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By Louis Quatorze - a horse very capable of getting a top-class runner, but not the most consistent stallion in the world - out of a South American mare, Repent (TrueNicks, SRO) was somewhat difficult stallion to evaluate when he retired to stud in Florida for the 2004 breeding season. The class which saw him win four graded stakes at 2 and 3, and finish second in the Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Travers Stakes (both gr. I) seems to be coming to the fore, however. With his first crop - newly-turned 3-year-olds of 2008 - he already has 20 individual winners (18 as 2-year-olds), including three stakes winners and six stakes horses.

The most recent of those is Prince Cortez, who took his record to 3-for-3 win a daylight win in the Triple Sec Stakes at Delta Downs, and who looks sure to do even better as the distances stretch out. An A++ TrueNicks rated horse, Prince Cortez is out of the Relaunch mare Ranba. Relaunch might be interesting here, as he brings in The Axe II, one of the best sons of Mahmoud, a horse whose great daughter Grey Flight is closely duplicated in the pedigree of Louis Quatorze, through the three-parts brother and sister Bold Princess and Bold Lad (both by Bold Ruler, whose sire, Nasrullah, is out of a three-parts sister to Mahmoud).

Repent's What a Pleasure Stakes winner, Check It Twice, is an A+ TrueNicks colt. He actually has some pedigree similarities with Prince Cortez, as his broodmare sire, Out of Place, is a son of Cox's Ridge (who has a lot of Rock Sand/Fairy Gold, two of the grandparents of Man o' War, in the background of his pedigree, as does Ranba's sire, Relaunch, and her maternal grandsire, Olden Times). His granddam, the excellent mare Christmas Past, is by Grey Dawn II (dam by Mahmoud and closely related to The Axe II) out of a Bold Ruler mare, so is something of a reverse cross to Bold Princess and Bold Lad.

Repent's first stakes scorer, the Continental Mile winner and Remsen Stakes (gr. II) runner-up Atoned, is a three-parts brother to Prince Cortez - their dams are half sisters - but is an interesting example of how close relatives can have very different pedigree patterns. Atoned - out of an Icecapade mare - is rated D, but might be regarded as something my high school science teacher called "the exception that makes the rule."

What makes his pedigree tick is something completely different, and something that is not shared by Prince Cortez, despite their common female line. The most likely key is that Icecapade is by Nearctic (by Nearco (ITY)), out of the elite mare, Shenanigans, a daughter of Native Dancer. This makes Icecapade a three-quarters relative to Northern Dancer (by Nearctic out of a Native Dancer mare). Repent's sire, Louis Quatorze, is by a son of Northern Dancer out of a mare by On to Glory, a half-brother to Icecapade, and himself by a great-grandson of Nearco, so also from the same male line as that horse.

Filed under: Sire Lines, Recent Winners