Few horses ever achieved as much as A.P. Indy (Seattle Slew), who passed away at the age of 31 on Friday.
A $2.9 million sales topping yearling, A.P. Indy, who had been pensioned from stud duties since 2011, went on to become a champion on both the track and at stud, and his sons and daughters have continued to maintain their sire’s presence in major races throughout North America in particular.
1992 Breeders Cup winner, A.P. Indy
Sarah Whitelaw writes that A.P. Indy, Horse Of The Year in North America in 1992, has also been the last strong link to the once dominant Bold Ruler male line, and it is through his sons and grandsons that the Bold Ruler line seems most likely to maintain its existence.
The best sire son of US Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew (a great grandson of Bold Ruler), A.P. Indy was a consistently outstanding stallion. Champion Sire in North America in both 2003 and 2006 (he was runner up on the same list on four other occasions), A.P. Indy sired 156 black type winners with his tally of stakes winners including six official champions and 30 individual Gr1 winners.
While he never sired a Kentucky Derby winner, A.P. Indy and his sons more than made their mark on North America’s classic races. His daughter Rags To Riches captured the 2007 Gr1 Belmont Stakes and son Bernardini won the 2006 Gr1 Preakness Stakes, while his daughters Secret Status and Rags To Riches both won the Gr1 Kentucky Oaks.
Bernardini
California Chrome, winner of both the Gr1 Kentucky Derby and G1 Preakness Stakes in 2014, was sired by A.P. Indy’s grandson Lucky Pulpit, while Orb winner of the Kentucky Derby a year earlier is a son of A.P. Indy’s top class sire son Malibu Moon. Grandson Tapit is the sire of Belmont Stakes winners Tonalist, Creator and Tapwrit as well as Kentucky Oaks winner Untapable (another son of Tapit, Frosted, ran second to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in the 2015 Belmont Stakes).
Tapit’s granddaughter Monomoy Girl (by Tapizar) won the 2018 Kentucky Oaks, while the 2019 Kentucky Oaks went to Serengeti Empress (who is out of a mare by A.P. Indy’s son Bernardini).
A.P. Indy’s Gr1 Hopeful Stakes winner Majestic Warrior added further to his sire’s impressive record in the major US classic races when his daughter Princess Of Sylmar captured the 2013 Kentucky Oaks.
Sire sons of A.P. Indy to have enjoyed success at stud include all of Bernardini, Congrats, Flatter, Malibu Moon, Mineshaft, Take Charge Indy, and Pulpit in particular.
Another son, dual Gr1 winner and champion, Honor Code is also showing signs of becoming a high-class stallion, with his first crop including Gr3 Withers Stakes winner Max Player.
Statistically, Pulpit (whose dam Preach ironically died the same week as did A.P. Indy) was perhaps his sire’s best sire son.
The deceased Pulpit has left behind 74 stakes winners (from 789 runners), including 12 individual Gr1 winners and he will always be remembered as the sire of Tapit, already three times a champion sire in North America and one of the most prolific stallions of the century thus far.
Already sire of 25 individual Gr1 winners, Tapit’s sire sons include the red hot young stallion Constitution, as well as proven Gr1 sires Concord Point, Flashback and Tapizar, as well as the very promising Tonalist.
Tapit (Pulpit – Tap Your Heels)
Pulpit sire sons also pulled off a memorable feat in 2014 when California Chrome (sired by Pulpit’s son Lucky Pulpit) won the Kentucky Derby and Untapable (Tapit) landed the Kentucky Oaks –and both horses were subsequently named champions of their respective divisions at the end of the year.
Bernardini, arguably A.P. Indy’s most talented son on the track, has also enjoyed success at stud, and the former Gr1 Preakness Stakes winner is also shaping up into a superb broodmare sire. Already the sire of fifteen Gr1 winners – including Gr1 producing sires as Stay Thirsty, To Honor And Serve and Algorithms – Bernardini daughters have already produced eight Gr1 winners including the likes of Serengeti Empress, Catholic Boy (now standing at Claiborne), Maxfield (a one-time potential 2019 Triple Crown contender) and Dunbar Road.
His paternal half-brothers Mineshaft and Malibu Moon have also been consistently successful as sires and broodmare sires, with Horse Of The Year Mineshaft the sire of more than 50 stakes winners including six Gr1 winners, and Malibu Moon sire of more than 122 stakes winners including Kentucky Derby winner Orb, champion Declan’s Moon, and multiple Gr1 winning sire Gormley.
Mineshaft’s son Hightail is the sire of short lived Gr1 Awesome Again Stakes winner Mongolian Groom, while another son, Dialed In, is sire of Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Classic runner up Gunnevera.
A.P. Indy has also become an exceptional broodmare sire, with his daughters having already produced in excess of 200 stakes winners. His mares have already produced winners of all the Gr1 Kentucky Derby (Super Saver), Preakness Stakes (Cloud Computing) and Gr1 Kentucky Oaks (Plum Pretty) with other notable Gr1 winners produced by A.P. Indy daughters including Any Given Saturday, Bluegrass Cat, Bolt D’Oro, Game Winner, Imagining, Improbable, Royal Delta, Senga, and Zulu Alpha. Mares by A.P. Indy have produced Gr1 winners to host of different stallions including Maria’s Mon, Medaglia D’Oro, Street Cry, Empire Maker, Distorted Humor, Storm Cat, Candy Ride, and City Zip.
A half-brother to Gr1 Preakness Stakes winner Summer Squall (Storm Bird) and former successful South African sire Tiger Ridge (Storm Cat), A.P. Indy was produced by the outstanding broodmare Weekend Surprise (Secretariat).
