Two-Year-Old Ambassador Colt, Danaus, Looks Like Interesting Entry In 7th Race At Saratoga

To the best of my knowledge, when writing about potential Kentucky Derby horses, all of my blogs have been about graded-stakes prep races on the Triple Crown Trail. But, I thought I’d make an exception today as Danaus, a 2-year-old colt I wrote about in my July 18 blog, is making his maiden debut in the seventh race at Saratoga today.

I’m very interested to see how well Danaus (15-1) will perform in his first start. Here’s what I had to say about Danaus in my July blog:

I was recently looking at the pedigrees of 2-year-old Thoroughbreds and came upon Danaus (Ambassador-Dulcet Tone by Empire Maker) who is currently in training at Belmont Park. I like his pedigree and look forward to see how he fares during his juvenile racing season.

The Ancestral Herd of Danaus descends from Dark Ronald – the previously mentioned stallion that was purchased by Burchard Von Oettingen for the Royal German Stud. Dark Ronald was a foundation stallion and his sire line was one of the most successful lines in the history of the German turf.

The Dark Ronald Ancestral Herd produced 25 German Derby winners compared to Mr. Prospector's 11 Kentucky Derby winners. So, in the pedigree of Danaus you have two powerful Ancestral Herds in the sire line and damsire line - Dark Ronald and Fappiano, Mr. Prospector.

Acatenango, the grandsire of Danaus, was also the broodmare sire of Animal Kingdom.

Time will tell if Danaus lives up to his breeding.

Owned by John M. B. O’Connor, Danaus is trained by Thomas Albertrani who also trains Souper Lucky (4-1) for Live Oak Plantation. Danaus is the only colt in the field of eight that will be racing free of Lasix – and I like that.

His pedigree shows me that he has the potential to be competitive in classic competition. However, one never knows if these young colts will live up to their breeding and whether Danaus has the potential to be competitive on the Triple Crown Trail remains to be seen.

Practically all of the colts in the race are also making their first start. I didn’t have time to do an in-depth analysis of each horse. But upon a quick glance of the pedigrees, Bird Now (5-1) and King Cyrus (3-1) also look interesting.