Ballade (USA)
March 10, 1972 – July 22, 1994
Herbager (FR) x Miss Swapsco (USA), by Cohoes (USA)
Family 12-c
March 10, 1972 – July 22, 1994
Herbager (FR) x Miss Swapsco (USA), by Cohoes (USA)
Family 12-c
As a daughter of the staying turf horse Herbager and the speedy Miss Swapsco, Ballade could have been almost anything. What she was not, as it turned out, was a particularly good racehorse. It was as a broodmare that she expressed the full of her genetic potential, producing two champions and becoming the dam and granddam of important sires as well as the head of a flourishing branch of Bruce Lowe family 12-c.
Race record
8 starts, 2 wins, 4 seconds, 1 third, US$12,670
Ballade won at first asking and reportedly showed considerable speed but never advanced beyond the allowance level.
As an individual
A tall, narrow dark bay or brown mare with her sire's excellent shoulder, Ballade was lengthy and roomy but was light-boned and somewhat offset in both knees.
As a producer
The 1992 Canadian Broodmare of the Year and a Reine-de-Course as designated by pedigree analyst Ellen Parker, Ballade produced 13 named foals, of which 10 started and nine won. Her important foals are as follow:
Connections
Foaled in Kentucky, Ballade was bred by Bob Byfield. She was purchased by E. P. Taylor for US$55,000 from the 1973 Keeneland July yearling sale and spent her entire racing and breeding careers as the property of his Windfields Farm. She was humanely destroyed at Brookdale Farm in Kentucky in July 1994 due to the infirmities of old age and was buried at the farm. There is also a marker to her memory in the main horse cemetery on the grounds of the Windfields Estate, Ontario, Canada.
Pedigree notes
Ballade is inbred 5x5 to Teddy. She is a half sister to listed stakes winner Secreto's Glory (by Secreto; dam of the Red Bullet colt Forty Zip, a multiple champion in the Dominican Republic) and multiple stakes winner Vite View (by Reviewer; dam of listed stakes winner Glorious View, by Naskra). Also a half sister to Grade 1-placed Sweeping View (by Reviewer), dam of Grade 3 winner Worth Avenue (by Spend a Buck); to Heathers Surprise (by Best Turn), dam of stakes winner Lady Carson (by Carson City); and to Devil's Sister (by Alleged), dam of multiple Grade 3 winner Blacksburg (by Seattle Slew) and multiple Japanese stakes winner Hishi Natalie (by Seattle Slew), Ballade was produced from multiple stakes winner Miss Swapsco, a half sister to 1982 Monmouth Handicap (USA-G1) winner Mehmet (by His Majesty).
Soaring, the dam of Miss Swapsco, is a daughter of Swaps out of 1950 Prix Maurice de Gheest winner Skylarking II (by Mirza II), making her a half sister to 1958 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches (French Two Thousand Guineas) winner Yla (by Migoli). In addition to her two stakes winners, Soaring produced the important broodmares Far Beyond (by Nijinsky II), Pi Phi Gal (by Raise a Native) and Liberty Spirit (by Graustark).
Fun facts
Last updated: October 7, 2023
Race record
8 starts, 2 wins, 4 seconds, 1 third, US$12,670
Ballade won at first asking and reportedly showed considerable speed but never advanced beyond the allowance level.
As an individual
A tall, narrow dark bay or brown mare with her sire's excellent shoulder, Ballade was lengthy and roomy but was light-boned and somewhat offset in both knees.
As a producer
The 1992 Canadian Broodmare of the Year and a Reine-de-Course as designated by pedigree analyst Ellen Parker, Ballade produced 13 named foals, of which 10 started and nine won. Her important foals are as follow:
- Glorious Song (1976, by Halo) was the 1980 Canadian and American champion older female and Canadian Horse of the Year. She was also Canadian champion older female in 1981. She produced 1996 American champion turf male Singspiel (by In the Wings), Grade 2 winner Rahy (by Blushing Groom), and South African Grade 2 winner Rakeen (by Northern Dancer), all of which met with some degree of success as sires in Europe, Kentucky, and South Africa, respectively. In addition, Glorious Song is the second dam of multiple Group 1 winner Campanologist, 2003 Prix Vermeille (FR-G1) winner Mezzo Soprano, and 2010 N.H.K. Mile Cup (JPN-G1) winner Danon Chantilly and is the third dam of Australian Group 2 winner Well Rounded and Group 3 winners Frere Jacques, Martinborough, and One Fine Day.
- Devil's Bag (1981, by Halo) was the American champion 2-year-old male of 1983. He was a disappointing but useful sire with 46 stakes winners to his credit.
- Thaidah (1985, by Vice Regent) won the 1985 City of York Stakes (ENG-L) and was Group 1-placed. She is the second dam of multiple Grade 2 winner Shakis and the third dam of 2010 Indian Two Thousand Guineas winner Ocean and Beyond.
- Angelic Song (1988, by Halo) never raced but is the dam of 2002 Hollywood Turf Cup Stakes (USA-G1) winner Sligo Bay (by Sadler's Wells), Japanese stakes winners Lady Ballade (by Unbridled) and Millennium Wing (by Sadler's Wells), and Group 3-placed English stakes winner Wolfe Tone (by Sadler's Wells). She is also the second dam of Japanese Group 2 winner Danon Ballade and French Group 2 winner Seachange and the third dam of Japanese Group 2 winner Air Almas and Grade 2 winner Yuugiri.
- Saint Ballado (1989, by Halo) won the 1992 Arlington Classic Stakes (USA-G2) and Sheridan Stakes (USA-G3). He won a posthumous American sire championship in 2005, when his best son, Saint Liam, was American Horse of the Year.
Connections
Foaled in Kentucky, Ballade was bred by Bob Byfield. She was purchased by E. P. Taylor for US$55,000 from the 1973 Keeneland July yearling sale and spent her entire racing and breeding careers as the property of his Windfields Farm. She was humanely destroyed at Brookdale Farm in Kentucky in July 1994 due to the infirmities of old age and was buried at the farm. There is also a marker to her memory in the main horse cemetery on the grounds of the Windfields Estate, Ontario, Canada.
Pedigree notes
Ballade is inbred 5x5 to Teddy. She is a half sister to listed stakes winner Secreto's Glory (by Secreto; dam of the Red Bullet colt Forty Zip, a multiple champion in the Dominican Republic) and multiple stakes winner Vite View (by Reviewer; dam of listed stakes winner Glorious View, by Naskra). Also a half sister to Grade 1-placed Sweeping View (by Reviewer), dam of Grade 3 winner Worth Avenue (by Spend a Buck); to Heathers Surprise (by Best Turn), dam of stakes winner Lady Carson (by Carson City); and to Devil's Sister (by Alleged), dam of multiple Grade 3 winner Blacksburg (by Seattle Slew) and multiple Japanese stakes winner Hishi Natalie (by Seattle Slew), Ballade was produced from multiple stakes winner Miss Swapsco, a half sister to 1982 Monmouth Handicap (USA-G1) winner Mehmet (by His Majesty).
Soaring, the dam of Miss Swapsco, is a daughter of Swaps out of 1950 Prix Maurice de Gheest winner Skylarking II (by Mirza II), making her a half sister to 1958 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches (French Two Thousand Guineas) winner Yla (by Migoli). In addition to her two stakes winners, Soaring produced the important broodmares Far Beyond (by Nijinsky II), Pi Phi Gal (by Raise a Native) and Liberty Spirit (by Graustark).
Fun facts
- A ballade is a form of poetry dating back to the French medieval period, or the corresponding musical form. As a verse form, it usually consists of three eight-line stanzas with a definite meter and rhyming scheme and sometimes concludes with a four-line stanza typically addressed to a prince or patron.
- The Ballade Stakes was inaugurated at Woodbine in 1997 as a race for fillies and mares aged 3 and up. It is currently carded at 6 furlongs on the main track and is part of the Ontario Sires Stakes series.
Last updated: October 7, 2023