When veteran trainer Jorge Navarro says he’s currently training the best horse he’s ever had, people should listen. Anyone who bet the farm on Shanghai Bobby's son, Shancelot, in the Amsterdam S.-G2 July 28 at Saratoga is very happy. Anyone who just watched the race is happy—Shancelot, is the most thrilling sprinter to hit the racing scene in recent memory. Now three wins in three starts, Shancelot left the gate from the outside post and never looked back, setting ridiculously fast fractions and ending up 12 ½ lengths ahead at the wire, just missing the stakes record set by Quality Road. The horse is a freak.

Shanghai Bobby entered stud in 2014, having demonstrated stunning precocity. He won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile S.-G1, the Champagne S.-G1 and the Hopeful S.-G2, and was named Champion Two-Year-Old Colt in 2012. Though his three-year-old campaign was a disappointment, his brilliance at two could not be doubted, and he went to stud at Ashford, in Versailles, Kentucky, for an initial fee of $25,000. He was a top five freshman sire and sophomore sire, and is currently in second place for third crop sires, behind only Take Charge Indy.

Unfortunately, he shares another trait with Take Charge Indy: both have been exported abroad, Take Charge Indy to Korea, and Shanghai Bobby to Japan, as of November of 2018.

Now, Shanghai Bobby has sired the freakishly fast Shancelot. Shanghai Bobby’s pedigree is fascinating. He is by Harlan’s Holiday (turning out to be a sire of sires, given the huge success of Into Mischief), and out of the Orientate mare Steelin’, making him inbred to close genetic relatives Blushing Groom (through Mount Livermore and Carson City) and Turn-to (through Halo and Cox’s Ridge).

An examination of Shanghai Bobby’s 2019 stakes winners reveals a surprising pattern. Shancelot’s pedigree underscores his sire’s strengths with another dose of Turn-to, through Roberto, and Turn-to’s close genetic relative, My Babu, through his daughter, Missy Baba. The same pattern exists in the pedigree of stakes winner Toss of Fate, and Shang as well features Missy Baba. The only 2019 stakeswinner by Shanghai Bobby that is different is Shanghai Tariff, whose dams’ side is strong in double doses of Mr. Prospector.

Shanghai Bobby’s last North American crop will be hitting the yearling sales this summer, and my guess is that Shancelot just brought up their auction average. If he stays healthy, his sire’s worth will soar, making Japanese breeders very happy indeed.

-- Roberta Smoodin