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Mares on Monday: A Sublime Finish to 2025 in Chile

12/29/2025

Chile’s Las Oaks (CHI-G1) is usually the last Classic race of the year in the Western Hemisphere. This year’s edition went off on December 26 at Club Hípico de Santiago, and Noche Sublime concluded 2025 with a flourish by galloping home three lengths in front of dual Chilean Group 1 winner Eccentric after a brief tussle at mid-stretch. Bred by Haras Don Alberto, the daughter of 2017 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (USA-G1) winner Mendelssohn gave him his fourth Group 1 winner of the year and padded his lead in the 2025 Chilean sire standings, making it all but certain that Mendelssohn will be crowned the country’s champion sire.

Noche Sublime is the seventh named foal produced from the stakes-placed winner Noche Clasica, whose sire Indy Dancer (by A.P. Indy) ran third in the 2003 Florida Derby (USA-G1) and ranked seven times among Chile’s top 10 sires before dying earlier this year. A full sister to 2008 Premio Selección de Potrillos (CHI-G3) winner Indiscutable, Noche Clasica is also a half sister to Plaza de Mayo (by More Royal), dam of 2011 Premio Carlos Campino (CHI-G2) winner Indy May (by Indy Dancer) and multiple Chilean Group 3 winner Indy Noble (by Indy Dancer).

Noche Clasica and her siblings are out of the winner Noche de Mayo, a daughter of the winning Nijinsky II horse Dancing Groom. Noche de Mayo, in turn, is out of Nobleness, a winning daughter of the winning Nureyev horse Nureyev Dancer. A half sister to Chilean stakes winner Mendelson (by Mr. Long), Nobleness was produced from Elegantosa (by the Chilean stallion Ghirlandao), a half sister to 1983 Paddock Stakes (CHI-G3) winner Touch of Class (by Mr. Long). The female line traces back to the great English matron Feola, whose daughters had marked success in Europe and also introduced branches of this family to the United States (via Knight’s Daughter, dam of the great Round Table and Claiborne foundation mare Monarchy) and Argentina (via Starling, dam of three-time Argentine champion sire Sideral and 1953 Argentine champion 3-year-old filly Siderea).

Noche Sublime was registering only her second win in seven starts in Las Oaks, but the dominance of her victory suggests that better things may be in store for her and for owner Stud Doña Lili. Assuming she remains in training in 2026, she should be one to watch for in Chile’s remaining Classic events.

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Mares on Monday: Reading the Rose Leaves for Peruvian Group 1 Winner Maria Luisa

12/22/2025

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The Premio Gran National Augusto B. Leguia (PER-G1) is the last top-level race of the calendar year for Peruvian 3-year-olds and is the country’s closest equivalent to England’s Derby Stakes as it is contested over 2400 meters on turf. This year, it drew a field of 10, with Radoslav and Compasión both coming in off Group 2 wins over the Hipódromo de Monterrico turf course, but neither proved equal to the challenge. Instead, the filly Maria Luisa flew the target from the outset and hung on gamely to hold off Argentine-bred Puppi’s Husband by a diminishing head.

While Maria Luisa was bred in Peru and upheld the honor of the home team, her five-generation pedigree shows only one ancestor bred anywhere in South America. Bred and owned by Stud Benedicta, Maria Luisa is by Irish-bred Singe the Turf, a product of Jim Bolger’s remarkable breeding program. How much talent Singe the Turf had is open to question, as the son of Galileo and stakes winner Affianced (by multiple Grade 1 winner Erins Isle) won at first asking in his only start at two, defeating future multiple Group 1 winner Declaration of War by six lengths. That seemed highly promising, but Singe the Turf finished off the board in his first outing at 3 and never ran again. As a full brother to 2007 Irish Derby (IRE-G1) winner Soldier of Fortune and Group 3 winner Heliostatic, he had plenty of pedigree for the export market. He was sent to Peru in 2013 and has stood at Haras Rancho Fatima since then. His top runners include Peruvian champions Don Feres and Saudita, but Maria Luisa is his first Group 1 winner.

Maria Luisa was produced from Peruvian-bred Candynsky, whose sire Bandini (by Fusaichi Pegasus) won the 2005 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (USA-G1) and 2006 Skip Away Handicap (USA-G3) and set track records for 7 furlongs and a mile at Gulfstream Park. A winner on the track, Candynsky is out of unraced Wings of Song (by Unbridled’s Song), whose half sister Somalia (by Mineshaft) is the dam of Canadian Grade 3 winners Lookin for Eight (by Lookin At Lucky) and Miss Mo Mentum (by Uncle Mo) as well as stakes winner Disco Pharoah (by American Pharoah).

Wings of Song and Somalia are out of multiple stakes-placed Cosmic Wing (by Halo), a half sister to Grade 3-placed stakes winner Charley Tango (by Maria’s Mon) and to Myrtle Beach (by Kingmambo), dam of Grade 1-placed multiple listed stakes winner Barcola (by Old Trieste). Produced from 1992 Pucker Up Stakes (USA-G3) winner Ziggy’s Act (by Danzig), Cosmic Wing is also a half sister to Issaqueena (by Mr. Prospector), dam of 2009 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile Stakes (USA-G2) winner Tizaqueena (by Tiznow) and listed stakes winner New Trails (by Medaglia d’Oro), and to Miss Carolina (by Unbridled), whose son Bow Beaver was a multiple champion in Saudi Arabia. In addition, Cosmic Wing is a half sister to Saratoga Summer (by Smart Strike), dam of 2017 Orchid Stakes (USA-G3) winner Summersault (by Rock Hard Ten). The female line traces back to Summer Time, a full sister to five-time American champion sire Bull Lea.

The Peruvian breeding industry produces only a few hundred Thoroughbred foals annually. Ordinarily, that would mean that it would be nearly impossible to judge how good Maria Luisa actually is unless she left her native land to go raiding in Argentina, Brazil, or Chile. But in 2026, the best racehorses of South America will come to her as the Group 1 Gran Premio Latinoamericano (which rotates between South America’s major tracks) will be run at Monterrico to coincide with the 80th anniversary celebration of the Jockey Club del Perú---and in 2024, when the Latinoamericano was last run in Peru, Peruvian-based Manyuz made off with the prize. To be sure, Manyuz was Kentucky-bred, and a Peruvian-bred has not won the Latinoamericano since 2015, when Peruvian Horse of the Year Liberal came to Argentina’s Palermo track and won over multiple Argentine Group 1 winner Dont Worry. Still, the filly has now established home field advantage, and a win for her would do much to enhance Peru’s prestige in South American Thoroughbred circles. It has happened before, and it could happen again.

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Mares on Monday: Obataye Earns Pellegrini Victory Wreath for The Garden Club

12/15/2025

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Mid-December marks the time for one of Argentina’s biggest racing weekends. Featuring four Group 1 races including the nation’s most important all-aged race, the Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini-Internacional, it invariably draws the nation’s best turf runners to Hipódromo de San Isidro near Buenos Aires. It also draws some good foreign raiders, and this year the Pellegrini fell to Brazil’s top older male, Obataye. The last-out winner of the Grande Prêmio Gran Premio Latinoamericano (BRZ-G1) at Gávea over top challengers from South America’s other racing nations, Obataye cemented his standing as the top turf horse on the continent by leaving his opposition for dead with a sharp burst of speed at mid-stretch and coming home by a measured length and a half. The runner-up, Argentine hopeful The Gladiator’s Hat, was coming in off a win in the Gran Premio Dardo Rocha-Internacional (ARG-G1) and made a powerful stretch move of his own but could not match the winner, who now owns a “Win and You’re In” slot for the 2026 Breeders’ Cup Turf (USA-G1).

Whether Obataye will make the trip or not is open to question: he will be a Southern Hemisphere 6-year-old by then, and between the wear and tear of further racing and the temptation to retire him to stud for the 2026 Southern Hemisphere breeding season, it is long odds that he will ever make it to the Breeders’ Cup even if owner Haras Rio Iguassu is willing to consider the Turf as a goal. (For what it is worth, he also had a “Win and You’re In” spot in 2024 after winning the Grande Prêmio Brasil, BRZ-G1, and did not come.) If he does come, however, he will be coming full circle to the land of his ancestors, for he descends from North American-bred horses in both his tail-male and tail-female lines. Sired by Courtier, a Juddmonte Farms-bred son of Pioneerof the Nile who currently leads the Brazilian sire standings for the 2025/26 season, Obataye is a fifth-generation descendant of The Garden Club, a mare carrying the rich heritage of one of Ogden Phipps’s best families.

Foaled in 1966, The Garden Club was sired by the imported French champion Herbager (then standing at Claiborne Farm, where the Phipps family has long boarded its mares) out of 1962 Adirondack Stakes winner Fashion Verdict. A half sister to two stakes winners and to 1965 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes runner-up Dapper Dan. Fashion Verdict is a granddaughter of Phipps foundation mare Striking, a stakes winner in her own right and a full sister to 1945 American Horse of the Year Busher. The female line traces back to La Troienne, the queen of 20th-century American matriarchs.

Despite her regal heritage, The Garden Club was only a moderate race mare, winning three of her 15 starts, and was culled from the Phipps breeding program. Eventually, she ended up in the hands of William S. Farish, for whom she produced 1981 Delaware Oaks (USA-G2) winner Up the Flagpole (by Hoist the Flag), multiple Grade 3 winner Nostalgia (by Silent Screen), and stakes winner Blushing Cathy (by Blushing Groom). Up the Flagpole, in turn, produced seven stakes winners, including Grade/Group 1 winners and important broodmares Prospectors Delite, Flagbird, and Runup the Colors, and is the granddam of 2003 American Horse of the Year Mineshaft.

The last of The Garden Club’s 12 foals was the 1986 Mr. Prospector filly Hidden Garden, who won three of her nine starts but did not earn black type. As a broodmare for Farish, she produced multiple Grade 3 winner Jazz Club (by Dixieland Band) and stakes-placed Garden Spot (by Danzig), both bred in partnership with Joseph Jamail. For the same partners, Hidden Garden produced Hidden Storm, a 1997 Storm Cat filly that never raced.

Hidden Storm produced six foals, none of which were particularly distinguished as racers, and neither of her daughters remained on American shores. Queen of France (by Danehill), who was stakes-placed in Ireland as a 4-year-old, remained in Ireland for her breeding career, producing three winners from six foals. Parisian Commune, an Unbridled’s Song filly who never raced, was sent to Brazil and ended up at Haras São José do Bom Retiro, where she produced 2017 Grande Prêmio Gervasio Seabra (BRZ-G2) winner Gargalo’s Hill’s to the cover of Roderic O’Connor. She is also the dam of unraced Surfi’n Usa (by the multiple Group 2-winning Sadler’s Wells horse Crimson Tide), who produced Obataye as her fourth foal.

Surfi’n Usa has since produced the unraced 4-year-old filly Paris Toujours (by the Uncle Mo horse Rally Cry), the unraced juvenile filly Rocket Talks (by Garbo Talks, a Group 1-winning son of two-time Brazilian champion sire Put It Back), and the yearling filly Surfi’n Bird (by Garbo Talks), so she will have a decent chance of extending this Brazilian branch of The Garden Club’s family further. As for Obataye, it is hard to gauge how he might stack up for a North American venture. Generally speaking, the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings have typically rated the best South American runner of a given year 10 pounds or more below the top North American and European runners, but we do have the examples of Siphon (BRZ), Riboletta (BRZ), Redattore (BRZ), Bal a Bali (BRZ), and Ivar (BRZ), among others, to show that Brazilian horses can compete successfully at the Grade 1 level in the United States given time to acclimate to Northern Hemisphere conditions. Whether Obataye will be given the chance to prove that he belongs in that group is a question for the future; for now, he appears to be the undisputed champion of his continent, and that is no small distinction to add to the record of his superb family.

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Mares on Monday: A Champion's Heart in Japan

12/8/2025

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Saturday’s Champions Cup (JPN-G1) at Chukyo came down to a desperate head bob as W Heart Bond, who had taken the lead in the stretch, tried to stave off Wilson Tesoro’s charge up the rail. She succeeded by a flaring nostril, gaining her first Group 1 win. She also became the first third-generation member of the family of 1994 American champion 3-year-old filly Heavenly Prize to win a top-level race, enhancing an already noteworthy produce record for one of the best of the Phipps family’s parade of fine racehorses.

Sired by the excellent racehorse and stallion Seeking the Gold from Oh What a Dance, a Nijinsky II daughter of Phipps foundation mare Blitey, Heavenly Prize first came to national attention when she won the 1993 Frizette Stakes (USA-G1) by seven lengths in only her second lifetime start. That she was in the race at all testifies to the confidence that trainer Claude “Shug” McGaughey had in her talent, as the beaten field included Strategic Maneuver, winner of the Spinaway Stakes (USA-G1) and Matron Stakes (USA-G1).

Sent to Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (USA-G1), Heavenly Prize could not quite handle American champion juvenile filly Phone Chatter or eventual Kentucky Oaks (USA-G1) winner Sardula, settling for third. Brought along patiently as a 3-year-old, she took until the Saratoga meeting to find her best form, but when she did, she did so with a vengeance. She did not quite have the foot to run down the speedy Twist Afleet and Penny’s Reshoot in the seven-furlong Test Stakes (USA-G1), but stretched out to 10 furlongs for the Alabama Stakes (USA-G1) three weeks later, she turned in a monstrous effort to win by seven lengths over Lakeway.

With four Grade 1 wins and a narrow loss in the Kentucky Oaks to her credit, Lakeway had been the divisional leader to that point, but Heavenly Prize was now rolling and ready to stake her own claim to championship honors. She won the Gazelle Handicap (USA-G1) by 6½ lengths against her own division; then, after scaring off all but three rivals for the Beldame Stakes (USA-G1) at weight for age, she ran away from her Grade 1-winning stablemate Educated Risk (a 4-year-old) by six lengths. In the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (USA-G1), Heavenly Prize just failed to run down the speedy One Dreamer, who had gotten away with an uncontested lead and held on for a 47-1 upset. Nevertheless, with both 1993 American champion 3-year-old filly Hollywood Wildcat and the year’s champion older female, Sky Beauty, in the beaten field, there was little doubt as to the voters’ choice for the 3-year-old filly Eclipse Award. Heavenly Prize took home the statuette.

At 4, Heavenly Prize won four consecutive Grade 1 races, culminating in an 8½-length romp in the John A. Morris Stakes at Saratoga, but season-ending losses to champion 3-year-old filly Serena’s Song in the Beldame Stakes and to stablemate Inside Information (who beat her by 13½ lengths) in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff ended her quest for a second Eclipse Award. Kept in training for a crack at the males in the 1996 Donn Handicap (USA-G1), Heavenly Prize was a respectable third behind defending American Horse of the Year Cigar and then retired to the paddocks having won half her 18 starts and run second or third in the remaining nine. Her record earned her induction into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2018.

Heavenly Prize did very well as a matron, producing two-time Grade 1 winner Good Reward and 2002 Kentucky Cup Classic Handicap (USA-G2) winner Pure Prize to covers by Storm Cat and stakes winner Cosmic to a cover by El Prado. Of the three, Pure Prize has had the greatest long-term importance, leading the Argentine general sire list twice. Heavenly Prize is also the maternal granddam of two Grade 1 winners. One, 2020 Manhattan Stakes winner Instilled Regard (by Arch), was produced from Enhancing (by the good Storm Cat horse Forestry). The other, Persistently (by Smoke Glacken out of Just Reward, by Deputy Minister) won the 2010 Personal Ensign Stakes and was purchased privately for Japan’s Northern Farm. W Heart Bond, a 2021 daughter of 2013 Japanese champion 3-year-old male Kizuna, is Persistently’s sixth named foal.

W Heart Bond (pronounced “Double Heart Bond” in Japan) gets her name from her unusual star, which resembles two linked hearts. Now the winner of six of seven starts, her future as a racehorse has not yet been announced, Nevertheless, she has already proved herself a worthy heiress to a champion’s legacy, with a champion’s heart to match.

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Mares on Monday: Antonoe Doubles Down on Grade 1 Glory

12/1/2025

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Because good mares produce far fewer foals during the course of their breeding careers than do good stallions; it is uncommon for a mare to have two Grade/Group 1 winners during a single racing year. It is even rarer for a mare to have two of her foals earn top-level wins over the course of a single weekend. That is what Antonoe accomplished on November 29 and 30 at Del Mar through her 3-year-old son Salamis (by Speightstown) and her 4-year-old daughter Segesta (by Ghostzapper). Less than 24 hours after Salamis claimed the Hollywood Derby with a determined stretch run, Segesta completed the double in the Matriarch Stakes. Both siblings were claiming their first wins at the Grade 1 level.

Antonoe is no stranger to Grade 1 glory herself, having captured the 2017 Longines Just a Game Stakes (USA-G1) during her own racing days. Sired by 2008 Forego Stakes (USA-G1) winner First Defence (who was exported to Saudi Arabia in the same year as Antonoe’s big win), she is the best of five foals produced from the unraced Dynaformer mare Ixora.

Ixora is a half sister to English listed stakes winner Posteritas (by Lear Fan), dam of 2011 Prix Jean Prat (FR-G1) winner Mutual Trust (by Cacique), and to Elbe (by Dansili), dam of the stakes-winning Bernardini mare Eclair. The dam of Ixora and her sisters, Imroz, is a Grade 3-placed daughter of Nureyev and a half sister to English listed stakes winner Insinuate (by Mr. Prospector), dam in turn of 2005 Supreme Stakes (ENG-G3) winner Stronghold (by Danehill), 2017 Winter Derby (ENG-G3) winner Convey (by Dansili), and listed stakes winner Take the Hint (by Montjeu).

Imroz, in turn, was produced from 1993 Emirates Prix du Moulin de Longchamp (FR-G1) winner All at Sea (by Riverman), a half sister to multiple Group 3 winner Over the Ocean (by Super Concorde), to English listed stakes winner Quandary (by Blushing Groom; dam of English listed stakes winner Double Crossed, by Caerleon), and to stakes winner Full Virtue (by Full Out). A daughter of the Cloudy Dawn mare Lost Virtue (whose dam, Aunt Tilt, is a Tulyar half sister to 1967 American Horse of the Year Damascus), All at Sea is also a half sister to Quack a Doodle Doo (by Quack), second dam of 1998 American champion 3-year-old filly Banshee Breeze.

Segesta and Salamis are the third and fourth foals of Antonoe, who raced for Juddmonte Farms and is now a treasured member of the stellar Juddmonte broodmare band. Following Salamis, the mare produced the 2023 Gun Runner filly Directive, who has yet to race, and a 2024 full sister to Salamis. Barren to Munnings for 2025, Antonoe most recently visited Justify.

Given that Segesta and Salamis both won their Grade 1 races late in the season, raced on turf, and had only a Grade 3 win and a lesser stakes between them this year prior to their big weekend, the likelihood that Antonoe’s Grade 1 double will earn her Broodmare of the Year honors does not seem particularly high. Then again, far stranger things have happened, and Antonoe certainly deserves at least a good look for the title. She may have come late to the party, but as the saying goes, better late than never.

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Mares on Monday: A Sublime Finish to 2025 in Chile

Mares on Monday: Reading the Rose Leaves for Peruvian Group 1 Winner Maria Luisa

Mares on Monday: Obataye Earns Pellegrini Victory Wreath for The Garden Club

Mares on Monday: A Champion's Heart in Japan

Mares on Monday: Antonoe Doubles Down on Grade 1 Glory

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