Plum Pretty (USA)
March 4, 2008 – 2023
Medaglia d’Oro (USA) x Liszy (USA), by A.P. Indy (USA)
Family 8-g
March 4, 2008 – 2023
Medaglia d’Oro (USA) x Liszy (USA), by A.P. Indy (USA)
Family 8-g
An ugly duckling who took some time to grow into finished shape, Plum Pretty looked very good indeed when she took the 2011 Kentucky Oaks (USA-G1) by a neck from a good field. She trained on after that win to collect two more trophies in graded stakes before being sold as a multimillion dollar broodmare prospect. Thus far, she has been a better racer than broodmare.
Race record
12 starts, 5 wins, 2 seconds, 3 thirds, US$1,688,746
2011:
2012:
Honors
Assessments
Rated at 117 pounds on the 2011 Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings for her performances in the Kentucky Oaks and Cotillion Stakes, 15 pounds below top-rated filly or mare Black Caviar (an unbeaten superstar in Australia) and 2 pounds below Eclipse Award winner Royal Delta (who earned her rating in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic, USA-G1) among 3-year-old fillies on dirt.
Rated at 115 pounds on the 2012 Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings for her performance in the Apple Blossom Handicap, 15 pounds below top-rated filly or mare Black Caviar and 6 pounds below American champion older female Royal Delta and American champion female sprinter Groupie Doll among older females on dirt.
As an individual
An unattractive youngster who took time to fill out her frame and had a rather rambunctious disposition, Plum Pretty matured into a good-sized, well-balanced bay mare with good overall conformation, Those who have known her well have testified to her mental maturation as well, describing her as intelligent with a kind nature. Plum Pretty tended to tuck up hard when in active training. She did not quite stay 10 furlongs.
As a producer
As of May 17, 2024, Plum Pretty has produced six named foals of racing age. Four have started, but only her 2015 War Front filly, Pretty at War, has won.
Connections
Foaled at Walnut Green Farm in Pennsylvania, Plum Pretty was bred by Silent Indy Stables and DDS Stables. A US$130,000 purchase from the 2010 Ocala Breeders’ Sales March sale of two-year-olds in training after going unsold at two previous yearling sales, she was owned by John Fort’s Peachtree Stable. She was trained by Bob Baffert and was ridden to her Kentucky Oaks score by Martin Garcia. In November 2012, Plum Pretty was consigned to the Keeneland November mixed sale and was purchased by Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm for US$4.2 million. Her death was reported to the Jockey Club in 2023.
Pedigree notes
Plum Pretty is inbred 4x4 to 1967 American Horse of the Year Damascus and 1969 American champion 2-year-old male Silent Screen through her sire’s dam, Cappucino Bay, and her second dam, Silent Account, both of whom are by sons of Damascus out of Silent Screen mares. The Oaks winner is out of Liszy, an unplaced half sister to multiple juvenile stakes winner Gold Case (by Forty Niner) and to In the Till (by Mr. Prospector), second dam of multiple Grade 3 winner Conveyance.
Liszy is out of 1985 Alcibiades Stakes (USA-G2) winner Silent Account (by Private Account), a full sister to 1989 Arlington-Washington Futurity (USA-G1) winner Secret Hello and to listed stakes winner By Your Leave. Silent Account is also a half sister to English juvenile Group 3 winner Hadif (by Clever Trick) and to Hamba (by Easy Goer), dam of 2008 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (USA-G1) winner Monba (by Maria’s Mon).
Silent Account and her siblings were produced from Grade 3-placed juvenile stakes winner Ciao, a daughter of Silent Screen. The next dam in Plum Pretty’s tail-female line is stakes-placed Ave Valeque (by Bold Ruler out of 1957 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes winner Pillow Talk), whose half sister No Comment (by Nashua) is the second dam of 1979 Young America Stakes (USA-G1) winner Koluctoo Bay (by Creme dela Creme). The female line traces back to the 20th-century foundation mare Alcibiades.
Books and media
A Blood-Horse video of Plum Pretty from the “Stars of the Oaks” series released on April 21, 2014, can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=243NXG6fNAE.
Fun facts:
Photo credit
Photo taken by Jessica Morgan at the 2012 Keeneland November sale, Used by permission.
Last updated: May 17, 2024
Race record
12 starts, 5 wins, 2 seconds, 3 thirds, US$1,688,746
2011:
- Won Kentucky Oaks (USA-G1, 9FD, Churchill Downs)
- Won Cotillion Stakes (USA-G2, 8.5FD, Parx Racing)
- Won Sunland Park Oaks (USA-L, 8.5FD, Sunland Park)
- 2nd Coaching Club American Oaks (USA-G1, 9FD, Saratoga)
- 2nd Hollywood Oaks (USA-G2, 8.5FA, Hollywood)
- 3rd Las Virgenes Stakes (USA-G1, 8FD, Santa Anita)
- 3rd Santa Ynez Stakes (USA-G2, 7FD, Santa Anita)
2012:
- Won Apple Blossom Stakes (USA-G1, 8.5FD, Oaklawn Park)
- 3rd La Troienne Stakes (USA-G2, 8.5FD, Churchill Downs)
Honors
- Eclipse Award finalist, American champion 3-year-old filly (2011)
- Pennsylvania-bred Horse of the Year (2011)
- Pennsylvania-bred champion 3-year-old filly (2011)
- Pennsylvania-bred champion older female (2012)
Assessments
Rated at 117 pounds on the 2011 Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings for her performances in the Kentucky Oaks and Cotillion Stakes, 15 pounds below top-rated filly or mare Black Caviar (an unbeaten superstar in Australia) and 2 pounds below Eclipse Award winner Royal Delta (who earned her rating in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic, USA-G1) among 3-year-old fillies on dirt.
Rated at 115 pounds on the 2012 Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings for her performance in the Apple Blossom Handicap, 15 pounds below top-rated filly or mare Black Caviar and 6 pounds below American champion older female Royal Delta and American champion female sprinter Groupie Doll among older females on dirt.
As an individual
An unattractive youngster who took time to fill out her frame and had a rather rambunctious disposition, Plum Pretty matured into a good-sized, well-balanced bay mare with good overall conformation, Those who have known her well have testified to her mental maturation as well, describing her as intelligent with a kind nature. Plum Pretty tended to tuck up hard when in active training. She did not quite stay 10 furlongs.
As a producer
As of May 17, 2024, Plum Pretty has produced six named foals of racing age. Four have started, but only her 2015 War Front filly, Pretty at War, has won.
Connections
Foaled at Walnut Green Farm in Pennsylvania, Plum Pretty was bred by Silent Indy Stables and DDS Stables. A US$130,000 purchase from the 2010 Ocala Breeders’ Sales March sale of two-year-olds in training after going unsold at two previous yearling sales, she was owned by John Fort’s Peachtree Stable. She was trained by Bob Baffert and was ridden to her Kentucky Oaks score by Martin Garcia. In November 2012, Plum Pretty was consigned to the Keeneland November mixed sale and was purchased by Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm for US$4.2 million. Her death was reported to the Jockey Club in 2023.
Pedigree notes
Plum Pretty is inbred 4x4 to 1967 American Horse of the Year Damascus and 1969 American champion 2-year-old male Silent Screen through her sire’s dam, Cappucino Bay, and her second dam, Silent Account, both of whom are by sons of Damascus out of Silent Screen mares. The Oaks winner is out of Liszy, an unplaced half sister to multiple juvenile stakes winner Gold Case (by Forty Niner) and to In the Till (by Mr. Prospector), second dam of multiple Grade 3 winner Conveyance.
Liszy is out of 1985 Alcibiades Stakes (USA-G2) winner Silent Account (by Private Account), a full sister to 1989 Arlington-Washington Futurity (USA-G1) winner Secret Hello and to listed stakes winner By Your Leave. Silent Account is also a half sister to English juvenile Group 3 winner Hadif (by Clever Trick) and to Hamba (by Easy Goer), dam of 2008 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (USA-G1) winner Monba (by Maria’s Mon).
Silent Account and her siblings were produced from Grade 3-placed juvenile stakes winner Ciao, a daughter of Silent Screen. The next dam in Plum Pretty’s tail-female line is stakes-placed Ave Valeque (by Bold Ruler out of 1957 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes winner Pillow Talk), whose half sister No Comment (by Nashua) is the second dam of 1979 Young America Stakes (USA-G1) winner Koluctoo Bay (by Creme dela Creme). The female line traces back to the 20th-century foundation mare Alcibiades.
Books and media
A Blood-Horse video of Plum Pretty from the “Stars of the Oaks” series released on April 21, 2014, can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=243NXG6fNAE.
Fun facts:
- Plum Pretty was gawky and unfurnished enough as an early two-year-old that when trainer Bob Baffert first looked at her, he jestingly asked owner John Fort if he had gotten the filly’s name wrong and it was actually “Plum Ugly” instead. Besides not having enough muscle to be properly filled out, the filly was carrying too much fat and was troubled with sore hocks, giving her an awkward gait.
- A good amateur polo player, John Fort spent three years in the racing game before he ever paid more than US$1,000 for a horse. He got his early foundation in the horse business in buying off-track Thoroughbreds and retraining them to be sold for modest profits as riding horses or potential polo ponies and also spent some time working for Calumet Farm, learning about the care and training of racehorses from the ground up before continuing to work his way up as an independent owner-breeder.
- Plum Pretty first came on the radar as a Kentucky Oaks candidate when she won the Sunland Park Oaks by a stakes-record 25 lengths.
- Plum Pretty was paraded in the paddock at Keeneland prior to the fifth race on October 14, 2012, giving fans a chance to meet and say farewell to the Oaks winner. Female fans who wore purple to the track were given “I’m Plum Pretty” buttons and were entered in a drawing to win both a photograph session with the filly and the halter Plum Pretty wore for the occasion. As part of the festivities, special Plum Pretty purple sundaes and cookies were sold through a designated concession stand.
- Plum Pretty was the namesake for a stakes race for fillies and mares aged 3 and up at Parx Racing.
Photo credit
Photo taken by Jessica Morgan at the 2012 Keeneland November sale, Used by permission.
Last updated: May 17, 2024