With the freshman sire race warming up, a new entrant has jumped to number seven in the top ten list: Winstar’s Daredevil, a precocious son of More Than Ready whose first foals were pictured in a memorable advertising campaign featuring them photoshopped into dramatic activities demonstrating their, well, daredevilry.

Daredevil’s high point of his racing career came when he won the Champagne S.-G1 at Belmont at two, his only graded stakes win, and his career ended with earnings of $424,600. His stud fee of $7500 seemed appropriate, and one couldn’t help but wonder if he would pass on his precocity to his progeny.

This week seems to have proved that he is doing so. He had his first winner on Wednesday, June 12, in the UK, the colt Better the Devil, and his first winner in the US, Shedaresthedevil, in a Churchill Downs maiden special weight on Thursday, June 13 in her first start, as well as having a two-year-old in training sell for $245,000 at OBS June on Wednesday. Quite the week.

Daredevil’s pedigree is strong in that it features inbreeding to Almahmoud through both Halo and Northern Dancer, through her daughters Natalma an Cosmah, and inbreeding as well to Mr. Prospector; it is especially worth noting Woodman in his pedigree, a son of Mr. P out of a Buckpasser mare. Both Shedaresthedevil and Better the Devil have similar pedigrees, demonstrating this early on what nicks well with Daredevil. Both feature A.P. Indy, with another dose of Buckpasser, and the tail female line that Seattle Slew and Mr. P share, a strong nick.

Also appearing in both close up is Storm Cat, as well as other doses of Northern Dancer, underscoring the strength of extra doses of Natalma. It’s also worth noting that with both A.P. Indy and Storm Cat, these young runners have inbreeding to Secretariat’s great blue hen dam, Somethingroyal.

Is it possible that Daredevil may be the heir apparent to his prolific and popular sire, More Than Ready? As one of the last examples of the Hail to Reason/Turn-to sire line, we can only hope that this young stud, Daredevil, will carry on that fast, precocious and tenacious All-American pedigree.

-- Roberta Smoodin