The Scat Daddy Spectacular

When Scat Daddy passed away, I noted on these forums what a tremendous loss it was for the breed as he was going to be a major influence and a sire of sires. Of course someone had to disagree and unfortunately you cannot buy Scat Daddy stock, well you can I suppose in the form of hundred thousand dollar horse purchases at Keeneland, but barring that I will have to subsist on the satisfaction of knowing that I was correct in my assessment of him. As we near the running of the Kentucky Derby Scat Daddy may have four entrants in the big race, including the potential top two favorites in Justify and Mendelssohn. In for sure is Flameaway and sitting at position #21 in the standings is Combatant. While I cannot give breeding advice for Scat Daddy, I am going to look at the four runners and some possible breeding options down the road along with a look at the current Scat Daddy stallions. So, if you came to the SIM and decided that you wanted to read 2000 words on Scat Daddy, you are in luck! Welcome to the Scat Daddy Spectacular.

You all already know about Justify unless you are living in a horse racing free household (but then why would be on this site?). 3/3, heir apparent to American Pharaoh and Arrogate the current wonder horse. He also is my pick for the Kentucky Derby (yes a chalk pick but it isn’t iron clad, there are 7 who can win this thing). Another fun fact about Justify, Coolmore passed on buying him at auction because their Vet didn’t clear him. Talk about $100 million dollar mistakes which could very well end up being what Justify is worth for WinStar once he assumes stallion duties in 8 months. I mean he could be an undefeated Triple Crown winner, that’s the ceiling right? Stamped by none other than Steve Haskin with the ‘look of eagles’ early on this year Justify could not possibly be more hyped. For those superstitious Justify has $666,000 in career earnings (cue Omen music). Justify is bred to a Ghostzapper mare and as you know Ghostzapper was another speed freak on the track. Underneath that we have Pulpit and this is a breeding I just love. Justify is also inbred to Nijinsky and inbred to Narrate through her daughters Yarn and Preach (we have talked about both them before). Next year when Justify is going for 1000+ his offspring will be free of Northern Dancer making Danzig line mares extremely attractive. Storm Cat will be in his 5th generation (believe it or not!) opening the way to that line of mares. Secretariat and sons of Mr. P (which would give 4×4 inbreeding to Mr. P) jump out to me in the DDS spot. 

Mendelssohn is another potential monster horse, described as a man among boys, he won his Derby prep by 17 lengths. Because of this awesome performance he will likely be your 2nd betting choice though must avoid both a bounce and the trip from Dubai handicap.  Both Justify and Mendelssohn shared a paddock together when they were wee little yearlings. Sometimes the world is just seven degrees of Kevin Bacon away isn’t it? Mendelssohn comes from one of the best families in racing being a half brother to….Beholder, Into Mischief, and Curlin to Mischief. His mom, Leslie’s Lady (who was sold in 2016 to Coolmore for $3 million which might actually have been a bargain) is in foal to American Pharoah this year. Mendelssohn is certain to be the next high profile Coolmore sire and it will be interesting to see what kind of mares they support him with as Scat Daddy was a true dual surface sire. No doubt he will see his share of Galileo and Danehills both of which I think would be an outstanding pairing for him. Like Justify, Mendelssohn is inbred to Nijinsky (hmm I am sensing a trend here). Like Justify his offspring will be clear of Northern Dancer (opening up Sadler’s Wells mares) and has the possibility of being inbred 4×4 to Mr. P (I’d look at Miswaki and Machiavellian for him). You can also look at what Into Mischief has worked with. Both these two are supremely exciting SIM prospects that will offer a lot of tantalizing combinations to try. 

Flameaway doesn’t have the wins which the others do, but he has a ton of grit. He is a hard trying fast horse who reminds me a bit of Lion Heart. I’d like to see him try the King’s Bishop at Saratoga this summer. When you see Vino Rosso as the wise guy horse this Derby (and he is currently Haskin’s #1 pick) remember that Flameaway has beaten Vino Rosso twice this year. He has made 9 starts already which is almost an aberration for the modern Derby horse, winning 5 of those starts and finishing 2nd twice. Flameaway is inbred to….you guessed it Nijinsky. I guess they figured out what worked with Scat Daddy didn’t they? He is also inbred quite heavily to Mr. Prospector being 3x3x5. He is out of a Fusaichi Pegasus mare which is about the first time I have thought of FuPeg in real life breeding in quite some time. Flameaway will be a good value horse next year, if he retires, he may race at 4 he is owned by John Oxley who doesn’t need the money. He likely will be overshadowed by all the big profile horses, especially if he doesn’t end up getting his G1 win. Flameaway will be a good choice for bargain hunters who want to try out a Scat Daddy son for an entry level price. I love AP Indy line mares here, either the big man himself or his sons and grandsons (Pulpit and Tapit in particular are attractive here). I’d also look into Lion Heart just because they look and run so similar and match up well pedigree wise. 

Poor Combatant could be a victim to the new auto-entry for Euro horses as it looks like Gronkowski currently is going to take his spot in the starting gate. There usually is always at least one who drops out though and if someone does than Combatant is the first one in. He is not inbred to Nijinsky which is why he may only be 1/7 in his career. Which is another reason I won’t feel too bad if he gets left out of the Kentucky Derby, win more than a maiden race then you can complain about not having enough points. Combatant is bred to a Danzig line mare (note suggestion above on this) along with being inbred to Damascus (who also shows up this year in the pedigree of Audible). Combatant, because Scat Daddy has passed and his sons will be gobbled up as sire prospects will go to stud somewhere, even if it ends up being Texas for $2500. He will be a 10 credit option for you (unless he improves enough to take down some graded races) at some point. He likely will race next year unless he gets hurt. Since he has both Danzig and Mr. P up close (Forty Niner is his DDS) he will gravitate toward Indy line mares (especially since his 4th dam is Slew O Gold a son of Seattle Slew) and in general will be happy with whatever you give him. 

We now turn our attention to current Scat Daddy sons since all this talk of future prospects may leave you yearning to breed your own Scat Daddy line. As a dual surface sire, you will have the option in leaning toward both surfaces as your broodmares permit. Scat Daddy currently has 10 sons at stud, Daddy Nose Best, Frac Daddy, Handsome Mike, Tu Brutus, Almasty, Caravaggio, El Kabeir, Finale, No Nay Never and Scatman. Other than Caravaggio, a lot of bad names don’t you think? Cue up the Mighty Mouse music for Justify (here I come to save the day!). Freshman sire Caravaggio is the most sought after in this group, but he still is very affordable. He has around 8 bids in on him and goes for around 200-250. He has been fairly active in breedings with 25 and has 8 winners already including two horses which are stakes placed. Caravaggio looks like he has a good SIM rating and should be approached with good mares. I have used him once with an Australia mare. I am not one of the eight winners. No Nay Never used to be a bargain sire but he is now quite expensive. He only has 4 bidders but his price wildly fluctuates as he appears to have something of a following among our Australian players. He has a G1 winner (out of Pivotal) and a G2 winner (Street Sense) along with 18 stakes winners. He turns in 5.6% SW which is quite good if you can get him for the right price. He has 9 winners from 34 runners in the SIM this year and if I were to guess I would say that No Nay Never and Caravaggio are rated virtually the same – something along the lines of decent son of Scat Daddy rating. (likely what Flameaway will be rated). 

The rest of the Scat Daddy’s are bargain sires. 10 gets you Scatman, who does have 3 winners from 7 runners this year after getting 14 from 31 last season. He also carries the NY bred tag making  your racing slightly easier if you target locally. Finale is kind of interesting, he is 10 as well and carries the NM tag (Sunland racing!). He only has 7 runners in the SIM but 4 of them have won. He has a terrible pedigree (Celestial Dancer x Star Walk) but he is getting winners. He was a G3 winner on the track. Interestingly his pedigree is wrong in the SIM, so I don’t know if Mike reads this but he may want to change it. Finale actually is Lively One x J O Tobin (which isn’t really better lol). El Kabeir actually is the 3rd most expensive son at stud in real life standing for $8000. He is 27 in the SIM and it’s actually a bit puzzling that he is standing in Ireland considering he is out of an Unbridled’s Song mare and was a dirt runner winning the Jockey Club G2 at Churchill as a 2yo and the Gotham (Derby Prep) as a 3yo. He finished 3rd in the Wood. Might produce some decent 2yos in the SIM if you can get past his IRE tag (for a dirt sire) and a poor name. He has 11 runners and 4 winners. Almasty, who stands in PA for $2500 is not in the SIM (another shout out to Mike). He won a G3 on the turf and is out of a Pleasant Colony mare. Tu Brutus isn’t in the SIM either (OK I guess I’ll email Mike on all these). He stands in Kentucky which puts him in some tough company race wise since he doesn’t have local races to fall back upon. He won a G3 on the turf at 9.5 furlongs so he has some distance potential (if/when he is in the SIM). Handsome Mike has been in the SIM the longest being with us since 2014. He carries the FL tag and is available for 18 points. He has 55 winners from 88 runners which is quite good for the price. His one stakes winner, Handsome Bear is on a current 6 race winning streak and is 7/8 lifetime. He looks quite good. Guess what? Yep, you guessed it, he is inbred to Nijinsky. Frac Daddy has the CAN tag and is around for 41. 83 winners from 129 runners (again quite good for the price) with two stakes winners (Uncle Mo and Quest for Fame). Finally Daddy Nose Best has a CA tag and you can pick him up for 50-60. He has 175 horses with 108 winners and one stakes winner (Sky Mesa). I don’t like him as much as the other cheapies, he is more expensive and doesn’t seem as good. 

There you have it, the full breakdown of everything Scat Daddy. Hope you found a little inspiration here and in the future as there are some big ones coming to a breed shedding near you.