Form rider Michael McNab gets a chance to complete a rare family double at Ellerslie on Saturday.
McNab will partner fourth-favourite Tutukaka when he attempts to match his father, Chris, by riding a New Zealand Derby winner.
Chris McNab, one of the best jockeys of his generation, won the 1984 Derby on Jolly Jake and has since won the race as a trainer, with Lord Reims in 2002.
A win for Tutukaka this weekend would be a genuine family triumph, as Chris is now foreman for Tony Pike, who trains Tutukaka.
Michael McNab’s riding career has had some hiccups, but the 36-year-old will head to Derby Day in the best form of his life. He leads the national premiership, on 71 wins, and though the season still has almost five months to run, he has already eclipsed his personal best for a season in terms of wins, stake earnings, black type wins and strike rate.
He has won eight Group races and three Listed races this term, including the Group II Lowland Stakes at Hastings this week.
He has had only a handful of NZ Derby mounts but has already gone close to winning. He was beaten a nose on Mongolianconqueror in 2018 and ran fourth on the $88 outsider Beaumarchais the previous year.
Legendary English jockey Frankie Dettori matched his father by winning the Italian Derby but instances of a father-son/daughter winning a major Derby are extremely rare, if only because most jockeys never win a Derby of any description.
Tutukaka, a half-brother by Tavistock to champion mare Melody Belle, has won just twice from 11 starts but both those wins came in Australian black-type races and the gelding has always been rated as a potential Derby winner. He won the Geelong Classic in the spring, before finishing sixth in the Victoria Derby.
Only three - Leith Innes, Jonathan Riddell and Vinnie Colgan - of the 13 jockeys with Derby mounts this weekend have won the race previously. Colgan, who will partner the odds-on favourite La Crique, already has an extraordinary record in the race, with six wins.
No jockey has won the Kentucky Derby more than five times and six wins is the record for the Australian Derby. Lester Piggott had nine Epsom Derby wins from 36 attempts. Piggott had his first Derby ride in 1951, as a 15-year-old, and his last in 1994, aged 58.