Between them, Tapit and Into Mischief have taken seven of the last nine Leading Sires titles, setting earnings records on several occasions.
Tapit is 22 years old and Into Mischief, 18, but neither is showing any signs of their influence diminishing.
Tapit, of course, is sire of the most recent Horse of the Year, Flightline , and at the weekend he was represented by Charge It . The colt easily won an allowance at Gulfstream Park on his first start since taking last year's Dwyer Stakes (G2) by 23 lengths while running a 109 Equibase Speed Figure, and looks a legitimate threat in the older horse ranks. Tapit Trice , who impressed with a six-length victory in a mile allowance at Gulfstream while running a faster speed figure than the winners of the two graded stakes for 3-year-old colts on the same card.
Meanwhile, Into Mischief enjoyed a quite remarkable weekend, with four of his 3-year-olds winning black-type events for the first time— Rocket Can, the Holy Bull Stakes (G3); Newgate , the Robert B. Lewis Stakes (G3); General Jim, the Swale Stakes (G3), and Interpolate, the Ruthless Stakes.
Given their preeminence, one might expect Tapit and Into Mischief to begin to appear together in pedigrees of notable winners, and indeed that is the case. The best winner to date out of an Into Mischief mare is the 2022 Florida Derby (G1) and Holy Bull Stakes (G3) victor, White Abarrio. Into Mischief now has five stakes winners out of mares by Tapit, including weekend black-type scorers Rocket Man and Interpolate, as well as two others from that crop, the very promising Hoosier Philly, successful in last year's Golden Rod Stakes (G2), and the third in that race, Pretty Mischievous, subsequently successful in the Untapable Stakes.
The horse we'll look at in detail today is Rocket Can, who will likely try to follow the course charted by his "reverse relative" White Abarrio and parlay a Holy Bull Stakes win into a Florida Derby triumph. Rocket Can's dam, Tension, ran just twice, both times at 2, finishing a good third over six furlongs at Los Alamitos Race Course on her debut, but showing little in her only other outing.
She was sold for $750,000 as a 5-year-old carrying her first foal, a Curlin colt that died at 2, and resold for $100,000 in the most recent Keeneland January Sale in foal to Collected . She is also dam of a once-raced Pioneerof the Nile filly, Goddessof the Nile, and a 2-year-old colt by City of Light .
Even though she achieved little on the racetrack, Tension does have a quality pedigree close up. She is a half sister to Tiz Midnight, a Midnight Lute daughter who captured the Bayakoa Stakes (G2), and who also appears as dam of Midnight Memories, winner last year of the Zenyatta Stakes (G2) and Torrey Pines Stakes (G3). Her dam was the talented Tiznow mare Tough Tiz's Sis, successful in six black-type events, including the Ruffian Handicap (G1) and Lady's Secret Stakes (G1).
From there the family gets somewhat less distinguished until one gets back to Tension's sixth dam, React, who was by Hard Tack, best known as the sire of Seabiscuit. A winner of 20 of 123 starts, React was a sister to Grog, a onetime stable companion to Seabiscuit, who was at times substituted for more illustrious relatives in works in order to confuse reporters. React was also a three-quarters sister to stakes winner Navigating, the dam of Airmans Guide, champion older mare in 1961.
The third dam of React, Champagne, was a sister to the 1928 Alabama Stakes victress, Nixie, going back to the American native A5 family via another Alabama Stakes winner, Thora. Although this family represents a very small fraction of the breed, it has continued to be a very successful one, descendants of Thora alone including two more Alabama Stakes (G1) scorers Embellish the Lace and Society Selection; Afleet Express, who took the Travers Stakes (G1); Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) hero Concern, and other grade 1 winners Materiality, Annapolis, Mentality, Mr McCartney, Fara's Team, Famous Seamus, and Klimt. Two earlier celebrities from the Thora branch include Holiday and Royal Tourist, half brothers out of a granddaughter of Thora who both took the Preakness Stakes. Although the family doesn't trace to an ancestor in the General Stud-Book, genetically it is the same N2 mtDNA haplotype as Bruce Lowe's #1 family, which includes such as La Troienne.
It's notable that React's sire, Hard Tack, was by Man o' War and inbred 3x2 to Man o' War's broodmare sire, Rock Sand, and that her daughter Long Lines was inbred 3x3 to Man o' War. This is interesting because the revival in the fortunes of the family came with two successive crosses of In Reality line stallions (Taylor's Falls and Tough Tiz's Sister's sire, Tiznow), and In Reality is inbred 3x3 to War Relic, a Man o' War son from the N2 mtDNA line, and inbred 3x3 to Rock Sand and to Fairy Gold (dam of Man o' War's sire, Fairy Gold). When we come to Rocket Can's dam, Tension, we can note that her sire, Tapit, is out of a mare who is inbred to In Reality, once through Tapit's third dam, Moon Glitter, a sister to Tiznow's sire, Relaunch. Tapit and sons have sired at least 14 graded-stakes winners out of mares with Relaunch in the dam, among them the grade 1 winners American Gal, Unique Bella, and Tiz The Law.
The affinity with this background appears to extend to Into Mischief, as he and his sons are responsible for at least 11 stakes winners with Relaunch in the dam (including the champion Two-Year-Old Filly of 2022, Wonder Wheel, and millionaire Mr. Money) and a further eight with Relaunch's sister Moon Glitter in the dam of Rocket Can, being currently unique in having both.
