Sparkman: Scat Daddy's remarkable run continues with Justify's victory in the Kentucky Derby

Emily Shields

Kentucky Derby winner Justify is a son of the late stallion Scat Daddy.

When Scat Daddy retired to stud in 2008, he exemplified four of the five characteristics most commercial breeders look for first in a prospective stallion. He had been precocious enough to win a Grade 1 at 2, showed two-turn ability by winning a Grade 1 at 3, he came from an excellent female family, and he was an outstanding physical specimen - a big, powerful, correct horse with lots of muscle and polish. The one negative was that his sire, Johannesburg, was an unfashionable horse who was not in any way considered a likely sire of sires.

Coolmore’s marketing machine nevertheless assured that Scat Daddy’s first American crop, foaled in 2009, numbered 103 named foals. When 10 of them became stakes winners - three graded stakes winners, notably Grade 1 winner Lady of Shamrock (out of Blushing Issue, by Blushing John) - Scat Daddy was on his way to bigger books and higher stud fees. Scat Daddy has maintained that 10 percent stakes winners to foals ratio, and his undefeated Kentucky Derby-winning son Justify is one of his 102 stakes winners and 25 Grade 1/Group 1 winners from 951 foals age 3 and up.

Bred in Kentucky by Axel Wend, Scat Daddy was a $250,000 2005 Keeneland September yearling purchase for James T. Scatuorchio. Trained by Todd Pletcher, he won 5 of 9 starts, including the Grade 2 Sanford and Grade 1 Champagne at 2, and the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth and Grade 1 Florida Derby at 3. Michael Tabor bought into the colt after he finished second to Tabor’s Circular Quay in the Grade 1 Hopeful, and Derrick Smith later bought an interest as well.

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Retired to Ashford Stud after injuring a tendon while finishing 18th in the 2007 Kentucky Derby, Scat Daddy shuttled annually to Chile, where he was a sensation, leading the sire list for five straight years and siring 10 Chilean champions. The success in Europe of highweights Carravaggio (Mekko Hokte, by Holy Bull), Lady Aurelia (D’Wildcat Speed, by Forest Wildcat), and No Nay Never (Cat’s Eye Witness, by Elusive Quality) made him an international sensation, and he was scheduled to stand the following season for a six-figure fee when he died in December of 2015, far too young at only 11 years old.

Justify, who was one of a remarkable four runners by Scat Daddy in the 144th Kentucky Derby, was bred in Kentucky by John D. Gunther and sold for $500,000 to WinStar Farm, China Horse Club, and SF Racing at the 2016 Keeneland September sale. He is the third foal out of Stage Magic, by Ghostzapper, a talented filly who won 3 of 12 starts and ran second in the New Orleans Ladies Stakes and third in the Grade 3 Gardenia and two other listed stakes.

Stage Magic is half-sister to two winners out of Magical Illusion (by Pulpit), who ran third to champion Ashado in the Grade 1 CCA Oaks. Magical Illusion was half-sister to four stakes-placed horses, led by Lily O’Gold, by Slew o’ Gold, who ran second in the Grade 2 Alcibiades and is the dam of stakes winner Orbit O’Gold, by Kingmambo. Magical Illusion was also half-sister to the unraced Layreebelle, by Tale of the Cat, the dam of Grade 2 winner Spellbound, by Bernardini, and Grade 3 winner Kid Cruz, by Lemon Drop Kid.

Justify’s third dam, Voodoo Lily, by Baldski, won the Grade 3 Columbia Stakes and is full sister to stakes winner Stone Bluff and half-sister to stakes winner Gizmo’s Fortune, by Fortunate Prospect, and traces to one of many important foundation mares imported by seminal American breeder James R. Keene. Justify’s 13th dam, Sundown, by Springfield, produced Keene’s Noonday, by Domino, and is also tale-female ancestress of a slew of significant early 20th century runners, including leading sire High Time, Campfire, and High Cloud.

Stage Magic’s first foal, The Lieutenant, by Street Sense, placed in the Grade 2 Californian, and she has since produced the unraced 2-year-old filly Egyptian Storm, by Pioneer of the Nile, purchased for $230,000 by R.S. Evans and West Point Thoroughbreds last year at Keeneland, a yearling colt by Will Take Charge, and a 2018 colt by Pioneerof the Nile.

Justify’s pedigree carries four crosses of Mr. Prospector 5x3x6x5, Nijinksy II 7x4x5, and the full sisters Yarn and Preach (both by Mr. Prospector-Narrate, by Nijinsky II) 4x4. Scat Daddy, on the other hand, like many top sires was more closely inbred, with Mr. Prospector 4x2, Nijinsky II 6x3, and an additional cross of Nijinsky II’s sire Northern Dancer in the fifth generation.

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