Aquatic Approach’s first three dams were all bred by the powerhouse Sam-Son Farm operation in Canada, including her undefeated dam Smart Mission (by Smart Strike), her Classic-winning second dam Misty Mission (by Miswaki), and her Classic-winning (over colts) third dam Hangin’ On a Star (by Vice Regent). She will visit the product of a similarly-lauded breeding program in 2025 when she’s bred to the Juddmonte Farms product Honest Mischief at Sequel NY.
Aquatic Approach never raced, but, as alluded to above, her genes make her a promising broodmare prospect anyway. She is from the first crop of the brilliant and versatile Omaha Beach, now firmly established as the leading sire of his crop and with a purple pedigree of his own, and Aquatic Approach is a half-sister to four winners, including the multiple graded stakes winner Mission of Joy, who finished 3rd in the G1 Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Keeneland as a 3YO and again in the G1 Just a Game at Saratoga last year at 4YO.
Honest Mischief, meanwhile, earned a place at stud as a black-type winning son of perennial leading sire Into Mischief and a half-brother to Grade 1 winner and stallion First Defence (sire of Eclipse Champion Close Hatches), out of the Grade 1-winner Honest Lady, a half-sister to Grade 1 winners and stallions Empire Maker and Chester House. Given ample chance at Becky Thomas’s Sequel NY, his first crop sold very strongly for a regional stallion as both yearlings and 2YOs, and he then followed through on the racetrack in 2024: he’s up to 13 first-crop winners now, the large majority of which have graduated in maiden special weights or stakes, including two black-type winners (6.3% to runners) and three more runners that have earned black-type (for a total of 15.6% black-type horses to runners).
We love this precocity for Aquatic Approach, given that her family tends to lean a little more to needing time and distance (and turf) — and while none of these traits are anathema to Honest Mischief’s family (Empire Maker was a Belmont winner and a decided classic influence, First Defence was a G1W at 4YO, Close Hatches was a Champion 3YO, and Chester House closed his career with a win in the turfy, ten-furlong G1 Arlington Million at 5YO), we’d love a bit more speed in the equation.
We also love that Honest Mischief is a Storm Cat-line stallion, because Aquatic Approach’s female family has succeeded with that sire-line over and over: Misty Mission produced four foals by Giant’s Causeway, including Champion Irish Mission, BTW Mythical Mission, and a pair of six-figure earners, and then under Aquatic Approach’s third dam are other black-type winners Star Contender, Sir Genghis and Time To Dazzle (plus three more black-type placed runners) who are all by Storm Cat-line sires. It is also worth noting that Omaha Beach’s dam is a half-sister to an Eclipse Champion by Storm Cat’s son Giant’s Causeway, too (even though TrueNicks rates this matchup as “only” a “C” on the back of graded winners Instagrand, Gerrymander, Ain’t Easy, Can the Man, etc).
Physically, this is a solid like-to-like matchup of stoutly-made, medium-sized types, and we’ve got our fingers crossed for a quick and early(ish) New York-bred to pick up breeder bonuses on the NYRA turf for a long time!