Pedigree Profile: Integration

The undefeated Hill Prince winner comes from a remarkably deep pedigree

This weekend, West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing’s Integration remained a perfect three-for-three with a dazzling five-length win in the Hill Prince Stakes. The three-year-old son of Quality Road debuted at Churchill Downs this summer, where he handily defeated a maiden special weight field by 6 1/2 lengths. He returned in the G3 Virginia Derby and showed off an impressive closing kick to win going away at the end, and continued to showcase his talent this past weekend.

Integration’s connections paid $700,000 for him at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select sale, and it’s no wonder when you look at his pedigree. He’s a son of Quality Road, a top five leading sire who will stand for $200,000 in 2024, and out of the G1 winning Scat Daddy mare Harmonize. Although Harmonize is the only stakes winner under her Sky Mesa dam, that mare is a half-sister to the dam of multiple graded stakes winner Al Khali and his stakes-winning full brother Japan, and the deeper family is fabulous.

I talked about the ongoing legacy of Integration’s fifth dam, Too Chic, back in March, which you can read here, and he’s proving that the family is in no danger of slowing down. G1 winners tracing to Integration’s fourth dam, Chic Shirine, include Serra Lake, Keen Ice, Somali Lemonade, Verrazano, Preservationist, and Olympiad. This is also the family of graded stakes winner El Padrino, by Sky Mesa’s sire Pulpit, along with at least 15 other stakes winners.

I find it noteworthy that Integration comes from the same mitochondrial haplotype as his sire, who himself comes from the same Lowe family as his sire - both Quality Road and Elusive Quality are members of family 13c, tracing to Frizette, while Integration is a member of family 13d. As members of family 13, all three distantly trace to the same 17th century mare, and thus share a mitochondrial haplotype. Although he is Quality Road’s first stakes winner from a branch of family 13, Quality Road has produced G1 winners National Treasure and Spring Quality from other branches of this genetic family.

Integration is the first stakes winners in 15 starters by Quality Road and his sons and out of mares carrying Scat Daddy (although he does have a stakes placed runner on the cross), and the first of eight out of mares carrying Sky Mesa (though, again, he has the graded stakes placed winner Urban out of a Sky Mesa mare), but he’s the second stakes winner in six starters bred on the Quality Road/Too Chic cross, as Quality Road’s Blofeld has a stakes winner out of a mare by Brahms, whose second dam is Too Chic.

According to trainer Shug McGaughey, the plan is to target the Pegasus World Cup Turf with Integration, who could become the 11th G1 winner tracing to the blue hen Too Chic if he stays undefeated in that spot.