Clairiere follows in mother's footsteps with Ogden Phipps victory
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It was like mother, like daughter in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes on Saturday at Belmont Park. Cavorting, a three-time Grade 1 winner in New York, captured the race in 2016. Her first foal, Clairiere, is now a two-time Phipps winner after claiming Saturday’s edition.
“I am very proud, and of course her mother won this race, too,” said owner Barbara Banke of Stonestreet Farm. “It’s been a family tradition.”
Stonestreet purchased Cavorting, by Bernardini, as a weanling and campaigned the mare through her career, which also included Grade 1 wins in the 2015 Test and 2016 Personal Ensign, both at Saratoga, and three other graded stakes wins in New York.
“Her mother ran there and won some big races in New York,” Stonestreet adviser John Moynihan said. “Most of her résumé was built in New York, and Clairiere is doing the same thing. . . . There’s obviously a lot of similarities, they’ve won and run in some of the same races and it’s kind of a unique situation.”
Cavorting’s second foal is La Crete, who won the 2022 Silverbulletday Stakes but later suffered a career-ending injury. She has recovered for broodmare duty at Stonestreet.
The mare has a 3-year-old Curlin colt named Judge Miller, who Stonestreet sold for $550,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale to Muir Hut Stables. He is still unraced, but is breezing at Santa Anita.
After not having a foal the last two years, Cavorting delivered a Curlin colt in March for Banke.
Curlin sires three graded winners on card
Two-time Horse of the Year Curlin shone among sires on Belmont Stakes weekend, with a trio of graded stakes winners on Saturday’s marquee card.
Curlin, who stands at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm, was represented by Grade 1 Ogden Phipps winner Clairiere; Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap winner Cody’s Wish; and Grade 2 True North winner Elite Power.
Darley stallion Dubawi and Taylor Made Farm stallion Not This Time each sired a pair of graded stakes winners on the weekend. Dubawi sired Grade 1 Just a Game winner In Italian and Grade 2 Belmont Gold Cup winner Siskany. Not This Time had marathon winners on both dirt and turf, with Next in the Grade 2 Brooklyn and Up to the Mark in the Grade 1 Manhattan.
Triple Crown heros sire Grade 1 winners
American Pharoah and Justify, the two most recent Triple Crown winners, were both represented by offspring who made that same coveted walk down Belmont’s Grade 1 victory lane over the weekend.
American Pharoah, the 2015 Triple Crown winner, is the sire of Marketsegmentation, who won the Grade 1 New York Stakes for fillies and mares on the turf Friday. The following day, 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify, who stands alongside American Pharoah at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud, sired Woody Stephens winner Arabian Lion.
Marketsegmentation, in her first try at the level, became the seventh career Grade/Group 1 winner for American Pharoah, who has shown prowess as both a dirt and turf sire. The son of Pioneerof the Nile, who entered stud in 2016, also is the sire of U.S. Grade 1 winners American Theorem, As Time Goes By, and Harvey’s Lil Goil. He and Justify both have additional stakes statistics from shuttling to Coolmore Australia, and American Pharoah also is the sire of international top-level winners Above the Curve, Cafe Pharoah, and Van Gogh.
Meanwhile, Arabian Lion became the first Grade 1 winner for Justify, whose first foals are 3-year-olds of this year. The Scat Daddy horse also is the sire of graded stakes winners Champions Dream, Just Cindy, and Statuette in North America.
“He’s just a smaller version of Justify,” said Bob Baffert, who trains Arabian Lion and also handled his sire. “To have a horse by Justify, one of the greatest horses I’ve ever trained, and to bring him to New York and win a Grade 1, that’s what we’re all in the game for.”
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