Pedigree Profile: Disco Time

The Brad Cox trainee brought his career record to a perfect 3-for-3 with his Lecomte win

Disco Time proved best over the weekend in the first Fair Grounds Kentucky Derby prep, the G3 Lecomte Stakes. Sent off as the favorite in the field of 13, the son of Not This Time rallied from tenth to overtake Built late and prevail by a neck. Having tracked the pace in his first two career victories, Disco Time showed a new dimension in the Lecomte, and his tactical flexibility bodes well for him moving forward. The Juddmonte Farm homebred is trained by Brad Cox and was ridden to victory by Florent Geroux, who has been aboard for all three starts to date.

Disco Time is the fourth foal from his dam, the stakes winner and graded stakes placed Pennsylvania-bred mare Disco Chick, by Jump Start. She is the dam of one other starter, the six-year-old Arrogate gelding Bright Spark, who has had a solid career in claiming and allowance company, posting five victories and earning $231,186 in 27 career starts.

There is very little black type in Disco Time’s immediate family. His dam was a half-sister to a stakes placed sprinter by Silver Train, but then you have to go back to Disco Time’s fifth dam Chou Croute to find any additional black type. That Lt. Stevens mare was the 1972 Eclipse Award champion sprinter, and while she is the tail-female ancestor of a few state-bred stakes winners and stakes placed runners, Disco Time is the first graded stakes winner to descend from this branch of Lowe family 2d.

Digging deeper, this is the family of the great mare Mother Goose, whose other descendants include the blue hen Almahmoud, granddam of the likes of Halo and Northern Dancer, but you have to go back to the tenth generation to find her in Disco Time’s tail-female line.

Not This Time is a stallion who has quickly established himself as a potential breed-shaper for Taylor Made Stallions. Physically, the dark bay is built in the image of his grandsire Storm Cat, and he seems to be the primary heir to the Giant’s Causeway sire line in North America. His sixth crop are two-year-olds of 2025, and from his 364 starters from his first five crops to race he has produced seven G1 winners, ranging from world record-setting turf sprinter Cogburn to Travers Stakes winner Epicenter and turf router Up to the Mark. He is also the sire of the dominant marathon runner Next, demonstrating that he is capable of getting both speed and stamina from his offspring. His 11.5% stakes winners from starters compares favorably with the likes of leading sires Gun Runner (11% from 336 starters) and Justify (9% from 328 starters), who both stand for $250,000 to Not This Time’s $175,000.

The question of distance, as is the case with so many three-year-olds on the Kentucky Derby trail, is a bit of a coin flip for Disco Time. In Disco Time’s favor is the fact that the average winning distance for his sire’s offspring is a healthy 7.2 furlongs. His half-brother Bright Spark is a winner at distances up to 9 1/2 furlongs, which also gives some confidence that Disco Chick can produce runners at route distances despite being a sprinter from a family of sprinters. Disco Chick never raced beyond seven furlongs, and none of her four siblings to race found success at distances greater than 6 1/2 furlongs. She was a daughter of Jump Start, who tends toward mid-distance runners, and out of a mare by the excellent sprinter Disco Rico. With his proven versatility and the influence of his sire, however, I am not particularly worried about the sprint-leaning female family of Disco Time when it comes to stretching out to the Kentucky Derby distance.