Above The Curve Fifth G1 winner for American Pharoah
Above The Curve (3f American Pharoah x Fabulous, by Galileo) made good on the promise of talent she’d shown in her earlier starts when she easily won the Group I St Mark’s Basilica Coolmore Prix Saint-Alary at Longchamp on Sunday.
Ridden by Ryan Moore for Westerberg and the Coolmore partners, the filly was making her first start at the level and showed it was right where she belonged.
Above The Curve took up her place just behind the pacesetter and galloped comfortably in the 1 ¼ mile race with Grade I winner Wild Beauty keeping her company in the position. Moore let the filly’s reins out a notch just outside the final quarter mile before setting her down for the run when they were well down the stretch and Above The Curve quickly lived up to her name.
The filly took over with a furlong left to run and she had the race well in hand at the line with a length on the Group III winning Place Du Carrousel in the end.
"She's a lovely filly who is still learning. A steady pace didn't really suit and she was a bit idle in front, but she was always doing what she had to," Moore told the Racing Post. "She's a huge girl and there's still a lot of potential and improvement to come."
Trained by Joseph O’Brien, the lightly raced Above The Curve has won two of her four starts with a second in the Listed Cheshire Oaks last out.
The regally bred 3-year-old is a full sister to the multiple group placed Thinking Of You and is a granddaughter of the multiple graded stakes winning Mariah’s Storm. That mare quickly made her mark on the breeding world after retirement from the track as the dam of Horse of the Year and Champion Sire Giant’s Causeway and Group II winner and emerging bluehen mare You’resothrilling.
You’resothrilling of course is the dam of none other than champions Gleneagles and Happily, Group I Prix de Diane winner Joan of Arc, Group I Irish 1000 Guineas winner Marvellous, multiple Group II winner Taj Mahal, and the dam of three-time Group I winner Decorated Knight among her eight winners from 11 to race – with all eight of those at least placing in a stakes.
Fabulous has a Justify 2-year-old filly, a yearling full sister to that one, and foaled a Justify colt this year.
Above The Curve is the fifth Grade I winner for Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, who continues to be the leading sire of his generation around the world. In all, American Pharoah is the sire of 28 stakes winners and 50 stakes performers around the world with his Grade I winners coming in three different countries on both the dirt and turf.