South African champion Hawaii certainly made his mark on the modern day thoroughbred. Not only did he sire Epsom Derby winner Henbit and Derby second and third place-getters Hawaiian Sound and Hunza Dancer, his name occurs in the pedigrees of numerous high-class gallopers.
Among the many top-class thoroughbreds with Hawaii close up is Kentucky Derby winner Lil E Tee (At The Threshold), top-class sire City Zip (Carson City) and the latter’s champion half-brother Ghostzapper (Awesome Again), Breeders’ Cup winning champions Beholder (Henny Hughes) and Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) and current boom sire No Nay Never.
Hawaii – top notch!
Hawaii also appears twice in the pedigree of unbeaten US Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat Daddy). The latter’s sire is by a son of Hennessy (out of the Hawaii mare Island Kitty) while Justify’s dam Stage Magic, also responsible for Gr3 All American Stakes winner The Lieutenant (Street Sense), was sired by Ghostzapper.
The first horse to retire unbeaten after capturing the US Triple Crown, Justify made history when he became the first to win the Kentucky Derby since Apollo in 1882 to land the Derby without racing at two.
Justify is giving strong signs that he will ensure Hawaii’s lasting influence in the stud book, with the son of the outstanding Scat Daddy having made a tremendous start to his stud career.
His first Northern Hemisphere crop of two-year-olds made a fine start last year, with Justify’s early flagbearers headed by six individual stakes winners, with this figure including four group/graded stakes winners.
Justify wins the Preakness
His four group/graded stakes winning two-year-olds last year were Statuette (Gr2 Airlie Stud Stakes), Champions Dream (Gr3 Nashua Stakes), Just Cindy (Gr3 Schuylerville Stakes) and Aspen Grove (Gr3 Flame Of Tara Stakes) while Justify colt Verifying finished second in the 2022 Gr1 Champagne Stakes.
There are no fewer than 14 members of Justify’s first crop nominated for the 2023 US Triple Crown.
Justify has also made an eye catching start with his first Australian crop of two-year-olds. His first four Australian runners this season include rising star filly Learning To Fly, winner of Saturday’s $2 million Inglis Millennium and winner of the Gr3 ATC Widden Stakes when making her debut.
At the time of writing, Justify currently ranks as the Leading First Season Sire in Australia by earnings and is fourth on the Leading Second Crop Sires in North America for the current season.
His burgeoning success also once again underlines what a loss to the breed Justify’s late sire Scat Daddy was.
Scat Daddy, whose sire Johannesburg has become an increasingly successful broodmare sire and is damsire of, among others, Gr1 Preakness Stakes winner Swiss Skydiver, is also the sire of outstanding stallion No Nay Never, who was responsible for star two-year-olds Little Big Bear, Blackbeard and Meditate in 2022.
