Paynter has been the more prolific with 16 stakes winners, four graded, while Oxbow has been responsible for six stakes winners, three of which were graded. However, both have sired horses in the spotlight in 2021. Paynter’s star is Knicks Go, who added the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) to previous top-level triumphs achieved in the Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity (G1) and Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1). Oxbow is represented by Hot Rod Charlie, who placed himself firmly in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve picture with a frontrunning score in the Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby (G1).

Surprisingly, in view of the talent he’s now showing, it took four starts for Hot Rod Charlie to break his maiden—although it should be said that two of those outings were over a wholly inadequate distance of five furlongs and two were on turf. Following the breakthrough win, which came over a mile at Santa Anita Park, Hot Rod Charlie was thrust in at the deep end contesting the TVG Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (G1). There, as the longshot of the field, he came close to causing a major upset leading inside the final furlong before being caught late and going down by three-quarters of a length to Essential Quality. His only other start came in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes (G3) in January, where he confirmed the promise of his Breeders’ Cup Juvenile effort with a third-place run, beaten just a neck and a nose by Medina Spirit after stumbling at the start.

Judging from the manner of his Louisiana Derby success, Hot Rod Charlie’s strength—as befits the son of a Belmont Stakes runner-up— lies in his stamina. That makes him a very different horse to his half brother Mitole , who was named champion male sprinter of 2019 and successful in seven stakes events including the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), Runhappy Metropolitan Handicap (G1), Forego Stakes Presented by Encore Boston Harbor (G1), and Churchill Downs Stakes Presented by Twinspires.com (G1).

Hot Rod Charlie and Mitole are two of the five winners that represent the first five foals out of the Indian Charlie mare Indian Miss. She ran just twice, finishing third in a maiden special weight at Keeneland on her debut at 2, but she is half sister to the Davona Dale Stakes (G2) scorer Live Lively. Indian Miss’s dam, Glacken’s Gal—a daughter of champion sprinter Smoke Glacken—also made just two starts. But in her case, she went on to win by 3 1/2 lengths on her debut before capturing the Astoria Stakes.

A half sister to stakes winners City Dweller and Banker’s Buy, Glacken’s Gal is out of the minor stakes-placed Silver Deputy mare Lady Diplomat. Going back through the next two or three generations, the family has produced plenty of stakes winners, but nothing major. Hot Rod Charlie’s sixth dam, the Damascus mare Fiesta Libre, never won a black-type event but did take second in the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) and third in the Acorn Stakes (G1) and Alabama Stakes (G1). She is out of Cappella II, a daughter of English dual-classic winner and leading sire Crepello, who was imported to the U.S. in the 1960s.

Cappella II’s grandam, La Futaie, was one of the best of her generation in France at 2 and is ancestress of no less than 27 individuals who captured grade/group 1-level events around the world including Lope de Vega, successful in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (French Two Thousand Guineas, G1) and Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby, G1), and now one of Europe’s leading sires; the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1) hero Sagamix; Irish Sweeps Derby scorer Tambourine; Nasram, winner of the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes; Le Glorieux, who took the Washington D.C. International (G1T); and Sagawara and Ask for the Moon, who both won the Prix Saint-Alary (G1).

Hot Rod Charlie joins the Daaher filly, Gypsy Robin, as the second graded scorer for a son of Awesome Again out of an Indian Charlie mare. Two other Awesome Again sons, Ghostzapper and Awesome Sword, have stakes winners from mares by that broodmare sire.

It’s also interesting to look at the Coefficient of Inbreeding here. Paynter and Oxbow are relatively outcrossed horses on that metric with COIs of 1.85—at the lower end of the range where top-class horses are found—and they are outcrossed sons of an outcrossed sire, Awesome Again having a COI of 1.59. It may be that they benefit from mares that result in a more inbred offspring, and we can note that Hot Rod Charlie has a COI of 2.55 and that Knicks Go has a similar COI of 2.59, both much nearer the median of the COI range for elite performers. In the pedigree of Hot Rod Charlie, it might be significant that much of this inbreeding is focused through Awesome Again (by Deputy Minister with a second dam by Mr. Prospector) and Silver Deputy—the sire of Hot Rod Charlie’s third dam—who is by Deputy Minister and out of a mare by Mr. Prospector.