St Patrick's Day, a 2-year-old Pioneerof the Nile colt out of the Yankee Gentleman mare Littleprincessemma, has already gone by a number of names early in his life.
His first owner, breeder Jane Lyon, named him Irish Pharaoh. His new Coolmore connections changed it to St Patrick's Day, even though he was foaled in February. Exercise rider Dana Barnes calls him "Radar," for the way he has to inspect every detail of his surroundings.
But Bob Baffert calls him "Bro Bro" for a good enough reason. He's the full brother to a horse who holds a permanent soft spot in the Hall of Fame trainer's heart—Triple Crown winner American Pharoah .
What St Patrick's Day shares with his brother, as well as his grade 1-placed full sister, American Cleopatra, is an uncommon off-the-track temperament.
"He has Pharoah's and his sister's kind, sweet disposition," Baffert said. "But Pioneerof the Nile was that way, too."
What St Patrick's Day doesn't share, at least so far, is American Pharoah's on-track attitude.
The 2015 Horse of the Year was notoriously difficult early on in his career and showed it before and during his fifth-place debut at Del Mar in 2014. St Patrick's Day is quite different. Where American Pharoah wanted to bolt at all times, his brother is content with inquisitively taking in his surroundings during gallops around Del Mar.
"He's just made differently. Pharoah was a leaner-type horse," Baffert said. "And Pharoah was a run-off. He wanted to bolt and run. He was a handful. This guy is a pretty smart colt. He does everything right."
So what does that mean for his debut Aug. 20 at Del Mar? We'll see.
"When he came in, he was carrying a little extra weight in the belly," Baffert said. "He's not quite tight yet, but he's doing well. I think he's ready to run. I don't want to do any more with him.
"Racing will help him. Just like Pharoah, he needed that race to really wake him up, even though it was a bad race."
In a notable twist, however, Baffert also has Zayat Stables' Zatter, a son of Midnight Lute , entered for the same six-furlong maiden special weight race. American Pharoah carried the Zayat silks to nine wins (eight in grade 1 races) and more than $8.6 million in earnings.
"They worked together the other day," Baffert said. "They worked heads up, and were even the whole way. Zatter is pretty nice too, and he's got a better post (on the outside). It just happened to end up that way (where they were both entered in the same race), because I have a lot of 2-year-olds ready to run."
Just more than a year ago, Baffert had another full sibling to American Pharoah debuting at Del Mar and another outside-drawn horse entered in the same race. American Cleopatra won the 5 1/2-furlong race by two lengths at odds of 7-1. Jeweled, who left the gate at 4-5 that day, still hasn't broken her maiden.
