The 6-year-old Giant’s Causeway horse Angliana, who captured his first stakes with a win in last week's Aqueduct Handicap, has a very clever pedigree pattern. Out of the graded stakes winning Jade Hunter mare Pratella, he earns an A TrueNicks score on the basis of the extremely successful Giant's Causeway/Mr. Prospector cross-one that has also produced grade I winners Shamardal, Maids Causeway (IRE), My Typhoon (IRE), and Aragorn (IRE).
Another important feature in this pedigree is that Angliana's third dam is by Nijinsky II, a genetic relative to Storm Bird, whose son Storm Cat is the sire of Giant's Causeway. We can note that there are at least 59 stakes winners from the Storm Cat male line out of mares carrying Nijinsky II, and a third of them (20) are out of Mr. Prospector-line mares, giving the type of pattern we have here.
The unique factor in the pedigree, however, is the appearance of Devil's Bag as sire of the second dam of Angliana. He's popped up in at least six previous stakes winners by Storm Cat and his sons, but is particularly interesting here as Giant's Causeway is out of a mare by Rahy (TrueNicks, SRO), a horse whose dam, multiple champion Glorious Song, is a sister to Devil's Bag. This is the first time we can recall the siblings - both by Halo out of Ballade - appearing together in a stakes winners, but there are going to be plentiful opportunities to combine these genes, either with each other or with another sibling, Saint Ballado.
With Rahy daughters having also produced young stallions Posse (TrueNicks, SRO) (the leading freshman sire of 2007), After Market, Even The Score, Freud, Grand Reward (TrueNicks, SRO), and Roar of the Tiger (TrueNicks, SRO), there is a good chance of seeing these crossed-over mares carrying either Devil's Bag or Saint Ballado. Devil's Bag is most likely to appear through his daughters, although he is also broodmare sire of 2008 first year sire Teuflesberg (TrueNicks, SRO). Saint Ballado, who has some very well-bred daughters from his Kentucky crops, also has some stallion sons out there, including Sunriver (TrueNicks, SRO)-a grade I winning brother to Ashado-who just retired to start his stud career in New York.