2024 Eclipse Awards: Adare Manor

Adare Manor ended the year in the same position she started – as the top older female in California. Adare Manor raced four times in 2024, won three stakes including a pair of Grade 1s, and showed up every start.

Although her campaign was shorter than planned, Adare Manor packed plenty into her handful of starts. From spring through summer, few were better than the strapping 5-year-old who is an Eclipse Award finalist as outstanding older filly or mare.

Bob Baffert trained Adare Manor for owner Michael Lund Petersen; the mare’s regular rider was Juan Hernandez. After a successful 2023 that included four graded stakes, Adare Manor, by the late stallion Uncle Mo, was poised for a better campaign 2024.

“We thought she would get better as she got older,” Baffert said, reflecting on her development from gangly 2-year-old. Baffert said Adare Manor “was a big, growthy filly. We took our time with her. Every time I saddle her, she seems like she’s getting bigger.”

The bigger she got, the faster she ran. After a four-month break, Adare Manor made her 5-year-old debut in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile Stakes in March at Santa Anita. But she was facing a lone front-runner with a tactical edge.

:: Full list of 2024 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

Sweet Azteca set the pace, while Adare Manor settled midpack. Front-runner Sweet Azteca had things her own way, while Adare Manor rallied wide and missed by three-quarters of a length. She finished more than five lengths clear of third and earned a career-high 102 Beyer Speed Figure. The runner-up comeback would be Adare Manor’s only loss in 2024.

With a prep out of the way, Baffert sent Adare Manor to Oaklawn Park for the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap in April. It wasn’t even close. Hernandez put Adare Manor on the lead, and she widened to win by more than five lengths with another triple-digit figure, a 100 Beyer.

Adare Manor returned a month later in the Grade 2 Santa Margarita in May at Santa Anita. Adare Manor started at 1-20 odds against three rivals and ran to her odds. She set a slow pace and won by 4 1/4 lengths.

The season was unfolding according to Baffert’s plan.

“She’s a year older, she’s a more mature, bigger, stronger mare,” he said.

Three more starts were scheduled for Adare Manor in 2024, including the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch at Del Mar in early August. Favored at odds-on, Adare Manor faced adversity.

She was buried inside and behind runners and forced to wait. By the time she got clear, her rival Scylla had burst away. But no worries for Adare Manor. She took aim, collared the leader inside the eighth pole, and won by 2 3/4 lengths.

As it turned out, the Hirsch would be her final start. Baffert entered Adare Manor in the Grade 1 FanDuel Racing Pacific Classic at Del Mar, but she tied up and scratched. The setback disrupted her campaign and precluded her from running in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar.

Adare Manor, bred in Kentucky by Town & Country Horse Farms LLC and Gary Broad, was retired in September. In early November, she sold as a broodmare prospect for $2.8 million at Fasig-Tipton. Adare Manor went 3 for 4 in 2024 and retired with a record of 10 wins and $2,096,600 from 18 starts. Adare Manor is the all-time leading female earner by Uncle Mo.

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