Hall of Fame inductee Bayakoa (Arg) (Consultant's Bid) put Frank and Janis Whitham's racing program on the map when she won the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff in 1989 and again in 1990. Over two decades later, Bayakoa's great-granddaughter Walkathon (Twirling Candy) is carrying out her female family's accomplished legacy.
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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