Charismatic - This Race Horse is All Heart

Charismatic was produced out of the Drone mare Bali Babe, by an unremarkable stallion named Summer Squall. Summer Squall's stud career had been a bust, despite the fact that his dam, Weekend Surprise, was by Secretariat, and was a remarkable broodmare. Summer Squall had been an excellent racehorse, coming in 2nd in the Derby of his three year-old year, and winning his Preakness, but he had failed to reproduce himself, and by 1999, his foals were regularly passed by for the flashier Secretariat broodmare lines. The other strike against Charismatic was his dam's age- she was 16 when he was born, and had yet to produce a single offspring of worth. Still, he was a good looking foal, and Bob and Beverly Lewis purchased him with the hope that he would become a racer.

To their chagrin, and his trainer's confusion, the big, good-looking colt never ran a lick. He was placed in claiming races, infamously running for a $62,000 tag, but was never claimed. Trainer D Wayne Lukas decided the colt needed harder work, and began training the colt with more vigorous workouts. To his surprise, it worked. Charismatic figured out he was supposed to run, and win the races, and was 2nd in the El Camino Real Derby. Then he won the Lexington Stakes, and cashed his ticket to the Kentucky Derby.

Despite his trainer's credentials (Lukas had won the Derby previously with Winning Colors, Grindstone, and Thunder Gulch), Charismatic was dismissed by the bettors for having raced too much, and being "too fat." He had "no chance" according to most handicappers, despite one observer saying that he was at home over the track. Charismatic proved the naysayers wrong with style by winning the race by a head over Menifee, with Lukas's other horse, Cat Thief, coming in a strong third.