My Mane Squeeze is not a top-class filly, but she is excellent evidence that a combination of solid talent and smart spotting can create a creditable and profitable racing career. Starting out in New York-bred company, she won four of six starts including three consecutive stakes wins before finding upper-tier open company and perhaps the 9-furlong distance a bit too tough for her in the Fantasy Stakes (USA-G2), in which she was eighth. Wisely steering away from the Longines Kentucky Oaks (USA-G1), trainer Michael Maker spotted her in the Eight Belles Stakes presented by Sysco (USA-G2) on the Oaks undercard and saw her come home first by two lengths at a shade under 7-1 odds.
It has taken four more tries for My Mane Squeeze to come back to the winner’s circle, but she has grabbed a check in every race since the Eight Belles and earned a Grade 1 placing to boot. On September 21, she finally took the lioness’s share of the purse in the Fasig-Tipton Dogwood Stakes (USA-G3) and did so with a flourish, winning the 7-furlong test by five lengths. Her lifetime record is now 12-6-1-3 with earnings of US$988,460 for owner-breeder William Butler and his partner, WinStar Farm.
A daughter of 2018 Xpressbet Florida Derby (USA-G1) winner Audible (by Into Mischief), My Mane Squeeze is a fifth-generation descendant of 1969 Canadian Oaks winner Cool Mood. A daughter of Northern Dancer out of 1954 Acorn Stakes winner Happy Mood, by Mahmoud, Cool Mood was inbred 4x2 to Mahmoud and had a good bit of the toughness and soundness associated with that sire’s progeny, making 41 starts over three seasons of racing. As a producer, she distinguished herself by throwing two Canadian Broodmares of the Year in Shy Spirit (by Personality) and Passing Mood (by Buckpasser). Together, these two half sisters accounted for Canadian Triple Crown winners With Approval (Caro x Passing Mood) and Izvestia (Icecapade x Shy Spirit) and six other stakes winners.
Cool Mood had three other stakes-producing daughters, among them the 1977 Apalachee mare Moody Maiden. Much less talented than her dam, Moody Maiden won just one of her 16 starts. She produced six winners from her nine foals with the last of them, the Tejabo filly Nothing Special, proving to be an improvement on her name. In a 30-start career, Nothing Special won a restricted stakes race at Laurel, placed in six other stakes races including the 1999 Barbara Fritchie Handicap (USA-G2), and earned US$266,590. In addition to that, Nothing Special improved on her dam’s produce record with eight winners from her 11 foals, including 2010 Jockey Club Gold Cup (USA-G1) winner Haynesfield (by Speightstown).
Mama Theresa, Nothing Special’s 2003 filly by Carson City, wasn’t a patch on Haynesfield, but she placed in a couple of stakes for New York-breds and amassed earnings of US$240,898 during a 25-start career, good enough to rank her as the second best of her dam’s runners. As such, she was a good bargain for Butler, who paid US$65,000 for her at the 2005 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Spring sale of 2-year-olds in training. Since the end of her racing career, Mama Theresa has produced seven New York-bred winners for Butler that have collectively earned US$1,122,285 in purses, not to mention awards from the New York-bred program. The best of the group on the track is the 2017 Freud mare A Freud of Mama, the winner of two New York-bred stakes and third in the 2019 Matron Stakes (USA-G3). Three of Mama Theresa’s daughters have produced winners for Butler including In Spite of Mama (by Speightstown), who produced six-time New York-bred stakes winner Rotknee (by Runhappy) as her second foal and My Mane Squeeze as her fourth.
As a prospective foundation mare, Mama Theresa would not have garnered any interest from a big-name program, but for a regional breeder like Butler, she is a jewel: a consistent producer of winners and of daughters that can produce winners. That two of her daughters are now stakes producers, with one the dam of a multiple graded stakes winner, is icing on a very sweet cake. Add in the fact that My Mane Squeeze will very likely become a millionaire in her next start, and it seems safe to say that, in New York at least, a family that began with a cool mood has become quite hot.
It has taken four more tries for My Mane Squeeze to come back to the winner’s circle, but she has grabbed a check in every race since the Eight Belles and earned a Grade 1 placing to boot. On September 21, she finally took the lioness’s share of the purse in the Fasig-Tipton Dogwood Stakes (USA-G3) and did so with a flourish, winning the 7-furlong test by five lengths. Her lifetime record is now 12-6-1-3 with earnings of US$988,460 for owner-breeder William Butler and his partner, WinStar Farm.
A daughter of 2018 Xpressbet Florida Derby (USA-G1) winner Audible (by Into Mischief), My Mane Squeeze is a fifth-generation descendant of 1969 Canadian Oaks winner Cool Mood. A daughter of Northern Dancer out of 1954 Acorn Stakes winner Happy Mood, by Mahmoud, Cool Mood was inbred 4x2 to Mahmoud and had a good bit of the toughness and soundness associated with that sire’s progeny, making 41 starts over three seasons of racing. As a producer, she distinguished herself by throwing two Canadian Broodmares of the Year in Shy Spirit (by Personality) and Passing Mood (by Buckpasser). Together, these two half sisters accounted for Canadian Triple Crown winners With Approval (Caro x Passing Mood) and Izvestia (Icecapade x Shy Spirit) and six other stakes winners.
Cool Mood had three other stakes-producing daughters, among them the 1977 Apalachee mare Moody Maiden. Much less talented than her dam, Moody Maiden won just one of her 16 starts. She produced six winners from her nine foals with the last of them, the Tejabo filly Nothing Special, proving to be an improvement on her name. In a 30-start career, Nothing Special won a restricted stakes race at Laurel, placed in six other stakes races including the 1999 Barbara Fritchie Handicap (USA-G2), and earned US$266,590. In addition to that, Nothing Special improved on her dam’s produce record with eight winners from her 11 foals, including 2010 Jockey Club Gold Cup (USA-G1) winner Haynesfield (by Speightstown).
Mama Theresa, Nothing Special’s 2003 filly by Carson City, wasn’t a patch on Haynesfield, but she placed in a couple of stakes for New York-breds and amassed earnings of US$240,898 during a 25-start career, good enough to rank her as the second best of her dam’s runners. As such, she was a good bargain for Butler, who paid US$65,000 for her at the 2005 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Spring sale of 2-year-olds in training. Since the end of her racing career, Mama Theresa has produced seven New York-bred winners for Butler that have collectively earned US$1,122,285 in purses, not to mention awards from the New York-bred program. The best of the group on the track is the 2017 Freud mare A Freud of Mama, the winner of two New York-bred stakes and third in the 2019 Matron Stakes (USA-G3). Three of Mama Theresa’s daughters have produced winners for Butler including In Spite of Mama (by Speightstown), who produced six-time New York-bred stakes winner Rotknee (by Runhappy) as her second foal and My Mane Squeeze as her fourth.
As a prospective foundation mare, Mama Theresa would not have garnered any interest from a big-name program, but for a regional breeder like Butler, she is a jewel: a consistent producer of winners and of daughters that can produce winners. That two of her daughters are now stakes producers, with one the dam of a multiple graded stakes winner, is icing on a very sweet cake. Add in the fact that My Mane Squeeze will very likely become a millionaire in her next start, and it seems safe to say that, in New York at least, a family that began with a cool mood has become quite hot.
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