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Last weekend, the 3-year-old Whitham homebred trained by Ian Wilkes got her first graded stakes win in the GIII Regret S. Still a maiden after her first four starts, Walkathon switched to the turf this spring and reeled off consecutive scores in her maiden win and in a Churchill Downs allowance before successfully stepping up in class in the Regret.

Clay Whitham, who co-manages Whitham Thoroughbreds along with his mother Janis, is based in Colorado but was able to make the trip to Louisville to celebrate the victory.

“We had pretty high expectations,” he said. “Before her debut, she had shown a lot in her works so everyone was pretty high on her. We know that Twirling Candy can get both dirt and turf runners, but he really has excelled with his turf runners. We were looking forward to getting her on the turf and as it has turned out, clearly it made a big difference.”

Consistently maintaining a roster of just 10 broodmares, Whitham Thoroughbreds has always focused on breeding to race.

Bayakoa was one of the first broodmares to join their program. The champion distaffer only produced four foals and just one, Arlucea (Broad Brush), had any success on the track. After a winning debut, Arlucea ran unplaced in her next six starts. She had better luck for the Whithams as a broodmare, however, as the dam of their 2012 GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner Fort Larned (E Dubai).

Later in her broodmare career, Arlucea produced Walkabout (Stroll). The winner of the 2017 GIII Matron S. joined the Whithams' broodmare roster in 2017 and was sent to Twirling Candy for her first mating. The resulting foal, Walkathon, was an average-sized bay filly and was never a standout in her early days.

“She didn't 'wow' you necessarily,” Whitham admitted. “No one ever wants to say their foal is small, but she was probably just a notch below average. She never gave anyone any trouble and developed under the radar. She's one of those that never had any setbacks and quietly progressed through her training.”

Now a Grade III winner, Walkathon will take a short break from the starting gate after winning three races in less than two months, but Whitham said his mother already has her eye on a Grade I for their talented filly this fall.

“She is really focused on the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S. at Keeneland,” he said. “It's a race that my mom is really excited about running in. Ian will have to figure out what he wants to do with her until then.”

Janis Whitham has already bred and raced one QEII winner. Remarkably, it's another granddaughter of Bayakoa. Affluent (Affirmed), who won the historic Keeneland contest in 2001, is out of their foundation mare's only other producing daughter Trinity Place (Strawberry Road {Aus}).

When Clay Whitham's father Frank passed away not long after Bayakoa retired from racing, his mother carried on the Whitham racing operation from her hometown of Leoti, Kansas. Today, the mother-son duo run their breeding and racing program in partnership.

“We bounce our ideas back and forth off each other,” Whitham said. “It's really helpful when you're doing matings. We've bred these mares for a number of years so you don't have to start over from scratch each year. We've put a lot of thought into what we think we want to do with them and how we think they ought to be bred.”

Whitham explained that while it is rewarding for them to see Bayakoa's legacy continue to grow, for them, it just means that their breeding philosophies are working.

“Horse racing is a family activity for us,” he explained. “For Walkathon to be connected back to Bayakoa, that was really the horse that put my parents on the map. They had confidence in keeping her and breeding her. It's really nice that the decision continues to pay dividends. Our program is primarily breed to race, so if it doesn't work, we don't really have a Plan B. When you breed to race, your decisions had better work out.”

Before Baykoa came into the picture, there was a Whitham-owned filly named Tuesday Evening (Nodouble). Three generations later, her great-granddaughter Four Graces (Majesticperfection) is yet another Whitham Thoroughbreds success. After winning  the GIII Dogwood S. and GIII Beaumont S. in 2020, Four Graces took much of her 4-year-old season off and returned to the starting gate this year. In her last start, she ran a close second in the GI Derby City Distaff S. Whitham said she will be returning to the starting gate at Churchill Downs in the coming weeks.

Four Graces is a half-sister to first-crop sire McCraken, who took the Whithams to the GI Kentucky Derby in 2017. Whitham said that they have one exciting juvenile son of McCraken who will be heading to the racetrack soon.

While the list of accomplishments for Whitham Thoroughbreds continues to grow, Whitham said that coming out on top with a long game-focused program like theirs is still a challenge.

“You've got to have some good luck and we appreciate our success, but it's still tough,” he said. “With our type of program, having some good fillies really creates value for the program. If you can get a stakes win for a filly, you've created some value for her. We're super excited to have some recent success with a few horses. We feel very fortunate.”

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Having finished second and fourth in her second and third starts, respectively, sprinting on the main track, Walkathon was runner-up in a rained-onto-Tapeta Gulfstream route Feb. 13. She resurfaced to graduate over the Keeneland turf Apr. 22, and was flattered when the next two finishers came back to earn their own diplomas. The Whitham homebred was coming off a first-level allowance tally going a sixteenth shorter here May 14.

Away on top from the rail, Walkathon was eventually reined in by Leparoux to sit second behind keyed-up longshot Lola Flo (Get Stormy). They crawled down the backside single file through a half in :48.46 and six furlongs in 1:12.91, and as the pacesetter dropped anchor midway around the home bend Walkathon quickly seized command. She was three or four lengths clear at the head of the stretch, and was not for catching from there.

Saturday, Churchill Downs
REGRET S.-GIII, $200,000, Churchill Downs, 6-4, 3yo, f, 1 1/8mT, 1:49.26, fm.
1–WALKATHON, 118, f, 3, by Twirling Candy
                1st Dam: Walkabout (GSW, $242,563), by Stroll
                2nd Dam: Arlucea, by Broad Brush
                3rd Dam: Bayakoa (Arg), by Consultant's Bid
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. O/B-Whitham Thoroughbreds, LLC (KY); T-Ian R. Wilkes; J-Julien R. Leparoux. $122,760. Lifetime Record: 7-3-2-0, $290,341. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–McKulick (GB), 118, f, 3, Frankel (GB)–Astrelle (Ire), by Makfi (GB). (180,000gns Ylg '20 TATOCT). O-Klaravich Stables, Inc.; B-Essafinaat UK Ltd (GB); T-Chad C. Brown. $39,600.
3–Beside Herself, 118, f, 3, Uncle Mo–Excited, by Giant's Causeway. 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. O-Michael B. Tabor; B-Chelston (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher. $19,800.
Margins: 1 1/4, 6 1/4, 2 1/4. Odds: 2.60, 0.80, 4.40.
Also Ran: Kneesnhips, Candy Raid, Lola Flo. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

Pedigree Notes:

Walkathon becomes the 15th graded stakes winner for her sire (by Candy Ride {Arg}), and the third out of a mare by Stroll, who also sired the dam of talented GISW Ollie's Candy (Candy Ride {Arg}). She traces her lineage back to Janis and Frank Whitham's most noteworthy of many standout runners, with Hall of Famer Bayako (Arg) as her third dam. Fort Larned (E Dubai), these connections' 2012 GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner, is a half to Walkathon's dam, herself a winner of the GIII Matron S. over this main track in 2017. After producing Walkathon in her first mating, Walkabout lost a Mendelssohn foal and was unsuccessfully bred to Omaha Beach thereafter. She produced a colt by Nyquist Apr. 25.

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Ridden for speed by Julien Leparoux over a track that had been playing kindly to front-end types, the homebred half-sister to McCraken (Ghostzapper) set a pressured pace from last year’s GI Frizette S. winner Wicked Whisper, as they whistled through an opening half-mile in :44.37. Four Graces stiff-armed the challenge of Wicked Whisper, having won the battle, and managed to win the war as well, coming home well clear of Sconsin. Brereton C. Jones’s Turtle Trax completed the trifecta for stallions who stood/stand at Jones’s Airdrie Stud. The aforementioned McCraken also stands at Airdrie.

“She’s a fast filly,” Leparoux said. “The track is pretty quick today too. But she was doing it very nicely for me in a good rhythm. That’s the way she likes to run–free–and she makes that big kick at the end… I’m surprised we broke the track record, really. But she’s getting much better right now and she’s doing very good.”

Four Graces was registering her second straight graded win, having posted a 2 1/2-length victory in the GIII Dogwood S. at Churchill June 6. She was a debut winner at Gulfstream Mar. 1, but settled for fourth attempting a one-turn mile there Apr. 10. She bounced back with a Churchill optional claiming tally over a strong group that included Sconsin, subsequent GIII Iowa Oaks runner-up Aurelia Garland (Constitution), and two other next-out allowance winners.

Trainer Ian Wilkes, who saddled the first and third home, said the winner would likely be aimed for next month’s GI Longines Test S. at Saratoga.

Friday, Keeneland
BEAUMONT S. PRESENTED BY KEENELAND SELECT-GIII, $98,000, Keeneland, 7-10, 3yo, f, 7f, 1:24.90, ft.
1–FOUR GRACES, 118, f, 3, by Majesticperfection
1st Dam: Ivory Empress (GSP, $189,402), by Seeking the Gold
2nd Dam: Madame Pandit, by Wild Again
3rd Dam: Tuesday Evening, by Nodouble
O/B-Whitham Thoroughbreds, LLC (KY); T-Ian R. Wilkes;
J-Julien R. Leparoux. $60,000. Lifetime Record: 5-4-0-0,
$194,450. *1/2 to Bondurant (War Front), MGSP, $288,234;
McCraken (Ghostzapper), MGSW & GISP, $869,728. Werk Nick
   Rating: A. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Sconsin, 118, f, 3, Include–Sconnie, by Tiznow.
O/B-Lloyd Madison Farms LLC (KY); T-Gregory D. Foley.
$20,000.
3–Turtle Trax, 118, f, 3, Cairo Prince–Great Family, by Harlan’s
Holiday. O/B-Brereton C. Jones (KY); T-Ian R. Wilkes. $10,000.
Margins: 4 3/4, 4 3/4, 6 1/4. Odds: 0.70, 4.50, 10.80.
Also Ran: Wicked Whisper, Slam Dunk. Scratched: Speech.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

Pedigree Notes:
Majesticperfection, now standing in Uruguay after beginning his career in Kentucky at Airdrie, will be represented Saturday at Keeneland by Bret Jones-bred MGSW Bell’s the One in the GI Madison S. Four Graces is one of five winners from as many foals to race and three graded performers out of Ivory Empress, who was second in the 2010 GIII Endine S. for these same connections. Ivory Empress is out of GSW and GISP Madame Pandit, making her a half to GISW Mea Domina (Dance Brightly). She has a 2-year-old colt named Milliken (Into Mischief) who has five published breezes at Churchill Downs and produced a full-sister to ‘Rising Star’ McCraken Mar. 31.

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