Although Mineshaft is generally memorable as A.P. Indy's only North American Horse of the Year, it's probably less well recalled that his formative career took place on turf in Europe. In fact, he started seven times there as 3-year-old, his first season to race. His form there was respectable, but a long way from top-class. He won a maiden at Newmarket on his second start and was fourth, but promoted to third by the stewards, when beaten two lengths in the Prix Daphnis (G3).
Returned to the United States and switched to dirt, Mineshaft became a very different horse. He fitted in two more races before the end of his 3-year-old campaign, winning an allowance at Churchill Downs and an allowance/optional claiming race at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. At 4, Mineshaft matured into a dominant performer with seven wins and two seconds in nine starts—all in stakes events—including victories in the Pimlico Special (G1), Suburban Handicap (G1), Woodward Stakes (G1), and Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1). Mineshaft's preference for the main track has been maintained at stud, and one has to go some way down the list of his best runners to find his most notable runner on the turf, the Virginia Oaks (G3T) victress Nellie Cashman, his only graded winner on the lawn.
The transformation wrought by Mineshaft's turf-to-dirt transition was brought to mind by the victory of his grandson, Get Her Number, in the Sept. 26 American Pharoah Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park. Get Her Number made a winning debut last month going five furlongs on the turf at Del Mar. He returned Sept. 7 in the Del Mar Juvenile Turf Stakes and finished fourth, beaten by a length and two noses after making most of the running. In the American Pharoah the bay was once again towards the van early, taking command by the three-quarters pole after prompting the opening fractions, and he stayed on gamely to hold off Rombauer —who had finished behind him in the Del Mar Juvenile Turf Stakes—by three quarters of length.
Get Her Number is from the fifth crop of Dialed In , one of Mineshaft's best sons. Dialed In won three of his first four starts, including a Churchill Downs maiden special weight on his only start at 2, and the Holy Bull Stakes (G3) and Florida Derby (G1), which he took by a head over Shackleford with such as To Honor and Serve, Flashpoint, Soldat, and Stay Thirsty in the beaten field. In each of these races, he'd employed a 'come from the clouds' racing style, but those tactics failed him in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1), where he started favorite, but after troubled trip was only able to make it up to eighth from the rear of the 19-horse field.
Dialed In raced just twice more after the Derby. Twenty-one lengths off the pace at the first quarter in the Preakness Stakes (G1), he closed to finish fourth beaten by 4 1/4 lengths. The Preakness was Dialed In's final start at 3, and he ran just once more, finishing fourth in an allowance event the following March.
Retired to stand at Darby Dan Farm near Lexington at a fee of $7,500, Dialed In made a bright start with a first crop that produced five stakes winners, headed by Gunnevera , who has earned $5,561,800 and won three graded stakes events as well as finished second in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1). He also has a pair of prolific sprint fillies in Ms Locust Point, who earned a graded win in the Barbara Fritchie Stakes (G2), and Chalon, who was beaten a head by Shamrock Rose in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1). In Dialed In's second crop came the Iroquois Stakes (G3) scorer The Tabulator and Mugaritz, successful in the Berkeley Handicap (G3). Dialed In's current juvenile crop is the one conceived the year after his first juveniles made a bright start. In addition to Get Her Number, his runners also include Super Stock , winner of the colt's division of the Texas Thoroughbred Futurity and third in the Iroquois Stakes Presented by Ford.
Interestingly enough, since Dialed In appeared totally devoid of early foot in his races, several of his runners have been speedy and/or precocious. He does have a fast and precocious pedigree as his dam, who was graded placed sprinting at 2, is by Storm Cat out of the champion 2-year-old filly Eliza. It's also worth recalling, however, that Dialed In was trained by Nick Zito and he isn't the first Zito horse to employ that dramatic, off-the-pace running style. It may be that Dialed In was, in reality, a speedy horse who was running middle distance races as a jog followed by a sprint. For example, in his Florida Derby, he must have run the opening quarter in :25 and change, and in the Holy Bull it's likely that his first quarter was in the 26-second range, given that he was nearly 11 lengths off the :23.96 fraction posted by the leader, Mucho Macho Man .
Turning to the distaff side of the pedigree, Get Her Number's dam, Fancier, is a daughter of Bernstein and was a dirt sprinter, winning a maiden special weight at Delta Downs and bottom-end claiming events at Lone Star Park and Evangeline Downs. Get Her Number is her second foal.
Princess Pegasus, the second dam of Get Her Number, won a maiden special weight at Retama Park and bred four other winners, none of any particular distinction. She was, however, a well-bred mare as she was by Fusaichi Pegasus out of the Prix Morny (G1) runner-up Shy Princess. That makes her a half sister to the good sprinter/miler Diffident, a group 2 and 3 winner in England and France. Shy Princess is ancestress of numerous other good winners in Europe most notably Zafeen, successful in the St. James's Palace Stakes (G1) and Dubai Duty Free Mill Reef Stakes (G2), and second in the Sagitta Two Thousand Guineas (G1).
Shy Princess's dam, Shy Dawn, won six graded stakes on dirt in the U.S. and produced three stakes winners headed by the Breeders Cup Mile (G1T) captor Opening Verse. She was by Grey Dawn II out of Shy Dancer, a mare whose daughters and granddaughters also combine extremely well with Grey Dawn II. The combination has produced champion 2-year-old filly and Kentucky Oaks (G1) scorer Heavenly Cause; three-time grade 1 winner Bounding Basque; and graded winners Purple Mountain and Dawn Quixote. Shy Dawn is also ancestress of champion 3-year-old filly Monomoy Girl, who, like Get Her Number, is from the male-line of a stallion bred on the A.P. Indy/Mr. Prospector cross.
We've mentioned that Dialed In is out of a mare by Storm Cat, and Get Her Number's broodmare sire, Bernstein, is also by that horse. Dialed In now has five stakes winners from 39 starters (13%) out of mares by sons or grandsons of Storm Cat, including Ms Locust Point, The Tabulator, and Chalon.
