Saratoga has something for everyone, and Sunday’s Honorable Miss Stakes (USA-G2) provided a nice prize for the female sprint division. The winner turned up in Maida, who got back to the races last month off a seven-month-plus layoff with a 10½-length win in Laurel’s Alma North Stakes. The competition was saltier in the Honorable Miss, but Maida set the early pace, proved dead game when hooked, and had enough in the tank to turn back Grade 1-placed Grade 2 winner Grand Job (the race favorite) and then hold Arkansas-bred millionaire Haulin Ice safe. The Honorable Miss was the first graded win for Maida and raised her lifetime record to five wins from seven starts while boosting her bankroll to US$335,650.
Bred and owned by Harry Papaleo, Maida is from the first crop of the late Improbable. The American champion older male of 2020, Improbable sired three full crops and a partial crop in his final season before his untimely death in March 2024. The son of City Zip and the A.P. Indy mare Rare Event has 101 winners and nine stakes winners thus far from his 281 named foals of racing age. Maida is his second runner to capture a graded event, the other being 2025 Quick Call Stakes (USA-G3) winner Governor Sam.
Maida is the seventh foal of 2011 Endine Stakes (USA-G3) winner Eve Giselle, whose five previous winners include stakes-placed I’m Patriotic (by To Honor and Serve). A daughter of 2001 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (USA-G2) winner Five Star Day, Eve Giselle was produced from the winning Tale of the Cat mare Captiva Cat, a half sister to stakes winner Adam’s Time (by Gilded Time). The next mare in the tail-female line, the winning Turkoman mare Donna Says So, is a half sister to 1985 Orchid Handicap (USA-G2) winner Aspen Rose (by Little Current), to 1991 Gotham Stakes (USA-G2) winner Kyle’s Our Man (by In Reality), and to stakes winner Abbey Leix (by Banquet Circuit).
Donna Says So and her siblings are out of unraced Lady Donna (by Graustark), whose dam Glorious Spring (by Hail to Reason) is a winning full sister to 1972 Derby Stakes (ENG-G1) winner and important sire Roberto. Also the dam of multiple Grade 3 winner Low Tolerance (by Proud Truth), Glorious Spring is out of Nashua’s high-class daughter Bramalea, winner of the 1962 Coaching Club American Oaks.
While Nashua was an American champion juvenile, won two legs of the American Triple Crown, and was American Horse of the Year in 1955, he was not the most generous sort of horse and often passed on a share of his rather quirky nature to his progeny. Bramalea received a full dose of his temperament but was top-class when in the mood, traits also characteristic of her son Roberto. According to trainer Brittany Russell (whose husband, Sheldon Russell, is the filly’s jockey), “quirky” is also an excellent description of Maida, but the family talent is there as well—a talent reinforced and possibly shaped by a 3x3 pedigree cross to the classy sprinter and good sire Carson City, a bit of close-up inbreeding not often seen these days.
The logical next step up for Maida, assuming she comes out well from the Honorable Miss, would be the Resorts World Casino Ballerina Stakes (USA-G1) at Saratoga on August 29, and a win there could punch her ticket for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (USA-G1). A few quirks are worth putting up with for a filly who has a legitimate shot at dreams like that.
Bred and owned by Harry Papaleo, Maida is from the first crop of the late Improbable. The American champion older male of 2020, Improbable sired three full crops and a partial crop in his final season before his untimely death in March 2024. The son of City Zip and the A.P. Indy mare Rare Event has 101 winners and nine stakes winners thus far from his 281 named foals of racing age. Maida is his second runner to capture a graded event, the other being 2025 Quick Call Stakes (USA-G3) winner Governor Sam.
Maida is the seventh foal of 2011 Endine Stakes (USA-G3) winner Eve Giselle, whose five previous winners include stakes-placed I’m Patriotic (by To Honor and Serve). A daughter of 2001 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (USA-G2) winner Five Star Day, Eve Giselle was produced from the winning Tale of the Cat mare Captiva Cat, a half sister to stakes winner Adam’s Time (by Gilded Time). The next mare in the tail-female line, the winning Turkoman mare Donna Says So, is a half sister to 1985 Orchid Handicap (USA-G2) winner Aspen Rose (by Little Current), to 1991 Gotham Stakes (USA-G2) winner Kyle’s Our Man (by In Reality), and to stakes winner Abbey Leix (by Banquet Circuit).
Donna Says So and her siblings are out of unraced Lady Donna (by Graustark), whose dam Glorious Spring (by Hail to Reason) is a winning full sister to 1972 Derby Stakes (ENG-G1) winner and important sire Roberto. Also the dam of multiple Grade 3 winner Low Tolerance (by Proud Truth), Glorious Spring is out of Nashua’s high-class daughter Bramalea, winner of the 1962 Coaching Club American Oaks.
While Nashua was an American champion juvenile, won two legs of the American Triple Crown, and was American Horse of the Year in 1955, he was not the most generous sort of horse and often passed on a share of his rather quirky nature to his progeny. Bramalea received a full dose of his temperament but was top-class when in the mood, traits also characteristic of her son Roberto. According to trainer Brittany Russell (whose husband, Sheldon Russell, is the filly’s jockey), “quirky” is also an excellent description of Maida, but the family talent is there as well—a talent reinforced and possibly shaped by a 3x3 pedigree cross to the classy sprinter and good sire Carson City, a bit of close-up inbreeding not often seen these days.
The logical next step up for Maida, assuming she comes out well from the Honorable Miss, would be the Resorts World Casino Ballerina Stakes (USA-G1) at Saratoga on August 29, and a win there could punch her ticket for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (USA-G1). A few quirks are worth putting up with for a filly who has a legitimate shot at dreams like that.
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