Nashoba's Key and My Girls!

Here is a photo of Nashoba's Key ridden to victory by Garrett Gomez, March 9, 2008, in the Santa Margarita Handicap. It's an AP Photo by Benoit. In the other photo, she is resting in her stall at Del Mar. This mare was born on March 26, 2003, the same month as Violet, but she didn't begin her racing career until she was four years old because her owner and trainer thought she needed the time to grow into her big old self. They knew she would be special.

So, when she first raced in January 2007, she proved their wisdom. She won 7 of her first 7 starts. She won really important California graded stakes under a 17 year old jockey, Joseph Talamo. After terrific wins, she came in 4th in the Breeders Cup when she got trapped on the rail in 6-inch deep wet turf and then in January 2008, she came in second to Quite a Bride in the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf. Since then, she was returned to Garrett Gomez to ride and that's when she just polished off the competition in the Santa Margarita Handicap earlier in March. She now has a record of 10: 8-1-0. Last year, she lost the Female Turf Eclipse Award to Lahudood, but she pulled a hat trick, by winning the California-Bred Champion Turf Horse, Older Female, and Horse of the Year! She's great on synthetic and turf tracks!

They've decided to give her a small vacation to give her a rest for her second chance at the Breeders Cup. Her trainer, Carla Gaines, says, "She hasn't had a day off the track since her first start on January 13, 2007. Any horse that's doing well, it's tempting to keep going and going, but I want to have a horse that has had some time off and is ready to strike at the Breeders' Cup. The NTRA notes of her that she has "determination to match talent."

And that determination must be a part of her larger personality. In an interview with Larry Stumes for the San Francisco Chronicle, Carla Gaines noted, "She's not really crazy about us. She could do without humans except at feed time. She's just a viper. She's reached out and grabbed a few people and tried to remove one of their appendages. I think a lot of really good filies have the same attitude. She's got a ton of class, loves what she does, and is very, very competitive."

Her parents are Silver Hawk out of Nashoba by Caerleon. Her dad is turning out to be a tremendous sire of turf ladies! And her mom only raced 5 times, but won 4 -- so mother and daughter are true champions at ending up out front! In her pedigree, she has Nijinsky, Nashua, Round Table, and Northern Dancer. My girls are most immediately related to her through Hail To Reason, so they share many relatives, including Nasrullah, Princequillo, and Nearctic.

You can read more about this resting, but getting ready girl at the following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashoba's_Key

Quite a Bride and My Girls!

Here is a photo of Quite A Bride taken by Vanessa Ng in 2006 when QB was a young thing. She is a Florida-bred thoroughbred, just like Violet and was born a handful of days after Violet, on March 12, 2003. They are very closely related, as you can tell in this photo.

QB is a turf girl. She has a solid career with a 18: 10-1-4 record, and setting a new Churchill Downs track record on turf at 8.5 furlongs timed at 1:40.70. In late January of this year, her 5th year of racing, she won easily against Nashoba'sKey who was a finalist for the 2007 Eclipse Award for Turf. In this race, the $500,000 Sunshine Million Filly and Mare Turf race at Santa Anita track, she stalked behind the pacesetter SomethinaboutLaura until she was ready to let it roll. NB never really was a contender. She now has $878,881 in earnings!

As her jockey Garret Gomez said, "She placed herself well, like she does in all her races. In the middle of the turn, she hit another gear and I said, 'Let's go.'"

Her parents are Stormy Atlantic and Wise Bride by Blushing Groom. So, Blushing Groom is QB's grandsire on her dam's side and is V's great-grandsire on her sire's side. What's also cool about QB is that because of the Stormy Atlantic parentage, she also has Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Northern Dancer, and Moccasin in her. What a powerful girl!

Breaking News! Ginger Punch and the Sunshine Millions

On Saturday, they ran the Sunshine Millions set of races in Santa Anita which is pretty amazing given that they were concerned about the track. They put in a new poly track and it's supposed to be 8 inches of poly over asphalt. Well, the top layers were very very fine product because of the heat in California, but they weren't expecting 8 1/2 inches of rain over 3 days this week. The track became warped, turned into a sealed, wet surface with tiny pellets and hard cement-like stones. They couldn't get it to drain, so they had to scrape the surface which meant that not only was the track fast because it was harder (2 inches less padding between horse and asphalt), but that it was pretty dangerous with the flying poly stones.

I thought it sucked that they had to run, but here's how the day turned out! Bob Black Jack set a world track record for six furlongs, running in 1:06:53 in the $250,000 Sunshine Millions Dash. Winsome Charmer and Afleet Ruler placed and showed. Dearest Trickski won the $300,000 Filly and Mare Sprint, Quite a Bride beat the 2007 Eclipse Award winner Nashoba's Key in the $500,000 Sunshine Million Filly and Mare Turf, Benny the Bull won the $300,000 Sunshine Millions Sprint, and Go Between with 2007 Eclipse Jockey Garret Gomez won the $1 million Sunshine Millions Classic!

And best of all, sweet Ginger Punch won the $500,000 Sunshine Millions Distaff by 6 3/4 lengths! She's in the photo! Her dad is Frank Stronach of Violet's Adena Springs Farm, and her trainer Bobby Frankel said, "She ran her race. That's the way she likes to run, stalking the leader, and she did what she had to do!"