Acceptance’s Roots Run Deep

If “King Glorious Stakes” has a familiar ring, it should. Last year’s edition, the final one held at Hollywood Park, was the coming-out party for the partnership of California Chrome and jockey Victor Espinoza and the launching pad for some California dreaming come true.

Acceptance still has a lot to prove before anyone mistakes him for a second California Chrome. His story would be a very different one anyway, for unlike Chrome’s neophyte owner/breeders, Old English Rancho has been around for decades. Acceptance’s roots go deep into Old English Rancho’s history, for the farm has developed the family that produced Acceptance for three generations and has also stood several of the stallions in his pedigree, beginning with his sire Vronsky.

By Danzig, Vronsky is a half brother to 2000 Del Mar Oaks (gr. IT) winner No Matter What (by Nureyev) and multiple grade II winner E Dubai (by Mr. Prospector). Vronsky never quite lived up to his $1 million sale yearling price tag or his illustrious half siblings but was a lot better than an empty stall. A good allowance runner who showed his best form on turf, he won or placed in eight of 11 starts. That and a fine pedigree (his dam, the Lord At War mare Words of War, is a multiple stakes winner and a full sister to grade III winner Ascutney) were enough to earn him a trial at stud. Through Dec. 15 he has sired 51 winners and six stakes winners from 137 foals of racing age. His top earner in 2014 was Rovenna, winner of two Cal-bred stakes and $327,570.

Acceptance is the first winner for his dam Allswellthatnswell. A grade II-placed multiple stakes winner for Old English Rancho, she is easily the best produce of her dam, A Lucky Happening, and is by stakes-placed Perfect Mandate, a son of Gone West who stood at Old English Rancho from 2000 until his death in 2012. Produced from Performing Arts, by The Minstrel, Perfect Mandate is from the same cross as 1992 European champion juvenile male Zafonic.

A Lucky Happening is the daughter of another Old English Rancho homebred, Something Lucky, whose sire Somethingfabulous (a Northern Dancer half brother to Secretariat) also stood at the farm. Something Lucky won the 1987 Cinema Handicap (gr. IIT) and Will Rogers Handicap (gr. IIIT) and was third in the Santa Anita Derby (gr. I) but sired six stakes winners from 176 foals of racing age.

A Lucky Happening’s dam, Happy Happenings, is by four-time Canadian champion Kennedy Road, one of the best racehorses ever to grace the Old English Rancho stallion roster. Produced from stakes-placed Happening (by Terrang), who brought this family to Old English Rancho, Happy Happenings is a half sister to the stakes-winning Majestic Prince mare Conky Johnston, dam of stakes winners Some Sensation and Sounds Fabulous (both by Somethingfabulous) and second dam of stakes winners Flying Sensation and Fabulous Flight. Happy Happenings is also a half sister to Something Perfect, dam of 2002 Las Flores Handicap (gr. III) winner Above Perfection (by In Excess), whose daughter Hot Dixie Chick (by Dixie Union) won the 2009 Spinaway Stakes (gr. I). Something Perfect’s other produce include stakes winner Made to Perfection (by Bolger, another Old English stallion) and multiple stakes producer Perfectly Perfect (by Perfect Mandate).

Acceptance’s female family is fairly typical of good regional families around the country. While it does not often turn up horses capable of competing on the national level, it has that capacity. More importantly for Old English Rancho’s breeding program, it consistently puts out winners and state-bred stakes winners that can grab their share of both purse money and state-bred bonuses.

Given that Acceptance has already proved he can get a mile on dirt in good style as a 2-year-old, the next logical step is the series of preps for the Santa Anita Derby. It may be a tall order for a Cal-bred colt of relatively modest breeding, but given the trail blazed by another such colt last spring, why not dream big?