Arcangelo: Bred for Belmont Glory

The Belmont Stakes winner is the third to descend from his third dam

Arcangelo’s thrilling win in the Belmont Stakes made his trainer Jena Antonucci the first woman to train a winner of a Triple Crown race. Although he was a $35,000 yearling due to less-than-perfect x-rays, he has proven to be an elite talent, and his breeding certainly suggests greatness.

Arcangelo took a few starts to figure the game out, but he showed some promise early. He closed from last on debut to finish a good second in a Gulfstream Park maiden special weight, then stretched out to a mile in his second start, when he was defeated 2 3/4 lengths by future Louisiana Derby winner Kingsbarns.

He broke through in his third start on March 18th, winning easily by 3 1/2 lengths, and from there the decision was made to try him against stakes company in the G3 Peter Pan Stakes. He went off as the second choice that day and won in a determined effort over the highly regarded Bishop’s Bay. It was clear that he was talented, and the decision was made to give him a chance against the best of his class in the Test of the Champion.

Arcangelo went off as the fifth choice in the Belmont, but looked like anything but a longshot in his victory. He was full of run while tracking front-runners Tapit Shoes and National Treasure from the rail early on, then came up between Hit Show and Tapit Shoes as National Treasure took a clear lead. As Tapit Shoes tired and contenders such as Angel of Empire and Tapit Trice began to move up on the turn, he and jockey Javier Castellano waited patiently for room and got it around the turn, bravely coming through to the inside of National Treasure and taking the lead from the Preakness winner as the field entered the stretch. Once he hit the front, he put daylight between himself and the field, holding sway to win by a length and a half while nearly half the field chased him in a blanket photo for second.

I’m excited to see how Arcangelo progresses from here. He’s a son of Arrogate, who himself didn’t truly come into his greatness until his record-setting performance in the Travers Stakes, so there’s plenty of reason to expect that there’s more improvement to come for Arcangelo.

Arrogate was a very well-bred horse, himself, being by top sire Unbridled’s Song and out of a multiple stakes winning mare by Distorted Humor named Bubbler. Bubbler was out of the graded stakes placed Deputy Minister mare Grechelle, herself a daughter of Eclipse champion two-year-old filly Meadowstar, by the brilliant two-year-old Meadowlake.

In addition to the stakes performers in his immediate family, Arrogate was from the same family 16g as horses such as Holy Bull, Manila, Miswaki, and Jump Start. In addition to Arcangelo from family 8f, he has G1 winner Cave Rock from family 8h. Both of these horses come from the same mitochondrial haplotype “L3a1b” as their sire.

This family 8f, in addition to Arcangelo’s immediate family discussed below, is responsible for horses such as Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone and Kentucky Derby winner Blue Larkspur, as well as the brilliant stallions Nijinsky and Raise a Native. Interestingly, the latter two stallions appear in tandem on both sides of Arcangelo’s damsire Tapit’s pedigree, as Tapit is inbred 4x5 to Raise a Native’s son Mr. Prospector and 5x3 to Nijinsky. Arrogate also carries two copies of Raise a Native, as both his sire and damsire hail from the Mr. Prospector sire line.

Arcangelo’s dam was a Tapit mare named Modeling, an unraced half sister to five black type horses, including G1 winner Streaming and stakes winners Cascading and Treasuring, as well as to Achieving, the dam of graded stakes winner Cezanne, stakes winner Counterforce, and G1 placed Arabian Hope. Modeling’s dam, Teeming, was a Storm Cat mare who was sold for $1.5 million as a weanling in 2001 and was a winner in three of her four starts, and the presence of her dam, Better Than Honour, in this pedigree had to give Arcangelo’s connections an extra boost of confidence when it came to trying the Belmont Stakes.

In addition to Teeming, Better Than Honour - a graded stakes winner at two and multiple G1 placed at three - was the dam of Belmont Stakes winners Jazil and Rags to Riches, as well as Peter Pan Stakes winner Casino Drive and Breeders’ Cup Marathon winner Man of Iron. She also produced Tiffany’s Honour, who would in turn produce multiple graded stakes winner Greatest Honour by Arcangelo’s damsire Tapit.

Better Than Honour was out of Kentucky Oaks winner Blush With Pride, who was also the dam of multiple group stakes winner Smolensk (in turn the dam of graded stakes winner Can the Man and multiple stakes winner Martha’s Moon); group winner Turnberry Isle; group one placed Maryinsky (the dam of the brilliant European champion Peeping Fawn); stakes placed Fire Thunder; the unraced stallion Desert God (a useful sire in New Mexico, perhaps best known as the sire of undefeated millionaire Pepper’s Pride); and Butterfly Blue, whose descendants include graded stakes winner America and her multiple graded stakes winning son First Captain, multiple group stakes winner Ecrivan, and G1 winner Paris Lights.

Blush With Pride’s descendants form just one branch of the family of her blue hen dam, Best In Show, whose female line accounts for over 150 stakes winners. Best In Show was a daughter of Traffic Judge, out of the Mr. Busher mare Stolen Hour. She was a talented racehorse in her own right, winning five of her 27 lifetime starts, including the 1968 Comely Stakes, but her contribution to the breed as a broodmare cannot be overstated.

Her first foal, Sex Appeal, by Buckpasser, was unraced but produced two winners of the G1 Dewhurst Stakes - Try My Best and El Gran Senor. It’s interesting to note that, as a daughter of Buckpasser out of a second dam by Mr. Busher, Sex Appeal was inbred 4x5 to another legendary broodmare in La Troienne.

Other G1 winners tracing tail-female to the Sex Appeal branch of Best In Show’s family include the Japanese superstar Almond Eye and her G1 winning dam Fusaichi Pandora, Domedriver, Albigna, Chinchon, Estrella Monarchos, Bahamian Pirate, Takedown, and Que Vida Buena.

Three years after foaling Sex Appeal, Best In Show produced Irish champion two-year-old Malinowski, by Sir Ivor. After producing a colt by Buckpasser in 1974, she went back to Sir Ivor for four consecutive foals. The first of these, born in 1975, was Minnie Hauk, a multiple stakes placed winner whose G1 winning descendants include Preakness Stakes winner War of Will and his G1 winning half brother Pathfork, as well as Aviance, Chimes of Freedom, Aldebaran, Good Journey, Imperfect Circle, and Spinning World.

Best In Show then produced Show Lady, who was unraced but who is the tail-female ancestor of nine Australian G1 winners, including the champion sire and broodmare sire Redoute's Choice.

The following year, Best In Show gave birth to Monroe, a group stakes winner whose matrilineal descendants include seven G1 winners, including Close Hatches, who is notable as the dam of Belmont Stakes runner-up Tacitus. Interestingly, Close Hatches, like Arcangelo, was by a son of Unbridled’s Song, and her classic-placed son was by Arcangelo’s damsire Tapit.

After Monroe, Best In Show produced group stakes winner Gielgud by Sir Ivor before giving birth to Blush With Pride the following year. She was the dam of six other foals, and while none were as noteworthy as her previous foals, her daughter Perfect Isn’t Easy was the third dam of G1 Clark winner Effinex.

Clearly, Best In Show’s influence has been felt throughout the breed as a whole, and Arcangelo is just another piece to her legacy. It’s fitting that a brilliant son of the late Arrogate would hail from such a prolific family, and I look forward to both Arcangelo’s racing career and his future as a stallion, as he has plenty of class to pass on from both sides of his pedigree.