Friesan Fire Leads Kentucky Derby Pedigrees

Kelly Leak Joins Quality Road and Pioneerof The Nile In Earnings

Apr 8, 2009 BarbaraAnne Helberg

Kelly Leak's pedigree isn't as fancy as Friesan Fire's and his Sunland win didn't qualify him to run with the top three colts, FF, Quality Road, and Pioneerof The Nile.

You're a young Thoroughbred about to go to the gate of America's most publicized race, the Kentucky Derby. Your pop is A.P. Indy. Your granddad is Seattle Slew. Your great granddaddy is Bold Reasoning. Your grandma's daddy is none other than Secretariat. And if that's not enough as a winning pedigree, it can be pointed out that Secretariat got a few stabs in on your mom's side of your parental house, too. How can you lose?

The pressure to win in the game of sports is squarely on your shoulders. You are an unpredictable three-year-old, and have just seven starts behind you in your budding racing career.

Friesan Fire's Pedigree Is Outrageous

The above scenario is the reality of three-year-old Kentucky Derby hopeful Friesan Fire, even if he doesn't exactly know it. In Thoroughbred racing, pedigree is a measuring stick used to judge potential ability on the racetrack. Parentage is mostly planned, dictated by matching winning sires with winning dams, who were fathered by winning sires and dams.

A jackpot chip off the old block is, obviously, not always achieved. It is more often not achieved than it is. Sometimes, like in the case of Friesan Fire, one is hard pressed to understand how a product of such parentage ever could take a wrong stride.

  • Friesan Fire's pop -- A.P. Indy, winner of the 1992 Belmont Stakes and Breeders' Cup Classic
  • -- Seattle Slew, FF's grandfather, winner of the 1977 Triple Crown.
  • -- FF's great graddad, Secretariat, 1973 Triple Crown winner and father of Seattle Slew's mate, Weekend Surprise, FF's grandma.

Thus far, Friesan Fire has taken few errant steps. He awaits the Derby with four wins from seven lifetime starts, one second, one third, and graded stakes earnings of $570,465. He's a home run son of a sire who won eight of 11 starts, was voted Horse of the Year and Champion Three-Year-Old Male, and has sired 116 stakes winners.

Friesan Fire's Polar Opposite Is Kelly Leak

Kelly Leak does not have an eye-popping, parade-of-champions pedigree like Friesan Fire, but his parentage is solid, and solid Thoroughbred ancestry sometimes turns into better than good enough. Breeding is not, after all, a science. It's more of a calculated guess.

Having won three of eight lifetime starts, Kelly Leak's biggest win was March 29 in the ungraded stakes race, the Sunland Derby. From that win alone, he banked $500,000. His total bankroll is $621,890. He has also raced to two seconds and one third.

  • Pioneerof The Nile -- seven lifetime starts, four wins, one third; graded stakes earnings (before Santa Anita Derby win), $743,250
  • Quality Road -- four lifetime starts, three wins, one second; graded stakes earnings, $632,830

Sired by Runaway Groom and out of Hasty Appeal, by World Appeal, Kelly Leak traces to Nasrullah, his great-great granddaddy in his father's house. Hasty Appeal has foaled eight racers that have won. Runaway Groom is sire to 75 stakes winners.

While he may not make the Kentucky Derby field, Kelly Leak is a big winner. His owners, Blahut Racing, Dennis Avila, and Dave Johnson (Newhall, California), are considering entering him in graded stakes races such as the Lone Star Derby, the Swaps Stakes, and the Peter Pan Stakes.

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