On March 12, lightly raced Bleecker Street moved another notch up the class ladder by annexing the Hillsborough Stakes (USA-G2) at Tampa Bay Downs. Now 5-for-5, the 4-year-old Quality Road filly won the Endeavour Stakes (USA-G3) at the same course last out and franked that form in the Hillsborough with a powerful stretch run that left her rivals looking as if they had suddenly found themselves hitched to the eighth pole---and this on a course that jockey Hector Diaz Jr. said was softer than Bleecker Street really cares for. Given what she has accomplished thus far, it doesn't take a crystal ball to foresee that a crack at Grade 1 company is probably in Bleecker Street's future.
Owned by Peter Brant and trained by Chad Brown, Bleecker Street comes from a family in which marked success is far from unprecedented. She is a fifth-generation descendant of Flight Dancer (by Misty Flight x Courbette, by Native Dancer), a granddaughter of the great race mare and foundation mare Gallorette. A half sister to 1967 Jockey Club Cup winner and Irish St. Leger runner-up Dancing Moss, who later became a champion sire in Argentina, Flight Dancer was stakes-placed as a juvenile in England.
Flight Dancer produced two stakes winners during her broodmare career: Misty Gallore (by Halo), a tough multiple graded stakes winner on dirt who went on to produce the good Mr. Prospector stallion Silver Ghost, and Minstrella, the 1986 Irish champion 2-year-old filly and the first or second dam of five graded stakes winners. Further, Flight Dancer's success as a broodmare did not end with her stakes-winning daughters. Bred to Lyphard, she produced the 1988 filly Misty Dancer, a stakes producer who is the second dam of four Grade 1 winners including 2005 American Horse of the Year Saint Liam and the third dam of 2017 American Horse of the Year and 2021 American champion freshman sire Gun Runner.
Flight Dancer's only other daughter is Key to Flight, a daughter of 1972 American champion 3-year-old male Key to the Mint who did not live up to the standards set by her sisters. Unraced, she produced only one black-type runner, Grade 2-placed Levitation (by Raja Baba), whose primary distinction as a broodmare is her status as the second dam of multiple Group 1-placed Chilean Group 2 winner Tao Mina. Another daughter of Key to Flight, Key Flight (by 1983 American champion older male Bates Motel), did fairly well as a producer, her foals including Grade 1-placed stakes winner Key Hunter (by Jade Hunter; dam of 2007 Aqueduct Handicap, USA-G3, winner Liquor Cabinet, by Hennessy), Grade 3-placed listed stakes winner Hatfield (by Proud Citizen), and Cabo de Noche (by Cape Town), dam of multiple Grade 2 winner Pants on Fire (by Jump Start).
Key to Flight's last daughter was the winning Halo filly Trip Around Heaven, who produced 13 winners from 14 foals but none of particular distinction on the track although three were stakes-placed. The best on the track was 2009 Del Mar Oaks (USA-G1) runner-up Nan (by High Yield), the dam of Selene Stakes (CAN-G3) winner Power Gal (by Empire Maker). Nan's half sister Star of Atticus (by Atticus) was not quite as good on the track, placing in a listed event, but was superior as a broodmare, her six winners from six foals to race including 2015 Eddie Read Stakes (USA-G1) winner Gabriel Charles (by Street Hero).
The third stakes-placed filly out of Trip Around Heaven is Limoncella (by 2000 American champion older male Lemon Drop Kid), who placed in two modest stakes events as a juvenile and produced only one black-type runner, Lemon Liqueur (by the good Danzig horse Exchange Rate). Third in a restricted stakes as a juvenile, Lemon Liqueur produced Bleecker Street as her second foal. She has since produced the unraced 2020 filly Red Lemonade (by Always Dreaming) and a 2021 filly by Flatter before most recently being bred to Not This Time.
Like many modern American stakes winners, Bleecker Street is line bred to the great Native Dancer, primarily through his paternal grandson Mr. Prospector and his maternal grandson Northern Dancer. Her pedigree reveals crosses of 4x5x5 to Mr. Prospector, buttressed by an additional fifth-generation cross to Mr. Prospector's sire Raise a Native via Alydar (the sire of Quality Road's second dam), and 5x6x4x7 to Northern Dancer. This is not wildly uncommon in American breeding these days, and many a bad horse could claim similar distinction in its bloodlines. Nonetheless, in Bleecker Street, the best of her ancestry has clearly come together in a talented package, and that is all that can be asked as the result of any mating.
Owned by Peter Brant and trained by Chad Brown, Bleecker Street comes from a family in which marked success is far from unprecedented. She is a fifth-generation descendant of Flight Dancer (by Misty Flight x Courbette, by Native Dancer), a granddaughter of the great race mare and foundation mare Gallorette. A half sister to 1967 Jockey Club Cup winner and Irish St. Leger runner-up Dancing Moss, who later became a champion sire in Argentina, Flight Dancer was stakes-placed as a juvenile in England.
Flight Dancer produced two stakes winners during her broodmare career: Misty Gallore (by Halo), a tough multiple graded stakes winner on dirt who went on to produce the good Mr. Prospector stallion Silver Ghost, and Minstrella, the 1986 Irish champion 2-year-old filly and the first or second dam of five graded stakes winners. Further, Flight Dancer's success as a broodmare did not end with her stakes-winning daughters. Bred to Lyphard, she produced the 1988 filly Misty Dancer, a stakes producer who is the second dam of four Grade 1 winners including 2005 American Horse of the Year Saint Liam and the third dam of 2017 American Horse of the Year and 2021 American champion freshman sire Gun Runner.
Flight Dancer's only other daughter is Key to Flight, a daughter of 1972 American champion 3-year-old male Key to the Mint who did not live up to the standards set by her sisters. Unraced, she produced only one black-type runner, Grade 2-placed Levitation (by Raja Baba), whose primary distinction as a broodmare is her status as the second dam of multiple Group 1-placed Chilean Group 2 winner Tao Mina. Another daughter of Key to Flight, Key Flight (by 1983 American champion older male Bates Motel), did fairly well as a producer, her foals including Grade 1-placed stakes winner Key Hunter (by Jade Hunter; dam of 2007 Aqueduct Handicap, USA-G3, winner Liquor Cabinet, by Hennessy), Grade 3-placed listed stakes winner Hatfield (by Proud Citizen), and Cabo de Noche (by Cape Town), dam of multiple Grade 2 winner Pants on Fire (by Jump Start).
Key to Flight's last daughter was the winning Halo filly Trip Around Heaven, who produced 13 winners from 14 foals but none of particular distinction on the track although three were stakes-placed. The best on the track was 2009 Del Mar Oaks (USA-G1) runner-up Nan (by High Yield), the dam of Selene Stakes (CAN-G3) winner Power Gal (by Empire Maker). Nan's half sister Star of Atticus (by Atticus) was not quite as good on the track, placing in a listed event, but was superior as a broodmare, her six winners from six foals to race including 2015 Eddie Read Stakes (USA-G1) winner Gabriel Charles (by Street Hero).
The third stakes-placed filly out of Trip Around Heaven is Limoncella (by 2000 American champion older male Lemon Drop Kid), who placed in two modest stakes events as a juvenile and produced only one black-type runner, Lemon Liqueur (by the good Danzig horse Exchange Rate). Third in a restricted stakes as a juvenile, Lemon Liqueur produced Bleecker Street as her second foal. She has since produced the unraced 2020 filly Red Lemonade (by Always Dreaming) and a 2021 filly by Flatter before most recently being bred to Not This Time.
Like many modern American stakes winners, Bleecker Street is line bred to the great Native Dancer, primarily through his paternal grandson Mr. Prospector and his maternal grandson Northern Dancer. Her pedigree reveals crosses of 4x5x5 to Mr. Prospector, buttressed by an additional fifth-generation cross to Mr. Prospector's sire Raise a Native via Alydar (the sire of Quality Road's second dam), and 5x6x4x7 to Northern Dancer. This is not wildly uncommon in American breeding these days, and many a bad horse could claim similar distinction in its bloodlines. Nonetheless, in Bleecker Street, the best of her ancestry has clearly come together in a talented package, and that is all that can be asked as the result of any mating.
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