Derby Prospects: Angel of Empire
The Risen Star Stakes winner comes from a unique family but has linebreeding to one of the best in the breed
This past Saturday, Angel of Empire pulled a 13-1 upset in the Risen Star Stakes for trainer Brad Cox. He was coming off a decent runner-up finish to Risen Star favorite Victory Formation in the Smarty Jones Stakes, and benefited from a relatively contentious pace to edge out Sun Thunder and Two Phil’s for the win. While the final time of 1:51.47 was fairly uninspiring, there’s still plenty of upside to Angel of Empire.
Angel of Empire was one of two graded stakes winners on the card for his sire, Classic Empire, the other being Classy Edition. Both Classy Edition and Angel of Empire are out of mares from the Bernardini sire line, with Classy Edition being out of a Bernardini mare and Angel of Empire’s dam being by his son To Honor and Serve.
The cross of Classic Empire with Bernardini is an extension of the Empire Maker/A.P. Indy cross that gave us the likes of champion Royal Delta and graded stakes winner Soaring Empire. G1 winners Matareya (by Pioneerof the Nile and out of a Bernardini mare) and Harvey’s Lil Goil (by American Pharoah out of a Tapit mare) are also examples of elite horses bred on this cross. What I find most fascinating about this particular iteration, however, is that Classic Empire and Bernardini both come from female family 4m.
While you have to go back to family 4m’s foundation mare Magnolia to find their most recent common ancestor in the tail-female line, there’s another intriguing link between their families via Classic Empire’s fifth dam, Alanesian. Alanesian is the dam of Boldnesian, the great-grandsire of A.P. Indy. Classic Empire also has G3 winner Morello from a mare by A.P. Indy’s son Congrats.
Family 4m is a vast and successful sire family, and while Classic Empire’s first crops have been modestly received at auction and , the Alanesian branch of family 4m is responsible for not just Boldnesian but also stallions such as Harlan’s Holiday and Ride the Rails (the sire of Candy Ride). Successful stallions from other branches of the family include the likes of Unbridled’s Song, Dixieland Band and his son Dixie Union, French Deputy, Cozzene, and Allen’s Prospect among their ranks.
Classic Empire currently gets 60.3% winners and 5.1% stakes winners from 136 starters, fairly reasonable numbers for a young stallion. He was a champion at two and a G1 winner at three, and was able to get a classic placing when finishing second in the Preakness Stakes in what would be his final career start. He bred 185 mares in his first season at stud in 2018, for 124 live foals, but bred a significantly reduced number of mares in 2019, only 104. He bred 122 mares in 2020, 95 in 2021, and 100 in 2022.
His first crop of weanlings sold for an average of $126,684 and a median of $115,000 in 2019, then sold for an average of $87,142 and a median of $52,500 as yearlings the following year. Only three of five weanlings offered from his second crop sold at auction, for an average of $34,000 and a median of $40,000. His first crop sold for an average of $132,150 and median of $73,500 as two-year-olds in 2021, while his yearlings sold for an average of $60,446 and median of $45,000. He had more weanlings sell from his third crop that year, but the nine to sell went for an average of $23,667 and median of $25,000. He had two stakes winners in that first crop, including Classy Edition, and was the fourth-leading first-crop sire of 2021 behind Gun Runner, Practical Joke, and Connect (a fellow member of family 4m).
Last year, he was the seventh-leading second-crop sire and his sale prices continued to stagnate. His two-year-olds sold for an average of $77,023 and a median of $49,000; yearlings sold for an average of $57,528 and a median of $32,000; and his weanlings sold for an average of $13,250 and median of $12,500. However, having a horse on the Derby trail could certainly improve his stock in the coming months, and he might yet add to the ranks of this elite stallion-producing family despite the fact it seems he was quickly forgotten by the commercial market.
Angel of Empire himself has quite the interesting pedigree. A $32,000 RNA as a weanling and $70,000 Keeneland September yearling, he is out of a daughter of To Honor and Serve who was a non-winner in 8 starts but a half-sister to graded stakes winner Conquest Big E and stakes winner Aquapazza. Their dam, Seeinsbelieven, was a Carson City half to graded stakes winners Coragil Cat and Softly, out of the stakes-placed Metfield mare Coragil.
Coragil was a half to three graded stakes winners out of the Whitesburg mare White Jasmine, who was notable for being inbred 3x3 to her third dam, Papila, also the dam of 1959 co-champion two-year-old Crimson Satan (the sire of Whitesburg). This female family 26 is not often seen, and their mitochondrial haplotype “B1a” is also fairly uncommon, also found in family 31 and certain branches of family 5, including family 5i, which can be found in this pedigree via Classic Empire’s third damsire Hoisst the Flag. Papila’s influence is perhaps most felt in the modern breed in America via Cee’s Song, the dam of Tiznow and second dam of Paynter and Oxbow. It’s quite possible this is merely a coincidence, but I found it worth noting that Classic Empire has stakes winner Beautiful Empire out of a mare by Tiznow’s son Colonel John.
The influence of family 4 in Angel of Empire’s pedigree is not limited to Classic Empire and Bernardini. Both his damsire To Honor and Serve and second damsire Carson City come from female family 4r, another prominent branch of the family from the same mitochondrial haplotype “I2a1.”
Being from the Empire Maker sire line, you’d expect Angel of Empire to appreciate a route of ground. He won his debut at a mile and his only sprint attempt was an unsuccessful allowance try over the Kentucky Downs turf. However, his dam’s side could raise some concerns about whether ten furlongs will be his best trip.
To Honor and Serve was best at a mile to a mile and an eighth and may have had some distance limitations, finishing up the track in both of his Breeders’ Cup Classic attempts. Carson City was most definitely a sprinter, and Seeinsbelieven’s lifetime wins came at five and six and a half furlongs. Her dam by Metfield was more of a mid-distance runner, winning all three of her races at a mile and a sixteenth (twice on turf and once on dirt), and finishing third in Arlington’s Double Delta Stakes at a mile.
Despite the minor question marks about stamina on the bottom half of his pedigree, the Empire Maker influence and Angel of Empire’s ability to relax early in a race suggest that the Kentucky Derby distance shouldn’t be an issue for him. He’s done nothing wrong in his dirt starts, seems to be getting better, and should be an interesting horse to follow on the Kentucky Derby trail.