Group 1 scores came at distances as far as 3,200 meters/15.9 furlongs/nearly two miles, in the G1 Clásico Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariana.

Of the 19 combined victories by foals out of Easy Tap, 15 came at a distance of a mile or longer, which is more than any other broodmare in this year's Derby class. Disarm's lone contribution was actually one of the victories below that line, taking a seven-furlong maiden special weight at Saratoga Race Course.

Gun Runner finished eighth among the Derby sires, with an AWD of 7.29. Though the number puts him in the middle of the pack among the overall class, the resident of Three Chimneys Farm is by far the highest-ranking North American sire with three or fewer crops of racing age.

Because his oldest runners just turned four at the beginning of the year, they have not had access to the full schedule of two-turn opportunities to help grow that number, in the way an older sire might enjoy. With sires early in their careers, seeing a younger one score so highly is often a good sign that the number will float up over time.

Let's take a look at the list of Derby broodmares:

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Here are some other thoughts from these lists…

– Seeing where American-born, Japanese-based sires Mind Your Biscuits and Drefong landed in the sire rankings goes to show that intent and program can dictate as much of a sire's success as their ability to pass on talent.

Both of those stallions were one-turn animals during their time in the U.S., and it's fair to say that no one would have expected either to get a classic-caliber horse at any point in their careers if they'd remained stateside. Breeders would have likely sought to harness their raw speed and created a class of sprinters. However, because the Japanese broodmare population generally has a strong foundation, and their race distances tend to be longer than ours, their AWDs are practically off the charts for sires sending first-crop runners to the Derby.

– Into Mischief is the exception to the rule when it comes to AWD figures. His AWD is regularly among the lowest in a given class of Derby sires, and that's the case again in 2023 with a figure of 6.76 furlongs. However, Into Mischief is also the only sire in this class with two Derby winners: Authentic in 2020 and Mandaloun in 2021.

As a perennial leading sire of 2-year-olds who breeds large books of mares, Into Mischief gets a lot of winners early going around one turn, which heavily influences his AWD figure. These numbers are far from foolproof. If you see something on the page that goes against them, trust your gut.

– It's interesting to see that Tapit Trice is the only tippy-top-tier contender to finish at or near the top of the rankings (Derma Sotogake is on the fringe for both parts of that statement, if you feel he should be included, too). Assuming he gets a decent trip, I'd feel very good about making him a heavy factor in your horizontal exotics. Even if he doesn't win, he should be moving in the right direction when it counts.

With the exception of Forte, many of the last-start prep winners have either a sire or dam in the top half of their respective rankings, then one that isn't, suggesting those horses were bred to help add some distance to a part of the equation that was lacking.

– Louisiana Derby winner Kingsbarns is another higher-level contender who comes out of this list looking very good, tied for third in the overall standings, and having both sides of his pedigree represented in their respective top 10s. Sire Uncle Mo is proven in the Derby, getting 2016 winner Nyquist. He is the first winner from two runners out of Lady Tapit, who is part of a big movement of younger broodmares in this year's Derby class.

– Tapit Trice is a son of Tapit, while Disarm and Kingsbarns are out of Tapit mares, and all three ranked highly on the overall list. No matter what system you use to handicap the Derby, the Tapit factor might be the one pedigree angle I suggest you take with you.

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The 2023 2-Year-Old Sale Sire Power Rankings: Justify Has Arrived After Big OBS Spring Sale

Big sales have a way of sorting things out, and in terms of quantity and quality, there is no bigger 2-year-old auction on the calendar than the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. Spring Sale.

The number of sires eligible for consideration in the Power Rankings has grown from 39 after the Texas 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale to a whopping 90 after we passed the season's midway point. We finished with 94 last year, and I expect we'll blow that number out of the water by the time the last horse goes through the ring in 2023.

With so many new names just now achieving eligibility status for the rankings, we've got some pretty significant movement from our last check-in, and some major names in the stud book who just didn't have enough horses go through the sale in earlier installments have finally entered the chat. There is still plenty of sale season left to go, but this is when we'll really get a look at who the true players are.

As a reminder, here are the requirements to qualify for the Power Rankings. If you notice a sire is missing from the list, it's almost definitely because they didn't hit one of these marks:

1) At least five horses sold during a major 2023 juvenile sale, regardless of distance breezed.

2) At least five horses that breezed an eighth of a mile, whether they sold or not (as much as I love a good quarter-mile breeze, there just aren't enough horses doing them to make a fair average).

Also important to note: For the sake of calculating averages, I stretched out each breeze time from fifths to tenths. If you see a :9.8 time somewhere, do not adjust your stopwatches.

Let's get a look at those rankings…

#1 Justify, Ashford Stud

After finishing first in last year's Power Rankings, Justify returned to the top of the mountain in the first installment where he met the eligibility requirements.

The Justifys have blazed over the track during this season's breeze shows, averaging an eighth-mile time of :10-flat. Seriously. I went back and checked just in case I crunched the numbers incorrectly. Of his 10 juveniles to work at that distance in 2023, four went in 9.8 seconds, which tied for the third-most among eligible sires. Another three worked in :10-flat, and none of his juveniles to go under the stopwatch to date have gone any slower than 10.4 seconds.

This continues a trend Justify established last year with his debut crop, which also finished atop the rankings by average breeze time, at 10.120 seconds.

Justify sits in fifth by median sale price, at $300,000, led by Tennessee, a colt who hammered to Maverick Racing and Siena Farms for $1.2 million at the OBS March sale; the auction's second-highest price.

The dark bay or brown colt, offered as Hip 215, is out of the Grade 3-placed Smart Strike mare Zinzay, whose foals of note includes Grade 1-placed stakes winner Moon Over Miami. He breezed an eighth in :10-flat during the under-tack show for consignor Hartley/De Renzo Thoroughbreds.

#2 Speightstown, WinStar Farm

A top-10 sire in last year's Power Rankings, Speightstown enters this year's rankings even hotter.

Speightstown's under-tack horses carried the most weight to this position, with his average of :10.133 seconds ranking him sixth. Among them was a filly who went an eighth in 9.6 seconds at the OBS Spring sale to tie for the fastest time at the distance.

That filly, offered as Hip 1012 from the consignment of Scanlon Training and Sales, agent for Excel Bloodstock, is out of the Grade 3-placed Ghostzapper mare Spooky Woods, and she hails from the family of Arabian Knight. She sold to Bradley Thoroughbreds, agent, for $485,000.

That filly is also Speightstown's most expensive offering of the season so far, helping propel his median sale price to $250,000; ninth-best of the class so far.

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#3 – Omaha Beach, Spendthrift Farm

Omaha Beach is still waiting for his first starter to enter the gate, but in the meantime, his sale horses are providing a lot of excitement.

The son of War Front boasts the most sub-:10 second workers through the end of the OBS Spring Sale, with seven. Five of those came at the OBS Spring Sale, all going in 9.8 seconds. Those fast times propelled Omaha Beach to third by average breeze time, at :10.117 seconds.

His median sale price of $200,000 placed him 13th in that category, led by a $700,000 filly secured by Clay Scherer, agent, at the OBS Spring Sale. Offered as Hip 532 from the Wavertree Stables consignment, the filly is out of the winning Smart Strike mare Intelyhente, who is also the dam of stakes-placed Count Alexander. She was one of Omaha Beach's sub-:10 workers during this year's sale.

#4 – Into Mischief, Spendthrift Farm

The commercial paramount of today's Thoroughbred marketplace took a slight dip in the rankings, but it wasn't because his juveniles didn't sell well.

Into Mischief sits at the top of the rankings by median sale price, at $400,000, led by a $1.3-million dollar colt who sold to More Play at the OBS Spring Sale.

Offered as Hip 967, the colt is out of the Grade 3-placed stakes-winning Ministers Wild Cat mare Singing Kitty. He's one of six horses tied for the fastest time for an eighth this season, stopping the clock in 9.6 seconds. Wavertree Stables consigned the colt, as agent.

Into Mischief's average breeze time of :10.192 seconds ranked him 16th in that category. His seven-figure colt spearheaded a trio of sub-:10 workers, joined by six more that breezed in :10-flat.

This crop of 2-year-olds was conceived in 2020, on the heels of Into Mischief's first of what's become four straight years as leading general sire by earnings the previous year. He was getting top-shelf books of mares before this crop, but this was his first formal season of breeding the best to the best, in terms of sire list rankings. For as meteoric as Into Mischief's rise has been, it might be ready to enter warp-speed now that we're seeing the foals conceived at the top of the mountain.

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#5 – Malibu Moon, Spendthrift Farm (Deceased)

The second-to-last crop from a pillar of the Spendthrift Farm stud barn is keeping their sire's name in the papers, especially during the breeze show.

Malibu Moon's 12 horses to go under the clock at an eighth of a mile this season have averaged a time of :10.092 seconds, trailing only leader Justify in that category. Two of those offerings went in :9.8 seconds – one each in both OBS March and April – while four more stopped the clock in :10-flat.

There is plenty of sale season to go, but this is a dramatic upswing from Malibu Moon's juveniles of 2022, which averaged a furlong in :10.387 seconds, which ranked the sire 42nd in that category.

Malibu Moon's median sale price of $135,000 ranked him 19th on that measurable, led by a colt that sold for $375,000 at the OBS March Sale. Purchased by Three Amigos and offered as Hip 648, the colt is out of the Grade 3-winning Machiavellian mare Marietta.

That colt breezed an eighth in :10-flat for consignor James Layden, agent.

We'll be back after the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale for the next check-in of the Power Rankings.

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No Mas Tequila Named 2022 Texas Horse Of The Year

The Texas Thoroughbred Association has named No Mas Tequila as the 2022 Texas Horse of the Year. Owned by James Sills and trained by Karen Jacks, No Mas Tequila has also been awarded champion older filly and mare in Texas for her on track performance in 2022.

With an explosive turn of foot off the turn, No Mas Tequila put on a show on Texas turf courses in 2022. The now 6-year-old mare, by Northern Afleet out of the Street Boss mare Foxy Boss, amassed four wins on the grass in 2022, all in Texas-bred stakes races at Lone Star Park and Sam Houston Race Park.

She opened her 2022 campaign with a commanding win in the Miss Bluebonnet Turf Stakes at Sam Houston, defeating previous Texas Champions in no-doubt fashion. She returned to the Houston turf a month later, on Texas Champions Day, to capture the San Jacinto Turf. Her summer campaign included Texas-bred stakes victories in the Lane's End Danny Shifflett Scholarship Stakes and the Fiesta Mile, both at Lone Star Park.

No Mas Tequila's dam, Foxy Boss, has been named the 2022 Texas Broodmare of the Year. And her breeders, Ronald and Margaret Ellerbee, have been awarded the Texas Thoroughbred Association's 2022 Breeder of the Year.

The leading Accredited Texas-Bred money earner for 2022 was Macassar Corporation.

Following is the complete list of the 2021 champion horses:

2-Year-Old Filly: Come To The Party (by Bradester) • Owner: Bill & Corinne Heiligbrodt • Breeder: Three Feathers Farm

2-Year-Old Colt/Gelding: Vietnam Victory (by Klimt) • Owner: James Stodola • Breeder: CJ Thoroughbreds

3-Year-Old Filly: Texas Thunder (by Bradester) • Owner: Carl R. Moore Management LLC • Breeder: Robert C. Francis

3-Year-Old Colt/Gelding: Lucky's Special (by Special Rate) • Owner: Victoria Lynn Heine • Breeder: Victoria Lynn Heine

Older Filly/Mare: No Mas Tequila (by Northern Afleet) • Owner: James Sills • Breeder: Ronald & Margaret Ellerbee

Champion Older Horse: Mr Money Bags (by Silver City) • Owner: Erma Cobb • Breeder: Roy Cobb

Champion Broodmare: Foxy Boss (by Street Boss)

Horse of the Year: No Mas Tequila (by Northern Afleet)

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