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Kentucky Derby (gr. I) winner Monarchos looks as if he might be about to enjoy his most successful season. He is already represented by four 2009 stakes winners, headed by Informed Decision, who captured the Vinery Madison Stakes (gr. I) April 9, and Win Willy, who upset Old Fashioned to take the Rebel Stakes (gr. II) a few weeks earlier. The pair represents his only graded scorers to date, and Informed Decision is his first grade Iwinner.

Informed Decision is out of the His Majesty mare Palangana. This is very interesting, as when we were reviewing the pedigrees of the first crop of Monarchos' sire Maria's Mon, we noticed that there were an unusual number of horses whose dams contained either His Majesty or Graustark. A look at the pedigree of Maria's Mon convinced us that this was no accident, and I wrote a cover article for Owner-Breeder International (now part of The Blood-Horse MarketWatch) titled Maria's Master Plan.

So, what feature of Maria's Mon's pedigree convinced us and apparently his connections that introducing His Majesty or Graustark might be important? Well, the key is Marias Mon's grandsire Majestic Light. Majestic Light is by Majestic Prince, whose granddam is Your Hostess, and is out of a mare by Ribot. This becomes very significant when we realized that His Majesty and Graustark are by Ribot out of Flower Bowl. (Both Flower Bowl and Your Hostess are by Alibhai, and Flower Bowl's dam is a half-sister to Your Hostess). As a result, seven of the eight ancestors in the third generation of the pedigree of His Majesty and Graustark are represented within the first four generations of the pedigree of Majestic Light.

The experiment paid considerable dividends, with Graustark appearing in the pedigrees of Marias Mon's first two grade I winners, Monarchos and See How She Runs, and His Majesty in the dams of his grade II winner Strong Contender and listed scorer Wedlock (in fact, Informed Decision  (TrueNicks rated A++) and Wedlock are two of the only four starters for Monarchos or Maria's Mon out of mares by His Majesty).

With His Majesty as her broodmare sire -- which gives Graustark/His Majesty 5 x 2 along with Majestic Light in the fourth generation -- Informed Decision reinforces the pattern that worked for Maria's Mon. Interestingly enough Informed Decision also has a second reinforcement of Marias Mon's family. Monarchos is out of a mare by Dixieland Band (by Northern Dancer out of a mare by Delta Judge) and Informed Decision's second dam, Countess North, is by Northern Dancer out of a mare by Hasty Road (half-brother to Traffic Judge, the sire of Delta Judge).

Filed under: Recent Winners

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