The first time the name Allegretta appeared in the pedigree of a winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) was when her Miswaki daughter Urban Sea, upset the 1993 edition at odds of 37-1. Sixteen years later, Urban Sea's Sea The Stars capped a stellar season by powering home in the same event. Seven years after that, Urban Sea appeared in the third generation of an Arc winner for the first time, when Found, who was by Urban Sea's son Galileo, emerged victorious.
Since Found's success in 2016, Allegretta has appeared in the pedigree of every winner of this historic race. Galileo was represented by a second winner when Waldgeist scored in 2019; Sottsass, successful the following year, is out of a Galileo mare; and Enable (2016, 2017) and Alpinista (2022) are by Galileo sons, Nathaniel and Frankel . That leaves 2021, which fell to Torquator Tasso, who features Allegretta as his fourth dam, and this year, when Ace Impact, from the first crop of Frankel's son, Cracksman, carried the day.
The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe was Ace Impact's sixth win in as many starts. He began his career with a tally over 1 1/4 miles at Cagnes-Sur-Mer in January, and followed up in a conditions event at Bordeaux Le Bouscat. Moving into listed company, Ace Impact recorded a comfortable victory in the Prix de Suresnes. In the Prix du Jockey-Club-French Derby (G1), Ace Impact raced in the last two in an 11-horse field in the early stages, then switched wide and delivered a devastating finishing burst to score by 3 1/2 lengths while recording the fastest time for the race since the distance was dropped to 10 1/2 furlongs in 2005. He ran a similar race in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, sitting near the rear of the field before switching wide for an explosive finishing effort, which saw him clear by 1 3/4 lengths at the line. The time was the fourth fastest for the race, and according to France-Galop tracking data, his time for the final three furlongs was the fastest in the history of the times collected over that stage of the race.
Ace Impact is one of six stakes winners from the first crop of Cracksman, who has a second group winner in the shape of Aloa, successful in the Premio Dormello (G2) at 2. Cracksman comes from the first crop of Frankel—who was also represented by this year's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe second and third, Westover and Onesto—and would still stand as his sire's best runner. A European champion at 3 and 4, Cracksman won eight of 11 races, including the Champion Stakes (G1) twice, Coronation Cup (G1), Prix Ganay (G1), Great Voltigeur Stakes (G2), and Prix Niel (G2), and also took second in the Irish Derby (G1) and Prince of Wales's Stakes (G1), and third in the Epsom Derby (G1).
Ace Impact is out of Absolutely Me, who was minor stakes-placed in Germany and France. She is the dam of four other winners from four other starters, two of them black-type placed. One does not come to another black-type scorer in the family until the third dam, Barakat, whose daughter Mabadi captured the Yerba Buena Stakes.
The family improves considerably under Ace Admiral's fourth dam, Rosia Bay, a half sister to the 1985 Arlington Million (G1) winner Teleprompter (GB). She produced two quality horses in Ibn Bey, winner of group events in five different countries, including group 1 contests in Ireland, Germany, and Italy; Yorkshire Oaks (G1) winner Roseate Tern; as well as Cerise Bouquet, the dam of champion 2-year-old filly Red Camellia (herself dam of group 1 winner Red Bloom). In addition to being half sister to Teleprompter, Rosia Bay is also half sister to Selection Board, dam of international superstar Ouija Board, twice Horse of the Year in Europe and twice champion turf female in the United States, and subsequently dam of Australia, winner of the English and Irish Derbys and co-highweight on the World Thoroughbred Rankings.
In theory, Ace Impact stems from the Bruce Lowe #12 family, which traces its foundation to a mare by Brimmer foaled around 1665. Mitochondrial DNA analysis has revealed, however, that there are many errors regarding the written record of descendants from this family. In this case, it is that Ace Impact's distant female line ancestress, a mare by Jack of Diamonds, foaled around 1765, was wrongly added to the offspring of Diana—imported to the U.S. from England around 1760—and who does descend from the Brimmer mare. The true descendants of Diana are the mtDNA L1a haplotype, where those descending from the Jack of Diamonds mare, including Ace Impact, are the much rarer A1b haplotype. This family produced some notables in the relatively early days of American racing, including one of the most famous American runners and sires of all time, Lexington, as well Hall of Fame horse Luke Blackburn; the 1874 Kentucky Derby captor, Baden-Baden; Leonatus, who took the Kentucky Derby in 1883; the 1886 Preakness Stakes scorer, The Bard; Foxford, the Belmont Stakes winner in 1891; Ildrim, successful in the Belmont Stakes in 1900; Lady Schorr, who lifted the Kentucky Oaks in 1901; Souffle, who took the Kentucky Oaks in 1896; and finally Kalitan, who won the Preakness Stakes in 1917. There are some more recent standouts in other parts of the world, among them the great Australian horse Kingston Town, and an earlier Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe victor in Puissant Chef, who scored in 1960.
Ace Impact's pedigree has a couple of rather interesting features. One is that two horses in the third generation of his pedigree, Pivotal, the broodmare sire of Cracksman, and Anabaa, who is responsible for Ace Impact's broodmare sire, French Derby winner Anabaa Blue, were sprint specialists who proved capable of getting top-class middle-distance horses, and one wonders if this could be the source of Ace Impact's brilliant closing speed. The second point of interest is that the pedigree has a double of Allegretta and through similarly bred individuals—his great-grandsire Galileo is by a son of Northern Dancer out of Urban Sea, a daughter of Allegretta, and his broodmare sire, Anabaa Blue, is by a grandson of Northern Dancer, out of another daughter of Allegretta. He is not the first Arc winner to have a double of the family of Allegretta, as Torquator Tasso, successful in 2021, is by Adlerflug (a grandson of Galileo's sire, Sadler's Wells, out of a daughter of Allegretta's sister, Alya) and has Allegretta as his fourth dam.
