I MAKE no apology for once again revisiting the story of Monomoy Girl (Tapizar), the three-year-old filly who displayed guts and determination to earn $565,000 and land the Grade 1 Longines Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on Friday. This brought to six the number of victories she has enjoyed in just seven starts, and she is now the earner of more than $1.1 million.

This was her second Grade 1 success, following the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland, and her first outing this year saw her capture the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra Stakes. She numbered the Rags To Riches Stakes at Churchill Downs among her three juvenile wins and her only defeat came when she was runner-up in the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes. She was bought as a yearling by agent Liz Crow for $100,000 at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

Olive and Brendan Gallagher bred Monomoy Girl at their Frankfort Park Farm in Kentucky, their first Grade 1 winner, and they did so in partnership with their long-time friend and fellow Irishman Michael Hernon who is director of sales at Gainesway. She is the third foal and third winner for her dam Drumette, a winning daughter of Henny Hughes (Hennessy). Her two previous offspring were the multiple winners Metmeyer (Drosselmeyer) and Li Secretaria (Hansen) and all three of these fillies visited the winners’ enclosure last year.

Coming along behind them are a two-year-old full-brother to Monomoy Girl named Cowboy Diplomacy (sold for $175,000 as a yearling, the highest priced yearling by his sire that year), a yearling colt by the 2013 Grade 1 Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice (Curlin) who looks a bargain now after his sale for $60,000 as a weanling, and a recently born colt by Shackleford (Forestry). Drumette is set to visit the undefeated Grade 1 winner Mastery (Candy Ride).

Drumette was purchased for just $75,000 from Pope McLean at the Keeneland November Sale in 2014 and she was twice catalogued at the same sale since, in 2016 and 2017, but did not take up her appointment with the auctioneers on either occasion. In recent interviews, however, Brendan Gallagher has not ruled out the possibility that both the mare and her foal could be offered for sale this November.

Every one of the first four dams in the pedigree of Monomoy Girl has bred a stakes winner, a great sign of consistency in the family.

Perhaps Drumette can become the first to breed two as reports about her present juvenile son are good. Drumette is out of the stakes winner Endless Parade (Williamstown) and her five winners are headed by Drum Major (Dynaformer). Three of his six victories were in stakes races, notably the Grade 3 Knickerbocker Handicap at Aqueduct, while his placed efforts include finishing second in the Grade 2 Fourstardave Handicap and third in the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap, both at Saratoga.

Endless Parade was unbeaten in five starts as a three-year-old in 2000 and three of these were in minor stakes races. She was the best of seven winners from her dam Mnemosyne (Saratoga Six) who was placed on her only outing as a two-year-old, and among the other winners was the stakes-placed Letem Talk (Vigors), and she in turn bred a stakes winner and 12-time scorer in Idle Talk (Olmodavor).

The stakes-placed My Lady Love (Smarten) is the fourth dam of Monomoy Girl and she won twice as a juvenile and was stakes-placed. She produced no fewer than 10 winners and among them was the dual stakes winner Afleet Floozie (Afleet) and the stakes-placed Donedeed (Shadeed).

My Lady Love had three stakes-winning siblings and easily best of that trio was Heavenly Cause (Grey Dawn II). She was the champion juvenile filly of her generation in 1980, winning the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes, and the following year she landed the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks. Five of her nine career wins were at Grade 1 level and she went on to become a stakes producer.

The Grade 3 winner and dual Grade 1 runner-up Quixotic Lady (Quadratic) was another of My Lady Love’s half-sisters. She bred winners and is grandam and ancestress of a number of stakes winners.

Another sibling, the three-time winner La Basque (Jean-Pierre), did not earn blacktype but she made amends when her three stakes-winning sons included the triple Grade 1 winner Bounding Basque (Grey Dawn II). She has become a hugely influential matron and at the last count some 22 stakes winners have descended from her, the most recent of note being the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes winner By The Moon (Indian Charlie).

Tapizar’s 2018 fee at Gainesway is a bargain $12,500 (about €10,000) and this Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner is by the three-time champion sire Tapit (Pulpit) who stands alongside him at $300,000. Monomoy Girl is from Tapizar’s second crop and she is his first graded stakes winner. His initial crop included the stakes winners Tip Tap Tapizar and Tap It All (won California Oaks).

The Monomoy Girl story is only starting and yet her place among the best of her generation is assured. Her future career will now be followed with added interest from this side of the world.