On October 12, Cambier Parc won the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (USA-IT) to annex her second top-level event of the year. Also the winner of two grade 3 events this year, the daughter of Medaglia d'Oro will probably be rested prior to another campaign at 4.
Without a victory in the Breeders' Cup, Cambier Parc almost certainly will not be voted as champion in either the turf female division or the 3-year-old filly division; both have excellent candidates whose profiles are closer to what voters are usually looking for in those categories. Nonetheless, her record in 2019 is truly excellent and recalls or even exceeds the season put together by her own dam at 3, when Sealy Hill was Canada's Horse of the Year.
A daughter of 2001 American Horse of the Year Point Given, Sealy Hill was a listed stakes winner at 2 but came into her own at 3 in 2007. That year, the unruly, tough-minded filly became the first winner of Canada's Triple Tiara for 3-year-old fillies, though not without considerable drama---she was disqualified for lugging in on a rival during the Bison City Stakes, and it took three months before her victory was restored by the Ontario Racing Commission. Also a grade 3 winner in the United States, Sealy Hill finished her 3-year-old campaign with a second against older females in the Canadian Stakes (CAN-IIT) and a narrow loss to European invader Mrs. Lindsay in the E. P. Taylor Stakes (CAN-IT). When the votes were counted for Canada's year-end Sovereign Awards, Sealy Hill carried off titles as Canadian champion 3-year-old filly, Canadian champion turf female horse, and Canadian Horse of the Year. The following year, Sealy Hill could not quite find the winner's circle in a stakes but earned three graded stakes placings, topped off by a second-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (USA-IT).
Since retiring to the paddocks, Sealy Hill has carried on her broodmare career at the same high level as her racing career. Her first foal, the 2010 Distorted Humor mare Hillaby, won the Bessarabian Stakes (CAN-IIA) at age 4. She next produced a winning filly by Flower Alley, Paradise Alley, before coming up with another graded stakes winner in Belle Hill. The queen of Emerald Downs as a 3-year-old in 2015, the daughter of Sky Mesa dropped down to Santa Anita to crown her career with a win in the one-mile Autumn Miss Stakes (USA-IIIT).
Hillaby's full sister True Elegance (a foal of 2013) never made it to the track, but Sealy Hill scored again with her fifth foal, a 2014 daughter of Giant's Causeway named Gale Force. More precocious than her siblings, Gale Force won the 2016 Mazarine Stakes (CAN-IIIA) on the Polytrack at Woodbine.
Following her pattern of alternating high-class winners with foals that showed less ability, Sealy Hill produced the unplaced Tiznow filly Touch of Grace in 2015. Cambier Parc is her seventh foal, and her eighth, a full sister to Cambier Parc, was a $425,000 yearling at the 2018 Keeneland September sale. Sealy Hill gave birth to her first colt, a son of Into Mischief, in 2018, and this youngster went for $950,000 at this year's Keeneland September sale.
Sealy Hill's long-term impact has yet to be determined, for the eldest foals out of her daughters are unraced 2-year-olds. Nonetheless, she ticks all the boxes for a potential matriarch of the breed. A high-class race mare herself, she has a slew of well-bred daughters---half of them fine racers in their own right---and they in turn are getting excellent opportunities. Cambier Parc will no doubt get the same when she retires, and it will be quite interesting to see if it is a case of "like mother, like daughter" when she retires to the paddocks, If so, the name of Sealy Hill will have an honored place in pedigrees for some time to come.
Without a victory in the Breeders' Cup, Cambier Parc almost certainly will not be voted as champion in either the turf female division or the 3-year-old filly division; both have excellent candidates whose profiles are closer to what voters are usually looking for in those categories. Nonetheless, her record in 2019 is truly excellent and recalls or even exceeds the season put together by her own dam at 3, when Sealy Hill was Canada's Horse of the Year.
A daughter of 2001 American Horse of the Year Point Given, Sealy Hill was a listed stakes winner at 2 but came into her own at 3 in 2007. That year, the unruly, tough-minded filly became the first winner of Canada's Triple Tiara for 3-year-old fillies, though not without considerable drama---she was disqualified for lugging in on a rival during the Bison City Stakes, and it took three months before her victory was restored by the Ontario Racing Commission. Also a grade 3 winner in the United States, Sealy Hill finished her 3-year-old campaign with a second against older females in the Canadian Stakes (CAN-IIT) and a narrow loss to European invader Mrs. Lindsay in the E. P. Taylor Stakes (CAN-IT). When the votes were counted for Canada's year-end Sovereign Awards, Sealy Hill carried off titles as Canadian champion 3-year-old filly, Canadian champion turf female horse, and Canadian Horse of the Year. The following year, Sealy Hill could not quite find the winner's circle in a stakes but earned three graded stakes placings, topped off by a second-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (USA-IT).
Since retiring to the paddocks, Sealy Hill has carried on her broodmare career at the same high level as her racing career. Her first foal, the 2010 Distorted Humor mare Hillaby, won the Bessarabian Stakes (CAN-IIA) at age 4. She next produced a winning filly by Flower Alley, Paradise Alley, before coming up with another graded stakes winner in Belle Hill. The queen of Emerald Downs as a 3-year-old in 2015, the daughter of Sky Mesa dropped down to Santa Anita to crown her career with a win in the one-mile Autumn Miss Stakes (USA-IIIT).
Hillaby's full sister True Elegance (a foal of 2013) never made it to the track, but Sealy Hill scored again with her fifth foal, a 2014 daughter of Giant's Causeway named Gale Force. More precocious than her siblings, Gale Force won the 2016 Mazarine Stakes (CAN-IIIA) on the Polytrack at Woodbine.
Following her pattern of alternating high-class winners with foals that showed less ability, Sealy Hill produced the unplaced Tiznow filly Touch of Grace in 2015. Cambier Parc is her seventh foal, and her eighth, a full sister to Cambier Parc, was a $425,000 yearling at the 2018 Keeneland September sale. Sealy Hill gave birth to her first colt, a son of Into Mischief, in 2018, and this youngster went for $950,000 at this year's Keeneland September sale.
Sealy Hill's long-term impact has yet to be determined, for the eldest foals out of her daughters are unraced 2-year-olds. Nonetheless, she ticks all the boxes for a potential matriarch of the breed. A high-class race mare herself, she has a slew of well-bred daughters---half of them fine racers in their own right---and they in turn are getting excellent opportunities. Cambier Parc will no doubt get the same when she retires, and it will be quite interesting to see if it is a case of "like mother, like daughter" when she retires to the paddocks, If so, the name of Sealy Hill will have an honored place in pedigrees for some time to come.
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