Pavlovian horse pedigree traces back to Secretariat originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
It's tough to find a modern racehorse that doesn't have a family tree that includes Secretariat.
At this point, that's usually five generations ago, but that's the way the pedigree has traveled, including for Kentucky Derby contestant Pavlovian.
With one of the coolest names in the field, Pavlovian will be hoping to surprise and make some noise.
In a way, he'll be doing it against a lot of distant family members.
Pavlovian horse pedigree
So first, for that piece of Secretariat genes -- Pavlovian's maternal side includes Secretariat with Crimson Saint five generations ago.
That path then traveled through Terlingua, Storm Cat and Magicalmysterycat to get to Pavlovian's mother, Mandy's Grace.
Mandy's Grace won one race in three starts.
Pavlovian's father is named Pavel, and he had three career wins, although not in any major races.
Interestingly, both sides of Pavlovian's pedigree include Storm Bird and then his son Storm Cat.
Storm Bird was 5-for-5 winning as a European 2-year old but had his racing career ended early due to injury.
Storm Cat finished second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile before turning into a successful sire.
So to have the Storm lineage on one side and a path back to Secretariat on the other -- those certainly aren't bad roots for Pavlovian.
More Kentucky Derby news:
• The Puma can point to Tapit roots
• This 20-year old jockey is the son of Smarty Jones' rider
• Renegade's pedigree helps explain why he's a Derby favorite
• What to know about replacement horse Great White
• Ocelli is a descendant of Curlin
