12 Pedigree fun facts: Derma Sotogake

Mar 28, 2023 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Interestingly, Posse and Awesome Again are bred along similar lines. Both are out of Blushing Groom-line mares.

5. Derma Sotogake’s mother won a notable dirt race in Japan.

8. Amour Poesie is out of a mare by Arc winner Tony Bin.

Amour Poesie and Million Disk’s dam, Happy Request, is by Tony Bin, an Italian celebrity who became a success at stud in Japan. A five-time Group 1 champion in Italy who placed in the 1987 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1) among other European majors, Tony Bin went one better to win the “Arc” in 1988.

Tony Bin sired several Japanese champions, led by Horses of the Year Jungle Pocket (2001) and Air Groove (1997) (herself the dam of champion Admire Groove and Rulership). Other Tony Bin mares are responsible for the likes of recently-deceased champion and sire Heart’s Cry, dirt champ Transcend, and Chateau Blanche, now famous as the dam of Japan’s current Horse of the Year Equinox, who galloped to a course record in the Dubai Sheema Classic (G1).

9. Derma Sotogake’s ancestor Dike was third in the 1969 Kentucky Derby and Belmont.

Happy Request is out of Florida-bred April Sonnett, winner of a pair of minor stakes at old Suffolk Downs and Hialeah Park. Also third in the Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs among her stakes placings, April Sonnett earned $211,316 from 49 career starts.

April Sonnett is by Dike, a Claiborne Farm blueblood who was unlucky to be born the same year (1966) as Hall of Famers Majestic Prince and Arts and Letters. Dike was third to that pair in the 1969 Kentucky Derby, and third again when Arts and Letters denied Majestic Prince the Triple Crown in the Belmont S. Trained by Lucien Laurin, later famous for Triple Crown legend Secretariat (1973), Dike won the Breeders’ Futurity, Gotham S., and Wood Memorial. 

10. April Sonnett’s half-brother, Hill Pass, was on the Derby trail and later upset Best Pal.

April Sonnett is out of Pass Me, who is also the dam of Hill Pass. On the Derby trail at Fair Grounds, Hill Pass captured the 1991 Old Hickory S. and placed in the 1992 Risen Star S. and Louisiana Derby (then a Grade 3). Later joining the late Hall of Famer Jack Van Berg in California, Hill Pass competed in several graded stakes and earned his biggest win in the 1994 San Pasqual H. (G2). He famously upset Hall of Famer Best Pal as a 15-1 longshot.

11. Pass Me’s sire is an obscure son of Buckpasser.

Pass Me is by Pass, an unraced stallion who never sired a stakes winner. But Pass was well-bred himself as a son of Hall of Famer Buckpasser and French champion filly *Casaque Gris, victress of three major races capped by the Prix Vermeille.

12. Derma Sotogake descends from a family cultivated at the Virginia estate of James Madison.

Pass Me’s dam, Schooner, was bred by Marion duPont Scott of Montpelier, formerly the property of President James Madison. Schooner belonged to a family that she cultivated with great success, including champion steeplechasers Shipboard and Soothsayer, and champion grass horse Parka. 

Tracing the female line further back to its British roots, this is the family labeled number 12. Two early Kentucky Derby winners also descend from this family, near relations Joe Cotton (1885) and His Eminence (1901). But Derma Sotogake’s branch of the family is quite distant from theirs; you have to go back to the late 18th century to find the common ancestress – Proserpine, a full sister to the legendary racehorse and patriarch Eclipse.