2018 Eclipse Awards: Shamrock Rose

In the span of just 15 autumn days, Shamrock Rose went from an unknown to a major contender in the filly-mare sprint division, as back-to-back victories at long odds in the Grade 2 Raven Run and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint catapulted the 3-year-old filly into contention for divisional supremacy.

The year unfolded in relative obscurity for Shamrock Rose. Fourth in the Busher and second in the Cicada, both in March at Aqueduct, the bay filly could only muster a third-place finish in the Weber City Miss at Laurel Park in April.

“Something just wasn’t clicking with her,” recalled Mark Casse, who trains Shamrock Rose for the Conrad Farms of Manfred and Penny Conrad. “After we brought her back to the farm in Ocala after the Laurel race, though, she really started to turn herself around.”

:: 2018 Eclipse Finalists: Profiles and photos for all categories

Shamrock Rose returned in late summer with back-to-back romps over fellow 3-year-olds in the restricted Malvern Rose at Presque Isle in August and the La Lorgnette at Woodbine in September. Both of those were run at two turns over synthetic surfaces.

Bettors were not necessarily impressed with those breakthrough scores, as they dismissed Shamrock Rose at 18-1 in her graded debut in the Oct. 20 Raven Run at Keeneland. Rated several lengths off a contested pace by Tyler Gaffalione, she rallied to win the seven-furlong race by 2 1/2 lengths going away.

Duly emboldened, the Conrads paid a $130,000 supplementary fee to make Shamrock Rose eligible for the Breeders’ Cup just two weeks later at Churchill Downs. At first, the investment looked like a poor one, as more than half of her 13 rivals in the $1 million Filly and Mare Sprint were still ahead of Shamrock Rose and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. in midstretch of the seven-furlong race.

Suddenly, Shamrock Rose turned on the afterburners, surging past the last of those opponents, Chalon, just in the nick of time for a 25-1 stunner. She became the first 3-year-old winner in 12 runnings of the Filly-Mare Sprint.

“We all had a lot of faith in the filly,” Casse said afterward. “The Conrads put up their money and the filly vindicated their decision.”

The Filly-Mare Sprint marked a fourth straight win for Shamrock Rose and gave her a 2018 record of 4 for 7 and earnings of $848,076. Overall, she is 5 for 10 with a $917,687 bankroll.

Casse briefly considered running Shamrock Rose in the Grade 1 La Brea at Santa Anita in late December before concluding the filly had done enough to earn a divisional title.

Shamrock Rose, bred in Pennsylvania by Best A Luck Farm LLC, is by First Dude out of Slew’s Quality, by Elusive Quality. Shortly after the Breeders’ Cup, she returned to Casse’s training center in Ocala, Fla., where on Dec. 24 she had her first breeze toward a 4-year-old campaign likely to begin in the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie on Jan. 26 at Gulfstream Park.