Next Move winning the 1950 CCA Oaks. From the private collection of Dale Wyatt; used by permission.
One of a duo of champion fillies from Alfred Vanderbilt's Sagamore Farm, Next Move was a good-sized filly who towered over the smaller, more refined Bed o' Roses. On the track, however, there was little to choose between the two once Next Move came into her own as a 3-year-old. Unlike her stablemate, Next Move lived to enjoy some success as a broodmare following her retirement from racing.
Race record
46 starts, 17 wins, 11 seconds, 3 thirds, US$398,550
1949:
- 2nd Demoiselle Stakes (USA, 8.5FD, Empire City)
- 2nd Autumn Day Stakes (USA, 6FD, Empire City)
1950:
- Won Coaching Club American Oaks (USA, 11FD, Belmont)
- Won Beldame Handicap (USA, 9FD, Aqueduct)
- Won Cinderella Stakes (USA, 8.5FD, Hollywood)
- Won Ladies Handicap (USA, 12FD, Belmont)
- Won Vanity Handicap (USA, 9FD, Hollywood)
- Won Delaware Oaks (USA, 9FD, Delaware)
- Won Gazelle Stakes (USA, 8.5FD, Aqueduct)
- Won Prioress S. (USA, 6FD, Jamaica)
- 2nd Sunset Handicap (USA, 9FD, Hollywood)
- 2nd Golden State Breeders' Handicap (USA, 8.5FD, Hollywood)
- 2nd Alabama Stakes (USA, 10FD, Saratoga)
- 2nd Acorn Stakes (USA, 8FD, Belmont)
- 3rd Cleopatra Handicap (USA, 8FD, Arlington Park)
1951:
- Won Las Flores Handicap (USA, 6FD, Santa Anita)
- 2nd Santa Anita Handicap (USA, 10FD, Santa Anita)
- 3rd San Antonio Handicap (USA, 9FD, Santa Anita)
- 3rd Firenze Handicap (USA, 9FD, Jamaica)
1952:
- Won Beldame Handicap (first division) (USA, 9FD, Aqueduct)
- Won Firenze Handicap (USA, 9FD, Jamaica)
- Won Bay Shore Handicap (USA, 7FD, Aqueduct)
- 2nd Santa Margarita Handicap (USA, 9FD, Santa Anita)
- 2nd Santa Maria Handicap (USA, 8FD, Santa Anita)
Honors
- American champion 3-year-old filly (1950)
- American co-champion handicap female (1952)
Assessments
Ranked second among American older females of 1951 by The Blood-Horse.
As an individual
A rangy, rather masculine-looking brown mare standing 16 hands, Next Move had good rein length, a strong shoulder and powerful hindquarters with straight, strong hind legs. She was muscular in build, though her bone was perhaps a little light. Her pasterns were on the long side, but her gait was fluid, light and graceful, and she won over distances from 6 to 12 furlongs. Next Move had a stubborn and cantankerous disposition which sometimes cost her races she might have won.
As a producer
Next Move produced eight named foals, of which seven started and six won. Her important foals are as follow:
- Good Move (1958, by Native Dancer) won the 1960 Spinaway Stakes and Selima Stakes, the latter in track record time. She produced only one foal, the stakes-placed gelding Heathen Ways.
- Restless Native (1960, by Native Dancer) won two of his three starts. He was a fairly useful sire, his 18 stakes winners including Grade I winners Restless Con and Twixt.
- Second the Motion (1965, by Turn-to) is the third dam of 1993 Canadian Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year Peteski.
- Feet First (1968, by Native Dancer) is the dam of steeplechase stakes winner Step Together (by Big Spruce) and is the second dam of four stakes winners including Italian Group II winner Pracer. She is also the third dam of Canadian Grade III winner Orchid's Silver and of French Group III winner Quel Senor, who won the 2001 Breeders' Cup Steeplechase Stakes (NSA-I) after being brought to the United States and converted to jumps racing.
Connections
Foaled in California, Next Move was bred and owned by Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt. She was trained by Bill Winfrey. She died in 1968 and was buried at Vanderbilt's Sagamore Farm.
Pedigree notes
Next Move is outcrossed through five generations. She is a half sister to Sea-Change (by Count Fleet), dam of 1963 Gotham Stakes winner Debbysman (by Princequillo) and second dam of 1974 Prix Saint-Alary (FR-I) winner Comtesse de Loir. Sea-Change is also the third dam of 1982 Brooklyn Handicap (USA-I) winner Silver Supreme; of Grade II winners Heron Cove and Capichi; and of French listed stakes winner Pasadoble, dam of the great Miesque. Returning to Next Move, she is also a half sister to Now and Again (by Bahram), dam of 1956 Barbara Frietchie Handicap winner Sometime Thing (by Discovery) and third dam of Grade III winners Boomie S. and Marauding, and to When in Rome (by Roman), third dam of 1982 Beldame Stakes (USA-I) winner Weber City Miss..
Next Move is out of 1939 American champion 2-year-old filly Now What, whose half sister That's Mine (by Phalaros) produced juvenile stakes winner Madie Greenock (by Greenock). Now What, in turn, is out of That's That (by High Time), a full sister to two-time American Horse of the Year Sarazen and to stakes winner Adolphus.
That's That was produced from Rush Box (by 1900 Carter Handicap winner Box), who at one point in her life was so little thought of that she was reportedly put to farm work after changing hands for US$50. Rush Box, in turn, was produced from the Singleton mare Sallie Ward, whose dam Belle Nutter was sired by Faraday, a stakes-winning son of Himyar.
Books and media
- Next Move's rivalry with Bed o' Roses was featured as the seventh chapter of Horse Racing's Greatest Rivalries (2008, Eclipse Press), a compilation produced by the staff of The Blood-Horse.
- Next Move is profiled in Chapter 8 of Avalyn Hunter's American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002 (2003, Eclipse Press).
Fun facts
- Next Move was foaled in California because her dam Now What had been shipped to Louis B. Mayer's breeding farm in that state to be bred to Beau Pere after the delivery of her Bull Lea foal.
- The Next Move Handicap was inaugurated in 1975. A Grade III race for fillies and mares aged 3 and up, it was last contested in 2009.