Pedigree Profile: Social Inclusion

I knew absolutely nothing of this colt' pedigree when I began looking into him. But it is interesting to say the least. Let me just say that there is a lot of lowercase black-type and not much uppercase. But while wins may be lacking, the consistency of production is not.

Social Inclusion, by Pioneerofthe Nile out of Saint Bernadette (Saint Ballado)

In just his first crop, Pioneerofthe Nile has made some serious noise. On the Derby Trail this year was Florida Derby favorite Cairo Prince, Sam Davis winner Vinceremos, and Curse of Apollo recipient Social Inclusion. But as a young stallion, those three are the sum total of his highest three earners, classiest runners, and best stakes horses. However, as a son of Empire Maker (and I still regret that he's in Japan) he certainly does not lack for quality in his own pedigree. A Grade 1 winner at 2, and 2nd in the Kentucky Derby behind Mine That Bird (I actually liked Pioneerofthe Nile that day, but was nowhere near a window) he showed that he liked a route of ground and relished the best competition. But his stakes wins all came in Southern California, where he swept the Santa Anita-based preps for, and also won, the Santa Anita Derby. Now that might say that he was a poly horse, but everything in SoCal was poly then, and I believe his performance in the Derby dispels much (but not all) of those concerns. However, his best runners all seem to take to the dirt, so no issues from me here.

Social Inclusion's dam, Saint Bernardette, is by Saint Ballado (a favorite broodmare sire of mine whose career at stud was cut short by a spinal cord condition; in fact, there is an entire sire line that looked to be great and kinda just met unfortuante circumstances with accidents/disease/exportation. Check it out here) and she has produced some nice babies. However, only Social Inclusion has been productive on the track. Her 2012 Scat Daddy foal did sell for $425,000 at the OBS Spring 2 Year Old in Training Sale this year, but that was almost immediately after Social Inclusion's monster win at Gulfstream that set the table for him entering the Florida Derby. She worked a half mile in 21.1 seconds, which is very good, but not great.

As we move back through the generations, we find many stakes horses, but few winners, and even fewer Graded Stakes winners. But what is interesting is that unlike many other female families where you can go 4 or 5 generations at maximum and find a blue hen mare, I cannot find one back through the 1920s. That's not to say that there isn't quality there, simply that this family is a distant branch from any cornerstone thoroughbred familiy.

But back to the task at hand: His second dam is Wedding Jitters, a listed/restricted stakes placed runner who has produced a producer of another stakes placed filly. But one interesting thing is that the best runners all seem to be the girls in the family.

But there is no doubt in my mind that Social Inclusion wants a route of ground, unlike so many other of the speed horses of his generation. That is a dangerous weapon to employ in any event, let alone the Jewel of the Triple Crown that has been friendly to speed, seeing as Oxbow walked the dog up front last year. But that was after a gigantic meltdown in the 2013 Derby and everyone was gun-shy. This year? I sure know that Social Inclusion will be up front and he's got the genes to carry his speed a long way.