Boisterous' sire, Distorted Humor, is popularly associated with dirt runners. The multiple Grade 2-winning son of Forty Niner is best known for siring champion Funny Cide, hero of the 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness; 2005 Travers victor Flower Alley (himself the sire of this year's Derby/Preakness winner I'll Have Another); Drosselmeyer, winner of the 2010 Belmont Stakes and 2011 Breeders' Cup Classic; and fellow dirt stars Hystericalady, Commentator and Any Given Saturday.

But Distorted Humor is also responsible for a number of major turf winners. Chief among his grass aficionados are Pathfork, the Irish champion two-year-old colt of 2010; recent Prix Jean Prat victor Aesop's Fables; 2004 Australasian Oaks queen Rinky Dink; Australian champion hurdler Some Are Bent; Hong Kong's Hello Pretty; and Americans Fourty Niners Son (third in the 2005 Million), Bit of Whimsy and Justenuffhumor.

Boisterous hails from a productive line of Phipps homebreds. He is closely related to a Grade 1-winning dirt horse in Gold Fever, who scored his signature win in the 1996 NYRA Mile. Gold Fever, by Forty Niner, is a half-brother to Boisterous' dam, Emanating. A dual surface type herself, Emanating captured a minor stakes on dirt and finished third in the Test, and later placed in the Lake Placid and All Along on turf.

Emanating is by Cox's Ridge, the winner of the 1978 Metropolitan Mile and sire of such champions as Life's Magic, Vanlandingham and Cardmania, and broodmare sire of Stephen Got Even and champion sprinter Orientate. Emanating is out of Lead Kindly Light, a Grade 3 winner on turf and herself a half-sister to Grade 3 victor Out of Place. Other family members include Grade 1 hero Bellamy Road and multiple Grade 1 victress Versailles Treaty, the dam of Grade 2 scorer Saarland. 

Son of Distorted Humor was switched to turf after his first three starts on dirt as a three-year-old and has been on the improve ever since and was last seen when narrowly failing to catch the front running Rahystrada in the Arlington Handicap in mid-July. Dark bay’s biggest previous win came in the Grade 2 Red Smith Handicap at Aqueduct last November but his best performance may have been when third to Cape Blanco and Gio Ponti in the Man O War Stakes at Belmont last summer. Five-year-old is consistent and has a record of 15-7-1-2 on grass for trainer Shug McGaughey who wins with 25% of his runners in stakes races and with 20% overall on grass and can be a contender with Jose Lezcano in the irons.