Tags
age of mares, alydar, ashland stakes, calumet farm, fantasy stakes, flower alley, foaling rank, importance of pedigree, joyful victory, lilacs and lace, lucy black, my juliet, raise a native, refinement, Seattle Slew, stella madrid, Tapit, wild again, wild lucy black
A couple of unrelated stakes results over the weekend raised a couple of points of interest. In the G1 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland on Saturday, the beautifully named 3yo filly Lilacs and Lace (by Flower Alley x Refinement, by Seattle Slew) won by a length, and the next day, Joyful Victory (by Tapit x Wild Lucy Black, by Wild Again) won the G2 Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn.
The first point of intrigue is that both fillies are out of mares who are a bit older than the commercial market is happy to accept. Some breeders, however, are loath to give up on nice mares who don’t hit the brass ring first time out, and in these cases, they were considerably rewarded with outstanding performers.
The Ashland winner is out of Refinement, who was 14 when the G1 winner was foaled. Refinement is a daughter of G1 winner Stella Madrid, a daughter of Alydar and champion My Juliet, who foaled her G1 winner at age 15.
The Fantasy winner is out of Wild Lucy Black, who was also 14 when the G2 winner was foaled. Wild Lucky Black is a daughter of the nonwinning Lucy Black, who was a spritely 8yo when she foaled the dam of the Fantasy winner. And Lucy Black is by the exceptional racehorse and sire Alydar, which brings us to the second point of interest.
Both of these outstanding young fillies have second dams by Alydar.
Well, that is coincidental, but interesting nonetheless. Alydar was an exceptional racehorse at 2 and 3, when his nemesis was champion and Triple Crown winner Affirmed. Alydar excelled when the pair went to stud, however, and the size, strength, and scope of Alydar proved powerful contributions to the breeding pool during his too-short life.
Alydar’s death precipitated the financial collapse of Calumet Farm, which had borrowed heavily in the late 1980s with Alydar as its primary means of generating cash.
But the brave chestnut son of Raise a Native remains an important element of pedigrees, especially through his daughters and now his granddaughters and their runners.
bloodstock in the bluegrass 