There are few yearlings as closely related to as many talented performers as Let’s Go’s $400,000 Saratoga purchase. The son of Dixie Union is very closely related to three stakes winners two of them graded performers, and one a grade one performer. He’s also bred along very similar lines to his sire’s highest earner.

 

The leading son of Dixieland Band, Dixie Union was at the forefront of his crop two and three. As a juvenile, he captured the Hollywood Juvenile Championship (gr. III), Best Pal Stakes (gr. III) and Norfolk Stakes (gr. II). At three, Dixie Union underlined his class and versatility with wins in the nine furlong Haskell Invitational (gr. I) and seven furlong Malibu Stakes (gr. I).

 

With 34 stakes winners, 17 graded, in his first six crops, Dixie Union has been one of the most consistent sires of his generation. His most notable offspring include grade one winners Dixie Chatter and Hot Dixie Chick, and grade two scorers Gone Astray, Nothing But Fun, Justwhistledixie, Sander Camillo, Nothing But Fun, Homebound and Most Distinguished.

 

This colt is the first foal of Lerici. She is by Champion Two-Year-Old Woodman, a horse whose daughters have produced more than 140 stakes winners, including 62 graded winners, and 19 grade one winners. Lerici is three-parts-sister to Grass Skirt (by Woodman’s sire, Mr. Prospector) who has enjoyed remarkable success when bred to this colt’s sire, Dixie Union, the mating producing stakes winner Straw Hat, stakes winning and graded placed Turf War, an earner of $526,490, and the top-class performer Grasshopper. Successful in the Mineshaft Handicap (gr. II), Grasshopper was beaten just ½ length by Champion and Kentucky Derby (gr. I) winner Street Sense in the Travers Stakes (gr. I). An earner of nearly $850,000 to date, Grasshopper has also taken second in the Super Derby (gr. II), New Orleans Handicap (gr. II), Philip H. Iselin Stakes (gr. III), Westchester Handicap (gr. III), and third in the Whitney Handicap (gr. I). In addition, Lerici is also half-sister to the dam of Easy Grades, winner of almost $560,000, and runner-up in the Santa Anita Derby (gr. I).

 

Balinese, the granddam of this colt is a sister to Mashaallah, a classic winner who won black-type events on two continents, and who is a group and grade one winner in three countries; to grade one winning juvenile Folk Art; and to stakes winner and classic sire Sportin’ Life. Balinese is also a half-sister to Home Love, dam of group one winner Local Talent, and group winner Local Suitor, and granddam of classic winner Mark of Esteem, as well as to the dams of granddams of grade one winners Eishin Champ and Quick Hawk, and graded winners Connie’s Gift, Court Hostess, and Chimichurri. This is also the family of Gallorette – voted the greatest mare of the first half of the twentieth century – Champion Two-Year-Old Nadir, and Champion Stakes (gr. I) winner Northern Baby.

 

The Dixie Union/Mr. Prospector cross that produced this cross has produced a total of 13 stakes winners, and in addition to Grasshopper, Turf War and Straw Hat – the seven-eighths-brothers to this colt – they include Alyarf (out of a mare by Mujtahid, by Woodman, the broodmare sire of this colt), and Dixie Union’s highest earner, Gone Astray, whose dam is by Mr. Prospector, out of a mare by Private Account (dam a sister to the dam of Woodman).