The 4-1 chance raced in between horses rounding the clubhouse turn in fifth. She advanced into fourth approaching the quarter pole, made a flashy, sweeping move at the top of the stretch, and, despite hanging on her left lead down the stretch, went on to defeat favored runaway GIII Pocahontas S. heroine and 'TDN Rising Star' V V's Dream (Mitole) by a length. Alys Beach (Omaha Beach) was third.

Previously unbeaten GI Spinaway S. heroine Brightwork (Outwork), off as the 9-5 second choice, tired to finish a well-beaten fifth after pressing the pace while making her two-turn debut here.

“That was my biggest concern,” winning trainer Todd Pletcher said of Candied diving into the deep end at just second asking here. “I thought the filly had the talent to do it. I was just concerned about the seasoning. Several of the fillies in here that we had to beat today had good, solid campaigns and she was just making her second start.”

Pletcher continued, “But I'll tell you, she trained impressively before her debut and she then just kept getting better afterwards. She was finishing her works and galloping out like she wanted more ground. Luis (Saez) has been pretty high on her since he first worked her at Saratoga, so we're happy to see her meet expectations.”

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Pletcher will also be well-represented by 'TDN Rising Star' Locked (Gun Runner) in Saturday's GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity S. at Keeneland.

Pedigree Notes:

Candied becomes the 115th stakes winner/56th graded stakes/19th Grade I winner worldwide for Candy Ride. The stakes-winning New York-bred Toni Tools, a $15,000 purchase by McMahon & Hill Bloodstock at the 2022 KEEJAN sale, produced a colt by Solomini this year and was bred back to Mind Control.

#3 Candied takes the G1 Darley Alcibiades S. at Keeneland for trainer Todd Pletcher with @luissaezpty aboard!

#TwinSpiresReplay pic.twitter.com/d4ZHAjxKSY

— TwinSpires Racing (@TwinSpires) October 6, 2023

Friday, Keeneland
DARLEY ALCIBIADES S.-GI, $600,000, Keeneland, 10-6, 2yo, f, 1 1/16m, 1:44.17, ft.
1–CANDIED, 122, f, 2, by Candy Ride (Arg)
                1st Dam: Toni Tools (SW, $193,339),
                                by Roaring Fever
                2nd Dam: Patine, by Smart Strike
                3rd Dam: Burnish, by Menifee
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN, 1ST GRADE
I WIN. ($165,000 Ylg '22 FTKJUL). O-Eclipse Thoroughbred
Partners; B-Buck Pond Farm, Inc. (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher;
J-Luis Saez. $358,050. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $415,800.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–V V's Dream, 122, f, 2, by Mitole
                1st Dam: Quay, by Tapit
                2nd Dam: Skipper Tale, by Tale of the Cat
                3rd Dam: Pretty 'n Smart, by Beau Genius
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. 'TDN Rising Star'. ($130,000 Wlg '21
KEENOV; $190,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP). O-MJM Racing and
Magdalena Racing (Sherri McPeek); B-Mark Stansell (KY);
T-Kenneth G. McPeek. $115,500.
3–Alys Beach, 122, f, 2, by Omaha Beach
                1st Dam: Pray for Leslie, by Bernardini
                2nd Dam: C J's Leelee, by Mizzen Mast
                3rd Dam: Fight to Love, by Fit to Fight
1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE, 1ST G1 BLACK
TYPE. ($120,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP). O-Greg Tramontin; B-Jeff
Kerber (KY); T-Thomas M. Amoss. $57,750.
Margins: 1, 5 3/4, HD. Odds: 4.08, 1.48, 16.30.
Also Ran: Shimmering Allure, Brightwork, Crazy Cami, Alpine Princess, Wine On Tap. Scratched: Emery.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

The post Candy Ride’s Candied Stays Perfect in Darley Alcibiades appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Keeneland's first president, Hal Price Headley, held that position until 1951. The next year, the Alcibiades S. was inaugurated in honor of his exceptional homebred two-time champion. The Kentucky Oaks winner was an even better broodmare than racehorse. Among her best foals were champion and influential sire Menow, while European champion, Epsom Derby winner, and excellent sire Sir Ivor hailed from a line established by her Alabama S.-winning daughter Salaminia.

Headley must have had a proud moment in 1959 when Rash Statement, a granddaughter of Alcibiades bred by his daughter, Alice Chandler, won the race. Another of the mare's granddaughters, Supple, had been third in 1955.

The Alcibiades is in its 20th year of being sponsored by Darley. Four Alcibiades winners have gone on to capture the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, most recently in 2019 (British Idiom).

With 70 previous winners of the Alcibiades, two have already been featured in our “Background Checks” for the GI Test S. and GIII Schuylerville S.; please see those earlier profiles for notes on the sensational Claiborne homebred Moccasin and the instrumental Erdenheim Farms homebred Patelin.

Following are the some of the other most important Alcibiades winners by what impact they have had on the sport through their sons and daughters.

Runway Model (2002, Petionville–Ticket to Houston, by Houston): Her Street Sense son, McKinzie, won four Grade I races and placed in another four. He's a popular new stallion at Gainesway, having bred over 200 mares in his first season at stud, the results of which will first hit the market as weanlings next month. McKinzie's breeder, Summer Wind, had purchased the Everest Stables-bred Runway Model for $2.7 million in 2006 at Keeneland November.

Take Charge Lady (1999, Dehere–Felicita, by Rubiano): Bred by William Schettine, this Broodmare of the Year has been spectacular in her second career. She produced three GISWs–champion Will Take Charge, Take Charge Indy, and As Time Goes By–and her daughters have been tremendous conduits for class. She is the granddam of champion Take Charge Brandi, MGISW and young sire Omaha Beach, and this year's 23-length GIII Dwyer S. winner and GI Florida Derby runner-up Charge It. Take Charge Lady famously sold for $4.2 million in 2004; daughter Lady Take Charge sold for $3.2 million in 2015; daughter I'll Take Charge for $2.2 million in 2013; daughter Charming for $3.2 million in 2006; and granddaughter Take Charge Brandi has sold three times as a broodmare for a combined total of $10,350,000.

Cara Rafaela (1993, Quiet American–Oil Fable, by Spectacular Bid): Mike G. Rutherford bred and sold this lovely gray, whose fifth foal, champion and Classic winner Bernardini, propelled her to Broodmare of the Year honors in 2006. Despite siring a number of top runners, Bernardini's heaviest impact seems as if it will be through his daughters and he currently leads the broodmare sire list in North America. Bernardini died at only 18 in 2021; Cara Rafaela is also the granddam of MGISW Love and Pride.

Eliza (1990, Mt. Livermore–Daring Bidder, by Bold Bidder): An Allen Paulson homebred during his decade or so reign at the top of the sport, Eliza initially didn't have much success as a broodmare, but a growing number of stakes performers trace to her. Most significant is GI Florida Derby winner and current top 30 active North American sire of 2022, Dialed In.

Spinning Round (1989, Dixieland Band–Take Heart, by Secretariat): Her first daughter, Dream Supreme, won the GI Test, GI Ballerina, and more, then made the transition into a lovely producer of three stakes winners, the best of which was 2007 GI Hopeful S. winner Majestic Warrior, now a stallion in Japan. Spinning Round, also granddam of Peruvian champion Kung Fu Mambo (Arg), was bred in Florida by Kinsman Stud Farm.

Reigning 2yo filly champ Echo Zulu traces to the 1956 Alcibiades winner | Coady

Silent Account (1983, Private Account–Ciao, by Silent Screen): Several nice stakes winners trace to this Mill Ridge Farm-bred winner, the best of which is $4.2-million Whisper Hill purchase Plum Pretty, whose wins included the GI Kentucky Oaks and GI Apple Blossom H.

Fairway Fun (1962, Prince John–Fast Line, by Mr. Busher): This Elmendorf-bred mare might be the most prolific stakes producer of the Alcibiades aggregate. She produced four black-type winners herself–MGSW Fairway Flyer (who also won the Clark H. as a 3-year-old filly over older males before the graded system kicked in), GSW Torsion, SW & MGSP Fairway Fable, and SW Fun Forever–as well as quite a number of top-notch descendants, including European champion Muhtathir (GB) and GISW and producer Cara Rafaela (above).

Journalette (1959, Summer Tan–Manzana, by Count Fleet): Leslie Combs II and Brownell Combs bred the 1961 winner, whose only two foals were 1972 champion older mare Typecast and additional SW Society Column. The former produced Japanese champion Pretty Cast, while the latter produced G1 Irish St. Leger winner Leading Counsel and has an eye-catching 75 stakes performers tracing to her.

Leallah (1954, Nasrullah {GB}–Lea Lark, Bull Lea): Champion Echo Zulu; Breeders' Cup winner Singletary; MGISW Voodoo Dancer; GISWs Engine One, Sippican Harbor, Pool Play, and Echo Town; and English G1 winner Peter Davies are just a few of the more modern stakes winners tracing to Leallah. Bred by Charlton Clay, the mare's most successful runner among her immediate offspring was MSW Go Marching, who won a trio of turf stakes that would eventually be graded.

The post Background Check: Alcibiades appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Campaigned by Albaugh Family Stables and trained by Brad Cox, Juju's Map broke her maiden at second asking at two and proceeded to romp by 4 1/4 lengths in the GI Darley Alcibiades S. at Keeneland last October. Second to Echo Zulu (Gun Runner) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, the dark bay was a finalist for the 2-year-old filly Eclipse Award last year. She opened her sophomore season in May at Churchill Downs with an optional allowance win and has since placed in the GII Mother Goose S., the GIII Monmouth Oaks, and the GIII Remington Park Oaks, the latter on Sept. 25.

“Juju's Map is a third-generation Taylor Made Sales grad following Unbridled's Song and her sire, Liam's Map,” said Taylor Made CEO Mark Taylor. “She has lived up to the family legacy both on the track and with her absolutely gorgeous conformation.”

Bred in Kentucky by Fred Hertrich III and consigned by Woods Edge Farm, Juju's Map was originally an Albaugh Family yearling purchase for $300,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September sale. Her current record stands at 8-3-2-3 with earnings for $775,180.

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The Darley Alcibiades is a Breeders' Cup Win and You're In Challenge Series race, giving the winner a fees-paid berth to the G1 Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar on Nov. 5, along with a travel allowance to California for the horse.

Distinctlypossible, ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, finished second, a neck in front of a fast-finishing Sequist and jockey Junior Alvarado in third. Mama Rina was fourth, followed by Dream Lith and Matareya in a dead heat for fifth, then Penny Saver, Miss Interpret, Runup, Myfavoritedaughter and Pipeline Girl in the field of 11. Diamond Wow was scratched.

The Liam's Map filly out of Nagambie, by Flatter, bred in Kentucky by Fred W.  Hertrich III, covered 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:43.52. She paid $6.80 on a $2 mutuel.

The win was the ninth Grade 1 victory of 2021 for Cox and it was his second in the Alcibiades, the first coming in 2019 with British Idiom. It was the first Alcibiades for Geroux and the Albaugh Family Stables headed by Dennis Albaugh of Ankeny, Iowa.

Juju's Map was a $300,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase. She was winning for the second time in three starts, having broken her maiden in front-running fashion in her second outing at Ellis Park on Sept. 3.

In the Alcibiades, Geroux saved ground after breaking from the No. 1 post position and was content to sit in second while Runup set fractions of :22.75 for the opening quarter and :46:00 for the half mile. Geroux moved Juju's Map to the front through six furlongs in 1:11.23, and she was never seriously threatened thereafter, clicking off a mile split of 1:36.93 en route to her final time.

Cox said if Juju's Map exited the win in good order it would be on to the Breeders' Cup.

“She sat close to a hot pace and was still able to finish, and I thought, 'That's what good horses do,'” said Cox. “She broke running, Florent (Geroux) put her in a good position and she finished up well. I'm very proud of her performance. We'll obviously talk it over with the Albaugh team, and as long as she comes out of it in good order I think we'll march on toward California (and the Nov. 5, $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies-G1). It was a good trip last time and hopefully she can show up and run her race and be very effective.”

“She's very talented to start with, but today it was tricky because there were a couple other speed horses,” said Geroux. “From the one hole, you have to use speed to your advantage, to make sure they don't cross over and slow it down too fast. So I just wanted to break ahead so if they wanted the lead they would have to work for it, and that's what they did.

“I was able to ease her back in the first turn. From there she took a nice breather with me down the backside and from there I knew she was going to be pretty tough. Turning for home I saw (Matareya) coming up and she's pretty talented too, but when I asked her down the lane she gave me another gear, the kind of effort you want to see, and hopefully she's going into the Breeders' Cup in the right way.”

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“She's very talented to start with, but today it was tricky because there were a couple other speed horses,” said winning rider Florent Geroux. “From the one hole, you have to use speed to your advantage, to make sure they don't cross over and slow it down too fast. So I just wanted to break ahead so if they wanted the lead they would have to work for it, and that's what they did.

“I was able to ease her back in the first turn. From there she took a nice breather with me down the backside and from there I knew she was going to be pretty tough. Turning for home I saw [Matareya] coming up and she's pretty talented too, but when I asked her down the lane she gave me another gear, the kind of effort you want to see, and hopefully she's going into the Breeders' Cup in the right way.”

Juju's Map was second at odds-on sprinting at Ellis July 25 before breaking through at the Pea Patch by 5 3/4 lengths when stretched to a mile Sept. 3.

This was trainer Brad Cox's second Alcibiades win in three years–he took it in 2019 with eventual champion 2-year-old filly British Idiom (Flashback).

“She sat close to a hot pace and was still able to finish, and I thought, 'That's what good horses do.' She broke running, Florent put her in a good position and she finished up well,” Cox said. “I'm very proud of her performance. We'll obviously talk it over with the Albaugh team, and as long as she comes out of it in good order I think we'll march on toward California [and the Nov. 5 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies]. It was a good trip last time and hopefully she can show up and run her race and be very effective.”

Saturday, Keeneland
DARLEY ALCIBIADES S.-GI, $400,000, Keeneland, 10-8, 2yo, f,
1 1/16m, 1:43.52, ft.
1–JUJU'S MAP, 122, f, 2, by Liam's Map
                1st Dam: Nagambie, by Flatter
                2nd Dam: Charming N Lovable, by Horse Chestnut (Saf)
                3rd Dam: St Lucinda, by St. Jovite
   1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN, 1ST GRADE I
   WIN. ($190,000 Ylg '20 KEEJAN; $300,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP).
O-Albaugh Family Stables LLC; B-Fred W. Hertrich (KY); T-Brad
Cox; J-Florent Geroux. $240,000. Lifetime Record: 3-2-1-0,
$280,800. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Werk Nick Rating: A+++ *Triple Plus*.
2–Distinctlypossible, 122, f, 2, by Curlin
1st Dam: Funny Proposition (GSW, $230,295), by Medaglia d'Oro
2nd Dam: Humorous Miss, by Distorted Humor
3rd Dam: Starry Miss, by Star de Naskra
($200,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP; $670,000 2yo '21 OBSAPR).
O-Bradley Thoroughbreds, Finder, Gary, Belmar Racing and
Breeding, LLC, Cambron, Tim, Cambron, Anna and Team
Hanley; B-John C. Oxley (KY); T-Chad C. Brown. $80,000.
3–Sequist, 122, f, 2, by Nyquist
1st Dam: Secret Garden (Per) (G1SW-Per), by Flanders Fields
2nd Dam: Naima, by Quiet American
3rd Dam: Nogalus, by Trempolino
($100,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-West Point Thoroughbreds,
Gervais, Lori, Pigg, Charles R., Andres, Tom, Stewart, Dallas
and Kraft, Karen; B-Clearsky Farms (KY); T-Dallas Stewart.
$40,000.
Margins: 4 1/4, NK, 1 1/4. Odds: 2.40, 7.80, 24.30.
Also Ran: Mama Rina, Dream Lith-(DH), Matareya-(DH), Penny Saver, Miss Interpret, Runup, Myfavoritedaughter, Pipeline Girl. Scratched: Diamond Wow. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

Pedigree Notes:

Liam's Map, bred by Dennis Albaugh, is now responsible for four Grade I winners and seven graded winners overall. Three of those four reached the highest level at two despite the fact that Liam's Map didn't blossom until four, when he took the GI Woodward S. and GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile locally.

Juju's Map is the 17th stakes winner (three graded including a Group 1 winner in Brazil) for Flatter as a broodmare sire. Her unplaced dam is half to GISW Fault (Blame). This is the extended female family of local Grade II winner Fioretti (Bernardini) and MGISW juvenile Bast (Uncle Mo).

Nagambie was acquired for just $14,000 at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale. Her most recent produce was an Audible filly born Apr. 5 and she was bred back to another former Albaugh colorbearer in Not This Time for 2022.

The post Liam’s Map Filly Impressive in Alcibiades appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Breaking from the rail is Albaugh Family Stables' narrow morning-line favorite Juju's Map (Liam's Map). Hammered down to 7-10 debuting for Cox July 25 at Ellis, the $300,000 Keeneland September graduate made a menacing run to the lead before flattening out late and settling for second. Odds-on again stretching out to a mile there Sept. 3, the bay popped out to the front and never had an anxious moment in the lane, cruising to a 5 3/4-length score under minimal urging from Florent Geroux.

Geroux opted to stay aboard Juju's Map instead of keeping the call on the other half of the Cox tandem, Godolphin's Matareya (Pioneerof the Nile). Backed to 9-5 as part of an entry debuting over 6 1/2 furlongs Aug. 20 at Ellis, the homebred made the lead under her own power, shook off several early challengers and discarded her stablemate in early stretch en route to a geared-down 4 1/2-length graduation.

A pair of fillies drawn wide appear to present the biggest obstacles to Cox, who won the Alcibiades in 2019 with eventual champion British Idiom (Flashback). In the 10-hole is Milam Farm's Penny Saver (Super Saver), who owns the top Beyer figure and Thoro-Graph number in the field for a devastating maiden romp last out. Runner-up as the favorite on debut going five furlongs June 18 at Churchill, the $65,000 Fasig-Tipton October buy was fourth after a slow start stretching out on the Saratoga turf Aug. 8. Turning a corner in the mornings to the tune of an unheard-of five-furlong bullet on the Saratoga training track in :58 4/5 (1/10) Sept. 4, the dark bay backed her works up with a 9 1/2-length tour de force over this trip Sept. 24 in Louisville, earning an 85 Beyer and 6 1/2 Thoro-Graph number.

One stall to her outside is Diamond Wow (Lookin At Lucky), who ships north for Patrick Biancone following a pair of victories to start her career. Unveiled over five furlongs on the Gulfstream turf, the chestnut made the pace and edged clear in the lane to a three-length success. Switched to dirt in the seven-furlong off-turf Our Dear Peg S. there Sept. 18, she showed rating ability, sitting off the pacesetter and taking over nearing the stretch en route to a 1 3/4-length triumph. Biancone reached out to Mike Smith to take over the reins from Romero Maragh for this engagement.

Two other stakes winners rate outside chances in Jim McIngvale's Runup (Runhappy), a three-length upsetter of the Sorority S. at 14-1 Sept. 6 at Monmouth, and Miss Interpret (Street Sense), who captured the washed-off P.G. Johnson S. for Todd Pletcher Sept. 2 at Saratoga.

The post Cox Pair Heads Alcibiades Dozen appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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The daughter of More Than Ready had been abandoned by a previous owner after running up a board bill. She had a Revolutionary foal on the ground and was in foal to the same sire, as well, but Four Wishes wasn't likely to be particularly commercial – the mare's catalog page was not inspiring, and she'd raced five times without ever finishing better than sixth.

It was Levy's birthday, though, and something told the founding owner of the Bluewater Sales consignment agency to bring the mare home. Three and a half years later, the $500 rescue mare has turned into a fairy tale success: Four Wishes' Laoban filly, Simply Ravishing, won the Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland on Oct. 2.

“You just can't make it up, truly, we all need a good story right now,” Levy said. “I was lucky enough to be there when she crossed the finish line! Keeneland is kind of strange and spooky without people there, but you can move around so freely and be really close to the racetrack, and we kind of ran with her to the wire.

“Four Wishes really had all the negatives: she couldn't run a jump, and they always say never buy a mare with two blank dams, well, she had them. … It sounds kind of cheesy when I tell the story, but we'd never had anything happen like that for ourselves.”

After purchasing Four Wishes in February of 2017, Levy sent the mare to Stone Gate Farm in New York in the hopes of making her Revolutionary foal somewhat commercially viable. After the mare foaled a colt that April, Levy decided to send her to first-year sire Laoban on her husband's breeding right.

Four Wishes and her colt came home to Kentucky in the summer, and the following April her Laoban filly was born in the New York.

Levy's son, Ryder, saw the filly first. He sent his mother a text message with a photograph of the filly out in the field.

“Looks like a bunch of early breeders awards to me,” he wrote.

Those words proved prophetic down the road, but there were more bumps in the road before Simply Ravishing's long-predicted success.

Four Wishes' Revolutionary colt was not accepted to the New York-bred sale and brought a final bid of just $8,000 when sold at Fasig-Tipton October in 2018. He wound up headed to Peru, and Levy doesn't know whether the now 3-year-old has yet raced.

Four Wishes was bred to Daaher next, also on a breeding right, but she suffered a dystocia due to the foal's large size, and sadly that foal did not survive. The mare was badly bruised, Levy said, and was given a year off from the breeding shed to recover.

All that happened shortly before Levy was preparing to send Four Wishes' Laoban filly to the 2019 Fasig-Tipton New York-bred sale.

“Laoban foals were really selling well, and they were all pretty athletic looking,” Levy remembered. “I was already at the sale, and the crew at the farm was loading the horses on the trailer to ship them up to me. They sent me a text, as people sending me bad news tend to do, that once she got on the trailer she really wasn't happy and kicked the wall so hard she tore up her hind foot.

“She was going to be just fine, but obviously she had to get off the van and couldn't go to the sale. I was really disappointed and admittedly pretty grumpy about it.”

Levy re-entered the filly in the Fasig-Tipton October sale, and hoped that her impressive physical would be enough to draw the right kind of attention.

“As she was growing up, she just was so simple,” Levy said. “She was always stunning, always in motion, always the right weight, always shiny, always correct. There was none of this messing around business with awkward stages; she just stood out.”

Though she lacked a commercially attractive pedigree, the filly's good looks were enough to draw the attention of trainer Ken McPeek. His final bid of $50,000 was enough to land the filly.

“She was just the kind of filly Kenny likes, real athletic-looking,” Levy said. “He doesn't care about the page so much, and I knew he'd give her every chance.”

Levy had known McPeek since the time she had galloped for John Ward, and then worked with him at 505 Farm. When Levy first opened her consignment business in 1999, McPeek was one of her first successful customers.

Oddly enough, it was with another filly who had two blank dams on her catalog page. This filly had trouble passing the veterinary inspection; of 12 vets who scoped her airway, only McPeek's vet gave the filly a passing grade.

McPeek landed the daughter of Dehere for $175,000 at the 2000 Fasig-Tipton July sale, and the following year Take Charge Lady won Keeneland's Alcibiades.

Take Charge Lady had great success on the track, winning a total of five Grade 1 races and $2.4 million, and she went on to immeasurable success as Broodmare of the Year and dam of two Grade 1 winners, Take Charge Indy and champion Will Take Charge.

The similarities between the two fillies' storylines are the kind of thing that just can't be made up, Levy said, laughing. She remembered attending the 2001 Alcibiades and cheering Take Charge Lady to victory.

“I knew so little [about industry protocols] back then,” said Levy. “I ran across the rail to get to the winner's circle for the photo, and I'm sure everybody in there was like, 'Who is this girl?'”

A more seasoned veteran now, Levy was still emotional after Simply Ravishing's big win in the Alcibiades. Her son Ryder, now 29, had been such a huge fan of the filly's from the very beginning, and he'd surprised his mother by asking the farm manager to name Levy the sole breeder for the first time in her career.

McPeek stayed in touch about the filly through her early training, sending videos of Simply Ravishing's progress ahead of her first start.

“I thought, 'Well, she looks pretty good,'” Levy recalled. “I had taken our farm manager to brunch on that Sunday that she ran for the first time, and I missed her race and then my phone just started blowing up when she broke her maiden at Saratoga.”

After her maiden victory on the turf, McPeek stepped Simply Ravishing up to New York-bred stakes company. The race came off the grass, and the filly won by several lengths.

“I thought, 'Wow, this is pretty crazy,'” Levy said. “When he entered her in the Alcibiades, though, I thought, 'Hmm, could this really happen?'”

Apparently, Wishes do come true.

Simply Ravishing winning the Darley Alcibiades

Simply Ravishing won the Alcibiades by 6 1/4 lengths, completely dominating the competition in an impressive gate-to-wire performance. She's likely to be one of the favorites in the upcoming Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 6 at Keeneland.

“After this filly won, I actually ran into the guy who'd had Four Wishes at a reining show,” Levy said. “I tried to ask him about her first filly, by Revolutionary, but I guess he sold her as a riding horse prospect and didn't remember much more than that.”

Levy posted a snapshot of Four Wishes' story on social media following the Alcibiades win, and has enjoyed the excited reaction of so many of her friends. One major Kentucky breeder even told Levy's husband that after learning about the story, he went out and rescued a mare himself.

Four Wishes was bred to Speightster for 2021, and Levy is excited to see what the future will bring with her miracle mare. The entire story reminds Levy of a conversation she had with breeder Helen Alexander when she first got into the business.

“I remember asking her to lunch years ago, because she was someone I've always respected from the very beginning,” Levy said. “I asked if I could pick her brain, said, 'I'm trying to find my way and I really need some advice.' She just kind of said, basically, 'Breed your mares well, take care of them well, and they'll take care of you.' She actually called to congratulate me after Simply Ravishing won!”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Birthday ‘Wishes’ Come True For Meg Levy appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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On Sunday, the Grade I success of Valiance (Tapit) in the Juddmonte Spinster S. vindicated all the promise, in pedigree and physique, she had evinced as a $650,000 yearling sold through Levy’s Bluewater Sales at Saratoga in 2017.

Earlier that same year, however, Levy had been driving to a rather less glamorous Fasig-Tipton auction: the Kentucky Mixed Winter Sale in February. Somebody got a message to her that a boarding farm, just down the Newtown Pike, was trying to find a home for an abandoned More Than Ready mare. Staring at an unpaid bill of $10,000 and counting, they would take $500 to remove the wretched creature from their books.

Well, it was Levy’s birthday; and the mare was named, of all things, Four Wishes. “Oh, gosh, well you never know,” Levy said to herself. “Why not stop by and see her?”

Half a dozen mares were turned out in the paddock. They all looked fine, except one. Remember this is a woman who spends all her time trying to get horses to thrive; to look their best, through whatever it takes in terms of nutrition, grooming, shoeing and all the rest of it. “Poor thing,” Levy thought, as she approached. But then she caught that look, that eye; that window into the inner mysteries of a horse. As a parcel of bones and sinew, the mare was plainly in a bad place. But that gleam, in the low winter sun, showed that something vital still flickered within.

“I’ve always been very funny about the eye that a mare has,” Levy reflects. “It sounds cheesy, but I always feel that you see the heart coming through. And she just looked at me with a quality eye. Because, believe it or not, I see a lot of horses not in the best of shape. It’s not always because they’ve received bad care. Sometimes they’re just in too competitive a situation, and that might well have been the case here.

“Of course, she really didn’t have any pedigree to speak of. No black type in the first two dams, and herself unplaced. So, really, all she had going for her was that she’s by More Than Ready. But I thought she had a beautiful eye and, the way she looked to me, I just felt like she was worth giving a home.”

Levy went on to Fasig, and told her husband: “I bought myself a birthday present.” Over the years, Mike had tried to “put the blinkers on” somewhat, such is her predilection for taking clients’ horses when they had reached the end of the road. But she felt strangely excited.

“I remember calling Patty, who was running our farm at the time,” she says. “‘Oh, I just bought a mare for 500 bucks. Can you go pick her up later? There’ll be some paperwork that comes with her.’ Because there was an agister’s lien on her. And she was like, ‘All right, crazy lady.'”

With respect, Levy didn’t feel quite so excited about the fact that 9-year-old was carrying a Revolutionary foal. But then Four Wishes delivered a quite stunning colt. True, the package remained so uncommercial that he only made $8,000 as a Fasig-Tipton October yearling before disappearing to Peru. No New York premiums down there, clearly; but it was heartening to see that the mare could produce such a good physical.

And the New York angle could work better next time: Mike had helped to put together a syndicate to stand Laoban (Uncle Mo), then just starting out at Sequel Stallions. Laoban, co-owned by Bluewater client Mike Moreno of Southern Equine, had broken his maiden with a surprise win in the GII Jim Dandy S. The Levys had a breeding right, and Four Wishes looked a good fit.

“I thought: ‘Well, he seems a really nice horse and should complement her,'” says Levy. “She’s medium-sized and a bit round, like a More Than Ready can be, and he’s big and tall and angular.”

Four Wishes, in the meantime, had really begun to flourish. Not that there was any magic to it.

“You know, you just do a couple of simple things right,” Levy explains. “What we always do, when they ship in. Float their teeth, make sure they have a paddock mate that suits, all that stuff. But she just bloomed. Oh, she did. She was gorgeous.”

Sure enough, when her Laoban filly was born in April 2018, Bill Johnson called from Stonegate Farm and exclaimed: “Wow! I think you’re really going to like this one. That mare has had a really nice filly, big, tall and angular.”

Sure enough, when the pair came back to Kentucky, the baby looked fabulous–a chip off the old Indian Charlie block.

“Just so good-looking, so athletic,” Levy enthuses. “And the filly soon became a farm favorite. At the time my son Ryder was working the yearlings, and also Elliott Walden’s son Will, and they both just loved her. And they’ve been around a lot of good ones, especially Will. And we’ve funny little video clips of her jogging round the walker and the both of them saying: ‘Runner!'”

Not that all this had happened overnight. Let’s remember that Four Wishes had already taken a lot of time, energy and cost; with, so far, only an $8,000 yearling in Peru to show for it. Sadly, moreover, she then lost a Daaher foal and had to be given a fallow year. And, in the meantime, her fabulous daughter was nearly undone by disaster.

Last summer the farm team were loading her, with around a dozen others, to go to the New York sale in Saratoga. “She decided that she was not happy with this process,” Levy relates. “And kicked the wall of the van so hard that she broke one of her hind feet. I was so disappointed. But we had no choice, after she was treated by a podiatrist, but to re-enter her in the Fasig-Tipton October Sale–not, we know, traditionally the absolute best place to sell a New York-bred.”

Sure enough, while a lot of people liked her in Lexington, those two blank dams and a rookie New York sire was a tricky combination. But then along came the client who had helped to put Bluewater on the map when giving $175,000 for a Dehere filly at Fasig’s July Sale in 2000. She became Take Charge Lady, whose name can be found twice below that of Valiance on the Spinster roll of honor.

“Kenny McPeek has that history of buying those kinds of horses,” Levy says. “So in the end we were really glad that he got her [for $50,000], we just felt it would give her a chance.”

Whenever one of her family saw McPeek, they would pester him.

“Hey, how’s that filly, what’s her name again? Simply Ravishing?” “Oh, she’s fine. Doing good.”

Then McPeek took her up to Saratoga and, as her debut neared, started sending videos of her workouts. Levy figured this had to be promising.

But she could not anticipate the authentic fairytale that would unfold when Simply Ravishing ventured out in the afternoon, in the colors of Harold Lerner, Magdalena Racing and Nehoc Stables: first winning a maiden special weight on the turf; then a stakes, again at Saratoga but switched to dirt, by daylight.

That emboldened McPeek to run her in the GI Darley Alcibiades S. at Keeneland last Friday–a race he had won four times, including with Take Charge Lady. Busy preparing another bargain filly for a momentous Classic appointment the next day, McPeek watched from Maryland as Simply Ravishing made all by six lengths from another filly from his barn, Crazy Beautiful (Liam’s Map).

“We were at the racetrack, right there on the apron, and I was just crying,” Levy says. “You don’t get many moments as special in this business, right? I mean, it’s just unbelievable. You know, it can’t be explained. I giggle every time an article mentions how she’s bred: ‘the first winner from the mare.’ Actually she’s her first horse even to hit the racetrack. I think her first foal, another Revolutionary, was sold as a riding horse.

“And it has just all clicked for me, how lucky we are with the friends we’ve made in the business, and the clients who have become friends. This mare would have never been bred to Laoban, were it not for Mike Moreno.”

But both Laoban and Levy herself were only just getting started. The next day, another of Laoban’s first crop, Dreamer’s Disease, likewise made all for an emphatic success in an optional allowance. And then Keepmeinmind, another in the Southern Equine silks, outran 50-1 odds for second in the GI Claiborne Futurity S. in only his second start.

Then came the Spinster success of Valiance, whose sale through Bluewater for breeders China Horse Club mirrored that of recent GIII Pocahontas S. winner Girl Daddy (Uncle Mo).

“We were lucky enough to have Valiance at the farm before she went to the sale, and got to know her very well,” Levy recalls. “In the end, we came up with a partnership at Saratoga, because we really thought there was something special about her. And it was like a friends and family deal: with China Horse Club staying in, and Aron Wellman [of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners] and Marty Schwartz both having both been so

good to us, so instrumental in our business over the years.”

Indeed, Bluewater sold another gray Spinster winner for Schwartz in Asi Siempre (El Prado {Ire}) for $3 million in 2007.

“Valiance looked so fantastic in the paddock,” Levy says. “She moved great, was very focused, and just seems to be getting better and better. We all hoped she might get a piece of it, but it was a shock to see her make that move on the outside and then come back and look like she wouldn’t blow out a candle.”

There may be some divided loyalties ahead, with Girl Daddy likely to cross swords with Simply Ravishing at the Breeders’ Cup, but there’s no doubting that Bluewater’s association with China Horse Club is on a roll. They sold another filly by Valiance’s sire, out of GI Alabama S. winner Embellish The Lace (Super Saver), to Claiborne for $1.25 million during the opening session of the September Sale at Keeneland.

“She was just an amazing physical and had all the pieces in the right place,” Levy reports. “Hopefully we’ll see a lot more from her. In general, of course, it was a difficult market. But having experienced several lows in the business, including the 2008 crash, I guess it’s a bit different from a young person going into it and trying to be optimistic. Having been through some of those things, I think you learn to adjust; and to deliver. It’s no fun delivering bad news to clients. But we’re lucky to have some

that could race their horses, and hopefully everyone appreciates you being straightforward. Yes, the bull’s-eye was very small, but we were fortunate enough to have a couple that did hit. So we’ll live to fight another day.”

It’s a rare pleasure, in 2020, to find someone with as feel-good a story as Four Wishes. But Levy is seasoned enough to take a step back and urge some positivity regardless.

“Long-term, I think there are some good things going on in the

business,” she stresses. “The Horseracing Integrity Act, most obviously. And I was hugely inspired by the Preakness, watching that filly just look the colt in the eye and say, ‘Not today.’ Racing is not dead yet. These horses will always inspire us, no matter what.”

For her own team, mind you, this was a weekend that would have stood out in any year.

“Yes, it has all been pretty crazy,” Levy says. “I think there might be a miracle both ways, between Laoban and Four Wishes. Laoban seems to take after Uncle Mo. You know, I love stallions that are homozygous black, so there’ll never be a chestnut. I saw quite a few of those Laoban foals, and they all have that Uncle Mo/Indian Charlie look about them: angular, athletic, something about their heads and ears. And smart.”

As for her rescure mare, Levy has naturally done some research. It turns out that Four Wishes was actually bred by some friends, but the trail goes cold after her racing career. Anyhow, all’s well that ends well; and she is now in foal to Speightster

“Besides selling the filly, this is the first Grade I winner we’ve ever bred for ourselves,” notes Levy. “Obviously it’s pretty cool for Laoban, because when you look at this mare, how could anyone–looking at all the normal indicators–expect such a good racehorse out of her?

“But what is it they say? ‘If wishes were horses…’ It’s just amazing, so strange. I can’t say what made me go over there that day. I wish I could explain it. You hope and dream, I guess, but the way this thing happened? I could never have imagined that a situation like this could somehow arise from that transaction. It’s just crazy.”

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