Opening day of Santa Anita’s winter 2018 meet demonstrated that Santa Claus was still at work for stallions Street Sense and Twirling Candy. Mckinzie, whom Bob Baffert touted early in the year as one of his very best three-year olds, finally showed his stuff, in a crowded Malibu S.-G1 field that showed that trainers believed the race was wide open for the taking. Mckinzie thought otherwise, and won by nearly five lengths with complete ease, coming from off the pace and making his challengers look like Grade One amateurs. Darley’s Street Sense, who stood for $45,000 in 2018, once again stamps himself as Street Cry’s best son, and Mckinzie’s pedigree underscores what, historically, works with Street Sense.

Street Sense’s best offspring are frequently marked by being 4 x 4 or 4 x 3 Mr. Prospector, though which strain of Mr. Prospector doesn’t seem to matter. Mckinzie is out of a Petionville mare, and Petionville was a son of Seeking the Gold, making Mckinzie’s pedigree reminiscent of Street Sense’s graded stakes winner Ice Cream Silence. Mckinzie’s second dam is the Houston mare Ticket to Houston, providing a dose of Seattle Slew, which also worked in one of Street Sense’s best, Aubby K., also a Grade One winner and out of a Capote mare. Mckinzie’s dams’ side, therefore, is full of ways back to La Troienne through both Petionville and Seattle Slew, making the new millionaire a great potential sire prospect himself.

Also on opening day, the surprise win of Gift Box in the San Antonio S.-G2, showcased the beautiful gray’s ability, and similarly underscored what his sire, Twirling Candy, needs to make stakes winners, just as his sire Candy Ride does: more Fappiano. Gift Box is 5 x 4 Fappiano, through Cryptoclearance and Unbridled’s Song, making him similarly bred to Twirling Candy’s best runner, Danzing Candy, who is out of a Songandaprayer mare. Twirling Candy stands at Lane’s End for $20,000, and as long as students of breeding keep bringing him more Fappiano, he will continue to produce. Candy Ride similarly loves an infusion of Northern Dancer blood in his mares, and Gift Box brings this too, as he is 6 x 5 x 5 Northern Dancer (though none of these represent the Storm Cat line so important in Candy Ride’s best offspring). Much like Mckinzie’s dams’ side, though, an important Blue Hen makes a cameo appearance in Gift Box’s dams’ side: Somethingroyal, dam of Secretariat, the influential Princequillo mare whose genetic presence continues to mark the thoroughbred breed. She appears through her son, Sir Gaylord, Secretariat’s older brother.

The moral to this story? Never count out the influence of Blue Hen mares like La Troienne and Somethingroyal, though their presence in contemporary pedigrees might be well off the usual five generation pedigrees most look at. They reach out from the past to create the Mckinzies and Gift Boxes of today’s pre-eminent racing.

-- Roberta Smoodin