Pedigree Profile: Saudi Crown

The Pennsylvania Derby winner is the first G1 winner for his sire

This past weekend, Saudi Crown became the 9th unique three-year-old G1 winner in 10 dirt routes so far this year, continuing the trend of a wide-open division. After starting off his career with two consecutive wins, Saudi Crown proved he belonged with the top of the class, with very competitive runner-up finishes in his first two attempts against stakes company. He went off favored in the Pennsylvania Derby and ran as expected, taking the field gate to wire over a sloppy track.

Saudi Crown is the first graded stakes winner and G1 winner for his sire, 2017 Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming, and is part of that stallion’s first crop of three-year-olds. He is one of only two stakes winners from Always Dreaming’s initial crop, which has produced 46 winners in 119 starters to date (38.7%).

Always Dreaming was never a horse with a lot of commercial hype behind him as a stallion, with his first crop of yearlings selling for an average of $36,543 and median of $26,500, though they saw some popularity as two-year-olds, selling for an average of $74,592 and median of $43,500 last year. However, the results on the racetrack have been fairly lackluster - he was the 18th leading first-crop sire and is currently 11th on the second-crop sire list, with a third of his $2.4 million in progeny earnings attributed to Saudi Crown.

Always Dreaming is a son of Bodemeister and out of the graded stakes winning In Excess mare Above Perfection, who is also the dam of G1 winner Hot Dixie Chick. Notably, Hot Dixie Chick is a graded black type producer of Pauline’s Pearl, by Saudi Crown’s damsire Tapit. Though a brilliantly fast racehorse who had a lot of buzz around his first foals, Bodemeister had somewhat underperformed at stud and was sold to stand in Turkey for the 2020 season. It’s interesting that Always Dreaming’s second damsire was the stallion Somethingfabulous, who can also be found in the pedigree of the young stallion City of Light. Somethingfabulous was a half brother to Secretariat, to whom the dam of Bodemeister was inbred 3x4. Their dam, Somethingroyal, also produced the stallion Sir Gaylord, who was the third damsire of A.P. Indy and the sire of Bodemeister’s 5th damsire Habitat. Always Dreaming thus had Somethingroyal 6x7x9x9x4 in his pedigree.

Saudi Crown’s dam, New Narration, was an unraced daughter of Tapit whose first foal was by Exaggerator. That gelding, Westphal, sold for $80,000 as a two-year-old and is a three-time winner who broke his maiden for a $20,000 tag at Los Alamitos and picked up additional wins in allowance optional claiming company at Turf Paradise. While he has been a fairly consistent performer at lower-level tracks, the four-year-old has yet to make even his initial price tag in earnings.

New Narration was out of the graded stakes winning Forestry mare New Normal, who was a nice racehorse but has only produced a single winner in four starters as a broodmare. She was out of the stakes winning Red Ransom mare New Economy, who also produced graded stakes placed Distorted Economy. Though New Economy was the only stakes winner out of her dam, Sunyata, she was a half-sister to the dam of G1 Breeders’ Futurity winner Nobles Promise, and this family is stacked with talent in the next couple of generations.

Saudi Crown’s fifth dam is the Nijinsky mare Far Beyond, who produced only a single stakes winner but is the granddam of graded stakes winners Parade Ground, Parade Leader, Speed Dialer, Tricky Creek, Plenty of Grace, and Soaring Softly. At least 32 stakes winners trace tail-female to Far Beyond, who was herself a half to the mare Miss Swapsco, best known as the dam of 1992 Canadian Broodmare of the Year Ballade, the dam of Glorious Song, Devil’s Bag, and Saint Ballado. Miss Swapsco is the tail-female ancestor of 35 stakes winners, and at least 71 stakes winners trace to her dam, Soaring.

The cross of Always Dreaming with New Narration creates multiple lines of inbreeding - Unbridled, Storm Cat, and A.P. Indy all get duplicated in this mating. Both Bodemeister and New Narration carry these three influential stallions, and via opposite-sex sources - Bodemeister has a son of Unbridled and daughters of Storm Cat and A.P. Indy, while New Narration has sons of Storm Cat and A.P. Indy combined with a daughter of Unbridled.

As a result of this inbreeding, New Narration brought in three additional crosses of Somethingroyal - A.P. Indy brought in his crosses of Secretariat and Sir Gaylord, and the additional cross of Storm Cat contributed his Secretariat damsire.

The cross of Empire Maker over Tapit, which creates this sex-balanced inbreeding to Unbridled, has produced five stakes winners prior to Saudi Crown, all via Empire Maker’s son Pioneerof the Nile, for 5.4% stakes winners from starters. The cross of Empire Maker over Saudi Crown’s second damsire Forestry has been even more productive, with 6.4% stakes winners from starters, including Brazilian G1 winner Dashing Court and Bodemeister’s stakes winner Critical Value.

Always Dreaming’s damsire In Excess has also crossed well with both Tapit and Forestry. The cross of stallions carrying In Excess over mares carrying Tapit has produced 9.3% stakes winners in 54 starters, while the In Excess/Forestry cross has produced 6.1% stakes winners, including Uncle Mo’s G1 winning sons Nyquist and Arabian Knight, in 99 starters.

The blood of Empire Maker has also seen success with this female family. There have been 19 foals tracing tail-female to Far Beyond with Empire Maker in the sire’s pedigree, and two (10.5%) are stakes winners - American Pharoah’s Hudson Ridge and El Pando by Outwork (whose damsire is Empire Maker). Notably, Outwork is by Uncle Mo, a grandson of Always Dreaming’s damsire In Excess, so El Pando has multiple pedigree connections to Saudi Crown. Indian Charlie’s son Conveyance has also produced a stakes winner from Far Beyond’s tail-female line, for 10% stakes winners in 20 starters bred on the cross.

While Always Dreaming has been a lackluster stallion to date, Saudi Crown looks to be a very bright spot in his early stud career. With such a wide-open three-year-old division, he has to be taken seriously going into Breeders’ Cup season.