The Influence of Lady Pitt and Whirlaway

I am a racing fan that takes peculiar interest in the history of the Thoroughbred, including famous stud lines and female families. I often find myself wasting hours away looking at pedigrees. Many famous horses are well represented in the breed. For instance, there is probably no Thoroughbred alive that lacks multiple lines of Man O' War, Count Fleet, or Lexington. On the other hand, I rarely ever come across a modern pedigree that has Seabiscuit. I wish I had access to a database that was searchable to determine living descendants of given race horses.

Which brings me to the subject of Whirlaway. I very rarely come upon Whirlaway in pedigrees, despite him being one of the greatest horses of all time and having no fertility issues.  Whirlaway's sire was Blenheim (GB), who was born in Great Britain and won the Derby. Blenheim was a sire of sires, producing the likes of Mahmoud who won the Epsom Derby and is thoroughly entrenched in the breed by such accomplishments as being the third broodmare sire of Northern Dancer and numerous other things. Blenheim also produced Donatello, who produced the great runners and sires Crepello and Alycidon.

Blenheim was also produced Jet Pilot, a Kentucky Derby winner, who himself sired Jet Action, the 3rd broodmare sire of Seattle Slew. Blenheim is one of very few horses that have produced winners of both the Epsom Derby and Kentucky Derby, a task also accomplished by the great stud Nijinsky (Parenthetically, Nijinsky is probably the major if not nearly the only conduit for Omaha to still be in the breed).

While it would not be accurate to say that Whirlaway was a failure at stud, he certainly did not seem to leave any lasting mark on the breed that is in modern pedigrees, with one notable exception to be discussed below. Whirlaway may have been more present in the breed in the 50's-70's, and he is the fourth sire of the legendary gelding Forego.
Whirlaway was the sire of the mare Rock Drill, winner of a minor stakes race, who in turn was the dam of Lady Pitt. Lady Pitt (b. 1963) was sired by the great Sword Dancer, and is the link between the modern racehorse and Whirlaway.

Lady Pitt was a monster on the track, winning such races as the Astarita, Coaching Club American Oaks, Delaware Oaks, and Mother Goose. She finished first in Alabama S., but was disqualified to second behind Natashka. Nevertheless, Lady Pitt was named champion 3-year-old filly in 1966.
Lady Pitt herself produced stakes winners such as the multiple stakes-winning filly Blitely (Test S., Ballernia, Maskette, Twillight Tear, Imp S.), and The Liberal Member (Brooklyn H., Christmas Day H.).

But Lady Pitt was going to have a lasting mark on the breed, and most American members of female family 20-b go through her, especially through Blitely and Bank of England.  For instance, Oscar Performance (Kitten's Joy) traces back to Lady Pitt as his 7th dam, Bank of England his 6th.

Most North American major studs have some horses from the 20-b line and they usually go through Lady Pitt. Perennial leading sire Tapit has three fillies and one colt from the line–the colt being the only one from the 20-b female family that does not trace back to Lady Pitt. Giant's Causeway has 13 horses that descend in tail female line from Lady Pitt, including stakes winner Giant Payday.

While as far as I can tell, Lady Pitt is the principle and perhaps only vehicle for Whirlaway to be in modern pedigrees, its it interesting to note that Whirlaway's dam, Dustwhirl (Sweep) from family 8-h is still in many pedigrees in tail female. Shanghai Bobby (Harlan's Holiday) and recently deceased Roman Ruler (Fusaichi Pegasus) descend from her, as did 1982 3-year-old champion Conquistador Cielo.

Saturday, Instilled Regard (Arch) won the Lecomte S. Blitely is his fourth dam, Lady Pitt his fifth. Thanks to Lady Pitt and her descendants, there is still some Whirlaway blood in the pedigree of the modern Thoroughbred.