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Racing Analysis by Steve Haskin

Even if you’re a winner of four graded stakes at 2 and 3, including two grade Is, it is difficult for people to be excited about you if you’re not the flashy type and are considered by many as the fourth-best 3-year-old in your own barn.

But the ever-resilient Scat Daddy has quietly been biding his time. His accomplishments, combined with the setbacks or defeats of several of his more highly visible stablemates, finally have elevated him near the head of the class in trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn.

Scat Daddy is one of those rare 3-year-olds nowadays that has followed the schedule laid out for him without even the slightest bump in the road. Some might consider his first start of the year in the Holy Bull Stakes (gr. III) a bump when he altered his normal running style and wound up battling on the lead with Nobiz Like Shobiz. But that race helped sharpen him, and he followed it up with back-to-back victories in the Fountain of Youth Stakes (gr. II) and Florida Derby (gr. I), while reverting back to his off-the-pace running style.

In the Florida Derby, he actually was able to adapt to a speed-favoring surface and tracked the two leaders, Stormello and Adore the Gold, before disposing of them and drawing clear to win by 11⁄4 lengths over dual graded stakes winner Notional. Those victories added to his triumphs last year in the Champagne (gr. I) and Sanford (gr. II) Stakes.

Although some speed pundits still feel he is too slow to be a Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) threat, Scat Daddy has knocked off the brilliant Nobiz Like Shobiz and Stormello twice each. While some pedigree experts still feel as if he doesn’t have the pedigree to go 11⁄4 miles, he is the only 3-year-old to have won two graded stakes at nine furlongs, and looks as if he wants to keep going.

Now Pletcher has five weeks to get him sharp and toughened for the Derby. During that time, you can bet no one will be asking, “Who’s your daddy?”

Pedigree Profile by Avalyn Hunter

The champion juvenile in both Europe and North America in 2001, Johannesburg went to stud in 2003 as a hot sire prospect. Although his 3-year-old season was disappointing, he had shown more than enough talent as a juvenile to warrant the hope that he would get runners.

Street Sense’s heroics in the Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (gr. I) lifted Street Cry past Johannesburg in the 2006 freshman sire race, but it was still a good year for the son of Hennessy. Seven juvenile stakes winners emerged from Johannesburg’s 2004 foals, among them Scat Daddy.

Easily his sire’s best runner so far, Scat Daddy assured himself a berth in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) with an authoritative win in the March 31 Florida Derby (gr. I) at nine furlongs. Whether he can stretch out another furlong is still anyone’s guess, but so far, he has answered every question put to him.

Many people would not normally think of a Storm Cat-line horse who is closely inbred (4x2) to the brilliant but questionably sound Mr. Prospector as a classic-distance runner. There’s a little more to Scat Daddy’s pedigree than that, however. With eight starts under his belt, he has already demonstrated toughness equal to any of the top colts in the crop, and his second damsire is Nijinsky II, as solid a stamina source as exists in modern breeding.

Whether Nijinsky II will be enough to stretch out a damline with a history of being most effective at somewhat shorter distances is an open question, but there is no shortage of quality there. Although Scat Daddy’s dam, Love Style, never raced, his second dam, Likeable Style, won the mile Las Virgenes Stakes (gr. I) and the 8 1⁄2-furlong Honeymoon Handicap (gr. III). The third dam, Personable Lady (by No Robbery), was also a stakes winner, but was at her best in sprints.

Still, Scat Daddy has shown the ability to conserve his speed for when it counts, and his amenability to rating may play quite as big a role as his bloodlines in getting him through the last testing furlong at Churchill Downs.