Diving Deep Into Ancestry of Belmont Winner, Runner-Up

Describe it the right way, and the 2022 Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1) can sound like a contest straight from the glory days of the owner/breeder. The race was fought out by a duo sporting the same colors, both bred and raised at the same farm, and what's more–they both have second dams bred by the same farms.

This isn't 1948, however, and there are a lot of differences between that year's Kentucky Derby, which saw Calumet homebreds Citation and Coaltown go 1-2, and this year's Belmont Stakes. To start with, while both the winner, Mo Donegal , and the second, Nest , bore the colors of Mike Repole's Repole Stable, both are owned in partnership, Mo Donegal with Donegal Racing, and Nest with Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Michael House. Both were also sales acquisitions rather than homebreds, with Mo Donegal knocked down for $250,000 to Jerry Crawford for Donegal Racing at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale and Nest realizing $350,000 at the same venue to Eclipse Thoroughbreds and Repole Stable.

Mo Donegal and Nest also happen to have been bred in partnership by Ashview Farm & Colts Neck Stables, who obtained the mares from the same source, albeit by different methods. Marion Ravenwood , the dam of Nest, was a $400,000 purchase at the Keeneland November Sale, offered by Denali Stud on behalf of My Meadowview, who had bred and raced the stakes-winning daughter of A.P. Indy. Callingmissbrown also came from My Meadowview, but by way of private purchase, the year after the acquisition of Marion Ravenwood. Incidentally, in addition to having bred the dams of this year's Belmont Stakes first and second, My Meadowview is also breeder of Tapwrit  , who captured the Belmont in 2017.

Although she wasn't a stakes winner like Marion Ravenwood, Callingmissbrown was good enough to win a maiden special weight at Delaware Park and an allowance at Laurel Park from four starts, and was believed to have far more ability than she ever demonstrated. She also owned a classic pedigree (by Pulpit out of a Tabasco Cat mare), she was bred on the same cross as Florida Derby (G1) winner and Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) runner-up Ice Box , and both matings were planned by the same author. It's particularly interesting as Tabasco Cat's broodmare sire, Sauce Boat, was a half-brother to Gay Missile, the third dam of Pulpit's sire, A.P. Indy.

Callingmissbrown's dam, Island Sand, was one of the very best runners sired by Tabasco Cat, winning the Acorn Stakes (G1), Delaware Handicap (G2) and Busanda Stakes, and earning places in five other stakes, including a second in the Kentucky Oaks (G1). In addition to producing Callingmissbrown by Pulpit, she is also dam of the Spinaway Stakes (G1) second and Frizette Stakes (G1) third Maya Malibu , who was sired by another A.P. Indy son, Malibu Moon .

The classic theme continues in the next generation, as Island Sand was out of the unraced Forty Niner mare Sue's Last Dance, a half-sister to Queen's Plate winner Niigon . Savethelastdance, dam of Sue's Last Dance and Niigon, was a daughter of Nureyev, and was black-type placed in Canada and North America. She was out of the excellent broodmare Bon Debarras, also dam of Raslaan, a graded winner in Australia; Gone To Royalty, who won three black-type races in Canada, and Eternal Search, Champion Sprinter and twice Champion Mare in Canada. Bon Debarras was quite the foundation mare, as she is ancestress of more than 36 stakes winners, also including Embur's Song, Champion Older Mare in Canada; and Exaggerator  , successful in the Preakness Stakes (G1), Santa Anita Derby (G1), and Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1), and runner-up in the Kentucky Derby in 2016.

It will likely have been observed that many of the notables descending from Bon Debarras have made their name in Canada, and that's because she comes from a family developed by the doyen of all Canadian breeders, E. P. Taylor of Windfields Farm. The family came to Canada with the importation of the French-bred mare, Orchestra. By Menetrier, also broodmare sire of another great Windfields matron, Victoria Regina (dam of Viceregal and Vice Regent), Orchestra was a successful runner in Canada, winning the Woodstock, Friar Rock, and Star Shoot Stakes. She also figures as the ancestress of Dance In Time, who won two legs of the Canadian Triple Crown; Giboulee, Champion Older Horse in Canada, and the Italian Derby (G1) scorer Bahamian Knight.

Leaving the female line of Mo Donegal, we can note that his sire, Uncle Mo  , contributes a degree of continuity to the pedigree, since he too raced in the Repole colors. The undefeated Champion Two-Year-Old of 2010, Uncle Mo retired to Ashford Stud, Versailles, Ky., in 2012 after a 3-year-old season interrupted by illness. He made an astonishing start to his career with a first crop that contained a staggering 25 individual stakes winners, 14 graded, headed by the Champion 2-Year-Old and Kentucky Derby victor, Nyquist  . With seven Northern Hemisphere crops of 3-year-olds and up, that total stands at 77 stakes winners, 42 graded, with Bast, Mo Forza  , Golden Pal , Dream Tree , Yaupon  , Mo Town  , Unbridled Mo , Gomo , and Outwork   all standing alongside Nyquist and Mo Donegal as grade 1 scorers.

Uncle Mo didn't fare well with mares by A.P. Indy, the grandsire of Mo Donegal's dam, with just one stakes winner in Venezuela, from 18 starters. He's been much better with mares by sons and grandsons of that horse, with that cross yielding eight stakes winners from 87 starters. Looking at the pedigree of Mo Donegal's dam, we see that all four of her grandparents are from the 'L' haplotype (her own mitochondrial family), and her third dam is by a stallion from the 'N' haplotype. When we come to Uncle Mo, we find that he is from the 'L' haplotype, and his dam is also by a stallion from the 'N' haplotype.