Pedigree Profile: John Hancock
The Sam F. Davis winner's pedigree has me looking to the future
WinStar Farm and CHC’s Constitution colt John Hancock took the Sam F. Davis Stakes gate-to-wire in a gritty performance over Owen Almighty, earning him 20 qualifying points toward the Kentucky Derby. Owen Almighty pressed John Hancock through quick fractions of :22.75, :46.23, and 1:10.49, and though he took the lead at around the eighth pole, John Hancock fought back and finished half a length in front of his rival in a stakes record time of 1:42.27.
It was only the second career start for the Brad Cox trainee, who was piloted by Flavien Prat over the weekend. He had broken his maiden exactly a month prior, taking a six furlong maiden special weight at Tampa Bay Downs by three lengths in similar gate-to-wire fashion.
In today’s Thoroughbred racing industry, it’s never too early to start thinking stallion prospect, and while two-for-two with a win in a listed stakes isn’t exactly the racing resume of a top class stallion yet, I think this is a horse that could end up an exceptionally interesting addition to the roster at owner/breeder WinStar Farm upon his retirement, at least based on pedigree.
John Hancock is a son of Constitution out of Scribbling Sarah, a daughter of Freud who also produced G1 Ashland Stakes winner Speech by Mr. Speaker, who, like Constitution, is a member of the Pulpit sire line. Her dam, the Talkin Man mare Plinking, produced three stakes placed full siblings to Scribbling Sarah, all finding their success on the turf.
Plinking was out of the Lord at War mare Holy Wish, the dam of graded stakes winner Wishful Tomcat (by Tactical Cat), multiple stakes winners Uncle T Seven (by Freud), Lucky Lewis (by Forest Camp), and stakes winner Zetterholm (by Silver Train). Holy Wish was out of a half-sister to G1 Hopeful Stakes winner Papal Power, out of Papal Decree, a daughter of the influential broodmare Gris Vitesse.
Gris Vitesse was the dam of two black type runners in Europe - French stakes winner Blast Off and multiple group stakes winner Silver Hawk, who became a very good sire in the United States, siring G1 winners such as Memories of Silver, Hawkster, Wonder Again, and Nashoba’s Key. Gris Vitesse is the tail-female ancestor of 24 stakes winners worldwide, with seven G1 winners including two last year: Arkansas Derby winner Muth and Saratoga Derby winner Carson’s Run.
The reason I find John Hancock’s pedigree so interesting as a stallion, besides a strong female family behind him, is the array of damsires present. Freud is a half-brother to Giant’s Causeway, whose son Not This Time and grandson Gun Runner were both top ten leading stallions in 2023 and top 15 leading stallions in 2024.
His second damsire, Talkin Man, is a rarely-seen member of Lowe family 9b, a family that is responsible for the elite stallions Speightstown and Medaglia d’Oro. I talked in more depth about that shared female family in this post from 2023.
Another top ten stallion every year since 2020 (he was 11th in 2019 and 13th the year before), Uncle Mo is a son of Indian Charlie, who shares his family 21a with John Hancock. Also a member of that family 21a is Pioneerof the Nile, whose son American Pharoah was 15th on the general sire list of 2024. The young stallion Volatile, whose first foals are three-year-olds this year, is a member of this family from the Medaglia d’Oro sire line, and Muth, from the Gris Vitesse branch of 21a, enters stud in 2025.
John Hancock’s third damsire, Lord at War, shares his family 19c with the elite stallion Curlin. The cross of Lord at War over Curlin has produced a single stakes winner in just 20 starters, by a son of Pioneerof the Nile (who was out of a Lord at War mare), while the reverse has produced an outstanding seven stakes winners in 64 starters (10.9%). This makes a potential future cross with Muth even more interesting, as does the presence of Tale of the Cat as Muth’s second damsire, as that stallion is out of a full sister to the dam of Pulpit.
Even his fourth damsire, Halo, provides opportunities for linebreeding to the great mare Almahmoud, the granddam of both Cosmah and the immortal Northern Dancer, who appears six total times in John Hancock’s pedigree.
I have been paying more attention lately to deeper linebreeding in pedigrees, and while a discussion on some of my preliminary thoughts on that will be available for paid subscribers later this month, I find it worth noting that while John Hancock has a relatively low 8-generation inbreeding coefficient of 1.47%, he carries 21 crosses of Nearco within nine generations - 16 of those via his son Nasrullah, who has four sons and three daughters present in John Hancock’s pedigree. Also of interest to me are the nine crosses of Princequillo here, via two sons (Round Table and Prince John) and five daughters.
Of course, all of this speculating about John Hancock as a sire is premature, and a more pressing question for many readers is how he figures to stretch out, as he has yet to run at distances greater than a mile and a sixteenth. Like most horses in the modern era, this is a question that’s tough to give a definitive answer to based on pedigree alone. His sire ran the worst race of his career in his only attempt at a mile and a quarter, although he was a multiple G1 winner at nine furlongs, and while most of his foals’ stakes success has come at the eight or nine furlong distance, he is the sire of a multiple G1 winner at ten furlongs in Tiz the Law, so he’s capable of getting horses that can go a classic distance.
John Hancock’s G1 winning sister accomplished that feat at a mile and an eighth, and while the offspring of Freud have found most of their high-level success at distances around a mile, he is the sire of two G1 winners going ten furlongs - Fourstar Crook in the United States and Summer Love in Argentina (the latter out of a Pulpit mare and thus bred on a reverse of the Pulpit/Freud cross John Hancock is bred on). Additionally, he is a full brother to Giant’s Causeway, a G1 winner at up to 10 1/2 furlongs. All three of Scribbling Sarah’s stakes-placed full siblings achieved that distinction at distances of a mile or greater, so I believe there is enough stamina on the bottom half of this pedigree that, when combined with Constitution, should lead to a horse that can stretch out to a mile and an eighth with no issue. The classic mile and a quarter distance is another question, of course, but I am not inclined to doubt John Hancock’s ability to go that far based on his pedigree.