The family of Wilgerbosdrift’s inform stallion Flower Alley gained yet another boost when the sire’s close relative Santin captured Saturday’s G1 Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic Stakes at Churchill Downs.

Sired, like Flower Alley, by Distorted Humor, four-year-old Santin benefitted from a blinker strike when scoring a hard fought win in Saturday’s feature.

Santin, a 19th G1 winner for Distorted Humor, had hounded front-running Tribhuvan through most of the race and, as that one faded, moved to take a narrow lead, only to find Mira Mission making his own run at the front.
Mira Mission and jockey Julien Leparoux appeared to grab a narrow lead before a focused Santin dug back in, re-rallied and got home first by a neck over the stubborn rival.
The win was the third from six starts for Santin, a Godolphin homebred out of the Medaglia d’Oro mare Sentiero Italia. He won his first two starts as a 2-year-old before reporting second in the Hollywood Derby (G1T) at Del Mar behind only Beyond Brilliant .

Santin, whose dam Sentiero Italia won five times including the G2 Lake Placid Stakes, not only shares his outstanding sire Distorted Humor with Flower Alley but his fourth dam Diamond Springs also ranks as the third dam of G1 Travers Stakes winner Flower Alley.

The latter has been in a rich vein of form of late, with Flower Alley daughters having captured all of the G1 HSH Princess Charlene Empress Club Stakes, Listed Racehorse Owners Association Spook Express Stakes and G2 4Racing SA Fillies Nursery in recent weeks.