Though the pedigree of Country House has already been discussed in depth here, it’s worth noting that Country House’s half-sister (closer to three-quarters, actually), Mitchell Road, won the Gallorette S.-G3 on Preakness Day at Pimlico, putting their deceased dam, Quake Lake, by War Chant, on the radar in the space of two weeks’ time.

Mitchell Road is a four-year-old filly, a year older than Country House, so Quake Lake had two graded stakes winners from two years’ produce, a remarkable achievement. What’s particularly interesting is that the sires of both graded stakes winners are sons of the late, great Smart Strike, so clearly Mr. and Mrs. Shields had a vision about how to breed Quake Lake, and it has come to fruition in a big way. In both cases, inbreeding to Hail to Reason and Turn-to were sought out, as was inbreeding to Northern Dancer.

What’s interesting is that, in breeding to Looking at Lucky to get Country House, the Shields got a classic distance dirt horse. And in breeding to English Channel, they got a turf filly. This speaks more to Smart Strike’s versatility as a sire than anything else, and to the way his sons are carrying that on.

It’s also worth noting that Search and Destroy, the winner on the same day of the Soaring Softly S.-G3 at Belmont, gorgeous young stallion Verrazano’s first graded stakes winner, is also out of a War Chant mare. Though War Chant may have been a bit of a disappointment as a sire, it would seem that he’s turning into a first-rate broodmare sire, and seems to frank the more and more popular inbreeding to Danzig we are seeing in pedigrees, as was seen in Country House.

-- Roberta Smoodin