Arrogate filly with big Strawbridge pedigree goes from claimer to SW
Arrogate filly with big Strawbridge pedigree goes from claimer to SW
And the Kitten’s Joy line enjoys a big weekend
By Frances J. Karon
Two weekends ago, Cal-bred 6-year-old gelding The Chosen Vron won his 14th black-type stakes race. Back in 2000, The Chosen Vron’s sire Vronsky (Danzig) had been a million-dollar yearling, his high-dollar value boosted by his half-sister No Matter What (Nureyey)—the first foal from their dam, listed stakes winner Words of War (Lord At War)—who had just won the G1 Del Mar Oaks in the weeks leading up to the September sale. Words of War’s $1.35 million second foal, E Dubai (Mr. Prospector), had already broken his maiden by the time of Vronsky’s sale (and later became a Grade 1-placed dual Grade 2 winner).
As a racehorse, Vronsky didn’t fulfill the potential that had been foreseen with the million-dollar bid. He did win three races and earn $135,247, but as a late-bloomer with no black type lines, it was solely his pedigree that earned him a chance at stud, at Harris Farms in California, from where he sired 14 stakes winners, led by Grade 1 winners The Chosen Vron and What a View; Grade 2 winners Closing Remarks and Norvsky; and Grade 3 winner Poshsky.
This past Saturday, the Words of War family was in the news for a second consecutive weekend, but on the bottom side of the pedigree, when G1 Kentucky Oaks-bound Everland (Arrogate) won the listed Bourbonette Oaks at Turfway Park, her first stakes win. Her third dam is No Matter What, that Nureyev daughter of Words of War who’d won a Grade 1 some two weeks before Vronsky sold as a yearling.
While excellence is not new to this family, Everland is an anomaly for a filly on her pedigree page: she is a former claimer, having been snapped up for $30,000 out of her maiden win at Turfway on Dec. 30th. It was an eight-way shake for the filly that up until then had placed just once from three starts, and the big winner was trainer Eric Foster for his Foster Family Racing and partners. Since the claim, the filly is two-for-three and has earned over $209,000. She’s from the last of three crops by Arrogate and is his 20th stakes winner from 325 foals.
Everland is the first foal from Ever Changing (Tapit), a modest winner at three on the Colonial grass, her only win from seven starts in England and the U.S. When Everland’s racetrack career started as inauspiciously as that of her dam, trainer Jonathan Thomas and owner Augustin Stables—who bred Everland and her first two dams as well as raced the third dam—could be forgiven for cutting her loose in a $30,000 maiden claimer.
But for most people, it was a foot in the door to a great female family developed most recently by Augustin’s George Strawbridge Jr., who, through the Nicoma Bloodstock agency arm of Mill Ridge Farm’s Headley Bell, acquired her great-granddam No Matter What from co-breeders Arthur Hancock III and Stonerside for $425,000 at the Keeneland July yearling sale in 1998. Bell recalled on Tuesday that No Matter What was the first yearling he’d ever bought for Strawbridge. “She was a beautiful Nureyev,” said Bell. “She went out to California and won a Grade 1, and she ended up being an incredible producer. It’s a foundation family and there’s brilliance in it all the way through.”
An “incredible producer” she was, indeed; that may even be an understatement. From No Matter What, Strawbridge bred five graded/group stakes winners: European champion 2-year-old filly Rainbow View (Dynaformer), who was a Group 1 winner at two in England, a Group 1 winner at three in Ireland, a Grade 3 winner in the U.S., and is the second dam of Everland; Grade 2 winner Utley (Smart Strike colt), a sire in Venezuela; and Grade 3 winners Winter View (Thunder Gulch filly), Just As Well (A.P. Indy colt)—sire in South Africa of a Group 3 winner—and Wissahickon (Tapit gelding). Strawbridge also bred French Group 3 winner Stunning Spirit (Invincible Spirit) from Stunning View, a winning full sister to Rainbow View. Stunning Spirit has a small crop of 2-year-olds—his first—this year and has already been represented by a filly who was second last week at Marseille Borely in one of a handful of juvenile races that have been held in England and Europe as N. America awaits its first 2-year-old race on April 5th at Keeneland.
Rainbow View, Everland’s granddam who in addition to being a champion juvenile was highweighted from 6 1/2-9 1/2 furlongs at three on the Irish Handicap, had a brief broodmare career before she died at 12. Her first foal, a full sister to Everland’s dam Ever Changing, died while in training in England as a 2-year-old; another Tapit, a colt, was unraced; and Ever Changing was her third produce. Rainbow View had one more foal, and that was the Ghostzapper gelding If Not Now, winner of two races from three starts.
The good news for Strawbridge is that he has one final foal—and better yet, a filly—from No Matter What (who had only four fillies from 12 foals; she died aged 27 in 2024), and that’s her current 2-year-old Blade Honer (Omaha Beach). More good news for the breeder is that he still owns No Matter What’s granddaughter/Everland’s dam Ever Changing, plus her 2-year-old colt Chagall (Caravaggio) and yearling American Pharoah filly. Ever Changing was bred to Mill Ridge’s standout young sire Oscar Performance for her 2024 foal.
Odds and ends: Speaking of Oscar Performance and Strawbridge, both had quite the day on the Jeff Ruby Steaks undercard, as did Mill Ridge, Amerman Racing, and Kitten’s Joy…Mrs. Jerry Amerman/Amerman Racing LLC bred and raced Oscar Performance (Kitten’s Joy)—a Grade 1 winner at two, three, and four—who sired Saturday’s G3 Jeff Ruby winner Endlessly, an Amerman homebred and winner of five-of-six starts, including three Grade 3s now. He’s trained by Michael McCarthy. Oscar Performance stands for $25,000 at the Mill Ridge Farm of Headley Bell—the buyer of Everland’s third dam for Strawbridge. Oscar Performance was born and raised at Mill Ridge…Amerman also owns (but did not breed) Rushaway winner Trikari (Oscar Performance), a son of Strawbridge’s Grade 3-winning filly Dynamic Holiday (Harlan’s Holiday), who had been sold by Strawbridge in utero. Through Bob Feld and his Feld Family Finds, Amerman bought Trikari for $27,500 as an OBS October yearling, and the colt is trained by Graham Motion…Oscar Performance 3-year-old colt Zverev, whose dam Balance (Thunder Gulch)—a half-sister to Horse of the Year Zenyatta (Street Cry)—was a Grade 1 winner/millionaire for Amerman, broke his maiden in Race 1 on Jeff Ruby Day—he was the first of three winners for Oscar Performance on the card—for trainer Cherie DeVaux. Amerman sold Zverev in utero through Mill Ridge at Keeneland November in 2020. Balance foaled a full brother to Zverev earlier this month…Strawbridge homebred Twirling Point (Twirling Candy)—third by two necks in the Rushaway—races in Strawbridge silks, and that colt is a son of his Grade 3 winner Kitten’s Point (Kitten’s Joy, the sire of Oscar Performance)…Cellist (Big Blue Kitten), a 6-year-old gelding, won the G3 Kentucky Cup Classic, his second Grade 3 win and third overall stakes win. Big Blue Kitten is a son of Kitten’s Joy standing for a private fee this year at Calumet Farm, who bred and owns Cellist. Cellist’s trainer Rusty Arnold also conditions Oscar Performance’s 4-year-old filly Red Carpet Ready, winner of the G3 Hurricane Bertie at Gulfstream earlier in March…Also on Jeff Ruby Steaks Day at Turfway, the second race, a maiden special, was won by debuting 3-year-old filly Do It Divi (Divisidero). Jonathan Thomas, the original trainer of Everland when Strawbridge owned her, trains Do It Divi for the estate of breeder Brereton C. Jones. Like Oscar Performance, Divisidero is a son of Kitten’s Joy, and he stands at the Jones family’s Airdrie for $5,000…Race 5, an allowance optional claimer, was won by 4-year-old Kitten’s Joy filly Autism Community, whose trainer Eliska Kubinova has 14 wins, 11 seconds, and 13 thirds from 97 starts for a healthy 39% WPS figure…Three-year-old Okiro is the first stakes winner—he won the Animal Kingdom at Turfway—for Japanese-bred, U.S.-raced dual-surface Grade 1 winner Yoshida (Heart’s Cry). Yoshida moved from WinStar to Darley Japan for the 2024 season…Switching focus away from Northern Kentucky, two Texas-bred daughters of the mare Foxy Boss (Street Boss) have been trading blows running one-two at Sam Houston in their last two starts. Seven-year-old No Mas Tequila (Northern Afleet) got the better of her 5-year-old half-sister Imaluckycharm (My Golden Song) in the black-type San Jacinto Turf S. on Saturday. In their previous start, an allowance at Sam Houston, Imaluckycharm bested No Mas Tequila. They filled the first two places in last year’s San Jacinto Turf, too, with Imaluckycharm beating No Mas Tequila. In all, they’ve gone to the gate together eight times, with one or the other of them winning all eight times and the other finishing either second or third seven times. Karen Jacks trains the pair, while Robert and Margaret Ellerbee bred both and sold them at various Texas Thoroughbred Association sales. Each mare has nine wins; No Mas Tequila has earned $417,577, and Imaluckycharm $338,955.