It’s No Joke Pedigree Analysis by Alan Porter

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Alan Porter - It’s No Joke is an extremely versatile multiple graded stakes winner, who has captured black-type events from seven furlongs to 1¼ miles. By Distorted Humor, the newest arrival among North America’s sire elite, he is out of the multiple graded stakes winning It’s Personal. In tail-female line he traces to the important mare Clonaslee, also ancestress of In Reality and current successful young sire, Indian Charlie.

One of the most successful crosses for Distorted Humor has been with mares from the Seattle Slew branch of the Bold Ruler line, which has supplied four stakes winners, including Champion Funny Cide. Seattle Slew’s dam is inbred to La Troienne, and that remarkable female is strongly represented in It’s No Joke’s dam. Sons such as A.P. Indy, Slew o’ Gold, Fast Play and Slewacide, who have Buckpasser (from the La Troienne family) in the dam should be particularly good. Distorted Humor also has stakes winners from the Dewan and Chieftain branches of the Bold Ruler line, and It’s No Joke should also like Bold Ruler through such as Secretariat, Bold Bidder, What a Pleasure and Raja Baba. Distorted Humor also has a stakes winner out of a mare descending from Bold Ruler’s sire, Nasrullah, via Naskra. Distorted Humor also has a two-year-old stakes winner out of mare by Mt. Livermore (from the Blushing Groom branch of the Nasrullah line), and Mt. Livermore and his son, Housebuster should both work well here. The strain of Never Bend is also a potentially important one here.

In general, the Forty Niner line has worked well over Northern Dancer. Distorted Humor has stakes winners out of mares by Storm Bird (sire of Storm Cat and Summer Squall), Dixieland Band, Hero’s Honor, Nureyev and Sovereign Dancer. Other Northern Dancer sources which should be good include Vice Regent/Deputy Minister, Nijinsky II, Sadler’s Wells, Lyphard, Danzig, L’Enjoleur and Topsider. We can also note that there is a Distorted Humor stakes winner out of mare by a grandson of Distorted Humor’s own broodmare, Danzig. The Nearctic line through Clever Trick and Phone Trick (broodmare sire of a stakes winner by Distorted Humor) should also be good.

The cross of Forty Niner over In Reality line mares has done well, including for Distorted Humor, who already has stakes winners from both the Valid Appeal and Relaunch branches of that line. We can also note that Distorted Humor also has a stakes winner out of a mare by Olden Times, who is from the same male line as In Reality.

Forty Niner and his sons have enjoyed success with broodmare sires descending from a wide variety of branches of the Turn-to sire line. Among the most likely here are Cox’s Ridge, Roberto, Stop the Music, Halo and Sir Gaylord.

Forty Niner is out of a mare by Tom Rolfe, a son of Ribot. Forty Nine did well with mares which gave inbreeding to Ribot, and Distorted Humor has a grade one winner out of a mare by Alleged, a son of Hoist the Flag, and a grandson of Tom Rolfe. Ribot could also be brought in through Graustark and His Majesty, with His Majesty’s son, Pleasant Colony, being a particularly good source (with his son, Pleasant Tap, looking promising). As a variation on the Turn-to and Ribot themes, consider Ack Ack (out of a mare by Turn-to) and his son, Broad Brush (out of a mare by Hoist the Flag). Distorted Humor already has two stakes winners out of mares by Home at Last (dam by Ack Ack) and another out of a mare by Lost Code (a Ribot line stallion out of an Ack Ack mare).

Distorted Humor is a Raise a Native line stallion, but he has three stakes winners out of mares descending in male line from Raise a Native’s son, Alydar (a genetic relative to Mr. Prospector) and Forty Niner sired a grade one winner out of a mare by Majestic Light (a product of a similar Raise a Native/Ribot cross to Forty Niner).

Distorted Humor is a Mr. Prospector line stallion, but he has already sired a grade one winner and a grade two winner out mares from the Mr. Prospector line (with dams by Lycius and Hansel, a son of Woodman – an influence who should be particularly good here) as well as a stakes winner out of mare by Conqiustador Cielo. Other good sources would be Seeking the Gold, Miswaki, Mining; through Crafty Prospector; and through horses with a Mr. Prospector/Northern Dancer cross, such as Kingmambo, Thunder Gulch, Fusaichi Pegasus, Grand Slam, Elusive Quality and Smoke Glacken; and mares from the Fappiano line.

There is a stakes winner by Distorted Humor out of mare by a Buckaroo, a son of Buckpasser, and any strains of Buckpasser should be good. Distorted Humor also has a grade one winner out of a mare by Pass the Tab (by Al Hattab) and a graded stakes winner out of mare by Home At Last (by Quadratic, by Quadrangle), who respectively go back to Mahmoud through the three-parts brothers Cohoes and The Axe II.