Wild Shot's Stamina Question Could Be Answered With His Family

Feb 09, 2017 Alastair Bull/TwinSpires.com

Saturday’s Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs features the return not only of the unbeaten McCracken but also the colt that pushed him hardest in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) at Churchill Downs last November, Wild Shot.

Stamina may be the biggest question when considering the Kentucky Derby prospects of Wild Shot, a Calumet Farm homebred who is 15th on the Road to the Kentucky Derby Leaderboard with six points heading into the Sam F. Davis Stakes.

Wild Shot is from the second crop of Claiborne Farm’s Trappe Shot, a son of Tapit. Trappe Shot finished second in the grade I Haskell Invitational (9f) at three, but at four his most notable efforts were at six furlongs, winning the True North Handicap (G2) and finishing second in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (G1).

Trappe Shot’s two stakes winners to date are Fish Trappe Road, winner of the Dwyer Stakes (G3, 1m), and Mirai, winner of the Bertram F. Bongard Stakes (7f). He is also the sire of My Man Sam, second in the 2016 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (9f) before finishing 11th in the Kentucky Derby.

The first black type performer out of Ranter (Storm Cat), Wild Shot is inbred 2×4 to Ranter’s dam, the Frizette Stakes (G1) winner Preach (Mr Prospector). Preach is also the dam of Tapit’s sire Pulpit, who finished fourth in the 1997 Derby. The family is mostly notable for speed runners, but Wild Shot’s sixth dam is Monarchy, a full sister to 1957 Kentucky Derby third-place finisher Round Table, one of the great U.S. racehorses and sires.