Derby Prospects: Damon's Mound
The Saratoga Special winner brings some interesting female family linebreeding to the table
Damon's Mound burst onto the Kentucky Derby scene last summer with a 12 1/2 length debut win at Churchill Downs on July 2nd. He returned just over a month later to score a decisive win - albeit over just three rivals - in the G3 Saratoga Special Stakes, then put in a slightly disappointing effort when finishing 6th in Churchill's Iroquois Stakes (G3) after getting caught up in a speed duel. He was given time off after that effort and has yet to put in a published work, which he will need to do soon if he’s to be ready for the first Saturday in May, but he’s still on the radar as a promising three-year-old.
Damon's Mound was one of two graded stakes winners in the first crop of his sire, Girvin, and one of five stakes winners in total. Girvin entered stud at Ocala Stud in 2019 with a $7,500 stud fee, but thanks to the success of his first crop, will be relocated to Airdrie Stud in Kentucky for the 2023 season and stand for $25,000. Girvin won both the Risen Star (G2) and Louisiana Derby (G2) as a three-year-old before finishing 13th in the Kentucky Derby. That summer, he would become a G1 winner in the Haskell Invitational. He was a non-factor in the Travers (G1) and Oklahoma Derby (G3), then finished his career with a second-place effort in the G3 Steve Sexton Mile Stakes in his only start at age four.
Girvin's pedigree was very interesting, though not particularly commercial as a son of the underrated stallion Tale of Ekati. Tale of Ekati was a graded stakes winner at two and a G1 winner at three for Darby Dan Farm and Charles Fipke. He is part of the tremendous family 1g, which I've previously discussed. While his dam was a non-winner in three starts, she was a half sister to champion Hall of Famer Sky Beauty. Their dam, MG1W Maplejinsky, was a half-sister to champion Dayjur, out of champion sprinter Gold Beauty. Among others, Gold Beauty was a half-sister to graded stakes winner The Prime Minister, who will become relevant later.
Girvin's female family was nearly as impressive as that of his sire, being out of an unraced full sister to Russian G1 winner Fancy Malibu. Their dam, multiple stakes winner Catch My Fancy, also produced stakes winners Dubini and What a Catch. Catch My Fancy was inbred 3x2 to her granddam, Monique Rene, who was a 15-time black type winner and an excellent broodmare whose descendants include Midnight Bourbon (a half brother to Girvin), Silver Max, Shancelot, and Catch My Fancy's sire Yes It's True. Notably, Yes It's True's dam Clever Monique was by family 9's Clever Trick, who shares the "G2a" mitochondrial haplotype with Monique Rene's family A1.
While there are no stakes winners in the first six generations of Damon's Mound's female family, his dam San Antonio Stroll was a three-time winner with multiple stakes placings at Retama Park. As a member of family 3o, she shares a common ancestor with horses like champion sires Tapit and Blandford, Belmont Stakes winners Summer Bird and Sherluck, and French champion Caro, among others. The combination of San Antonio Stroll with Girvin creates some fascinating inbreeding and linebreeding.
Immediately obvious at a glance is the inbreeding to the brilliant mare Narrate, the granddam of both Tale of Ekati's sire Tale of the Cat and Stroll's sire Pulpit via the full sisters Yarn and Preach. Inbreeding to Narrate has produced such stakes winners as Triple Crown winner Justify and G1 winners Con Te Partiro and Harmonize (all from the Johannesburg sire line). The Tale of the Cat sireline has produced 7 stakes winners from mares carrying Pulpit, led by Damon's Mound and G3 winner Gray's Fable. Tale of Ekati has three-time stakes winner Tivis out of a Pulpit mare. Like Tale of Ekati, Stroll is by a grandson of Narrate out of a mare from family 1 - both family 1k and 1g split off from the family 1f mare Pawn, the 20th dam of Tale of Ekati and 16th dam of Stroll.
Also notable is that both Pulpit and Girvin's damsire Malibu Moon are sons of A.P. Indy out of mares by Mr. Prospector. The cross of Malibu Moon over Pulpit has also produced stakes winner Benevengo, a son of Malibu Moon's son Gormley and out of a Pulpit second dam. One of my favorite aspects of this pedigree is the presence of The Prime Minister as Damon's Mound's second damsire, as his half sister Gold Beauty is the third dam of Tale of Ekati.
This is a pedigree that suggests the ability to go at least a mile, but it’s not necessarily crying out for a mile and a quarter - Girvin was 13th in the Kentucky Derby and 11th in the Travers in his only tries at the distance, while Stroll finished 6th as the favorite in the Manhattan Handicap in his only try at 10 furlongs. San Antonio Stroll never tried past 1 1/16 miles, and her best career efforts came at a flat mile. Tale of Ekati did finish 4th in the Kentucky Derby, and was out of a mare by Kentucky Derby winner Sunday Silence, but his best races were at a mile or a mile and an eighth. Malibu Moon is the sire of Kentucky Derby winner Orb, however Orb was out of a mare by Kentucky Derby winner Unbridled, while Catch the Moon is out of a mare by the sprinter Yes It's True. Damon's Mound's will need to relax in a way that he did not in his only try around two turns if he has any chance of getting the Derby distance.
While Damon's Mound may seem modestly-bred at first glance, there's plenty of reason to believe his talent is, at least in part, the result of clever breeding.