Longtime Thoroughbred owner/breeder Robert Clay is awed to see Dornoch earn a place in the starting gate of this year's Kentucky Derby (G1) and also realistic about the colt's chances to buck 149 years of Derby history.
Dornoch, who won the Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2), is a rarity as a full brother to last year's Kentucky Derby winner, Mage . Both are sons of Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa's sire Good Magic and bred by Clay's Grandview Equine partnership out of the grade 2-placed stakes winner Puca, a daughter of 2008 Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown . When the Derby gates spring open May 4, these colts will become the seventh pair of full siblings to have started in America's premier classic race in consecutive years.
The last full siblings to run in the Derby consecutively and include a Derby winner were Regret and Thunderer in 1915-16. Harry Payne Whitney's homebred Regret became the first filly to win the Kentucky Derby in 1915. The following year fellow Whitney homebred Thunderer finished fifth.
"Puca is the gift that keeps on giving," Clay said. "But we have to take into account that in 149 years there has not been a full or half that have both won the Derby. My expectations are under control."
Including Dornoch, there are 31 horses to have a full sibling start in the Derby. Among them, four are winners: Regret, Gallant Fox in 1930, Brokers Tip in 1933, and Mage. Thunderer owns the best finish among the siblings of these winners. Gallant Fox's brother Fighting Fox (Sir Gallahad III—Marguerite) finished sixth in 1938. Brokers Tip's brother Billionaire (Black Toney—Foreresse) finished last in 20th place in 1937.
The Bonnie Scotland mare Ontario is the only dam to produce three full siblings that started in the Kentucky Derby. All by Enquirer, McWhirter and McHenry fared the best with fifth-place finishes for each in 1877 and 1878, respectively. Their full brother McCreary (which appears as McCreery in the Derby chart) was the first classic starter among the brothers and 12th in the 1875 Derby.
Ten mares have produced three Kentucky Derby starters, full siblings and half siblings, since the first Derby in 1875. Bali Babe is the most recent mare to accomplish this feat with 1999 Derby winner Charismatic (Summer Squall) and starters Tossofthecoin (Magesterial, 19th in 1993) and Millennium Wind (Cryptoclearance, 11th in 2001).
The other mares are Blushing Beauty (Bagenbaggage, Bay Beauty, Boon Companion); Bonnie May (Harrodsburg, Respond, Searcher); Catina (Ada Glenn, Lord Raglan, Lord Coleridge); Inspiration (Aspiration, Skeptic, Startle); Marguerite (Gallant Fox, Fighting Fox, Petee-Wrack); Ontario (McCreary, McHenry, McWhirter); Rose Leaves (Bull Lea, Dogpatch, Espino); Sister (Debar, Elector, Ovelando); and Virginia L. (Canter, Single Foot, and Teufel)
Puca is in a strong position to join this exclusive club of Derby dams. She has a 2-year-old colt by Gainesway's freshman sire McKinzie , who Clay said might be the mare's best-looking foal yet. Grandview sold this colt during last fall's Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $1.2 million to Mayberry Farm through consignor Runnymede Farm, which has raised Puca's foals since Grandview acquired her in 2018.
Grandview started out as a venture focused on acquiring yearling colts with the pedigree potential to become stallions down the road. Eventually, Clay expanded the scope of the business plan to include stallion shares and a few broodmares. Puca was among the first broodmare purchases made with the help of bloodstock agents Alex Solis II and Jason Litt. Puca had won a minor stakes at Suffolk Downs and was second in the Gazelle Stakes (G2), but she was a better racehorse than her record indicates, according to Clay. Conditioned by Bill Mott, the trainer told Clay that Puca was good enough to have won the 2014 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, but bad racing luck left her in sixth place at the finish.
"Billy and I were talking about her as we walked out of the paddock and he reiterated with me again that she was always a good filly," Clay said. "She obviously had racing ability, she's a beautiful mare, and she's out of a good family."
Puca is out of the stakes-placed Silver Ghost mare Boat's Ghost, making her a half sister to Turf Classic (G1) winner Finnegans Wake (by Powerscourt). Grandview bought Puca in foal to then-first-year sire and 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner for $475,000 out of Denali Stud's consignment at Fasig-Tipton's 2018 The November Sale. Because Grandview owns three shares to Good Magic, Puca was bred to the grade 1 winner, champion 2-year-old colt for 2017, and 2018 Kentucky Derby runner-up in 2019.
Having already produced a Kentucky Derby winner and back in foal to Good Magic, Grandview offered Puca at the 2023 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale through consignor Case Clay Thoroughbred Management. After failing to hit her reserve at $2.8 million during live bidding, Puca was sold privately for $2.9 million to John Stewart's Resolute Bloodstock.
WATCH: Puca and her 2024 Good Magic colt at Resolute Farm
Puca produced a Good Magic colt this year and, though Stewart said he had initially planned to breed the mare back to multiple leading sire Into Mischief , he said Puca is going back to Good Magic.
Robert Clay said it has been interesting to see how different all of Puca's foals have been.
"Mage and Dornoch are nothing alike," he said. "Mage was not a big, heavy horse, and Dornoch is a really nice, well-balanced horse, again not big, but strong. The McKinzie colt is a May foal but you'd never know it. He is a much bigger version of both of them. He is really doing well."
The McKinzie colt will eventually be sent to California trainer John Shirreffs.
"It has been a fun ride, and now we are going to try to do it all again," said Clay, noting that Grandview bought nine yearling colts during the Keeneland September sale and has the foals from 10 mares it acquired to breed to Gainesway's Olympiad , a grade 1 winner and multi-millionaire that Grandview raced with Cheyenne Stable and LNJ Foxwoods. Olympiad entered stud in 2023.
"It was bittersweet selling Puca but it really was a win-win situation. John made a good buy, and we had a good sale," Clay said. "Dornoch's position (from post 1) is not going to help him, though he has good tactical speed. We'll be watching post 1 all the way to the finish. We'll be watching for the miracle."
