Pedigree Profile: Bishop's Bay
The Salvator Mile winner is bred on a cross that duplicates Lowe family 21a
On Saturday, Bishop’s Bay continued his comeback with a 5-length win in the G3 Salvator Mile Stakes. The five-year-old son of Uncle Mo brought his career record to seven wins from ten lifetime starts with this victory, and while he has yet to step back up into top class company, he has shown a very promising trajectory in 2025 after a nearly 17-month layoff from June of 2023 through November of 2024. Prior to his layoff, Bishop’s Bay claim to fame was a pair of second-place finishes - a game defeat in the 2023 Peter Pan Stakes to Arcangelo, who would of course go on to win both the Belmont and Travers Stakes, and a runner-up finish to Two Phil’s in the Ohio Derby. He’s lost only once in the last seven months, a game head defeat in an allowance optional claiming race on January 5th. Since then, he’s won an allowance, the listed American Pharoah Overnight Stakes, the G3 Westchester, and now the G3 Salvator Mile.
Bishop’s Bay is a son of Uncle Mo out of the stakes winning Pioneerof the Nile mare Catch My Drift, who is the dam of two additional black type runners: graded stakes winner Catching Freedom and stakes placed Strava. This is the fairly uncommon Lowe family 42, and Bishop’s Bay traces to the stakes winning Baldski mare April Dawn Marie as his fifth dam. She is the tail-female ancestor of 19 stakes winners, with 14 stakes winners in 187 starters (7.5%) from her line since January of 2011.
Bishop’s Bay is one of 112 stakes winners by his late sire, who passed away late last year following a leg injury. An emerging sire of sires and broodmare sire, Uncle Mo appears on the sire’s side of the pedigree of 205 stakes winners and on the dam’s side of 23 stakes winners.
The most intriguing aspect of this pedigree is, to me, the cross of Indian Charlie over Pioneerof the Nile, as they share the Lowe family 21a as descendants of the Bull Dog mare Dog Blessed, the sixth dam of both. The cross of stallions carrying Indian Charlie over mares carrying Pioneerof the Nile has produced three stakes winners in just 27 starters (11.1%), including G1 winner A Mo Reay. The reverse cross has been equally productive from a much larger sample size - ten stakes winners in 85 starters (11.8%), - which suggests to me that this is a cross that will continue to hold up even as it is tried more frequently.
Bishop’s Bay is a horse who has always shown a lot of promise, and I’m excited to see how he continues to progress into 2025.