Pedigree Profile: Game on Dude

Disclaimer: I am going to cheat here. The Paulick Report's Lane's End Weekender Pedigree feature profiled Game on Dude this morning so I am liberally quoting here.

A winner of $3.1 million, Game on Dude has proven himself to be a major force in the Older Horse division. Dude has won two Grade 1s (Hollywood Gold Cup and the Awesome Again), two Grade 2s (San Antonio and Californian) and a Grade 3 (Native Diver). Additionally, he was a game second in the G1-Pacific Classic.

Honestly, the only thing you could even ask for this horse to do now in his career is to win the BC Classic, a race in which he has finished 2nd in 2011 and 7th in 2012.

By Awesome Again, Dude has demonstrated every bit of the talent that his sire, as the best son of Deputy Minister flashed on the track.

In addition to Horse of the Year Ghostzapper, Awesome Again has sired 11 other G1 winners that include champion Ginger Punch (BC Distaff, Ruffian, Ogden Phipps), Wilko (BC Juvenile), and Round Pond (BC Distaff, Acorn). This season, the stallion also has G1 winner Paynter (Haskell, second in the Belmont Stakes).

He is out of the Devil His Due mare, Worldly Pleasure. She is a listed stakes winner and only has four registered foals, the oldest was a one time winner.

The mare's 2-year-old colt by Macho Uno was foaled Feb. 8 and is named My Key. In the colt's third start, he won a 1,200 meter race [in Korea] on Nov. 23 and had been third in his previous start.

The Korean racing circuit, while far better than previously, is still a backwater. So not sure how much that means. But I do agree with the article that the cross with Macho Uno is very interesting, as he is a brother of Awesome Again. Worldly Pleasure is currently in Japan, so we will see how her progeny shape up racing clockwise there.

But boy, do I wish I had been standing in the back ring and paying attention:

[W]hen Game On Dude was a 2-year-old, the farm consigned Worldly Pleasure to the November breeding stock sale at Keeneland and sold her in foal to Macho Uno (Holy Bull) for $15,000 to KOID, an exporter for the breeding market in Korea.

That would have been a very nice purchase. Great buy by KOID. And, both ironically and unfortunately, she was right in my price range.

A solid pedigree indeed, but I do wish that his dam had remained in the states to see what the rest of her progeny shaped up to be. She hit early (and huge) with Game on Dude, and I certainly hope she hits big again. But with his stallion prospects being eliminated years ago anyway, having those siblings working towards strengthening his pedigree is basically immaterial, but fun to follow

With Dude, I am thrilled that we have dominance coming from geldings right now. Between him, Little Mike, and Wise Dan, we have three champion-quality geldings running right now. I love the fact that we get to see them stay on the track until, well, basically forever.