Pedigree notebook: Nutella Fella’s genetic confection

Nutella Fella’s adroit move on the rail in Saturday’s Pelican S. at Tampa Bay Downs presents a new occasion to revisit his pedigree. 

The Gary Contessa trainee first commanded attention by springing a 54-1 upset in the 2023 Hopeful (G1). Resurfacing with a third in last summer’s Woody Stephens (G1), Nutella Fella vanished again until 2025. The Pelican marked the second start of his latest comeback, with a view toward the Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1) on World Cup night.

The most immediate source of Nutella Fella’s one-turn prowess is his sire, 2015 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) champion Runhappy. On paper, one might have imagined that Runhappy could route, as a son of 2010 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Super Saver, but he inherited an aptitude for speed. Nutella Fella’s female line also features high-profile sprinters, suggesting a confluence of factors on top and bottom.

Nutella Fella’s dam, the Candy Ride mare Krissy’s Candy, is in turn a daughter of Unbridled Beauty, who was runner-up in the 2003 Adirondack (G2) and Astoria S. during her brief juvenile career. Although by Unbridled’s Song, Unbridled Beauty apparently expressed more of the inheritance of her own dam, Dreamscape, a full sister to Hall of Famer Housebuster. 

Voted champion sprinter in 1990-91, Housebuster was effective up to a mile, as illustrated most spectacularly in his 13-length rout of the Jerome H. (G1) (then contested in the fall). 

Dreamscape and Housebuster are the offspring of sprinters Mt. Livermore and Big Dreams. Mt. Livermore’s biggest wins came in the 1985 Carter H. (G2) and Fall Highweight H. (G2) (under 140 pounds), while Big Dreams was a multiple stakes winner sprinting on both turf and dirt.

Aside from Nutella Fella, Big Dreams is the ancestress of such speedsters as reigning Breeders’ Cup Sprint star Straight No Chaser, the recently crowned divisional champion; Hong Kong Group 1 scorer Victor the Winner; and Grade 2 victors Something Extra and Nicole H. (Other descendants of Big Dreams have stayed further, thanks to the contribution of their sires.)

Big Dreams’s sire, Great Above, is a Grade 3-winning sprinter. Great Above was himself produced by the dazzling Ta Wee, a Hall of Famer like her half-brother Dr. Fager. 

That Dr. Fager connection is intriguing because he, and another half-sister, make repeat appearances elsewhere in Nutella Fella’s pedigree. Nutella Fella has three crosses of Fappiano, who is out of a Dr. Fager mare. 

One cross comes via Fappiano’s son Cryptoclearance, the male-line ancestor of Candy Ride. But the other two instances of Fappiano are both supplied by his champion son Unbridled.

Thus Nutella Fella is inbred to Unbridled, the 1990 Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner. Unbridled’s stamina isn’t necessarily imparted here; instead, it depends upon how his influence is mediated through these particular conduits.

Note that Unbridled is himself a direct matrilineal descendant of Dr. Fager and Ta Wee’s half-sister Magic. As a result, the dam of Dr. Fager, Ta Wee, and Magic – Aspidistra – keeps lurking in the background. (If you dare to go even deeper into the weeds, Dr. Fager’s sire, Rough ‘n Tumble, is also the paternal grandsire of Great Above, giving yet another deep-seated echo to the ancestry.)

Nutella Fella has an additional pedigree pattern to observe, namely the repetition of Fappiano over Blushing Groom. This is especially noticeable in Nutella Fella’s dam, Krissy’s Candy, who doubles down on that idea. Her sire, Candy Ride, is bred on the cross of a Fappiano-line stallion over a Blushing Groom-line mare. Her dam, Unbridled Beauty, is bred along the same lines, just with different sons of Fappiano and Blushing Groom. 

Moreover, a variation of this theme is detectable in Runhappy too. He is out of a mare by Broken Vow, an Unbridled stallion whose second dam (maternal grandmother) is by Blushing Groom!

These distant, but mutually reinforcing, relationships reveal how much more is going on under the hood of a pedigree, so to speak, than a superficial glance suggests.