Tales from the Crib: American Promise

Apr 16, 2025 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

A newborn American Promise with mom Tapella (Photo courtesy of Matt Lyons/Candy Meadows)

As a flashy chestnut whose biggest weapon is early speed, American Promise might make you think of his sire, Triple Crown champion Justify. But that description could also fit his maternal grandmother, Princess Arabella, who retired as an undefeated favorite for the 2012 Kentucky Oaks (G1).

Like Justify, Princess Arabella was trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert. Her pedigree wasn’t as fashionable as Justify’s, however, and Princess Arabella failed to sell for a top bid of just $47,000 as a Keeneland September yearling. John Fort of Peachtree Stable acquired her privately, noting that she was out of a full sister to Invisible Ink, his lovable longshot who managed to finish second in the 2001 Kentucky Derby (G1).

Princess Arabella made herself a hot commodity by dominating all three of her starts. The even-money favorite in her unveiling at Santa Anita, she broke slowly and found herself behind, but rallied to win by 3 1/2 lengths. Fans bet her down to 1-10 favoritism in her ensuing allowance at the same track. Princess Arabella won again by the same margin, but using different tactics. She displayed high speed to force the pace and drew clear.

Making her stakes and two-turn debut in the Sunland Park Oaks, Princess Arabella went wire-to-wire by eight lengths. The 1-5 favorite ran right away from a useful rival named Glinda the Good, a multiple stakes winner who would produce champion Good Magic.

Princess Arabella attracted plenty of support in the Kentucky Oaks Future Wager, ranking as the 6-1 favorite among the individually named betting interests. She wasn’t far off the overall favored option, the mutuel field of “All other three-year-old fillies,” that closed at odds of 4-1.

Unfortunately, Princess Arabella missed her date with destiny. She picked up an injury that prompted her retirement, leaving one of the innumerable “what-ifs” of racing. Would she have extended her unbeaten record in the Oaks? Might she have established leadership of the three-year-old filly division and earned championship honors?

If Princess Arabella didn’t have the opportunity to showcase her talent fully on the racetrack, she has had time to transmit it as a broodmare. She began her new life by visiting leading sire Tapit. Carrying her first foal in January 2013, she was sold at Keeneland to Jane Lyon’s Summer Wind for $725,000.

Princess Arabella was bred back to Tapit, and their second foal was the filly Tapella. We now know Tapella as the mother of American Promise. A gray like her sire, Tapella, was offered as a yearling at the boutique Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, where Cheyenne Stable purchased her for $750,000.

Another attractive Tapit at FT Saratoga. Filly o/o Princess Arabella from Lanes End. pic.twitter.com/njQd3Zt2ch

— Jessica Martini (@JessMartiniTDN) August 9, 2015

Cheyenne Stable, the nom de course of Everett Dobson, refers to the Oklahoma town where he was raised. Dobson, who built a successful telecommunications company before getting involved in racing, will become the new chair of the Jockey Club later this summer.

The best horse campaigned solely by Cheyenne was unbeaten Mastery, a top hope for the 2017 Kentucky Derby before injury cut short his career. But several other high-profile performers were owned by Dobson’s stable in partnerships, including $3 million-earner Olympiad, runner-up to Flightline in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), and millionaire Caleb’s Posse, hero of the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1).

Tapella won twice for trainer Todd Pletcher in the fall of 2017 and tried graded stakes company in the Comely (G3) at Aqueduct, only to check in fourth. The winner, Actress, went on to produce Hit Show, a veteran of the 2023 Triple Crown trail and recent star of the Dubai World Cup (G1).

Also in 2017, Dobson bought another daughter of Princess Arabella at the same Saratoga sale, a Candy Ride filly, for $300,000. Named Ulele, she achieved graded placings in the 2019 Black-Eyed Susan (G2) and Iowa Oaks (G3), missing by just a half-length in both.

By the time younger half-sister Ulele was enhancing their family’s page, Tapella was a broodmare at Dobson’s nursery in the Bluegrass, Candy Meadows. In foal to leading sire Into Mischief, she delivered a gray filly who briefly would spark Derby ambitions herself – Hoosier Philly.

#4 Hoosier Philly (2/5) romps under wraps in the Golden Rod (G2) for @TomAmossRacing.

The #TwinSpiresReplay 🏇 pic.twitter.com/KxdaqYhaZX

— TwinSpires Racing 🏇 (@TwinSpires) November 26, 2022

As a yearling, Hoosier Philly was part of the Candy Meadows consignment at Keeneland September, selling for $510,000. She became a sensational juvenile of 2022, romping in the Rags to Riches S. and Golden Rod (G2) at Churchill Downs and stamping herself as a leading candidate for the Kentucky Oaks.

Hoosier Philly’s connections even mulled the Derby trail until she suffered her first losses that spring. Although she made neither the Oaks nor the Derby, she later regrouped, and Hoosier Philly remains a solid stakes competitor at age five. So far in 2025, she has finished third and fourth, respectively, in the Houston Ladies Classic (G3) and Beholder Mile (G1).

Exactly one week after the March 8 Beholder Mile, Hoosier Philly’s half-brother, American Promise, booked his Kentucky Derby spot with a track record-setting rout of the Virginia Derby. His career trajectory has been totally different from hers, a case study of starting in a low-key manner and improving over time.

American Promise was bred in the name of Candy Meadows and foaled at the farm on May 1, 2022 – the Sunday ushering in Derby Week that year.

Matt Lyons, the senior vice president and chief operating officer of Candy Meadows, recalled the chestnut colt’s sheer size.

“He was a big boy! He weighed 144 pounds at birth.”

As with Hoosier Philly, plans called for the colt to be sold as a yearling under the Candy Meadows banner at Keeneland September. His pedigree and conformation put him in the ultra-elite Book 1, as Hip No. 360. Things were progressing smoothly on course, only for a mishap to occur at a very inopportune time.

He “was always very straightforward until a few weeks before the sale,” Lyons said, “when he banged a knee playing in his paddock. We iced it and did all we could, but he still had a bump on it at sale.”

Given the intense competition among hundreds of yearlings in Book 1 alone, and more than 4,000 over the entire marathon sale, any blemish can put potential buyers off. But the shrewdest judges won’t let inconsequential trivialities get in the way.

“I definitely added a few gray hairs that week,” Lyons said. “Thankfully, Mr. Lukas is a consummate horseman and saw past it.”

Indeed, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, a four-time Kentucky Derby winner, liked what he saw in the rangy colt. Apparently so did others, since Lukas’s clients, John Bellinger and Brian Coelho, had to go to $750,000 to purchase him.

At that time, Bellinger and Coelho, who race as BC Stables, had a promising two-year-old by Justify named Just Steel. Likewise a Lukas trainee, Just Steel would place second in the 2024 Arkansas Derby (G1), participate in the Kentucky Derby, and finish fifth in the Preakness (G1).

Eventually named American Promise, the colt figured to take longer to come around. His size and later birthdate signified that he would need time to blossom. He lost his first five starts, but gained experience in good company. Sixth in his Saratoga debut won by Chancer McPatrick, American Promise also competed against the likes of Burnham Square, Publisher, and Render Judgment in maiden company.

American Promise finally broke through at Oaklawn Park Dec. 29, employing front-running tactics in a 1 1/16-mile maiden. He turned the tables on Publisher, who had previously finished ahead of him at Churchill, and earned his way onto the Road to the Kentucky Derby. American Promise’s initial tries were inauspicious, as he was demoted from a slow-starting sixth to seventh for interference in the Southwest (G3), and he was a non-threatening fifth in the Risen Star (G2).

It was a different story in the new-look Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs, where American Promise broke better and put himself into a pace-pressing mode. Once revving up his engine, he powered to a 7 3/4-length victory. He shattered the track record while clocking 1:46.41 for 1 1/8 miles around one turn of the spacious oval.

American Promise dominates in the Virginia Derby at @colonialdowns to pick up 50 points towards the @kentuckyderby! 🌹@nikjuarez had the mount for D. Wayne Lukas!

🎥 TwinSpiresReplay pic.twitter.com/pXV5QHYm14

— TwinSpires Racing 🏇 (@TwinSpires) March 15, 2025

Lukas intended to give American Promise one more prep in the April 12 Lexington (G3) at Keeneland, but revised his plan and opted to train the colt up to the Run for the Roses. The legendary octogenarian knows how to bring horses to their peak on the big day.

If American Promise lives up to his name, you might say that he’s vicariously fulfilling the promise of grandma Princess Arabella.