Alan Porter Breeding Analysis for Wilburn

by Alan Porter

Spectacular winner of the Indiana Derby (gr. II), while defeating classic winner Shackleford and Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (gr. I) winner Caleb’s Posse, Wilburn is the first son of Bernardini to retire to stud. In addition to being a son of a classic winning Champion, Wilburn is three-parts-brother to a two-year-old graded stakes winner, and out of a two-year-old graded stakes winner, who is herself three-parts-sister to a two-year-old grade one winner.

Wiburn is free of Northern Dancer in the first four generations of his pedigree, and Bernardini has already started to do extremely well when crossed over mares from that line. He has grade one winner Stay Thirsty out of a mare by Storm Bird, a graded winner out of a mare by Summer Squall, and a grade one placed horse out of a mare by a son of Storm Cat; grade one winner Biondetti out of a mare by Lyphard; and graded winner To Honor and Serve out of a mare by Deputy Minister. Storm Cat line mares should work particularly well here, and options include Giant’s Causeway, Forest Wildcat, Forestry, Hennessy (and his son, Johannesburg), Stormy Atlantic, Stormin Fever, Tale of the Cat, Harlan’s Holiday, Bernstein, Mountain Cat, Tabasco Cat and Sir Cat. The Deputy Minister branch might be brought in through Dehere (broodmare sire of a stakes winner by Bernardini), Silver Deputy, Awesome Again, Touch Gold, Salt Lake, French Deputy, Forest Camp, and Deputy Commander.

Among other branches of Northern Dancer that have done well under A.P. Indy are Danzig  (including through Chief’s Crown, Boundary, Dayjur, Danzig Connection, Belong to Me, Langfuhr, Danehill and Honor Grades, half-brother to A.P. Indy); Sadler’s Wells through El Prado; Nureyev; and El Gran Senor.

Wilburn is a product of the Bernardini/Mr. Prospector cross, but here Mr. Prospector is sufficiently distant in the pedigree to allow inbreeding to that strain. In addition to Carson City, the broodmare sire of Wilburn, Bernardini has stakes winners out of a mares by Kingmambo (sire of Lemon Drop Kid, who would give inbreeding to A.P. Indy and a three-parts-sister), Seeking the Gold (sire of Petionville, Mutakddim, and Cape Town), and Gone West (sire of Mr. Greeley, Elusive Quality, Grand Slam, and Proud Citizen). It would also be worth considering introducing the Mr. Prospector strain through Fappiano (in Wilburn through Quiet American, but worth re-introducing through Rubiano, Unbridled, Unbridled’s Song, Cryptoclearance, Candy Ride, Broken Vow, Empire Maker, Grindstone and Birdstone), Woodman, Machiavellian (sire of Street Cry), Forty Niner (particularly Distorted Humor), Afleet (sire of Northern Afleet, grandsire of Afleet Alex), Fusaichi Pegasus and Silver Ghost. There are also four grade one winners by A.P. Indy and his sons out of mares from the male line of Alydar, a genetic relative to Mr. Prospector, who could be brought in through Saratoga Six, Turkoman, Criminal Type, Alysheba, Easy Goer and Strike the Gold.

The A.P. Indy line is beginning to work well with Roberto line mares, including stakes winners out of mares by Red Ransom, Kris S. (and his sons Arch and You and I, with Prized being another source), Dynaformer and Major Impact. Roberto is a Hail to Reason line horse, and A.P. Indy has also sired grade one winners out of mares by Turn-to/ Hail to Reason descendants Cox's Ridge and Cure the Blues.