Ginger Punch and My Girls!

Ginger Punch was born on April 23, 2003, just a month after my own girl, Violet. She is owned by Frank Stronach, the magnate who owns Adena Springs. Her parents are Awesome Again and Nappelen by Bold Revenue. She is 4 years old and just this past month won an Eclipse Award for Champion Older Female! Then on January 26th, a few days later, she won the Sunshine Millions Distaff by 6 3/4ths lengths! Last fall, she won the 2007 Breeders' Cup Distaff by wading through the mud, mud, mud at top speeds!

Among her other major wins were the First Flight Handicap, Go For Wand Handicap, and Ruffian Handicap! Her current record is 15: 8-5-1 with total earnings of $2,176,679. The World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings for 3 year old and up mares and fillies ranks her at #7 in the world, and our gal Rags to Riches is #1!

She's got a little One Countin her background, but here's the super cool thing -- she and Violet both have Blushing Groom in their heritage! In fact, he is the great-grandpa on both their sire's side! I think that shows just how super Violet is -- Blushing Groom and then Cherokee Run's nearest and dearest relatives on her sire's side! Just wonderful! I hope Ginger Punch has a great year!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger_Punch

Wee Nip and My Girls!

Wee Nip was a 1945 thoroughbred filly by War Admiral and Bourbonette by Teddy. She even had a splash of The Tetrarch on her dam's side! She raced a bit, running 16 times for a final record of 1-2-4 and earning $4,850. But she is known especially for her babies. She had 8 foals, 6 fillies and 2 colts, the latter out of Hill Prince and Bimelech.

In my own Violet's tree, she was bred to the amazing, Belmont-winning One Count to produce Three Fingers. I can hardly believe that Violet's pedigree includes a double whammy of grandsires -- War Admiral and Count Fleet!!! Pow! Two Triple Crown winning champions!

You would think I could find a photo of Wee Nip, but I wasn't able to. So here is a photo taken in late September 2007 by Vikki of my own beautiful Vi!

Wining Effort and My Girls!

Violet's dam was a 1997 racehorse named Wining Effort who had a dosage index of 5 and career earnings of $10,672! Her own parents are Two's A Plenty and Right Effort by Rajab. Her dad earned $282,183 and Rajab earned $75,600, and his own dad, Jaipur earned over $618,000! So, Violet is well-connected to racehorses on her mama's side.

In fact, if you look at her pedigree, you'd be super impressed. Wining Effort has Dark Star, the only horse to beat the 1953 Kentucky Derby winner, Native Dancer. And she has One Count, the Belmont Stakes winning kid and grandkid of Count Fleet and Reigh Count. And she has War Admiral, and the double whammy Count Fleet, War Admiral kid cross to create Three Fingers!. And she's got a dash of Jaipur, the horse who beat Ridan in one of the most amazing match races ever. And Wining Effort has a splash of Stymie, lucky girl!

So, my sweet, dancing, flirty, girly, smart Violet is rich in dam history!

Man o' War's burial site and statue

I've mentioned this fact before, but one of my favorite sacred places on earth is the entrance into the Kentucky Horse Park. They have special graves and markers for famous horses and jockeys. And above this all is a wonderful statue and the burial site of Man o' War, the number one racehorse of all time -- ol' Big Red!

He is the father of many important horses, including Battleship who won the 1938 Grand National steeplechase, my Violet's War Admiral who won the 1937 Triple Crown, and the grandsire of Seabiscuit through his kid Hard Tack, and the great-grandsire of Kelso, 5X Horse of the Year!

Two of Man o' War's children are buried at his feet, War Relic (his best sire) and War Admiral, Violet's own Triple Crown Winner.

I know I say it all the time, but can you believe that my Violet is related to two Triple Crown winners? Her own sweet War Admiral was only 15.2 hands, so you know he had a big giant heart to win races like he did! And let's not forget that her Count Fleet just romped through his Triple Crown, and won the Belmont by 25 lengths! Then he produced Count Turf to win the Kentucky Derby (a third boy in a row in that family to win the Derby) and Violet's One Count who won the Belmont Stakes. Namaste to all of these family relatives, including Seabiscuit, War Admiral and Man o'War, pictured here in all their young fiery glory!

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=663

Ace Card and my Violet!

Violet is related to the Kentucky Broodmare of the Year and Gazelle Stakes winner, Ace Card. Ace Card has a great pedigree since her grandsires are Man 'O War and Teddy. For Violet, Ace Card is bred to Count Fleet (Triple Crown winner) to produce One Count(Belmont Stakes winner) who is bred to a filly by War Admiral! Completely cool. In this photo, you see one of Ace Card's boyfriends, the handsome Count Fleet. You can read more about this broodmare of the year at the following links:

http://www.tbheritage.com/TurfHallmarks/Graves/cem/GraveMattersFaraway.html
or
http://www.tbheritage.com/HistoricDams/AmBroodmareofYear.html
or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazelle_Handicap
or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Count

Traffic Court, Ace Card, and Violet!

Violet is related to at least two Kentucky Broodmares of the Year. The Kentucky Broodmare of the Year award is an elected honor chosen by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. Traffic Court (1954 Broodmare of Year) is the daughter of Discovery and Ace Card (1952 Broodmare of Year), is the daughter of Case Ace. In the case of Traffic Court, her dad, Discovery, had the most amazing race record, but he became even more famous, if possible, as a broodmare sire. He produced Geisha dam of Native Dancer, Miss Disco, dam of Bold Ruler, Good Thing, dam of Bed 'O Roses, and Violet's own Traffic Court, dam of Violet's Hasty Road Co-Champion 2-year-old Colt of 1953 and Preakness Stakes winner, dam of Traffic Judge, a major stakes winner, and dam of Intentionally, a major sprinter. Discovery's owner, Alfred G. Vanderbilt, used to joke about his breeding strategy for race winners, "just breed any sire to a Discovery mare." Violet's Ace Card is bred to Count Fleet to produce One Count who was bred to War Admiral's Wee Nip. I've mentioned that before, but it's so cool that it bears repeating! Anyway, not only does she have these two fine Kentucky Broodmare of the Year mares in her heritage, she's related to many of the Broodmares of the Year through her sire connections, including Princequillo, Bubbling Over, Blue Larkspur, Blenheim, One Count, Count Fleet, War Admiral, Dark Star, and Blushing Groom! She also has some connections through the dam line, but I'm just pointing out the boys for now! Here's a photo of Traffic Court's daddy, Discovery! You can read more about the Kentucky Broodmares of the Year at the following links:

http://www.tbheritage.com/HistoricDams/AmBroodmareofYear.html

or

http://www.spiletta.com/UTHOF/discovery.html

Teddy! -- sire of racers and showjumpers!

Violet and Hailee are related to Teddy, an important foundation thoroughbred horse for both racing and showjumping bloodlines. Teddy was a French thoroughbred who was sent to Spain to race because of the disrupted race schedule, during World War II. He raced 8 times and won 6 races. He was champion 3-year-old colt in Spain in 1916. When he came to the states, his two full-brother sons, Sir Gallahad and Bull Dog out of Spearmint were leading sires. He had a daughter, the famous La Troienne who was one of the most significant broodmares in history, with nearly 1,000 stakeswinners among her descendants. Another of his daughters, Case Ace, was the broodmare who produced Raise a Native.

Violet is related to Teddy so many, many ways. Teddy's child Bull Dog appears in her pedigree at least 6 times! La Troienne appears at least 3 times! Sir Gallahad appears at least 2 times! And he also appears through his children Case Ace, Bourbonette, and Asterus. In fact, his kid, Case Ace (mom of Raise a Native) produced Ace Card who was bred to Count Fleet to produce One Count! And his kid, Bourbonette was bred to War Admiral to produce Wee Nip. Wee Nip and One Count were bred together! So, Teddy was instrumental in Violet's famous Count Fleet/War Admiral connection!! In total, that's a total of at least 14 times that Teddy appears for Violet!! She should be a good jumper!!

Hailee has only a touch of Teddy through two crosses with his kid, Sir Gallahad, and one touch of his darling La Troienne!!

Count Fleet -- Triple Crown Winner and Violet's Direct Relation!

Violet is a direct relation of Reigh Count, Count Fleet, and Fleet's baby, One Count. You have no idea how cool that is. Reigh Count is a Kentucky Derby Winner. Count Fleet was the 1943 Triple Crown Winner, 1943 Horse of the Year, inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, and voted #5 of the Top 100 Race Horses of the 20th century by Blood Horse magazine. He earned $250,300, which is $2.6 million in 2002 dollars. He was so good at age 2 that the Jockey Club assigned him a handicap of 132 points, the largest ever imposed by that organization. He had 26 starts, 16 wins, 4 seconds, and 1 third. He was born March 24, 1940 and passed at the distinguished age of 33 on December 3, 1973. His owner, Hertz of the Hertz rental car company had a stable employee named Sam Ramsen who said of Count Fleet, "When that leggy brown colt wants to run, he can just about fly." And his jockey, Johnny Longden, once said about entering the Belmont, "Going into the race, I thought he'd have to fall down to get beat, and even then I thought he could get up and win. He was that good." But Longden admitted that the fast, high energy colt wasn't easy, he also said, "If he didn't have racing room, he'd go to the outside or just climb over horses. If you were in close quarters with him, you were in trouble."

His son, One Count, also Violet's direct relation, shared 1952 Horse of the Year honors with the famous 2-year-old star, Native Dancer. Among the races he won, One Count won the Belmont Stakes, Travers Stakes, and the Jockey Club Gold Cup! No wonder when Violet puts her nose down and does a buckaroo crow hop and takes off, she just looks like high speed royalty! You can read more about Count Fleet and One Count on my friendly links at Thoroughbred Blood Lines! Violet has at least 4 lines from Count Fleet, and each is impressive. In two lines she's bred through One Count, in another she's bred through Count Fleet and a a Bull Lea filly, and the last is where Count Fleet and War Admiral are the sires of One Count and Wee Nip who produced Three Fingers! Awesome how much Count Fleet she has!

Read more about Count Fleet:
http://www.spiletta.com/UTHOF/countfleet.html
Video footage of Count Fleet's Triple Crown wins!
http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=51