Artie's Princess is a fifth-generation descendant of Taba, best known in North America as the dam of 1986 American champion older male Turkoman. There is a bit more to her story than that, however, beginning with her origins in Argentina. The champion 2-year-old filly of 1975/1976 in her native county, she trained on at 3 to win the 1976 Polla de Potrancas (Argentine One Thousand Guineas, ARG-G1), making her one of three Classic winners produced by mating the Round Table horse Table Play to her dam, Filipina. (The others were 1978 Argentine Quadruple Crown winner Telescópico and 1974 Polla de Potrillos (Argentine Two Thousand Guineas, ARG-G1, winner Telefónico.) Taba is also a full sister to Titania, dam of multiple Argentine Group 1 winner Cerbetana (by Cipayo), and to multiple stakes producer Telescópica, both the ancestresses of Argentine champions.
Taba produced one other stakes winner besides Turkoman, the Fluorescent Light horse Slow Fuse, but while two of her daughters produced stakes winners, neither seemed likely to carry on the family at more than a very modest level. That has changed thanks to Taba's stakes-winning granddaughter Now Dance (Sovereign Dancer x Now Go, by Exclusive Native), who produced listed stakes winners Timetobewild (by Time for a Change) and DanceroftheRealm (by King of Kings) as well as restricted stakes winner Touch Now (by Pleasant Tap). Still better, Now Dance has three daughters with graded stakes-winning granddaughters: Dancerofthelake (by Meadowlake), whose Group 1-placed Wild Event daughter Square Dance is the dam of Brazilian Group 3 winner Beach Dance (by Northern Afleet); Gambader (by Holy Bull), whose Mr. Greeley daughter Irish Connection is the dam of Grade 2 winner Irish Jasper (by First Defence); and the aforementioned Touch Now, whose line descends to Artie's Princess via her Stormy Atlantic daughter Stormkeeper.
Taba herself got a happy ending to her story, becoming one of the first mares accepted at Jeanne Mirabito's Our Mims Retirement Haven, There, she became the pasture buddy of My Turbulent Miss, dam of 1985 Breeders' Cup Turf (USA-G1) winner Prized, and the two old mares grazed and played and lazed in the sun together until they passed on within a few months of one another. Today the two are buried side by side, while other retired broodmares enjoy the pastures of Mirabito's legacy (Mirabito herself having died on August 5, 2020). And perhaps, as Artie's Princess and her "cousins" take their own turns in the paddocks, another champion will emerge to carry on bloodlines with a spark of Argentine fire.