Saint Ballado

It's the surprises that keep us interested in pedigrees, and that applies as much to people as to horses. Cogburn, who recently sprinted to a world record in the GI Jaipur Stakes, is out of a mare by Saintly Look. Saintly Who? A son of Saint Ballado, and winner of the GIII Lecomte Stakes in 2003, Saintly Look covered a couple of small books in Indiana, in 2008 and 2009, and was then sold for $17,500 at the Keeneland November Sale. Cogburn's dam In a Jif was among nine named...

  When Saint Ballado came to the farm, Duncan Taylor recalls Les Brinsfield telling him to try Mari's Book mares. "Mari's Book!" he exclaims now. "It's not like there were Mari's Book mares all around, out there in the population. But Les was a smart guy, very analytical." And it was easy to see the logic: Mari's Book was by Northern Dancer out of a Maribeau mare; and Maribeau, like Saint Ballado's sire Halo, was out of Cosmah--whose half-sister Natalma, of course, gave us the sire of Mari's Book. Plenty of...