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Tales from the Crib: T O Password

Apr 27, 2024 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

T O Password as a foal (Photo courtesy of Yanagawa Bokujo)

When future Japanese dirt champion Copano Rickey won the Fukuryu S. in 2013, there was no Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby. But when his promising son, T O Password, won the same race at Nakayama on March 23, it earned him a Derby invitation as the top points scorer on the Japanese leaderboard.

Copano Rickey’s first major win came by springing a 272-1 shocker, as the longest shot on the board, in the 2014 February (G1) at Tokyo. T O Password hopes to bring that same upset-minded swagger into Churchill Downs.

Copano Rickey and T O Password were both bred by the same farm, Yanagawa Bokujo. T O Password races for Tomoya Ozasa, whose “T O” initials serve as a prefix for all of his horse names. He’s already campaigned a dirt champion in Japan, T O Keynes, another product of Yanagawa Bokujo.

The farm proprietor, Mr. Yanagawa, is both delighted to be represented in the Derby, and aware of the massive challenge it involves. Through Hiroshi Ando, the racing manager for T O Password, Mr. Yanagawa expressed what it means for him to have bred a Derby competitor:

“I bred the father, Copano Rickey, and his son T O Password will challenge in the 150th Kentucky Derby.

“The Kentucky Derby is one of the best races in the world, also all breeders’ dream race too.

“I’m honored to be here. I understand T O Password had just two races his life, and he has a long trip from Japan, so it is not easy at all. But I’d like to see how he runs and challenges in the Kentucky Derby with top-of-the-world horses.”

Yanagawa Bokujo is also responsible for a prominent classic contender at home, Sugar Kun. He just won a Grade 2 prep on Saturday for the May 26 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) (G1).

Sugar Kun is a half-brother to fellow Yanagawa-bred Kitasan Black, one of the most decorated turf performers of the last decade. Japan’s Horse of the Year in 2016 and 2017, Kitasan Black won seven Grade 1s including the Japan Cup (G1) and Arima Kinen (G1). Now he’s excelled himself as the sire of the best horse in the world last year, Equinox. Kitasan Black is likewise the sire of T O Saint Denis, T O Password’s stablemate who will run in the Alysheba (G2) on Kentucky Oaks Day.

T O Password’s sire, Copano Rickey, amassed a similarly impressive collection of trophies on dirt, with a total of 13 black-type stakes wins. He became the first back-to-back winner of the February in 2015. Fans didn’t make the same mistake of underestimating again, sending him off as the clear favorite in his title defense over the metric mile.

Indeed, Copano Rickey enjoyed repeating in other high-profile races. He won consecutive runnings of the JBC Classic and Mile Championship Nambu Hai, and captured the Kashiwa Kinen three times.

Copano Rickey was mentioned as a Breeders’ Cup candidate at the height of his career. A grandson of Breeders’ Cup winners Sunday Silence and Timber Country, Copano Rickey would have been a fascinating player, but he never made the trip stateside. He went out in a blaze of glory at home in the 2017 Tokyo Daishoten (G1).

Copano Rickey’s sire, Gold Allure, was a top dirt performer who captured the Tokyo Daishoten and February himself. As you might guess, Gold Allure is a son of Sunday Silence, the 1989 Kentucky Derby and Preakness (G1) legend who beat archrival Easy Goer again in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1).

While Sunday Silence has exerted an incalculable influence through a number of sons, chief among them Deep Impact (grandsire of Derby rival Forever Young), Gold Allure has especially furthered his legacy on dirt. Gold Allure’s other outstanding offspring include Gold Dream, Chrysoberyl, Espoir City, and Epicharis, the inaugural Japan Road winner who was earmarked for the 2017 Belmont (G1) before he was scratched.

Copano Rickey is out of a mare by Timber Country, the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) champion. Third to his D. Wayne Lukas stablemate Thunder Gulch in the 1995 Derby, Timber Country turned the tables in the Preakness in what proved to be his final start.

T O Password’s dam (mother), T O Rachel, also has familiar names in her pedigree. Her sire, Japanese champion King Kamehameha, is by the renowned Kingmambo, whose parents are Mr. Prospector and Hall of Famer Miesque. (Thus Kingmambo is related to Forever Young’s sire, Real Steel.) King Kamehameha is a half-brother to The Deputy, the 2000 Santa Anita Derby winner who was unplaced behind Fusaichi Pegasus in the Kentucky Derby.

T O Rachel’s family is all American. Her mother is by Favorite Trick, Horse of the Year after his perfect two-year-old season in 1997, and out of a mare by Saratoga Six, a son of Alydar who retired unbeaten after the 1984 Del Mar Futurity (G1).

T O Rachel inherits her gray coat from her great-grandmother (third dam in her female line), Controlled Landing, by the gray Wise Exchange. The winner of the 1968 Fountain of Youth and Flamingo, Wise Exchange factors in the pedigrees of Hall of Famer Curlin and champions Countess Diana and Ginger Punch, all on the maternal side.

Although T O Rachel broke her maiden sprinting six furlongs on turf, she switched to dirt where she spent nearly all of her career. She won twice more in allowances going about seven furlongs.

T O Rachel’s first three foals were lower-level winners, and two daughters are still active. Six-year-old T O la Tour has won eight of 62 starts at this writing, and five-year-old T O Chance is 2-for-35 so far.

T O Rachel saved her best for last, however, when she delivered her Copano Rickey colt on May 20, 2021.

T O Password as a foal (Photo courtesy of Yanagawa Bokujo)

T O Password was a small foal, Mr. Yanagawa recalls, and he inherited the “strong personality” of his mother. But it didn’t pose any sort of issue as he grew up, or in his interactions with people.

Given his late foaling date, T O Password was still smaller as a yearling when compared to others at the same stage. Yet the stamp of Copano Rickey was visible to Mr. Yanagawa.

“His father, Copano Rickey, has a good-sized body, balance, and physique. T O Password got a good body frame from his father, but his body size was smaller.”

When he had matured enough to prepare for racing, T O Password was sent to trainer Daisuke Takayanagi, who also conditioned the aforementioned champion T O Keynes. He took his time with the colt, and T O Password was ready to win his debut Jan. 6. Facing a field of fellow newcomers at Kyoto, he pressed the pace in the about 1 1/8-mile affair and quickened stylishly to score by two lengths.

T O Password was an outsider in the Fukuryu over the same distance at Nakayama, where he was meeting more experienced rivals and stepping up in class. But the 13-1 chance went straight to the lead, opened up, and just held on by a diminishing head from Arare Tabashiru. By that margin, he earned 40 points and the top spot on the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby.

With only two starts under his belt, T O Password has to overcome the inexperience factor. Just one horse, Leonatus all the way back in 1883, has ever won the Derby in his third start. And like his more seasoned compatriot Forever Young, T O Password has to deal with the stats against international shippers in the Derby.

Sire Copano Rickey used the Fukuryu as a springboard to bigger and better things, although chiefly as an older horse. T O Password is eligible to do the same, but first he has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in the Derby that his dad never had.

Sunday update: Mr. Ozasa kicked off Derby Week by winning a prestigious race at Kyoto, the about two-mile Tenno Sho (Spring) (G1), with his streaking T O Royal. The 9-5 favorite swept to the front turning for home and held sway by two lengths, putting himself into the picture for Australia’s famed Melbourne Cup (G1) on the first Tuesday in November.

With special thanks to Kate Hunter for facilitating contact and to Hiroshi Ando for help in obtaining comments and photos from Mr. Yanagawa

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