Forest Music, dam of classic sire Maclean's Music, dead at 20

Forest Music, a foundation mare for the successful Stonestreet Farm breeding program and the dam of classic sire Maclean’s Music, has died at age 20. Stonestreet announced the Unbridled’s Song mare’s passing on Feb. 19. She had delivered a Bernardini filly on Jan. 25.

Forest Music originally raced for Michael Gill, who had purchased her as a juvenile. She won four stakes for him, highlighted by the Grade 3 Miss Preakness Stakes in 2004, and was also multiple Grade 1-placed in New York. The filly was privately purchased by the fledgling Stonestreet Farm of the late Jess Jackson and his wife, Barbara Banke, in the summer of 2005. She swiftly became the operation’s first graded stakes winner, taking the Grade 2 Honorable Miss at Saratoga.

As a broodmare for Stonestreet, with its stock cultivated by Banke since Jackson’s death in 2011, Forest Music produced five winners from as many starters. Her first foal was the Distorted Humor colt Maclean’s Music, who won his only career start with a Beyer Speed Figure of 114, the highest ever earned in a debut effort. The stallion stands at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm and was represented by 2017 Preakness Stakes winner Cloud Computing in his first crop. Maclean’s Music is also the sire of Jackie’s Warrior, a multiple Grade 1-winning juvenile last season; Drain the Clock, who is bound for a Kentucky Derby points race after winning the Grade 3 Swale Stakes last out; and graded stakes winners Complexity and Classic Rock.

Forest Music also produced Grade 3 winners Electric Forest and Uncle Chuck for Stonestreet. Electric Forest joined her dam in the Stonestreet broodmare band last year and delivered her first foal, a Medaglia d’Oro filly, in January.