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Pike Place Dancer (USA)

February 16, 1993 – 2017

Seattle Dancer (USA) x Vana Turns (USA), by Wavering Monarch (USA)

Family 1-x


Picture
​Pike Place Dancer was good enough to beat colts in the 1996 California Derby (USA-G3) on turf and eventual champion Escena in the Kentucky Oaks (USA-G1) on dirt but suffered a career-ending injury in the middle of her 3-year-old season, ending any aspirations for a championship. She was a much better racer than producer.


Race record

8 starts, 6 wins, 0 seconds, 1 third, US$578,682


1996:
  • Won Kentucky Oaks (USA-G1, 9FD, Churchill Downs)
  • Won California Derby (USA-G3, 9FT, Golden Gate)
  • Won San Jose Stakes (USA-L, 8.5FT, Bay Meadows)
  • Won Opening Bid Stakes (USA-R, 8FT, Santa Anita)
  • 3rd Princess Stakes (USA-G2, 8.5FD, Hollywood)


As an individual

A big, rather masculine dark bay mare, Pike Place Dancer had high withers. She typically came running from off the pace. She had a long, smooth stride.


As a producer

Pike Place Dancer produced 13 named foals, of which 10 started and six won. Her only foal to achieve any significance thus far is the winning Rahy mare Class Selection, dam of Group 3-placed Brazilian listed stakes winner Super Julia (by Proud Citizen).



Connections

Foaled in Kentucky, Pike Place Dancer was bred by Glencrest Farm. She was owned by Jerry Hollendorfer (who also trained her) and Dr. George Todaro. She was ridden to her Kentucky Oaks score by Corey Nakatani. Following her racing career, Pike Place Dancer was sold for US$1.65 million at the 1998 Keeneland January mixed sale. She produced her first four foals for TAC Holdings and her next four for Donald and Donna Adams’ Courtlandt Farm. After a barren year, she was consigned to the 2009 Keeneland November mixed sale, where she sold for US$25,000 (covered by More Than Ready) to Phyllis Adair. She then went back to the auction ring at the 2011 Keeneland January mixed sale and sold for US$27,000 (covered by Fusaichi Pegasus) to Bluegrass Hall. After producing the Fusaichi Pegasus colt Pegasus Protocol, Pike Place Dancer passed to the ownership of Calumet Farm, which bred her last three foals.



Pedigree notes

Sired by the Group 2-winning Nijinsky II horse Seattle Dancer (a half brother to Seattle Slew and a world-record US$13.1 million auction yearling), Pike Place Dancer is inbred 5x5 to five-time American champion sire Nasrullah, also a champion sire on the English/Irish list. She is a half sister to 1995 Ohio Derby (USA-G2) winner Petionville (by Seeking the Gold), who proved a useful breed-to-race sire, and to French listed stakes winner Midnight Foxtrot (by Kingmambo).


Pike Place Dancer and her siblings were produced from multiple stakes winner Vana Turns (by Wavering Monarch), whose Miswaki half sister Monadis is the second dam of two-time Spanish champion sprinter Totxo. Vana Turns, in turn, is out of Grade 3 winner The Wheel Turns (by Big Burn), a half sister to stakes winner Queen for the Day (by King Emperor). Produced from the Mangayte mare Manina, The Wheel Turns belongs to a lesser branch of the family of Big Hurry, in turn one of the major branches of the family of the great matriarch La Troienne.


Books and media

Pike Place Dancer is profiled in Chapter 12 of Avalyn Hunter’s American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002 (Eclipse Press).


Fun facts
  • Pike Place Dancer was the first filly to win the California Derby since Miz Clementine in 1954.
  • The Pike Place Dancer Stakes was a race for 2-year-old fillies at Golden Gate Fields. It was last run in 2019.
​

Photo credits

Top: Photo taken by Jessica Morgan at the 2011 Keeneland January mixed sale. Used by permission,

Bottom: Photo taken by Jessica Morgan at the 2011 Keeneland January mixed sale. Used by permission.
​
Picture

​Last updated: January 16, 2021
© 2014-2023 by Avalyn Hunter. All rights reserved. Contributors' materials remain the property of the copyright owners and are used by permission.

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