Why Knicks Go's pedigree is cause for fascination and celebration

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Writing about pedigrees entails a lot of repeating oneself about the glory of Galileo, the deeds of Dubawi and the feats of Frankel, so it makes a pleasant change for me – and no doubt you, the reader – when a horse with breeding a little out of the ordinary comes to the fore.

Knicks Go, the electrifying all-the-way winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Saturday, is one such top-class performer whose family offers refreshment to pedigree aficionados thirsty for something more novel to study.

The five-year-old was bred in Maryland by Angie Moore, by sending her useful racemare Kosmo’s Buddy to Paynter. The sire had looked set for superstardom when winning the Haskell Invitational by just under four lengths in 2012, but soon after the race he developed colitis, which led to a chronic case of laminitis and a desperate fight to save his life.

Paynter survived against all odds and even made a return to the track a year later, to win an allowance race at Hollywood Park and to run second to Mucho Macho Man in the Awesome Again Stakes.

He retired to WinStar Farm at a fee of $25,000 in 2014 and was a popular choice of breeders and yearling buyers in his early years, until a slow start with his first runners meant he fell out of favour – to the point that he covered just 34 mares at $12,500 in his fifth season.

Paynter’s fee slumped to $7,500 this year, although the revised price and emergence of Knicks Go did at least attract a little more custom – 85 mares according to the North American Jockey Club’s recently published Report of Mares Bred.

However, Knicks Go remains Paynter’s only Grade 1 winner from five crops of racing age for now, and so, even after his Breeders’ Cup heroics, the sire is standing at WinStar for only $10,000 in 2022.

Paynter win the Haskell in 2012 under Rafael BejaranoCredit: Equisport Photos

The most curious thing about Knicks Go’s pedigree, though, is the identity of his broodmare sire: Kosmo’s Buddy is by Outflanker, a stalwart of the Maryland stallion scene.

Outflanker was beautifully bred, being by Danzig out of Lassie’s Lady, a daughter of Alydar and blue hen Lassie Dear and thus a half-sister to champion sprinter Wolfhound and Grade 1-placed Weekend Surprise, the dam of Classic heroes A.P. Indy and Summer Squall.

By the time the colt came to be offered at the Keeneland July Yearling Sale of 1995 he was already a half-brother to two stakes winners in Bite The Bullet and Shuailaan, and he was duly purchased by Demi O’Byrne on behalf of Michael Tabor for $375,000.

However, Outflanker was unable to win on any of his ten starts, the first two for Peter Chapple-Hyam as a juvenile and the last eight for Aidan O’Brien at three. He did manage five placings in maidens, though.

Equipped with that formidable pedigree, even if no racing success, he was bought to stand at Cloverleaf Farms in Florida and later moved to the Maryland Stallion Station, before being switched to Shamrock Farms in Maryland. He has often figured highly in the state’s leading sire tables.

Outflanker has delivered a handful of Grade 3 winners, in Bayou’s Lassie, Bushwacker and Javerre, and several Central American champions. He is also damsire of Madman Diaries, a former Grade 3 winner and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf fourth for Wesley Ward.

Remarkably, the Jockey Club reports that Outflanker covered a mare this year at the grand old age of 27, which made him one of the oldest active stallions in North America.

Another odd footnote to the horse’s story is the nature of the competition he faced in the Haydock maiden he contested on debut 25 years ago this autumn.

Outflanker was beaten a long way into second by Catienus, a son of Storm Cat trained by Sir Michael Stoute for Sheikh Mohammed at the time but later Grade 1-placed in the US for Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey.

Catienus – who died only last month – stood in New York and at Ramsey Farm in Kentucky, and supplied Grade 1 winners Dawn Of War and Precious Kitten, as well as Wesley Ward’s narrowly beaten Golden Jubilee Stakes runner-up Cannonball.

Like Outflanker, Catienus also featured as damsire of a Breeders’ Cup winner, as his maternal granddaughter Stephanie’s Kitten took the notable scalp of Legatissimo to land the Filly & Mare Turf in 2015.

Third behind Catienus and Outflanker in that Haydock maiden in 1996 was Right Wing, a future winner of the Lincoln and multiple stakes races. The quirky son of In The Wings found a position at stud in Western Australia and from limited chances managed to sire a Group 2 winner in Guest Wing.

And who was fourth to the future international stallions Catienus, Outflanker and Right Wing in the race? None other than Spartan Girl, who became the dam of three-time Champion Hurdle runner-up My Tent Or Yours. Go figure.

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Good Morning Bloodstock is our latest email newsletter. Martin Stevens, a doyen among bloodstock journalists, provides his take and insight on the biggest stories every morning from Monday to Friday