Saturday’s Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Park Oaks (USA-G2) marked the end of Kentucky Oaks (G1) dreams for The Queens M G, who was vanned off with a knee injury. Now retired, she will have to await the arrival of daughters to perhaps pursue the lilies in her stead. One star’s setting is often accompanied by another’s rising, however, and Five G became the day’s rising star. Rebounding from a one-length loss to Quietside in the Honeybee Stakes (USA-G3) on February 23, Five G, the race favorite, made use of her natural speed to control the tempo throughout the race and came home a winner by 2¼ lengths. Her victory gave her 100 points toward a Kentucky Oaks starting berth to go with the 25 points she earned in the Honeybee, easily clinching a spot in the Oaks starting gate.
A homebred campaigned by Michael Gatsas’s Gatsas Stables, Five G is the fourth stakes winner of March and the fifth stakes winner of 2025 for 2024 American champion freshman sire Vekoma, who stands at Spendthrift Farm. The winner of the 2020 Runhappy Carter Handicap (USA-G1) and Runhappy Metropolitan Handicap (USA-G1), Vekoma had frightful action in front as seen head-on but was a very fast horse nonetheless, and 222 mare owners were ready and willing to take a chance that his speed would be transmitted more faithfully than his foreleg conformation when he served his first book of mares in 2021. Their faith in the son of Candy Ride and 2010 Humana Distaff Stakes (USA-G1) winner Mona de Momma (by Speightstown) appears to have been justified; of the 163 named foals of his first Northern Hemisphere crop, 65 are already winners and nine are stakes winners, with three quarters of their 3-year-old season still to come.
Five G is the second foal and first winner produced from the Quality Road mare Triumphant, a half sister to listed stakes winner Lipstick City (by City Zip). The sisters are out of the winning A.P. Indy mare Star Torina, a full sister to 2008 Lane’s End Stakes (USA-G2) winner Adriano. Star Torina is also a half sister to Grade 3-placed Gold d’Oro (by Medaglia d’Oro), dam of 2018 Swale Stakes (USA-G3) winner Strike Power (by Speightstown).
Star Torina, in turn, is out of the winning Mr. Prospector mare Gold Canyon, a half sister to Grade 3-placed restricted stakes winner Double Scoop (by Seeking the Gold). Gold Canyon’s dam Golden Treat (by Theatrical) won the 1992 Santa Anita Oaks (USA-G1) and is a half sister to multiple Grade 1 winner Bet Twice, whose victories include the 1987 Belmont Stakes (USA-G1). Adding to the appeal of this pedigree, 1987 Dwyer Stakes (USA-G1) winner and excellent sire Gone West appears 4x4 as the sire of Speightstown (maternal grandsire of Vekoma) and Elusive Quality (sire of Quality Road).
Five G did not meet a particularly strong field of fillies in the Gulfstream Park Oaks (the only graded stakes winner in the field of six was The Queens M G), and her Equibase speed figure of 93 represented both a slight regression from the 97 she posted from the Honeybee Stakes and a level of performance significantly below that of the season’s best fillies. On the other side. Quietside franked the form of the Honeybee by stepping up and winning the Fantasy Stakes (USA-G3) at Oaklawn Park in a long, sustained drive, earning an Equibase figure of 100. Both of these fillies will probably cross swords again in the Kentucky Oaks, giving another opportunity to assess their form relative to one another and to the best members of their division.
A homebred campaigned by Michael Gatsas’s Gatsas Stables, Five G is the fourth stakes winner of March and the fifth stakes winner of 2025 for 2024 American champion freshman sire Vekoma, who stands at Spendthrift Farm. The winner of the 2020 Runhappy Carter Handicap (USA-G1) and Runhappy Metropolitan Handicap (USA-G1), Vekoma had frightful action in front as seen head-on but was a very fast horse nonetheless, and 222 mare owners were ready and willing to take a chance that his speed would be transmitted more faithfully than his foreleg conformation when he served his first book of mares in 2021. Their faith in the son of Candy Ride and 2010 Humana Distaff Stakes (USA-G1) winner Mona de Momma (by Speightstown) appears to have been justified; of the 163 named foals of his first Northern Hemisphere crop, 65 are already winners and nine are stakes winners, with three quarters of their 3-year-old season still to come.
Five G is the second foal and first winner produced from the Quality Road mare Triumphant, a half sister to listed stakes winner Lipstick City (by City Zip). The sisters are out of the winning A.P. Indy mare Star Torina, a full sister to 2008 Lane’s End Stakes (USA-G2) winner Adriano. Star Torina is also a half sister to Grade 3-placed Gold d’Oro (by Medaglia d’Oro), dam of 2018 Swale Stakes (USA-G3) winner Strike Power (by Speightstown).
Star Torina, in turn, is out of the winning Mr. Prospector mare Gold Canyon, a half sister to Grade 3-placed restricted stakes winner Double Scoop (by Seeking the Gold). Gold Canyon’s dam Golden Treat (by Theatrical) won the 1992 Santa Anita Oaks (USA-G1) and is a half sister to multiple Grade 1 winner Bet Twice, whose victories include the 1987 Belmont Stakes (USA-G1). Adding to the appeal of this pedigree, 1987 Dwyer Stakes (USA-G1) winner and excellent sire Gone West appears 4x4 as the sire of Speightstown (maternal grandsire of Vekoma) and Elusive Quality (sire of Quality Road).
Five G did not meet a particularly strong field of fillies in the Gulfstream Park Oaks (the only graded stakes winner in the field of six was The Queens M G), and her Equibase speed figure of 93 represented both a slight regression from the 97 she posted from the Honeybee Stakes and a level of performance significantly below that of the season’s best fillies. On the other side. Quietside franked the form of the Honeybee by stepping up and winning the Fantasy Stakes (USA-G3) at Oaklawn Park in a long, sustained drive, earning an Equibase figure of 100. Both of these fillies will probably cross swords again in the Kentucky Oaks, giving another opportunity to assess their form relative to one another and to the best members of their division.
RSS Feed