12 Pedigree fun facts: Instant Coffee

Jan 16, 2023 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Instant Coffee helped Bolt d’Oro to become the champion freshman sire of 2022. Bolt d’Oro’s progeny earned more than the offspring of his old rivals on the racetrack, Good Magic and Justify, who finished second and third, respectively, on the first-crop sires’ list. Now he hopes to keep that momentum going onto the Triple Crown trail.
Here are 12 pedigree fun facts to know about Instant Coffee:
1. Bolt d’Oro was a two-year-old sensation, winning his first three starts including the 2017 Del Mar Futurity (G1) and FrontRunner (now known as the American Pharoah) (G1) by 7 3/4 lengths. He accordingly went off as the 7-10 favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1), but a tough trip out wide hurt his chances, and he wound up third to champion Good Magic. 
2. Bolt d’Oro remained a prominent player in the Southern California preps. Awarded the San Felipe (G2) via disqualification, he finished runner-up to eventual Triple Crown winner Justify in the Santa Anita Derby (G1). But Bolt d’Oro ran below his best when 12th in the Kentucky Derby (G1), in what turned out to be his penultimate start before retiring to stud.
3. From the sire line of 1964 Kentucky Derby and Preakness legend Northern Dancer, Bolt d’Oro is a son of $5.7 million-earner Medaglia d’Oro. Another successful son of Medaglia d’Oro at stud is Violence, sire of reigning Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and 2023 Derby hopeful Forte. But Medaglia d’Oro’s most memorable runners are fillies – Hall of Famer Rachel Alexandra and two-time champion Songbird.
4. Bolt d’Oro is a half-brother to another Grade 1-winning millionaire, Global Campaign, who won the 2020 Woodward (G1) and Monmouth Cup (G3) and placed third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1). Global Campaign had tried the Triple Crown trail himself in 2019, notably capturing the Peter Pan (G3). Their dam, Globe Trot, was perfect as a broodmare, as all three of her foals were stakes winners. Her first, Sonic Mule, was also multiple Grade 2-placed. 

5. Globe Trot was a daughter of Hall of Famer and influential sire A.P. Indy. Himself by 1977 Triple Crown star Seattle Slew and out of a mare by the 1973 colossus Secretariat, A.P. Indy won the 1992 Belmont (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Classic. His legacy endures through his daughters (among them the dam of 2010 Derby winner Super Saver) and through his son Pulpit (sire of Tapit).

6. Globe Trot’s dam, multiple Grade 3 winner Trip, won or placed in a total of 12 stakes. One of her biggest wins came in the 2001 Turfway Breeders’ Cup (G3), upsetting then-reigning Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) victress Spain. 

7. Trip is by the brilliant Lord at War, a champion in his native Argentina who became a multiple U.S. Grade 1 winner. Lord at War factors as the broodmare sire of 2002 Derby and Preakness victor War Emblem as well as Pioneerof the Nile (sire of 2015 Triple Crown champ American Pharoah). Trip’s dam is the stakes-winning sprinter Tour, by champion and 1988 Kentucky Derby near-misser Forty Niner.

8. Instant Coffee is out of Follow No One, a stakes-placed daughter of Uncle Mo. The unbeaten champion juvenile of 2010, Uncle Mo unfortunately missed his chance at the Derby due to illness. But he gained compensation by siring champion Nyquist, just the second horse ever to turn the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile/Kentucky Derby double. Uncle Mo is also the sire of 2022 Belmont hero Mo Donegal and highly-regarded Arabian Knight, as well as the broodmare sire of current Derby candidate Arctic Arrogance. 

9. Follow No One’s dam, multiple stakes scorer Miss Red Delicious, is by Empire Maker, the runner-up to Funny Cide in the 2003 Kentucky Derby who exacted revenge in the Belmont. Empire Maker continues to be a force in pedigrees. The sire of fellow Derby runners-up Pioneerof the Nile (the aforementioned sire of American Pharoah) and Bodemeister (sire of 2017 Derby victor Always Dreaming), Empire Maker is the broodmare sire of 2021 awardee Mandaloun. 

10. Miss Red Delicious is out of Miss Mary Apples, who missed by a head in the 2002 Fashion S. to Holiday Runner (later the dam of Dubai sprint legend Reynaldothewizard and Grade 1 vixen Seventh Street.) Miss Mary Apples placed in four other stakes, including the Schuylerville (G2), and she was also runner-up in a 2003 Keeneland allowance to Fast Cookie (later the dam of Frosted).
11. Miss Mary Apples produced a total of four stakes winners, two of them graded. Her leading earner, multiple Grade 3-winning millionaire Lady Apple, was third in the 2019 Kentucky Oaks (G1). Her latest, American Apple, landed the Oct. 8 Matron (G3) and finished sixth versus the boys in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1).
12. Instant Coffee’s fourth dam, Sacred Sue, by Hall of Famer Holy Bull, descends from a full sister to 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed. Tracing the direct maternal line further back, into the late 19th century, one finds the outstanding sprinter Correction. She is herself a full sister to the all-time great Domino, a charter member of the Hall of Fame. This entire tribe, the 23-b family, is a prolific source of Derby winners, from Kingman (1891), Zev (1923), Tim Tam (1958), and Affirmed to Winning Colors (1988), Lil E Tee (1992), Mine That Bird (2009), and I’ll Have Another (2012). 

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