BERNED: HIP 163 FTNOV

A graded stakes winner, by a classic winning champion and leading sire, out of a graded stakes winner, and with three straight stakes winning dams. Berned has the credentials to be a valuable addition to any broodmare band.

A graded stakes performer at two, three and four, Berned is a graded and multiple stakes winner who is also multiple graded placed, earning almost $400,000. Her graded stakes victory came in the Molly Pitcher Stakes (G3) where she defeated grade two winner Unchained Melody, and stakes winners Dreamcall, Divine Miss Grey. This talented filly also recorded black-type victories in the seven furlong Safely Kept Stakes by 4¼ lengths in a sharp 1:22.54 while accounting for Your Love, Shimmering Aspen, Astrollinthepark, Just Be Kind, Rose Tree, Bellavais and Moonlit Song, and the Serena’s Song Stakes where her defeated foes included graded winner Teresa Z., and stakes winners Miss Inclusive and Analyze. Berned also took second in the Tempted Stakes (G3) at two, beaten just ¾ length by Miss Sky Warrior, and the Royal Delta Stakes, and third in the Barbara Fritchie Stakes (G2).

Berned is a daughter of A.P. Indy’s Champion Three-Year-Old Colt Bernardini. The sire of 64 stakes winners, Bernardini has already been represented by 43 graded winners and 14 grade one winners, including such as Cavorting, To Honor and Serve, Alpha, Stay Thirsty, Dame Dorothy, Angela Renee, Takaful, Rachel’s Valentina, A.Z. Warrior and Biondetti. The oldest stakes winners out of Bernardini mares are only five-year-olds of 2018, and he is already broodmare sire of 22 black-type winners, including not only Catholic Boy, but also grade one winner Mo Town, and graded winners Serengeti Empress, Mopotism, Hunter O’Riley, Banish, Arabian Hope, Dark Nile, Song of Spring, National Flag and Yulong Warrior.

The dam of Berned is the speedy Giant’s Causeway mare, First Passage, a winner of four stakes events, including the Azalea Stakes (G3). First Passage also has a young daughter at stud by Tapit, has a Curlin weanling, and is bred back to Tapit, which gives a very similar cross to that which produced Berned.

First Passage is three-quarters sister to the Floral Park Handicap (G3), winner Win McCool, the granddam of the 2018 Arkansas Derby (G1) and Rebel Stakes (G2) captor, Magnum Moon. The second dam of Berned, Win’s Fair Lady, is a multiple stakes winner who is a sister to Graeme Hall, a winner of four graded stakes events, including the Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) and Arkansas Derby (G2), and also multiple graded placed including second in the Cigar Handicap (G1). Win’s Fair Lady is also half-sister to track-record breaking Harmony Lodge, whose six graded stakes wins include the Ballerina Handicap (G1), and is who dam of graded stakes winner Stratford Hill, and to Lorelei K., the dam of 2018 graded stakes placed two-year-old Sparky Ville.

Berned’s third dam, Win Crafty Lady, numbers the Interborough Handicap (G3) among a trio of stakes victories, and she is half-sister to Diligence, a winner of the Tom Fool Handicap (G2) and Churchill Downs Handicap (G3), and multiple grade one placed.

As a broodmare, Berned quite literally offers a world of opportunities, her pedigree having potential to cross well with a wide-range of major international stallions. In North America, she would be an excellent fit for Justify, whose sire Scat Daddy, has not only done well with A.P. Indy line mares, in general, but who is also already sire of a stakes winner out of a daughter of Bernardini.

Berned has strong appeal with Pioneerof the Nile – already sire of two stakes winners, including graded scorer Dark Nile – from only seven starters out of Bernardini mares. That also brings her into serious consideration for both Pioneerof the Nile’s son, American Pharoah, and his sire, Empire Maker. Uncle Mo has sired grade one winner Mo Town and graded scorer Mopotism from just six starters out of mares by Bernardini. Candy Ride has an excellent strike rate with A.P. Indy line mares, and has Horse of the Year Gun Runner out of a mare who gives inbreeding to Fappiano through Candy’s Ride’s grandsire Cryptoclearance and through Quiet American, as here. Quality Road already has a stakes winner out of a Bernardini mare, and the appropriately international War Front has 11 stakes winners, five group or graded out of A.P. Indy line mares.

In Europe, Berned is a candidate for Galileo – sire of a stakes winner and a stakes placed horse from only three starters out of mares by Bernardini – and his sons, who are headed by the magnificent Frankel. Galileo’s greatest rival in Europe is the exceptional sire, Dubawi, and he is from a sire line – that of Seeking the Gold – that has significantly outperformed opportunity when crossed with A.P. Indy line mares. Lope de Vega – who gives Giant’s Causeway 3×3 at the top and bottom of the pedigree – and Siyouni, two of Europe’s fastest-rising sires, are also candidates here, as is Leading Freshman Sire, No Nay Never.

In Japan, the great sire, Deep Impact, has outperformed opportunity with A.P. Indy line mares, and has a graded stakes winner out of a mare by Tapit, a horse bred on a similar cross to Bernardini.

Pedigree Analysis by Alan Porter