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I'll Have Another, the colt chasing racing history in the final leg of America's Triple Crown this weekend, is by Flower Alley, one of the many top racehorses sired by former Australian visitor Distorted Humor during two brief seasons in Victoria.
Distorted Humour visited Victoria twice in 1999 and 2000, leaving 120 foals.
I'll Have Another has moved into the shadow of Triple Crown glory with wins in the first two legs, the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes and will be the first winner of the series since Affirmed in 1978 if he takes the Belmont Stakes in New York on Saturday.
In his wins in the Derby and Preakness, I'll Have Another has had the same horse Bodemeister, a son of Empire Maker, a Belmont Stakes winner and Kentucky Derby second, as the runner up.
Empire Maker, like Distorted Humor, is from the Mr. Prospector male line.
I'll Have Another, Bodemeister, Affirmed and Alydar , who was second to Affirmed in all three legs of the Triple Crown in 1978, all descend in male line from Native Dancer's son Raise A Native.
Through descendants of Mr. Prospector, it is an influence more dominant in America than Northern Dancer.
Sold twice before he went to the races, realising only $11,000 as a yearling and then $35,000 at two, I'll Have Another is in the first crop of Flower Alley, who stands on a lowly fee of $7500 at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky.
Flower Alley was a major stakes winner and Breeder's Cup Classic second. He is inbred 3x4 to Mr Prospector and 4x4 (Danzig and Sadler's Wells) to Northern Dancer.
He is one of ten G1 winners in America by Distorted Humor, a son of the Mr. Prospector sire Forty Niner from Danzig's Beauty, a G2 winner by Danzig.
A showy 15.3 hands chestnut he now commands a fee of $100,000 at Winstar Farm in Kentucky after being champion American sire for 2011.
His American sale catalogue statistics show 635 winners (104 SWs) of over 2000 races.
One of his sons, the gelded Funny Cide, won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes and finished third in the Belmont Stakes won by Bodemeister's sire Empire Maker and another, Any Given Saturday, shuttles from Kentucky to stud in Victoria.
I'll Have Another is the first stakes winner from the first three foals, all winners, from Arch's Gal, a mare currently in foal to Gio Ponti (Tale of the Cat x Chipeta Springs, by Alydar), a three times US Champion,14 times G1 winner or runner up and $6 million earner who will serve his first Australian season at Arrowfield Stud at Scone in 2012.
Arch's Gal's sire Arch was by the Roberto sire Kris S from Aurora, a three-quarter sister by Danzig to influential sire Green Desert.
The first stakes winner in three generations, I'll Have Another traces back to Last Bird (fourth dam), a minor winning half-sister by world-champion racehorse Sea Bird to Northern Dancer's California Oaks winner Northern Meteor.
Imported to Australia, Northern Meteor's grandaughter Colonial Meteorite was a flop as a winner producer but Suddenly Sarah, an unraced daughter by the Mr. Prospector sire Woodman, went to General Nediym and produced the good class Sydney filly Nediym's Dream.
Retained for breeding use, she died a month after producing her first foal, a Fastnet Rock filly which is now a yearling.
Without Warning, a half-sister by Grand Lodge to Nediym's Dream, has produced a foal in each of the first four seasons of use. She went back to Reset at Northwood Park Stud in Victoria last season after producing a filly by him.
