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Amidst the pomp and pageantry and bitten fingernails of Derby/Oaks weekend, with Justify shining in the slop and Monomoy Girl fighting like a tigress down the stretch, one stallion quietly racked up wins: Ghostzapper. The sire of both Proctor’s Ledge, the winner of the Grade 2 Churchill Distaff Mile and Holy Helena, the winner of the Sheepshead Bay S.-G2 at Belmont, Ghostzapper completed his superfecta when American Gal, out of the Ghostzapper mare American Story, won the Humana Distaff S.-G1 at Churchill, not to mention the hero of the day, as splendid a horse as you will ever see, Justify, being out of a Ghostzapper mare.

This year’s very strong, exciting Kentucky Derby field was marked, as well, by the supremacy of certain sires to a surprising degree. What were the odds that nearly half of the field would be comprised of the get of three stallions? Scat Daddy, sire of the winner, Curlin, sire of the second placed horse, and Medaglia d’Oro, whose promising offspring failed to impress. What’s no surprise is that these three stallions are leaders in three-year-old earnings as well.

I was a writer of fiction first, novels and short stories, and for a long time, this line of work supported my Thoroughbred habit, until that habit became a full-time job, more interesting to me than writing fiction. I do, however, like to make things up—characters, worlds, fantasies, metaphors. I have a vivid imagination. So it occurred to me—why not create the perfect, imaginary Kentucky Derby contender?

What’s not to love about Malibu Moon? Perhaps his curmudgeonly displeasure at open house stallion shows at Spendthrift, where viewers are warned not to pet or offer fingers to the old man, now 21. But currently at number eight on the leading stallions list, with his Magnum Moon considered the favorite for the upcoming Kentucky Derby, and his sons turning into sires themselves, he seems a bargain at $75,000, while the Tapits and War Fronts of the world are priced far higher. Malibu Moon has already sired a Kentucky Derby winner, Orb, and his list of graded stakes winning sons and daughters takes over his page in the Stallion Register.

Commenting upon a post parade on TVG, Simon Bray said, “I’ve never met a Scat Daddy I didn’t like.” Most horsemen share this opinion these days. In what has been called the deepest Kentucky Derby crop in recent memory, after a spate of lightweight fields, the late Scat Daddy, with his penultimate crop, stands out. Two will surely be in the field, and they are both thrilling colts—Justify and Mendelssohn.

We have, this year, two knockouts beginning their careers as stallions, Arrogate and Gun Runner, and it seems likely that they will duke it out for reigning freshman sire three years from now. The question is, which one will be more successful? Can we make a prediction based on pedigree, race record, and looks? Maybe not, but I’d sure like to try.

An unlikely star emerged from the first crop of Adena Springs Kentucky’s stallion, Capo Bastone (Street Boss/Fight to Love). In the second race at Keeneland on April 11, 2018, Hargus won a maiden special weight for two-year-olds by 2 ½ lengths, earning $26,820. Capo Bastone stands for $4,000, and wasn’t on anybody’s radar as a freshman sire to watch.

If one were to design the ideal horse, the result might very well be Giant’s Causeway, whose death at 21 on April 16, 2018 marks a great loss for the thoroughbred horse industry. Without question Storm Cat’s best son at stud, his sons and daughters have thrived on the race track and in the breeding shed themselves; a Giant’s Causeway mare is the dam of the great Gun Runner. European Horse of the Year and Champion Three-Year-Old Colt, he was also a three-time champion sire, equaling Danzig’s record. He never finished worse than second, running 13 times with nine wins and four seconds.