Omaha Beach’s stretch duel with Improbable made the Arkansas Derby-G1 an exciting race. The War Front colt demonstrated grit and tenacity by holding off one of Bob Baffert’s leading Kentucky Derby-headed contenders, and rocketed Omaha Beach to second place on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard, behind only Tacitus.

It warms a pedigree nerd’s heart to see these two at the top, because they have the best and most interesting pedigrees of all the possible contenders, with Tacitus being so classically blue-blooded, and Omaha Beach being from what may be the hottest family in the stud book for the past few years.

2013 Broodmare of the Year Take Charge Lady, a multiple grade one stakes winner and multi-millionaire, is the dam of hot young sire Will Take Charge, himself a multiple grade-one stakes winner and multi-millionaire (and one of the most eye-poppingly gorgeous stallions you will ever lay eyes upon) and Take Charge Indy, himself a grade-one winner and millionaire, who has turned into an impressive young stallion himself, though he has been sold to Korea after a slightly sluggish start at stud. She is also the grandmother of Champion Two-Year-Old Filly, grade-one winner and millionaire Take Charge Brandy, by Giant’s Causeway. If this is starting to sound like a broken record, it must be noted how unusual it is for such a young family to be so prolific.

Take Charge Brandy is out of the Seeking the Gold mare Charming, who never achieved black type herself, but Charming is the dam of Omaha Beach, making him a half-brother to Take Charge Brandy, and is now, himself, both a grade-one winner and a millionaire. The most fascinating aspect of his pedigree, however, aside from this family that can do no wrong, is that he is double-bred Rubiano, 3 x 4, with that stallion appearing in both his sire and his dam. This is a very rare and bold occurrence.

Rubiano (1987) was only a middling son of Fappiano, without the achievements in racing or at stud of luminaries like Kentucky Derby-G1 winning Unbridled. He also lacked Unbridled’s magnificent appearance, being smallish and fine-boned, though his beautiful gray coat faded to nearly white as he grew older, thanks to the influence of his granddam, Ruby Slippers, who was herself nearly pure white, and the cutest Nijinsky II mare ever, with her doll head and big deer eyes.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Fappiano has now separated himself from his sire Mr. Prospector’s significant line, and has become a sire line unto himself. Pedigrees with both Fappiano and Mr. P in them are now commonplace and create racehorses, and there have even begun to appear pedigrees with double-doses of Fappiano in them, through different sons or grandsons, thanks to the proliferation of mares by the likes of Unbridled, Unbridled’s Song, Empire Maker, Pioneer of the Nile, etc.

Omaha Beach is different. His fabulous sire, War Front, by Danzig and single handedly responsible for bringing the Danzig sire line back to life, is out of the Rubiano mare Starry Dreamer, and she has carved herself a place in thoroughbred history through her wonderful son, whose offspring run on every surface, on every continent, and are much-coveted items at sales. Even she, though, is no match for Omaha Beach’s third dam, the Rubiano mare Felicita. Felicita was the dam of Take Charge Lady, making her the Queen Mother of this modern dynasty.

Both Rubiano mares have, in their pedigrees, a strong dose of Nasrullah through different sources (Forli and Blushing Groom), and while Ruby Slippers is by Nijinsky II, Felicita is by Nijinsky II’s close genetic relative, Blushing Groom (with her own dose of Nijinsky, of course, through Ruby Slippers), creating the kind of twinning on both sides of this pedigree that works miracles. Though Rubiano may not have been more than a useful sire, and his sons did not make any mark at stud, it could very well be that he has established his own niche, separate from that of his father Fappiano, as a broodmare sire. It should be noted that both the sires’ side of Omaha Beach and the dams’ side feature inbreeding to Northern Dancer, through Danzig and Nijinsky II on top, and through Deputy Minister and Nijinsky II on the bottom.

Charming’s sire, Seeking the Gold, by Mr. Prospector, has a license to be a top rate broodmare sire, and he currently sits at number eight on this year’s list. Out of the Buckpasser mare Con Game, he represents a classic cross, and the riches of Buckpasser, including the big dose of La Troienne (which reels in the La Troienne, through an entirely different source, found in Rubiano). He also represents the cross of the Fappiano line on the Mr. Prospector line, as detailed above, made even stronger by the big doses of La Troienne in both Seeking the Gold and Rubiano.

Omaha Beach’s second dam, the magnificent Take Charge Lady, is by Dehere, a stallion that has been much noted in this column for his up-and-coming success as a broodmare sire. In 2018, he was number 63 on that list, but this year he’s jumped all the way to number seven: you heard it here first. Much like Rubiano and Fappiano, he seems on his way to becoming a broodmare sire in his own right, apart from Deputy Minister’s acknowledged gifts in this arena. His broodmare sire strength comes from the same source as the two leading broodmare sires of the past twenty years, Storm Cat and A.P. Indy: all have dams by Secretariat. This is not coincidence. What’s interesting about this is that these three have different sires: Storm Bird, by Northern Dancer; Deputy Minister, a grandson of Northern Dancer; and Seattle Slew, a son of Bold Reason. No matter the sire line, the power of the 1973 Triple Crown winner, Secretariat, remains a huge influence today on the thoroughbred breed.

The Kentucky Derby is the most difficult race to predict an outcome for, and the most grueling, and one can’t help but be filled with both excitement and dread as those twenty horses come out of the starting gate. This year, to those interested in pedigree, there are two standouts, Tacitus and Omaha Beach, both of whom have tremendous residual value at stud in their futures. In the Derby, anything can happen, but in pedigrees, it’s possible to predict the future and recognize true stars.

-- Roberta Smoodin