the 100th kentucky derby was a crowded house blown apart by winners cannonade, cordero, and stevens

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100th kentucky derby, angel cordero, bold bidder, cannonade, judger, woody stevens

When the two favorites enter the gate for the 150th Kentucky Derby this weekend on May 4, they will be contending not only with 18 expected opponents but also the tradition of full Derby fields that began full tilt with the 100th Kentucky Derby.

Previously, Canonero in 1971 (winning as a “field” horse at 8.70-to-1) and Count Turf in 1951 (winning as a “field” horse at 14.60-to-1) had defeated 19 opponents, but in the quarter-century between the 75th Kentucky Derby in 1949 and the 100th Derby in 1974, the typical field for the Run for the Roses was in the teens.

Through this period, the principal racers for the Triple Crown sorted themselves out well in the varied preps for the classics, and field sizes were normalized by the contending desire to run for the glory of victory and the potential chagrin of seeing one’s horse finish far behind.

For the 100th anniversary of the Kentucky Derby in 1974, however, all bets were off.

From a record 290 nominations, 23 went to post. That the winner was the betting favorite at 1.50-to-1 was actually a fluke. Cannonade (by Bold Bidder) won the race by a convincing 2 ¼ lengths from Hudson County (Black Mountain), who was part of the mutuel field, and it tells us a great deal about the perceived difference among the contenders that the field was only 5.20-to-1 in 1974. The field, comprised of 10 racers, was the fourth-favorite betting interest, behind only the Woody Stephens-trained entry of Cannonade and Judger (Damascus), the Sigmund Sommer-owned entry of Rube the Great (Bold Lad) and Accipiter (Damascus) at 5.10-to-1, and Santa Anita Derby winner Agitate (Advocator), ridden by Bill Shoemaker at 3.40-to1.

Peter Pan: Bred and raced by James R. Keene, Peter Pan was only 7 at the time of Keene’s death in 1911. Subsequently, Peter Pan topped the Keene dispersal at $38,000 and sold to James Rowe, agent. Peter Pan became a cornerstone of the Whitney stud and is the sire of Cannonade’s seventh dam, Fly By Night, who was bred by Keene and became a producer for Whitney. Her daughter Flying Witch became the dam of the Whitney stars Mother Goose and Whichone, and this is the direct female line of Almahmoud.

By himself, Cannonade would not have been the favorite; he had won only a single race in 1974, the Stepping Stone Purse at Churchill Downs the weekend before the Derby. The colt who would have been the race favorite on his own was Seth Hancock’s Judger, who’d been bred by A.B. “Bull” Hancock at Claiborne Farm and then purchased out of the dispersal of the elder Hancock’s assets after his early death in 1972.

Judger had come into 1974 as the winner of a maiden who had shown much promise to finish third in the Futurity Stakes at two. Following second-place finishes in the Bahamas Stakes and the Fountain of Youth, the rangy dark brown colt had progressed so strongly for trainer Stephens that Judger improved to win the Florida Derby, with Cannonade second. Judger had come back at the end of March to finish third in the Flamingo at Hialeah, then rebounded to win the Blue Grass in April and be the strong individual favorite for the Derby.

He finished eighth, defeating 15 horses.

In the Derby itself, Judger had been 19th at the three-quarters pole, 15th at the mile. In contrast, Cannonade had lain in mid-pack (11th) to the half-mile, then was fifth after six furlongs, and he had the lead at the mile pole.

Case closed. Angel Cordero illustrated why he was an exceptional race-riding and pace-sensitive jockey, the colt’s sire Bold Bidder showed that yet another son of Bold Ruler was able to sire classic stock, and trainer Stephens moved fully into the limelight as a trainer of classic racers.

Stephens won his first Kentucky Derby with Cannonade, his fifth starter for the race, and his closest previous finish was a second with Cain Hoy Stable’s Never Bend (Nasrullah) in 1963. He subsequently had five more horses who won or placed in the classic, led by 1984 Kentucky Derby winner Swale (Seattle Slew) for Claiborne. In addition, Stephens regularly conditioned top-quality racers in multiple divisions annually, including the extraordinary sire but non-stakes winner Danzig for Henryk de Kwiatkowski, and an unprecedented five consecutive winners of the Belmont Stakes.

No jockey had won more Kentucky Derbys than Shoemaker, but Cannonade was the first Kentucky Derby winner ridden by Angel Cordero, who subsequently won the 1976 Derby on Bold Forbes (Irish Castle) and the 1985 Derby on Spend a Buck (Buckaroo), both of whom led from wire to wire.

A Kentucky-bred owned and raced by John Olin, who was closely associated with John Gaines at Gainesway Farm, Cannonade was the first classic winner for his sire Bold Bidder, who became known as just about the best stallion son of Bold Ruler. With numerous important stakes winners in the States and abroad, Bold Bidder reached the apogee of his fame with Horse of the Year and multiple classic winner Spectacular Bid.

Having won three graded stakes as a 2-year-old, Cannonade added only one the next year: the Kentucky Derby. But he did finish third in both the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. The winner of those classics was the classically pedigreed Little Current. The best American-raced offspring by the French-bred English Derby winner Sea-Bird (Dan Cupid), Little Current was a Darby Dan homebred from a broodmare by 2,000 Guineas winner My Babu and half-sister to 1963 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Chateaugay, a son of 1955 Kentucky Derby winner Swaps (Khaled).

The best colt on the day, under the conditions, was Cannonade, but the 100th Kentucky Derby surely was a crowded house.

alydar conjures up some of the best memories of thoroughbred racing; the grand racehorse and sire relies on us, however, to assess unpleasant issues about his death

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alydar, bloodstock history, calumet farm, fred kray, Triple Crown

“Alydar is moving swiftly on the outside … at the top of the stretch, Alydar moves by very easily, takes the lead, opens it out to 3 ½ lengths … we have a furlong to run and Alydar has opened the lead out to six lengths….” – from Mike Battaglia’s race call for the 1978 Blue Grass Stakes

April 27 is the 46th anniversary of Alydar’s blowout victory in the Blue Grass. At the wire, it was Alydar (by Raise a Native) first by 13 lengths, the longest winning margin ever for the Blue Grass Stakes, and success in that race, in that fashion, made Alydar the betting favorite nine days later in the Kentucky Derby.

Of course, the dark chestnut colt finished second to Affirmed (Exclusive Native), as he did in each of the Triple Crown races. Their rivalry is one of the legends of the sport. Eventually, both horses stood at stud at Calumet Farm, where Alydar became one of the greatest sires of his time, siring major winners around the world.

In this year’s Kentucky Derby, one of the favorites will be last season’s champion juvenile colt, Fierceness, and Alydar lives on among the fifth generation in the colt’s pedigree.

All the joys and positive drama in Alydar’s life on the racetrack and at stud ended on Nov. 15, 1990, when Alydar was euthanized after being injured in his stall at Calumet’s stallion barn. Alydar’s injury was shocking to horsemen, but that was nothing compared to the infamy that followed.

Although the farm had passed from Lucille Markey to the Wright heirs with no debt, a choice income stream from breeding, and a bank balance in the hundreds of millions, Calumet collapsed into bankruptcy in the months following Alydar’s death. It had been less than a decade since Mrs. Markey’s death. Lifelong horsemen couldn’t believe the catastrophe; in fact, sports fans and news people and general followers of the sport couldn’t begin to take in the enormity of the debacle, either.

The financial shenanigans were quickly documented in “Wild Ride,” a well-researched book by the talented writer, Ann Hagedorn Auerbach. As the immediate furor over Calumet’s collapse died down, the questions began.

Then the trials began. The legalities dragged on for years. None of them, however, addressed Alydar and what had happened to him. That is the key to a book published last year by Fred Kray entitled “Broken: The Suspicious Death of Alydar and the End of Horse Racing’s Golden Age.”

When I first looked into Fred Kray’s book, my first critical thought was “Am I going to learn anything that I don’t already know?”

By the time I had finished reading the book, for the third time, I was stunned by how much I had learned, by how much was in the book, by how fully it projected the author’s subject into his proper dimensions, and how much of an effect the book was having on those who had read it.

The essence of Broken is that it’s a love story: of a man (and men and women) for a horse. It is also a tragedy about what people will do for money.

The deep feeling for his fellow animal that Kray holds for Alydar began when the author was a younger lawyer and followed racing closely, especially the heroics of Alydar and his great rival Affirmed.

Later, fighting for the safety and proper treatment of animals gave Kray an ideal to strive for when the pressures of practicing law were crushing him with the mendacity of the practical. A significant part of the book is about the glory of Alydar, about the excitement of racing, and about the joy we humans find in our fellow animals.

The remainder is about the financial house of cards that was built up around Alydar and about the consequences of the financial mismanagement of the horse and the historic farm that he represented. The story is complex, and a broad cast of characters played a role in what happened.

It says a great deal about Fred Kray’s legal skills that he can make a practice out of defending critters. But the text of this book shows us a great deal about his investigative skill. He has put together such an extensive factual account of the major players at Calumet that it’s almost like being in the room of the farm office.

Kray’s analytical skill then helps us put the pieces together for what happened to racing’s most famous farm. There was financial mismanagement, which eventually led to indictments and convictions. There was the injury and subsequent death of the farm’s great sire and “most valuable player,” Alydar. And there are the unanswered questions about what and who and how and why.

To his great credit, Kray is a lawyer to the gritty end. He searches for facts, he hunts for documentation, and he refuses to accept events and explanations at face value.

Nor does he hunt for scapegoats. The man running Calumet comes in for his fair assessment, but this is not a “Get J.T” sort of thing. To the contrary, Kray’s evidence points to others as the principal criminal element in a story that is as fascinating as it is alternately repellent and infuriating.

For the thoroughness of his documentation, his determination to find whatever could be found, and for a fair-minded assessment of the evidence, Kray gets high marks.

You deserve to read this book. Don’t take it to the beach; don’t try reading it when you’re ready for bed; and don’t rush it. It deserves much more than that. Broken is mostly about a horse and the people who failed one of our greatest Thoroughbreds, but it’s also about all of us who love them.

encino, by leading young sire nyquist and from a sire family, showed his class in the lexington stakes

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encino, lianga, nyquist

Five years ago in the leadup to the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby, the white-hot favorite was 2015 champion juvenile Nyquist, the leader of the first crop sired by champion juvenile Uncle Mo (by Indian Charlie). The results of that first crop made Uncle Mo the leading freshman sire of 2015 and set him in the firmament of breeding as one of the best sires in the land.

When his first champion son sent his first crop to the races in 2020, Nyquist followed the script and became leading freshman sire, with his crop leader being champion Vequist, winner of the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and Spinaway Stakes.

A relatively precocious juvenile, Nyquist appears to be adding speed to families, especially those of classic ability, and that is much appreciated by breeders and one that can yield important results in the most important races.

In the leadup to the Kentucky Derby this year, Nyquist’s fourth-crop son Encino won the final prep for the Run for the Roses, the G3 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on Saturday, April 13.

A tall, strongly made horse, Nyquist has appeal for breeders that want speed in their programs, as well as those hoping to breed for the classics. In addition to Encino among this season’s classic crop, Nyquist is represented by one of the hottest racers on the West Coast, Nysos. The latter is unbeaten in three starts, including the G3 Robert Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita.

How this early-season success pans out for Nyquist during the Triple Crown season remains to be seen.

Nysos had a “minor setback” that required a month’s walking under tack and an equivalent cessation from race training that indicates his next start is likely to come in the early summer or thereabouts.

Encino is racing and training well, and he has the points to qualify for the Kentucky Derby after a few recent defections. However, the colt’s connections have not yet finalized the colt’s late spring/early summer roadmap, whether that leads to Churchill Downs or a stop further down the road.

A winner in three of his four starts, the Kentucky-bred Encino races in the solid blue silks of owner-breeder Godolphin, like his dam Glittering Jewel (Bernardini). The dam was showing something early on because she was sent into the G3 Prix de Royaumont at Chantilly as only her third start. After “racing a little freely” early, she was overtaken and finished sixth behind stablemate Kitesurf (Dubawi), who continued prancing up the class ladder and eventually won the G2 Prix de Pomone and G1 Prix Vermeille.

Glittering Jewel, after that G3 prep, went to Wolverhampton and won a maiden race over 9 ½ furlongs. That was her only victory, although she was second three times and third three times in allowance company in Europe and the States.

The Lexington Stakes winner is the mare’s second foal, and he is showing the athleticism and class hoped for in the mating of Nyquist with a quality mare from the A.P. Indy line. After winning his maiden, Encino advanced to win the listed John Battaglia Memorial at Turfway by a length from Epic Ride (Blame), who subsequently ran third in the G1 Blue Grass behind Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) and Just a Touch (Justify). Once again, Encino showed an advance in form to win the G3 Lexington by three-quarters of a length from The Wine Steward, twice a stakes winner last season and also second in the G1 Breeders’ Futurity.

The collateral lines of form indicate that Encino is a colt with considerable promise, and whether or not he takes a place in one of the coming classics, the colt should continue to progress.

In addition to producing a colt of Encino’s quality, Glittering Jewel is a half-sister to classic winner and champion Street Sense (Street Cry). Both are out of the winning Dixieland Band mare Bedazzle, and the sires in the immediate pedigree: Nyquist, Bernardini, and Street Sense, stand (or stood, in the case of Bernardini) at stud for Darley in Lexington.

Bedazzle was quite a useful filly who won four races but somehow contrived not to get black type, finishing fourth in four stakes. She left that form far behind as a producer, getting a pair of stakes winners, notably Street Sense, who was the champion 2-year-old colt of 2006 and won the 2007 Kentucky Derby and Travers.

Bedazzle’s dam was stakes winner Majestic Legend (His Majesty). She produced a stakes winner and was a half-sister to Mr. Greeley (Gone West), a multiple graded stakes winner and a sire of champions and classic winners.

Majestic Legend and Mr. Greeley weren’t the only ones to extend the legacy of their dam Long Legend (Reviewer). A winner in four of her six starts in England, Long Legend had five daughters who produced important stakes winners.

Long Legend herself was a strikingly attractive mare. She was a daughter of the important stallion Reviewer (Bold Ruler) and the exceptional racemare Lianga (Dancer’s Image). Probably the most talented offspring by disqualified Kentucky Derby winner Dancer’s Image, Lianga won numerous important races, including the July Cup, Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp, and the Prix Jacques le Marois. Timeform rated her 133 as a 4-year-old.

As the fifth dam of classic hope Encino, Lianga stands as the pivot point in a further classic connection. Her fourth dam was Delmarie (Pompey), the dam of 1951 Kentucky Derby winner Count Turf (Count Fleet).

[Subsequent to publication, Encino has been declared out of the Kentucky Derby due to a soft-tissue “strain” that requires 30 days off training.]

blue grass winner sierra leone and uae derby winner forever young stem from same family

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churchill downs, horse, horse racing, horses, Kentucky Derby

Now a winner in three of his four starts, Sierra Leone (by Gun Runner) made himself one of the hottest choices for the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby with a steady stretch run at Keeneland to score a length-and-a-half victory in the Blue Grass Stakes.

Coming from fourth and a 2 ½-length deficit at the stretch call to win his race, the dark bay colt showed a stride length of 24.5 feet through the final three furlongs of the classic prep. The colt’s strength and steady propulsion allowed him to sweep past his competition through the stretch at Keeneland and solidify his position among the Derby contenders.

Bred in Kentucky by Debby Oxley, Sierra Leone won his classic prep just six days after his foaling date three years ago. The colt is the second foal out of the Malibu Moon mare Heavenly Love, who won the G1 Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland in 2017.

Like Sierra Leone, Heavenly Love was bred in Kentucky by Oxley from the mare Darling My Darling (Deputy Minister), whom Oxley’s husband John had purchased as a yearling at the 1998 Keeneland September sale and presented to her. A $300,000 yearling, Darling My Darling proved a very fine racer, as well.

She won her maiden on debut and then proceeded to finish second in the G1 Matron Stakes and Frizette Stakes. At three, Darling My Darling won the Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland, and the following season won the Doubledogdare Stakes at the Lexington course.

In addition to obvious athletic talent, part of the international appeal of the family by the time Sierra Leone came to Saratoga was due to Darling My Darling’s half-brother Zenno Rob Roy (Sunday Silence), who was Horse of the Year in Japan after winning multiple major events, including the Japan Cup, the Tenno Sho Autumn, and the Arima Kinen.

Darling My Darling and Zenno Rob Roy are out of the Mining mare Roamin Rachel, a G1 stakes winner who was consigned by Lane’s End, agent for owner Will Farish, at the 1998 Keeneland November sale to Nobuo Tsunoda for $750,000 in foal to Storm Cat. That foal proved to be Stray Cat, who has produced four stakes winners in Japan, all fillies, and set up a considerable branch of the family there.

In the States, the family is breeding on principally through Darling My Darling and her daughters. The mare’s other graded stakes winner, Forever Darling (Congrats) was purchased privately by Katsumi Yoshida after that filly had won the G2 Santa Ynez Stakes in 2016, and later that year she was exported to Japan.

There, Forever Darling has become a successful broodmare and is represented this year by Forever Young (Real Steel). The unbeaten colt has won the G3 Saudi Derby and G2 UAE Derby this season and ranks sixth on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard for points earned to get into the Run for the Roses. His cousin Sierra Leone ranks first.

Sierra Leone is accustomed to being first. He was consigned to the 2022 Saratoga select yearling sale, where he brought $2.3 million, and the well-developed bay was the highest-priced yearling of the sale. Sierra Leone races for Peter Brant, Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg, and Brook Smith.

With his victory on Saturday, Sierra Leone won the 100^th running of the Blue Grass, although only 88 have been raced over the track at Keeneland. The race was previously held at the Kentucky Association track located near downtown Lexington, and a dozen renewals of the event passed from 1911 to 1926, when subsequent Kentucky Derby winner Bubbling Over (North Star) won the race for owner-breeder E.R. Bradley. It was the third of four runnings of the Blue Grass won by Bradley’s horses.

All of Bradley’s victories came after the break in racing for the Blue Grass during the First World War from 1915 to 1918. All four of Bradley’s colts raced for the Kentucky Derby, with Black Servant (Black Toney; 1921) and Bimelech (Black Toney; 1940) finishing second in the classic, and Busy American (North Star; 1922) bowing a tendon and not finishing.

Bradley did not have a connection to the first winner of the Blue Grass, 1911 winner Governor Gray, a bay gelding by Garry Herrmann. A seriously talented racer, Governor Gray subsequently won the American Derby and the Latonia Derby. He started favorite for the 1911 Kentucky Derby, as well, but finished second to Meridian (Broomstick), who had been second in the Blue Grass.

Named for a contemporary lieutenant-governor of Alabama, Henry Gray, Governor Gray won 13 races, with 12 seconds and six thirds from 41 lifetime starts. The second-leading money winner of 1911, Governor Gray earned $19,163 through his racing career, but tragically, the gelding died in a barn fire in late November of 1911.

The Blue Grass Stakes has had many exciting finishes and highly talented winners; Sierra Leone and his racing fortunes will write another chapter in the sport’s history in the coming weeks and months.

laurel river adds another g1 to the list for into mischief crossed with empire maker mares

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dubai world cup, garrett o'rourke, into mischief, laurel river

With a merciless cadence, the blaze-faced bay Laurel River (by Into Mischief) ground his opponents into the dust of Meydan for the second time in succession.

Having won the Group 2 Burj Nahaar on March 2 by 6 ¾ lengths, Laurel River returned to win the G1 Dubai World Cup on March 30 by 8 ½ lengths.

Now a winner in five of his last six starts, Laurel River has lost only the G3 Al Shindagha Sprint, which was the brawny bay’s return to the races after an absence of 17 months. Built like a muscular miler, Laurel River had won his last U.S. start, the G2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at Del Mar, and might have needed the race earlier this year.

The strongly built horse did not appear to need anything more than a perceptive jockey in his first attempt at 10 furlongs at Meydan on Saturday.

Bred in Kentucky by Juddmonte Farms, Laurel River is the result of a conscious plan set in motion by Khaled Abdullah several years ago. 

“At the time, we were looking for a cross with the Empire Maker mares we had from our best families,” noted Juddmonte’s Garrett O’Rourke.

The choice fell on Harlan’s Holiday and his son Into Mischief, and as part of that, Juddmonte became a supporter of the multiple leading national sire early on. The results include classic winner Mandaloun and now Laurel River.

“The Into Mischiefs are lovely horses to be around: happy, healthy, eager to go to the track,” O’Rourke said. “Some can be high energy, but they love what they do every day, and horses like that are important for the breed. They have great enthusiasm for racing and are very healthy to train and race.

“It would have been after his first 3-year-olds had shown their ability that we bought into him, and we did that specifically to breed him to our Empire Maker mares that lacked that little bit of zip, toughness, and zest, which Into Mischief supplies in spades,” O’Rourke added.

Whereas the family of Mandaloun had been acquired by Juddmonte when forming its broodmare band back in the 1980s, the second dam of Laurel River, Soothing Touch (Touch Gold), had been purchased at auction in only 2005, bringing $550,000 at the Keeneland September sale.

Racing for Juddmonte with trainer Bobby Frankel, Soothing Touch was once second from six starts at four different racetracks, but that was as close as she came to winning. O’Rourke said that “the Prince never referred to her by name. He always referred to her as ‘Teddy’s mare.’”

As little as “Teddy’s mare” managed to accomplish on the racetrack, she was not judged “surplus to requirements” and has done rather more in the paddocks. As a broodmare, Soothing Touch produced three stakes winners, including Hofburg (Tapit), who also was second in the G1 Florida Derby and third in the Belmont Stakes.

But most importantly, “Teddy’s mare” became the dam of multiple G1 winner Emollient and her full-sister Calm Water.

“Trainer Bill Mott and all of us here at Juddmonte thought quite a lot of Emollient,” O’Rourke said, “and a group of us went to Gulfstream for [her stakes debut at three in] the Florida Oaks.” Dreaming of Julia (A.P. Indy) won by 21 ¾ lengths, with Emollient fifth of six.

“Emollient never ran her race,” O’Rourke said. “We were all disappointed with it, and we didn’t talk much afterward. Then the next thing we saw, she was entered in the Ashland here at Keeneland, and she went wire to wire. Bill just smiled.”

A four-time G1 winner, Emollient has produced a pair of stakes winners by Juddmonte superstar Frankel (Galileo), most notably Raclette, winner of the G2 Prix de Malleret.

Her full-sister, Calm Water, did nothing noteworthy on the racetrack, with her best effort a second in a maiden special at Keeneland, but has produced Laurel River as her third foal. Calm Water has a two years’ younger full-brother to the Dubai World Cup winner named Castlewarden. He won his maiden at Oaklawn Park on March 15.

The mare has a 2-year-old filly named Long Waves (Constitution) and a yearling colt by the same sire. Calm Water produced a full sister to Laurel River and Castlewarden last month, and the mare returns to Into Mischief.

This is the family of Almahmoud through Natalma (Native Dancer), and E.P. Taylor sold the fifth dam of Laurel River to Stavros Niarchos for $825,000 at the 1983 Keeneland July sale. Named Coup de Folie (Halo), the filly was inbred to Almahmoud 3×3; racing for Flaxman Holdings, Coup de Folie won the G3 Prix d’Aumale and was twice G1-placed, with four victories from seven starts.

For Flaxman, she produced G1 winner and leading sire Machiavellian (Mr. Prospector), as well as his full sister Coup de Genie, who won twice at the G1 level (Prix Morny and Prix de la Salamandre against colts).

Coup de Genie became the dam of four stakes winners, including French highweight juvenile filly Denebola (Storm Cat) and Glia, the third dam of Laurel River.

When Flaxman Holdings sent Glia’s daughter by Belmont Stakes winner Touch Gold (Deputy Minister) to the sales, “this filly had a pedigree that we would love to get into,” O’Rourke noted. “Teddy Grimthorpe had come over here with Prince Khaled, and at the sales, she made quite a bit more than we valued her at, and yet Teddy kept bidding.

“We bought her essentially as a breeding prospect, because horses from these families can run on dirt, on turf, and this is a pedigree that stays good all the way through. All credit to Prince Khaled for being such a sound decision-maker and for his family for carrying on in the same manner,” O’Rourke concluded.

Pedigree counts in that too.

hatton writes on … misty morn

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champion filly, high voltage, misty morn, princequillo, wheatley stable

Charlie Hatton on 1955 champion three-year-old filly and handicap mare Misty Morn from the 1956 American Racing Manual.

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Breeders used to feel that they had been ambushed when their mares produced more filly foals than colts. Their disappointment stemmed from the fact that not many decades ago the associations offered meager opportunities for the female of the species to pay their way in competition among themselves, with the result that fillies were “a drug on the market” at the yearling auctions. How very different now. There are scores of stakes, ranging in value up to more than $100,000, for fillies and mares. And often as not fillies command the highest prices at the sales. It seems that racing men and breeders have come to realize that while we have a superabundance of Thoroughbred sires, high-class producers still are comparatively rare, and matriarchs such as La Troienne, Myrtlewood, Alcibiades, La Chica and others are the next best thing to a license to print one’s own money.

There are prepotent mares, just as there are dominant sires, and in the Blue Grass and other production centers, generations of sportsmen and breeders have founded successful studs on the issue of one matron and her daughters and granddaughters. Indeed, these illustrious matrons are regarded as pearls beyond price, almost as members of the family, and it would be unthinkable to sell one of them or any of their female descendants who showed the quality in training to perpetuate the line. As Brownell Combs said of Myrtlewood, “One would have to be quitting racing to sell a mare like that.”

The Wheatley Stable of Mrs. J. S. Phipps in 1955 was doubly fortunate to have two three-year-old fillies of top class and the highest breeding, either or both capable to establish a family of her own. We refer to High Voltage, who was the ’54 two-year-old filly leader, and to Misty Morn, who was voted not only the outstanding three-year-old filly last season, but the champion of the handicap mares as well. Both, further, are products of the Phippses’ select stud, which is maintained at the Hancock family’s historic Claiborne near Paris, Ky. This circumstance enhances the pleasure which their owner derives from their racing successes.

Misty Morn and High Voltage were by common consent the two most capable three-year-old fillies of the season, the only question being which one was entitled to the honors. Trainer James Fitzsimmons and his staff estimated, for a time, that High Voltage was the “tougher” of the two. But in the end, when their records were balanced, there was clearly no alternative but to award the laurels to Misty Morn. She met all comers, including the colts and the older mares, over all sorts of tracks and at all distances and won nine races—an arduous campaign of 22 starts. She was four times second and twice third and amassed $201,850 during a season which would have completely depleted most of her sex.

Further, Misty Morn climaxed her long and brilliant career on November 12 at Jamaica with what was perhaps her most distinguishing success. Carrying 113 pounds and conceding weight on the scale to all her eight rivals except Thinking Cap, Misty Morn won the important Gallant Fox Handicap over the searching mile and five eighths route in 2:42 2/5, rewriting the track record. Additionally, the going was considered no better than “good.” She raced almost continually from February through November, which speaks for her toughness of fiber.

It was not until June that the Wheatley filly ventured out of the allowance division to compete in stakes. She had been a trifle backward at two, when she won only two little races in 15 starts, but she showed steady improvement with more maturity at three. In her first appearance in a stakes, Misty Morn chose no less ambitious a placing than the nine furlongs of the $35,000 added Providence at Narragansett Park. The field included the colt Saratoga, who was the Preakness second behind Nashua, and was quixotically attempting to concede her 17 pounds, himself carrying 123. He was an odds-on favorite. He made two runs at the filly, but she beat him a length and a half.

The form of this race was questioned at the time, most of the cognoscenti taking the skeptical position that Misty Morn simply outran herself. But she came back to account for the Monmouth Oaks, the Diana Handicap at Saratoga and then was beaten a diminishing head by Manotick at a seven-pound weight disadvantage in the mile and a half of the Ladies Handicap at Belmont Park’s brilliant autumn meeting. She tried the colts again in the Yankee, conceding weight on the scale to most of them, but was blocked. Then came the Gallant Fox, in which she met older males at a weight disadvantage and won in record time.

Misty Morn was said to have been unwound for the remainder of the season in sound condition, and of course she cannot have had anything very clinical wrong with her when she won the Gallant Fox in her finale. It seemed to us that the Wheatley filly had come a long way in a relatively short time. There is a story, nor do we know that it is untrue, that she was so slight as a yearling that the wisdom of making any attempt to train and campaign her was doubted. But given the opportunity, she soon made it clear that she liked to run and was intuitively a racehorse, so it was decided to continue her career.

This is by no means the first time that a horse has seemed a poor risk as a yearling, and then agreeably surprised everyone by proving a performer of the top notch. Social Outcast was so crooked in front his people were dubious that he would stand training and he served as a menial, a workmate and traveling companion for Native Dancer during the first several years of that champion’s career. The overgrown Osmand was one of the “chain gang” of Elmendorf yearlings when he and the highly esteemed Chance Shot were being broken. Efforts were made to give away the filly Strange Device, she showed so little promise as a yearling, but nobody cared to have her and by the end of the following season she was acknowledged to be one of the best of her age and sex. These and many others have appeared from time to time to flout those who fault unraced Thoroughbreds and deal in generalities.

If Misty Morn was painfully sparse as a yearling, her legs were in order and she obviously has a big heart. A sandy bay with a narrow, rather long star as her only marking, the Wheatley filly measured 15.3 hands at the withers upon the conclusion of the ’55 season, when she was sent to Claiborne to vacation briefly. She girths 69 inches, measures 15 ¾ inches around the gaskin and has 7 ¼ inches of bone. She is very racing like, almost delicate in appearance, but this last is deceptive. What flesh she has when in condition was maintained throughout her long campaign.

Mrs. Phipps’ homebred reminds one vaguely of those old-fashioned prints of Firenze, another bay mare of rather small model, who nevertheless was up to carrying big weights over long routes with the colts and fillies alike. Her head is attractive and very effeminate, with good width between the eyes and jowls and neatly tapered ears having an inward turn. The rein length is in homogenous proportion with the rest of her conformation and extends into high withers and a short back.

She has fair length from hip to hock and her hind legs are reasonably straight. The croup slopes just a trifle and the flag is set high. Her quarters are not remarkable for any unusual development of muscular investiture, instead they are those of the stayer. She is the antitype of the rumpy, precocious colts and fillies who show blazing early speed as two-year-olds. Misty Morn has a pleasing middle piece in that it provides ample heart and lung room for one of her moderate size, and she is not particularly light in the flank for all her racing experience. That she is a good doer goes almost without staying.

The Wheatley filly has a stout, well-laid shoulder, which is one of her salient physical attributes. The muscle is developed a little beyond the norm without being heavy. This, along with her rather narrow front fork, assures a freedom of action and minimizes the chances of tiring unduly when racing major distances. Her forearm is, like her gaskin, more notable for angulation than conspicuous muscularity.

She has broad, flat, closely knit knees and stands over them in a barely perceptible manner. This construction and her springy pasterns, which are of the correct length and angle, suggest that Misty Morn may stay sound longer than most of her age and sex division.

At a glance, she is a charming bit of blood, with all the balance for which her sire Princequillo and so many of his progeny are noted. As highly precisioned “as a watch,” as horsemen are wont to say, one has the impression that she will mature into a lovely specimen of broodmare.

Though Misty Morn has never been very dashing out of the gate, she has a low, sweeping stride and is a bold-going filly. Her Monmouth Oaks showed her to have more pluck than most of her sex, for she was in quarters a trifle close at the crucial stretch turn, but she resolutely forged her way between her rivals to attain the lead. There are not many fillies who have the daring to move up in a flying cordon of horses.

The ’55 champion is a beautifully bred young mare. Foaled on May 21 at Claiborne Farm, she is by the classic sire Princequillo out of Grey Flight, who also raced for Wheatley and won stakes and purses in the amount of $67,990. Grey Flight, in turn, is by the Epsom Derby winner and noted sire Mahmoud out of the fast mare Planetoid. The latter introduces Ariel into the pedigree and is out of El Chico’s dam, La Chica. It is the immediate family of Native Dancer. Though it was thought to be specifically a source of sheer speed rather than stamina, the tribe has produced some excellent stayers in recent generations.

Princequillo, a tail-male St. Simon, was the best cup horse of his day and represents a distinct outcross for most American mares. He stems from Rose Prince and Papyrus. The Mahmoud cross also adds strength, for he is by Blenheim II and comes of the family of Nasrullah and Royal Charger, tracing to Mumtaz Mahal. Misty Morn’s pedigree challenges comparison.

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Misty Morn did indeed “mature into a lovely specimen of broodmare.” She was Broodmare of the Year in 1963, and in 1964, her son Bold Lad was juvenile champion; two years later, her son Successor (by Bold Ruler, like Bold Lad) was the 1966 juvenile champion. 

endlessly puts his sire oscar performance in the spotlight

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endlessly, history, horse, horse racing, horses, jerry amerman, john amerman, oscar performance, rodeo, society dream

When Endlessly (by Oscar Performance) went four-wide on the turn to take command of Turfway Park’s Kentucky Derby prep, the track announcer yelled that the dark bay colt was “winning powerfully,” and that is a significant comment to understand the colt’s success.

Power is overused in most commentary on racing performance, and it can mean different things. Functionally, power is derived from hindquarter leverage and muscle power that allow a racehorse to finish.

Horses with excellent power are frequently unable to use much of their power at the end of a dirt race because the nature of dirt is to break away from a very strong push; dirt performers tend to do better with good early pace and a steady mid-race and ending-race pace. The winner is usually the horse who is slowing down the least.

In contrast, both turf and synthetic surfaces are much more responsive to the finish potential of highly powered animals. Horses with great power can sometimes race effectively on dirt, especially if their stride rhythm and other qualities allow them to get into an effective stride early enough to pass or even lead their opponents fairly early in a race (think American Pharoah, for instance).

Trainer Michael McCarthy and owner Amerman Racing LLC are apparently estimating their colt’s turf/synthetic potential well and are reportedly pointing him to the Grade 2 American Turf, rather than the “most exciting two minutes in sports.”

Four-time G1 winner Oscar Performance has six stakes winners so far in 2024 and carries the torch as the best stallion son for his sire, Kitten’s Joy (El Prado), with racers who race well early and continue improving with age. (Mill Ridge photo)

Endlessly raced like a “turf horse” at Turfway, coming from well back and finishing with a final three-eighths that was faster than the first three-eights, and the progressive colt certainly has the performances (a winner in five of his six starts over turf or synthetic) and the pedigree to be very effective on turf. A son of the Amermans’ highly regarded turf star Oscar Performance (Kitten’s Joy) and out of mare by Langfuhr, Endlessly has both a very turf conscious pedigree, as well as some legendary dirt performers farther back.

A four-time G1 winner who earned $2.3 million, Oscar Performance won at the top level as a juvenile, 3-year-old, and 4-year-old. That is testament to a high level of athletic ability, and “there was significant interest in this horse from overseas, especially from Japan,” Headley Bell said.

“We were fortunate, because of our nearly 20-year relationship with the Amermans,” Bell recalled, “and we approached them about standing the horse here at Mill Ridge. We suggested that they retain half the horse and we would attempt to syndicate the other half.

“They were willing to do that. With that, we were then fortunate to find an illustrious group of shareholders, including Eclipse breeders of the year George Strawbridge and the Gunthers, to breed to Oscar Performance and work with us.

“Despite significant interest from Japan, this horse was never going to Japan, and it bodes well for our American breed to have breeders and owners racing like them. There was even another significant offer from Japan before his first crop had ever raced, and the offer just wasn’t of interest.

“That’s how much the Amermans believe in this horse and how much this horse means to them.”

The breeders and owners of Oscar Performance took a refreshing attitude toward sending to stud a colt who was naturally viewed as a “turf horse,” a designation that is virtually synonymous with “noncommercial.”

Despite that, some of the sire’s stock found a good response in the commercial market, such as his first-crop star Red Carpet Ready, who was a $180,000 Saratoga select yearling purchase by Bo Bromagen. The multiple graded stakes winner returned on March 8 at Gulfstream to win the G3 Hurricane Bertie Stakes and push her overall record to five victories from eight starts.

A homebred for the Amermans, Endlessly is out of Dream Fuhrever, one of three producers of stakes winners out of Society Dream, one of the few stakes winners by European G1 winner Akarad (Labus), a long-lived stallion who is not often found in American pedigrees.

Society Dream, however, is Jerry Amerman’s foundation mare, and “Jerry is a breeder of champion German shepherds,” Bell said. “After becoming fascinated with Thoroughbreds, Jerry has applied that passion to the breeding of horses.”

The three stakes-producing daughters of Society Dream have all found success on turf. Miss Chapin (Royal Academy) produced G1 Just a Game winner Coffee Clique (Medaglia d’Oro) and Admission Office (Point of Entry), winner of the G3 Louisville and G3 Arlington Stakes on turf. Post Script (Quality Road) produced Act a Fool from the first crop by Oscar Performance, and he won the Hawthorne Derby on turf.

Clearly, this family has found a functional affinity with the son of Kitten’s Joy, and it is working well for all. The female line goes back through successful producers and racers by Blushing Groom and Mr. Prospector to fifth dam Sleek Belle (Vaguely Noble), the dam of four stakes winners, and thence back to 10^th dam Nectarine, a full sister to nothing less Bull Lea, the five-time leading national sire and source of multiple champions and classic winners, including Horses of the Year Twilight Tear, Armed, and Citation.

These latter champions did not race on turf, mostly because there was nearly no significant turf racing at the time, but they were racehorses of the highest order and laid a foundation of soundness and athleticism for the future.

While Jerry Amerman is focusing her attention and skills on breeding the best from Oscar Performance, John Amerman, former chairman of Mattel Inc., is racing manager for the stable. 

Bell concluded, “We went against the trend, and it looks like that might be the right way to go. For the owners, for the shareholders, and for the breed, this horse is an important animal. Maybe he’s a turning point.”

Oscar Performance looks ready for center stage.

hatton writes on

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charlie hatton, high voltage

Charlie Hatton on 1954 champion 2-year-old filly High Voltage from the 1955 American Racing Manual.

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The late William Woodward noted, quite accurately, that the success of a stud depends upon the quality of its mares. The only satisfactory criterion of desirable broodmare prospects is the crucible of the racetrack test. We are happy to say contemporary racing associations are providing Turfmen with many more, and more valuable, events for this sex than existed only a decade or so ago, when fillies were “a drug on the market.”

It is interesting to see each new generation of the stud’s future producers pass in review, and the 2-year-old fillies of 1954 struck most observers as a particularly gay lot. Mrs. Henry Carnegie Phipps’s graceful High Voltage was voted the title and was patently deserving of it. But the season produced others of more or less class in Delta, Myrtle’s Jet and Lea Lane. Their development augured well for the 1955 Oaks renewals. The homebred High Voltage had a fairly busy campaign extending over 12 starts. She won six, was second twice and third three times. Her total earnings of $167,825 made her the leading money winner of her age and sex division in ’54.

The Wheatley broodmares, like those of Belair Stud, are maintained at Arthur B. Hancock’s Claiborne Farm in Kentucky, and it was there High Voltage first saw the light of day on May 8, 1952. She was trained and developed by James Fitzsimmons, the “Sage of Sheepshead Bay,” who also brought out the champion colt Nashua. While she was beaten in six of her starts, she was usually conceding weight and coming on like the genuine performer she is at the finish. In fact, jockey Eddie Arcaro considers “it is too bad she was ever beaten.”

High Voltage campaigned from April to November and seemed to thrive on racing. The striking gray stripped for the Matron, at Belmont in the fall, looking like a filly who had been in training only a few weeks, and of her “Mr. Fitz” commented, “It seems you just can’t hurt her.”

The Phipps filly began, rather casually, by finishing third in a maiden race at Jamaica, but she picked up the winning thread in her next start and supplemented this on April 14 by accounting for the Rosedale. Soon thereafter she won the filly division of Belmont’s National Stallion Stakes.

In the National Stallion, High Voltage encountered, and debited with defeat, Claiborne’s classy Nasrullah filly Delta. The latter’s apologists insisted this was not a true bill, however, explaining that the Kentuckian had experienced some misfortune at the break. On the basis of the from at Arlington and Washington, Delta was the cleverest of the 2-year-olds of her sex seen in the midlands during the season.

The Wheatley homebred also won the Colleen and Selima, as well as the important Matron, and was narrowly beaten in the Astarita and Fashion. In the Astarita, she carried 125 pounds and was gaining steadily on the successful Two Stars, to whom she conceded six, making up a deficit of several lengths at the start. In the Matron, High Voltage maneuvered her way through an unwieldy field to win with impressive elan. But probably her smartest performance was in the mile and a sixteenth of the Selima at Laurel.

This event placed her versus Myrtle’s Jet, who had just won Keeneland’s Alcibiades from a stylish field, and who now attempted to purloin the Maryland fixture. She seemed about to bring it off midway of the backstretch, where she was 10 lengths before the favorite with no indication of faltering. But High Voltage responded beautifully when Arcaro called on her and, cutting down the pacemaker’s lead with long, relentless strides, she yoked this rival in midstretch and beat her in a desperate finish. Arcaro estimated she might have won with more authority except that the sun seemed to bother her as she popped around the turn into the stretch and it shone in her eyes. In her next and last start of the season, High Voltage was fourth to Myrtle’s Jet in the Frizette, run in the slop, in which she stumbled and lost all chance. Incidentally, she races without blinkers, running on heartily as if she delighted in the sport.

High Voltage is a fairly short-backed specimen of curvaceous lines, and she makes a considerable esthetic appeal, with her romantic gray coat and a head of exquisite quality and refinement. Also, she has manners, and a poise in the paddock and during the heat of conflict which must be a joy to her handlers. Though her neck is breedier than most fillies, she is quite feminine, with no reminiscence of such masculine mares of late years as Conniver and Gallorette,

The Wheatley filly appears to verge on 15.3 hands at the withers. She is round in her lines, rather than of the greyhound type, and she is not at all light in the flank and back ribs, as are many of her sex. It is clear High Voltage is what Turfmen call a “good doer.” Her hocks are a bit behind her, as were those of her grandsire, Tourbillon, and many of his progeny. But she compensates for this by having much evident propulsive power and a good front.

High Voltage’s shoulder is deep and at the correct angle and her forelegs are well under her. These appear clean and flinty, and of course she cannot have campaigned as she did were she not very “sound for racing purposes.” The muscularity of her forearms is exceptional for a 2-year-old filly, and indeed this is the most distinctive point of her conformation. It suggests the length and sweep of her extended action.

She is altogether charming and reflects much credit on her rising young French sire, Ambiorix, now serving at Claiborne Farm. Mrs. Phipps’ pet is from that stallion’s second crop of foals. Ambiorix is out of the noted producer Lavendula, by Pharos, ancestress of My Babu, Turn-to, and other splendid performers. Ambiorix was considered the best middle-distance campaigner of his time on the Parisian circuit.

High Voltage is out of the youthful mare Dynamo, a dark bay by the excellent Menow, foaled in 1945. Dyanmo herself was bred by Wheatley and was a winner at 2 and 3. Her first foals to race were Power Plant and Coastal Trade, both of whom won. High Voltage is her third. The next dam, Bransome, is by Royal Minstrel, to whom High Voltage’s coat color is traceable. The third dam was Erin, the source of some of Wheatley’s ablest campaigners.

The pedigree is an admixture of some of the most fashionable French, English and domesticated strains. The noted French breeder Marcel Boussac would fancy this pattern, for it is his premise that it is essential that all studs periodically introduce vital new lines.

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High Voltage raced through age 4 and won five more stakes at age 3, when she lost the champion 3-year-old filly title to her stablemate Misty Morn. High Voltage retired with a record of 45-13-5-7 for earnings of $362,240.

At stud, High Voltage produced 10 foals, eight starters, six winners, and three stakes winners: Bold Commander (1960 colt by Bold Ruler), Impressive (1963 colt by Court Martial), and Great Power (1964 colt by Bold Ruler).

ghalia princess is still showing the spark from her illustrious ancestor high voltage

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ghalia princess, high voltage, misty morn

The victory of Ghalia Princess (by American Pharoah) in the Cicada Stakes at Aqueduct on March 16 could be seen as a continuation of the promise displayed by her dam, Ghalia (Medaglia d’Oro), who won three of her four starts, including the Sunland Park Oaks in 2017. The dam raced only once more, was retired, and produced the Cicada Stakes winner as her second foal.

Bred in Kentucky by Oussama Aboughazale’s International Equities Holding Inc., Ghalia Princess was sent to the 2022 Keeneland September yearling sale and bought back for $575,000. The filly races for Aboughazale under his Sumaya US Stable banner, as did her dam.

International Equities acquired Ghalia at the 2014 Keeneland November sale, paying $600,000 for the weanling filly, who was consigned to the auction by Warrendale Sales for breeders Edward A. Seltzer, Beverly Anderson & Darley.

Polymelus: a foal of 1902 who won the Champion Stakes, this son of Ascot Gold Cup winner Cyllene and great-grandson of Derby winner Bend Or became England’s leading sire five times and got five classic winner: Black Jester (St. Leger), Cinna (1,000 Guineas), Fifinella (Derby and Oaks), Humorist (Derby), and Pommern (2,000 Guineas, Derby, St. Leger). Then, he became one of the essential elements of pedigrees in the 20th century and hereafter, most notably through his son Phalaris and great-grandson Nearco. He is a male-line ancestor of Ghalia Princess and liberally scattered throughout the rest of her pedigree.

In addition to her obvious physical excellence, Ghalia attracted breeders and racehorse owners such as Aboughazale with the quality and depth of her pedigree.

The broodmare sires along the female line include some of the great names of international breeding. In addition to Medaglia d’Oro, the second dam is by Rahy, the third by A.P. Indy, the fourth by Danzig, and then successive dams are by Graustark, American champion Bold Ruler, and French highweight Ambiorix. Nor did they lack for racing ability. Only two of the seven first dams failed to earn black type.

The seventh dam of Ghalia Princess was Ambiorix’s champion daughter, High Voltage. At 2, she won half of her 12 starts, including five stakes: the Selima, Matron, Colleen, National Stallion, and Rosedale. She placed in three more. That earned her the title as champion of her sex and division in 1954 from all the voting organizations (there were no Eclipse Awards at that time).

During her second season of competition, High Voltage was equally successful, winning six more races, although from 16 starts. Among these were the Coaching Club American Oaks, Black-Eyed Susan, Acorn, Delaware Oaks, and Vineland Handicap.

That was a pretty good season, but there was another filly in the same stable who won even more. Both trained by Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons and bred and racing for Wheatley Stable, High Voltage was usurped by Misty Morn (Princequillo), whose nine victories that season began in June and included the Molly Pitcher, Monmouth Oaks, and Diana against fillies but also included the Providence Handicap and the Gallant Fox Handicap against colts and older horses.

Essentially, Misty Morn’s late-season successes outranked the early-season excellence of High Voltage, and the daughter of Princequillo received the laurels as champion 3-year-old filly and champion handicap mare of 1955 from both Triangle Publications (Daily Racing Form and Morning Telegraph) and Thoroughbred Racing Associations (racing secretaries of member tracks).

Both became important broodmares, although Misty Morn took higher rank immediately. In addition to multiple early stakes winners, she produced two champions, both by Wheatley Stable’s Horse of the Year Bold Ruler: Bold Lad (2-year-old champion colt of 1964) and Successor (2-year-old champion colt of 1966), and was named Broodmare of the Year in 1963 before her champion sons had raced.

The best produce from High Voltage, however, were sired by stallions other than the Wheatley marvel. Her champion son Impressive was by the English-bred Court Martial (Fair Trial), and her best daughter was Irradiate, by European champion Ribot (Tenerani), later the dam of the important racer and sire Majestic Light (Majestic Prince). In 1966, Impressive won a half-dozen stakes, in addition to defeating Horse of the Year Buckpasser (Tom Fool) in an allowance at Hialeah; all that form led to Impressive being named champion sprinter of the year.

From five foals by Bold Ruler, High Voltage also produced two stakes winners: Bold Commander, winner of the Chesapeake Stakes, became the sire of 1970 Kentucky Derby winner Dust Commander, who was the first Bold Ruler-line horse to win a classic but far from the last. The second of High Voltage’s stakes winners by Bold Ruler was Great Power, who was a winner of 11 races, including the Sapling at 2 and the Delaware Valley Handicap at 3. He possessed such high speed that he was one of the pacemakers used for the potential benefit of stable star Buckpasser in the 1967 Woodward, when Great Power and Hedevar teamed up to pressure Dr. Fager with a speed duel that set up the race for Damascus (Sword Dancer), rather than Buckpasser, who was second.

A medium-sized filly who stood about 15.3 at maturity, High Voltage was noted, even as a 2-year-old for the muscularity of her physique, and that, no doubt, was one of the traits that she passed to her offspring and helped to make them fast. She was described by the Racing Form’s scribe Charlie Hatton as being “round in her lines, rather than of the greyhound type,” and possessing the reputation of being a “good doer” around the stable.

Certainly, her personality was one of high energy and her record on the racetrack one of high performance. High Voltage’s daughter by Bold Ruler was one of the non-black-type winners in the line leading to Ghalia Princess, but that daughter, Overpowering, proved more than able as a producer.

Overpowering’s six foals by Graustark (Ribot) included four stakes horses. Among them were graded stakes winner Proctor and his stakes-winning full sister Over Your Shoulder, who became the next link in the lineage toward Ghalia Princess.

beauty in the eye of the beholder: sweet azteca keeps the much-loved family of cee’s song in the grade 1 winner’s circle

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cecelia straub-rubens, cee's song, eric anderson, horse racing, horses, kathy berkey, news, pamela ziebarth, sharp azteca, sports, sweet azteca, tiznow

A powerful victory for Sweet Azteca (by Sharp Azteca) in the Grade 1 Beholder Stakes at Santa Anita makes her the latest good gift of speed and gameness from the bloodline nurtured by Cecelia Straub-Rubens and her most important broodmare, Cee’s Song (Seattle Song).

A good winner on the racetrack who became a wonder as a broodmare, Cee’s Song foaled four stakes winners, including Horse of the Year Tiznow (Cee’s Tizzy) and his full siblings Budroyale, Tizbud, and Tizdubai.

Two daughters of the mare who didn’t earn black type became producers of top racehorses.

Unraced Tizamazing became the dam of two stakes winners, including Oxbow, winner of the G1 Preakness Stakes and second in the G1 Belmont Stakes. He is now a sire at Calumet Farm.

Tizso, who was unplaced in two starts, became the dam of three stakes winners. The most prominent of these is Paynter (Awesome Again), who won the G1 Haskell and was second in the Belmont Stakes. Paynter is the sire of champion Knicks Go, winner of the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic and Horse of the Year. In November 2023, Paynter was euthanized at WinStar Farm in Kentucky.

The female family of Sweet Azteca has had numerous G1 winners in recent years and includes one of the favorites for this year’s Kentucky Oaks: Tarifa (Bernardini).

On the other hand, Sweet Azteca is the first G1 winner for her sire Sharp Azteca (Freud), who went to stud in Kentucky at Three Chimneys Farm and was a leading freshman sire in 2022 but is now at stud overseas. In October last year, Three Chimneys Farm announced that Sharp Azteca had been sold to Shizunai Stallion Station in Japan, and the horse was exported to Japan for the 2024 breeding season.

Bred in Kentucky by Pamela Ziebarth, Sweet Azteca is out of the Grand Slam mare So Sweetitiz. The breeder is the daughter of Cecelia Straub-Rubens, and Sweet Azteca is a fourth-generation descendant of Cee’s Song.

Following Sweet Azteca, “So Sweetitiz has a 2-year-old named Mucho Dulce (Mucho Macho Man), a yearling by Tonalist, is back in foal to Sharp Azteca on May 24 cover, and is booked to Hard Spun for this year,” according to Eric Anderson, who is an adviser to Pam Ziebarth.

The breeder’s broodmares, foals, and yearlings are kept in Kentucky at Columbiana Farm, and “Mrs. Zeibarth purchased a Kentucky farm of her own last year. Some of her California-breds are there as part of their retirement, and she uses that farm primarily for pensioners, as well as for some of the show horses,” Anderson concluded.

Adviser Kathy Berkey said, “I buy horses for Pam and plan matings for mares. Pam rarely sells a horse; this is a labor of love for her.

“Cecelia would sell horses from time to time, but Pam tends to keep them all. It’s wonderful to have clients who love to breed and race their own.”

Berkey continued: “I think this was the fifth Grade 1 winner that Pam’s been connected with. She and her half-brother became partners with the original co-owner, Michael Cooper, in Tiznow and were part of the ownership when the horse won his second Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“Before that, she was already into the Grand Prix horse show world, and then she decided to get into Thoroughbred racing. That was when Pam and I connected, and I bought some horses for her, both mares and younger stock. I bought Healthy Addiction for her [from the 2002 Keeneland September yearling sale], and she won the G1 Santa Margarita. Then she became the dam of My Sweet Addiction (Tiznow), who won the Vanity, now called the Beholder. Another filly I bought didn’t make it to the track but produced Tiz Flirtatious, who was by Tizbud,” one of the full brothers to Tiznow.

And now Sweet Azteca is the fifth.

On a bare reading of the pedigree before Sweet Azteca’s race, with the filly’s dam So Sweetitiz being the only stakes winner in the first three generations before Saturday, it looked a little light, compared to other branches of this family. Berkey noted that appearances might be deceiving: “The second dam is unraced because Sweetitiz (El Prado) flipped in the paddock when she was in training and fractured a pelvis. That kept us from finding out how good she was.”

The pedigree of Sweet Azteca contains influences from around the world, some of them relatively rare in modern pedigrees. The pedigree even features some inbreeding to French star Massine, winner of the Arc de Triomphe and 11 other races.

Without Ziebarth’s patience and the conscientious training of Mike McCarthy, we might not have found out about the talent within Sweet Azteca, either. After winning her debut at Churchill Downs last May, Eric Anderson said that the “Sweet Azteca was laid up in May 2023 due to a stress fracture of the left tibia that needed 60 to 90 days.”

The powerful gray returned to racing on New Year’s Day with a third-place finish in the G3 Las Flores Stakes, returned on Feb. 2 to win an allowance, and added her first stakes success on March 9 in the Beholder.

According to Berkey, it’s all down to patience and long-term planning. “Pam is a huge believer in patience. She has her horses in training at 2 so they can grow and develop properly but doesn’t push them until they’re ready,” she said. Trainer “Mike McCarthy always has been very high on this filly, and the results speak for themselves.”

Patience pays, in the experience of Ziebarth and her advisers. And especially by having faith in a broodmare whose influence keeps following the sport like a benevolent angel.