Grade 1-winning millionaire Discreet Cat got off the mark right away as a
freshman sire Thursday, with his first starter, Son de America, capturing her
debut in the 1ST race at Santa Anita.
Sent off as the 4-1 third choice in the two-furlong dash, the Marcelo Polanco
trainee dueled between foes early, put her head in front in deep stretch, and
fought to keep that same margin at the wire. Son de America completed the
$100,000 maiden claiming event in :21 2/5 on the fast track with Alex Jimenez
aboard.
Discreet Cat was a scintillating debut winner as a juvenile at Saratoga on
Travers Day 2005. After his 3 1/2-length victory in a sharp 1:09 3/5 for six
furlongs, the E. Paul Robsham homebred was sold privately to Godolphin, and
transferred from Stan Hough to Saeed bin Suroor.
A perfect five-for-five during his sophomore campaign, Discreet Cat romped by
six lengths in the Group 2 U.A.E. Derby, where he left subsequent Horse of the
Year Invasor (Arg) well back in fourth, and by 10 1/4 lengths in the Grade 2
Jerome Handicap. He concluded the year with a convincing success in the Grade 1
Cigar Mile, equaling Easy Goer’s record time of 1:32 2/5 over the main track at
Aqueduct.
Discreet Cat did not recover that form at four, and after a pair of distant
thirds in the Grade 1 Vosburgh and the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, he was retired
with $1,694,180 in earnings from his 9-6-0-2 line.
Out of Grade 1 Alabama heroine Pretty Discreet, Discreet Cat is a
half-brother to reigning Grade 1 King’s Bishop winner Discreetly Mine and Grade
1-placed stakes victor Pretty Wild. Another half-sibling, the unraced Discreetly
Awesome, is the dam of Grade 2 queen Awesome Maria (Maria’s Mon), most recently
victorious in the Grade 3 Sabin and Grade 3 Rampart.
Discreet Cat’s second dam, Pretty Persuasive, is a full sister to 1987 Grade
1 Kentucky Oaks winner, Buryyourbelief.
The eight-year-old Discreet Cat stands at Darley near Lexington, Kentucky,
for $17,500, stands and nurses.