Airdrie Stud’s Harlan’s Holiday is typical for the type of stallion Brereton Jones likes to stand: well performed on the track and well conformed physically. Pedigree usually trails in a close third. Harlan’s Holiday was a multiple G1 winner who earned $3.6 million, winning stakes at 2, 3, and 4, and is obviously a very good-looking colt. He stands for $25,000 in 2010 and was a leading third-crop sire through the end of 2009.
Harlan’s Holiday is by Harlan, a short-lived but notable sprinting son of Storm Cat who won the G1 Vosburgh and sired 6 SWs, including multiple G1 winner and classics-placed Menifee. The latter, who was 2nd in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, sired at least 25 SWs, so Harlan showed a lot of promise to get both Menifee and Harlan’s Holiday in a brief stud career.
Out of an Affirmed mare from the family of Hollywood Gold Cup winner Princessnesian (3rd dam, by Princequillo; next dam is Alanesian), Harlan’s Holiday’s pedigree added more stamina to the mix. He was good at 2 from 5.5f to 8.5f when he won 4 of 6 starts, but at 3 he, like Menifee, was on the classics trail by winning the G1 Florida Derby and G1 Toyota Blue Grass at 9f, though he could never win at 10f in top company. He was 2nd twice at 10f in G1 Dubai World Cup and G1 Hollywood Gold Cup, and 3rd in the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup.
At stud, Harlan’s Holiday is represented by 9 unrestricted SWs, 5 of which are GSWs: G1 winner Into Mischief; G3 winner Denis of Cork; G3 winner Tasha’s Miracle; G3 winner Saratoga Sinner; and G3 winner Necessary Evil. Harlan’s Holiday could get another GSW tomorrow when his undefeated son Mendip (3 for 3) goes in the G2 UAE Derby at Meydan. The race is on the Tapeta all-weather course over 1 3/16 miles and could be the colt’s ticket to the Kentucky Derby. Last year, the Harlan’s Holiday colt Denis of Cork was 3rd in the Kentucky Derby and 2nd in the Belmont Stakes.
Bred by Jayeff B Stables, Mendip is out of the placed Coronado’s Quest mare Well Spring and sold for $130,000 as a yearling and $375,000 as a 2yo in training. The dam is a daughter of the top G1 sprinter Chaposa Springs, who won 14 of 23 starts and earned $762,115. More telling, in dirt sprints, Chaposa Springs was 13 for 16, with earnings of $664,708. Her half brother, the Kris S. horse You and I, won the 1 Met Mile. Both were out of the great Peruvian-bred and raced La Chaposa, a multiple G1 winner in Peru.
There’s plenty of speed, then, on the bottom of Mendip, who already has won the Listed Al Bastakiya– by 6 lengths—over the UAE Derby trip of 1 3/16 miles. He’ll face some tougher characters tomorrow, but he’s a colt that Godolphin has hopes for, and if he were to win he’d certainly be their No. 1 Kentucky Derby candidate.