12 Pedigree fun facts: Dubyuhnell

Feb 10, 2023 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

His mother was a top-class sprinter, but Dubyuhnell has already answered a distance question by capturing the 1 1/8-mile Remsen (G2). He inherits his stamina, and Kentucky Derby (G1) hopes, from sire Good Magic.

Although Good Magic won just once at two, his timing was impeccable. That victory came in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1), his first try around two turns, to earn the Eclipse Award. Good Magic added the 2018 Haskell Invitational (G1) and Blue Grass (G2) to his resume. He crossed swords with Justify in the Derby and Preakness (G1), finishing a hard-trying second and fourth, respectively. Off to a terrific start at stud, he has a few other first-crop sons on the Triple Crown trail, including Blazing Sevens, whose “Pedigree fun facts” contain more details on Good Magic. 

RELATED: Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Dubyuhnell

Good Magic’s sire Curlin, the 2007 Preakness hero who placed third in the Kentucky Derby and just missed in the Belmont (G1), reached the peak of his powers after the Triple Crown. Twice Horse of the Year in 2007-08, the powerful chestnut retired with North American record earnings of $10.5 million, amassed from such major wins as the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) and Dubai World Cup (G1). Curlin followed up his Hall of Fame career on the racetrack by becoming a top sire. Aside from his influence on the classics, as the sire of Palace Malice, Exaggerator, and Keen Ice (sire of 2022 Derby shocker Rich Strike), Curlin made history for delivering three Eclipse Award winners of 2022 – Malathaat, Nest, and Elite Power.

Glinda the Good is a Stonestreet Stables homebred like her son Good Magic and Dubyuhnell. By Curlin’s old rival Hard Spun, Glinda the Good captured a pair of minor stakes at three. But she placed to a few notable fillies in stakes. Third in the 2011 Pocahontas (G2) to future multiple Grade 1 vixen On Fire Baby, Glinda the Good was also runner-up to millionaire Grace Hall as well as to undefeated Princess Arabella.

Wild Gams won or placed in a total of 13 stakes during a 23-race career, all in sprints. The New Jersey-bred scored her richest victory in the 2008 Presque Isle Downs Masters (in track-record time), beating Miss Macy Sue (the dam of Breeders’ Cup winner Liam’s Map as well as Not This Time) and Dream Rush (the granddam of champion Malathaat). Wild Gams also captured a trio of Grade 3s, most notably the 2007 Thoroughbred Club of America (G3) at Keeneland, and she came up just a neck shy in the 2006 Prioress (G1).

Wild Gams is responsible for three stakes performers in addition to Dubyuhnell – Cazadero, Almost Famous, and Mt. Brave. Cazadero romped in the 2020 Bashford Manor (G3) at Churchill Downs and transferred his game to turf in the 2022 Nearctic (G2) at Woodbine. Another son, Almost Famous, tried the 2014 Derby trail for a time, but his best result was a fourth in the Holy Bull (G2). While he didn’t make it to the first Saturday in May, Almost Famous did finish third in that summer’s Matt Winn (G3) and Ohio Derby. Wild Gams’s daughter Mt. Brave won a small six-furlong stakes at Remington Park in 2019. Another daughter, A Shin Epona, was exported to Japan, where she produced current Grade 2 winner Gastrique. Because A Shin Epona is by Curlin, she is closely related (three-quarter sister) to Dubyuhnell.

Forest Wildcat, a multiple Grade 3-winning sprinter by Storm Cat, has been a vector for speed in pedigrees. Although he sired such accomplished sons as Var and Wildcat Heir, his greatest legacy could be through his daughters – i.e., as a broodmare sire. His Grade 2-winning daughter D’Wildcat Speed produced brilliant sprinter Lady Aurelia, twice a star at Royal Ascot. Other Forest Wildcat mares have foaled 2019 Canadian Horse of the Year Starship Jubilee and multiple Grade/Group 1 scorers Jungle Cat and Paradise Woods. Perhaps that female success is an echo of Forest Wildcat’s own family; his hardy half-sister, multiple graded winner Queen Alexandra, earned more than $1 million from 46 starts in the mid-1980s. 

Wild Gams is out of Diamonds and Legs, a stakes winner as a juvenile at Laurel. Diamonds and Legs is a daughter of Quiet American, also the sire of 1998 Triple Crown near-misser Real Quiet. Quiet American is leaving quite a mark as a broodmare sire. His daughter Cara Rafaela, herself a Grade 1 winner on the track, was honored as Broodmare of the Year after producing 2006 Preakness-winning champion Bernardini. Others out of Quiet American mares are 2005 Horse of the Year Saint Liam, globetrotting celebrity State of Rest, and 2022 Kentucky Oaks (G1) heroine Secret Oath.

Good Magic himself sports two crosses of Mr. Prospector. He belongs to his sire line, via Smart Strike, while “Mr. P” factors on his Good Magic’s dam’s side as well. Glinda the Good is out of a mare by Mr. P’s son Miswaki. Dubyuhnell inherits a third strand from Quiet American, a son of the Mr. P stallion Fappiano. Interestingly, a relative of Mr. Prospector, Bold Native, also turns up as the broodmare sire of Forest Wildcat.

Diamonds and Legs is out of a mare by the Kentucky-bred but European-raced Lear Fan. A high-class miler of 1984, Lear Fan placed in the first British classic of the season, the 2000 Guineas (G1), and went on to win the Prix Jacques le Marois (G1) handsomely at Deauville. The distant runner-up that day, Palace Music, is now better known as the sire of Hall of Famer Cigar. Lear Fan became an important stallion, and his progeny includes the dam of champion and leading sire Kitten’s Joy. 

Dubyuhnell’s great-great-grandmother (fourth dam in the female line) is by Cohoes, a homebred for the powerful Greentree Stable. By 1936 Epsom Derby star *Mahmoud and a grandson of blue hen *La Troienne, Cohoes landed the 1958 Brooklyn H. and Whitney S. He sired such major winners as Quadrangle, who famously won the 1964 Belmont when Northern Dancer was trying for the Triple Crown. 

Dubyuhnell’s sixth dam, Linear, is by the all-time great Nearco, a perfect 14-for-14 and a breed-shaping patriarch. But her dam was accomplished too. Linear is out of *Linaria, a two-time champion in Ireland. She ranked as champion two-year-old filly after defeating males in the 1945 Beresford S. and Railway S., and retained her status at three by capturing the 1946 Irish Oaks. *Linaria is also the direct matrilineal ancestress of Good Magic via another daughter, Courting. 

RELATED: Dubyuhnell tops field of 12 in Sam F. Davis

*Linaria’s dam, Lindos Ojos, placed in prestigious events in England – the Queen Mary S. in 1930 as well as the 1000 Guineas and Coronation S. in 1931. She is also the ancestress, through another branch of descent, of champions Devil’s Bag and Glorious Song as well as Saint Ballado.