Mom and I are the horse people who actually think through our picks, Dad and DH just pick one from the post parade by name or post position and usually beat us. ANNOYING! This year Mom and I went 1-2, tho.
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I found it very difficult to understand a word he was saying all through the home stretch. The sound mixers have the crowd noise / track noise so high, it was all complete gibberish to me. Think “Peanuts” when adults talk - “Wah wah wah.” This is not an isolated case, either.
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And then sometimes you breed a mare named Joppy, miserable failure at the track obtained for an overdue board bill to a cheap, unremarkable stud named Saggy and get a small, scrawny colt named Carry Back who retired with a record of 61: 21-11-11 and one and a quarter million earnings in 1960-1963 dollars. Including the Fl. and Ky Derbies and the Preakness. Hope springs eternal.
That was the first Ky Derby I ever watched and one of the first ever telecast live (IIRC). Never forget it.
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Good strategy! That’s how I picked Northern Dancer. 
These days I pick the filly. If no filly, I pick the grey. If no greys, I pick by name.
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My only rule is “never pick the grey” 
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I refuse to pick the favorite (too easy?) 
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No, no…always pick the grey 
And as my dad taught me early on, never bet against a Phipps horse. I grew up near Saratoga and this was always great advice
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But you’re (possibly) missing out on the Tapits, and the Arrogates! It’s amazing that there are so many top grays now, when for years they were so unusual…
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My first Derby:
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And here is where I unveil myself to be a huge horseracing history geek. As a kid (in the 70’s) I bought every magazine (Bloodhorse and Thoroughbred of California) available to me, as well as any books in the remainder bin at the local B. Dalton. One of my favorites was Peter Chew’s history of the Kentucky Derby. I’ll always remember that the first gray winner was Determine, the second was his son, Decidedly. Native Dancer probably should have won (he almost did) but he almost certainly did the most to reinsert “gray” back into racing tbs /g
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That is so cool!
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Earlier today I got to thinking about Dan Patch and now I want to look up how he’s related to Mystik Dan and Dapper Dan.
Dan Patch was a Standardbred so it is very unlikely that he is related in any way to either Dapper Dan or Mystik Dan
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I actually recall seeing an interview with I believe his owner directly after the race. I don’t know the specifics of what he said because I was watching it at a family gathering and I was catching it over someone’s shoulder, but there was definitely a (obviously) disappointed vibe to the interview. I tried finding the interview just now but wasn’t successful.
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Because he was a Standardbred he almost certainly was related to the two TBs.
OK, given that Dan Patch raced in the very early 1900s, any common TB ancestry between him, Dapper Dan, and Mystik Dan would be many many generations ago. Let us know what you find out!
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The “foundation sire” for the Standardbred is Hambletonian a great-grandson of the TB Messenger (foaled 1780).
Dan Patch traces back to Hambletonian at least 3 times (4th and 5th generation.
Yes, any connection to modern TBs would be pretty far back.
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Mystik Dan’s pedigree is interesting to me. His fourth dam produced the 1.3 million dollar earner Dixie Dot Com, the stakes placed filly Talentina and black type producer Cherokee Crossing (Dan’s third dam)
His fifth dam was sent to Japan but produced a few USA foals while she was here, one of them being the Graded Stakes Placed and course record setter, Kiltarton Cross.
His next dam produced the graded stakes winning mare, Summertime Promise (Najinksy) who also produced the G3 winner General Meeting (Alydar). Summertime Promise is also the dam of Carson City.
His next dam is Hillbrook who was the half sister to Hall of Fame horse, Hillsdale, and produced the graded stakes placed mare, Prides Profile.
His next dam, born in 1933, produced the Champion 3 yr old colt of 1945, Fighting Step.
I think what is most intriguing about Mystik Dan is his lack of inbreeding within the first 5 generations. It’s a rarity these days not to mention his complete lack of commercial-type pedigree that is commanding money at the sales these days. Worries me a bit for his demand as an eventual stallion but these are the types of horses the breed needs. He has a 2023 sister by Knicks Go and a 2022 sister by Unified.
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We need another Into Mischief?
His problem isn’t a lack of commercial breeding. The problem is he’d be in direct competition with his sire and grandsire.
(I’m not knocking his breeding, I LOVE his breeding)
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I love it too…mine is related through Alydar and Tizznow:heartpulse:
