Baby Zip named Broodmare of the Year

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Baby Zip, dam of 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper and Grade 1 winner City Zip, has been named 2005's Broodmare of the Year.

The Kentucky Thoroughbred Association-Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders announced Baby Zip's award Thursday, along with Kentucky's statebred champions.

Baby Zip, a stakes-winning 15-year-old Relaunch mare, first reached national prominence as the dam of City Zip. That Carson City colt won the Grade 1 Hopeful in 2000 and seven other stakes, five of them graded, in 2000 and 2001.

But Baby Zip is best known as the dam of Ghostzapper, the Awesome Again horse who won 9 of his 11 career starts, including the 2004 Breeders' Cup Classic and three other Grade 1 races. Horse of the Year and champion older male in 2004, he came back to make a single start in 2005 in the Metropolitan Handicap in what was widely considered one of the year's most impressive performances.

Other awards were Saint Liam, horse of the year and older male; Ashado, older female; Stevie Wonderboy, juvenile male; Folklore, juvenile filly; Flower Alley, 3-year-old male; Smuggler, 3-year-old filly; Artie Schiller, turf male; Honey Ryder, turf female; Silver Train, sprinter; McDynamo, steeplechaser; and Divine Proportions, overseas runner.

Other award winners included Ogden Mills Phipps, who won the P.A.B. Widener Award for breeding, and Pin Oak Stud's Josephine Abercrombie, Hardboot Breeder Award for small breeder success.

The Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund award winners were A.P. Indy, leading sire; Folklore, leading Kentucky-bred earner; Bob and Beverly Lewis, leading owner; Robert Holthus, leading trainer; and Brereton C. Jones, leading breeder.