To Honor And Serve Has Strong Family Legacy

When leading breeder Isabel Dodge Sloane of Brookmeade Stable died in 1962, John W. Galbreath leaped at the opportunity to acquire some of her stock for his Darby Dan Farm. Among the mares he purchased was the Hasty Road filly Golden Trail, who became a great modern foundation mare. Bred to the full brothers Graustark and His Majesty (Ribot–Flower Bowl, by Alibhai), she and her daughters produced a brood of high-class runners–as luck would have it, mostly fillies. In turn, those daughters of Graustark and His Majesty laid the foundation for a second generation of Darby Dan successes when bred to Galbreath’s 1972 Epsom Derby winner, Roberto. This formula yielded not only a slew of good racehorses but a number of important sires, including Brian’s Time and Dynaformer.

1973 Comely Stakes (gr. III) winner Java Moon (Graustark–Golden Trail) for the most part stayed off the path marked out by her dam and sisters. While she did produce two winners by Roberto, five of her seven foals were by other sires, and they include her two most important producing daughters: All My Memories (by Little Current), dam of three stakes winners including multiple grade I winner Memories of Silver, and multiple stakes producer Our Tina Marie (by Nijinsky II), third dam of current juvenile star To Honor and Serve.