Tin Cup Chalice - Pedigree

Pedigree

Tin Cup Chalice was by the Grade I winner Crusader Sword (whose own sire is the great Damascus by Sword Dancer. Crusader Sword was the only son of Damascus when he stood in the Northeast. Tin Cup Chalice’s dam is Twice Forbidden, out of the first New York crop of Spectacular Bid who had been relocated from Claiborne Farm to the Miller Farm in 1992. Twice Forbidden also produced stakes winners Mr. Fantasy and Don Corleone. Both Damascus and “The Bid” were Horses of the Year. All in all, Tin Cup Chalice, offered for $2,000 at the New York Breeders’ Sales Company 2005 October mixed sale, came from a formidable family.

Named for a Jimmy Buffett song (although in the tradition of working out Thoroughbred names from their sire and dam’s names, Crusader Sword and Twice Forbidden seems a subtle way to achieve Tin Cup Chalice), Tin Cup Chalice was a black-pointed Bay making his home base at Finger Lakes race track (where America’s great loser Zippy Chippy might or might not be a stable pony).

The colt nearly died twice before he was a year old, once from a case of botulism and once from a bout with horse colic. He was also from the same female family as Silky Sullivan, the “come-from-the-clouds” California fan favorite back in 1957 and 1958, and after Silky, is probably the most talented. Despite his pedigree, he failed to attract a bid at the 2006 New York Breeders Sale at Saratoga possibly because his sire had yet produced anything notable since the multiple graded stakes winner Isitingood in 1991, or possibly because Tin Cup Chalice was small and narrow and had come too near death too often to inspire confidence.