Essential Quality was the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Stakes winner in 2020 and as of 12/11/2020 is the point leader for the Kentucky Derby. He had a stellar 2020, earning more than $1,300,000 for the year. He won his MSW, followed by the Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity then the Breeders’ Juvenile Stakes.
Dosage
His DP is (5-12-14-1-0). His DI = 3.0 and his CD = 0.66. His DI suggests that his ideal race distance would be 9 furlongs and based off his CD his ideal race distance would be 8.7 furlongs. A nice classic distance. Those distances are a bit shorter than the classic distances, although not far off. The Kentucky Derby at 10 furlongs is just north of the projected 9 furlong distance. His total dosage points equaling 32 is also pretty impressive. That alone would put this horse in contention to do something wonderful.
Sire Line
He’s the son of Tapit. He needs no introduction. His best progeny is Untapable who has won multiple G1 races at 9 furlongs. She did those in a nice fashion going from mid pack to a clear winner in those races. Another top earner for him is Frosted who won multiple G1 races at 9 furlongs as well.
Tapit’s AWD is 7.71 furlongs which is pretty far considering you have to get to #19 on the general sire list, English Channel, to find a horse with an AWD over 7.5. His happens to be 8.26 furlongs which leads the leading sire distance by that measurement.
Tapit’s contribution for his dosage is DP = 13-19-24-2-2 (60), DI = 2.75, CD = 0.65. So this is a chef-de-race packed pedigree. The highest total point count you can have is 64 and he’s at 60. There are 2 horses in his 4 cross that aren’t chefs. They are both in the 4th generation. Everyone else is a rock star stud. Based off his dosage, he’d be best suited for about 9 to 10 furlongs. His race horse stats are pretty spot on to that and his progeny is doing pretty good at hitting those longer distances.
Dam Line
Essential Quality’s dam is Delightful Quality. Her best achievement has been a graded stakes placed. She was a bit of a sprinter with most of her races being around 6 furlongs. Her graded stakes performance was 7 furlongs in the Bed o’ Roses H. [G3] where she finished a respectable 3rd.
She’s a young mare. This is her first standout offspring. She’s been bred to some pretty good stallions, but they haven’t materialized into any good horses until this one. Delightful Quality is the half sister to a champion, Folklore who was a juvenile filly champion in 2005. She won at the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies [G1] at 8.5 furlongs. So there’s a lot of classic potential in this family.
Delightful Quality’s dosage contributions were 8-9-15-0-0 with a CD of 3.27 and a DI of 0.78. That explains her aptitude toward more sprinting only going up to 7 furlongs.
Overall
Overall this horse is well bred and there’s a reason why this horse is at the top of the Derby list right now. It’s easy to say in hindsight after winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. My biggest reservation is the speed on the mom’s side of the pedigree. There’s a lot of speed there so I’m not sure how he’ll do running those longer classic distances. He’s well bred, a juvenile champion, and is a solid Derby hopeful. He’ll make a great stallion prospect.