In horse racing, the practice of matching a stallion with a broodmare to create a potentially world-class Thoroughbred is a world unto its own. Many people spend a lot of money, time, and mental focus on finding just the right male-female combination that can hit the genetic lottery and result in a Triple Crown or Breeders’ Cup winner. When it does happen, the pairings become part of horse racing history – so to celebrate Valentine’s Day, here are five notable Thoroughbred “couples” from the past 20 years or so whose offspring have made mom and dad proud.

1. Good Magic – Puca

2023 Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Eclipse Sportswire)

These paramours have been in the horse racing headlines over the past couple of years. Good Magic, who was a champion 2-year-old and Kentucky Derby runner-up during his racing days, mated with the Big Brown mare Puca in 2019. Puca produced a foal named Mage in 2020 who ended up doing his daddy one position better and winning the 2023 Kentucky Derby. But that’s not all. One year later they were paired up again, and the result was a colt later named Dornoch – who won the 2024 Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets!

Mage and Dornoch are what is termed “full-brothers” in that they each share the same sire (father) and dam (mother). Puca’s next foal after Dornoch was sired by McKinzie, not Good Magic; he’s a “half-brother” to Mage and Dornoch named Baeza who is now 3 years old and currently competing on the West Coast for John Shirreffs. In fact, Baeza is entered in a race on Valentine’s Day at Santa Anita Park!

2. Oxbow – Indian Miss

Hot Rod Charlie winning Pennsylvania Derby. (Eclipse Sportswire)

This twosome is responsible for building a “Hot Rod” that became one of the most popular and money-making racehorses of recent years. Oxbow, the 2013 Preakness Stakes winner, visited the Indian Charlie mare Indian Miss in 2017 and their resulting foal born in 2018 sold for only $17,000 as a yearling in early 2019. The colt then was sold again for $110,000 in fall 2019 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearlings auction to Dennis O’Neill, a bloodstock agent known for finding good value and also the brother of Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Doug O’Neill.

By the time he hit the racetrack under Doug O’Neill’s care, many expected the colt named Hot Rod Charlie to follow in the steps of his half-brother Mitole, who was Indian Miss’s 2015 foal by the sire Eskendereya and became a champion sprinter. Instead, Hot Rod Charlie excelled in longer-distance races, winning the 2021 Louisiana Derby and Pennsylvania Derby and finishing second in the 2021 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes and the 2022 Dubai World Cup. He earned more than $5.9 million racing and is now a sire himself, standing in Japan.

3. Henny Hughes – Leslie’s Lady

Superstar Beholder with trainer Richard Mandella. (Eclipse Sportswire)

A daughter of the obscure stallion Tricky Creek, Leslie’s Lady was OK on the racetrack, winning a minor stakes race and earning $187,014, but she was way beyond OK as a broodmare. By the time she gave birth to a filly in 2010 by the champion sprinter Henny Hughes, Leslie’s Lady had already gained notice as the dam of a Harlan’s Holiday colt named Into Mischief, who won a Grade 1 stakes race, retired early from the track, and started a stallion career. Little did nearly anyone know at the time, but Into Mischief would turn out to be a perennial leading sire in the late 2010s right up to present day.

As for Into Mischief’s half-sister by Henny Hughes, she sold for $180,000 as a yearling to B. Wayne Hughes’ Spendthrift Farm (which raced and stands Into Mischief). Named Beholder, the gorgeous bay filly turned out to be a Hall of Famer, winning Breeders’ Cup races at ages 2,3, and 6 (!) and earning more than $6.1 million. While not quite matching her mom, Beholder has also been successful as a broodmare since retiring, producing two graded stakes winners. (Leslie’s Lady went on to produce one more standout racehorse in turf star Mendelssohn, by Scat Daddy.)

4. A.P. Indy – Better Than Honour

Rags to Riches winning 2007 Belmont Stakes. (Adam Coglianese/NYRA)

A.P. Indy was quite simply one of the greatest sires of the past 50 years. Often, horse industry insiders would add the prefix “breed-shaping” in front of his name, and it was no exaggeration as he led all North American sires in progeny earnings for a specific year twice during his career and also had several descendants top the annual list, including his grandson Tapit. A.P. Indy was bred to the Deputy Minister mare Better Than Honour in 2004, and that pairing augured success as Better Than Honour was a stakes winner and daughter of a Kentucky Oaks winner.

The resulting foal, named Rags to Riches, became one of the best fillies of this century, winning the 2007 Kentucky Oaks herself and “beating the boys” in the Belmont Stakes. By ’07, Better Than Honour was already renowned for producing 2006 Belmont winner Jazil (by the sire Seeking the Gold) and in 2008 after producing back-to-back Belmont winners she sold for $14 million at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky selected fall mixed auction. A.P. Indy, meanwhile, was pensioned from stud duty in 2011 at Lane’s End Farm and the legend died in 2020 at age 30, getting almost a decade of well-deserved pasture time before his passing.

5. Danehill – Hasili

Intercontinental winning 2005 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (BloodHorse/Mike Corrado)

Offspring of this international power couple ruled the Thoroughbred world from the turn of the century and through the 2000s. Juddmonte Farms’ Hasili, an Irish-bred daughter of Kahyasi, produced an incredible seven graded or group stakes winners, five of them sired by U.S.-bred Danehill, who stood overseas for Coolmore Stud and led annual sire lists a total of 17 times spanning England, Ireland, France, Australia, and Hong Kong.

The five stakes-winning full siblings from Danehill’s and Hasili’s regular breeding shed rendezvous were, in order of foaling, Dansili, Banks Hill, Intercontinental, Cacique, and Champs Elysees. Each of them competed in the U.S., and all but Dansili won a major stakes race here (Dansili finished third in the 2000 Breeders’ Cup Mile). Danehill died in 2003 after an accident in his stall, halting what had been four consecutive years of coupling with Hasili, and the mare continued to be bred until 2012. Hasili, the very definition of what horse folks call a “blue hen” mare (i.e., superior), died in 2018 at age 27.