Given my love for the great mares, the Blue Hens of thoroughbred breeding, it should come as no surprise that my Kentucky Derby horse is the blue-blooded, Juddmonte-bred Tacitus, winner of the Tampa Bay Derby this year. The Juddmonte breeding program has a tradition of boldness, and its inbreeding and ground breaking are second to none.

Tacitus is by Tapit, the leading stallion of our time, and himself a treasure trove of wondrous DNA designed to nick well with the mares representing the best of both American and European breeding, given his wealth of A.P. Indy, Mr. Prospector, Unbridled, In Reality, and Nijinsky II blood. His pedigree also features his own female greats, Somethingroyal, dam of Secretariat, and La Troienne, through two doses of Buckpasser, Seattle Slew, and his third dam, full sister to Relaunch, Moon Glitter, whose strain of La Troienne represents a different source of that mare who has so influenced the breed.

Tacitus, however, represents one of those very rare race horses whose female family is even greater than his male family, having in it three Broodmares of the Year, three doses of Somethingroyal (Broodmare of the Year in 1973) through Secretariat mares Terlingua and Secrettame, and through Sir Ivor, who in 1976 was bred to the amazing Best in Show, to produce Tacitus’s fourth dam, Monroe (making Tacitus, as well, tail female Best in Show, Broodmare of the Year in 1982). Tacitus’s female family features two doses of Best in Show, completely unheard of, because Toussaud, Broodmare of the Year in 2002, was by El Gran Senor, whose dam, Sex Appeal, by Buckpasser, was a daughter of Best in Show herself, making Tacitus 7 x 5 Best in Show.

I can think of no other horse with three Broodmares of the Year in his immediate pedigree, nor can I find one through research. If, indeed, the huge heart gene is handed down in female DNA through great broodmares, then Tacitus’s heart must be as big as Texas.

Tacitus was bred and is owned by Juddmonte Farms, and not many would dispute the fact that the Juddmonte breeding program is second to none, in large part because of its development of the female families in Tacitus’s pedigree. Juddmonte’s Khalid Abdullah fully understands the importance of great mares, and this pedigree, with its amazing build up of mare power, is representative of what Juddmonte is capable of.

Not that Juddmonte only makes great mares. The sire Empire Maker is a Juddmonte-bred, himself out of Toussaud, as was Chester House, who died too young and didn’t get the chance to establish himself as a sire, and multiple grade one stakes winner Honest Lady, herself the dam of the useful stallion First Defence, Tacitus’s broodmare sire.

Close Hatches, the dam of Tacitus, is First Defence’s most successful offspring, having earned over $2.7 million on the track, and having been named Champion Older Mare for her impressive string of graded wins, including the Grade One Cotillion S., Ogden Phipps S., Apple Blossom H., Personal Ensign S., and Mother Goose S. From First Defence’s first crop to race, and raced by Juddmonte, she marked her sire as a young stallion to watch, though unfortunately he didn’t seem able to duplicate her great success in any of his other offspring. Tacitus is Close Hatches’ first foal, and her blue-blooded female family is matched by a veritable who’s who in stallion power: Unbridled’s Song, Seattle Slew, Storm Cat and Gone West.

Tapit’s pedigree presents remarkable inbreeding to many of the important sires on Tacitus’s dams’ side, including bold inbreeding to Unbridled, 3 x 4, through the mare Tap Your Heels, a daughter of Unbridled, and Tapit’s dam, and through First Defence’s sire, Unbridled’s Song. Frequently, an influential sire is considered to have begun his own, unique lineage, and my guess would be that Juddmonte’s great pedigree minds consider Unbridled’s Song to have done just that, especially given the immense success his daughters have had as broodmares.

The addition of Caro, on the dam’s side, is the wild card that creates this uniqueness, and was evident in Unbridled’s Song’s nearly white coloration, while his sire, Unbridled, was relentlessly dark brown.

Similarly, we have Seattle Slew in Tacitus’s sires’ side, through his greatest son, A.P. Indy, and represented in the dams’ side by the wonderful race mare, Honest Lady, herself a grade one winner. It must be noted here that, in addition to three Broodmares of the Year, Tacitus’s pedigree contains two Horses of the Year and Triple Crown winners, Seattle Slew and Secretariat. One could write a book about this pedigree.

Nijinsky II was the sire of Tapit’s second dam, Ruby Slippers (whose provenance includes In Reality and La Troienne). In Close Hatches’ pedigree, we have Nijinsky II’s closely related “cousin” Storm Cat, known to have his best qualities brought out by a dose of Nijinsky, and we also have, in very close proximity to Storm Cat, two doses of In Reality, through Unbridled and Image of Reality, Toussaud’s dam, not to mention the wealth of La Troienne in Unbridled, Seattle Slew, and El Gran Senor, as well as in Best in Show.

To add just a dash more pedigree piquancy, however, we have the presence of Zafonic, who bred with Monroe to create Close Hatches second dam, Silver Star. Zafonic is by Gone West (adding another dose of Somethingroyal), and out of Zaizafon, by The Minstrel. Though we see little of The Minstrel remaining in contemporary pedigrees, he too is closely related to both Storm Cat and Nijinsky, adding to the strength of Northern Dancer in this pedigree, and that’s without even mentioning Toussaud’s sire, the magnificent El Gran Senor, a son of Northern Dancer and the Buckpasser mare, Sex Appeal, herself a daughter of Best in Show.

I’m beginning to feel like a celebrity name dropper, but it must also be noted that multiple strains of another Horse of the Year, Man o’War, live in the farther reaches of this pedigree, through his sons War Admiral and War Relic, and through their sons, Mr. Busher and Intent, and their daughters, Iltis (dam of My Dear Girl) and Busanda (dam of Buckpasser). A lot of this building up of Man o’War comes through the classic American speed breeding that has defined so many twentieth century pedigrees, In Reality. Clearly Tacitus should have both speed and endurance from this carefully designed pedigree,

Tacitus’s trainer, Hall of Fame member Bill Mott, calls him “a big, tough horse,” who, when challenged in training, stepped up and came into himself. Though one of the great trainers of our time, Mott has never won the Kentucky Derby, and he has made no secret of the fact that this is the one race he longs to win. Given all of Tacitus’s honored connections, both equine and human, it seems ridiculous to bet against him. I will be cheering for Tacitus and Mott on that first Saturday in May. Roses will look beautiful on his battleship gray coat.

-- Roberta Smoodin