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Mares on Monday: Fair Maiden Provides a Status Boost

12/28/2020

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Fair Maiden's 20-1 victory in the La Brea Stakes (USA-G1) on December 26 did more than provide Godolphin with a surprise late Christmas gift. It also provided a boost to the legacy of a good race mare with a disappointing production record in her own day. Secret Status never managed to produce a stakes winner in spite of consistently being mated to some of the best and most fashionable stallions in Kentucky, but as often happens in such cases, her worth has been resurrected in a fine descendant.

A daughter of A.P. Indy and the Alydar mare Private Status (a Grade 1-placed listed stakes winner), Secret Status traced her roots back to a family that has enjoyed considerable success in South America. She lived up to that heritage by becoming one of the best sophomore fillies of 2000, winning the Kentucky Oaks (USA-G1) and Mother Goose Stakes (USA-G1) and finishing second in the Coaching Club American Oaks (USA-G1) and Alabama Stakes (USA-G1). While she failed to return to that form at 4, she still retired to the breeding shed with high expectations,

Unfortunately, she came close to realizing those hopes only once. This was in 2006, when she foaled the Unbridled's Song colt Dunkirk, an outstanding physical specimen who was a US$3.7 million auction yearling. While he never won a stakes race, Dunkirk was a good second to Quality Road (who set a new track record) in the Florida Derby (USA-G1) and was also second to eventual divisional champion Summer Bird in the Belmont Stakes (USA-G1).  He has been a fairly successful stallion in Chile, ranking three times among that country's top 10 sires.

Secret Status has been singularly unfortunate in the rest of her production career. Although she produced 12 other named foals and saw 10 of them get to the races, only four managed to win. Even worse for her long-term prospects, only three of her named foals were fillies, and only one of those has ever had offspring. This is her first foal, Code Book, a daughter of Giant's Causeway who won once and ran second twice in six efforts.

Like her dam, Code Book has produced relatively little from excellent opportunities. She has 10 named foals of racing age, of which eight have started. Five have won, and one of the non-winners, the 2018 Twirling Candy filly Twilight Curfew, placed in a restricted stakes. None of Code Book's foals have shown much ability, so unless Twilight Curfew blossoms at 3, Code Book's broodmare career will be summed up as mediocre at best.

Code Book was exported to Mexico earlier this year, so any redemption for her record and that of Secret Status will have to come from her daughters. Fortunately, one has already stepped up to the task. This is her eldest daughter, the Smart Strike mare Shieldmaiden, who won two of 10 starts before retiring to the paddocks. Fair Maiden (by Street Boss) is her third foal, and she may earn her dam and perhaps her dam's half-sisters a chance at opportunities higher up the scale. Even if not, a Grade 1 win plus the status of her connections should provide Fair Maiden with first-rate opportunities of her own when her time comes to retire to the broodmare ranks, giving her the chance to pull her family further out of mediocrity and back to the status it enjoyed when Secret Status was no secret to anyone with an eye for horse racing.





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Mares on Monday: Spielberg Makes the Grade for Likely Exchange

12/21/2020

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On December 19, Spielberg closed out his juvenile season in dramatic fashion, nosing out The Great One right on the line in the Los Alamitos Futurity (USA-G2). It was the colt's fourth try in graded company and his first graded win after earning Grade 1 placings in the Runhappy Del Mar Futurity and the American Pharoah Stakes. With the win, the son of Union Rags earned 10 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby and marked himself as a solid candidate for the Triple Crown series.

Having a champion and Classic winner for a sire does not hurt Spielberg's prospects, but neither does his female family, He is a fourth-generation of Likely Exchange, whose rather offbeat pedigree did not keep her from being either a fine race mare or an important producer.

Foaled in 1974, Likely Exchange was sired by Terrible Tiger, a five-time stakes winner by Amerigo but a horse more noted for toughness (he made 72 starts) than brilliance in spite of the fact that he set four track records at distances from 6 to 8.5 furlongs during his career. At best, he was the equivalent of a modern Grade 3 winner. He proved a surprisingly good sire from limited opportunities, siring 16 stakes winners from 110 named foals.

Terrible Tiger was inbred 4x4 to the great English stallion Hyperion, and he got the best runner he would ever sire in Likely Exchange, whose dam Likely Swap (Swaps x Most Likely, by Heliopolis) was inbred 3x3 to Hyperion. Likely Exchange proved just as durable as her sire, making 72 starts over six seasons, but stayed better and took her biggest win in the 1979 Delaware Handicap (USA-G1) over 10 furlongs.

Likely Exchange lived to produce only three named foals after her retirement from racing, but in the quality of what she produced, she proved herself a worthy descendant of the 20th-century foundation mare Affection (her fifth dam). Her first foal was the gelding Creme Fraiche (by Rich Cream), a first-rate stayer whose victories included the 1985 Belmont Stakes (USA-G1). Her second was 1989 Monmouth Oaks (USA-G1) winner Dream Deal (by Sharpen Up), and her third and last was the winning Nureyev filly Hebba. Through Hebba, Likely Exchange is the ancestress of Japanese Group winners Tagano Expresso, Tagano Tonnerre, and Headliner.

As might be expected from her superior race record, Dream Deal has been the primary conduit for Likely Exchange's family, and she got the ball rolling with her first foal, the Nureyev filly Fairy Doll. While Fairy Doll was unplaced in her only start, she produced three stakes winners by Sunday Silence after being exported to Japan. The most talented of the group was 2001 Japanese champion older female To the Victory, a four-time stakes winner who placed in two Japanese Classics for 3-year-old fillies and was runner-up in the 2001 Dubai World Cup (UAE-G1). To the Victory, in turn, produced Japanese Group stakes winners To the Glory, To the World, and Tosen Victory (all by King Kamehameha) and is the second dam of multiple Japanese Group 2 winner Lion Lion. Fairy Doll's descendants through other daughters include Japanese Group winners Denim and Ruby, Prophet, Courageux Guerrier, and Fairy Polka.

Dream Deal's second foal was three-time Grade 1 winner Clear Mandate (by Deputy Minister), who produced 2013 Hopeful Stakes (USA-G1) winner Strong Mandate (by Tiznow), multiple Grade 3 winner Newfoundland (by Storm Cat), and listed stakes winner Full Mandate (by Seattle Slew), sire of multiple Grade 1 winner Ron the Greek. Her three producing daughters have only come up with one stakes winner between them, however, and her Grade 2-winning half sister Dream Scheme (by Danzig) has likewise been a rather disappointing producer save as the third dam of 2018 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes (USA-G1) winner Romantic Vision. Dream Deal's third and final stakes winner, is the listed stakes-winning gelding A Diehl (by Aldebaran).

In between Dream Scheme (her third foal) and A Diehl, Dream Deal produced eight other foals, and the most important of them thus far has been listed stakes-placed Miss Kate (by Storm Cat). The dam of three stakes winners in her own right (the best of which so far is listed stakes winner Raconteur, by A.P. Indy), Miss Kate is the dam of the Smart Strike mare Miss Squeal, who produced Spielberg as her second named foal.

With much of the best production of this family having taken place in Japan, Likely Exchange and her descendants have not quite gotten the attention accorded to North America's most elite families. Nonetheless, the daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters have found their way into some of the country's best broodmare bands on pure merit, and to judge by recent production, they will not be losing those places anytime soon.
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Weekly Trivia Challenge for 12/18/2020

12/18/2020

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For the final trivia challenge of 2020, this Thoroughbred champion (who defeated two American Triple Crown winners during the course of his racing career) was never a resident of the Old Friends retirement facility near Georgetown, Kentucky, but when his gravesite was threatened by development, his remains found an honored place in the Old Friends cemetery. Who was he?

Merry Christmas to all, and may all of you be blessed in the remembrance of the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ. And whatever holiday you may be celebrating this December, may you and your loved ones hold each other close in your hearts.
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Mares on Monday: The White Queen

12/14/2020

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It has finally happened. Absolutely refusing to be beaten after being passed in the closing meters of the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies (JPN-G1), Sodashi surged back to gain the victory by the narrowest of noses. In doing so, she became the first white Thoroughbred to win a Group 1 race in Japan---or anywhere else for that matter. She may also have become the first white Thoroughbred to gain a championship in a major racing nation, for aside from her win in Japan's most prestigious event for 2-year-old fillies, she had previously been unbeaten in three races including two Group 3 events.

Sodashi's bloodlines were discussed in some detail in "Mares on Monday: The White Ladies of Japan" (November 2, 2020). Her dam Buchiko (whose white coat is splashed with striking dark brown or chestnut spots) has since produced a yearling full sister to Sodashi, also white, and this filly's racing debut will doubtless be eagerly anticipated by the fans who have made Sodashi Japan's newest racing idol.

In traditional Japanese culture, seeing a white horse at the beginning of the year is considered a harbinger of good luck. In a year that most people around the world would consider to have been anything but lucky, perhaps Sodashi's courageous victory can be seen as a sign that good things can still happen and that the year can close out with a hope of better things to come.
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Weekly Trivia Challenge for 12/11/2020

12/11/2020

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Many people know that famous racehorses have had animal companions; perhaps the best-known of these sidekicks was Major Treat, the retired hunter who was Man o' War's constant companion throughout his racing career. Can you name the famous horses who were pals with the following?

1) Freckles the cat
2) Barry the terrier
3) Steamboat the pony
4) Pete the rooster
5) Charlie Potatoes the dog
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Mares on Monday: Proud Emma Brings a Forgotten Sister to Mind

12/7/2020

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Once upon a time, there was a happy marriage between a stallion named Buckpasser and a mare named Intriguing. Between them, they had seven foals, and the first and most glamorous of them was a beautiful princess named Numbered Account. A champion on the track, she produced two Grade 1 winners and founded a family that has continued to produce top horses for generations.

Numbered Account had four full sisters, and they managed to win one race between them. That one race belonged to Special Account, who stayed firmly in her sister's shadow as a broodmare. Not that she did badly, as her foals included Gallant Special (by Gallant Romeo), winner of the 1982 Richmond Stakes (USA-G2), and stakes winner Gallant Sister (by Vigors). Seven of her "grandfoals" became stakes winners too, headed by multiple Grade 2 winner Anguillla and Grade 3 winner Tresoriere. But none were particularly memorable. And in the meantime, not only was Numbered Account establishing a matriarchy of her own, but two of her other sisters were getting into the act with important contributions. Playmate gave birth to Woodman, an Irish champion juvenile who became a good sire and broodmare sire. Not to be left out, Fascinating Trick became the second dam of Redattore, a Group 1 winner in his native Brazil, a multiple Grade 1 winner in the United States, and a champion sire back in his native land.

Through Gallant Sister and her daughter Lyphard Gal (by Lyphard), Special Account is the third dam of multiple Grade 1 winner Heritage of Gold (by Gold Legend), the best racehorse yet produced by her branch of the family. Stakes-placed Awesome Account (Lyphard x Special Account) is the connecting link to the family's other Grade 1 winner, America Alive (by American Chance), who was produced from stakes-placed Alive With Hope (Alydar x Awesome Account).

Neither America Alive (who was exported to Venezuela) nor Heritage of Gold did anything to add luster to Special Account's name in the paddocks, and most of the family has been more like the branch that produced its most recent graded stakes winner, Proud Emma, who scored in the Bayakoa Stakes (USA-G3) at Los Alamitos on December 6. Sired by Airdrie Stud's veteran stallion Include, Proud Emma is the third foal and second winner produced from Debutante Dreamer, an unraced daughter of Proud Citizen out of Gallant Dreamer. Talented enough to place at the listed level on the track, Gallant Dreamer is by Belong to Me out of Demi Monde (Easy Goer x Awesome Account) and is the only black-type runner produced by her dam, whose other two daughters have produced nothing of significance thus far.

As might be expected from the original sisters' levels of racing talent, production, and connections, the families of Numbered Account and Special Account have received differing levels of opportunity, and this has undoubtedly played a role in their differing results. Numbered Account and her descendants have been one of the pillars of the Phipps family's breeding program, and its good members have consistently had access to the very best stallions of the breed. Further, they have had the advantage of being in the hands of people who have worked with this family for generations, know its strengths and weaknesses intimately, and are for the most part breeding for their own sport rather than the sale ring, meaning that matings are undertaken according to what is likeliest to help a mare produce the best possible runner rather than the most fashionable sale yearling. Further, the Phipps family's association with Shug McGaughey over the last several decades has meant that as a group, members of Numbered Account's family have had the best of training to go with their other advantages, making it more likely that whatever talent they may possess will have a good opportunity to express itself.

While Special Account herself received excellent opportunities because of her bloodlines, she and her better descendants have been much further scattered in the bloodstock world and as a group have been bred to lesser sires. The results have been what one might predict, with this branch of the family displaying much less high-level consistency than Numbered Account's although it still pops up with a good runner every so often.

As a Grade 3 winner, Proud Emma will not have to depend on her bloodlines to secure assignations with good stallions even if she never accomplishes anything else before leaving the track, and her win may help secure better opportunities for her dam and sisters. Nonetheless, the odds are stacked against Proud Emma having the kind of broodmare career that would truly revitalize Special Account's branch of the great La Troienne family. And so for now ends a tale of two sisters: one a queen of the racetrack and the paddocks, with a royal dynasty left behind, and the other a solid matron but for the most part now forgotten.

 
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Weekly Trivia Challenge for 12/4/2020

12/4/2020

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Creme Fraiche became the first gelding to win the Belmont Stakes in 1985. Prior to that, what was the best finish for a gelding in the race?
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    Author

    I'm Avalyn Hunter, an author, pedigree researcher and longtime racing fan with a particular interest in Thoroughbred mares and their contributions to the history of the breed.

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