Wilgerbosdrift’s inform sire Flower Alley, who has made such a good start to the 2022-2023 racing season, got an impressive boost to his female line on Saturday when relative Santin captured the G1 Arlington Million at Churchill Downs.
Both Flower Alley and Santin are sons of Distorted Humor, while the Vaguely Noble mare Diamond Spring features as the third dam of Flower Alley and fourth dam of Santin.
Victorious earlier in the year in the G1 Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic, four-year-old Santin shadowed pacesetting Smooth Like Strait into the stretch turn of the Million, challenged at the three-sixteenths pole and drove by to win by 1 3/4 lengths. Smooth Like Strait held second with Sacred Life edging Set Piece for third.
Santin, out of the Medaglia d’Oro mare Sentiero Italia , was unraced as a 2-year-old, then won his first two races late in 2021. He wound up that year finishing second in the G1 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar.
He finished fourth in his 4-year-old debut at Fair Grounds, then second in the G2 Muniz Memorial Classic Presented by Horse Racing Nation, and reported sixth in the G1 Resorts World Casino Manhattan Stakes at Belmont Park. Trained by Brendan Walsh, Santin has now won four of just eight starts, with his latest win taking his earnings to $1,437,100.
The 2022 Arlington Million was a triumph for Flower Alley relatives, with Flower Alley also broodmare sire of Million runner up Smooth Like Strait.Smooth Like Strait, a California shipper trained by Michael McCarthy, now has finished second or third in seven straight races, all of them G1 or G2, after a victory in the G1 Shoemaker Mile on May 31.
Sire of 32 stakes winners and counting, Flower Alley made South African headlines recently when daughters Integrity and Santa Therese finished 1-2 in the Listed East Cape Paddock Stakes.
The sire of last season’s G1 winner Princess Calla, Flower Alley has 11 lots on offer at this year’s August Two Year Old Sale.