Violet's cousin won the Oaks a few minutes ago with ease! Rags to Riches broke from an unfavorable gate on a sloppy track, which she's never run on before, and then just pulled it out and smoothed past everyone at the end. She won with ease! She is owned by Michael Tabor, an English racing businessman, who purchased her as a yearly for $1.9 million. The Oaks is her 4th win in 5 starts, 3 of those wins being Grade 1 Stakes. She is the only member of her crop of 3-year olds (either boy or girl) who has taken 3 Grade 1 races! She shares many relatives with Violet, including the exact placement of Blushing Groom as both their great-grandpas. For Violet, Blushing Groom is great-grandpa on her sire's side, for Rags to Riches, great-grandpa on her dam's side. They also share, among many, the following: Traffic Court (1954 Kentucky broodmare of the year); Princequillo; Nasrullah; War Admiral (triple crown winner); Whisk Broom; Blue Larkspur and Discovery!. Rags to Riches shares a relative with Hailee too -- the great Bubbling Over, Kentucky Derby winner! Rags also has a few of her own cool relatives, such as A.P. Indy (her sire), Secretariat, and Busher. Now, Busher is awesomely cool! Busher is War Admiral's kid with some Bubbling Over involved. Busher was a monster racing filly. Her only son, Jet Pilot, is in Rags to Riches' pedigree. Busher just beat the heck out of boys, girls, whoever! And in the few times that a horse beat her, she was merciless. This is what a track historian had to say, "The salient attribute of War Admiral's little daughter was she always took revenge." She beat every horse who ever beat her -- she had the final word. No surprise that she was inducted in the Racing Hall of Fame in 1964, was among only a handful of fillies who won the Eclipse Award, and was #40 of the Top 100 20th century race horses. So, you can see, Violet not only looks like the beautiful and powerful Rags to Riches, she's a real kissing cousin! In the first photo, she is shown winning today's Oaks, and in the photo below, she's shown having a morning workout with Circular Quay, a boy horse entered in the Derby and her barnmate. She's a macho young thing, just like Busher!