Nyquist’s Encino picks up Derby points

Godolphin has a path to Louisville with Cox colt

Mar 04, 2024

By Frances J. Karon

The lightly raced Nyquist 3-year old Encino, a Godolphin homebred trained by Brad Cox, made a winning stakes debut on Saturday night when he won the Listed John Battaglia Memorial S. at Turfway Park by a length.

There’s still a ways to go from here to the Classic races, but he’s picked up 20 Kentucky Derby points, trailing fellow Cox trainees Timberlake (Into Mischief colt with 66 points, and the subject of a post here last week), and, tied at 25 points, with Catching Freedom (Constitution) and Just a Touch (Justify). He’s got a trainer who knows how to get horses ready for big races, and he’s going the right way, too. What Encino lacks in overall experience (as well as dirt experience), he’s got in pedigree credentials.

ENCINO (2021 Nyquist – Glittering Jewel, by Bernardini)
B: Godolphin
O: Godolphin, LLC
T: Brad Cox
Record: 3-2-1-0, $141,971
Highest achievement: Listed stakes winner
Last Auction Price: none

Encino debuted on Dec. 29th last year, running second by a neck at Turfway, where he broke his maiden in January. The Battaglia was his third start. He’s the second foal and only starter from Glittering Jewel, a daughter of Bernardini who won a 9 1/2-fur. maiden race as a 3-year-old on the all-weather surface at Wolverhampton in England for trainer Charlie Appleby. She also raced in the U.S. for Mike Stidham, placing five times in allowance and allowance/optional claimers on turf and dirt at Tampa Bay and Arlington.

**Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist stands at Darley America.**

Bedazzle (Dixieland Band), Encino’s second dam, was a winner of four races and $197,455 for owner/breeder Jim Tafel and trainer Carl Nafzger, winning from 6-7 1/2 furlongs. She had two foals for Tafel before she was sold, in foal to Distorted Humor, as an 8-year-old at the 2005 Keeneland November sale. Nafzger purchased her for $180,000 on behalf of Randy Bloch, another of his clients. The trainer knew the family well and it’s a fair guess that he was aware that the mare’s first foal, a 2004 colt by Street Cry, was looking pretty sharp in his pre-training.

Named Street Sense and trained by Nafzger—like his dam and granddam had been—that Street Cry colt won the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile en route to the 2-year-old championship. He, of course, went on to win the next year’s Kentucky Derby and Travers before retiring to stud at Godolphin’s Darley America for the 2008 season. He’s been an excellent sire, which is a separate post we’ll get to in the near future.

**Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense at Darley America.**

Darley acquired Bedazzle privately after the Breeders’ Cup, but Street Sense turned out to be the only stakes horse she produced from 12 foals of racing age, and these included three full siblings to Street Sense, only one of which raced (but did not win). Encino is the first stakes horse out of any of the mare’s daughters.

Tafel had purchased Encino’s third dam, Majestic Legend (His Majesty), as a yearling at the Keeneland September sale in 1986, and Nafzger trained that mare to win seven races, including a listed stakes race at Fair Grounds.

Majestic Legend was a half-sister to multiple Grade 3 winner Mr. Greeley (Gone West), who sired 12 Grade 1 winners and is the broodmare sire of Kentucky Derby winner Authentic (Into Mischief), Canadian champion Ria Antonia (Rockport Harbor), and young stallion Raging Bull (Dark Angel). As a producer, Majestic Legend’s only stakes horse from 13 foals was Binalegend, a listed winner by Binalong; Binalegend and Binalong had also raced for Tafel and Nafzger.

It’s a deep family even beyond the Street Sense connection; Long Legend (Reviewer)—the dam of Majestic Legend and Mr. Greeley—is the third dam of Vekoma (Candy Ride), a dual Grade 1 winner whose first crop races this year.

The sire of Encino is Darley America’s Nyquist (Uncle Mo), who’s also the sire of talented 3-year-old Nysos, a Grade 3 winner who is ranked the top sophomore to this point, among his 23 stakes winners. Not only does Nyquist stand at the same farm as Street Sense, but he, too, was a 2-year-old champion who completed the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile/Kentucky Derby double. His 2024 fee is $85,000.

Encino’s broodmare sire, Bernardini (A.P. Indy), who died in 2021, was yet another Classic-winning Darley America stallion, and the Nyquist/Bernardini cross—a natural, with both stallions at the same farm—has produced three stakes winners from 33 foals, which equates to 9% stakes winners to foals—and that’s counting the current 2-year-olds. Nyquist’s other two stakes winners from Bernardini daughters are Nysos and Grade 1 winner Gretzky the Great, a Canadian champion. Nyquist also has U.S. champion filly Vequist among his stakes winners out of A.P. Indy-line mares.

**Bernardini, whose daughters are clicking with Nyquist, at Darley America in 2013.**

Odds and ends: Another Encino—a 1977 model by Nijinsky II out of Crimson Saint (Crimson Satan) and thus a half-brother to Storm Cat—was a Grade 2-placed winner of one race from five starts. He sired The Name’s Jimmy, who won the G2 American Derby and G3 Will Rogers Handicap, as well as G3 Monrovia Handicap winner Down Again. He’s the broodmare sire of Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Kip Deville (Kipling) and sired the third dam of Sunday’s G1 Santa Anita H. winner Newgate (Into Mischief)…The full brothers St Patrick’s Day and American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) were represented by stakes winners on Saturday. Fiona’s Magic, a 3-year-old, is the first stakes winner for Grade 3-placed winner St Patrick’s Day, and the first-crop filly did it in style, winning the G2 Davona Dale at Gulfstream over a pair of Into Mischief fillies. American Pharoah’s Jody’s Pride, also a 3-year-old, won the Listed Busher S. at Aqueduct. Second in last year’s G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Jody’s Pride is one of 43 stakes winners for Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. Both fillies are out of Storm Cat-line mares, as are their sires. St Patrick’s Day stands at Journeyman Stud in Florida and American Pharoah is at Coolmore America…Liam’s Map (Unbridled’s Song) was represented by three stakes winners on Saturday—7-year-old Starting Over in the G2 Mac Diarmida S. at Gulfstream, 3-year-old Deterministic in the G3 Gotham S. at Aqueduct, and 3-year-old Camaro Z in the Black Gold at Fair Grounds. The 3-year-olds are new stakes winners for their sire, who stands at Lane’s End…In a post on Mandaloun last week, I mentioned the Into Mischief/Empire Maker cross. Imagination, winner of the G2 San Felipe on Sunday, is now the seventh stakes winner (12% to foals) sired by Into Mischief from daughters of Empire Maker...Super Chow, a 4-year-old who earned his seventh career stakes victory and second at Grade 3 level, is inbred 3x4 to Argentine Broodmare of the Year Miss Peggy (Fitzcarraldo). His unraced granddam Miss Simpatia (Southern Halo) is a full sister to Argentine champion/U.S. Grade 1 winner Miss Linda, the granddam of his deceased sire Lord Nelson (Pulpit), who stood at Spendthrift…Champion Blue Duster (Danzig)—the second dam of 5-year-old G3 Honey Fox winner Chili Flag (Cityscape), a first-time stakes winner—is the third dam of last year’s G3 Dowager S. winner Romagna Mia (Mastercraftsman) and Highland Chief (Gleneagles), a Grade 1 winner in 2022...Runhappy (Super Saver), a Claiborne stallion, got his fourth 2024 stakes winner over the weekend when Kinetic Sky won the Listed Stymie at Aqueduct. Among N. American stallions, only Into Mischief (Harlan’s Holiday) with nine stakes winners and Liam’s Map with five, have more.