10 Pedigree fun facts: Honor Marie

Apr 14, 2024 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Ten years after sire Honor Code missed his chance at the classics, Honor Marie could be blossoming just in time for the 150th Kentucky Derby (G1).

Ironically, Honor Marie’s mother, Dame Marie, ran on the same 2014 Derby Day that Honor Code missed. She was runner-up in the Churchill Distaff Turf Mile (G2) on the undercard.

Dame Marie is by Smart Strike, who has become a key factor in the Run for the Roses. Two of his daughters have produced Derby winners, and Smart Strike’s male line is responsible for three in just the past five years.

Here are Honor Marie’s 10 pedigree fun facts:

1. Sire Honor Code was a promising juvenile who became a champion at four.

Honor Code advertised himself as a potential Derby contender the previous summer, in his very first start going seven furlongs at Saratoga. Rallying from a long way behind in the slop, he exploded down the stretch to win by 4 1/2 lengths. That was a particularly promising debut given his profile, as a son of Hall of Famer A.P. Indy who had every right to improve with distance and maturity.

Although Honor Code followed up with a near-miss second in the 2013 Champagne (G1), and a victory in the Remsen (G2), he was unfortunately knocked off the Derby trail in the spring. But Honor Code ultimately developed into the next year’s champion older dirt male.

After a smashing, last-to-first performance in the 2015 Metropolitan H. (G1), Honor Code added the Whitney (G1) with his patented late run, getting up in time to catch Liam’s Map. Honor Code concluded his career with a third to Triple Crown champion American Pharoah in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1).

2. Honor Code sired two Derby contenders in his first crop.

Honor Code’s first crop featured two major winners, Honor A. P. and Max Player, both contenders in the pandemic-delayed 2020 Kentucky Derby. Honor A. P. captured the Santa Anita Derby (G1), while Max Player rolled in the Withers (G3) before finishing third in the Belmont (G1) and Travers (G1).

They couldn’t quite make it into the Derby placings, but Honor A. P. rounded out the superfecta in fourth, and Max Player was fifth. Like Honor Code, Max Player hit peak form as a four-year-old, upsetting the 2021 Suburban (G2) and dominating the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1).

The star of Honor Code’s second crop was the filly Maracuja. Rebounding from a seventh in the 2021 Kentucky Oaks (G1), Maracuja stunned champion Malathaat next time in the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1).

3. Honor Code is inbred to Secretariat.

Honor Code’s sire, the great A.P. Indy, could boast of having Triple Crown winners as his sire and grandsire. By 1977 Triple Crown legend Seattle Slew, A.P. Indy is out of Weekend Surprise, a daughter of the sublime Secretariat, who set record times in all three jewels of the 1973 Triple Crown.

Secretariat makes another appearance in Honor Code’s pedigree, on his dam’s side. Honor Code’s maternal grandsire, the outstanding stallion Storm Cat, is himself out of a mare by Secretariat – the brilliant Terlingua.

4. Grandsire A.P. Indy has enhanced the legacy of Seattle Slew.

A.P. Indy might well have emulated Seattle Slew and Secretariat, if not for ill-timed foot trouble that forced his scratch from the 1992 Derby. Nor did he have an opportunity in the Preakness (G1), the middle jewel earlier won by his half-brother Summer Squall (also out of Weekend Surprise). But A.P. Indy did star in the Belmont, renewing the what-ifs. His triumph over older horses in the Breeders’ Cup Classic clinched Horse of the Year honors, as well as a spot in the Hall of Fame.

An arguably even greater sire, A.P. Indy has expanded the legacy of Seattle Slew. Aside from champions like Bernardini, Mineshaft, and Rags to Riches, A.P. Indy has left such influential sons as Malibu Moon (sire of 2013 Derby hero Orb and also a prominent factor in Sierra Leone) and Pulpit (paternal grandsire of Hall of Famer California Chrome, star of the 2014 Derby and Preakness).

Pulpit’s top achievement, however, is siring the prolific Tapit, whose grandsons Catching Freedom and Just a Touch are other high-profile chances in Derby 150. Tapit is the paternal grandsire of Catching Freedom, and Just a Touch is out of a Tapit mare.

5. Honor Code descends from Hall of Fame racemare Serena’s Song.

In addition to his stellar sire line, Honor Code hails from a terrific female line. His mother, Serena’s Cat, is a granddaughter of Hall of Famer Serena’s Song. As her name implies, Serena’s Cat is by the aforementioned Storm Cat, and she is out of Serena’s Tune, whose name in turn echoes her own mother, Serena’s Song.

An exceptionally tough campaigner who won 18 of 38 starts, including 11 Grade 1 titles, and placed in 14 other races, Serena’s Song tackled males in several marquee events. It didn’t work out for her in the 1995 Derby, where she tired to 16th behind fellow D. Wayne Lukas trainee Thunder Gulch.

But Serena’s Song did beat the boys in that year’s Haskell (G1) and Jim Beam (G2) (now the Jeff Ruby Steaks), and she came within a neck of doing so in the 1996 Whitney. She also engaged in one of the most iconic duels in Breeders’ Cup history, in the 1994 Juvenile Fillies (G1), where she was just denied by stablemate Flanders.

Continuing to excel as a broodmare, Serena’s Song produced 10 winners (six of them stakes scorers), led by Royal Ascot Group 1 heroine Sophisticat. Moreover, her female line is flourishing through ensuing generations. Serena’s Cat, for example, has foaled two other stakes winners beyond Honor Code, Noble Tune and Declarationofpeace.

6. Dame Marie nearly pulled a 36-1 upset in the Churchill Distaff Turf Mile.

Dame Marie spent her entire career on turf. Winning her first two starts at Gulfstream Park as a three-year-old, she would win a pair of allowances at Churchill Downs during her four-year-old season. But Dame Marie kept finishing outside of the placings in several stakes attempts in 2012-13, including a fifth to Stephanie’s Kitten in the Edgewood S. and fourths in the Modesty H. (G3) and Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf.

Hence Dame Marie was disregarded as the 36-1 longest shot on the board in the 2014 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile. She picked a good day to deliver a top effort, rallying to strike the front in the stretch. Then she was accosted by Coffee Clique, who benefited from a ground-saving trip to edge Dame Marie by a half-length. That turned out to be her final start, and Dame Marie retired with the valuable Grade 2 placing on her resume.

7. Smart Strike beat Serena’s Song in his signature victory.

Smart Strike, a son of Mr. Prospector and Canadian Hall of Famer Classy ‘n Smart, scored his signature win in the 1996 Philip H. Iselin (G1). Driving 2 1/4 lengths clear at Monmouth Park, the Sam-Son Farm homebred left Serena’s Song back in third. Smart Strike raced only once more, checking in fourth behind the great Cigar in the Woodward (G1).

Although Smart Strike had a limited racing career, he has wielded a far greater influence as a stallion, meriting his own inclusion in Canada’s Hall of Fame. He’s sired U.S. Hall of Famer and $10.5 million-earner Curlin, the grandsire of Derby victors Rich Strike (2022) and Mage (2023); two-time champion Lookin at Lucky, sire of 2019 Derby winner Country House; and turf champ English Channel, himself a top sire.

Smart Strike’s daughters have produced Derby heroes Mine That Bird (2009) and Rich Strike (who is therefore intensely inbred to Smart Strike); Breeders’ Cup stars Goodnight Olive and Shared Account; Queen’s Plate scorers Inglorious and Eye of the Leopard; and current Derby contender Resilience.

8. Dame Marie’s half-brother won the world’s oldest classic race.

Dame Marie is a half-sister to English classic winner Rule of Law, who captured the historic St Leger (G1) at Doncaster in 2004. Contested at a distance a shade longer than 1 3/4 miles, the St Leger was the first classic race for three-year-olds, dating back to 1776. The Derby (G1) at Epsom came along in 1780, eventually inspiring similar “Derby” stakes around the world, especially in Kentucky.

Rule of Law was also second in the 2004 Epsom Derby and fourth in that summer’s Irish Derby (G1). He and Dame Marie are both out of Crystal Crossing, ancestress of 2023 Grand Prix de Paris (G1) winner Feed the Flame.

9. Ancestor Royal Academy scored a famous Breeders’ Cup win for Lester Piggott.

Crystal Crossing is by Royal Academy, who furnished one of the greatest-ever Breeders’ Cup moments when swooping late to conquer the 1990 Mile (G1). Like his English Triple Crown-winning sire, Nijinsky II, Royal Academy represented the legendary trainer/jockey association of Vincent O’Brien and Lester Piggott. But what made his Breeders’ Cup extraordinary was the fact that Piggott, then 54 years old, had retired from the saddle five years before, and barely resumed riding before teaming up with him in the Mile. Yet Piggott’s timing was as impeccable as ever.

Royal Academy had lost narrowly in his previous try at the trip, in the Irish 2000 Guineas (G1), where the stiff mile of the Curragh stretched his stamina. He’d subsequently cut back to six furlongs to win the July Cup (G1) and finish runner-up in the Sprint Cup (G1) at Haydock (to Dayjur, who created a different sort of Breeders’ Cup memory when jumping the shadow in the 1990 Sprint [G1]). Thus in the Breeders’ Cup at Belmont Park, Royal Academy faced another question going a mile, and Piggott unleashed his speed to perfection.

As a half-brother to the aforementioned Terlingua, Storm Cat’s mother, Royal Academy is likewise out of the speedy sprinter Crimson Saint. Honor Marie’s pedigree therefore features a duplication of Crimson Saint, as well as closer inbreeding to Mr. Prospector and a further repetition of Northern Dancer.

10. This is the family of Epsom Derby winners Teenoso and Sir Percy.

Honor Marie descends from *Favoletta, queen of the Irish 1000 Guineas (G1) in 1971. *Favoletta is by Baldric, a champion son of Hall of Famer Round Table who scored in the 2000 Guineas (G1) and Champion (G1) in 1964. *Favoletta’s half-sister Furioso, the runner-up in the 1974 Epsom Oaks (G1), would go on to produce 1983 Epsom Derby champion Teenoso.

*Favoletta and Furioso’s mother, Violetta III, dead-heated for the win in the 1961 Cambridgeshire H., inseparable from Henry the Seventh at the Newmarket wire. Violetta III is also the ancestress of a more recent Epsom Derby hero, Sir Percy (2006).

Moreover, Violetta III is herself by a Derby winner, Pinza, who foiled the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Aureole at Epsom in 1953.