As stepping stones to the first Saturday in May go, the Leonatus Stakes at Turfway Park is not exactly the most prominent. That said, the race, which is named after the 1883 Kentucky Derby victor, does lead to the points-paying John Battaglia Memorial and Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3), and last year was contested by the Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Rich Strike , who finished third.
With that in mind, it's worth considering the intriguing pedigree of this year's impressive Leonatus Stakes winner, Funtastic Again. He had gone into the notebook as one to watch when scoring by 8 1/2 lengths in a one-mile, off-turf maiden special weight at Saratoga Race Course last August. Making a considerable step up in class, Funtastic Again could do no better than ninth in the Claiborne Breeders' Futurity (G1), which was won by the subsequent Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) winner Forte , with Saturday's Lecomte Stakes (G3) captor Instant Coffee back in fourth. Funtastic Again closed out the year demonstrating a liking for Turfway's all-weather surface when romping by 5 1/2 lengths in a mile allowance/optional claiming event early in December.
Funtastic Again is a member of the first crop of Funtastic . Just 12 of that crop of 23 foals have started so far, but four have already won, including in addition to Funtastic Again, First Peace, successful in a maiden special weight at Santa Anita Park, runner-up in the Eddie Logan Stakes and third in the Cecil B. Demille Stakes (G3).
That represents a commendable start, given that Funtastic himself didn't start until July of his 3-year-old season, and took some time to reach his peak. In fact, only one of his first eight starts, of which he won three, came in a black-type event, that being a neck second in the Gio Ponti Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack late in his first campaign. Funtastic's first try in graded stakes company came the following June, where he defied odds of 23-1 to go wire to wire in the United Nations Stakes (G1T). That proved to be an unrepeatable highlight, and Funtastic's only subsequent outings saw him unplaced in the Sword Dancer Stakes (G1T) and Canadian International Stakes (G1T).
If Funtastic's race record didn't exactly conform to a commercial profile when he retired to stand at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky., for the 2019 breeding season, the same can't be said for his pedigree. He is a son of the record-breaking More Than Ready, three-time Leading Sire of 2-Year-Olds in North America and Australia, and sire of 218 stakes winners, 102 graded, one of which, the Mother Goose Stakes (G1) captress, Buster's Ready, is out of a half sister to Funtastic.
It appears that Funtastic is the 14th son of More Than Ready to sire a black-type winner, the others including Sebring, a standout in Australia; Gimmethegreenlight, who has done exceptionally well in South Africa; and Daredevil, sire of North American classic winners Swiss Skydiver—also the Champion 3-Year-Old Filly—and Shedaresthedevil in his first crop. Out of stakes winner Quiet Dance, Funtastic is also a half brother to Horse of the Year Saint Liam—like Funtastic, by a son of Halo—who sired nine stakes winners, including Champion Havre de Grace, in his only crop. Funtastic is also a half brother to Quiet Giant, whose Horse of the Year son, Gun Runner , has added further luster to the pedigree with an explosive start to his stud career.
Funtastic Again's dam, Repeta, a daughter of Broken Vow, never raced, but she is dam of four other winners, including the black-type scorer Mucho Macho Man , and the grade 2-placed Lady Glamour. The second dam, Attico (by the Nureyev horse Atticus), won a pair of stakes on the turf, and is half sister to Miso Pretty, the granddam of Breathing Fire, successful in the Georgian Bay Stakes at Woodbine last year.
Attico is out of Irish Coco, a half sister to Judge T C, who took three graded stakes, including the Fayette Handicap (G2), both out of the Secretariat mare I'm Pretty. With I'm Pretty's second dam we come to a real celebrity in the shape of Aspidistra. She was purchased for $6,500 by the staff of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Corporation as a 70th birthday gift for company owner William L. McKnight. Although she achieved nothing of note as a runner, Aspidistra proved a remarkable foundation mare for McKnight's Tartan Farm, her offspring including Dr. Fager and Ta Wee, who between them would earn no less than seven Eclipse Awards, and would both have a breed-changing impact at stud.
Aspidistra is also very much a pivotal point in Funtastic Again's pedigree pattern. Both Quiet Dance, the dam of Funtastic, and Broken Vow, the broodmare sire of Funtastic Again, are Fappiano/Northern Dancer crosses. Beyond that, the two sources of Fappiano are Quiet American and Unbridled, horses with intricately linked pedigrees. Quiet American is out of a three-quarter sister to the dam of Fappiano, and is inbred 3x2 to Dr. Fager, and 4x3 to Cequillo, the third dam of Fappiano. Unbridled goes tail-female to Aspidistra, and is inbred 4x4 to that mare and linebred 4x5 to Dr. Fager's sire, Rough 'n Tumble. All told, that gives Aspidstra 7x7x6x7x7, four of those crosses through individuals with her duplicated.
There is additional connected wrinkle here. Funtastic's sire, More Than Ready, is out of Woodman's Girl, who goes tail female to another famous matron, La Troienne, and has four crosses of that mare, again through two individuals inbred to her, and there are nine crosses of La Troienne in the pedigree of the dam of Funtastic Again, including one through Aspidistra's sire, Better Self, who was by La Troienne's only notable son, Bimelech. This is all given greater significance when one realizes that La Troienne and Aspidistra are from the same 'N' mitochondrial haplogroup.
As a footnote, we'll observe that last Saturday's Louisiana Stakes (G3) went to the improving Happy American. He is by Runhappy —by Super Saver, a horse from the La Troienne family with considerable inbreeding to that mare, and out of a Broken Vow mare—with a Quiet American dam, going tail female to the same source of the 'N' mitochondrial line as La Troienne and Aspidistra.
