'It's one heck of a melting pot' - Good Magic's Mage avenges sire Kentucky Derby defeat with Churchill Downs success

Hill 'n' Dale Farms' exciting second-season sire Good Magic was runner-up to Triple Crown hero Justify in the 2018 Kentucky Derby, but the sire put matters right when his son Mage stormed to a length success in the Churchill Downs Classic on Saturday. 

From the first crop of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Haskell Invitational Stakes winner, Mage was bred by Grandview Equine out of the stakes-winning and Grade 2-placed Big Brown mare Puca, a half-sister to Finnegans Wake, who struck in the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic Stakes of 2015. 

Initially a $90,000 purchase by Donegal Racing when sold by Hidden Brook at the 2013 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Puca then changed hands at the 2017 Keeneland November Sale, making $275,000 to Thomas Clark. The Jerry Crawford and Paul Pompa Jr-bred mare then sold to Grandview Equine for $475,000 at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November Sale. 

She has a two-year-old full-brother to Mage and a yearling colt by McKinzie.

Mage races for OGMA Investments, Ramiro Restrepo, Sterling Racing and Commonwealth Thoroughbreds, a micro-share partnership, and had made $235,000 to New Team from Runnymede Farm at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale in 2021. The group paid $290,000 for the chestnut at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale almost a year ago from Sequel Bloodstock.

Commonwealth Thoroughbreds' Chase Chamberlin, quoted by Bloodhorse, said: "This is what racing is all about. It's the only sport in the world where an animal can take a million people for a ride, or in our case 382 people."

Restrepo added: "The ownership group is four different groups from four different backgrounds, all different age ranges, nationalities. I mean, it's one heck of a melting pot that came together for this horse."

Mage, a debut winner at Gulfstream Park in January, had run fourth behind Forte in the Fountain of Youth Stakes at the same track in March and then second to the same rival in the Florida Derby last month. Forte was a controversial late scratch from the Kentucky Derby due to veterinary concerns related to a bruise in his right front foot.

Good Magic: a leading freshman sire in 2022 and sire of MageCredit: Hill 'N' Dale Farms

Mage's sire had retired to Hill 'n' Dale in 2019 for an opening fee of $35,000 and stood this year for $50,000 off the back of his freshman exploits in 2022. His leading progeny include last October's Champagne Stakes winner Blazing Sevens, Grade 3 winner and last month's Arkansas Derby third Reincarnate, and Grade 2 winners Vegas Magic and Dubyuhnell. 

Also on the Kentucky Derby card, Godolphin homebreds Matareya and Cody's Wish added further top-level strikes in the Derby City Distaff Stakes and Churchill Downs Stakes, while Taylor Made Farm's Not This Time sired his fifth individual Grade 1 winner when Up To The Mark easily won the Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic Stakes.

There was also success for Sea The Stars on Saturday, at Belmont Park, when son Ottoman Fleet added to his Earl of Sefton Stakes victory in the Grade 2 Fort Marcy Stakes. 

The Charlie Appleby-trained gelding was bred by the Marinopoulos family's Haras du Lieu Marmion and Alain Jathiere, and was a 425,000gns purchase by Godolphin from Longview Stud at Tattersalls Book 1 in 2020, having sold to Hennessy Bloodstock for €290,000 from Haras de Montaigu at Arqana as a foal. 

Read more

Guineas glory again for Frankel as son Chaldean stars 12 years on