Pedigree fun facts: 2023 Belmont Stakes

Tapit has two sons in the 1 1/2-mile classic, as you can guess from their names – Tapit Trice and Tapit Shoes. But the venerable gray is also the maternal grandfather of four other Belmont contenders; he sired the dams of Arcangelo, Hit Show, Red Route One, and Il Miracolo. Thus Tapit factors prominently in the pedigrees of six of the nine entrants, or two-thirds of the field!

Tapit’s influence on the third jewel of the Triple Crown has extended beyond his four winners, champion Essential Quality (2021), Tapwrit (2017), Creator (2016), and Tonalist (2014). Tapit is also the paternal grandsire of a Belmont winner, Tiz the Law (by Constitution), although that was the 2020 edition shortened to 1 1/8 miles in a COVID-scrambled landscape. 

Four other Tapit colts have placed in the Belmont, including runners-up Tacitus (2019) and Frosted (2015), who was best of the rest behind Triple Crown sweeper American Pharoah. Hofburg (2018) placed third to another Triple Crown winner, Justify, while Lani was third to fellow Tapit son Creator. 

Tapit Trice sports additional Belmont connections in his ancestry. His dam (mother), multiple stakes scorer and Grade 3-placed Danzatrice, is by Dunkirk, runner-up in the 2009 Belmont. Tapit Trice’s female line, the 19-b family, produced unbeaten Hall of Famer Colin, a brave winner of the 1908 running.

Moreover, Tapit Trice is inbred to Hall of Famer A.P. Indy, who captured the 1992 Belmont during his Horse of the Year campaign. A.P. Indy appears as the paternal grandsire of Tapit, and he also sired Dunkirk’s dam, 2000 Kentucky Oaks (G1) heroine Secret Status.

Tapit Shoes is a half-brother to $2.1 million-earner Cyberknife, hero of last year’s Arkansas Derby (G1) and Haskell (G1) and the near-misser in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1). Their dam, Awesome Flower, won or placed in a total of 13 stakes. She’s a daughter of 2005 Travers (G1) star Flower Alley, best known for siring 2012 Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness (G1) champion I’ll Have Another. Set to go for the Triple Crown, I’ll Have Another unfortunately came down with an injury that prompted his retirement on the eve of the Belmont. 

Tracing the matrilineal ancestry further back, Tapit Shoes is a member of the 8-h clan that accounts for three Belmont heroes. Whirlaway swept the 1941 Triple Crown, while fellow Hall of Famer Damascus won the final two jewels in 1967. Conquistador Cielo ran away with the 1982 Belmont, drawing off by 14 lengths in the slop.

Arcangelo will attempt to become a classic winner for his late sire, Arrogate, the all-time North American earnings leader with more than $17.4 million in the bank. Arrogate streaked through a series of major wins in the second half of 2016 and early 2017. Setting a Saratoga track record in his breakout Travers, Arrogate toppled California Chrome in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), rolled in the 2017 Pegasus World Cup (G1) in track-record time at Gulfstream Park, and recovered from a bad start to beat Gun Runner in the Dubai World Cup (G1).

Arcangelo’s most captivating Belmont angle, though, comes from his dam, who is closely related to 2007 champion Rags to Riches. Arcangelo is out of the Tapit mare Modeling, a granddaughter of Broodmare of the Year Better Than Honour. Hence Modeling has a lot of pedigree power in common with Rags to Riches, who is by A.P. Indy and out of Better Than Honour. Rags to Riches famously outdueled Curlin, thereby giving her dam back-to-back Belmont winners, after Jazil (by Seeking the Gold) in 2006.

At a far more distant remove, Arcangelo shares a common ancestress with two more Belmont winners, belonging to the family labeled as 8-f. Blue Larkspur landed the 1929 edition in his Hall of Fame career, and Birdstone stopped Smarty Jones from a Triple Crown in 2004. 

Red Route One, by hot young sire Gun Runner, is out of a full sister to champion Untapable, heroine of the 2014 Kentucky Oaks and Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1). Untapable and Red Route One’s dam, Red House, are also half-sisters to turf millionaire Paddy O’Prado, who was third in the 2010 Kentucky Derby. Il Miracolo is bred on the same cross of Gun Runner over Tapit, although from a less distinguished female line. 

Hit Show sports a similar pattern, being by Gun Runner’s sire Candy Ride and out of a Tapit mare. His dam, 2017 Black-Eyed Susan (G2) winner Actress, is herself a daughter of Canadian champion Milwaukee Appeal, who placed in such major races as the Queen’s Plate, Prince of Wales S., and Alabama (G1) in 2009 as well as the 2010 Spinster (G1). Hit Show hails from an old American family, dubbed A1, responsible for 1951 Belmont winner and Horse of the Year Counterpoint.

Medaglia d’Oro, who was denied by a half-length by 70-1 shot Sarava in the 2002 Belmont, has two high-profile grandsons in Saturday’s renewal – champion Forte and Preakness scorer National Treasure.

Forte is by Medaglia d’Oro’s son Violence, a top contender for the 2013 Derby before injury ended his career. National Treasure is out of a mare by Medaglia d’Oro. Both colts hail from power-packed female lines.

Forte’s dam, five-time stakes winner Queen Caroline, is a daughter of champion Blame from the family of aforementioned Belmont champ Essential Quality. This is also the family of 2020 Japanese Triple Crown hero Contrail. The maternal line traces to blue hen *La Troienne, dam of 1940 Belmont winner Bimelech and ancestress of Easy Goer, who thwarted Sunday Silence’s Triple Crown bid in 1989. *La Troienne is such a prolific ancestress that she has been accorded her own numbered family, 1-x.

National Treasure is by Quality Road, sire of 2020 Belmont runner-up Dr Post. That was an anomalous edition, however, in a pandemic year as explained above. 

National Treasure’s dam, Treasure, descends from a full sister to 1946 Triple Crown sweeper Assault, who in turn descends from a full sister to the legendary Man o’ War. Deliberately skipping the 1920 Derby, Man o’ War won the Preakness and crushed the Belmont by 20 lengths. His sister, Masda, became a noted broodmare whose daughters include Incandescent, the dam of Igual, who produced Assault. Two of Assault’s sisters carried on the line successfully, Equal Venture and Sin Igual (the ancestress of National Treasure).

Angel of Empire represents the sire line of 2003 Belmont victor Empire Maker, the paternal grandsire of Triple Crown star American Pharoah. Angel of Empire’s sire, champion Classic Empire, is by the same sire as American Pharoah, Pioneerof the Nile (himself a son of Empire Maker).

Angel of Empire’s dam, Armony’s Angel, is by To Honor and Serve, himself by A.P. Indy’s champion son Bernardini. Armony’s Angel hails from the number 26 family that claims one Belmont winner, Africander (1903). Belmont rival Il Miracolo belongs to that tribe as well, but you have to go back to the mists of the late 18th century to find where their various threads converge. 

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Secretariat’s record-setting, 31-length conquest of the Belmont, all nine entrants can count him as an ancestor. Secretariat surfaces as the damsire of A.P. Indy (thereby floating in the background of Tapit), Storm Cat, and Gone West.

National Treasure, who comes from Gone West’s branch of the Mr. Prospector sire line, has Secretariat twice within his five-generation pedigree. The 1973 Triple Crown legend also sired one of the mares in National Treasure’s direct female line.

Arcangelo’s dam is inbred to Secretariat, and Forte has a total of three crosses through the sixth generation. Angel of Empire, Red Route One, and Il Miracolo have a duplication of Secretariat if you go back that far, while Tapit Trice gets both of his Secretariat appearances via A.P. Indy.