There is a well-know saying that "Justice delayed is justice denied." Fortunately, however, a similar maxim doesn't apply to the fulfillment of athletic talent, and there would be few better exemplars of that statement than Knicks Go .
When Knicks Go captured the 2018 Claiborne Breeders' Futurity (G1) by 5 1/2 lengths, then followed up with good a second to champion 2-year-old colt Game Winner in the Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1), he appeared to be a potential factor on the Triple Crown trail for the following year.
At that point, Knicks Go's connections could scarcely have dreamed that it would be 11 races and more than 15 months before the colt would win another race. Looking back it may have been that his start in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) just 22 days after the Breeders' Cup, where he folded to finish 11th after disputing the early running, may have been a bridge too far. Although, it has to be admitted, that the winner of that race, Signalman, had followed the same course as Knicks Go when finishing second in Breeders' Futurity and third in the Breeders' Cup.
That disappointing effort didn't earn Knicks Go much of a reprieve, however, as he started eight times in 10 months at 3. He made the top three just twice in those starts and just once did he shape like a genuinely high-class performer, coming within a half-length of taking the Ellis Park Derby Presented by Kruckemeyer and Cohn Jewlery, where he ran what was then a career high Beyer Speed Figure of 93.
After finishing off the board in the Commonwealth Turf Stakes (G3T) on his final outing of 2019, Knicks Go moved from the stable of Ben Colebrook to Brad Cox. He made his first outing for his new trainer in February and tallied by 7 1/2 lengths in an Oaklawn Park allowance optional claiming race. That proved to be his only start until he re-emerged in October to take another allowance optional claiming event, this time by 10 1/4 lengths. Off that effort, Knicks Go started as the favorite for the Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) and duly delivered, leading throughout, scoring by 3 1/2 lengths, and setting a new track record.
On Jan. 23, running for the first time since the Breeders' Cup, Knicks Go stretched out to nine furlongs for the first time in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1). Adopting his customary front-running tactics—he hasn't been headed in his last four starts—Knicks Go shot through quick early fractions of :22.90, :46.16, and 1:09.91 and despite being geared down late, cruised home 2 3/4 lengths clear in a time just over a second off Arrogate's track record.
Knicks Go's sire, Paynter, a son of Awesome Again out of a sister to Tiznow, also had his share of ups and downs in his racing career. Unraced at 2, Paynter broke his maiden on his debut at 3 going 5 1/2 furlongs. Less than four months later he would come within inches of capturing a classic at more than twice that distance, missing by a neck to Union Rags in the Belmont Stakes (G1). On his next start, Paynter took the Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1) in impressive style and seemed set to assume leadership of the division. Just days after the Haskell, however, he was struck by a life-threatening combination of colitis and subsequent laminitis. Remarkably, and with heroic efforts from his veterinary team, Paynter not only survived but recovered so well that he was able to return to training at 4.
Paynter looked better than ever on his return to action, taking a seven-furlong allowance in 1:21.86 after rocketing through six furlongs in 1:09.56. That effort earned him a lifetime best Beyer Speed Figure of 114, but in four subsequent starts he proved unable to recapture the brilliance of that effort. However, he did take second to that year's Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) victor, Mucho Macho Man , in the Awesome Again Stakes (G1).
Retired to stand at WinStar Farm in Versailles, Ky., Paynter has now sired 13 stakes winners in his first three crops of 3-year-olds and up, with two more stakes winners in his fourth crop which are 2-year-olds of 2020. In addition to Knicks Go, they include the Pocahontas Stakes (G2) scorer Lazy Daisy; Harpers First Ride, winner of four black-type events including the Pimlico Special Stakes (G3); and Ms Peintour, successful in the Astra Stakes (G3T). He's standing at $7,500 in 2021, a price point that makes him a very appealing value for money, breed-to-race type stallion.
The dam of Knicks Go is the extremely speedy Kosmo's Buddy. A daughter of the non-winning, but well-bred, Outflanker (by Danzig from the immediate family of A.P. Indy), Kosmo's Buddy owned black-type form on dirt and turf at 2, 3, 4, and 5 years of age and from five furlongs to a mile. Successful in the Maryland Million Turf Sprint and the Crank It Up Stakes, she also earned places in 12 other stakes events.
Kosmo's Buddy is out of the multiple stakes-placed Vaulted, a daughter of the Mr. Prospector horse Allen's Prospect. In turn, Vaulted is half sister to My Sweet Caroline, the dam of Sweet Cassiopeia, a four-time stakes winner of over $650,000 who was also grade 2 placed. Kosmo's Buddy's second dam, Aube d'Or, is also a stakes winner and is half sister to Countus In, successful in the Matriarch Stakes (G1T), and dam of graded winner Think Red and granddam of Ransom the Moon , winner of back-to-back renewals of the Bing Crosby Stakes (G1). The family goes back to the mare, My Beauty, who arrived from England at the turn of the last century. She also appears as the fifth dam of Porterhouse, the champion 2-year-old colt of 1953. The family is the mitochondrial haplotype N2a, and that same maternal line has also produced not only Knicks Go—the highest earner for Paynter—but also Paynter's own sire, Awesome Again, and Game On Dude, the highest earner for Awesome Again, as well as Awesome Again's Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Sir Winston and his millionaire Something Awesome.
We can also note that Awesome Again is a grandson of Vice Regent (a son of Northern Dancer, with a second dam by Windfields) out of a mare by a grandson of Nasrullah, where Knicks Go's third dam, Aube d'Or, is by Medaille d'Or, who is by a grandson of Nasrullah out of the great mare, Fanfreluche (a daughter of Northern Dancer, with a second dam by Windfields).
