It isn’t extraordinary that Bob Baffert took both of the Grade One events for two-year-olds at Los Alamitos on November 8, nor is it extraordinary that his charges finished one/two in the Los Alamitos Futurity and one/three in the Starlet S. , with Drayden Van Dyke up on both winners. What is extraordinary is that Improbable, the thrilling, over five lengths, runaway winner of the Los Alamitos Futurity and Chasing Yesterday, whose gutsy, wide trip all the way around two turns demonstrated her exciting talent, share such similar genetic material as to be weird twins of sorts. Just juggle the DNA a bit, and their similarities are, certainly no pun intended, more than improbable. Here are the basics: Improbable is by City Zip, out of the A.P. Indy mare Rare Event, while Chasing Yesterday is by Tapit, out of American Pharoah’s dam, Littleprincessemma, by Yankee Gentleman.

The only way to begin to describe these genetic similarities in these two gifted two-year-olds is to list them, and then analyze them. Improbable features Mr. Prospector twice, 3 x 6, while Chasing Yesterday likewise features Mr. P, 4 x 5. Both youngsters also feature another dose of Raise a Native through a different source, Alydar in Improbable’s dams’ side, in the number five position, while Chasing Yesterday features Exclusive Native in the number four position on the dams’ side. Both pedigrees also include, in a prominent position, A.P. Indy, at position three, in the sire line, for Chasing Yesterday, while Improbable is out of an A.P. Indy mare, as previously stated, giving the Belmont S.-G1 winner position two.

Then, we have the appearance of very important full siblings, Relaunch and Moon Glitter. Relaunch appears via Improbable’s sire, City Zip, himself out of a Relaunch mare, Baby Zip. Baby Zip also prominently appears as the freakishly fast Ghostzapper’s dam. Relaunch’s full sister, Moon Glitter, features prominently in Tapit’s pedigree, as his third dam who, with Nijinsky II, created Ruby Slippers. So these siblings are in position three in Improbable’s pedigree, and position four in Chasing Yesterday’s pedigree, both via the sire line, and both contribute big doses of hard-knocking American speed through In Reality.

The most surprising similarity occurs with the appearance of Tri Jet in both, in Improbable’s pedigree via the sire line, in the four position, and in Chasing Yesterday’s pedigree via the dam line, also in the four position. Tri Jet was by Jester, a son of the great Tom Fool, by Menow, out of the Bull Dog mare Gaga. The importance of the sons and daughters of the Spearmint mare Plucky Liege, through her sons and daughters including Bull Dog, Sir Gallahad III, Admiral Drake, Bois Roussel, and Marguerite de Valois, has been documented in these columns repeatedly, and Tri Jet represents just one dose, albeit a very powerful one via Tom Fool, of the doses of Plucky Liege found in both of these pedigrees. Tri Jet, however, is not a name one sees duplicated in pedigrees frequently.

Improbable’s pedigree also features prominent inbreeding of Blushing Groom, top and bottom, through his daughter, Blushing Promise, in Improbable’s grandfather, Carson City, and through Stravinsky, Improbable’s second dam’s sire, giving us Blushing Groom on the all-important zig zag. Even more significant is that Blushing Promise herself is out of the Nijinsky II mare Summertime Promise, presenting the powerful Blushing Groom/Nijinsky cross which also has been documented in these columns. It must be noted that Stravinsky himself, by Nureyev, is so similarly bred to Blushing Promise, also on a zig zag—by a Northern Dancer line sire, like Nijinsky, out of a Blushing Groom mare. Chasing Yesterday, as has been stated, has, through Tapit, Nijinsky as well, and though she is lacking in Blushing Groom, her dams’ side features another close genetic relative of both Nijinsky and Blushing Groom, Storm Bird, making her 4 x 4 Nijinsky/Storm Bird, while Improbable is 4 x 5 x 5 Blushing Groom/Nijinsky.

We’d be remiss not to note the importance of Secretariat’s Princequillo dam, Somethingroyal, in both pedigrees, through Weekend Surprise, A.P. Indy’s dam, and, in Chasing Yesterday’s broodmare sire, Yankee Gentleman, an otherwise underachieving son of Storm Cat, who was out of the great Secretariat mare Terlingua, making Chasing Yesterday 5 x 5 Secretariat. Her pedigree also includes, through Minnetonka, the dam of Ecliptical (by Exclusive Native, her second way back to Raise a Native), the sire Chieftain. Chieftain is always a fascinating addition to any pedigree that includes Secretariat, as he is bred so similarly to the Triple Crown Winner of 1973.

Like Secretariat, Chieftain was by Bold Ruler, and was out of Pocahontas, by Roman, a son of Bull Dog’s full brother, Sir Gallahad III, adding to the multiplication of Plucky Liege. Pocahontas’ dam, however, is the key: she is How, by Princequillo, and this is where the similarity to Secretariat, and the strength of Princequillo as one of the greatest broodmare sires of all time, becomes significant, reaching out to the two doses of Secretariat in Chasing Yesterday’s pedigree and underscoring them. So, although, on superficial examination, Chasing Yesterday’s dam, Littleprincessemma, though she is the dam of Triple Crown Winner American Pharoah herself, seems to have a lesser pedigree than Improbable’s dam boasts, that idea is deceptive in the extreme. Littleprincessemma’s dams’ side goes straight back to Hoop Jr., a son of Sir Gallahad III, and Miss Mood, an own daughter of Mahmoud.

One more element that both pedigrees have in common is an extra dose of My Babu, through Improbable’s fourth dam, the wonderful Darby Dan-bred Darbyvail, and in Chasing Yesterday’s fourth dam as well, Queen Zetta. This, of course, reels in and compounds the My Babu so prominently featured and significant in A.P. Indy’s pedigree. But Darbyvail does double duty, in that she mirrors A.P. Indy’s pedigree in another way. She is by Roberto, by Hail to Reason, and Hail to Reason is one of the tremendous strengths of Seattle Slew’s pedigree, as he is out of a Hail to Reason mare himself. This is the ultimate zig zag in Improbable’s pedigree, through his dam’s sire line and dam line.

There was the eternal question for both of Baffert’s charges: can they get two turns? Because, at this time of year, everyone is already thinking about the 2019 Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks. Both of these youngsters would seem to have the goods, Improbable through Belmont winner A.P. Indy and Stravinsky, and Chasing Yesterday through A.P. Indy, inbreeding to Northern Dancer, inbreeding to Secretariat with the addition of Chieftain, and a stray dose of Graustark, a serious stamina influence, a ways back in her pedigree. For the first time, I haven’t even mentioned Chasing Yesterday’s important dose of Fappiano through his best son, Unbridled, in her sire, Tapit. These two amazingly similar pedigrees deserve a book to be written about them. Perhaps that will yet happen, if both stay healthy and visit Kentucky on the first Friday and Saturday in May, 2019.

-- Roberta Smoodin