Fappiano's Follow Through

Ahmed Zayat’s homebred American Pharoah is now one step away from completing a sweep of the Triple Crown—a tall step, considering 13 previous Kentucky Derby/Preakness Stakes (both gr. I) winners have failed to complete the climb since Affirmed reached North American racing’s pinnacle in 1978. The obvious question is whether American Pharoah, a colt gifted with excellent speed, has the stamina to master the “Test of the Champion,” the 12-furlong Belmont Stakes (gr. I).

Most American breeders depend on the distaff side of the pedigree to supply stamina, as staying sires are not popular in the commercial market unless they have also shown brilliance. Stamina, however, is not the long suit of the pedigree of American Pharoah’s dam, Littleprincessemma. Although she is strongly line bred to Hyperion, a horse with enough stamina to win the St. Leger Stakes at a bit over 141⁄2 furlongs, much of that line breeding comes through Hyperion’s grandson Olympia, a source of miler speed.

Littleprincessemma’s immediate pedigree also suggests speed as its trump card. Her sire, the Storm Cat horse Yankee Gentleman  , scored his only stakes victory in the six-furlong Pirate’s Bounty Handicap. While Storm Cat did sire 1994 Preakness and Belmont winner Tabasco Cat, he generally needed help from stouter mates to sire horses that wanted much more than a mile, and he didn’t get it with Yankee Gentleman, whose dam Key Phrase scored her biggest win in the seven-furlong Santa Monica Handicap (gr. I). The dam of Littleprincessemma, the stakes-winning Ecliptical mare Exclusive Rosette, was also a sprinter, as were Littleprincessemma’s graded stakes-winning half siblings Storm Wolf  and Misty Rosette.

Yankee Gentleman, however, is closely related to Shared Belief’s dam Common Hope, a daughter of Storm Cat out of Key Phrase’s dam Sown, and Shared Belief has already demonstrated his ability to defeat grade I company at 10 furlongs in last year’s TVG Pacific Classic Stakes and this year’s Santa Anita Handicap. In Shared Belief’s case, the likely stamina source is his sire Candy Ride  , winner of the 2003 Pacific Classic. The pedigree of American Pharoah also follows this pattern of a sire with more stamina capacity over a speedy family, and if he has the stamina to get the Belmont trip, most of the credit will have to go to his sire Pioneerof the Nile  .

Pioneerof the Nile, also a Zayat homebred, hails from the most classically oriented branch of the Mr. Prospector male line, that of Fappiano. It is also a branch that owes its existence to the genius of John Nerud, who on his own account or as the general manager of Tartan Farms bred Fappiano and developed the female families that led to the production of both Fappiano and his most influential son, Unbridled.

Fappiano represents a third-generation Nerud pedigree, beginning with his granddam, the Tartan Farms-bred Grand Splendor. Sired by 1954 Florida Derby winner Correlation out of Tartan foundation mare Cequillo (by Princequillo), Grand Splendor won a division of the Pageant Handicap for Tartan before being acquired by Nerud. For him Grand Splendor foaled Killaloe, a good allowance winner by Dr. Fager.

One of the fastest horses ever seen in America, Dr. Fager was the product of another mating planned by Nerud, in which he sent Tartan’s other foundation mare, Aspidistra (by Better Self), to Ocala Stud’s Rough’n Tumble. Named for the neurosurgeon who saved Nerud’s life following a skull fracture, Dr. Fager won five championship titles for Nerud as trainer, including 1968 Horse of the Year honors. Although he died of a ruptured stomach in 1976, Dr. Fager was the leading sire in North America in 1977.

One would expect the offspring of a mating between the brilliant Mr. Prospector and a daughter of Dr. Fager to have speed, and Fappiano certainly did, enough to win the 1981 Metropolitan Handicap (gr. I). While Mr. Prospector’s abilities as a sire of sires were not yet known at the time of Fappiano’s retirement, the colt’s race record and pedigree were more than enough to make him a welcome addition to Tartan’s stallion roster. Fappiano sired 1985 champion juvenile male Tasso in his first crop, and from there his stud career was off and running. Sadly, Fappiano lived only a year longer than had Dr. Fager, dying from complications of a leg fracture at age 13. That year (1990), he was runner-up to the equally ill-fated Alydar on the general sire list.

While Tasso was a stud failure, Fappiano sired three sons that have played a role in Triple Crown history. Ironically, two of them picked the same year, 1998, to come up with classic-winning sons. Fappiano’s Quiet American sired Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Real Quiet, whose bid for the Triple Crown was stymied by Victory Gallop in the Belmont. A son of Fappiano’s Cryptoclearance, who was second in the 1987 Belmont, Victory Gallop snatched the win away in the final stride in spite of interference from his tiring rival.

Neither Victory Gallop nor Real Quiet proved top sires (though Real Quiet is the sire of 2007 champion sprinter Midnight Lute  , himself the sire of a Canadian classic winner in 2013 Queen’s Plate winner Midnight Aria), but Fappiano’s best and most influential son has been Unbridled, a great-great-grandson of Aspidistra via four generations of matings planned by Nerud. The last champion produced from Tartan Farms’ breeding program, Unbridled won the 1990 Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. I) in the colors of Frances Genter.

The champion 3-year-old male of 1990, Unbridled entered stud at Gainesway Farm in 1992 (he moved to Claiborne Farm in 1997) and sired 1996 Kentucky Derby winner Grindstone, making the son of Fappiano the fifth Derby winner to beget a similar winner in his first crop and the first to do so since 1949 Derby winner Ponder sired 1956 victor Needles. Unfortunately, Grindstone injured a knee six days after the Derby and was retired. His best runner by far is 2004 Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone  , who spoiled Smarty Jones’ Triple Crown bid. Birdstone is, in turn, the sire of 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird (a gelding) and 2009 champion 3-year-old male Summer Bird, who emulated his sire by winning the Belmont and the Travers Stakes (gr. I). Also the winner of the 2009 Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes (gr. I) and champion 3-year-old male, Summer Bird died in Japan in 2013. His oldest foals are 3-year-olds of 2015.

Although Unbridled’s first crop also contained Unbridled’s Song, winner of the 1995 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (gr. I) and a successful sire, his next classic winner did not come along until 2000, when Red Bullet upset highly touted Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus in the Preakness. Talented but hampered by a badly constructed set of forelegs, Red Bullet was pensioned in 2011 after a disappointing stud career. His best runner, 2008 Canadian Horse of the Year Fatal Bullet, was a gelding.

Empire Makercompleted a Triple Crown for his sire by winning the 2003 Belmont Stakes at the expense of the popular gelding Funny Cide, whom he defeated in two of their three meetings. Unfortunately, the race he lost to his rival was the Kentucky Derby, for which he may not have been 100% after suffering a foot bruise that cost him a couple of days’ training time the week of the race. Then again, Empire Maker was something of a head case who could not always be counted on to give his best effort, and he was retired to stud later in the year off a loss in the Jim Dandy Stakes (gr. II), a race he probably could have won had he decided to get running before the final 100 yards.

A son of Juddmonte Farms’ great broodmare Toussaud (a grade I winner in her own right, and the 2003 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year), Empire Maker was expected to make a fine sire in spite of his mental quirks. He did well enough to lead the third-crop sire list in 2009 but not well enough to keep from being sold to Japanese interests in November 2010. At that point he had 18 stakes winners to his credit, most of them fillies. As so often seems to be the case, he got hot right after his export. Led by his daughter Royal Delta, who collected the first of her three Eclipse Awards in 2011, and 10 other stakes winners, his runners jumped him from 40th on the general sire list in 2010 to eighth in 2011. The following year, with Royal Delta and the brilliant Arkansas Derby (gr. I) winner Bodemeister   leading his 13 stakes winners, he was runner-up to Giant’s Causeway. Empire Maker has sired 51 stakes winners from nine crops of racing age, seven sired in the United States and two in Japan.

Had Pioneerof the Nile managed to win the 2009 Kentucky Derby instead of finishing second to Mine That Bird, Empire Maker might not have gotten on the plane. Nonetheless, the 2008 CashCall Futurity (gr. I) and 2009 Santa Anita Derby (gr. I) winner appears poised to take his sire’s place as a reliable source of quality stamina in the American marketplace and, thanks to American Pharoah, is a runaway leader of the third-crop sire list. As for American Pharoah, he has become both the third member of the fourth generation of Fappiano’s sire line to win a Triple Crown race (following Mine That Bird and Summer Bird) and the second member of the line to have a shot at sweeping the Triple Crown. Whether he will succeed where Real Quiet failed is anyone’s guess, but he has already done more than enough to ensure that he will get a good chance to extend the line of one of Mr. Prospector’s best sons to another generation.