Kentucky Derby dynasties: Visualizing today's most successful bloodlines

The 150-year history of the Kentucky Derby is more than written records, photographs, crackly old broadcasts, race replays, and personal memories. America’s iconic horse race has a living, breathing legacy in today’s Thoroughbreds, descendants of great champions who competed in the “Run for the Roses,” and heirs of bloodlines that have stood the test of time. 

Quick Navigation, jump to a Kentucky Derby dynasty info-graphic:

• Native Dancer
• Raise a Native
• Mr. Prospector
• Northern Dancer

The Kentucky Derby dynasty of NATIVE DANCER

The patriarch with the greatest impact on Derby bloodlines in our era is Native Dancer. A popular champion in the early days of televised racing, when his gray coat shone brightly on the old black and white broadcasts, he was nicknamed the “Gray Ghost.”

In one of history’s fascinating ironies, Native Dancer was himself upset in the 1953 Derby, suffering his only career loss by a head after a troubled trip. That cost him the elusive Triple Crown, as he went on to win the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, and ultimately entered the Hall of Fame.

You might say that the Gray Ghost has haunted the Derby ever since. Native Dancer’s son Kauai King proved to be his avenger at Churchill Downs in 1966. Native Dancer almost had a second Derby winner, Dancer’s Image, the first across the wire in 1968 before being disqualified. But it was another son of Native Dancer, Raise a Native, who would establish the enduring legacy of his sire line. 

The Kentucky Derby dynasty of RAISE A NATIVE

Raise a Native factors as the direct male-line ancestor of 23 Derby winners, beginning with his own colt, Majestic Prince (1969). Majestic Prince in turn is the paternal ancestor of Monarchos (2001) and Super Saver (2010), both by Maria’s Mon, the champion two-year-old of 1995 who unfortunately missed his chance at Derby glory due to injury.

The 1978 Triple Crown featured an epic rivalry between a son and grandson of Raise a Native. Grandson Affirmed outdueled Raise a Native’s son Alydar in all three jewels. Alydar lost the war on the track, but won in the breeding shed by siring two Derby winners, Hall of Famer Alysheba (1987) and Strike the Gold (1991). Affirmed’s sire, Exclusive Native, made more history when his daughter Genuine Risk (1980) became just the second filly ever to beat the boys in the Derby. 

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The Kentucky Derby dynasty of MR. PROSPECTOR

Raise a Native’s most profound influence on the classics comes by way of another son, Mr. Prospector. In addition to siring 2000 Derby star Fusaichi Pegasus, “Mr. P” is responsible for several major stallion sons who have perpetuated his line through various branches. 

Unbridled, the 1990 Derby champion, is the most prolific of the Mr. Prospector tribe from a Derby perspective. When his son Grindstone (1996) wore the roses, Unbridled became the 12th and latest Derby winner to sire a Derby winner. Grindstone continued the chain as the paternal grandsire of 50-1 surprise package Mine That Bird (2009). 

The runner-up in that 2009 Derby, Unbridled’s grandson Pioneerof the Nile, gained compensation by siring Triple Crown champion American Pharoah (2015). The near-misser in the 1998 Triple Crown, Real Quiet, descends from Unbridled’s own sire, Fappiano. 

Another Derby winner from the Unbridled clan, Always Dreaming (2017), is by a Derby runner-up in Bodemeister (2012). Both Bodemeister and Pioneerof the Nile are themselves by Unbridled’s son Empire Maker, the 2003 Derby favorite who wound up second to Funny Cide.

Funny Cide represents another segment of Mr. Prospector’s line, via Distorted Humor, who also appears as the paternal grandsire of I’ll Have Another (2012). Derby winners hailing from other “Mr. P” branches in past decades include Thunder Gulch (1995, by Gulch), War Emblem (2002, by Our Emblem), Smarty Jones (2004, by Elusive Quality), and Street Sense (2007, by Street Cry).

In recent years, Mr. Prospector’s hottest influence on the Derby has come from another route, via Hall of Famer Curlin, who was third in the 2007 Run for the Roses. Sons of Curlin have sired the past two Derby winners – 80-1 shot Rich Strike (2022) is by Keen Ice (who shocked American Pharoah in the 2015 Travers [G1]), and Mage (2023) is by Good Magic (himself runner-up in the 2018 Derby). 

Moreover, Country House (2019) belongs to the same segment of the Mr. Prospector line. His sire, champion Lookin at Lucky (an unlucky sixth as the favorite in the 2010 Derby), is by the same stallion as Curlin – Mr. P’s son Smart Strike.

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The Kentucky Derby dynasty of NORTHERN DANCER

Yet even this list doesn’t reflect the sum total of Native Dancer’s stamp on the Derby. If you broaden the scope beyond his direct male-line descendants, you’ll see that Native Dancer has bequeathed a colossal influence via his daughter Natalma, who became the dam (mother) of breed-shaper Northern Dancer.

The hero of the 1964 Kentucky Derby, Northern Dancer has redrawn the genetic map of the Thoroughbred on a global scale. His sire line has furnished the most recent Triple Crown champion, Justify (2018), and six other Derby winners in Ferdinand (1986), Sea Hero (1993), Charismatic (1999), Big Brown (2008), Authentic (2020), and Mandaloun (2021). 

Authentic and Mandaloun are sons of perennial leading sire Into Mischief, so far the only stallion to sire back-to-back Derby winners. Fifteen other stallions have the distinction of siring two Derby winners overall. The greatest of them is Man o’ War, who didn’t compete in the Derby himself, but sired Clyde Van Dusen (1929) and Triple Crown star War Admiral (1937).

If Into Mischief can add a third Kentucky Derby winner, he’d tie the record shared by 19th-century stallions Virgil and Falsetto as well as 20th-century titans *Sir Gallahad III and Bull Lea. 

Those four sires of ages past are still found deep in the recesses of modern pedigrees, including Into Mischief’s ancestry, illustrating the genetic ties that bind across space and time. The contenders in the 150th Kentucky Derby will have the opportunity to spin the thread further, and weave themselves into the classic tapestry.

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