IN a little over an hour on Saturday, 21-year-old Into Mischief (Harlan’s Holiday) sired a pair of colts who won the Grade 1 Florida Derby and Arkansas Derby. Both colts were gaining their maiden top-flight success.

The Brad Cox-trainer Commandment joins Tappan Street and Audible as a son of Into Mischief to win the Florida Derby. Last year Tappan Street beat Sovereignty in the race, and the runner-up went on to win two legs of the Triple Crown, including the Kentucky Derby. Audible ran third behind Justify in the Kentucky Derby in 2018. The Florida Derby is a key indicator when it comes to producing classic contenders.

Sporting the Wathnan Racing silks, Commandant has not looked back since finishing fourth on his debut in the autumn at Keeneland, and has won his subsequent four starts. His three stakes wins have all come at Gulfstream Park, in the Listed Mucho Macho Man Stakes, the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes and the Florida Derby.

Bred in Kentucky by 80-year-old Lee Pokoik, Commandment is closing in on being the best horse he has bred in his 35 years of involvement with breeding. Should Commandment make it to Churchill Downs, he would be a first Kentucky Derby runner for the New York-born Poloik. Giving him some additional pleasure is the fact that the colt is out of a mare he raced, Sippican Harbor (Orb), who was a $260,000 yearling purchase. She raced four times at two, and won the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes. Pokoik retained her at three when she RNA’d at $1.45 million.

Not enough

Commandment was twice offered for sale to no avail, as a weanling at Fasig-Tipton’s November Sale where he failed to meet his reserve at $485,000, and back at the same company’s Saratoga Sale as a yearling, when a final bid of $475,000 was not enough. Then, at Keeneland’s September Sale it was Case Clay Thoroughbred Management’s winning bid that secured the colt for $500,000 on behalf of owner Wathnan Racing.

Pokoik came close to having a Kentucky Derby runner when Gunmetal Gray won the 2019 Grade 3 Sham Stakes, having been Grade 1-placed as a juvenile, He qualified to contest the first leg of the Triple Crown, but an injury in March of the same year ruled him out of Derby contention. Pokoik has bred a number of runners at the Breeders’ Cup. He has intimated that Sippican Harbor could be for sale in the autumn if Commandment continues to be successful.

Due in recent days to McKinzie (Street Sense), and with a yearling filly by Elite Power (Curlin) that he hopes to sell as a yearling, Pokoik plans to cover Sippican Harbor with Into Mischief ($250,000 fee this year) again. Commandment is the first winner for his dam, and his four-year-old own-sister sold in a digital sale 15 months ago for just $15,000. Also due to race for Sippican Harbor is a two-year-old Curlin (Smart Strike) colt, a $180,000 yearling last year.

Leading sire

The leading sire seven times in the USA, Into Mischief’s two-year-olds represent his 15th crop of racing age. He has 193 stakes winners, nine Breeders’ Cup winners, 96 graded stakes winners, and last year Sovereignty joined Authentic and Mandaloun as a winner of the Kentucky Derby for the Spendthrift-based sire. Winner and placed second on all of his starts, Into Mischief won the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity at two, and was runner-up the next year in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes. Out of a stakes winner, Into Mischief is one of three Grade 1 winners for his dam.

The best of the trio on the track was Beholder (Henny Hughes), and this four-time champion racemare was three times successful at the Breeders’ Cup, and she is now dam of a Grade 1 juvenile winner. Her half-brother Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy) won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and is a leading sire in Chile.

Renegade became the 29th Grade 1 winner for Into Mischief when he took the honours in the Arkansas Derby, and he is half-owned by his breeders, Robert and Lawana Low, and by Mike Repole who signed for the colt as a yearling at Keeneland for $975,000, selling 50% back. This price was $100,000 less than the Lows paid for his dam, Spice Is Nice (Curlin), as a yearling. She went on to earn $260,000, win four races including the Grade 3 Allaire duPont Stakes, and finish second in a Grade 2. Renegade is her sole runner, and her first foal.

Spice Is Nice has two fillies following on, a two-year-old by Uncle Mo (Scat Daddy) and a yearling by Justify (Scat Daddy), and in late February she had a colt by Not This Time (Giant’s Causeway).

Mike Repole

This is not the first time that Mike Repole has been involved with the family. In 2023 he gave $900,000 for the dam of Spice Is Nice. This was Dame Dorothy (Bernardini) whose seven wins were headlined by victory in the Grade 1 Humana Distaff Stakes at Churchill Downs. She is dam of three winners that include a half-brother to Spice Is Nice who also sold to the Lows as a yearling for $1.6 million. Last year, Repole sold the yearling that Dame Dorothy produced after her purchase, a son of Gun Runner (Candy Ride), for a profitable $1.6 million to Amo Racing USA.

European race watchers will be familiar with one of Dame Dorothy’s half-sisters, Mrs Lindsay (Theatrical). She won the Group 1 Prix Vermeille, was second in the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks, and also annexed the Grade 1 E P Taylor Stakes in Canada. Mrs Lindsay’s son Mr Owen (Invincible Spirit) was a triple stakes winner in France and classic-placed in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas.

Commandment and Renegade currently occupy the first and second spots on the 2026 Road to the Kentucky Derby standings, and he has another son in 14th position. The race is limited to 20 runners, and organisers can offer three overseas places, two for Europe and the Middle East, and one for Japan. If a son of Into Mischief was to win the race this year, he would become the most successful sire in the history of the Kentucky Derby.

Goffs sold dam of Dubai World Cup winner

IN the days when David Cox and David Myerscough were acting in partnership, as Baroda and Colbinstown, they spent €75,000 to acquire Rockadelic (Bernardini) at the 2017 Goffs February Sale from Godolphin. Unraced, she was sent to join Graham Motion in the USA, racing for John Perrotta, and in August she finished last in a maiden special, having shown some early speed.

In November 2018 Rockadelic made the first of three appearances at the Keeneland November Sale, selling for $180,000 carrying a filly, Cailin Diana (More Than Ready), who sold for $280,000 as a yearling and was placed. Her second foal also placed, and her third raced once. Rockadelic reappeared in the 2021 sale carrying a colt by Not This Time (Giant’s Causeway). Ron Stolich bought Rockadelic for $140,000, and sold the colt as a foal for $310,000. Resold as a yearling for $450,000, he is the Group 1 Dubai World Cup winner Magnitude.

Stolich only had the one foal from Rockadelic, as he sold her on for $110,000 in 2022, carrying last year’s placed juvenile Azam (McKinzie) – he was first past the post on his sole start but was demoted. He was a $100,000 foal, $165,000 yearling. Rockadelic has had two more colts, the two-year-old Gorillaz (Bolt D’Oro) who realised $110,000 as a yearling, while with thanks to the emergence of Magnitude, her yearling colt by Jack Christopher (Munnings) sold as a foal last November at Fasig-Tipton for $230,000. Rockdelic is due to foal a full-brother or sister to Magnitude.

Rockadelic is a full-sister to two-time winner Zingarelli (Bernardini) and a half-sister to four others. One of these, Portamento (Shamardal), won in England and China, and was group-placed in the UAE and Britain. They are all out of Octave (Unbridled’s Song). That winner of the Grade 1 CCA Oaks and Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes sold for $4 million in 2007 to John Ferguson. She was also runner-up four times at the highest level, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and the Kentucky Oaks.