Pavlovian horse pedigree traces back to Secretariat

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It's tough to find a modern racehorse that doesn't have a family tree that includes Secretariat.

At this point, that's usually five generations ago, but that's the way the pedigree has traveled, including for Kentucky Derby contestant Pavlovian.

With one of the coolest names in the field, Pavlovian will be hoping to surprise and make some noise.

In a way, he'll be doing it against a lot of distant family members.

Pavlovian horse pedigree

So first, for that piece of Secretariat genes -- Pavlovian's maternal side includes Secretariat with Crimson Saint five generations ago.

That path then traveled through Terlingua, Storm Cat and Magicalmysterycat to get to Pavlovian's mother, Mandy's Grace.

Mandy's Grace won one race in three starts.

Pavlovian's father is named Pavel, and he had three career wins, although not in any major races.

Interestingly, both sides of Pavlovian's pedigree include Storm Bird and then his son Storm Cat.

Storm Bird was 5-for-5 winning as a European 2-year old but had his racing career ended early due to injury.

Storm Cat finished second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile before turning into a successful sire.

So to have the Storm lineage on one side and a path back to Secretariat on the other -- those certainly aren't bad roots for Pavlovian.